 It's interrogating some 300 terrorists from Hamas and other Palestinian groups who were brought to Israel from Gaza. The IDF says they have readily given up information on the location of tunnels. There are two main fronts where the war is currently being fought in Gaza. One is the eastern neighbourhood of Gaza City. The other is the Shifa hospital on the western side where Israel hopes to uncover more of that vast terror network. Our defence correspondent Jonathan Regev has this report. Apologies, we'll bring that report up for you in a moment. First we're going to go to the north of Israel. Our correspondent, Zach Anders, is there. Zach, there have been a number of developments on the northern front today, haven't there? There has. It's been another active day. The IDF says 25 separate launches were recorded throughout the afternoon. Now these can be anything that ranges between mortar launches, shelling even from artillery, and these drones. We've seen unconfirmed footage from independent sources of a drone flying into Israeli airspace. This corresponds or correlates rather with the IDF publishing that they intercepted a drone today on its way into Israeli airspace. There's been also other footage released by Hezbollah that's circulating in Lebanese media of heavy rocket launches from close range in Lebanon targeting an outpost position, an IDF outpost just across the border. The IDF says there has been no reports of injuries but they haven't gone so far like they have in previous days to state that there was no damage today. They have not done so. They did say that these strikes fell in open areas but did not elaborate further on damage. Alright, Zach, thank you very much for that update. Zach Andrews there is in Northern Israel. Let me introduce to you my studio guest this hour, Yaqui Dayan, is the former Israeli council in Los Angeles. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me. 45 days now. We've got the families of the hostages at the Knesset tonight and it's really heartbreaking to hear the agony that they're still going through, men, women, children being held in Gaza. And all the while we keep getting this drip, drip, drip about a possible hostage negotiation that is going on. What is your take on where we are at this time? We just currently heard President Biden saying that the deal is close and hopefully it is. I mean, the one who is handling this side from the Hamas side is a psychopath. So it's very hard to tell, but I think it's his interest as well because the pressure is mounting and he has an interest to reach some kind of a deal that will give him a break from the war. Americans are being held, of course. A lot of Americans are being held and mainly children and women today and today it's the children day and we see all kinds of UN organizations and other organizations like UNICEF and other organizations that are doing nothing for the Israeli kids. So we see the hypocrisy, we see how Hamas is handling, but we are very hopeful that one of the targets of this war is getting closer and that's releasing some of the hostages. It won't be all of the hostages, no doubt, but some of them it's a start. Well, what do you think of that dividing the hostages because we heard a really powerful testimony from the father of one of these soldiers, a male soldier who was taken hostage and he says, look, it's not fair to divide the hostages by age or sex or nationality or anything else. They all have to be brought home. That's really hard, isn't it? Because we know there's a 10-month-old baby, there's a newborn baby, there are women and children. I mean, how do you kind of choose, select one life over another? I completely understand him. I mean, he's the father of a soldier and he wants him to be released and that's definitely one of the goals of this war, to release him and to release all the hostages. Nevertheless, I think that there are some that has to be released first and those are the children and the women and the elderly, everyone that has any risk for his life. All of them are obviously threatened and then have risked their lives. But the ones who can survive less and those we have to focus first, I wish we could have released all of them, but those are cards that the Hamas is using viciously and they will continue to use to use those cards, the cards of the hostages in order to defend their life. So we have to make some progress and some progress is releasing the children and the women. We remember that at the beginning there was an offer to release those who have foreign passports and to that Israel didn't agree. Right, okay, because of course that wouldn't involve a lot of the children. Let's talk about President Biden then because of course American support for Israel is crucial in the war. There was a poll published yesterday NBC News that says that 70% of voters aged between 18 and 34 disapprove of his handling of the war. What do you make of that? Is U.S. public opinion turning against Israel? No, it's not U.S. public opinion. No doubt that the young voters in the democratic side are turning against Israel and this is his political problem. He has, I would say, three political problems. One is the young voters. They are turning the democratic voters within the Biden camp are turning against him. Some of the black voters, we see a growing percentage of black voters turning to Trump. And at the end, the Muslim voters and especially in one of the swing states which is Michigan that might determine who is going to be the next president. So I would say that those are the three political issues that Biden has. But nevertheless, we hear him again and again giving an unwavering support for Israel and he's not calling for a ceasefire. He's very determined to release the hostages. He's very determined to change the entire geopolitical map in the Middle East in the day after. And he definitely sees that as a war between good and evil. So Biden is totally there, although he has political difficulties that are mounting all the time. And I have no doubt that they will grow and the political circle around him will pressure him to make some changes. All right. Well, President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu have also been somewhat at odds, haven't they, on the issue of who should take control of the Gaza Strip once Hamas is removed. Biden very much wants the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to take over. I'm not sure about Mahmoud Abbas. No doubt there is a strategic difference between Israel and the United States. In the vision of the United States day after, they see some kind of Palestinian Authority taking over both Gaza and Judea and Somalia and informing some kind of a state. And he sees that in a much bigger vision that Saudi Arabia will be involved and other moderate Arab countries will be involved. At the same time, he understands, and we saw that recently in the op-ed that he published in The Washington Post that he is calling for a revitalized Palestinian Authority, which he clearly understands that the current Palestinian Authority cannot take over neither Gaza nor Judea and Somalia. So a lot has to be changed in order to create some kind of both atmosphere and structure in order to make some kind of a progress in the future vision of the United States. But there is a difference, no doubt, between Netanyahu and Biden. Is there anyone that could fill that role in your view in the Palestinian Authority? Listen, anyhow that we will name, any name that we will give as Israelis, we will kill it. It's a death sentence. Yeah, it's a death sentence by delivery. So I think it has to emerge from bottom up. It has to emerge from the Palestinian side. And it has to be a serious person. And so many things have to be changed within the Palestinian Authority, from the education up to the terrorists that the Palestinian Authority supports on a monthly basis with the allowances that they are giving to the families. So so many changes have to occur within the Palestinian Authority in order to make some kind of an atmosphere, some kind of a change that will create for future negotiations on anything. Okay, yeah, keep it out. Thank you very much. Let's go to southern Israel. Our correspondent Aril Osaran is there with the latest on the situation in Gaza. We've had rockets fired, haven't we, in the last hour from Gaza. And we've also learned today that three more IDF soldiers have fallen in the fighting. Indeed, Laura, as the fighting continues, so do additional notices of IDF soldiers who were killed in the fighting. The latest are three soldiers, as you mentioned. This also comes about an hour after there was the significant barrage of rockets towards the central part of Israel. And that barrage, we know of a car that was damaged in the city of Holon as a result of shrapnel. Other than that, there is no indication of injuries or damage. Now, in the past hour, also Israeli police clearing for publication that two weeks ago, Israeli forces border police caught two terrorists from Gaza in the city of Rahat that is in the southern part of Israel. These two infiltrated Israel as part of the October 7th terror attacks. Their part in the attacks is still unknown, but they have been arrested two weeks ago and have been investigated ever since. All right, thank you, Ariel. Ariel, I'll sit around there. We're going to move now because some of the families of the hostages are giving a press conference in Tel Aviv. Let's take a listen. Six weeks and two days. Just imagine with the rain and the cold, they are there. None of us know exactly what their situation is. Are they alive? Are they treated? What's happening to them? We came here today in order to get answers to questions that we have. We have very concrete questions, things that we want to get answers to. Every stage on the way we are now doesn't take the responsibility of anyone of the cabinet for bringing all the hostages back, all of them. That's why we came here in order to get answers. And now she speaks in English. Gaza. We don't know if they're healthy, if they're alive, even alive. We have no information, zero information. It's raining, it is cold now, and we don't know what is the situation of the hostages. We came today to talk to the cabinet, the war cabinet, and get answers for our questions. We have questions and we deserve to get answers for them. It's time for me to answer our questions and make sure everybody will come back alive. Thank you. No questions, no questions. Thank you very much. That was just two of the family members who have family members being held hostage in Gaza. And I recognize one of the women there. She's the mother of a girl, Romy, I believe is being held in Gaza. She actually did an interview, didn't she? And they pulled a dirty trick and pulled on a Hamas official who then turned it into a debate. That was horrible. That was an ambush. I'm just reading even the Arab news, even Saudi media condemned Hamas. Absolutely. And they didn't tell her. They just, Hamas, the person who is in charge for prisoners was brought to the broadcast and he was debating her. And they were asking her political questions. That was totally without any empathy. And this is Al Jazeera. What can we expect? I mean, this is a network that supports the Hamas and broadcasts Hamas propaganda day in and day out. So we shouldn't expect anything less from Al Jazeera. Yeah. And it's not just Al Jazeera. I mean, you don't expect much from them. But even Gayle King, one of the American networks, she was interviewing the father of Emily Hand. The father thought she was dead and then found out she was a hostage. She just turned nine on Friday. And again, anchors throwing political questions at these people. It's just... It's horrible. And we see that coming from... It's lack of empathy. Lack of empathy. I think it's a combination of anti-Semitism and really ignorance and the whole walk culture of left progressiveness. This whole combination is a deadly combination. And we see it in India. And we see it in UN organizations. We just said today it's the Children Day and UNICEF. This is an organization that, on behalf of the UN, is in charge for the safety of children. He said nothing, nothing about the 39 kids that are being held hostage in Gaza right now. They said nothing. So the hypocrisy is really celebrate. Yeah. And the Israeli police are putting together a case about all of the sexual violence and rape that the Hamas terrorist committed as well. Horrific testimony that they are putting together. And again, none of the feminist groups, Me Too movement, nothing to say about women and girls being raped. Nothing. Rape deniers and saying no, such a thing couldn't happen. And it went as far as an organization that is helping women that were raped in Canada in Alberta University was denying that to such an extent. So we see this denial all the time. And this is the things that we have to face every day in the media, in the social media. This fake news is there. And we have to be as present as we can and to show and to expose as much information as we can in order to counter those fake news and the deniers of the massacre of the rape. If everything that happened on October 7th. Yeah, it's a fiction blaming on steroids, isn't it? Absolutely. Let's change topic a little bit because Israel is under attack from the north from the Iranian back terrorist group Hezbollah. It's also under attack from the Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. They fired a couple of missiles at the Red Sea city of Elat. They then promised to hijack an Israeli vessel. Well, they have hijacked a vessel. It's not Israeli and there were no Israelis on board. But here they are. This is a video that they have just released. I'm not sure if this is footage from inside the ship. Yes, this is inside the ship. Remind me, it's the galaxy leader. I believe that's what it's called. There we go, the galaxy leadership. So the Houthis, pirates, they came alongside this ship yesterday, climbed on board and they've taken the people, the crew, civilian crew, people from Ukraine, the Philippines, I believe, many countries around the world know Israelis on board. It's unknown whether or not they knew there were no Israelis on board. But this is their video of what happened yesterday. A helicopter landing on the galaxy leader, several gunmen getting off and taking control of the ship. The ship, I believe, is operated. Yes, it is registered under a British company. It's also linked to Japan. It was on its way to India from Turkey with an international civilian crew. The link to Israel is that the vessel is registered under a British company which is partially owned by an Israeli citizen. But the ship, as I said, no Israeli citizen on board, but a lot of civilians from other countries around the world. So this is a Houthi propaganda video that they've released showing them taking that ship by violent means yesterday. We haven't heard anything about the negotiations or efforts to save the crew. We can see innocent civilians being taken hostage. And, well, let's keep playing the video, but Yaki Dayan, I mean, I've been speaking to a lot of analysts who have said, well, President Biden decided to remove the Houthis from a list of terrorist groups, which is now looking like an increasingly bizarre decision. It is. Let's just say that there was, you know, as you mentioned, none of the crew members is Israeli, and they published a list of names, the Houthis published a list of names of the crew members, and all of them sound in Hebrew like a funny joke. So that was... So they're trying to make out that they were Israeli. Like they were Israelis and they published the names, but the name, if you combine the first name and the family name, sounds like a joke in Hebrew. Nonsense name, yeah. But seriously, what we have to say is that Iran has developed a doctrine after the Iraq-Iran war, which is to fight outside the Iranian borders. And this is exactly what they are doing, fighting by proxies. It's true for Yemen. It's true for Iraq. It's true for Syria. It is for Lebanon and with the Palestinians. This is exactly what they are practicing. And I believe that as long as the United States is not taking severe measures, not against the Houthis, not against the militias in Iraq, but against the Iranians who are orchestrating all this terrorism around the Middle East. Till then, we will see a continuation of those provocations. So Iran is behind all those proxies and the United States has to take those measures. We saw some publications in the New York Times and other media outlets saying that the Pentagon actually recommended President Biden to take some severe measures against the Iranians. But definitely this is the election year and the United States doesn't want to mess exactly in some kind of war outside its borders. But eventually, at the end of the day, we see that all the roads are leading to Iran. And if the United States is not taking any measures against Iran, those provocations will grow more and more. Well, quite. We've seen what happens when you don't deal with a problem for many years. It will explode eventually. While talking about the U.S. President Joe Biden, it is, of course, in a couple of days' time, one of the biggest holidays in the American calendar, Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Well, the President Biden has been at the White House in the traditional pardoning of the turkey, and he has asked a question about hostages. We can take a listen now. Mr. President, is it hostage to the old deer? I don't believe so. I'm not prepared to talk to you. There we go. Well, he keeps saying it, doesn't he, Aki? That a deal is close. A deal is close. I think it's more than two weeks since we've been saying that now. Yeah, yeah. And most probably it is close. And we have to congratulate President Biden today. It's his 81st birthday today. Happy birthday, Mr. President. So, happy birthday, Mr. President, and to thank him on behalf of Israel because he's really standing extremely firm behind Israel and supporting Israel in so many ways. So even if we have criticism and we disagree on few issues, but nevertheless, I think that this unbelievable support that we are receiving from the United States has to be held and thanked and appreciated very much, and it is by Israel. All right. It is a firm friendship, and President Biden is certainly carrying on that tradition, isn't he? All right. Well, we've got a report now on one of the non-profit organizations that has sprung up to help Israel in its hour of need during this report. Turning a hotel room into a kindergarten, one of the many challenges facing the Eshkol Residence Association. These communities near the Gaza Strip, devastated by the October 7th massacre, are trying to rebuild a sense of normalcy far from home. Our task is to meet the needs of the Eshkol Residence. There's housing and food, of course, but on top of that, there's also schooling, making sure the children are looked after. The residents need to be cared for, both physically and psychologically. People have left home with nothing, and some have nothing left. And then, of course, we want to reconstruct communities so that people can regain a sense of belonging. There are needs that necessitate substantial financing for communities that have suffered tremendous losses. This is one of the six organizations that are being helped by the In Unity We Rebuild organization, a volunteer platform that connects donors with vetted Israeli associations. Our goal is to enable anyone around the world, whether they're Jewish or not, to have a trusted platform to help the victims of the massacres and the reconstruction of the affected areas. People can get in touch with us, and we offer them a follow-up of the aid provided thanks to their donations. After October 7th, 30 volunteers from the city of HaDhasharon joined forces to do their bit. It was unthinkable to remain inactive while Israel was going through such a crisis. We immediately got in touch with six organizations operating on the ground, including associations of local residents affected by the massacres, an association that helps loan soldiers and United Hatzala, which provides emergency relief throughout the country. We work with them and make sure they get the donations they need. Since the start of the war, donations have been pouring in all over the world. People are stepping in to support Israeli associations in need. We get help from all over the world, from the United States and Europe, of course. But there are also people from Australia and from Saudi Arabia who are involved. It's growing. But there's still a long way to go. The Ashkel Residence Association, for example, still lacks the resources to help young people. It's crucial that we help young people. They are one of the hardest-hit populations. The 32 villages in the Ashkel Council all share the same secondary school, so everyone knows everybody. All the kids have lost loved ones or had friends kidnapped. Our job is to give them as much peace of mind and self-confidence as possible. Whether through sport, yoga, or meditation exercises, we try to help them regain a sense of normalcy. While the war in the Gaza Strip is likely to be lengthy, the displaced inhabitants have no prospect of returning home. But they are already trying to rebuild their lives. In Unity We Rebuild, offers a way to help them achieve this. Time for us to take a very short break. Stay with us. In a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Welcome back, you're watching I-24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv. And in the last hour, we have had a barrage of some eight rockets fired at Central Israel from Gaza Hamas's claimed responsibility. No injuries have been reported. The IDF says it's interrogating some 300 terrorists from Hamas and other terrorist groups. They were brought to Israel from Gaza. The IDF says they have willingly given up information on the location of tunnels and other crucial information. There are two main fronts where the war is currently being fought in Gaza. One is the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City. The other is the Schieffer Hospital on the western side where Israel is looking to uncover more of those terrorist tunnels. Tunnels are defense correspondent Jonathan Regover reports. Fighting is raging on the streets of Gaza in day number 45 of the war. After the IDF encircled the entire northern half of the Gaza Strip, its units are now clearing the neighborhoods from Hamas terrorists. The operation now is focusing on the eastern parts of the city, places which have become notorious for terrorism such as Jabalia and Sajaya, which are now the focal point of the ground operation. In the western part of the city, right next to the Mediterranean coast, lies the Schieffer Hospital. On the ground, it is used to treat illnesses and injuries, but below it, more and more evidence is being unearthed to show what Israel has been claiming for years. Hamas was building terror tunnels underneath Schieffer Hospital. By now, the truth is clear. Hamas wages war from hospital, wages terror from hospitals. In any normal place, the ground next to the main hospital building is used as a parking lot, maybe laboratories, but not in Gaza. This is what happens here. A tunnel shaft leading deep underground and into a 55-meter-long tunnel ending in a blastproof door with a firing hole and the role of terrorism in Schieffer does not end there. Here you can see Hamas taking a hostage inside the vicinity. He doesn't look even, he even doesn't look, need a treatment, but they're taking him inside the hospital. At least two hostages were brought to Schieffer Hospital alive. At least two other hostages' bodies were found just outside the hospital and probably arrived here alive as well. A place meant to save lives is actually serving as the headquarter of those doing everything they can to take lives. Well, with me in the studio, Yaqui Dayan is the former Israeli council in Los Angeles. Thanks for being with us, Yaqui. We were just seeing that report there of, you know, how the IDF night after night is coming out with more evidence, more proof of what Hamas is doing and how it is using those hospitals. Is the message sinking in, do you think? Those are extremely important images that are coming out from the IDF spokesperson because we know that the doubt by the international community that the hospitals were used as a facility for terror. And what we see now is clearly how those hospitals from Schieffer and the images taken by the people that were interrogated that were telling about the facility at Crescent and other places, how those places served as a hub, as a hiding place for the Hamas terrorists. And those are images that has to be broadcast and taken out as much as possible because of the doubt. These are three of the 300 terror suspects, I should say, and other Gazans. They were brought from Gaza into Israel. They're being interrogated. They haven't been proven to be terrorists. They are suspects or other people from Gaza and they are willingly giving up crucial information for the IDF. They are telling how the health facilities like Schieffer, like the Swedish hospital, like the Red Crescent facility, how all of them served as a hub, as a hiding place for the Hamas terrorists, how they were using those facilities for their purposes. And clearly those testimonies show how the Hamas is using human shields, health facilities, those are war crimes, one after the other, and those are important images that have to be shown to the world. All right. Well, let's broaden out. Thank you, Yehia. Let's broaden out and talk a bit more about the global diplomacy surrounding this conflict from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, and officials from the Palestinian Authority as well are in China right now. They're discussing efforts to stop the war with Hamas. China's foreign minister says it shows that these Arab countries have a high level of trust in Beijing. And China, of course, burnished its credentials in the region earlier this year when it brokered a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Take a listen. We are willing to work together with the Arab sisters in Arab Islamic countries in efforts to stop the war in Gaza as soon as possible, ease the humanitarian crisis, and promote a comprehensive, fair, and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue at an early date. The war must end immediately. We must immediately move to a ceasefire. Aden food supplies must immediately be allowed to enter. We must avoid more death and harm to civilians. We saw huge numbers of casualties so far. We are still facing serious developments and serious humanitarian crisis or a humanitarian disaster, rather, that requires effective international action to address it and confront it, including the ongoing violations by Israeli forces and their continued violation of international law and international humanitarian law. Well, Karis Witte is the founder and executive director of the Signal Group. Thank you very much for being with us, Karis. So we heard from the Chinese foreign minister there, you know, Beijing, kind of positioning itself as the champion of the Arabic and Islamic world. It's quite unusual, isn't it? Because publicly, at least, China prefers to stay out of other countries' affairs. Well, this is a new position that China is trying to move into. We saw it as noted just a moment ago in the Saudi Iran rapprochement that was brokered at least at the final section of it by China. And China then came to the Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers and said we would like to help solve that conflict by taking it to the United Nations, indicating that they are not understanding of Israel's position whatsoever. All things considered with how the United Nations receives Israel. Right now, the foreign ministers to make their first stop in China, this could have something to do with the fact that China is now holding the presidency, the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council. But at the same time, it's probably the most welcoming place that the Arab foreign ministers will be received when you compare it to the United States and Europe where you will not hear the same kind of comments about ceasefire that you hear out of Wang Yi. It's not reasonable for the simple fact that Hamas has said in so many words, as we all know that the moment they can, they will continue to repeat October 7th over and over until they've completed the job. And the Chinese are well aware of this. Nonetheless, they look like grand statesmen and it seems impressive, but when you are in China, as I was two weeks ago, you hear a very different story. What is the different story that you're hearing? China realizes that it does not have the leverage or the capability of having a direct or real impact on either of the parties. Even its influence with Iran, where it is almost a monopoly buyer of the energy there, is limited. Very likely that China has already spoken to Iran in order to prevent escalation of this war, because if it should grow, and I don't want to say get out of hand, but expand in a serious way, then the price of oil goes up and at a certain point when it hits a certain level at a price point, it becomes an existential crisis for China. So certainly they've been encouraging Iran to rein things in, but as we know there's a lot of action happening in the northern border of Israel with Lebanon with both American and Israeli troops. So we can see that China doesn't even have the leverage with Iran, much less Hamas, or for the most part, Israel. And we know, don't be curious, that China does have some well-documented economic problems at the moment. Any rise in the oil price could, as you point out, have a detrimental effect on Beijing? Well, the economy is extremely weak and it has been for months without light at the end of the tunnel. It has taken on some more debt in the provincial regions in order to try to move the economy. It's not expected to have a huge impact. When I was there, I was surprised by how few foreigners there are. And I flew from Beijing to Tokyo and the plane was less than half empty. There's very little interest globally of increasing foreign direct investment into China. And exports are down because the global economy is slowing. So China is having a difficult time which reduces, when it doesn't have economic power, that reduces its leverage in general. So would you say, Carice, more broadly, that this is more about Beijing being confrontational with regard to Washington? And how does that fit in with President Xi's visit with President Biden a few days ago? Yeah, definitely the visit was aimed... It was very important to President Xi because of the economy, because I think that the Chinese people have also made it clear that they want better relations with America. Many said that they have benefited. When I was there, they said to me very directly, they benefited from good relations with the United States. So I think the purpose of that was to cool down the tensions between the two. And I think to some degree it did help. But that doesn't mean that China has done an about face. Certainly if the United States is on one side of this conflict, China is going to want to be on the other side. And as you can see by the Arab leaders, this gives China the sense that the so-called global south developing countries around the world will be on China's side. Vote with China in international institutions such as United Nations, which is where China wants to see a great deal of international activity take place because it is playing the numbers. Thank you very much. She's from the Signal Group. Thanks a lot. Thank you. And Yaki Dayan is with me in the studio. It's interesting to see this kind of the Arab Foreign Ministers flocking to Beijing to talk about what's happening here. So I would emphasize two points. One that was mentioned by Karees. I mean, President Biden and she spoke last Wednesday on the expansion of this war. They both of them don't want to see this expansion. Both of them want to prevent that. And Karees mentioned rightly so the oil prices. China doesn't want the oil prices to spike, to hike. So they need to pressure Iran as much as they can. I think that they delivered the message although she's right by saying that they don't have the leverage to do so. So what we saw in Beijing is mainly PR declarative summit because the Arab countries and especially Saudi Arabia is one example. They want to see Hamas being wiped out. I mean, they definitely looking forward to see Israel. You're talking about the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Bahrainis. We have a strong statement. The Jordanians, the Egyptians. Because the Jordanians. Although we have difficulties with the Jordanians now but all of them wants to see just one outcome from this war. Hamas being wiped out. This is exactly what they want to see and they are hoping for that. But at the same time, they have the pressure from their public opinion and they have to pay some kind of a leave service to the public opinion. So what we see now is exactly the declaration that we heard from the Saudi Minister calling for a ceasefire. They call for a ceasefire but at the same time they want to see Hamas being wiped out and so this is a role that is going to be played more and more by those Arab countries because of the images coming from Gaza now. Okay, thank you, Yaki. Well, more and more voluntary organizations have been springing up across Israel to help the tens of thousands of evacuees who have had to flee their homes in either the south or the north of Israel. Well, one group is helping people get back to work. Very important of course a hit from this conflict. We're joined now by Efra Wiesner, Vice President of Business Development at the company Geo-Metrics. Thank you very much indeed for being with us. Efra, tell us a bit about what you're doing and how it's helping the evacuees. Thank you so much for having me. So a couple just a little bit so you understand who we are and what we're doing. So Geo-Metrics is a technology and investment company. We help startups come from idea to to the shelf and work with various sectors in R&D, design, capital raising and financing and in preparing for max production. Now there are a lot of businesses that have been affected by the war and they had to move and vacate from the north and from the south and they don't have where to work. So Geo-Metrics group decided to see what we can do. Just so you understand almost 50% of our employees are right now in the front lines of the war. Family members, friends, neighbors and we don't have a lot of communication with them but when we did and asked them they asked us to watch the home front and make sure those businesses don't collapse so we have an economy the day after the war. What kind of companies are you helping out? Okay, so we're helping numerous different types of companies for whatever we can do. We're doing a few different initiatives. First of all a place to work. Companies that have to move and leave their offices they need to place a workspace. So we're allocating and we're finding spaces for them to work some of them are even being hosted at our offices comfort stores so they can actually conduct and continue to go to work in different area. This is one initiative and this can work for pretty much any type of business that need an office. The second thing is more of start-up companies and companies that are doing R&D and developing new products we're subsidizing some of the work that our employees our amazing engineering team is helping them to continue with the development of their products. Some companies, all of them, some of them the main person at our company our CTO is in the front lines so a lot of other companies are being affected and they need staffing they need expertise and they need people to know how to do the job and to continue with the development so the start-up, the company their development is not stopping so that's the second initiative the third one we're doing is we're allowing we're letting companies who want us, of course anyone who want full access to our executive team to help them and to guide them business-wise and this is being specifically tailored to each start-up and each company who needs whatever guidance we can and help we can offer in the terms of business management It's really important work that you're doing after a GM matrix keeping the economy going very crucial work so thank you very much indeed thank you Can I close this one thing? We're seeing a kind of a worrying trend right now VCs and investors who are looking only for portfolio companies to invest and kind of leaving the small companies and the new start-ups alone and they're not really investing in them right now that means the only companies with selling products can get investments and this is really worrying for us because the next generation of the start-ups in our start-up nation is kind of being overlooked right now so I urge everybody who has anybody in CV investors around the world and in Israel to really look for those small start-ups who right now really depend on those investments and not stop it so in the day after the work we still have thriving companies all of those big names that we know like Waze used to be a garage start-up once so let's not forget about those potentials and thank you so much This is the start-up nation and all those innovative companies they started right here and they will continue to do what they want and thank you very much that's a wisdom there thank you and that's right isn't it I mean this is the start-up nation innovation is one of the things that makes this country great I'm telling you more than that I mean to see how the civil society in Israel rallied around the flag and all of them came out and supported the soldiers and everything that is happening in Israel this is very strong back to the soldiers in the front so absolutely the start-ups are going to continue and going to prosper I have no doubt and anyhow to see the society together rallying around everyone is extremely reassuring absolutely this is a country far from on its knees it's very bounce-ranked isn't it let's go to Central Tel Aviv now where there is an event underway with the families of the hostages 240 people were taken hostage to Gaza our Emily Francis is there Emily what's happening Hi Laura we are actually at the headquarters the IDF headquarters right now where 131 family members of people being held hostage right now in Gaza are demanding demanding information from your room inside here including the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as all of these major decision makers trying to get information which they have not been able to get I'm going to step out of the shop for a second because you can see there's a crowd here and you know why it's because there's not enough room inside to let in all of the families so the families who are already frustrated angry in so much pain grieving all here trying to demand answers not being allowed inside so as you can imagine you know they're stuck and we're hearing just listening to them they're commenting they're saying if they can't even let in 131 families how are they going to let out 240 hostages and bring them home obviously another reason for them to lose faith in the public servants of this country in demanding answers we did hear from one of the spokesmen spokespeople from the family Marav Leshen going in one of the mother of Romy who is one of the hostages basically she said you know this is six weeks five days now we've had rain it's turning into winter they don't even know if they're if their family members are alive they don't even know where they are they know absolutely nothing many of them suffer from medical conditions with no medicine so obviously this is a very tenuous situation and getting answers is proving harder and harder also making matters more complicated earlier today there was a big march we were there earlier today at the UNICEF headquarters where people were just so frustrated there are as many as 40 children with no answers from UNICEF whose job it is to protect children so they've also been protesting against UNICEF and trying to demand answers which they have not been able to get so even though the efforts are there and there is a lot of people here still no resolution and no information to help families and this entire country sleep at night the indifference from those so-called humanitarian agencies has been discussed it hasn't Emily we're going to leave it there thank you very much Emily Francis there she's down with the families of the hostages in central Tel Aviv they want answers and who can blame them 45 days on many of them all of them don't know if their loved ones are alive or dead well entire families were indeed murdered or kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7th in some cases the family pet was shot or burned but sometimes they survived and dozens of lost frightened dogs are now being taken care of by volunteers more in this report a darling right is he up for adoption he's up for adoption but he needs a family that knows what they're dealing with already at first glance it's clear this is not another kennel the expressions in the eyes the scars on the body and the fur every dog here has his own horror story welcome to the home of the lost dogs of the residents of the Hamas are envelope and the families were kidnapped abducted so they're here alone no matter how many volunteers there are and no matter how much warmth and love is given no one will replace the real family pictures from other happier days Rimon and Gev together with the dogs they loved so much on the morning of October 7 terrorists raided Kibbutz Nirem kidnapped Rimon and gave to Gaza the three dogs escaped and survived and were brought here tova rex and sweet gray who were now left alone these dogs were like the children they didn't have yet tova was like Rimon's baby Rimon also had a special permission to go with tova everywhere just like a blind man and his guide dog that's how tova was for Rimon while encountering the terrorists a dog was suddenly discovered in one of the vehicles that was attacked and hauled with bullets they couldn't get him out he tried to bite everyone who came close until a volunteer came and managed to rescue him how is he now? he still is, he has fears you notice it's not that smooth but much better than in the beginning he already plays with us from nativ haasura she was hit by shrapnel she was there for two weeks alone hit by shrapnel, even a small burn that she has on her back, what you see you also see the sign she has she was taken care of, she had a haircut she was disinfected we called him Novo he doesn't have a name yet that they find him in Gaza soldiers found him and brought him many of the owners of these dogs were murdered others were kidnapped they were also kidnapped to Gaza wow, dogs the dogs came from inside Israel maybe he bites and there are also stories with a happy ending dogs that were frightened ran away and were found and are now reunited with their surviving families here, now she just realized pay attention only now did she realize it come on, come on, come on who's a good dog who's a good dog is this a home for lost dogs these are different dogs in every respect because their owners are different because their families are different on normal days the shelter for the dogs of the evacuees and the murdered and kidnapped is used as a boarding house and a place for training a bit like us, the dogs here are also still in shock from what they experience they receive a lot of warmth, love and food here we have a good nation and throughout this month they take care of us and contact us about how to donate for dogs, like for humans it will take some time for rehabilitation for a new beginning in the meantime they are here perhaps also to remind us in the midst of infinite evil that there is also unconditional love just waiting for us at the end of the road welcome to this special broadcast on i-24 news I'm Caledwin David it's day 45 of Israel's war against Hamas IDF troops continue to strike in the country especially in Lebanon and it's happening here in the U.S. in the U.S. in the United States in the country in the U.S. IDF troops continued to strike at Hamas targets in Gaza from land, sea and air, killing three of the terror group's division commanders and destroying much of its tunnel infrastructure in the northern half of the strip. The deaths of three more soldiers announced today, bringing to 66 the number of those killed in the Gaza fighting. The IDF also continued its humanitarian efforts in Gaza, escorting some 30 premature babies taken from Shifa Hospital through the Rafah crossing to a new medical center set up in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Still, despite all this, Hamas continues to launch rockets into south and central Israel, including this afternoon in Tel Aviv, where schools are set to reopen tomorrow. In the north, Hezbollah and other terror groups in south Lebanon launched over two dozen rockets, mortars and drones across the border, when causing damage on the Biranid army base, the IDF responding with counter strikes. And tonight, Israel's war cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is meeting for the first time with family members of the 236 confirmed hostages held in Gaza. This amid reports, the government could be close to considering a prisoner exchange with Hamas that was mediated by Qatar. According to some reports, this could involve freeing some 50 hostages over the course of a five-day ceasefire. The US President Joe Biden was asked just in the past couple of hours at the White House about the prospects of a hostage deal. Here's what he had to say. Joining me in studio, Professor Yasiyon, a former member of the Knesset, representing the Labor Party, and Rafael Jusami, a former senior intelligence officer for the Israel Defense Forces. Gentlemen, the truth is we don't know if a hostage deal is there or not, even despite what Joe Biden says, or even what's coming out of from Israeli officials publicly. But I want to just look at the question of the difficult choice involved for both the political and security levels. Yasiyon, I can't imagine a more difficult decision for a civilian leader to agree to a hostage deal under these kind of conditions in the midst of an ongoing battle. Well, Collette, we have to remember first that the situation, hostages being held in Gaza by the Hamas, is a result of a fiasco, military, political, if you wish, or policy, which means that the government under a duty, our utmost duty, to do everything within its power to release them. This is kind of, I would believe, the principle that we should guide our discussions concerning this issue. And then on top of that, of course, what you just have said, that it is indeed a dilemma that I would want to be having to take it, to have this kind of deal with the Hamas, because there are a lot of considerations there that ought to be taken into account, for example, that of course it is a practice on part of the Hamas of blackmailing Israel. And then the dilemma is there, that the moment that you give in, then of course the president has been established before. But under different circumstances, though you seem to suggest these circumstances might compel the government to make a deal, even more so, because of, as you said before, it's the result of what happened on October 7th. Responsibility, yeah, exactly, because it is responsibility. So I advocate that, but again, for me to advocate that, I don't have all the information to do what extent Hamas is really already unwilling to have this kind of agreement or pact with Israel, we don't know. Just take another thing to be taken into account Hamas, but Hamas is not holding all the hostages. We have the Islamic jihad, and then we have sporadic kind of initiatives on part of citizens who have been taken hostages. So it complicates the issue, like with whom you're going to negotiate this kind of deal. Right, all right, we'll come to you in a minute, Rafiq, I just want to go jump to the south and our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osser, in there. First of all, Ariel, let's talk about the situation. In the Gaza Strip today, we talked a lot about the Shifa Hospital yesterday. Today a lot of focus on, yet another one of the hospitals there in the Gaza Strip, the so-called Indonesian hospital. Right, Kalev, the Indonesian hospital is actually not too far south of Beit Hanun, which is the most northeast neighborhood of the Gaza Strip. It's pretty much behind me what you can see right now, or if there's really strikes that illuminate the sky, you'll be able to see it. And indeed, both Israel saying that it had extended its humanitarian corridor, its daily humanitarian corridor that's been taking place every day since November 5th, between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., so they issued an announcement saying that they have extended that to 8 p.m. because they want to make sure 8 p.m. local time, which ended seven minutes ago, it's because they want to make sure that they can evacuate as many people as they want from the Indonesian hospital and simultaneously Hamas issuing a statement saying that Israel is preparing to storm the hospital today. Not quite clear if that is indeed the situation. But throughout the day, we've heard intense fighting in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Beit Lahia, which is more to the west, Beit Hanun, again the northeast corner of the Gaza Strip, but also the IDF sharing now fierce fighting going on throughout the day in the area of Zaitun, which is one of the western neighborhoods of Gaza City, saying in there that the forces have been fighting close proximity, sometimes really from zero distance with Hamas terrorists, saying that they managed to advance. This is a significant advancement of the forces taking over also headquarters, also underground tunnels as they have been throughout the operation. And you have Galan, Israel's defense minister, commenting on the advancement of the forces and also of the significant amount of Gaza terrorists, not only from Hamas, but also Palestine, Islamic jihad, the IDF saying at least 300 of those were arrested since the ground invasion began. Galan saying today that the information received, obtained by these investigations and interrogations are serving as the eyes of the soldiers, the Israeli soldiers as they operate in Gaza, as they continue to take stronghold after stronghold piece by piece of Hamas' infrastructure, terror infrastructure in northern Gaza ahead of a potential perhaps expansion of the operation further south of as we've seen by separate indications by the IDF. Okay, the area of Saran, they are down and still wrote the battle goes on, of course, in north Gaza right by you across the border there. Thank you for that, Ariel. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, also the fighting or the firing of rockets, mortars and drones across the Israel-Lebanon border that continue today. Let's go to where Zakand is in northern Israel and Zak, that border continuing to be boiling, to be active fire across striking in one case and damaging part of an Israeli army base. Yeah, that's right. And it's remarkable to hear so many of the officials use language like simmering and bubbling over with this conflict because they don't want this to escalate into a full-scale engagement or for Hezbollah to attempt to try and penetrate the border with ground forces. Right now it has been contained to these rocket launches similar to what we've seen throughout southern Israel. Hezbollah has been attempting to fire heavy rockets. They've been intercepted. Drones, they've been intercepted as well. Some has hit the IDF says today that there were a recorded 25 instances of fire. This can be ranging from mortar launches to artillery shells to these drones. The IDF says these attempted launches, they were either intercepted or they fell in open areas. There were no reports of injuries, but there have been several injuries throughout the last week to IDF forces who are staged along this border attempting to keep this area secure. Of course, thousands of people have had to evacuate from these communities that are across the northern border as they are under constant threat of this rocket fire, the mortars, and the drones. Yeah, and it looks like there's no end to that, Zak, and is there at the on the northern border. Thank you for that. Rafiq, I want to just continue what we started with Yesyona because he spoke about the political or maybe we should say more like policy considerations that are going to factor into the government, maybe making a hostage deal. But there are security considerations involved here of a type that's never been involved before. In the past, that always was really concerned over the freeing of terrorists and giving Hamas a moral boost here. We're talking apparently about a ceasefire period that could if it would impact directly on what's going on in the ground there in Gaza now. Yes, this ceasefire period could be a trap because as we've known in the past when there is a ceasefire, there's still people are still firing, meaning there are, for instance, if we have a ceasefire of three to five days, the IDF will become static on the ground, which is very dangerous. Can they fire at terrorists coming out of the tunnels or should they hold their fire? Then these terrorists can gather intel, they can prepare ambush. Right now, they're in the tunnels. They don't know what's going on above ground. They will have a much clearer picture of what's going on above ground. So all this is very, very dangerous for our troops. Of course, in exchange, we are liberating hostages. But are we? And how many? Because if you're talking about 50 hostages, it seems to be the rumor right now, and it was 10 a day because it's a dripping of hostages, 10 a day. So after the first or second day, if there is an ambush of the IDF or some Israeli soldiers have to defend themselves and shoot, then we will be accused of breaking the ceasefire. Then the Hamas will stop giving the hostages back. They will have time to redeploy, regroup only. So it is very dangerous. It could be a trap. We're playing a poker game. We're playing a poker game. We have the good cards. We are now putting a lot of pressure on the political branch because the military branch, all the pressure we put, it doesn't matter. The political branch of the Hamas has to feel threatened. And they are feeling threatened. Otherwise, they would not negotiate. On the other hand, whatever hostages we get now, thank God, we will get them. The problem is it might be at the expense of the other hostages that are left behind, mostly the under 40 men and women who are considered by Hamas as fighters because they're under 40 years of age. What happens to them? What guarantees do we have in the future? They will not be exchanged so easily because they are the life insurance of the leaders of the Hamas. There is a human shield above ground. It's the Palestinian population of Gaza. That's the first human shield. But underground, the second human shield, the Israeli hostages, do you really think that Mr. Silouar is going to give away these hostages? He can save his own skin by detaining them. And if things get rough and tough, he would say, okay, I'll give you 20 hostages, 50 hostages. Let me go to Egypt and I will be safe and keep my Swiss bank account at the same time. So this could be a trap. Everything could be very bad for us, but we have to give it a try. We cannot not give it a try. Bring them home. Children, mothers, the price might be too high. I don't think there's too high a price. Even though we have to be conscious, we're playing poker, and the guy we're playing poker against is completely nuts, right? Mr. Silouar is completely irrational. He might change his mind after two minutes. So we have no choice. We have no choice. Might be the only opportunity. We'll come back to this gentleman. I do want to, there was some very interesting footage released today by the IDF, which announced that some 300 terrorists who took part in the October 7th attack have been captured. And the IDF has released footage of the interrogations of some of these suspects, which have reportedly yielded some valuable intelligence. Here is part of that footage. So, what happened? Chef. What did you say? Chef, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. 100 units, 100 of them, 100 of them are inspected, every group has 4 or 5 people, every group has a medical unit in the hospital. Why do you do the hospital? What are you doing? I am taking care of my health. I was in a military hospital, there were 7 people in the hospital, they were giving me a massage. How many? Right, a civilian, with civilian clothes. How did they know the story? Are you sure? Of course. How many? There were a few. There was a young man who was from... He was from Al-Assam. You said that there was a city in Al-Assam Al-Ahmad. The Hila Al-Ahqa is a place where we are protected and we are protected. It is a safe place, not a place to be attacked. What do you mean by that? I am saying that there are 3 weeks and 2 weeks left until the Hila Al-Ahmadi community. Palestinian Red President. The building in the middle is the largest number of refugees. There are 10 refugees, and there is the largest number. How many are there? Around 40,000. Most of them are in the middle of Al-Assam Al-Ahmad. During their stay in Al-Assam Al-Ahmadi, they continued their activities. What were their activities? What did they do? The last thing I saw was a window. Do you know what a window is? The window is filled with... The window is filled with boxes. They are rockets, bombs, and bombs. This is what I saw. How many are there? A lot, a lot. Do you have to see this building every day? I don't think I can count them. Who can count them? If you stop the son of Al-Assam Al-Ahmadi, you can kill him. Why did you choose this place? Because the number of people there is a protection of the place. A protection of the place? We can give this punishment to the people. Because the army can't kill 40,000 people. 40,000 people. And we should note the World Health Organization, which has directed almost all of its criticism to Israel during this conflict, releasing a statement this evening in response to, I guess, this and, of course, the information that was revealed yesterday about Shifa Hospital. We only did medical assessments at Al-Shifa, limited time on the ground, no evidence of Hamas presence, no discussions about it from hospital staff. I reveal this just confirming maybe the worst-kept secret in all of Gaza that Shifa Hospital was being used as a military operation center by Hamas. It was only a secret for those who don't want to believe what we're telling them, like the World Health Organization. I mean, they're making fun of themselves. We've known that before. We didn't know to what extent. I think the IDF was surprised to what extent this hospital was an actual fortress of the Hamas, who knew the hospital was a human shield to protect what's under it, five-story bunker for the headquarters of the Hamas, or at least the Hamas of the northern part of the Gaza Strip. We didn't know that the hospital itself, the buildings, contained so many weapons and so many armed terrorists circulating freely in the corridors of the hospital, terrorizing actually the staff. Most of the staff, apart from a few supporters of Hamas, were under a permanent threat by the terrorists. So once we entered, I think it will be, in my opinion, far more than the Antebe operation. It will be studied in the history books of the military, like if you go to West Point or annual military school in the world, this, what we did, the IDF in Shifa Hospital will be studied for... We have the briefing from Daniel Higari, the IDF spokesperson. Let's go to that. The IDF forces continue to deepen the achievement in Gaza. Recently, our forces are fighting with the main regiment of Hamas in the Strip. They are victorious in all these battles. The IDF eliminated a lot of assets, a lot of weaponry, terror and intelligence materials, a lot of weapons and intelligence. Most of them are located either close or in schools, mosques and other institutes. That's the Modus operandi of Hamas. They use the population as human shield. Also, our combatants located a lab for producing drones and other weaponry. I want you to understand, you know, a mosque in the Zaitun area is a lab. The combatants walk into the mosque and they check that there are no traps. They see a shaft together with another unit. In addition to that shaft, there are steps and they find a workshop to produce rockets. They produce rockets inside the mosques. They use symbols of Islam in order to produce terror. This is the way we explode and we discover the method in which Hamas is using. They use mosques and schools and hospitals in order to hide their terror infrastructure. Before every entry of the combatants, the air force has a wide range of explosions in order to protect the land forces and enable them to act. The forces are advancing according to the plan. It takes time because of the security of our forces and the preliminary action of the air force, the detection of the traps of the mines and it takes a lot of patience. But this is the way we're going to continue. This war has stages. We keep an evaluation of the situation every day. We know the scope of our reservists, whoever we can, systems that we can dilute and to reduce and bring them home in order to gather energy and to continue later and to allow the economy to prosper. We're doing it in that we produce the conditions that will enable the war to go on for a long time. In the north, the IDF attacked today terror infrastructure of Hezbollah and eliminated units of terrorists, also helicopters and tanks. It was a wide attack in which we eliminated terrorists of Hezbollah who launched rockets and also a unit that tried to launch anti-tank missiles against us. Obviously, the launches of Hezbollah hit Israel. They hit a base as a result of three drones, but one of them hit the base. But there are no casualties. We have no casualties and we attacked aggressively because we are completely ready in the north and will continue to react accordingly. In the home front, we update all the time the preparations of the home front. You have to abide by all the orders and we adapt in many places in cities where they started the teaching in schools. Continue to watch the sites, update yourself exactly in what's happening in order to save life. We sent messages to families of 388 fallen soldiers that fell in battle. We embraced their families in this difficult hour. May their memory be for the blessing. Today, the world commemorated the International Day of Children and at the same time we have 40 children held in Gaza. They were abducted from their beds in savagery, in brutality by the Hamas terrorists. They are held far from their home, all over the Gaza Strip. Some of them without their parents and without any basic rights. The ones who are responsible to that crime is the leadership of Hamas, headed by Yahya Simwar. He knows exactly where these children are and he is responsible. We and the entire world have a moral obligation to bring back these children and all the other hostages home, the families of the hostages. We are going to do the outmost, everything so that this actually does happen. Questions? The first question, where we surprised by the opposition of Hamas in the last few days, do we use the air force enough? And the second question, are we going to not respond to the attacks in the North? I want to explain about the battle with Hamas. We are attacking and we encircled the center of Gaza, Shati, by holding it and getting into the midst of the city much quicker than Hamas was expecting. They were surprised, the terrorists, and we dismantled the protection line and it left the east as an area to which they gathered because of our attack. Now we are scanning the east and that's where we see Jaitun and Jabalia and within that the terrorists that were remained. I want to tell you that we win each of these battles. There's opposition, there are all sorts of collisions, but before these collisions we attack with a very significant fire by air, by sea, by land and then we only go in after we understand exactly where the enemy is. That's the way we're acting. We will continue to do so. In Jabalia we are completely in control of the whole area and there also we are trying to dismantle the regiment. That's what we're doing in the east until we dismantle the entire infrastructure of Hamas in the east. But you were asking also about Lebanon and Yemen. Regarding Yemen, a very severe event took place in the world of navigation, the Houthis. In Yemen they abducted an innocent ship that was on its way from Turkey to India, an international ship, Bahamas and Japanese ownership, an international crew. Nothing to do with the state of Israel. No connection because it's not an Israeli ship. It's an international ship. This is a pirate type of terrorist attack that was done at sea. It jeopardizes all the routes of navigation. It's very severe. The world knows it's severe but it has to be taken severely. That's regarding the Yemenite issue. It is in full follow-up of all the forces in the area, especially American forces. As for Lebanon, we in Lebanon, we are acting very severely with everything that's happening in Israel. Our actions are vis-à-vis the ones who shot at us, units that shot at us. We eliminate this. If they launch a rocket, the entire area is attacked. Whoever launched it. There are many casualties to Hezbollah because of these actions and we shall continue and we shall deepen our attacks if they attack us. We are going to attack anybody who attacks us. All right. That was Rear Admiral Daniel Hogar, the idea of spokesperson. Giving an update, reminding everyone the fighting in the north of Gaza is still ongoing. He addressed the hijacking of a ship in the Red Sea, a freighter by Houthi rebels who claimed that it had Israeli ownership but that it was not really had no real connection with Israel, calling it basically a pirate attack and mentioned the ongoing exchange of fire of the Lebanon border and how the IDF is responding to that. Yes, one more thing I do want to say. Israel's official network, Khan, or public broadcast news network saying or claiming that Israel has basically given the green light to some kind of hostage deal and is waiting for response from Hamas. Again, none of this is confirmed so we don't want to speculate unduly about it. But yes, let's talk about the role of the United States here because we did hear President Biden at the beginning of this program giving a resounding yes, saying it's a deal. Certainly the United States also is part of that pressure on the government to make a deal now because they very much have been pressing for a, they don't want to call it a ceasefire but a humanitarian pause seems to be the nomenclature that they prefer and that is something also that the government and Prime Minister Netanyahu have had to contend with. Well, back to the most complicated, the sensitive and the complex issue of the hostages. Well, look, Kalev, the American administration has been standing by us morally, materially, and militarily. Despite criticism within Democratic Party and even in the United States at large, you know. Right. I just mentioned recent polls just this week in the United States of Democrats show only something like 51% of even barely a majority supporting Biden, President Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. So, interests are not altogether conjurable between Israel and the United States. And the issue here is whether reciprocity ought to be enacted in terms of that Israel would have to heed the interest of the American administration. Well, this is the issue. Biden has its own problems and he is asking Israel to help vis-a-vis this issue of the hostages. Now, I'm expressing feelings that I think common to all of us that the government of Israel should do everything within its power not just to heed the interest of the American administration, because it is our interest and it is a vital interest on part of our government to do everything possible to free the hostages. So, I think that in principle they should heed that request on part of the American administration in principle and actually examining ways what would be effective ways in order to get into this kind of desirable situation, desirable result that would satisfy our needs, our interests, meaning releasing the hostages. And as I was saying before, let's put it that way, concerns and considerations and worries on part of the American administration. But there is a political price to pay for Prime Minister Netanyahu in this regard and certainly that we saw that in the decision to allow fuel into the Gaza Strip. Raphael, I noticed that the army was very careful to frame it as a security issue claiming in part their concern over the sewage system and water system in Gaza and concern if it wasn't allowed to operate, you could have an outbreak of I presumably cholera or some other infectious diseases that could affect the soldiers there. But I think most people did interpret that in some degree as the result of heeding American pressure as well as maybe other humanitarian gestures that Israel has been doing. Yes. Really, the fuel problem is not such a big problem. We can give fuel to Gaza. You just have to make sure not that many or not a lot of it gets into the hands of the Hamas. But that is a problem. It is a problem. It's not an unsolvable problem. We've got much worse problems than that. More difficult to solve. I don't think this is the problem. I think that it is. We have to heed the American first of all, they had some good advice. They told that at first when we wanted to do a massive offensive on Gaza they said, no, maybe you try incursions and maybe you try some more limited action and it worked very well. Based on their experience in Iraq I understand. Yes, they have a lot of experience mostly bad experience but they have experience. You can learn from other people's bad experience. But still we were well advised to listen to that advice. This being said one must remember that we are very thankful and grateful for the help that we get from the United States and I think Mr. Joe Biden personally is a true friend of Israel. This being said we are fighting Americans fight in the Middle East. We are protecting American interests in the Middle East. They realize now after flirting with the Saudi Arabia we are flirting with Egypt, flirting with everybody that they are true and strong ally is Israel and if they want to keep more or less stable Middle East that will not fall into chaos and into the hands of the Russians and the Chinese they absolutely need Israel. So that they also should heed our advice and our interest which are primal existential security needs. So with all due respect some of the decisions will have in the last resort to be made in Jerusalem and not in Washington. And perhaps against some of the wishes for Washington. Yes and I think the Americans will follow suit because would we escalate for instance against the Hezbollah. Would we consider the Hezbollah to continue sitting on the border on the fence because we can't bring 70,000 people back home if the Hezbollah is still at their door and we would escalate and we would strike first as against the advice of the Americans. I don't think the Americans will let us down. They would for sure at least provide air defense from their destroyers in the Mediterranean and maybe something more. One must also remember that so far the American forces have been attacked very severely in the rows of the American army. I will just note that there was a report in the Washington Post today claiming that there were some officials in the defense department or in the military. You feel the Biden administration has not responded strongly enough to these attacks on American forces and bases for example in Iraq in parts of Syria and also the situation in the Gulf as Daniel Garry just spoke about. Yes, and this is because traditionally the defense establishment reads the map much better than the secretary of state and the foreign affairs people in the states. The foreign affairs people always misread the Middle East. They don't understand anything about the Middle East and that's why they come out with these policies that anger sometimes even the American defense forces. You have to understand here you have to be strong. You have to be firm. You have to send the signals of strengths to the adversary or to the region. You cannot do anything that might be interpreted as a weakness as a hesitation and this is very important to note and that's why we cannot keep delaying a primitive strike against Hezbollah for too long. At some point we will have to strike whether the Americans like it or not. The only problem is that we want to wait for the proper time to do it and we know that when we do it all of us here will have to run to shelters very quickly because the ministers will start running again on us but at some point we will not have any choice because the minimum we have to do is push the Hezbollah back up above the Litany River meaning a bit more north inside Lebanon to have some kind of a buffer zone between them and our border villages and we will have to learn the lesson from what happened in the south. We are going to come back to that and come back to the Iranian issue in a moment but before that I want to go back to the US because the uncensored footage of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 which the IDF has been showing in close screenings for foreign journalists here and in some cases abroad is also getting a showing today and that is that United Nations headquarters in New York City. A senior US correspondent Mike Wagenheim filed this report from the UN in New York earlier. Let's take a look. The Israeli mission to the United Nations hosting a special screening here at the UN this afternoon footage compiled by the IDF showing in detail the massacre perpetrated by Hamas back on October 7 that footage has been closely guarded and shown only mainly to journalists in very secure settings in Israel and elsewhere around the world to shocking reactions that will be a similarly secure situation here at the UN that footage will be viewed in a room without cell phones or other recording devices allowed. Now the Israeli mission to the UN would not identify those specific countries or UN officials who have committed to attending this afternoon showing the UN told I-24 news that each official invited to make the decision him or herself whether or not to attend if 300 or more show up the Israeli mission told us it would be the largest viewing of that footage to date. Meanwhile Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said to a brief those in attendance today he will implore the United Nations to condemn Hamas for its October 7 massacre and to do more to help free the hostages being held in Gaza especially on Israel Children's Day as it stands right now. Erdan saying the UN simply not doing enough and that includes UNICEF the United Nations Children's Fund earlier today Israeli supporters and the families of hostages being held in Gaza protested outside the New York headquarters of UNICEF Catherine Russell the head of that particular agency was in the Israel Gaza region just within the last week she went to Gaza but said she couldn't make it because she was in a car accident in Egypt instead she flew back to the United States and is set to brief the UN Security Council tomorrow in a meeting on the Israel Hamas conflict also briefing today here at the UN will be Mossad Hassan Youssef the so-called son of Hamas Youssef is the son of one of the co-founders of the terror organization Governing the Gaza Strip and has become well known as one of the chief entities that perpetrated the October 7th massacre reporting here from the UN in New York Mike Wangenheim I-24 News All right Mike in New York yesterday we mentioned the support that Israel is getting from the Biden Administration in Washington without doubt but of course in the rest of the world we're all more mixed we have a situation certainly in the western Europe so far except for some comments by for example in the U.S. Crown there's been more or less support in the UN quite a different story completely there and elsewhere in the world also problematic and there is a question this is of course raises what Foreign Minister Ali Kohn said to much criticism just the other week about whether there is a window of two or three weeks of international support for Israel certainly outside Washington look I mean I am amazed and I see that well criticism is legitimate you don't have to agree with us you don't have to agree with our policies but then you know the kind of denial about the massacre this is what kind of that I've been interviewed in many Arabic channels in the last few days and to see that you know the kind of denial it's just shocking you know all of the atrocities you know well it is a channel in Moscow and I don't know about Dabi or other places that says well according to Israeli sources and what do you mean according to Israeli sources I mean this is like everybody to see so this is very disappointing so as I was saying before you know just that well okay well criticism is okay you know we can handle it and it is legitimate people have their views about we have views about them but to deny the massacre this is I think it's a new stage and the kind of criticism in Israel that I am as a leftist you know have a problem a content problem live with it you know that it put us in a very kind of a you know like sensitive situation what you're going to do about that kind of potential partners you know that people are talking about peace I believe in it to state solution at the end of the day despite what actually unfolded but then you say okay who are now our partners to that after we heard for example the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas talk about one of these conspiracy theories that the IDF helicopter was responsible for it on top of it you know Hamas Lido that he is committed or they are committed to repeat this kind of massacres you know this is unbelievable so okay hey guys I mean the guys in front of the world that he's willing to do that again and then you don't believe it you know you're just crazy denial is very very worrisome but denial shows maybe a little bit of shame like you deny because you don't want your shame of what happened what worries me even more is those who do not deny who actually legitimate or praise the action I mean the Hamas itself is like proud of it and it's like showing it I mean the cameras they were on the Hamas guys the Nazis used to hide you know the camps they didn't want the people to know about the camps the Hamas they want to know and those who do not deny those who see what has happened are actually applauding this is terrible I mean this is very very frightening when you've seen the movie and the movie just leaves you with like a huge question mark about mankind in general that uncensored that uncensored and you still have people who are going to legitimate I mean so it's denial and those who don't deny actually praise so we have two kinds of enemies right I just want to get I believe we have a live feed from outside IDF headquarters in the what's called the Kira in Tel Aviv you're looking at a demonstration there by family members of the hostages we're just going to repeat that this evening for the first time the war cabinet which is headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who includes the Defense Minister of Galan and the Betty Gantz the former Defense Minister and Chief of Staff for the first time they are meeting representatives of the hostage families there was some commotion apparently at the beginning of that meeting because or not all of the hostage families were allowed in to the Kira so there was some protest there and there you see the families outside that is the gate the front gate to the Kira normally you would not be allowed to have this kind of demonstration right there in front of the Kira so obviously some allowances being made and of course I just want to stress we don't have footage inside because this is a closed meeting between the war cabinet and the hostage families perhaps there'll be some kind of comment afterwards after the meeting if so we'll bring you that live but emotions running quite high there you see there at the outside the Kira this evening in Tel Aviv I'm going to interpret this thing you know like at least two ways one is just to put more pressure on the government to do whatever whatever it is needed in order to agree to a deal yes but another thing I kind of it seems that there is a fear that the government or the military going to forsake them on behalf of a war against Hamas or a war that intended to without the Hamas and you'll hear this kind of voices on part of families of the hostages so it is a very again complicated I think it's worth again repeating that what they have said all along is that there is no contradiction between these two main goals of this conflict between eliminating Hamas and freeing the hostages that those two are not in contradiction quite the opposite the military it says that they are complimentary they go to hand in hand absolutely the more you put pressure on the Hamas leadership the more they will be willing to negotiate and the hostages do remain the priority even though there are many unknowns and risks in negotiating with the terrorist organization they remain the priority for the simple reason that we've waited 20 years to deal with the Hamas so we can wait another 20 days or 40 days right nothing will happen we waited too long anyway so it's not now the difference okay we are in a momentum right now in our offensive against Hamas it would be a real pity to stop this momentum and to have our troops being static for a few days it's risky it's dangerous but we have a situation never experienced in the history of Israel that we are facing and for sure the hostages are the priority and I repeat with all the doubts that I personally have about how much you can trust the deal where we're going to strike with these terrorists and how many hostages we can really immediately now get freed and the problem is at what expense for those who are not freed those who are staying behind this is a very big problem you have a professor of philosophy maybe he has the answer I'm not sure because there are many schools of philosophy so do we have an answer to such a dilemma I don't know any way to get rid of the dilemma is just to take a choice to take a decision whatever the decision will be it will be a cruel ferocious one it's atrocious we have no choice something we are going to do it's going to be cruel either way to wait and try to get more hostages or not to wait and free the children now you know it's a horrible choice to make I'm going to just paraphrase Shakespeare there are some things not dreamed of in our philosophy or philosophy and that's a case there but stay with us because earlier we did hear we were Admiral Daniel Hagar the idea spokesperson mentioned that today is the International Day of the Child supposedly for helping children in distress and mentioning the 40 children who are being held in Gaza now we also heard that report about that from Mike Wagenheim in New York a protest there directed against UNICEF now that is the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund which is supposed to help children in distress the world over but so far that has not included those children being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas hundreds today protested outside the UNICEF office here in Tel Aviv Emily Francis was there and filed this report hundreds of people have turned out here in Tel Aviv in front of the UNICEF headquarters in Tel Aviv we're talking about families of hostages as well as Tel Avivians and people from all over the country here to protest against UNICEF on World Children's Day wondering why has UNICEF done nothing why haven't they done anything about the hostages in which there are 40 children being held hostage right now in Gaza you can see behind me here are the faces of some of these beautiful young people that we know nothing about nothing about Neve Shohan Ya'el Neve Talon Adi Shohan UNICEF for every child except Israeli children people here screaming against the hypocrisy of UNICEF even putting an SOS sign on the building why are they not getting answers why is UNICEF not doing anything about the children being held hostage why is the UNICEF website have nothing about the Israeli hostages this is why people are here now people are here to protest people are here to ask UNICEF to do their job before they move on to deal with the issues we have within Israel and getting answers from our government officials for every child for every child there are no answers there are people sitting inside that building not coming out and giving answers people are taking the stage families of people being held hostage right now begging begging for answers earlier today I had the opportunity to speak to Hadas Kaldaron who has two children and a husband Gaza right now a very brave woman who spoke very emphatically and shared her thoughts with me a short while ago why they exist why is UNICEF exist for this this is the truest moment this is the truest moment this is the moment why they exist it's a moment when children helpless and innocent being hurt cruelly and brutally way where are they where are they how come they don't jump and come immediately to help how come they had to you know they supposed to come they went to to meet the family and they didn't come even to meet the family they said they went together but they didn't come here to meet the families to talk to us so as you can see as the days mount as the days mount still no answers still no answers for the hostages no answers for the children no answers about the whereabouts of the babies not even knowing if families are together who have been taken hostage together this is a desperate moment and a cry for help and still at the same time while we're here we even had a red alert and we all had to go and seek shelter in the middle of this protest that is all for now from Tel Aviv I'm Emily Francis back to you in the studio gentlemen I have to tell you that as a child growing up in New York City I believe was on the Halloween holiday I went around collecting pennies for UNICEF that's something you did you got a little card in school and you went around collecting pennies to donate to UNICEF I don't know anything about that this evening but we see those children of course I said before a lot of discussion about whether a deal will free them we're coming to the end of this hour maybe some final thoughts on Yasee Kosmeen you presented me with the kind of the question and looking at it from a philosophical point of view I don't know philosophically what to say but intuitively I say get them out get them out especially looking at this mother one of the hostages one of the children and what can you tell her what can you tell her of course what you've got to tell her we're going to do everything so if we're going to get the 30 children tomorrow or the day after we're going to do that and then we will calculate our actions following that hopefully a good event releasing them and Rafael even if that happens Israel is going to have to continue its security operation its ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip including taking the battle into southern Gaza which is going to be a very very difficult mission there and I've been in that part of the Gaza Strip Kha Nyunis it's going to be a challenge no less and maybe even more daunting Kha Nyunis would be a much harsher fight to fight than even the north this is the stronghold of the Hamas this is where the leaders of the Hamas were born and the underground would be probably just as well equipped and dangerous as in the north so that tonight we are faced with the Yadav Spokesman who assured us about the fact that we are in control of the north of the Gaza Strip we are strengthening our position there and now we have three challenges the south underground because we have dealt with the above ground now we have to deal with the underground and last but not least to frighten out of their wits the political branch until the political branch Mr. Sinwar and company do not feel threatened personally directly nothing will change because these guys they are going to continue they don't care how many terrorists will be killed how many civilians they don't care about that they care just about themselves and I just want to remind you that dismantling the Hamas is not just a military operation you're talking about maybe 40,000 fighters but let's not forget another 200,000 civil servants of the Hamas civilians people who are working for the Hamas who have jobs in Gaza who hold key positions that's a lot a lot of people we have to deal with before we can say that Hamas will not come back into power all right gentlemen Prof. Yassiona Rafio-Jusami thanks for joining us I don't know if we still have that Fee there you go you're looking at live pictures outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv those are family members of the hostages being held in Gaza just beyond that wall and fence there Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other war members of the war cabinet Defense Minister Joav Galant and former Chief of Staff and Defense Minister Benny Gantz meeting with representatives of the hostages all this made unconfirmed reports of potentially some progress to free some of the hostages in the coming days stay with us we are going out for a brief break but we're going to continue on with the second hour of this broadcast here on I-24 News Israel fighting against Hamas think 45 stay with us we'll be right back Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful direct way to stand with Israel visit israelbonds.com and invest now