 Come back, the Israeli Defence Minister Yav Galant has been visiting IDF troops in northern Israel as the Lebanese-based terrorist group has bothered continues to fire rockets and missiles at the north. Israel's Foreign Minister Ali Cohen has been meeting with the French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonares. She prepares to visit Beirut and armed men seen looting an aid truck meant for civilians in Gaza. Israel today opened the Kerem Shalom crossing for the first time to allow aid into Gaza, one of the conditions placed upon Israel by its ally, the United States. With me in the studio this hour, Yaki Dayan is the former Israeli Council in Los Angeles. He joins me now. Thanks for being with us, Yaki. So a lot of developments to talk about. We will be going to the north in just a moment to get the very latest on the situation there. But in Gaza, I guess the big news this hour is the discovery of that vast terror tunnel. As deep as we go, we discover the tunnels, the length of the tunnels, how deep they are, how wide they are. And we had knowledge obviously of the tunnels. But seeing that, experiencing the huge tunnels, the billions of dollars that were invested in those tunnels, one could only imagine what could have happened in Gaza if those billions of dollars invested in those attack tunnels would have been invested in the economy and the welfare of the Gaza civilians. So yes, this is not coming as a surprise, but to see how huge they are that's striking, no doubt. Thank you, Yaki. We're going to go to the north of Israel now. Our Zach Anders is standing by and there's been a significant escalation today. Hasn't there, Zach? It has and measuring this against previous days is putting today high above the rest. More than 10 separate attacks. Hezbollah claiming responsibility for some, but not all of these attacks. And the rapid succession of some of these Hezbollah attacks throughout the afternoon, five of them came within an hour of each other here along the northern border and you can only surmise with the context of previous days as we've reported the IDF retaliatory strikes that just as many IDF retaliatory strikes must have been taking place throughout southern Lebanon, large plumes of smoke seen on the cameras pointing north and quite a bit of activity in the air over our heads and the outgoing artillery all day long. And there is a debate in Israel isn't there about what to do about Hezbollah because of course tens of thousands of Israeli civilians do not want to return to their homes. They can't return to their homes with this very well armed, well trained terrorist army on the border. And just talk us through, you know, some of the options that are being discussed. Well, the diplomatic diplomatic option is, of course, the first thing on the table, somehow convincing Iran's proxy Hezbollah to agree to the United Nations 1701 agreement. If that is not possible, the other way is with force and it does appear that with the posturing coming out of the Defense Minister's office in the last week with very strong statements regarding the use of force today, a military drill and exercise taking place on the border. It is very clear that the IDF is trying to convey a message that the entire Israeli government is trying to convey the message that they are willing to use force here against Hezbollah and that going beyond these air strikes and using the artillery to hit positions miles away that they're ready with ground forces with tanks with troops to incur in southern Lebanon, which for the people that live here in the north, they remember 2006 very well. They remember that very difficult period and they're worried for that future. Zach, thank you very much. Zach Andrews there. Well, former colonial power France is seeking to influence the situation in Lebanon. The French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, is headed to Beirut tomorrow. Today she met with her Israeli counterpart, our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Altman Hasmore. Israeli foreign minister, Ellie Cohen, met with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna here at Ben-Gurion Airport earlier on in the day. They spoke at the podiums you see behind me and had this to say, Ellie Cohen, about the issue of calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Hamas terror organization celebrate last week's UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. No wonder they celebrate it. It's exactly what they wish for. Let me send a clear message to the international community, to the UN member states, if a terror organization celebrates your decision, it means you have made a wrong decision. That's a charged message with the French foreign minister standing next to Ellie Cohen. Of course, the French government at a relatively early stage through President Emmanuel Macron himself, having come out and called for that ceasefire that the Israeli government sees at this stage as so unwanted. On another issue, the two sides may well see eye-to-eye the issue of Israel's northern border and finding a diplomatic arrangement to move his Bola's military presence away from the border north of the Letani River. Here's what foreign minister Colonna had to say to a question from i24 News. I'll be in Beirut tomorrow and France, just like its partners, is calling on its Lebanese counterparts to do everything they can to avoid a flare-up in Lebanon that would make it the first victim. And I'll be bringing that message to Beirut. Our partners there, I believe, feel similarly. I would like to add that very clear messages have been sent to Hezbollah as well, so that the security of Israel, end of Lebanon, I must add, should not be threatened even more. For the Israeli government, this is a tricky visit. On one hand, the deep disagreements about the war in Gaza, even with the full-throated expressions of support for the Israeli public from foreign minister Colonna, the fact that the French government has come out as such an important European power calling for a ceasefire obviously brings intention with the Israeli government. On the other hand, I think the understanding in Israel that the French government is certainly not a hostile actor and also has an important role to play in the diplomacy with Lebanon given France's ties with Lebanon and its special relationship with Lebanon and the expressed desire of the Israeli government through the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night and the statements here at these podiums from Foreign Minister Eli Cohen earlier on today that the Israeli government wants a diplomatic solution in Lebanon as a plan A and a military operation only as a plan B. Owen Alterman, I-24 News at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Well, Yaki Dayan is with me in the studio. The Americans, the French, they would like a diplomatic solution to the problem of Hezbollah. Is Israel going to go along with that? No that they want to and I think that is the preference of Israel is a diplomatic solution as well. The message that has been conveyed in the last few weeks both to the Americans and to the French who are a significant actor, a significant force in Lebanon and have a lot of influence over there is that if the situation is not being solved diplomatically, force has to be used by Israel and that's a message because we have more than we have around 70,000 refugees outside their homes. They cannot go back. Definitely they won't go back to the status quo that existed on October 7th before. So there is an understanding that a significant change has to be made. Now, what is the change? What is the nature of change? The understanding is that the resolution 1701 taken by the Security Council after the Second Lebanon War in 2006 is, I would say, a bit unrealistic, both because I don't see the Hezbollah going northern to the Litany River nor because of the unifil force, which is a ridiculous force. They are not playing any significant role there. They have no leverages whatsoever on the Hezbollah. So you have to change something which is completely different. Now, what would be the solution? This is a big question, but I would say that the Israel is extremely skeptic that the diplomatic solution will eventually force the Hezbollah to move back, if not to the Litany River, so at least 10 kilometers away from the northern border in Lebanon, which means that we haven't seen the end of the war that is taking place now in the north. And of course, we have to take into account that the war weariness here in Israel were coming up to three months of war in Gaza. I mean, will Israel, in terms of moving forward, will Israel be able to cope with another war on its northern border? I think that absolutely. It has to. But it has to also regain or gain the support of the Americans that don't want to see the expansion of the war, definitely not in an election year. So they don't want to see the expansion of the war. And the French were a significant player, and they don't want to see Lebanon being ruined as being overseeing what is happening in Lebanon. So definitely they don't want to see that. So you have to give some time for a diplomatic solution. If this is not being achieved, so the understanding and hopefully the support will be, and I'm sure that the Americans will support that, that we'll have to move on into a military solution, a military path on Lebanon. So this is the understanding right now. So everything is being done in order not to go back to the status quo on October 7th. Quite. And understandably, a lot of Israelis very concerned about having to move back to their homes. And also we have to take into account the economic impacts. Absolutely. I think we joined now by Shadi Khalul, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Alba Research Center, a specialist in Hezbollah. Shadi, good to see you. Another visit today by the Defense Minister, Yohav Galan. Still though Hezbollah doesn't seem to be deterred by Israel or by the Americans. Shadi, if you can hear me. Yeah. Can you repeat? Yes, sure. As you're saying, we saw the Defense Minister, Yohav Galan visiting the troops in the north again today. Once again, warning Hezbollah not to escalate saying that Israel is ready to attack. Hezbollah doesn't appear to be deterred, does it? Yes, I don't think Hezbollah is actually deterred because Hezbollah is willing to drag Israel into war in Lebanon. And this is something that actually we have been noticing at Alba Research and Educating Center before even October 7th. And Hezbollah is using this Hamas-Israel war that he planned together, actually with Hamas and Iran, to drag Israel also in other front. And he doesn't want to be seemed like just following Hamas. He want to have a front of his own to show the Lebanese that he has a good cause to open this war together with Israel. Let me be clear, we are at war in the northern front already. We've seen today actually anti-tank missile in Kibbutzasa, a civilian community here in our border. We see Hezbollah attacking in Kiryat Shmona. We saw Hezbollah attacked in other Western Galilean Kibbutzes and communities. And we saw Hezbollah attacking civilian electricians, farmers. We saw him attacking also IDF forces here in the border that trying to protect our communities. So we are in war. It's not that it's a matter like of escalation and another escalation. It's only a matter of time when Israel would say enough is enough. We will not accept this reality anymore and allowing Hezbollah to continue attack our communities. And it's just a matter of time when this will open in a full scale response from Israel side, which will be maybe later called a third Lebanese war. I can say only one thing to the public so they would understand what is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is Iran. We are we thinking we are neighboring with Lebanon. Our neighbor today is not Lebanon. Our neighbors today is Lebanon, which is Iran, Syria, which is Iran, Iraq, which is Iran and Iran that is Iran. It's all one front Iran. That's who we are confronting. We're confronting the Houthis who are Iran. So all this one unified or front of unification of fronts is all Iran. And we need to actually deal with this existential threat that is declaring to annihilate our people, our state, and throw out the Jews out of here and throw not only Jews, even Christians like me as Israeli citizens will suffer from this enemy. And that's why all citizens of the state of Israel from all backgrounds need to unite against this threat and this enemy and push the IDF to eliminate this threat not according to 1701. 1701 is only a joke. It didn't work until October 7. Hezbollah built his post, his towers in the border. He infiltrated the border. He did six tunnels in our border crossing tunnels to our territories. He he made a terror attack in Megiddo Junction inside very deep in Israel and with explosive that maybe just luckily we have very light injury for a Arab Israeli civilian. So Hezbollah is already actually preparing within 1701 rules himself to attack Israel according to his plan to occupy the Galilee, which means opening the borders to even more Palestinian Arabs from Lebanon with full of hatred to attack our communities and commit genocidal actions and atrocities against our population here in the north. This will not be tolerated by our state. We cannot even tolerate and that's why the public here in Israel and specifically in north and front requesting from the government of Israel to eliminate the threat and this arm Hezbollah according to 1559. This should be the resolution that we need to demand from the international community and from the Lebanese government and army to 1559 is disarming Hezbollah and only by disarming Hezbollah we can have peace for the Lebanese people and for us as Israelis and with all Arab countries surrounding us. Hezbollah is attacking Saudi Arabia through Houthis. Hezbollah is attacking UAE through the Shia militias. Hezbollah is participating with Assad to butcher Syrian Muslims and Sunnis and other Syrian citizens. So let me call it this way. Hezbollah is an army of terror and we should take care of this immediately and eliminate this threat before it's too late. All right Shadi. Thank you very much. Shadi Khalal there at Thank you. Three quick comments. I went to Shadi's house and you can see Maruna Ras from the other side. It's the proximity is striking and basically he is under the mercy of Hezbollah because if Hezbollah decides to fire any rocket to his house they can do that tomorrow and that the state of Israel cannot allow, cannot permit the citizens within Israel will be threatened by the Hezbollah on a daily basis. That's not an option. The second point is we saw what happened when we gave an immunity to the Hamas. I mean they for 16 years they were preparing themselves for a war and if you go to the northern part so Hezbollah is even is much more powerful than the the Hamas. So there is an clear understanding that we have to take care of this problem now and we cannot wait any longer and the third point may be a quick one is what Shadi mentioned and this is very correct. I mean the word today has very they don't want to hear about the Iranian problem but basically what we are dealing now in the Middle East is with the symptoms. If the United States wants the new Middle East and they want the new Middle East they cannot deal only with the symptoms which is Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis they have to deal with the disease itself with the problem which is Iran and as long as we are not dealing with the problem which is Iran then you will not achieve any normalization any new Middle East which would be a strong Middle East and a very stable Middle East. All right. Yaki Dayan thank you very much. Well let's turn our attention back to Gaza. Another soldier lost his life in the fighting today bringing to 122 the number of soldiers who have been killed. Meanwhile, aid to Gaza is for the first time since the war began coming via the Kerim Shalom crossing in Israel. There has been footage of trucks full of aid being looted by armed men. I think we can have a look at those trucks of aid coming into Gaza via the Rafa crossing with Egypt being taken over by armed men. Israel's concern of course is that that aid will not go to civilians but will go to Hamas terrorists and the IDF has uncovered. There we can see the the truck there. There we go. Coming in from Rafa. This is aid destined for civilians. You can see chaotic scenes. Armed men seem taking the truck and stealing the aid. Meanwhile, the IDF has revealed the largest ever Hamas attack tunnel going from the Jabalia neighborhood all the way up to the Erez crossing with Israel. Let's go to southern Israel for more on that. Our Pia Steckelback joins us now. Pia it's absolutely vast this tunnel. 50 meters deep in some places. I mean it would put the metro system in Paris or Madrid to shame wouldn't it? It is that big. Right Laura this was the largest tunnel that was discovered by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip. So far one of the largest tunnels that it has seen so far now the IDF is expecting to find more of those tunnels the metro system. Nobody really knows how long it is. The Israeli army estimates that it is several hundred kilometers long and it is in fact underneath all of the areas in the Gaza Strip the north the center and the south this is at least according to Israel's military estimates there and if we speak about the fighting that is currently going on in Gaza of course in the south in the Khan Yunus area in the Rafa area in the center in Shajai neighborhood of Gaza city and of course fighting is also still ongoing in the north the north where the IDF says it has operational control that is focused on destroying the remaining military infrastructure belonging to Hamas and other Palestinian militias. We're speaking about tunnels tunnel openings tunnel shafts but also of course weapons depots and ammunition and although Laura the IDF says it has at least operational control over the north about one and a half hours ago we could see that rockets were launched from the northern party of the Gaza Strip. We are here in Stirot right now right now we're looking into the areas of Bet Lahia and Bet Anun and we saw that the latest barrage of rockets that was targeting the eastern area of Ashkelon for communities there was coming out of the northern part of the Gaza Strip which not only means that on day 72 of the war Hamas or other Palestinian militias such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad are still able to fire rockets onto Israel but also that they're able to do this from the north where Israel says it has some level of control there we have seen that the that Hamas at least has the capability to still fire rockets much further we've seen that on Saturday rockets were launched even on to the Jerusalem area so we do see some restraint in terms of the pace that Hamas is launching rockets today we've only had a red alert three times around the Gaza area here but from time and time to time you can see that Hamas is trying to demonstrate its capability of still being able to fire rockets since the last rocket launch we can see some or we can also hear some aerial activity right now we can hear in Israeli drone from time to time we have been hearing artillery which might indicate that of course the idea of is now firing back towards the origin of these rocket launchers still Pia thank you very much Pia Stechel back there in southern Israel with the latest on the fighting in Gaza as I say a hundred and twenty two soldiers have now been killed in the fighting and Yaqui Day I mean what is the situation in terms of how much control the IDF has over neighborhoods in Gaza we've talked a lot about Shajaiya this neighborhood and clearly the idea is not in control yet of this neighborhood so there are different phases I would say that in the northern part of Gaza till the Gaza river there is an overall control by the Israeli army still there are terrorists everywhere that are popping out from from all kinds of tunnels and trying to hit the soldiers but mainly the Hamas is not present there the military force is still present here and there but definitely not the the administration no nor the civilians the Hamas is not present as as a mechanism as a controlling mechanism in the northern part of Gaza the situation in the southern part of Gaza still I would say in the northern part of Gaza it would take still few months to clear all those terrorists and the tunnels yes that's a long process and that would take time and we have to be extremely patient the situation in the southern part of Gaza is different now the Israeli army is present in one city which is Hanyunis they're operating there it's extremely difficult because there are still a lot of civilians around 200 thousand civilians staying there and hasn't left the city so the operation is extremely complicated and we know that part of the leadership of the Hamas is over there and the tunnels are hiding over there that's going to be a long process as well so in this intense phase we should take that and having said that there are still places within Gaza from cities like Direl Balak all the way to the southern part to the border with Egypt and the border with Gaza with Egypt to Rafah and the and the crossing points there that still the IDF hasn't been there hasn't touched those threats and that would be would be covered as well by the IDF so if we're speaking about the intense phase we're still a few weeks ahead of the intense phase but still even when the intense phase would would stop we still face a lot of months of clearing the field and Israel controlling the situation from the military aspects they will not let any force enter in the upcoming future to deal with the security apparatus or security security of the West Bank the only one that will be allowed to do that are Israeli soldiers and what about this new development with the aid letting aid go into Gaza via the Kerm Shalom crossing we've seen there's very chaotic scenes I mean is Israel just allowing aid to fall into the hands of the enemy so you as you know I mean we were not in favor of any humanitarian aid we thought that we should connect that with the release of hostages that was a major leverage that should have been used but the Americans thought differently and we have to respect that they thought that in order to gain more time to continue the war the intense phase at least we need to increase the humanitarian aid from 100 trucks to 200 trucks now the inspection on those trucks has to be Israeli inspection and currently in the Rafah crossing point we can inspect only up to 100 trucks so we had to open the Kerm Shalom as well in order to make sure that the inspection is being made by Israeli soldiers in order to increase the humanitarian aid that the Americans insisted so much so this is why we see Kerm Shalom now being open to humanitarian aid to trucks coming in from there to Gaza. All right Yaki Dayan for now thank you very much indeed we're taking a short break when we come back and it was in northern Gaza where one of the biggest tragedies of the war happened the idea mistakenly shot dead three hostages who'd been held for 70 days survived and we're trying to get to safety a funeral for one of those hostages has been held today hundreds of people attended we'll talk about that next stay with us. Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Welcome back hundreds of people have been attending the funeral for one of the hostages who was mistakenly shot by IDF forces on Friday and the Mossad chief David Barnea has been holding talks on releasing the hostages with Qatar's prime minister in Norway that's according to a report on CNN the meeting has been described as positive first though Israel and the United States knew about a Hamas investment fund worth hundreds of millions of dollars yet they did nothing to shut it down our Robert Swift has the story. As early as 2015 Israeli and US officials became aware of a network of companies that not only funded Hamas but were owned and controlled by it an empire that was worth an estimated half a billion dollars while organizations like ISIS and Al Qaeda have frequently used fronts to launder money Hamas's portfolio was a genuine enterprise launched with seed money to go out to make a profit the New York Times reports it reportedly included mining chicken farming and road building firms in Sudan two skyscrapers in the united Arab Emirates a property developer in Algeria and trend a real estate company listed on the Turkish stock exchange an Israeli financial intelligence team task force harpoon began tracking the investments flagging up their concerns to US counterparts and the Israeli cabinet but the threat from Iran and the finances it distributed to its proxies Hamas among them ultimately eclipsed fears over the Hamas portfolio and at the time the Israeli security services consensus was that money flowing into Gaza would help tame Hamas rather than arming it for the next attack a strategy led by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding this published investigation I am not familiar with it and I suggest you wait until after the war a thorough examination and a thorough investigation of all these things will be done and the picture will become clearer while there were some sanctions placed on businesses and individuals in 2022 ultimately the flow of money from it was not disrupted money that Israeli intelligence assesses was directly invested into Hamas's military preparations Jackie Diane is with me in the studio he's the former Israeli consul in Los Angeles so hundreds of millions of dollars I mean we know that the Hamas leadership in Qatar worth billions of dollars but they had an actual investment fund investing in chicken farms in Sudan another so I'll tell you what I know about this operation extremely well when I was a chief of staff to the foreign ministry I was I came to know this extremely very important tool that Israel was using in order to track the terrorism the money that the terrorists are using as you know this is the oxygen of terrorism and if you stop blocking the money of terrorism then you can deal with the terrorist organization whether it's Hezbollah or Iran or Hamas now in order to and there was an excellent cooperation between us and the Americans America the Americans were extremely devoted to that but the difference is that when you use such a tool you have to create an international network in order to stop to block those money from flowing into the terrorist networks but once Israel took a decision to allow the Qatari money billions of dollars exactly to come in so countries came to Israel and said you know this is this is a joke you you are dealing with the terrorist money and all kinds of you're trying to block this money but at the same time you're opening the different gate and you are lying publicly in daylight to money money entering Gaza so I think I would say that this operation failed and we have to take responsibility for that and this is the oxygen of terrorism and if we want to deal now with all the terrorist organizations Hamas in the future and Hezbollah and any other organization we have to make sure that we know from where the money comes and block it as Tom Cruise said in the movie show me the money absolutely I think it was Prime Minister Netanyahu himself who said that terrorism needs three things funding territory and ideology was it I mean so he violated his own absolutely absolutely I think that was a huge mistake not the only one unfortunately made by Israel and this has to be studied and we have to take conclusions make draw conclusions from this from this I would say Shanda from this thing and make sure that in the future we track the money and we block the money and we have we have to create an international network for that so I hope that this is one more thing that would be studied after October 7th all right yeah thank you well Alon Shamoiz was a resident of Kfar Azar he was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7th and held captive for 70 days he then tried to escape and was mistakenly killed by IDF troops on Friday it has been one of the hardest things for Israelis to deal with his funeral took place today in central Israel hundreds of people were there heartbreaking speeches from members of his family take a listen we turned over every stone knocked on every table for us to be reunited but it wasn't enough we didn't do everything but you did you were on your own journey in the dark without glasses you were held by monsters in harsh conditions no water no food no oxygen and no daylight you went through all this and ran you acted bravely that is reserved for unique people like you and you waited for redemption I talked about you so much in every meeting or interview but I didn't say how brave you are you always knew what was good for you you did things your way and this time too you ran away against all odds and did all things to get home my poor brother what happened to you in those moments when you already saw the light it became dark whoever abandoned you also murdered you after you did everything right horrendous the brother of Alon who's one of the three hostages who managed to escape and was mistakenly shot dead by IDF troops in Gaza over the weekend well with me now Advocate Oislan Niem is the former special advisor to ministers of defence on hostages and missing people thank you very much for being with us I mean it's it's heartbreaking isn't it to see that and this really does ramp up the pressure on the government to get those hostages home as soon as possible yes I believe it's an awful situation and I think it's part of the awful things that are rising from state of war being in the midst of all these awful situations as a soldier and I believe that it was a great great great mistake let's talk about the possible negotiations then we're hearing that Dimasad chief David Barnier has been meeting Qatar's prime minister in Norway CNN reporting that the meeting was positive are you hopeful that some kind of agreement could be reached to get the hostages home you know is some somebody who is dealing with these matters for so many years I you know I never predicted and I never even even put my thoughts even to myself about such a stage of discussions of meetings the only thing which I can rely on is the outcome if it is true or not so all these stages of before the result for me it's nothing I don't want to be up and down I don't want the families to be up and down and from my point of view only results you think it's best not to talk about these ongoing negotiations but that but I mean you can understand the families they're you know they're desperate for any kind of information to know what's happening and we saw you know a lot of pushback when Barnier was supposed to go to Qatar and then he wasn't I mean people are really hanging on for any shred of information aren't they it depends of what kind of information if it is just about the fact that people are meeting and I believe it's it can bring some hope it's okay but starting to starting to try to find what is in in the meeting and if there are more optimistic hopes or less I think it breaks your heart so it's better I believe it's better to know that you are meeting it's better to know that somebody is taking this role for for you for all the hostages but I prefer not to not to not to do it along the way you know you know about most of the thing are you know hopes and beliefs and some presumption whatever but the only thing is the end result this is the only thing which matters I mean I've heard it said that in the past in terms of previous hostage negotiations it was better for the leadership not to to speak or to meet too much with the families of the hostages because of course they would pay any price to get their loved ones back whereas the government the leaders have to be clearheaded about it kind of are things different now do you think because this is such an awful situation so many people are being held so many people are affected by this first of all I don't I don't really know if it is if this this was the real the real situation in the past as far as I know and I they have participated in the hundreds of meetings between the the country leaders and families I never I never saw I can't I can't remember and the demand of a family to see the prime minister or defense minister and that he refused I don't remember such a situation never he's responsible he's the responsible one the prime minister says there will be no hostage released without the military pressure do you agree with him on that I don't want to I don't want to to to say anything about it because I believe that even I'm in the picture I don't know everything so I prefer not to comment about it I think that I think that the best way is first of all to negotiate at all times never put it aside and to bring it to the best results you can Oris Lanim thank you very much thank you and let's hope that all of them will come home very very quickly absolutely we are all hoping for that thank you very much Well I mean well more bleak news from the United States two-thirds of young Americans between 18 and 24 believe that Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors that's according to a new poll conducted by Harris Insights and Analytics and Harvard University the poll also found that 51% of that age group believe that the long-term answer to the conflict is for Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians generally though on a bright note bipartisan support for Israel among Americans is high 63% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans believe that the United States is right to support Israel in its war against Hamas Well joining me now Isabella Tabarowski is the senior advisor at the Kennan Institute and the Wilson Center and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs thank you very much for being with us it's good to be here and Isabella you're an expert in anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the Soviet Union do you see any similarities with that and with what is now happening in the United States? Well the similarities are extraordinary we see them in the rhetoric that the anti-Israel protesters use it's the rhetoric that brands Israel as an imperialist settler, colonialist genocidal terrorist fascist racist apartheid states that's engaged in genocide that's branding Zionism in the same kind of terms that's calling Zionists slayers and manipulators and says that Zionists own all of the politicians and bankers and media people in the US this is rhetoric that we heard in the Soviet Union going back to 1967 and onward it was a massive part of Soviet international propaganda for 25 years and it's really extraordinary to see it being resurrected on American campuses and in American streets today and of course the Soviet Union collapsed it is no more but this is kind of an enduring legacy isn't it? Well that's right you know to the point where some people are starting to question whether you know whether the Soviet Union really in fact lost the Cold War because there is some intellectual legacy propagandistic kind of legacy that endures and the one way to think of it is that these ideas the anti-Zionist ideas the anti-Israeli ideas became part of the global left already in the 70s and 80s under the Soviet influence you can see it from tracking some of the publications as I have done over the last several years and so it continued it just it remained on the fringes especially after the collapse of the USSR and then at some point it begins to move into the center under the influence of multiple trends and forces and here we are hearing the very same things you know and I was I was born in the Soviet Union and many Soviet Jews who are of my generation will say that they're having an incredible deja vu it precisely the kind of rhetoric and the kind of attitudes that they we all fled are back in America again and and and shittingly it also has echoes of what happened in Nazi Germany of course when Jewish students and professors Jewish teachers were barred from their studies and also what happens to mind is the Durban Conference of course when the anti-Zionism when the Zionism is racism resolution was passed and the UN chief at the time was a former Nazi wasn't he? Kurt Waldheim I mean these ideas are really coming back to the fore aren't they? Well that's right and what's interesting about it is of course before and I think part of the reason we're all so surprised or so many people are so surprised and shocked by it is that for many decades after World War II the thought was that the main danger for the Jews comes from the right because the Nazi you know Nazi ideology is a far right extremist ideology that today it lives in the neo-Nazi circles the anti-Zionist ideology appears to be coming from the left from the progressive forces and it's a real turnaround for many people they don't understand how it can happen that all of a sudden the danger for the Jews comes from the left but of course there's actually if you know history there isn't that much of a surprise it's just that most people don't actually know this history Yeah anti-Semitism takes on different forms and guises over the century doesn't it from from the Middle Ages and all throughout history I mean this does though now represent a demographic time bomb for Israel doesn't it? What can be done about it? Well look I mean that is really the question that all of us have to think about I'm afraid that there are no easy solutions because I think that what we're seeing is a result of education in American universities and also increasingly in schools pre-university K through 12 as it's called and this is related to the ideology that has arisen for which there isn't really a single term but it's some kind of a combination of neo-Marxist post-colonial studies which very much based on identity assigning hard identity and then dividing the world based on these identities and so based on this ideology Jews are now part of the white oppressor class and based on that and we've seen this over and over again that you know another part of this ideology is the so-called DEI diversity equity and inclusion which sounds really really great right that's what's so deceptive and hard with it is that everybody wants diversity and everybody wants inclusion except that the name is deceptive and one of the things that this ideology is known for is to target Jews as representatives of the oppressed classes and therefore you know there are people that we need to dissenter to use the new term and so yeah this is it seems that we have a whole generation of people who have now been brought up in this way so we need to be looking at the educational at the curriculum in schools, universities and I'm afraid that it's not going to be very quick All right Isabella Tabarowski thank you very much great to talk to you as always Thank you Yaqui Dayan pretty bleak news from the US I would say that there is an unholy trinity now in in the United States among the youngsters the ages between 18 to 24 which is a lot of ignorance anti-Semitism and walk progressiveness and when you add to that tools like the social media and especially TikTok with the Chinese algorithm so it creates a very deadly mechanism that creates all this wave of anti-Semitism today in the United States but you know I'll give you one quote by Mark Twain that gives me a lot of optimism he said once about his dad that when he was 18 he thought that his dad was an idiot and when he reached the age of 24 he couldn't believe how much his father studied in during those years so I hope that we'll give them a few years and this wave of ignorance anti-Semitism and walk progressiveness wrapped with all kinds of ideologies as we we heard semi-moxism and all kinds of other ideologies will vanished and they will realize that this is the truth is a bit different that than the how they picture it as black and white oppressor and all kinds of things like that right I mean it's absurd isn't it to hear Jews talked about as oppressors never in history has there been a people so dispossessed and the so persecuted I mean and this kind of ideology completely glosses over all of the Jews who were kicked out of Arab countries absolutely you know but that's the combination of historical absolutely I mean if you learn history so there is a lot of ignorance here I mean people think that Israel was established 75 years ago but it was re-established 75 years ago but then you have to go to the roots of the studies of what happened here in Palestine way before and if there was any Palestinian state which was never ever a Palestinian state so you go back to history and there is a lot of ignorance and a lot of anti-Semitism and walk progressiveness which with all those nice ideologies and then you reach all kinds of preachers at the age of 18 in TikTok that tells you how as well as the oppressor it's easier to click on a TikTok video isn't it? Exactly and have millions of followers and it's nice and easy but it's not true all right Yaki Dayan thank you very much thank you for having me well on the morning of October 7th Yareev Hajbi a farmer living in the communities around Gaza woke up to the realization that his entire family was under attack by terrorists in the nearby Mashaf of Yashini Yareev did not think twice he picked up a weapon and took three of his friends to the village where he found himself caught in the crossfire between the IDF and the Hamas terrorists we accompanied Yareev to the place where he risked his life to save his family take a look Yareev Hajbi I took him and two others, there were four of us, all of us were left behind. And in fact, it took us three or four minutes to get here. We split from the fence over there, and we came down in the middle of the woods, to the pine trees here at Mata. And along the pine trees, and in the eastern part of it, we began to move forward. We saw three or four people here. I began to see the direction, to push them away from us, to take them away from our homes. There was a lot of anger at us, and we realized that who would be angry at us? In the end, the situation actually came, there was some kind of anger here, and the violence was actually the worst. We were angry, and in fact, they started to look at us, and then they also sent us some kind of anger, to push us away from the eastern side. And then we realized that the situation was very, very problematic, there was a lot of anger at us. We had to be careful, we were still angry, and we were angry at them, and in the end, we didn't like it. The anger continued there, and we actually stayed here forever. We began to tear down all the anger here, and actually tear down the area. All the area was actually my favorite, because it was a market. My brother was here during the market. All of this was very much for the price of the goods there. All of this area was actually a lot of garbage, and it was all the trash that I put here. I went to the market to buy some kind of jewelry, my friends that they know, and I actually saw that it was really expensive. I bought some kind of jewelry, and I stayed here in the neighborhood. We went to the market in the evening, and then we realized that my friends actually tore up in front of me. They were really angry. They tore up in the same situation with my brother. In fact, everyone was angry, when we realized that there were garbage here. He had to come to his brotherhood, to get rid of them in front of him, but he passed away more than a long time ago. We changed our lives to be modeled with all this work. And nothing else really started. There was a war, my friend, because there was a lot of garbage, and it was all a mess. You only have to make sure that every day is worth it, if you manage to get rid of them, and to go beyond that, to another day, and to another day. That's the biggest mentality here. Because the work is work, but we're not really modeled with it. While staying with us on I-24 News, Caleb Bendevede is here. He'll pick up our live coverage right after this short break. Don't go away. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Caleb Bendevede. Today, 72 of Israel's war against Hamas. The deaths of two more IDF soldiers killed in Gaza fighting announced today, bringing combat fatalities there to 122, as the army uncovers the biggest Hamas terror tunnel yet. Now, the first trucks passed through the reopened Karen Shalom crossing today, carrying humanitarian goods into Gaza. As footage from the strip shows Hamas terrorists and civilians battling over aid shipments. The IDF strikes a terror cell in south Lebanon preparing to launch anti-tank missiles across the border as his bullet continues its aerial barrage into northern Israel. And in the West Bank, an IDF reservist is moderately wounded after being stabbed in a convenience store while Palestinians report four killed overnight in an Israeli drone attack on a terror cell in Tulkara. As I just mentioned, the giant tunnel leading from deep inside Gaza right to the Israeli border, Hamas attack tunnel yet found was unveiled today by the IDF. There's yet another example of how Hamas took international aid intended for civilian residents of the strip and exploited it for their own nefarious purposes. Our senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Reghev, was given a rare inside look at that tunnel by the IDF. He filed this report. It is nearly three miles long, more than two meters high and wide enough for cars to drive here. If anyone wondered what Hamas did with the giant funds provided every month, this is the answer. This tunnel had every infrastructure needed, cement, electricity, water and also various hiding places for our weapons meaning it was ready for use and the shaft that is very close to the Israeli border roughly 400 meters or so, a quarter of a mile from the Israeli base of the area less than two minutes and the terrorists are already in Israeli territory. It's the biggest tunnel found in Gaza so far. Hundreds of terrorists could come to this point practically undetected. This tunnel runs from miles and miles into Gaza, into towns like Bet-Khanun, Bet-Laya two or three miles inland. The terrorists come all the way up here and then the shaft being on the other side. Once they come up to the ground there are merely 400 meters or a quarter of a mile away from the area crossing the area's base. Just before the tunnel is demolished the IDF showed us what the money envelopes from Qatar are really used for. Hamas as a terror organization showed his face using his money only for terror. All of his investment only for terror not for the civilians of Gaza. He doesn't care about the civilians of Gaza. They're only being used for one thing, for being a human shield. The tragedy that Hamas is putting its own people in does not end there. The area's crossing was the place through which 17,000 workers from Gaza crossed in every day to work in Israel and earn wages far higher than they could in Gaza. The adjacent area's base was built only to allow for humanitarian cases from Gaza to be treated in Israel but these were exactly the targets Hamas was looking for. We saw what happens in the tunnel inside. Now let's see what happens outside. Right behind me is the shaft. From here the terrorists come to the ground and just to my left about 400 meters or a quarter of a mile. You see the concrete wall. That is the Israeli border. That is the Israeli base of Erez. You can see it right over there. Nothing more than a two minute run and the terrorists are already there. That is all it took them to get from this position and into Israel. And in a war so full of terrible symbols, here is another one. Three soldiers were kidnapped from the Erez base. On the day the tunnel was unveiled, two of those soldiers were pronounced dead. Two of my soldiers that were kidnapped alive from this base on the 7th of October were murdered by Hamas militants while they were captive inside the Gaza Strip. So for me personally and for my unit it's a very complicated day. Every corner of the Erez crossing and the Erez base serve as a reminder of what happened here on that terrible morning just a few hundred meters away the mission ahead is clear. Without demolishing the tunnel project of Hamas we cannot demolish Hamas. This may be the largest tunnel in Gaza or at least the largest one uncovered so far but many, many other small ones exist all across the Gaza border. This is where the hostages were taken deep into Gaza and from there disappearing all across the Strip, Israel among other missions now needs to destroy all of these tunnels to make sure that such a thing never, ever happens again. Jonathan Regev, I-24 News. Joining us in studio for more is Reserves IDF Brigadier General Israel Relik Sheffir. He's the former commander of the Tel Aviv Air Force base and a former combat pilot and our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev and Jonathan, that tunnel it's a piece of work. I have actually once got a chance to be inside when they were cleaning it out Israel's National Water Carrier the huge big pipe that brings almost all of Israel's water in the south from the Kinaret and it's about the dimensions of that tunnel. Pretty much, very, very wide. Cars could easily go by. We wondered how so many terrorists how so many vans got just so close to the Israeli border. This is the answer. This is one tunnel that I've seen. Are there others of this dimension, maybe a bit smaller? Probably yes. Now some more images that come out today the people responsible for these images we can see perhaps the men driving there inside this tunnel, the men sitting right next to you I'm sorry, is Muhammad Sinwar. And they're driving inside the tunnels. Muhammad Sinwar, if the last name sounds familiar by chance, the brother of Iqya Sinwar the leader of Hamas in Gaza he was the man responsible for building this tunnel they are driving in a car comfortably driving inside the tunnel that we've seen. So when so many people asked how was it possible for so many vans to drive right up to the Israeli border without being detected this is the answer in tunnels such as this one. It's a huge infrastructure project, people from the engineer course that I've been speaking with said that a project of this kind takes at least three years to build tens of millions of dollars and here we can see this is Hamas footage obtained by the Israeli army in the operation in Gaza this is actual Hamas footage of the digging of this tunnel doors, there are many hideouts within this tunnel the tunnel was ready for use there's electricity there's water, there's ventilation there's everything you need there are different rooms to pile up ammunition weapons for example here we're seeing one of them everything you can imagine tens of millions of dollars there you can see various extensions inside this tunnel hideouts weapons could be here possibly hostages could be here we don't know exactly where they are this is one tunnel there are many such tunnels hostages could be there a huge infrastructure and we spoke to you so many times Kalev about the money envelopes coming into Gaza right those hundred dollars a month going supposedly to families were they going to families when we see this I think the answer is no this is where the money went through and this is just as we saw in the story this is the distance from the areas crossing very close and huge dimensions this tunnel was now unveiled by the IDF a huge project costing millions and millions of dollars all this money all this concrete for example cement that could be used for hospitals for new homes in Gaza for schools for mosques for anything this is what it is being used for and relic seeing an installation of this kind is daunting especially since we have to consider there may be more and certainly are going to be more for example when Israel start has to deal with the southern half of the Gaza Strip places like Khamunis yes but I would not be too excited by this we knew that this was taking place we knew that the cement was used for this there is really nothing surprising that was not known before and Hamas had been readying itself for a time like this for quite a while as well as Hezbollah up in the north we know of one big tunnel that was discovered up in the north and there may be some more so we should not underestimate the task ahead of us we should not underestimate the abilities Hamas and Hezbollah has been proven in this particular war and we shouldn't complain because they are arch enemies they said they are going to go for us whenever they can and they did so we were somewhat dormant taking this seriously too much padding on our own back well then we are complaining then about that and this is what war is all about but we shouldn't wait a decades for this moment to come maybe too long to give to Hamas to prepare for it let's go to a correspondent who is down south near the Gaza border just daunting seeing the task seeing that tunnel fighting goes on there not far from you still in northern Gaza that kind of tunnel and of course we've seen over the weekend this tragic incident with the hostages in northern Gaza just how much still has to be done even as Israel is trying to push on now into Khanunis in the south you are right to say Caliph that fighting is going on really all across the Gaza Strip of course in Khanunis in the south then in Shuja'iyah in the central Gaza but also operations are continuously going on in the north we can look into Bedlahia, Bedhanun Bedlahia right now here from Sirot you can look into northern Gaza and about two hours ago we could see the latest barrage of rockets that was launched from Gaza going out into Israel targeting communities east of Ashkenan and we could actually see that those rockets were getting launched from the northern part of Gaza not very far away from here this is despite the idea of saying that they have at least operational control over northern Gaza but still Hamas is able to launch rockets from exactly that area onto Israel and we have seen that although the pace has become a bit slower there were about three alerts throughout today the Hamas is still showcasing its ability, its capacity to fire rockets onto central Israel even onto Jerusalem as we have seen last Saturday now the fighting here in the north is really focused on destroying Hamas's infrastructure and the infrastructure of other Palestinian militias we are speaking about the destruction of every of more of those tunnels of that vast tunnel system and of course the destruction here in northern Gaza but also destruction of weapon ammunition depots that is what the operation in the north here is focused on but of course there is fighting going on also in Shizha'iyah an urban environment very densely the entire Gaza Strip is very densely populated and this is a really close-knit neighborhood as well which poses immense challenges to those IDF soldiers operating there on the ground this is also of course when an ambush last week nine soldiers all at once were killed because this just shows you how great the danger of ambushes are or is in such a densely built environment Piaz Takobach there by the Gaza border in southern Israel thank you for that and Relika seeing, hearing as Piaz saying seeing those rockets still being fired from northern Gaza but then you see those tunnels and you understand perhaps at least in some ways how they're able to still act those units or the Hamas units are still able to enact even in the northern half of the Strip yes but we should let's take a little balance look Hamas and Hezbollah have no air force no tanks no armored vehicles they are fighting from tunnels they're using human shields and they've taken a toll of several thousand terrorists have already been killed right so the ratio that we're talking about and the devastation of Gaza reflects the balance of power between Israel and Hamas and if we have to fight Hezbollah in the north it'll be a little different but not much different remember that we have the shields from their rockets and very few Israelis were hit so let's balance it Israel is a lot more powerful and although we are kind of looking through spectacles at everything that happens in Gaza and we're all seeing what war is all about but at the end of the day we're way overpowering Gaza in any way you want to I don't think it's a question of the feeling that the IDF can handle this situation I guess it's more a question of that the cost that it's going to have and then there is again the time element because there is a time element that play here there is a so called diplomatic window and clearly that you understand why for example the IDF spokesperson Daniel Logari is about to speak let's take a lesson good evening today we exposed a special mission of the IDF forces detecting the largest terror tunnel found so far in the Gaza Strip special units along with infantry Gaza Division led the force it's a network a vast network of tunnels costing millions of dollars and tens of terrorists built it this project was led by the brother of he led it personally so far we exposed more than four kilometers of the path of this tunnel it's a flagship project for Hamas meters deep under the ground inside the tunnel we found weapons ammunition the tunnel did not cross into Israel it came very close to the air as crossing the place that allowed many Palestinians crossing into Israel for work and for medical assistance Hamas on the 7th of October chose to slaughter this place this crossing that was a place for hope for Palestinians that was the choice of Hamas it's not a regular tunnel it's a city a terror city under the ground Hamas built it instead of investing the money in the citizens of Gaza the tunnel detected was used for offensive purposes against our forces in the Gaza Strip a few days ago there was there were images of terrorists killed inside the tunnel we will soon enough expose more underground cities we will take care of them, we will kill terrorists there and we will destroy them our forces continue to fight Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip and in the southern Gaza Strip anywhere where there are terrorists today there were statements about from Hamas officials saying they will return hostages only after the fire will end it is important to stress the idea will continue to dismantle Hamas our forces continue to act bravely all over the Gaza Strip the statements of Hamas regarding the hostages show that Hamas is worse than ISIS who would hold women, elderly children, citizens only a murderous terror organization like Hamas we have the moral responsibility to do everything to bring back all of the hostages back home and we continue to act and do every effort possible with intelligence, with the operations and other means with all the power to achieve this goal today we showed images of that the three hostages were kept very close to the place where the tragedy took place on Friday we don't know how long they were there we're inspecting another home where they possibly were we're continuing to investigate this incident and learn the lessons the chief of staff was on the ground with the soldiers and he spoke about the initial conclusions of this incident and we continue to support the families in this very difficult hours in the north we attacked various sites of Hezbollah and Lebanon weapon depots and other installations we also attacked terror squads in Lebanon we attacked more than 120 terror squads since the beginning of the war south Lebanon today as a war zone and will continue to be so will continue to be spread there an attack from there the citizens of southern Lebanon know that and they will continue to feel our attacks as long as Hezbollah terrorists are there this will be a war zone today in the afternoon a terrorist stabbed a reserve officer in near the village of the reserve officer chased them in open fire later on our forces captured the terrorists and in the refugee camp of Ashams we conducted another operation where we attacked from the air a terrorist squad which put our forces in danger we carried out arrests and confiscated weaponry we will continue to fight terrorism in the west bank and all in every possible arena in the home front we call the citizens the residents to keep on watching the home front instructions we have to remember that even if there are less and less rockets Hamas din has ability to fire moreover there was supposedly a document by the IDF which says that residents can go back to the Gaza border communities it's a rough draft that we are inspecting together with the heads of communities in the south this is nothing official yet when we make a decision an official decision we will update the residents the citizens please be patient and we will update when things are final question now you're telling us that you exposed a giant tunnel on the border fence please speak about the intelligence failure of how this tunnel was not detected for so long if it was built for so long and what's the probability that there are more tunnels of this kind that we're not aware of this is just one of various projects there are few places we've looked at three arenas we will expose the other arenas where we think there are tunnels of this kind terror cities within this operation we're being asked why is this war taking so long and the answer is that we're dealing with terror cities under the ground just together with the fighting on the ground and we want to permanently destroy these terror tunnels and it takes time regarding this specific tunnel it was a flagship project of Muhammed Zinwar some of it may have been attacked in the past and reconstructed I cannot give all of the information we have so far but the bottom line is that this is a project a flagship project that was waiting to attack during the years it was used during this war after the October 7th attack we exposed it we killed terrorists there and we will continue to expose more infrastructure and expose their underground infrastructure we just heard the idea of Spokesperson we're Admiral Daniel Agari with his nightly briefing focusing on that as we've been reporting that giant terror tunnel that was detected by the IDF he also, by the way some news there the Spokesperson referring to a plan that would allow some residents of the Gaza Strip border area, the Gaza Envelope return to their homes actually is the first even indication we've had of that from the IDF many of those homes they are not there to return to were destroyed of course by Hamas Enrages to pick up on the point that I mentioned that the threat of the tunnels of course just indicates the dimensions of the task ahead for the IDF and the timetable as even the Admiral Agari said that this is an operation that is going to take more time maybe more than some people expected to that is true but if we're holding that area I'm not talking about the tunnels but the general area we won't need so much aerial support once you control the area and it's just a question of getting down to those tunnels neutralizing them etc which is a delicate task and potentially costly and that is why it's it's going to be a lower intensity war above the ground with a higher intensity dealing with the tunnels underground in various measures you don't have to go in with soldiers in order to take them out and we won't go into details how this is going to I'll just add some reports about some pumping seawater for example one example of one measure that's been reported but others certainly the idea will have they won't make public Relics if you'll stay with us and Jonathan Regev we are going out for a brief break we'll be back just in a few minutes with lots more of our coverage Israel's war against Hamas on day 72 we'll be right back stay with us must reach the whole world the I-24 news channel broadcasting from Israel dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries bringing Israel's story to the world I-24 news channels now on hot again more action along Israel's northern border as we reported airstrike by the IDF trying to fire anti-tank missiles and of course that aerial attack still going on let's go to Zach Gander in northern Israel and Zach again another day another volley of cross-border firings the IDF apparently taking out a unit there that was firing or getting ready to fire missiles that really have been perhaps the most dangerous weapon for Israel that we've seen fired across the northern border and they will continue to be a threat so long as Hezbollah is allowed within a few miles of the border because that's the range of these ATGMs now remember that they're designed to penetrate the armor of tanks so they don't explode when they initially hit their target they're designed to penetrate thick layers of steel and then explode after the penetration it is a serious weapon and it has that range launched by personnel on the ground of several miles just like mortars and artillery does so this buffer that the Israelis are trying to create at least to start and the language that we're hearing come out of talks with the US France the UK is that they want to start with just a several miles buffer along the border along this blue line with the UN agreement between Lebanon and Israel and then begin to push Hezbollah back above the Latani River which is again that UNSC 1701 the United Nations Security Council agreement from 2006 does not appear that there's been any movement on those talks Hezbollah does seem to be scoffing at the even the idea again repeating claims that we've heard for decades especially during the 2006 war that they lay claim to this territory they believe that northern Israel is a part of southern Lebanon so this is another stalemate here maybe have to point out the IDF Spokesperson Admiral Higari this evening for the first time talking about the IDF looking at a plan that would allow some of the residents of the so called Gaza envelope that area probably more around northern Gaza where IDF has established some control to start going back to some of their communities at homes those that still exist but of course no such indication at all that possibility for the residents in the north tens of thousands that still are basically internal refugees here in Israel right the last update we got for these residents was a week ago with Defense Minister Galant speaking that this will be a very long time consuming process and asking for these residents to have patience perhaps there's been some movement that could indicate what's happening here for these residents to be able to decide what their future is because there appeared a large military exercise today one in scale that we have not seen since October 7th the forces that have been placed here have been placed in really a defensive posture and you've noted that the strikes have been mostly retaliatory but they have picked up offensively quite a bit in the last week or so with targeting Hezbollah before they are able to fire these ATGMs before they fire on northern Israel so it is curious to see this level of military exercise is taking place here some of the outside observers in assessments especially out of the U.S. are very concerned about the developments here especially with the movement from Hezbollah that they are seeing and it does appear that the IDF and the Israelis are following suit and matching that posture all right Zach Hand is there along the northern border with Lebanon thank you for that Relic what about that we have this exercise in the northern border area we have as he mentioned Israel maybe moving to more of an offensive deterrent posture trying to strike these units rather than just react to the firing message to Hezbollah but is that deterrence or is it liable to provoke Hezbollah to for example widen their field of fire beyond that sort of border area obviously the IDF is positioning itself to clear out the area between the border and Dili Tani river because the 100,000 people who were displaced from their homes won't go back with Hezbollah on the border or even in an eye contact with a houses in Metula or other villages and this will be the end game so the question is how to get there the the order of the day is that diplomatic and political means through France, the United States to convince Hezbollah that this is serious I'm just going to act because we're going to discuss it later in the program the French Foreign Minister Catherine Cologne in Israel today supposedly is going to I believe to Lebanon to see if she can move things Lebanese government may be amenable to that as Zach pointed out Hezbollah acts as its own government so far those diplomatic efforts haven't proven useful these efforts precede the military onslaught and that's the name of the game you show that you've tried everything and when push comes to shove then we'll go into a more offensive posture but try to stay below something which will force Hezbollah to open a full scale war and fire their tens of thousands of rockets to Israel which will force Israel to eradicate part of the Hezbollah part in Beirut and take out their infrastructure that is totally different from what happens in Gaza because Lebanon is still a semi-European no it's a sovereign country never mind even say sovereign country they have infrastructure yes and there's no urban area between Israel and the Litani so it's a free field totally different and a lot faster than anything that was done you are of course seeing a commander from the air force would air power be enough or would Israel have to put some boots on the ground in southern Lebanon as it did in the second Lebanon war to mix the fact it's hard to imagine that while the ground forces are so engaged in Gaza my opinion is it can be done from the air in this particular case unlike the 2006 the type of information that we have and our ability to wield power a lot of power in a short time range is a lot better than it was their defenses also perhaps even though we should expect to see a lot of missiles shot at Israel but I think we can overpower the Hezbollah a lot faster than Hamas because of the different nature of the ground right we're showing a map actually of Lebanon you could see pushing it to Litani there are those who feel Jonathan what Relic just described is just a matter of time that it's inevitable pessimistic about these diplomatic efforts spearheaded mainly by the U.S. and France and that during this war or the next war Israel's going to have to take care of that issue say that the diplomatic efforts succeed and Hezbollah moves past the Litani river is that going to stay is that going to be the case for two years ten years the answer is probably no in Gaza we've said time and time again we know that the next operation is just around the corner something that was not said about Lebanon up until two years ago I think and now things have changed and we see that the Hezbollah is a threat first Israel cannot live with Hezbollah on the fence period that's something that cannot happen anymore and second even if Hezbollah is not on the fence so they were back there in 2006 eventually step by step Hezbollah got closer until it got to the fence that is one issue second issue we see that when there's a conflict now it's with Gaza next time it could be with the West Bank or with Syria or with someone else and of course with Iran Hezbollah comes in and joins the party so can Israel live with this forever and ever the answer is no so it may happen now it may happen in two years three years one day it will probably happen because Hezbollah will never ever accept the presence of the state of Israel and will one day try to attack it's a war that is bound to happen one day or the other you mentioned a couple of Iranian proxies there in Hezbollah its forces and militias in Syria or Iraq there's another let's not forget the Houthi rebels in Yemen who are stepping up their campaign in those waters those key coastal waters off of Yemen now two of the world's largest shipping firms the Mediterranean shipping company and CMAGCGM just announced this weekend that they were suspending passage of their vessels through the Red Sea after attacks claiming backed Houthis in Yemen now the announcement follows similar decisions by other major shipping companies which is threatening freedom of navigation in one of the world's most vital trade arteries not just for Israel but for other countries in the region and the world a Middle East correspondent Ariel Osser has more on the implications of that in this report the world's biggest shipping companies are diverting their ships away from the Red Sea amid increased attacks by the Houthis in Yemen the tidal wave of announcements comes as the U.S. and British navies shot down 15 suspected attack drones over the Red Sea on Saturday the Iranian backed Houthis said they launched a large batch of drones at Israel's southern city of Elat and will continue their attacks as long as the war in Gaza carries on the Yemeni armed forces shoe all ships heading to all ports around the world except for the Israeli ports where they won't be harmed but must keep their identifying devices open. The Mediterranean shipping carrier MSC along with French CMA CGM said on Saturday that they were suspending passage to the Red Sea this followed similar steps by Dana's shipping giant Maersk German based chipper Hapag Lloyd Taiwanese Yang Ming and Israeli shipping line Tsim raising concern over the impact of the flow of goods through the major global border connecting Asia and Europe. The Houthis represent a material threat to freedom of navigation to commercial shipping to lawful commerce and they're doing so in a vital artery there at the Babo Mandib and into the Red Sea and the United States is working with the international community with partners from the region and from all over the world to deal with this threat. Despite the expected blow to its economy Israeli leaders respond to the Houthis attacks in due course. We are ready to act. We know what to do and we will find the right timing to act. We are giving a chance in the maritime issue to the international system if we reach a situation where we are the last option we will know what to do. And so as the scale and frequency of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping reach unprecedented levels the Pentagon is reportedly weighing down on making options. But after years of reluctance to act against Iran's proxies these steps might turn out to be too little and too late. And we should note the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to come to Israel this week certainly to deal with the Gaza situation and that situation in northern Israel with his Bullah but also the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Relic let's look at that we heard you Afghan talking about Israel striking but this is really an international issue the U.S. France it's also getting involved all defensively. The question is if it's time for them to take some kind of offensive action against the Houthis which presumably would be some kind of using air power certainly they don't want to put boots on the ground inside Yemen. Yes that is for sure remember that Babel Namdab's distance from Israel is farther than Tehran it's not a next door neighbor thousands of kilometers so our ability to get real time information our intelligence and strike there is obviously present but I don't think we can take out the missiles or whatever structure there so we better leave that to other nations and the consortium that seems to be getting along with the U.S. leading it and France and other countries probably can take care of this but will they? I'm just going to note that last week I think it was a group of former Sencomps said it is time for the U.S. to strike but why haven't that strike been taken? Presumably they have the air power to at least take out some of the missile capabilities and certainly naval capabilities there are the Houthis something to think about the Houthis are not alone in this game they're actually being operated as proxies by Iran so maybe it's time to let Iran know or a small military operation at the Hormuz Straits along the Iranian border because this is going to continue and Iran is going to continue playing so do they deal with the Houthis or do they go to their operator? If they deal with the Houthis technically, militarily they shouldn't have a problem so it's a question of decision of the President's decision as the Commander-in-Chief in the U.S. There are those Jonathan who see that hesitation the scenarios laid out by Relik and that hesitation by the U.S. is the the Biden administration's policy of trying to engage Iran rather than take it on more directly and perhaps in this case that emboldened Iran taking this international shipping there in the Red Sea It is already happening we're seeing ships being attacked there we're seeing companies, we saw that in the story saying they will not use this passage let's remember it's a major passage from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean it's a major shipping route which is now put under and many in Israel feel that the international coalition led by the United States is not doing enough one other thing let's remember the Israel went to the Six-Day War because the the streets of Tehran being much closer to Israel of course were blocked by Egypt in that case from Egypt in that case thus blocking the passage of ships to Elat to the Port of Elat someone blocking the passage to Elat of course the distance to Babel Mandab to Yemen being much much farther the situation is of course different but there is a precedent in which Israel went to war technically because these streets were blocked we should note actually it's Egypt and its Suez Canal which is more perhaps negatively affected I think they're affected even more than Israel because much of the passage through the Suez Canal which is giving Egypt a lot of money will now be diverted there is talk already of diverting even a land bridge through the United Arab Emirates through Jordan for example into Israel so that is the people are talking about it that's being denied gentlemen stay with us we're only just this evening we heard we're Admiral Daniel Har-Ghari being grilled by reporters white in Israel detect that massive tunnel that was just revealed in Gaza that was just revealed to the world today and Israeli security and military officials have acknowledged intelligence failures that allowed Hamas to plan and execute the October 7th attacks but new details have now emerged in a report from the New York Times also describing how Hamas financed its activities with a portfolio of international investments a financial network that Israeli leaders were allegedly aware of but did not shut down Robert Swift takes a closer look at that as early as 2015 Israeli and US officials became aware of a network of companies that not only funded Hamas but were owned and controlled by it an empire that was worth an estimated half a billion dollars while organizations like ISIS and Al Qaeda have frequently used fronts to launder money Hamas's portfolio was a genuine enterprise launched with seed money to go out to make a profit the New York Times reports it reportedly included mining, chicken farming and road building firms in Sudan two skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates a property developer in Algeria and Trend a real estate company listed on the Turkish Stock Exchange an Israeli financial intelligence team Task Force Harpoon began tracking the investments flagging up their concerns to US counterparts and the Israeli cabinet but the threat from Iran and the finances it distributed to its proxies Hamas among them ultimately eclipsed fears over the Hamas portfolio and at the time the Israeli security services consensus was that money flowing into Gaza would help tame Hamas rather than arming it for the next attack a strategy led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding this published investigation I am not familiar with it and I suggest you wait until after the war a thorough examination and a thorough investigation of all these things will be done and the picture will become clear while there were some sanctions placed on businesses and individuals in 2022 ultimately the flow of money from it was not disrupted money that Israeli intelligence assesses was directly invested into Hamas' military preparations Jonathan we should know this information is based on a press report we don't know the full circumstances we don't know if how much Israel knew how actually how much perhaps the Mossad or other agencies did actually deal with it but I think the bigger picture here as we saw in the that was raised of course by Robert is this whole question this conception Hamas in a sense could be that its financial interests were great enough that it would not take a risk like it did on October 7th to bring that house tumbling down a conception that we now know was was barely mistaken absolutely and let's look more than that it was all the time thought that Hamas would put first the interests of the citizens of Gaza that is why it was thought that more work permits in Israel would do the job more money coming in more money from Qatar going into Gaza would do the job these images that we're seeing now we're seeing exactly where the money went to not for the residents of Gaza for this the workers coming in we know that many of them actually I'll even call them spies as much as that of what is happening in the communities and in the bases inside Israel all the conception that Israel ahead of Hamas was completely wrong the citizens of Gaza they mean nothing to them nothing more than human shields all they are for them and I don't think they really did much to hide that we heard a few weeks ago from one of the Hamas officials saying yes we took all the money and all the assistance for our tunnels for our tunnels underground because the people underground they're refugees it's the United Nations that should take care of them and the assistance everything that we get this is used for our projects I think Raleigh quite is a little frightening here go ahead to respond to yes I think this is we're letting ourselves easy on that one it doesn't sound so easy to me to be honest I think we're being very critical but go ahead before the 73 war said he is willing to put the lives of a million Egyptians to get the Sinai back okay and he meant what he said right Hamas their their ideology is to fight Israel even if it takes a hundred years and for them as by the way for other nations who've gone to war in second world war etc the idea of bringing a better future or some hope is more important than the lives of people so this was all well known right the money was coming in from Qatar and Iran anyway so with all due respect to those 500 million investments that wouldn't have stopped the money the basic thing that Israel has to deal with is the idea that we have weakened the Palestinian authority and strengthened Hamas in order to stay for the Palestinian authority to stay weak so that we can ward off the danger so to speak of a Palestinian entity in the West Bank this was a decision made by our leaders at the time and certainly Netanyahu and in a way this is a day of reckoning we have to decide for if any this does go in the air political decision making which is still going on this relates to the argument about whether if and when the Palestinian comes to this so called side who will maintain civil authority whether it would be the Palestinian authority or not no easy choices to make I just want to go back unfortunately a tragic incident this weekend the revelation of the three escaped hostages who were shot down by IDF troops apparently mistakenly unfortunately each new detail that comes out paints that in a more and more negative like the actions of those troops but we can understand whether the hearing that the soldiers were waving a white flag like speaking in Hebrew wearing shirts there was I think a photograph that come out we don't know if we have it in which they scrolled SOS basically on the side of a building that maybe explain this picture it says SOS in English and it says three hostages in Hebrew this is the place we heard from a rear admiral Danny Lagari in his briefing about this place saying that very close to the place that these three hostages were shot this home was found with these paintings on the wall this way and there's a possibility that they were also held in a nearby place this was found now there should have been enough information available for those soldiers to hold their fire at that circumstances 30 seconds but it's hard to make that judgment when we look at this it's not a very clear writing but while saying this there were also a lot of booby trapped dolls speaking Hebrew and other ways to lure those warriors so it's not something that we can categorically say that a soldier wouldn't feel that he's being threatened to speak there'll be a thorough investigation of course on this Relics of Fear thank you for joining us on I-24 news Jonathan Regev I'll ask you please to stay with us because while we are through with our first hour