 We'll start off with the I-24 News Senior Correspondent, Oral Anturman Owen, with some breaking news. Yeah, Jacob, I know you've spoken about it over the course of the last hour, but the IDF spokesperson's unit, coming out with a statement that the bodies of two hostages were rescued in an operation that Jacob reportedly took place in retrieving them from underground, the bodies of Eddin Zakaria, a hostage who had been taken from the party, the rave party at Rahim, who, as far as we understand, had not been known to have been killed in captivity and had been thought to have been alive. And the second, another Ziv Dado, an Israeli soldier who had been understood to have been killed, to have been murdered, and have his body being taken in the Gaza Strip at any rate, those two bodies retrieved by the Israeli military. And, Jacob, in an unbelievable story, two soldiers fell in that operation, one of them, the son of the former chief of staff and current member of the War Cabinet, Gadi Aizenkot, his son Gail Aizenkot. Of course, the funeral happened a number of days ago, but he fell in this operation to retrieve those bodies, so completing the understanding of exactly what happened to him, another very Israeli moment, of course, in the middle of this horrific war. Right. How's the situation right there in the road where you are now? It's been relatively quiet, Jacob, over the last half hour or so. We've heard fewer booms in the background. Just after we spoke an hour ago, we saw flares in the sky over the northern Gaza Strip. Apparently, there may be one now as well. It would be a bit of a bizarre scene, of course, next to the Chanukia, the Chanukah Candle Abram, of course, the sixth night of Chanukah tonight, that you see over my shoulder, so a symbol of the ancient Jewish military victory, and also, of course, of the fighting ongoing in Gaza with the lights of the Chanukah Candles, and also the lights of the flares in the current war going off. No rockets have, no rocket sirens have sounded in steroids since around one o'clock local time, six hours ago, or for that matter in any of the southern communities, so it's been a relatively quiet half a day, but before that, an hour and a half before that rocket sirens went off in the city of Ashkelon to the north of here, there were four rockets shot out of the sky by the Iron Dome system and none fell. Sidroth is a city that has largely been evacuated, as you know, but driving around earlier on, we did see a family gathered outside their home, lighting those Chanukah Candles. Again, an emotional scene, Jacob, that you can see in a city such as this one. Right, Owen Alterman, thank you very much. Sidroth, live tonight. With me here in the studio is Gonad Ben-Itschak, formerly from Israel's Internal Security Service, Shabbat. Thank you very much for coming. Apparently, the idea of thought that the soldiers could rescue living hostages, that did not happen. I don't know what was the intelligence before the operation. I do think that bringing back live hostages as well as dead hostages is very, very important. It's important for the families, and I think that the fact that IDF is working to bring back the live and the dead is unique to Israel, and it's very important for the families to know that we will do everything to bring back our people. Right. Also joining us, Knesset member Shelly Talmeron from the opposition party yesterday. Let me ask you about the hostages situation in general. We have the families now marching on the Knesset, and you're coming from the Knesset right now. Did you see them on the way back? Well, I did see them on the way because I just left as soon as they started to walk to the Knesset. But yes, I know they're coming. Their message is clear. Free the hostages first, no matter, even just explain me saying no matter what's the cost. What do you say to that? I think the first thing that the State of Israel needs to do is to release the hostages. I don't think there is any price for these 138 people, people's lives. We need to bring them back. I'm so sorry for both families that just received this horrible message that their loved ones were killed, were murdered. But each person there is a whole world, and we need to do everything that we can to bring them back. This is a contract between a state and its citizens to protect them and to do anything in their power to bring them back home. So yes, we should bring them back home no matter what the price is. That might mean very tough decisions like maybe pulling out of Gaza in some sort of a deal right now. Everybody for everybody. All prisoners for all hostages. This is the kind of thing the families want to see. Well, you know, nobody's jealous of the people that have to make the decision. It's truly a very difficult decision to make. But I think that we should first and foremost take care of the hostages. And then we can continue with our military operation. We can defeat Hamas. We can eradicate Hamas. We can hunt hunt down all the the top of the Hamas people. But the hostages have no more time, you know, the clock is ticking. We see that every day that goes by, we have more and more people being killed there. So we need to do everything in our power to bring them back home as soon as possible. Time is running out. There is no Red Cross that's going in there and visiting them checking their medical situation. Are they receiving medical care? We have wounded people that we know that are wounded there. I'm not sure if they're eating anything. We've heard the evidence and the testimonies from within Gaza. The situation there is very complicated. We need to bring them home now. It's bad. So good man. Can Israel, can the Israeli leadership take decisions like that? We see that it's very hard for them to take the decision. I fully agree to the words and what the member of the Knesset said. We don't have time. I think that even today, when we hear the leaders, I heard the speech of Galant, and he said our mission is to destroy Hamas and bring back our people. No, the mission is to bring back our people. And then we have all the time in the world to defeat Hamas. We can do it. But first, we have the obligation to bring them back. And we don't have time. We don't have time. Everybody understands it. One of the hostages that their bodies were recovered, was alive when she was kidnapped. She was alive for a long time. She was murdered just recently. This is what's happening right now in Gaza. We need to bring them back. And then we can fight for Hamas. Member of the Knesset, your party is calling for the resignation and removal of the prime minister immediately. First of all, is this practical? Well, you know, politics is always complicated. And it's not black and white. There is a lot of gray area in between. And I think that we truly want what's the best thing for the state of Israel. And we think we need a new leadership. By the way, we offer to go into the government. You know, we were the first ones to offer to go to a white government. But we see how things are running right now. And we think we can do better than that. But I think the main thing to concentrate right now is winning this war, right? Bringing home the hostages first thing. Then eradicating Hamas, doing as much as possible within Gaza. And of course, up north, we shouldn't forget that we have people evacuated from their homes up north. And we need to have a safe zone in the north of Israel so that people can go back to live in their houses. Right now, it's impossible as we can see. Right. Gonen, you've been famous for being one of the leaders of the protest movement that is now on hold. Since the war began. When and if you see this coming back? It's a very hard decision. We feel that we need to go back to the streets. But it's very hard even for us. During the war, we have our families in Gaza. We have, you know, my nephew is now fighting in Gaza and others. People are still waiting for the hostages. It's very hard to do it. So all the time, you know, we want to go back. We feel that we need, we see what Netanyahu is doing, how he's behaving the last two months. But at this situation, it's really hard to decide when it's a right time to go back. But at a certain point it will come back. I think that naturally it will come back. Yes. Let me go to the UN. The UN General Assembly is planning to vote on ceasefire again. I-24 News senior US correspondent Mike Wagenheim is right there. Mike, what's the latest? There will be a vote coming up at 3 p.m. Eastern time. That's 10 p.m. Israel time on yet another resolution here from the UN. This will be the second one out of the General Assembly. This was floated by a number of Arab and Muslim countries on behalf of the Palestinians. What it calls for is an immediate ceasefire and the compliance of international humanitarian law by all parties involved in the conflict, unimpeded humanitarian aid access for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and also the immediate release of all of the hostages being held in this conflict. Now the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Israel Mansour told I-24 News and other journalists here in this area a little while ago that he and others pushing this resolution will not allow any politicized, as he put it, amendments to the resolution to pass. He's obviously directing that toward the Americans. The United States, which vetoed a Security Council resolution on this subject just on Friday, has floated an amendment to the UN General Assembly resolution today unequivocally condemning Hamas for their October 7th attacks. The resolution or the amendment rather similar to one that was floated last time around by the Canadians. Mansour is adamant that it will not be allowed to pass. The Austrians have also floated an amendment to the resolution today that notes that the hostages are being held by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. Mansour again adamant that that will not be allowed to pass. This resolution today has some 100 co-sponsors. Mansour says he expects that this resolution out of the General Assembly today in terms of the number of yes votes will surpass that of the one that was floated several weeks ago and which also passed by a very slim 60% majority. However, the United States is expected to vote against it and keep in mind all UN General Assembly resolutions, Jacob, are non-binding unlike those passed by the Security Council. Right. On a different issue, I want to ask you, Mike, any word from the administration regarding what's happening in Yemen with the Houthis taking over shapes over there, the Bab el-Mandib straight and so on? Well, there's certainly a consternation within the Biden administration. I assume that's the administration you're talking about there, but the Biden admin has been very, very reticent, very hesitant to take any sort of action other than striking empty buildings. They don't want to see this blow up into a regional conflagration at this point. They want to make sure that tensions are tamped down and they're willing essentially to simply bite it at this point, to bite the bullet and to not respond when otherwise they might do so. It's been the same with Iranian-backed strikes in Syria, in Iraq. They're simply not willing to respond in what would normally be considered a proportionate basis. So I don't really see anything differently here in terms of Yemen's actions. We've really seen no firm response from the Americans, and I would assume that would continue, at least on the short-term basis. The U.S. just really has it did right now to focus on anything other than the immediate Israel-Khamas conflict. Alright. 824 News, Mike Wagenheim at the U.N. Thank you very much, Mike. From New York, back to the studio Knesset member Shirley Talmeron, I'm going to ask you about the relationships with the United States, obviously the U.N. vetoes and so on by the United States. But there might be a friction down the road and Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking today possibly about some differences about the future of Gaza. Yes. Well, I have to first of all say something about what we've just heard because I think the U.N.'s, well, let's call it behavior during these past two months is absolutely outrageous. And I'm talking not only about the resolutions that they were calling for. I'm also directing my anger, yes, towards U.N. women. I have to say one word about this because it's absolutely astonishing that the U.N. women did not condemn for one second what happened to the Israeli women on October 7th. We issued a letter for them from the Israeli members of the Knesset asking them to condemn it. They ignored the letter. They didn't even respond. And last week they took out some sort of a week response saying something. And, you know, we had women who were raped, who were sexually assaulted, who were violated, who mutilated. It was horrible. And all the women organizations around the world just ignored this situation. It's very disappointing. And I'm an activist for women's rights. I'm within the women's rights committee in the Knesset. And I do many things for women's rights before the war, yes. And we're very disappointed with this whole lack of condemning this situation for the past two months. So I have to say one word about that. In regards to the Biden administration, you know, I think we've seen the wonderful support that we've got from the United States for the state of Israel for the past two months. And I'm not sure what happened within the discussion between the Prime Minister and President Biden. But I think what we should keep in mind that this is our closest and most important ally. And we should take that into consideration when we make decisions. Right. Well, I think it's pretty clear what happened. I mean, the Americans are pushing for the Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza. They see a two-state solution down the road. And Netanyahu is basically campaigning now to get his base against the Palestinian state, wouldn't you say? Yeah, you know, Netanyahu that in Bailan talked about a speech he talked about the two-state solution. But then all his time in as the Prime Minister tried to kill this idea now is talking to his base. Basically, he's doing exactly what he did in 2015. In 2015, he went against President Obama with Iranian nuclear deal, not taking anything that is important for Israel, like maybe getting Syria clear of Iranians, just because he knew that soon he's going to elections. And now he's doing the same. He's talking to his base. You know, he started this war. And in the beginning, I said in this studio, we need to understand what are the goals of the war to destroy Hamas. Okay, it's something all of us want. But someone needs to take care of, needs to take the responsibility to Gaza. Who is going to take responsibility? Egypt will never take responsibility. I don't see Qatar taking responsibility and I don't think that we want Qatar to take responsibility. So basically, what we have is the PA. The PA is not perfect. And there are things that we need to make sure that will be better in the PA. And guess what? As we speak, I see a quote from President Biden saying Netanyahu should change his government. They are losing support because the bombings, careless bombings. That's interesting. We'll get to see what exactly what our President Biden said. Maybe it's a quote from the conversation between the two of them. But something is happening, definitely. And we see the coalition that Netanyahu has. We see who are the people that are sitting there. These are not people that will help the situation, the international situation of Israel, or find a solution in the end of the war. Right. Yeah, well, we definitely follow that and see what happens. With us now is Haisan Hassanen from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thank you very much for joining us. Let me ask you regarding this UN discussion today. Why is it Egypt pushing the resolution at the UN? Thanks for having me, Jacob. Egypt is concerned with the situation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. And this is why it's demanding a humanitarian ceasefire. Egypt sees as the war continues in the southern part of the strip clashes between Israel and Hamas are likely to get more tense. And Egypt worries if this will come at the expense of more civilians who will try to flee to avoid the war zone. And it's Egypt's worst nightmare if they stand by its borders. Since day one of the conflict, this has been a huge concern for Egypt. Egypt is trying to prevent a spillover to its territory. And this is for two reasons. It argues that once they get into one's Palestinian, displaced Palestinians get into some night, they want going back and it sites as a second magba. Two worries about operatives from Hamas and other radical groups would infiltrate its territory by opposing as civilian refugees. And then in the future, they could use the Egyptian territory to attack Israel. And if Israel responds back, this would be embarrassing to Cairo in front of its power. Is there any influence on the fact that we're in the middle of elections in Egypt? Maybe things will be a little different or more or bolder after General Assisi is reelected? The situation will continue to be the same. Actually, part of President Assisi's campaign was to utilize his military background compared to other presidential candidates. And this is why the Egyptian public was mobilized around him because he's the only one who comes from military background. And in such regional times, the Egyptian public likes to have a leader who comes from the military establishment, makes them feel secure. And President Assisi played on that. He was meeting with his military advisors on a regular basis. This was devised. He visited military sites. He went to military exercises. And all of this to show the public that he is the right man for the moment. What is exactly Egypt's goal with Gaza? What would Egypt like to see there, in your opinion? A few things. One, establish a unified Palestinian leadership in Gaza and the West Bank. And the invasion, this shall be done under a Palestinian authority, Ember El-Lah. Caius sees the lift over from Amas shall join this group. Two, they would like to have lots of external financial support to reconstruct the damaged trip. Three, resumption of peace process talks to reach a two-state solution. And finally, work toward demilitarized Palestinian state. With as President Assisi said with guarantees from NATO, Arab forces, the United States or any other international forces. But what is a lot about leaving a vacuum in the Gaza Strip to counter insurgency groups, which we start to see a little bit now when aides are entering the Strip and you see militants with their guns and rifles are stealing that from civilians in Gaza. So, and Hamas will still be considered in Egypt as a terrorist organization. Yes, the regime sees it that way. But obviously now publicly in the country, it is not depicted that way anymore because Egypt is worried about police Palestinians coming into its territory. So it's doing a public mobilization campaign against Israel. And for the sake of this campaign to succeed, they are playing down that Hamas is a terrorist organization. All right. Thank you. Now back to the families of the hostages live to you, Pia. Right, Jacob. Well, it is a very, very special atmosphere. Here this evening, there is a lot of anger, frustration. People here demand a diplomatic deal to bring about the quick release of all of the remaining hostages. Not only a few short while ago, the death of 20-year-old Eden Zacharia was announced, a young woman that was believed to be held hostage in Gaza. The idea of just announced that they retrieved her body, which of course people here, it adds to their mourning, it adds to their sadness, and it adds to them urging that a release a deal needs to be brought about now. I'm here with Efrat Machikoso, you are a family member of Gadim Mosul and you came here to the governmental area here this evening to demand what exactly do you demand at this point? It has been too long and we have no more time. Our families, our community members are dying out there. There isn't any time and we're calling upon our prime minister and the government to stop everything they're doing and to get back to negotiation, to bring everybody back home. There isn't time to say there isn't time. It's time to bring them back as they're dying slowly out there in the cold and in the dark. We are here with my, the picture of my uncle Gadim Moses, who is actually the first picture on this huge tractor that was first to come. He is an agronomist, a specialist in growing potatoes and he was actually the mentor of the driver who was driving the first tractor. We're very proud of him. He has saved many, many thousand, maybe tens of thousands of lives around the world in four continents and it's time for us to save him and all the rest. So the government should understand no ego gains, no tricks of trying to softly talk to us. It's time for action. We will not be as proud as we were before October 7th without our people back home. It's enough with the war. We want them first home and then they can decide whatever they need to decide to protect the country but they cannot protect the country without bringing them back home first. It's time to bring them back. Do you have the feeling that your demands are heard that your voices are heard? You made the way to Jerusalem. Is there any answer? Well, the reason we're here is because we're not being heard and I think that two weeks of this fierce fighting has proved wrong. They're not here and we're so, we're losing so many wonderful young men out there in the war and we're probably, as we understand from the testimonies, we're risking the others and it's time to think differently. We are in 2023. It's time to be creative. It's time to think of the value of life and we need them back alive. Can you maybe, last question, tell us a little bit about your uncle. What kind of person, what kind of person is he? Gadi is the most adorable person. He is the one to always help the first. He is a lovable. He has the most wonderful smile as you can see is very kind and you know he is that kind and believes in people that he was actually when the terrorist came into his house. He was with his wife and her daughters and grandchildren and then he decided to actually protect them and go out and talk to the terrorist. He was hoping that was a human connection. He will be able to talk some sense into their minds but he did not realize they did not come for anything but their lives. He was taken and we have no idea where he is or how he is. He isn't young is going to celebrate 80 in March. Together with him are his friends. There are about 13 elderlies. No one, but especially not the elderlies can take it anymore. As I said it's time to bring them home. We demand our Prime Minister to remember life comes first and he should bring them back. Hoping for a quick release of all of the hostages. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. This is the sentiment here Jacob this evening to bring all of the hostages back today not tomorrow. Thank you very much. Thank you Knesset member Shalik Talbiron you have to leave and we'll keep talking in another opportunity. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much. We'll take a break now and we'll be right back with more special coverage and some breaking news from Washington when President Biden says Israeli government should change in a moment. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where he is. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Later on special coverage here on I-24 News with me in the studio is Gonan Ben-Itschak formerly from Israel's internal security service Shabak. Shabak should know well you're not in service right now but at least what are the plans of the Hezbollah in the north and Hassan Asrallah they had of this organization because they cannot stay on the border for long that's for sure right? Yeah and we say that Israel is trying hard to find the diplomatic solution to the situation in the north. Israel doesn't want to open another front at least not now. The problem is that the last few days we see retaliation with the Hezbollah launching missiles and drones to Israel and it seems like Nasrallah is playing with fire maybe trying to push or somehow to try and weaken Israel in the north while Israel is getting deeper the southern part of the Gaza Strip we always say that Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran right now I don't know if Iran has the initiative to start a war in Lebanon but it seems like Hezbollah is saying we are not going to withdraw we are not going to to do anything there is a resolution 1701 they don't care about it and they show they will retaliate the situation right now we spoke before about the U.S.-Israeli relationships and obviously the United States is pressing Israel not to escalate things over there on the other hand the ability of Israeli public and the Israeli government to get more and more attacks like we see every day this is going to end pretty soon so it's either going to be a political serious political movement war and war and we need to add that the population that used to live in the area of the border was evacuated so Gantz sorry Gallant said a few days ago maybe a week ago something about the fact that we changed the situation in the north and soon they will go back right now they can't go back I think that everybody realizes that Gallant realizes that and they will need either to face the fact that those people are not going to go back or to find some solution you know I saw a video that was taken by someone that lives in a Moshev on the border of Lebanon in Moshev Dovev and he actually filmed Radoan force militias on the border but when we say on the border people maybe think that we have border no it's in his backyard over the fence it's over the fence this is his backyard in this situation people are not going back to live in Dovev or anywhere else in the border and this is a big challenge for the Israeli government all right let's go to the Gulf Qatar vows to keep funding Hamas while Israel is vowing to annihilate Hamas as a terrorist organization yet Qatar and Israel are still negotiating a hostage deal this is reality in the Middle East Bastien Boris in Dubai Bastien what's the latest on what you hear on this triangle of Israel Hamas Egypt and Qatar it's more than a triangle well basically Qatar said that they would be pursuing the funding of Hamas and it's definitely for Qatar a way of saying that Israel has always backed these these payments and this has been extensively proven and sometimes even acknowledged publicly in the past by Israeli officials themselves and these statements are not a not a century old let's remember what Benny Gones used to say when he used to recognize the positive role of the Qataris and was very happy that they were the ones taking out the checkbook promising and actually spending billions of dollars for the Palestinians for their infrastructure their hospitals education system and so on and not only in Gaza but also in the in the West Bank so from Qatar's point of view all these accusations directed against them by Benjamin Netanyahu and his prime minister Ali Cohen since the start of this war about the funding of Hamas are in fact in a way or an attempt to to unite the Israeli people and its attention around an external enemy who would allegedly be behind the October 7 attacks in Doha's view it is a way for the Israeli leadership to simply deflect blame but the Qataris are also aware that this case is taking a political turn in Israel and is being co-opted by Netanyahu's opponents notably former prime minister Naftali Bennett members of the Israeli defense establishment and the Israeli intelligence community as well so to avoid weakening Israel's leadership the Qataris are not responding to these accusations any fierce way they're simply stating that they will continue to do what they've pretty much always been allowed to do right there are reports that Qatar also funded the military arm of Hamas directly how exactly is Qatar sending all this money all these transfers began five years ago in 2018 after a deal that was approved by the Israeli security cabinet at first it was literally suitcases of cash crossing the borders but from 2021 onwards Naftali Bennett stopped the suitcase cash transfers which then became bank transfers some of them went into workers' pockets and some indeed into Hamas' pockets and what about the other Gulf countries how they look at this at this Qatar activity well for all the Gulf countries that Hamas is in fact pretty important it is in these countries interest to manage the Palestinian group because it allows these countries to assert themselves as intermediaries and as stabilizers in the region it is a role that makes them prosperous because it allows them to maintain excellent relations with the US and this means investments in the Gulf countries including Qatar advanced military equipment sold by the Americans and their geopolitical interests supported by Washington just take the example of Hamas' representative office in Doha it wasn't opened by the Qataris and the Palestinians on the slide it was the Americans who told Qatar to allow Hamas to set up on its soil because Washington needed to establish more concrete contacts with Gaza via the Qataris and I'll just finish by saying that all this is also shows that the relations between Gulf countries who haven't signed any Abrahamal courts with Israel namely Qatar these relations are non-official but they still do exist and they are very opportunistic in the sense that they are highly mutually beneficial from a political standpoint all right Bestian Bari thank you very much in Dubai and now we are joined by Hossein Abdul Hossein from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies thank you very much let me ask you about Qatar why does Qatar keep supporting Hamas what's in it for them? Well two things number one loves the spotlight and loves to be in the news all the time and they think that by doing so that we as to be mediators and broker deals number two this is part of the long-term policy of Qatar they support everything that's Islamist or pertains to political Islam and this includes things that people usually think are trivial and don't think of so for example part of the soft power campaign that Qatar sponsors is the re-islamization of Al-Andal Hossein so anywhere that you can see Islamization or or political Islam spreading this is sponsoring political Islam and Hamas of course is an Islamist organization you will find Qatar sponsoring and funding these kinds of movements and how does the Saudis look at that? Well the Saudis are out of the political Islam business they've been out for almost a decade they're changing their country they're transforming their country both socially and economically from a country that used to rely on oil rent to a country that seeks to become one that's dependent on the knowledge economy a services economy and to do that they have to become global they have to to stick to universal standards and Islamism doesn't really serve so the Saudis have abandoned this this line of thinking a long time ago and the Qataris have picked up the tab and they're not willing to give it up it seems all right Hossein Abdul-Hossein thank you very much for that thank you back to the studio here with Gonen Ben-Itschak I know you're a political animal so I have to ask you here because we're getting these quotes by President Biden it's all over Israeli media right now breaking news Biden says Netanyahu will have to change his government namely to get the extremist out he says that Netanyahu cannot object to a Palestinian state in the future and somehow in between says that Israel will lose support because of indiscriminate bombings of Gaza which is a shift from everything we've heard so far from the United States well where are we heading to you know we used to think that Netanyahu because he started in the U.S. and he basically was raising the U.S. that he's the one that really understands America but we see for a long time that Netanyahu either doesn't understand America or doesn't care about America you know this time we saw that President Biden is if I may say a Zionist you know he came to Israel during the war he sent the Secretary of State several times to take part in the war cabinet I don't think that we ever had the president American president that supported Israel that much even if Netanyahu thinks differently I think the way the unpolite way that he expressed his thoughts about the future of the PA and the future of Fegaza this is something you don't do and especially you don't do with such a president and you know when Americans don't like you or don't like the way you act usually they find the ways to show it sometimes they do it more politely this time I think President Biden felt that he needs to show the border to Netanyahu yeah also quite a few officials are on the way to Israel in the coming days including Secretary of Defense and others and this is the first time we are seeing really a rift an open one between the President and President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister and especially when when it seemed like I would say America is running the show at least in the beginning the feeling was that Israeli government lost control of what's happening and the United States was so worried about the situation this is why they sent Secretary of State to look deep in what's happening we know that there was an American pressure to add guns to the coalition and now this is a big shift in the American I don't know if it's a policy but at least what they say publicly and this shortened the time that Israel can can still keep the war going in Gaza yeah it's definitely open open pressure by the President maybe the Americans are sensing that Netanyahu is politically weak this time even though the opposition and the protest movement are stepping aside right now what opposition we have an opposition yeah opposition she was here Knesset member of the opposition saying yeah we're not doing opposition stuff during wars well remember how Netanyahu was in opposition to Bennett Lepid government and how he acted when they had an operation in Gaza I don't say that we need not all not all opponents are the same all right for this way right definitely all right definitely back to the southern part of Israel Kibbutz Bayeri one of the communities most devastated on October 7th is also home to one of Israel's largest largest printing houses with hardly any members living there the place is back to work and here's more in the next report Igalsh Itrit has lived and worked in Bayeri for several decades but on October 7th everything changed those are the members of the Kibbutz that they used to work in the print and were murdered part of the more than 90 people that were murdered on the 7th of October of Saturday we have here people that I know for more than 40 years part of them are from my class in the Kibbutz part of them I worked with for over 25 years at the bottom we have the picture of Yossi Sharabi which is he is abducted with his brother Eli Sharabi and the last person to be added to this wall is Saar Baruch may rest in peace we heard about it on Saturday Igalsh Itrit's former classmate include Gil Bouyum who was murdered with his son and Oron Birra was killed with his wife and two children including his daughter Tahir also an employee of the company in all almost 90 people from Kibbutz Be'eri were killed including children but barely a week after the October 7th massacres the printing works resumed its activities I want to tell you something about Itzhak Bakhar he is 80 years old he comes to work every day from Yama Melach to Be'eri he just the last person that was added to the wall is Saar Baruch he is his grandson his wife was murdered on the Saturday the 7th his other grandson was murdered on the Saturday of the 7th of October and Itzhak comes every day to work this is a story of of strength of belief of belief of everything that means Kibbutz Be'eri Otfuz Be'eri look at this person it's amazing Natasha Cohen also works at the printing works she and her family have lived on Kibbutz Be'eri for 32 years on October 7th when the numerous rocket alerts began to sound around 6 30 a.m her husband was out walking the dog within minutes we heard a motorcycle and I looked at my husband I said to him oh dear it must be um from the party they probably ran in a way to you know look for shelter tell them to come in so he went right up to the fence and had a look and as it came by so I was busy trying to calm my dog down so I didn't see them because the fence is you know about this time and then he said to me it's terrorists I saw two terrorists on a motorcycle with machine guns and I looked at him and I thought I said you know you couldn't fathom terrorists it sounds crazy you know who rockets we used to not terrorists Natasha and her family were very lucky because she lives only a few meters from the attacked neighborhood and the terrorists saw her husband Natasha's family had to stay in the safe room from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. that horrible feeling of sitting in your safety room when friends are shouting for help and screaming to help and you you got this useless feeling you can't do anything about it just reading the messages and trying to you know call for help and we were waiting you know for the army to come in time goes by when you realize the arm is not coming in and your friends are shouting for help and there's nothing you can do you realize there's a big problem because if the arm is not here something's definitely gone wrong several employees of the printing works is accounting department were murdered on October 7 Natasha who was in charge of the Kibbutz finances resumed her work at the printing works a few weeks ago first remotely and then a few days ago on site having decided to move back I didn't think I'd ever come back to bury thinking to myself how could I ever come back to a place where I wouldn't feel safer again but within a very short time after that you start getting angry and you think they've taken everything they've ripped everything under your feet you know taken your security your friends family members taking my home away from me as well because we were basically fugitives in our own country and I think it was the anger of you know the humiliation of me not having my own home and them trying to take that from me as well is what it made me decide to come back the print house started to work on the second week I think second week after the October 7th because of two things two main things one it's vital for us for us all it's a show of normalcy in a time that there's no normalcy we don't even have the language to describe what happened to us after the 7th of October what you see here it's not less than amazing beyond the strength and resilience as I said before it's a beacon most of the employees that are working on day to day they're not from the kibbutz now they're from all over the area and they come on daily basis because it's a it's part of their lives it's their second home the berri printing works founded in 1950 is the largest in israel it employs 350 people it is here that a huge number of official documents including credit cards checkbooks and driver's licenses are printed for the whole country miraculously the printing works was hardly touched by the terrorists however bullet holes can be seen here and there especially on windows but also on this tv set a little further along the kibbutz's pathways are destroyed houses as far as the eye can see among them eagles on october 7th he was not there with emotion he shows us what's left of what he calls his fortress this is our home most of us plan to come back when it's be available other people won't be able to come back emotionally this home berri suffered on the 7th of october suffered a lot and i believe from this suffering will have growth a hope imprinted in every kibbutz resident yeah the spirit of berri now good evening to yuda krupka hello what are you doing here you came all the way from new york to israel to do what to volunteer and to help out where we can mostly with the refugees and you know with farming or wherever we can help so will we so i came with the masa program the destination israel and there's 19 of us 20 of us now and we're the first group that came and we're from all over the world so i'm staying with people so i'm from new york but there are people from brazil france costa rica all over new zealand oh so it's literally all the all corners of the earth that are coming here what do you do you wake up in the morning again so depending on the day so two days a week we do a group thing so we can go collecting to farms that need help and to collect fruit and then three days a week we get to choose a specific location so i chose logistics and so i'll be starting logistics on thursday and so a lot of people chose sar el which is helping out on the army bases i think and then some people are going to be doing like cooking food for refugees yeah you get any reaction from back home yeah i mean people have been highly encouraging i've gotten a lot of people who are just wishing that they could be there i know that mass has gotten a lot a lot of inquiries about doing this and i actually one of my friends told me about this and that's how i found out about it and so i think mostly people are just really really jealous that of the chance to be able to come here and help so people want to come people want to come yeah yeah to help everybody just wants to help somehow yeah so you're from new york and new york and in other places you see a rise of anti-semitism you feel that over there yeah so tell me a little bit about your experiences as a Jewish person in New York sure i've grown up in New York so i like i'm no stranger to anti-semitism in New York i think it just happens but yeah going to the rallies it's you know we went to rallies after october 7th to show support and it's gone a little bit scarier i know that i wear a kippah for the first time in my life i've i've questioned whether i should wear a kippah you know all the time is it you're feeling danger yeah um it worked yeah for the first time it's uncomfortable a little bit yeah um what do we do about that i think we keep speaking out about it right and holding people accountable yeah are you active on social media and stuff like that as much as like you know some i post social media i i follow some people from here as well from israel uh yeah some people from israel and you got a reaction any anything for what on social media and so to to me coming here yes so i have i actually like met there are so many different people from different walks of life who have been so encouraging so um i actually with um with maso we went um a bunch of us went to the the hostage square and they were explaining to us about the yellow ribbons and how yellow ribbons are a show of support for for those who were taken and i posted about it on social media and this christian woman that i met two years ago once messaged me to say that she had tied yellow ribbons around all of her trees outside she lives in texas so i you know and she she just wanted everyone to know that she she was with us also so that was really beautiful is this your first time in israel no no you're you're familiar with that i've come a couple times these circumstances no i've never been here during during the war so yeah sirens did you uh yeah a couple sirens yeah looks looks how does it look to you i guess it's normal we get used to it pretty normally we were sitting outside yesterday and we heard a loud bang and we were sitting with them someone from the middle way and she said oh it's it's fine it it went into the water that's why they like the sirens didn't even ring and everybody's like okay that's that's normal i guess but then we laughed about it because it's not normal but i guess you know people get used to it so your family back home is getting crazy they're they're nervous but they're not too nervous you know i have a i have a family that lives here also so so you have great stories to tell yeah exactly it's all about the stories and when you meet israelis what what's your impression of them these are very tense days he went to the hostages square and all the people are very tense it's it's not the normal israelis what's your impression honestly it's been like really moving and kind of beautiful the the aftas the the unity is amazing and then also just the interactions with people when they know that we've come to help and just it's just been like you know like when you meet sometimes like you meet another Jew and in the middle of like you know Asia or something and it's like you feel this kinship you know and here i just feel it like everywhere there's just this tremendous kinship and like aftas unity yeah they feel like they have to tell you what's going on to explain to you to to make it look right i don't know if they feel the need to do that for us but i know that there are plenty of people that are trying to do that yeah on social media but with us i think there's more just a talking of like how we feel and all right you done thank you very much sure yeah it's my pleasure good work thank you thank you and stay tuned for more special coverage here night 24 years with Kalev Mendovid shortly meanwhile have a good night from Tel Aviv 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 line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well criticize very badly about the southern part of my state and some of the southern parts of the country when 35 years ago i said you don't have to be a jew to be a zionist and i'm a zionist you to be a zionist hannock is a timeless story of miracles think about it welcome to this special broadcast on night 24 news i'm Kalev Mendovid it is day 67 of israel's war against Hamas and IDF forces are engaged in battle on multiple fronts in the main Gaza theater heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists in both the northern half of the strip as mopping up operations continue in such areas as jubai and zaytun while troops continue to push on in khanunis the main urban area in southern Gaza the IDF also announcing the recovery during a operation of two the bodies of two israelis who were taken hostage in Gaza edin zakaria 27 who was taken captive at the nova music festival and zev daddo 36 who served in the golani brigades may their memories be a blessing this leaves 135 confirmed hostages in Gaza meanwhile in northern israel his bala continues to launch rockets drones and anti-weapon anti-tank weapons across the border as the IDF responds with airstrikes on targets in lebanon linked to the iran-backed terror movement and in the west bank the IDF launching a counter-terror operation taking up four militants in a drone strike in the hotbed city of jeneen meanwhile open signs of disagreement emerging now between us president joe biden and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu primarily on the post war fate of gaza we'll have more on that later but first let's go to a correspondent zack andis who's in northern israel just by the lebanese bought in zack another day more attacks from his bala some now directed against some of those civilian communities there along the lebanese border and clef the idf says that's the purpose for the evacuation notice for these communities because they are still under threat today for attacks from hezbollah and this is coming through both hezbollah sources and the idf as many as four attacks one of them taking place on a community in the western galley it does appear that the homes that were struck were struck by atgm's just by the images that are available publicly these punctures to the walls in the side of the buildings are very small which is characteristic with these atgm's armor piercing missiles they're designed to first penetrate whatever the object is that they're shooting at and then explode once they're inside they're designed for tanks they're designed to penetrate thick layers of steel and then explode so you can imagine the damage inside the homes as they then detonate this four attacks do not appear to have caused any injuries the idf has not released any information regarding injuries to their soldiers unlike in the last several days when several suffered shrapnel wounds and smoke inhalation injuries so it does appear to be a day where there were no injuries we do not know the fate of some of the hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon as the idf retaliated with airstrikes with that outgoing artillery sometimes even with tank fire if they're within a line of sight of some of the hezbollah forces that are operating in the south today hezbollah says as many as 100 of their fighters have been killed since october 7th this of course has not been independently confirmed this is an estimate that is still being investigated by many of the watchdogs the united nations one of the interesting points is that the idf says that the hezbollah was firing from near a un compound and that the idf retaliatory strike caused damage to that un compound the un confirmed this is still the big question though how many un staffers were in the area what the facility was currently being used for because many of the non-essential personnel have left southern Lebanon for their safety and for the anticipating that the fighting here is as intense as it has become so that's the question that the united nations has yet to release a statement for or answer questions too about the size and scope of their operations and very well could be that this facility did not have full-time un staffers inside the building as the idf retaliated it's one of those things that still has yet to be seen right and as well as using those kind of facilities as their own cover but we'll address those issues later zackand is in the north thank you for that and joining us in studio now reserves idf lieutenant colonel jonathan cornwijk is international spokesperson for the idf and our correspondent robert swift jonathan i want to start with the news of the recovery of two bodies of hostages in the Gaza Strip recovered in an idf operation reportedly a costly one what can you tell us about that well the idf continues to execute this mission it's a mission that will take a lot of time to complete but we continue relentlessly to collect intelligence to piece together different sources of information in order to get our hostages back obviously we prefer a result where we're able to save live hostages in this case unfortunately our soldiers were only able to get back the bodies of a civilian and a dead Israeli was that based on intelligence that there might be live hostages being held and therefore that's what sparks that kind of operation yeah i can speak about this specific okay the details in general of course we assess that there are live hostages being held and we of course do everything that we can on the ground yesterday the head of the Shabbat was on the ground in Chanyounis together with the chief of staff they are focusing a lot of the human intelligence sources and other types of intel on exactly getting to the places where our hostages are being held it is an effort of paramount importance it is extremely sensitive but no efforts are spared in order to get these people back all right we're starting by the way live images now of the flares over on our screens of flares going up over I guess northern Gaza indication operation still going and fierce fighting still in north Gaza how long does the idea of estimated might take to in a sense pacify that area so that there isn't they're not facing any action in their rear guard as it starts to concentrate in the south and especially Chanyounis it's important to understand the nature of fighting in urban terrain and we know this and other militaries that are fought in a densely populated urban terrain with terrorists embedded within the infrastructure we know that you can advance take control over an area and the moment you leave it it may be repopulated retaken by the enemy they may reemerge using tunnels or other infrastructure that they may have and that is part of how the lay of the land is so we understand that that is the case and that's why we haven't been declaring that we are done with operations northern Gaza is not totally finished yet there are still live terrorists there are still terrorist capabilities and we are still attacking them systematically I'd say that on the ground what we're doing is working ground units infantry armor and combat engineers with a lot of aerial support and the images that we're seeing is exactly of those circles of fire that are being closed very quickly ground units using air cover and then taking out terrorists whenever they emerge from their tunnels right let's turn to the north now another active day of fire there as Zach Am is reported direct anti-tank fire on a Kibbutz bar arm on a whole civilian home as he mentioned those communities have been evacuated but a gas and a feeling of some of concern among the communities there we had the mayor of Matula saying at one point he couldn't survey damage done to his community right on the border because it's just not safe there and a lot of questions about whether is Israel sacrificing some of its deterrence factor in the north against his baller while it has to be engaged in the south the chief of staff was up there a few days ago Lieutenant General Herzi Alevi and he had very clear messages towards the Israeli public and towards his baller to the Israelis he said we will not be asking you to return to your homes in this current situation that is unsafe and that will not happen and of course he left unsaid how the IDF exactly will address it will it be done solely with kinetic means or will there be other solutions that will be used that's part of that is for the IDF to say and part of that is for the government I want to explain I'm just a background he's saying a kinetic means you're talking about potential potential diplomacy reports of the United States getting involved Amos Hoxie and the a special the French as well trying to reach some kind of at least temporary diplomatic solution we should mention with the Lebanese government not with his baller itself but an arrangement that would involve his baller because he also said that the first solution that Israel seeks isn't usually to use force we will use force and we will use a lot of force if we are left with no other options and this will be the only option to safeguard our civilians right war is diplomacy by other means as it was at von Klauer it's like that von Klauer said that well we've talked about the South let's go down to our own ultimate who is there in still wrote near the Gaza border and the main news coming out of Gaza this evening oh in the recovery of two bodies two hostages young woman who was taken at the Nova Music Festival and a some a man serving in the IDF Golani Brigades but again while a sign as Israel progresses in Gaza and makes these progressives both in the north and then into south we're going to see and get more reports unfortunately like this one yeah that's right Kalev obviously a risk taken in order to recover those two bodies based on intelligence that the military had gotten one of the two at in Zakaria a partier from the rave in Reim had not been thought to have been killed but sadly that is her fate and her body recovered and brought back to Israel the second one Ziv Dado as you mentioned Kalev a soldier had been understood to have been killed with his body in the strip had already been declared dead and now his body recovered and of course two soldiers fell in that operation one of them Gala Eisenkott the son of Gadi Eisenkott a former IDF chief of staff member of the work cabinet Kalev of course besides funeral a number of days ago and obviously an emotional event and a meaningful one here in Israel we now know the full story of exactly how Gal fell as well as that other soldier as well in the meantime here in Sterot over the course of the last number of hours from time to time hearing the booms in the air whether that be artillery whether that be air strikes by the air force over my shoulders we've often seen flares in the air those yellow lights lighting up the battlefield Kalev a reminder for all of us that the battles are not only happening in the southern Gaza strip for all of the attention lavished on Kanyunis but also lots of fighting in many parts of the northern strip including potentially in Bate Hanyun not far from where we're standing here in Sterot also a relatively quiet day so far in terms of rocket fire at least over the course of the last half day here in southern Israel the last sirens having gone off at one o'clock local time just about seven hours seven hours ago here in Sterot a number of hours before that sirens having gone off in Ashkelon to the north four rockets shot out of the sky by the iron dome defense system and none ununfalling the meantime Sterot is a city that's been largely evacuated so shops and businesses are closed people have long left the city because of its proximity to the Gaza strip but Kalev we did see a family gathered outside its home earlier on just before sunset getting ready to light Chanukah candles the sixth night of Chanukah you know of course see the reminder behind me that Chanukia the Chanukah candle Abram here at the intersection right by the way oh and the name of the other soldier who fell in that operation you mentioned was Ayel Maia Berkowitz we should mention him as well as long as with the sacrifice unfortunately as we mentioned the chief of staff losing his son and his nephew also would another fight fierce fighting still going on other soldiers being killed there unfortunately there in the Gaza strip Owen Altman thank you for that I want to just pick up on go back to the north for a minute because Jonathan touched on the search for a potential diplomatic solution Robert we're hearing these reports as I mentioned the U.S. France trying to do something though very quickly that hasn't been successfully done really is since I guess 20 years since over 24 years when Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon which has resolved what are outstanding border issues with Lebanon with the Lebanese government in order to have come to an arrangement and see those his ball of forces pulled back as they should have been under resolution 1701 following the second Lebanon war in the 20 in 2007 that's right I mean there's a lot of parties that are very keen for a diplomatic solution to be achieved but the main point is the fact that at the end of the day his ball itself has to acquiesce for the negotiations to really to have any achievement at the minute it's not clear if they are likely to want to go down that route so far they have appeared not to be overly eager to become involved in a protracted conflict in a full conflict with Israel and that's that's why we've essentially seen these skirmishes going on since the very beginning of the war without it going anywhere but there are as you say a lot of different parties the French the Americans the Israelis themselves are interested in achieving some sort of diplomatic solution I think one of the major factors that comes into this is the friction between Israel and the United States as to how long the war can continue and be how long it can how wide it can expand the US has been very clear that it doesn't want to see this expand into a larger campaign but Israel has also made it clear that it has communities on the northern border that can no longer live with the status quo that those communities are essentially depopulated and something has to change they can't go back to the way things were I want to ask you Jonathan we did see just the other day a report from the north new concrete structures being put along some of those roads that run right by the Lebanese border presumably stopping maybe some of that anti tank fire for example maybe sniper fire but of course his ball of militants or other terrorists they can also just fire mortars across those barriers so the question is it may give an illusion of safety seeing a 20 foot concrete barrier by a road but maybe a false illusion and that's really not a an answer to the concerns of those residents up there and they're just the people visiting up there as well yeah I think that we are way past illusions of walls providing security let's be clear just as your colleague mentioned that just as was said here the reality in the north is one that Israel cannot live with and that Israeli civilians cannot endure and whatever happens in the south of Israel in the area around Gaza we understand that the situation up north must change now it will either change using force or some other creative solution hopefully will be found if it isn't then we're still back at square one where we understand that no amount of defensive obstacles be it walls or sensors or fences or concrete will provide the the basic level of security needed for Israeli civilians and therefore we may have to resort to using more violence now let's be clear these aren't just small skirmishes Hezbollah has been firing very substantial parts of its massive arsenal of weapons not still very deep into Israel but they've used rockets and mortars right and they paid a price over a hundred fighters but the IDF and Israel has also paid a price in the lives of soldiers and civilians in the north but in terms of aggression we would be Israel would be well within its right to declare war on Hezbollah if that is what the cabinet would want to do because we have been fired upon continuously by Hezbollah and at the end of the day Lebanon will pay a price for that we hope that we can avoid that but if it comes to that where we will we will be forced to take matters into our own hands in order to protect Israeli civilians then the IDF is definitely ready and committed to doing so right and certainly though that would be a dramatic escalation that would probably have regional implications even international implications as well Jonathan stay with us Robert I will go back to of course the issue of the hostages today the families of those hostages in Gaza marched up to Jerusalem and rallied at the Knesset demanding more action from the government and the world to free their loved ones Piaz Dekobach was with them and she filed this report from there Our hearts are hostage in Gaza this is the main slogan that people here are shouting they're saying bring everyone back now as you can see there are dozens and dozens of people who have come to the governmental complex next to the Israeli parliament the Knesset this evening they have let up torches it is the holiday of Hanukkah but they have been lighting up those torches for the hostages the 107 people that are still being kept in Gaza there are messages to bring everyone each and everyone back now and they really want to make room to their voice be here next to the prime minister's office next to Benjamin Netanyahu's office to say we need a deal now we need a political solution now the Israeli military establishment is under the impression that they can apply military pressure in order to bring about the release but these people here they do want a political deal rather today than tomorrow they are saying that each day that is going bi-majorly in dangers their loved ones so they have assembled here tonight to really create a sense of community to make their voices heard and to really make their voices heard especially to the politicians that are located here again this is the governmental complex here in Jerusalem they also built up a stage where they will have speeches later by family members there is music playing now and this is a very very special atmosphere here more than 60 days into this war more than 60 days of people being in Gaza without any notice from them of course incredibly difficult for those families but these events that are organized by the family forum are of course there to create a sense of community a sense of action for these people to have the feeling that they can actually do something to maybe bring about the release of their loved ones that are still being held in Gaza and the message is really they're not going to stop until the last hostage is freed and the hostage family is making their voice heard Jonathan's comes amid reports of other hostage deals being taken up supposedly the US and Qatar still speaking still trying to make an arrangement talking about now one that would free one figure 300 Palestinian security prisoners in release for certainly women and the elderly still the young people still being held these are essentially political decisions but there is a security element here especially if we start moving into the area of freeing terrorist figures with blood on the hands people who are even leaders of terrorist factions not just from Gaza but the West Bank as well so I'm going to have the IDF what would what it would be their input in that kind of situation on the ground level and then we'll speak about what's said in meeting rooms on the ground with the IDF together with the ISA with the Shabak is doing is applying relentless pressure on Hamas on their commanders on their centers in order to find hostages and get them out and that's very important that there's continuous tactical pressure on Hamas that they don't have time to breathe reorganize and that they feel hunted and constantly under pressure and this I we think is something of a motivator for Hamas to give up hostages second level in meeting rooms then the IDF of course presents its professional assessment of what is a good component or an agreeable component to any proposal any deal made I won't go into details exactly the IDF says but the IDF is of course part of it and up until now the voice of the IDF has been represented and heard and taken into account in each and every step all right and as I said before another factor that has to be taken it'd be the impact in places like the West Bank for some of these figures significant terrorist leaders or terrorist figures being returned to the West Bank we did see still a hotbed we saw a this action in Janine it's not unprecedented by now for there to be airstrikes in the West Bank and in Janine but it's still not a common occurrence we saw the idea for probably using drone UAV to take out terrorist cells in Janine what is the state of the situation there especially in the West Bank especially in Janine itself yeah you're right it's not the first time but it is rare to use aerial assets but since a few months back we have used fixed wing rotary wing and attack helicopters against terrorist targets the level of audacity and violence from their part grows and the level of sophistication the threat towards our forces on the ground is growing and in response we're using other assets that we haven't used so so much in our counter-terrorism efforts in Judea and Samaria yet the situation in Janine is I think escalating at a steady pace we see continued presence and a continued escalation of efforts both by Hamas by the Islamic Jihad and other smaller factions to target Israeli communities to target the IDF and quick and relentless IDF efforts to undermine their system to keep pressure on the commanders and to arrest senior Hamas leaders and Islamic Jihad leaders before they're able to execute attacks there's many red sirens blaring in terms of attempts coming out of Janine most of them do not come into fruition because the perpetrators are caught or arrested before preemptively we're talking about more than 2000 Palestinian terrorists that have been apprehended in Judea and Samaria since October the 7th about 1200 of them affiliated with Hamas so very substantial numbers as you said correctly before October the 7th it wasn't that if as if the situation was quiet there no not at all we're in more than two years of continuous high intensity operations on a local scale there specifically in Janine but not only and at the end of the day we continue the general modus operandi is to preempt any attempt to kill Israeli civilians to invade into Israeli communities to replicate any of the things that we saw on October the 7th from Gaza and of course to undermine the infrastructure of Hamas and it comes to operatives weapons storage facilities and their financial capability right i'm just going to also note to Hamas today calling on the Palestinian authority to rise up in Revolta not unusual for Hamas to call on the Palestinians the population but directly addressing its rival the Palestinian authority maybe an indication of some of that stress that Hamas is feeling now in Gaza and they need they want to try to relieve some of that by as you said making sort of bringing the West Bank to a boil and that's going to be not the first time they've been calling on the people in Judea and Samaria to rise up they've been doing this for a year and a half too with great effort since October the 7th so far people on the street Palestinians have been voting with their feet and deciding no thanks Hamas we see what that has brought upon Gaza we don't want that in our homes we have things to lose and we're not going to be pawns in your game but that could of course change and we are vigilant and prepared in in advance all right Jonathan Conriquez Lieutenant will stay with us Robert Swift we are going out for a brief break but we have lots more coming up on this special broadcast we'll be back in just a few minutes here on I-24 News The I-24 News channel Broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries completely sundown in their best De la frontière qui sépare Israel the state of emergency and war in Israel Bringing Israel's story to the world On I-24 News while the White House held its annual Hanukkah lighting ceremony last night and President Biden of course used the occasion to express U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas but he also gave voices some of the tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over the course and direction of the conflict Your ship I've known Bebe for now 51 years He has a picture on his desk of he and I when he was a young member of the Israeli service here Foreign Service and I was a 32-year-old senator and I wrote on the top of Bebe I don't even remember the damn thing you had to say It's about the same today I'm low on that Tough spot Tough spot We continue to provide military assistance in Israel until they get rid of Hamas But we have to be careful They have to be careful The whole world's public opinion can shift overnight We can't let that happen Well, for while, let's go to our senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim in New York or at the UN actually Mike, President Biden recalling past disagreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu last night but reports coming out just in the past hour about some other disagreements present-day disagreements between President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden apparently being quite frank about it Frank is an understatement talking at a campaign event to about 100 donors which was hosted by former APAC president Lee Rosenberg Biden said that Netanyahu needs to change the complexion of his government get rid of what he calls the extremist the hard right-wing element of his coalition he says it's causing Netanyahu and Israel in terms of international support as is what he deemed to be quote-unquote indiscriminate bombing that has taken place in Gaza over the course of Israel's military operation Biden also saying that Netanyahu cannot close the door to a two-state solution which the Americans have been pushing more and more as the conflict here between Israel and Hamas has been waged not obviously today but sometimes soon down the road certainly in a post-Hamas a world here so these are some of the most critical comments that have come out of Biden certainly during this military operation but maybe overall in the course of his presidency here I'm not really sure how much Netanyahu ditching the hard right element of his coalition and bringing in the more moderate elements of Israeli politics would really make a dent in terms of international support however Biden certainly sees it that way and it'll be interesting here in the coming hours to see the response probably not from Netanyahu directly but certainly from the Likud Party and other elements of his coalition here in terms of the American president putting his nose deeply into the realm of internal Israeli politics Mike some of that Biden's comments may reflect perhaps some frustration more less on the course of the war than on these supposed discussions on the day after in Gaza in which we know there are differences between the the Biden administration and Netanyahu government and we Jake Sullivan of National Security Advisor heading to Israel this week supposedly to also discuss that issue and that also especially the role of the Palestinian Authority in any post war Gaza arrangement Yeah, but I think it's a misunderstanding of Israeli politics for Biden to feel that Netanyahu and listen there's no doubt Netanyahu is hung out to dry and really hung up politically by the hard right element of his coalition on any number of matters but when it comes to a post-Khamas world if Biden is of the understanding that a year Lepid or another centrist within the Israeli government is going to see things differently and welcome in the UN or welcome in the Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza post-Khamas I think he's in for a rude awakening if it ever got to that point I don't think when it comes to that particular there are lots of things that Lepid and Itamar Ben-Vir and Betzela Smatratz disagree on we could go on endlessly about it but in terms of who's going to rule a post-Khamas Gaza and the progress toward a two-state solution and the immediate aftermath I don't think there's much difference honestly between Lepid and Ben-Vir as to how they actually see it how they say it there's a big difference but how they actually see it not so sure there's that much of a difference well how they say it may be a big part of that because that is a part in the diplomacy there meanwhile Mike you're at the United Nations UN not letting up and it's relentless let's say assault on Israel UNGA meeting for an emergency meeting and panel that's going to meet at the UN to discuss Israeli genocide against the residents of Gaza there there's no end to it at the UN yeah those panels are usually brought up by independent missions and not necessarily the UN itself so any mission can feel free to take whatever conference room they want for any given agenda item that's not so much the story here but certainly the UN General Assembly holding yet another emergency special session or at least resuming the last one and a vote expected shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern time today 10 p.m. Israel time on a ceasefire resolution that's been put up by many of the Arab and Muslim countries the big test here is not whether the resolution is going to pass and by the way it calls for an immediate ceasefire calls for the compliance by all parties involved in the conflict to comply with humanitarian law and international humanitarian assistance provisions it also calls for the release of all the hostages being held not so much is it going to pass because the last resolution by the General Assembly passed though by a razor thin margin it's how many countries that either said no last time or abstained on the matter are going to turn into a yes vote this time and there are some indications even from some European countries that stayed away from the last General Assembly resolution that they will support this one Riyad Mansour the Palestinian authority envoy to the UN noted to reporters earlier today that he's really wanting to see those no votes or those abstentions turn into yes votes to send a message to Washington that they in his words can't serve as a cover for Israel anymore in terms of the Israel Hamas conflict right and we've seen a prime minister Netanyahu this week direct comments publicly against such European leaders as the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the French president Manu Macron taking issue with their in stances their shifting stances on the Israeli offensive against Hamas Mike Wagon at the United Nations thank you for that still with us reserves IDF Lieutenant Jonathan Conriquez international spokesman for the ID spokesperson for the IDF and correspondent Robert Swift Jonathan I don't expect you to comment on political matters some of which we discuss and the differences between the US and Israel but one issue that has come up which IDF is responsible for the flow of humanitarian aid in Taghaza speaking of the UN the IDF it's a branch that deals with civilian matters in Gaza criticizing the United Nations saying it's not doing enough to get humanitarian aid into Gaza including using the Israeli conduit of the Karen Shalva Shalva Shalom crossing which has just reopened indeed so in you know there are two issues that have been mentioned by various senior American officials one is civilian casualty the second is humanitarian aid and they're of course linked together we do listen Israel listens the IDF listens and we're trying to take act we're not trying we're taking active measures in order to bring more goods into Gaza and to make sure that those goods indeed get to those that need them not to Hamas that Hamas won't steal it and take it away to their tunnels and the fighters but that it actually reaches those that are supposed to are entitled to get that aid and secondly and as you said Karen Shalom is now open for the first day well Jonathan I'm just going to interrupt you because so we do have some breaking news from the northern border let's go to a correspondent Zach Anders and Zach some firing there in the north just in the past few minutes on apparently yeah and we're still working to put together some of these details it does appear that Syria launched three separate rockets to the IDF for saying fell inside Syria the third the IDF says fell in open area so we can only piece together that perhaps that means it was inside Israeli territory we're still working to confirm some of these details does not appear that there was damage but the IDF saying that they are retaliating inside Syria where these points of origin where whoever is responsible was firing from inside Syria so if it's anything like the last week we could be seen strikes deep within the country and the IDF employing the use of the air force the IAF to strike some of these targets over sovereign Syrian airspace all right Zach Anders in north thank you for that Jonathan Sachs saying pointing out we don't know who was firing them but there are other there are Hezbollah other Iranian linked militias from there but this is this is firing from the from the sovereign territory of the nation of Syria so that is that is Syrian fire indeed it is Syrian fire I don't know yet I can't establish who fired if it was an Iranian proxy Hezbollah the Syrian military or anybody else there's a number of armed factions but the responsibility rests on the Syrian regime and we will retaliate against whoever fired at us and it's not the first time that rockets and missiles are fired from Syrian soil towards Israel after October the 7th then each time we retaliate against the sources of fire and sometimes beyond that whatever is related and in this specific incident we'll see how heavy the Iranian fingerprints are in this specific case and then we will decide accordingly where when and how to retaliate all right and I do want to let you give a chance so we were discussing the flow of humanitarian aid into Israel and today rather than it being and that's just always as usual the UN criticizing Israel the IDF on that issue it's the IDF and Israel criticizing the UN for its role in that humanitarian effort because so many people around the world don't understand what's going on if we zoom out for a second Israel has been trying to evacuate civilians from the battlefield three weeks before our maneuver in northern Gaza started that's the best possible way of not killing civilians is having them out of the battlefield that's the safest you can be the first pushback we got was no that can't be done and you mustn't ask civilians to move from their homes and then we respond well if we want to keep them safe and we know that the enemy uses them as human shields and wants them in the battle space then we have a joint interest here humanitarian organizations and the IDF should jointly help people temporarily relocate out of the battlefield so that they could be safer in a certain area what we have been very disappointed to see is that we haven't been getting that any level of sufficient support from many organizations who publicly criticize Israel while on the ground instead of helping they're actually facilitating the continued control of Hamas over the Gaza Strip Can I ask you which organizations could you be specific UNRA to be front and center this organization is the second largest employer in the Gaza Strip and we think that according to their mandate they should be doing more when it comes to helping us save civilians and we go back to American statements we definitely listened to guidance and advice and experience from coming from the U.S. and from other friends and allies around the world we want civilians to be out of the battlefield and the best way to keep civilians safe is to have them evacuate temporarily and it could have been done in a much better way the humanitarian zone that we designated northwest of Chanyunas in the Muassi could have been up ready furnished and equipping all of the temporarily displaced Palestinians or at least many of them with proper shelter food, medicine and housing for a short period of time instead what we're having now is extremely complex situation on the ground which could have been avoided lots of aid coming in but people instead of having them in the temporary internal wait a minute Daniel Higari the IDF spokesperson has started his briefing let's take a listen to that Erev Tov Good evening Gufot Em bodies of Eden Zechariah Ziv Dado and Ziv Dado to Israeli hostages may they rest in peace were rescued by IDF forces from Gaza territory to Israeli territory Eden 27 year old was kidnapped from the festival music festival in Reim Ziv was kidnapped as part of his service in Dikolani brigade the bodies of the two were transferred to pathological examination at the institute here in Israeli at the health ministry we are sharing our condolences with the families and hugging them in this dark hour of them as part of the rescue operation Gal Aizen Kot were killed in combat two heroes of Israel who lost their life during persistent fight against Hamas we remember all the time that 135 hostages who were kidnapped on October 7th as well as Adah Oron, Nisham and Abela are all still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip we will continue to operate alongside the security establishment and all our means our operational intelligence means to bring back the hostages back home and the and those who were murdered to burial here in Israel this is a national mission of top priority the fighting and Hamas strongholds continue with all the force and Chanyunis, Jibalia, Sajeyi above and underground as we can see in the communications from the battlefield this is a complex complex fighting against Hamas terrorists that are getting out of the tunnels we are locating them and we kill them our troops are confronting terrorists face to face countering them and killing them this is what we're doing this is what we will continue to do in Hamas's main strongholds every such confrontation is a professional confrontation that ends with the victory of IDF troops we will continue to carry ourselves ourselves with such professionality in all Hamas strongholds across the Strip the fighting on the northern border continues and we are targeting Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon in light of the continued fire of Hezbollah from within southern Lebanon towards Israel Hezbollah is risking Lebanese soil this is a terror activity and we will react to any such Hezbollah or other terror organization we will react forcefully to any such action terror action from Lebanon the red alert siren in the city of Acre was operated was heard off due to the activity of Iron Dome reservists are fighting for the sake of all of us we would like to send our sincere getitude to them from here to their families from here their wives their parents their children you are the source of power to all of them to all of us we know these are difficult days for the families and we will do whatever it takes to go back home as soon as possible the fighting is on the ground by these troops albeit difficult our our paramount to Israel's security and we owe them much gratitude President Biden said that Israel is losing global support due to the extensive air attacks in the strip what is the Israeli response we are conducting engaging in close cooperation with the U.S. nearly daily conversation including the commander of Sandcom and the idea of chief of staff here with all the American officials these conversations with all the top officials including those who arrived here and will be arriving here in Israel in the near future and these conversations are crucial because all of us are facing those threats in the Middle East we are seeing what is happening with the Houthi activity orchestrated or guided by Iran we're seeing the activity of Iran elsewhere in Iraq in Syria we're seeing the activity of Hezbollah this regional discussion discourse we must we must conduct with our closest ally the U.S. and it is also important that we continue to show them with proof with documentation how we operate with precise measures all based on on intelligence that is obtained and we know how to operate against or in Hamas strongholds with the outmost attempt to separate between the civilian population and Hamas terrorists we're doing it throughout the war and we're doing it now in recent days even more so and we are able to show the proof the evidence that we're doing so the public in Israel was informed tonight on the retrieval of two bodies was that the objective in the first in the first place this operation happened in the Jabalia area and in the frameworks of counterterrorism activities and and dismantling Hamas there was also this operation as I illustrated cooperative intelligence and other abilities and then we shouldn't say more than that such operations should also have security and guards and the lives of these two hero soldiers they were part of this envelope power force rather guarding this operation they were part of this mission this is part of the idea mission to counter terrorism and in any location that we will have the ability the option the chance to bring back home live or dead Israeli hostages we will do whatever we can to do so and the ground operation is facilitating that now a brief statement in English because of the issue of the hostages and it is important that the international community will hear that to share an update on Israel's war on Hamas and our hostage rescue effort IDF special forces recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages during a complex hostage rescue operation in Gaza 27 year old Ed and Zecharia who was taken hostage by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival and 36 year old command sergeant major Ziv Dado who was taken hostage while on active duty sadly we did not reach them in time we send our heartfelt condolences to their families our special forces located the bodies of the hostage inside an underground infrastructure in a densely populated area in Gaza Hamas is holding our people hostage in brutal conditions while hiding among and under the people of Gaza among and under the people of Gaza this makes our hostage rescue operation in Gaza complex but it will not deter us from our mission our duty to rescue our hostages from Hamas our hostage rescue operation will continue for as long as necessary until all our hostages are home for 67 days women men children and babies have been in Hamas captivity in brutal and inhumane conditions the red cross must urgently gain access to our hostages the hostages in Hamas captivity aren't just Israelis they're citizens of the United States the United Kingdom Canada Germany Russia Brazil Ukraine Argentina and other countries freeing our hostages from Hamas is a global fight the taking of hostages is a crime against humanity Hamas is blocking the red cross from visiting the hostages this is cruel and inhumane Hamas is a barbaric terror group those who claim to value human life must speak out in every forum even today until every hostage is home thank you and then we here just heard IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari speaking in English which he does from time to time in this case speaks specifically discussing the recovery of the two bodies of hostages in Gaza and Robert this is some of the dilemma being faced by the government and the IDF the pressure to release hostages if they can't be freed by military means to come to a deal but of course those military means a great risk both for the hostages themselves but also for those trying to carry it out and we know that was a course he didn't want to Daniel Goy did not want to address it but we know that there were soldiers that lost their lives trying to recover those bodies yeah this is the the nub of the dilemma it has been since the beginning of the war it is extremely difficult to at the same time threaten Hamas with as much force as possible whilst maintaining the lives of those hostages that the Israeli public are so desperate to see returned the fact that Higari speaking in English there I think that points to the fact that the IDF and the Israeli government are both aware of the fact that the diplomatic the PR battle is very much part of this Israel wants to maintain this ability to keep fighting and it knows that speaking in English to a wider public than just Israeli public is part of that so that it can do what it feels it needs to which is to apply pressure to Hamas in order to get them to come to the table if that is to be the well let's ask Jonathan about that because as this diplomatic pressure is coming on Israel even now from the United States when it comes to civilian casualties we discussed humanitarian aid Daniel Higari at Pains using English to remind the world this is why we're fighting in Gaza right now well we're fighting because of two main issues one is that we cannot allow the reality that existed before October the 7th ever to be the reality again and two because there are still 135 Israeli hostages held these are the two main goals that the IDF has been tasked to deliver on by the Israeli government that that is what the IDF is busy doing and I agree yes media and the public perception of things are very important and we our actions on the ground have to of course be echoed and synchronized with our activities and our information to the world it's not enough that we do things on the ground as in safeguard civilians warn them get them out of Han's way or deliver humanitarian aid it also has to be seen and we know that people around the world have sometimes have a tendency of having a short memory and that is where we have to remind people what we are fighting about what this is about and the fact that Hamas still holds our civilians inside Gaza still doesn't allow for the Red Cross to come and visit them and it continues to violate everything that is supposed to be holy on the battlefield right and on that note just news out of Washington the general Mark Milley the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US confirming that's I'm sorry no wasn't Mark Milley but there was confirmation that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be coming to Israel next week and Lloyd Austin has been a little critical publicly even of Israel in terms of the issue of the