 here in Israel under cold static live in Tel Aviv it's been 20 days since Hamas's full-scale attack on Israel after a 12-hour long red alert sirens lairs through southern Israel as Mosfars a heavy barrage of rockets from Gaza this following an IDF targeted raid overnight in the northern Gaza Strip sending infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists all preparing the area for the next stage of the war meanwhile Israel is keeping an eye on the north as well with Hezbollah announcing two more members killed by IDF strikes in southern Lebanon bringing the total number of Hezbollah terrorists killed since October 7th to 46th this as the IDF confirms the number of hostages held captive by Hamas is 224 the Israeli military continues to make contact with more families of those kidnapped Israel prepares for the next stage of the war the Givati Brigade executed a ground raid using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip they have taken down terrorists and destroyed terror infrastructure this is part of our readiness for the next stages of the war in the northern front over the next day we took down five squads of Hezbollah attempted to fire towards our territory they were eliminated in their movement towards firing and this is how we'll continue to operate aggressively against anyone who attempts to place a threat against us we'll find us determined we have given notices to families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 kidnapped persons this information continues to change according to the intelligence information that we have as we look at the latest developments on the ground here in Israel I want to cross to our correspondent piaz deco back who's live now in northern Israel pia what exactly can you tell us we're in the 20th day now what's happening up there near the northern border right nicole I want to bring to your attention that we're in one of those border communities very very close to the Lebanese border about two kilometers the Lebanese border is right behind me and this is one of the many communities that have been evacuated over the course of the last two weeks as the skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel and the missiles fired from southern Lebanon has just become too dangerous for the civilians here what is left here in this community is those who are guarding the entrance at the entrance at the entrance gate here making sure that all the families here indeed are evacuated and just keeping an eye on what is happening here throughout the night another missile launched from southern Lebanon into Israel southern Lebanon here right behind us you might even see the border wall over there and the Israeli military base there watching all the developments we're talking about a ground to air missile that was intercepted last night when it was fired from southern Lebanon into Israel that comes after four more rockets were launched yesterday in the afternoon hours onto the area towards the area of Kiryat Shmon in the eastern side of the border Israel striking after these type of incidents striking toward the origin of that fire Hezbollah has just announced that two more of its operatives were killed bringing the number up to 46 that comes in addition to Palestinian members of organizations also operating in southern Lebanon as we're not lonely talking about the danger of rocket launches or of the shelling with mortar missiles we're also talking about the very real fear of infiltration attempts here we've just spoken to one of the security guards here this is also what they're looking out for infiltration attempts that we have already seen you over the course of the past two weeks smaller squads tying to launch missiles and also trying to infiltrate into Israeli territory and this is also why areas like this one why villages like this one are completely emptied out of civilians there is only military movement here you can see on the streets some of these areas have also been declared a close military zone so no civilian movement in many areas here that are that close to the Lebanese border Nicole of course about it p.s. Deckelback at just one of those northern communities that has been asked to evacuate as the situation continues to develop up there thank you I want to bring in our guests in studio now I'm joined by professor Uzi Arabi director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East studies at Tel Aviv University and senior researcher at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University as well as I-24 News correspondent and senior editor Guy Azriel professor Robby I want to begin with you as we just spoke to our correspondent Pia up near the north the continued threat that we see from Hezbollah now claiming 46 of their members have been killed since the start of this war so as we focus on the south Israel also definitely preparing for the increased threat from the north always actually this is a kind of a bitter lesson that we have learned and while focusing on Gaza and this is not it's going to be kind of a very very difficult test to grapple with at the same time Israel has to prepare itself with the worst case scenario that Iran slash Hezbollah front is going actually to come in flower which means kind of all around war I myself think that at this moment Hezbollah actually has built up sort of a mini war that corresponds with what Nasrallah depicted as the war in Galilee it is a limited war and this is a teach for that for the time being but it could easily could easily goes to the slippery slope of becoming much more a greater war and this is kind of a challenge we know that Hamas would why for that because for Hamas this would be kind of a lifeline because this is the multi-front confrontation until now it is not being fulfilled and we'll have to wait and see in any case Israel is should be on the alert because once the ground attack is there this is kind of a different opera and that by itself might actually change the modest operandi of players in the end of the day I would say just a bottom line Hezbollah actually is practicing the art of fan sitting because Israel rightly came up with the equation of if Hezbollah gets into kind of a full-out war Lebanon will pay the price and that would result in a kind of a total destruction and to add to what professor Robby said here we're just hearing now from the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for Saint Salami he says if the Zionist will open a ground offensive in Gaza they will be swallowed if the enemies think that the Muslims will watch these crimes from the side there are harshly wrong so just another example of those very clear they're not even hinted threats of wanting to engage in this war should Israel go ahead with this operation and it continues just to show I mean we saw a picture yesterday of the three meetings of the three leaders Hamas Hezbollah and the Palestinians what Iran is trying to do to capitalize on the atmosphere from the flame in the Muslim world and the Arab world not only the Palestinians and this is something that Israel has to take into account because when we are there and we don't have any other choice in my opinion we should actually find kind of a modus operandi by which to better cope with the tsunami that is going actually to be seen when it comes to Arab states and Muslim world and also the credit we do enjoy from when it comes to the international public opinion this is also something that would be put under sort of a question mark with the time when you have so much Western support especially as Iran clearly states their goals that that if they do get involved I hate to say that it's beneficial to Israel in a sense but it shows all these Western allies the United States continuing to show their support because to them the main threat is Iran definitely and this is something that Israel has to hold Hamas is equal to ISIS we should not actually let it go because this is the thing that makes the free world thinks of what we are going through in a different you know proportion takes it in in in kind of an attitude that would be fit to Israel interest meanwhile we're also just learning more about the intelligence that happened Iran even training Hamas militants terrorists to prepare for this attack yes the Wall Street Journal yesterday reporting that some 500 members of Hamas and Islamic jihad have received specialized combat training in Iran last month by the Quds force of the IRGC and of course it goes together with Israel's claims and accusations and as we see that is no surprise that Iran is very actively involved in the planning and the execution and the training and the ammunition we've seen I think I hate to say it but it has taken Israel by surprise as well the the amount and the types of ammunition that we've seen from these terror operatives during this attack including drones on on Israeli tanks and on other infrastructure of the IDF a really combined attack that has really shown that the IDF was off guard actually cynically use Arab proxies in Arab failed states they couldn't care less about the Palestinians believe me but this was planned I'm not saying actually the nitty gritty details of the attack that might I'm not sure about that but the Iranians had an interest in humping the normalization process between Israel and Saudi Arabia they they thought that this is something that could be actually preventive I want to come back to this point later before we actually go to the ground when we're talking about everything that's happening in southern Israel the preparation for this attack that's where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is right now in southern Israel near the Gaza border Pierre we continue to see even rockets fired from the Gaza Strip red alert sirening throughout southern Israel in this these morning hours now right and it's the usual pattern at around 10 11 a.m. local time Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas start launching rockets onto Israeli territory usually they start with the localities that are close to the Gaza border and then they extend their rocket fire as in order to match maybe Israel's repost response against those rocket fire but now we are in Ashkelon earlier we win a nash dode and there is a striking difference between Ashkelon and they wrote because because the there is some sort of abnormal normal situation here Ashkelon has been the city that has been the hardest hit in the world declared about Hamas on Israel and look there is a coffee shop here people are sitting at coffee tables there are there is a dire situation in Ashkelon because over a thousand one hundred rockets were launched from Gaza onto Ashkelon here we have 30 seconds and yet because it's not in the seven killing kilometer perimeter to the Gaza Strip Ashkelon doesn't have for instance mobile shelters like in Israel you don't have here anything to protect you so we've been told by the residents we have 30 seconds to run to the staircase over there inside that building there should be a protective shelter now on the other hand 40,000 people simply do not have any shelter because their apartment buildings are too old in addition 30,000 people have a protective shelter but in the staircase it's a collective shelter the rest of the population of 160,000 of the city do have a protective shelter but that means that 40% of the city faces a difficult predicament especially because Ashkelon again has been the most hard hit city in the southern and northern front together so there is no way to evacuate everybody in one go simply because there's no not enough hotel rooms already over 120,000 according to certain reports some other reports are saying 200,000 residents of the southern and northern front have been evacuated only the hotel that are part of the Israel Hotel Association have opened their doors there are many hotels that do not belong that are not part of that association they haven't opened their door so the municipalities frantically contacting those hotels contacting Airbnb apartment owners contacting summer camps dorms families that are ready to open their door to people to families in order to evacuate at least 30 to 40% of the population so if in Zderot you have a ghost city where 90% of the population has left and those who remained have decided to remain here in Ashkelon you face a dire predicament because most of the people if they don't have the wherewithal to evacuate themselves without help of the government simply stay in that city it really is such a difficult situation for so many of those residents are correspondent PR Kloschenler reporting from southern Israel thank you for your coverage now I'm joined via zoom now by Iran Doron mayor of Ramat Hanegev regional council joining us via zoom from all night Hanegev thank you so much for joining us we were just speaking to our correspondent in southern Israel talking about so many people who have been able to evacuate so far I know many from your area as well 200,000 from southern Israel and northern Israel having to evacuate being displaced right now I have to imagine that's incredibly incredibly difficult for your community my community is the belt is the belt around the surrounding the communities that were attacked and what we're doing now is basically we're taking many of those communities and we're basically absorbing them into our own communities we met and we hear terrible stories I just came back from one of the community that the that that was distracted that was demolished no houses you still see the blood all over the place and it's something that it's really it's it's hard to describe it and and I just can't tell you that the the magnitude of this of this event is so big that I and I've been to the Lebanon war I've been to many events I never saw such a thing and the people that came you look at their eyes and and and you see that the the the the crisis the crisis of everything everything that they trusted all the things that they lived for all their amazing community that they developed everything is now and shut down and and it's really hard to see it we will make sure that those people that survived and it will get the best treatment it's hard because unfortunately things are not that organized yet but we are doing our best to make sure that those people will get as much as possible support mental support emotional support and of course physical support because people as nothing people were left with that with nothing Aaron you bring up such a great point just the trauma the physical the emotional toll that it's taken on so many people in these southern Israeli communities we're talking about how they now evacuated defense former defense minister Benny Gantz even saying that it could be up to a year before they're able to return to their homes but I want to talk to you about once they do return to their homes in southern Israel how do they get past this trauma and regain confidence in Israeli security that something like this will never happen again that's a very good question and it should be approached to the leaders of the IDF that didn't do what they were supposed to do and the crisis of trust that the residents the people of the community has it can't be fixed we have to say it clear it can't be fixed and everyone says and in in our communities everyone says that if there will be a chance that there will be another another alarm another alert another alarm anything like this people will just not come back people will not come back and we continue to hear about the government the Israeli IDF need to make sure that they're giving them solution not we're hearing actually from one of those solutions right now hopefully Aaron Doron I'm sorry to cut you off but we're hearing right now that speaking of former defense minister Benny Gantz he's giving an address let's let's take a listen we strengthen the defense in the waters we over the past two weeks we operate day and night in uncompromising efforts to maintain the moral duty to bring back our sons and daughters we do so with every possible mean that we have bringing back the kidnap and the hostages is part of the operational effort we maintain the effort for legitimate see in the world working with our allies including the US and we make the decisions only according to our wide interests the operation will now will soon enter the next stages and greater strength I meet the commanders every day I hear the Patriots who left their homes in the north in the south I meet the children who do not have schools I speak to business owners who are affected and of course I visit and I hug the families of the fallen of the those murdered and those missing and kidnapped our hearts are with them all the time I wish to tell you despite the difficult opening conditions we must we cannot remain we must think of those heroes the civil society is being shown with its full strength when I hear from all parts of the society that we must win I know with full faith that this will be indeed it is important for me to say we as leadership are aware of the difficulties of the extension of the war on all of us I promise you that the only criteria is winning changing the strategic situation in the south and bringing back the kidnapped all of this while continuing our offensive and defensive operation in the other arenas fulfilling these goals will not only be a result of a ground maneuver but also of a multiple effort with redesigning the region and the fight against Gaza will continue everywhere and every given every needed time in order to ensure the security of the communities that will return and we will be rebuilt the maneuver is only one stage of a longer stage that includes major political and social changes that would last years people of Israel today we were supposed to commemorate in heart Mount Herzl 28 years to the murder of former Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin divvim kehol shiyyum only we will defend ourselves and every Jew after our tears state stands and a right and powerful force is standing I wish to tell you that the risk of elimination will not be on us but on those who wish to exterminate us beyond the tears we see the bravery and the heroism from that we will rebuild with force and right when this is over the world would know that the people of Israel are one a question hearing from Minister Benny Gantz addressing the public about the entire situation as we are in the 20th day of the war here in Israel meanwhile as Israel prepares for that ground operation in Gaza Gaza residents continue to be urged to flee the northern border meanwhile one Gaza residents spoke to the IDF and told them Hamas is preventing them from evacuating south here's the recording I want you to take a listen this is just one example of mass continuing to use their own civilian as human shields we know that Hamas their number one protection right now is their civilians and how they are using them to their advantage now I want to note something when we're speaking about the civilian issue I think how Hamas has utilized these civilians to pull out this entire attack in the first place it's important to notice the maps the terrorist maps that they have targeting these different communities Kaboots is how did they get those guy it's I think one of the biggest tragedies of this attack the fact that so many Israelis so many civilians on the border communities have for such a long time hosted thousands of Gaza residents in their homes allowing them to work in their communities we've saw anyone who lives in the south sees used to see until two three weeks ago thousands of Gazans who entered Israel every day to work Israelis given them that work in order in a hope for a better future for the people of Gaza in hope for coexistence these people have led them into their homes I can personally say that I had a dozen men working in my home just a month ago this was the daily reality of the coexistence and Israel as extended the number of dozens that are allowed to enter Israel every day to 20,000 before this attack the very sad reality was that many of them use this opportunity to get intelligence for the Hamas attack they came with maps knowing exactly how many people live in each house even in which houses they host weapons they knew the communities so well in such detail I think the tragedy among all the other tragedies is they lost of trust now for these communities they wanted better future for these people and now that hope is lost that's it Robbie we're going out for a break but I want to hear your input before we leave well listen I mean this is Hamas basically you see what's going on there Sharia Salah Salah al-Din road is one of the main actually roads in Gaza one of two where actually people could just go or move from the north to the south they would like them actually to stay on even if actually we have to say 700,000 something like that already moved they are gathering them around Shifa which is the main headquarter of Hamas's hospital but you know this is the beginning of the Gaza metro the city there and this is it Israel has to be very very blunt and very very strict while explaining to the international community and this should be kind of international campaign being actually supported or corroborated by people of the low here and there these people who are gathering around Shifa should be according to the laws of war should be depicted or defined as supporters of Hamas and Israel cannot actually stay on I mean I am sorry for whatever actually the consequences are going to be for innocent citizens but Israel has to just make everything in order to be prevented to prevent itself from that but after having noted everybody that this could be the coast Hamas is cynically used this is he is kind of a monster in that look at the usage he is doing with so vicious a trend with the with the kidney piece so we have that kind of a thing and we have to just find a way to deal with that in that's the most difficult part when it comes to this professor Uzi Rabi along with Guy Azriel thank you for breaking all of these latest developments down as the war continues into its 20th day here in Israel we're rolling coverage of the war here in Israel I'm the whole static live in Tel Aviv it's been 20 days since Hamas's full-scale attack on Israel after a 12-hour long red alert sirens layers through southern Israel as Hamas fires a heavy barrage of rockets from Gaza this following an IDF targeted raid overnight in the northern Gaza Strip sending infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists all preparing the area for the next stage of the war meanwhile Israel is keeping an eye on the north as well with Hezbollah announcing two more members killed by IDF strikes in southern Lebanon bringing the total number of Hezbollah terrorists killed since October 7th to 46th this as the IDF confirms the number of hostages held captive by Hamas it's 224 the Israeli military continues to make contact with more families of those kidnapped and Israel prepares for the next stage of the war the Givati Brigade executed a ground raid using tanks in the north then Gaza Strip they have taken down terrorists and destroyed terror infrastructure this is part of our readiness for the next stages of the war in the northern front over the next day we took down five squads of Hezbollah who attempted to fire towards our territory they were eliminated in their movement towards firing and this is how we'll continue to operate aggressively against anyone who attempts to place a threat against us we'll find us determined we have given notices to families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 kidnapped persons this information continues to change according to the intelligence information that we have as we look at the latest developments on the ground here in Israel I want to cross to our correspondent Piaz Stechelback who's live now in northern Israel Piaz what exactly can you tell us we're in the 20th day now what's happening up there near the northern border right Nikol I want to bring to your attention that we're in one of those border communities very very close to the Lebanese border about two kilometers the Lebanese border is right behind me and this is one of the many communities that have been evacuated over the course of the last two weeks as the skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel and the missiles fired from southern Lebanon has just become too dangerous for the civilians here what is left here in this community is those who are guarding the entrance at the entrance at the entrance gate here making sure that all the families here indeed are evacuated and just keeping an eye on what is happening here throughout the night another missile launched from southern Lebanon into Israel southern Lebanon here right behind us you might even see the border wall over there in the Israeli military base they're watching all the developments we're talking about a ground to air missile that was intercepted last night when it was fired from southern Lebanon into Israel that comes after four more rockets were launched yesterday in the afternoon hours onto the area towards the area of Kiryat Shmon in the eastern side of the border Israel striking after these type of incidents striking toward the origin of that fire Hezbollah has just announced that two more of its operatives were killed bringing the number up to 46 that comes in addition to Palestinian members of organizations also operating in southern Lebanon as we're not only talking about the danger of rocket launches or of the shelling with mortar missiles we're also talking about the very real fear of infiltration attempts here we've just spoken to one of the security guards here this is also what they're looking out for infiltration attempts that we have already seen you over the course of the past two weeks smaller squads tying to launch missiles and also tying to infiltrate into Israeli territory and this is also why areas like this one why villages like this one are completely emptied out of civilians there is only military movement here you can see on the streets some of these areas have also been declared a close military zone so no civilian movement in many areas here that are that close to the Lebanese border Nicole of course about it p.s. deco back at just one of those northern communities that has been asked to evacuate as the situation continues to develop up there thank you i want to bring in our guests in studio now i'm joined by professor uzi arabia director of the moshe dayan center for middle east studies at tel Aviv university and senior researcher at the center for iranian studies at tel Aviv university as well as i-24 news correspondent and senior editor guy asriel uh professor rabbi i want to begin with you as we just spoke to our correspondent pia up near the north the continued threat that we see from hezbollah now claiming 46 of their members have been killed since the start of this war so as we focus on the south is we're also definitely preparing for the increased threat from the north always actually this is a kind of a bitter lesson that we have learned and while focusing on gaza and this is not it's it's going to be kind of a very very difficult test to grapple with at the same time israel has to prepare itself with the worst case scenario that iran slash hezbollah front is going actually to come uh in flower which means kind of all around war i myself think that at this moment hezbollah actually has built up sort of a mini war that corresponds with what nasrallah depicted as the war in galilee it is a limited war and this is a cheat for tat for the time being but it could easily could easily uh goes to the slippery slope of becoming a much more a greater war and this is kind of a challenge we know that hamas would vie for that because for hamas this would be kind of a lifeline because this is the multi-front confrontation until now it is not being fulfilled and we'll have to wait and see in any case is well it should be on the alert because once the ground attack is there this is kind of a different opera and that by itself might actually change the modus operandi of players in the end of the day i would say just a bottom line hezbollah actually is practicing the art of fan sitting because israel rightly came up with the equation of if hezbollah gets into kind of a full out war lebanon will pay the price and that would result in a kind of a total destruction and to add to what professor rabbi said here we're just hearing now from the head of the iranian revolutionary guard corpse was in salami he says if designers will open a ground offensive in gaza they will be swallowed if the enemies think that the muslims will watch these crimes from the side they are harshly wrong so just another example of those very clear they're not even hinted threats of wanting to engage in this war should israel go ahead with this operation and it continues just to show i mean we saw a picture yesterday of the three meetings of the of the three leaders hamas hezbollah and the palestinians what iran is trying to do to capitalize on the atmosphere from the flame in the muslim world and the arab world not only the palestinians and this is something that is all has to take into account because when we are there and we don't have any other choice in my opinion we should actually find kind of a modus operandi by which to better cope with the tsunami that is going actually to be seen when it comes to arab states and muslim world and also the credit we do enjoy from when it comes to the international public opinion this is also something that would be put under sort of a question mark with the time well we continue to have so much western support especially as iran clearly states their goals that that if they do get involved i hate to say that it's beneficial to israel in a sense but it shows all of these western allies the united states uh continuing to show their support because to them the main threat is iran definitely and this is something that is l has to hold hamas is equal to isis we should not actually let it go because this is the thing that makes the free world thinks of what we are going through in a different you know proportion takes it in in in kind of a an attitude that would be fit to israel interest meanwhile we're also just learning more about the intelligence that happened iran even training hamas militants terrorists to prepare for this attack yes the wall street journal yesterday reporting that some 500 members of hamas and islamic jihad have received specialized combat training in iran last month by the coups force of the irgc and of course it goes together with israel's uh claims and accusations and as we see that is no surprise that iran is very actively involved in the planning and the execution of this attack in the training and the ammunition we've seen i think i hate to say it but it has taken israel by surprise as well the the amount and the types of ammunition that we've seen from these terror operatives during this attack including drones on on israeli tanks and on other infrastructure of the idf uh a really combined attack uh that has really shown that the idf was off-guard just one word one word about you actually cynically use arab proxies in arab failed states they couldn't care less about the palestinians believe me but this was planned i'm not saying actually the nitty gritty details of the attack that might i'm i'm not sure about that but the iranians had an interest in humping the normalization process between israel and so do arabia they they they thought that this is something that could be actually prevented and i want to come back to this point later before we actually go to the ground when we're talking about everything that's happening in southern israel the preparation for this attack uh that's where our correspondent pierre clochanler is right now in southern israel near the gaza border uh pierre we continue to see even rockets fired from the gaza strip red alert sirening throughout southern israel uh in this these morning hours now right and it's the usual pattern uh at around 10 11 am local time uh palestinian islamic jihad and hamas start launching rockets onto israeli territory usually they start with the localities that are close to the gaza border and then they extend their rocket fire uh as in order to match maybe israel's repost response against those rocket fire but now we are in ashkelon earlier we were in ashdod and there is a striking difference between ashkelon and derot uh because uh because the there is some sort of abnormal normal situation here ashkelon has been the city that has been the hardest hit uh in the world declared by hamas on israel and look there is a coffee shop here people are sitting at coffee tables there are there is a dire situation in ashkelon because over a thousand one hundred rockets were launched from gaza onto ashkelon here we have 30 seconds and yet because it's not in the seven kilometer perimeter to the gaza strip ashkelon doesn't have for instance mobile shelters like in derot you don't have here anything to protect you so we've been told by the residents we have 30 seconds to run to the staircase over there inside that building there should be a protective shelter now on the other hand 40 000 people simply do not have any shelter because their apartment buildings are too old in addition 30 000 people have a protective shelter but in the staircase it's a collective shelter the rest of the population of 160 000 of this city do have a protective shelter but that means that 40 percent of the city faces a difficult predicament especially because ashkelon again has been the most hard hit city in the southern and northern front together so there is no way to evacuate everybody in one go simply because there's no not enough hotel rooms already over 120 000 according to certain reports some other reports are saying 200 000 residents of the southern and northern front have been evacuated only the hotel that are part of the israel hotel association have opened their doors there are many hotels that do not belong that are not part of that association they haven't opened their door so the municipalities frantically contacting those hotels contacting air bnb apartment owners contacting summer camps dorms families that are ready to open their door to people to families in order to evacuate at least 30 to 40 percent of the population so if there are two other ghost city where 90 percent of the population has left and those who remained have decided to remain here in ashkelon you face a dire predicament because most of the people if they don't have the wherewithal to evacuate themselves without help of the government simply stay in that city it really is such a difficult situation for so many of those residents are correspondent p.r. kloschenler reporting from southern israel thank you for your coverage now i'm joined via zoom now by iran doron mayor of ramat hanegev regional council joining us via zoom from ramat hanegev thank you so much for for joining us we were just speaking to our correspondent in southern israel talking about uh so many people who have been able to evacuate so far i know many from your uh area as well 200 000 from southern israel and northern israel having to evacuate being displaced right now i have to imagine that's incredibly incredibly difficult for your community uh my community is the belt is the belt around the surrounding uh the communities that were attacked and what we're doing now is basically we are taking many of those communities and we're basically absorbing them into our own communities we met and we hear terrible stories i just came back from one of the community that the that that was destructive that was demolished no houses you still see the blood all over the place and it's something that it's really uh it's it's hard to describe it and and i just can tell you that the the magnitude of this uh of this um event is so big that i and i've been to the lebanon war i've been to many events i never saw such a thing and the people that came you look at their eyes and and and you see that they the the the crisis the crisis of everything everything that they trusted all the things that they lived for all their amazing community that they developed everything is now and shut down and and it's really hard to see we will make sure that those people that survived will get the best treatment it's hard because unfortunately things are not that organized yet but we are doing our best to make sure that those people will get as as much as possible support mental support emotional support and of course physical support because people have nothing people were left with nothing eran you you bring up such a great point just the trauma the physical the emotional toll that it's taken on so many people in these southern israeli communities we're talking about how they now evacuated defense former defense minister benny godz even saying that it could be up to a year before they're able to return to their homes but i want to talk to you about once they do return to their homes in southern israel how do they get past this trauma and and regain uh confidence in israeli security that something like this will never happen again that's a very good question and it should be approached to the leaders of the idf that didn't do what they were supposed to do and the crisis of trust that the residents the people of the community has it can't be fixed we have to say it clear it can't be fixed and everyone says and in in in our communities everyone says that um if there will be a chance that there will be another another alarm another alert another alert anything like this and the people will just not come back people will not come back and we continue to hear about israeli army as to the government the israeli idf need to make sure that they're giving them solution not we're hearing actually from one of those solutions right now hopefully eran doran i'm sorry to cut you off but we're hearing right now that speaking of former defense minister benny gants he's giving an address let's let's take a listen we strengthen the defense in the waters we over the past two weeks we operate day and night in uncompromising efforts to maintain the moral duty to bring back our sons and daughters we do so with every possible mean that we have bringing back the kidnap and the hostages is part of the operational effort we maintain the effort for legitimate see in the world working with our allies including the u.s and we make the decisions only according to our wide interests the operation will now will soon enter the next stages and greater strengths i meet the commanders every day i hear the patriots who left their homes in the north and the south i meet the children who do not have schools i speak to business owners who are affected and of course i visit and i hug the families of the fallen of the those murdered and those missing and kidnapped our hearts are with them all the time i wish to tell you despite the difficult opening conditions we must we cannot remain we must think of those heroes the civil society is being shown with its full strength when i hear from all parts of the society that we must win i know with full faith that this will be indeed it is important for me to say we as leadership are aware of the difficulties of the extension of the war on all of us i promise you that the only criteria is winning and changing the strategic situation in the south and bringing back the kidnapped all of this while continuing our offensive and defensive operation in the other arenas fulfilling these goals will not only be a result of a ground maneuver but also of of a multiple effort with the redesigning the region and the fight against Gaza will continue everywhere and every given every needed time in order to ensure the security of the communities that will return and we will be rebuilt the maneuver is only one stage of a longer stage that includes major political and social changes that would last years people of israel today we were supposed to commemorate in heart mount herzel 28 years to the murder of former prime minister itzhak rabin only we will defend ourselves and every jew after our tears a state stands and a right and powerful force is standing i wish to tell you that the risk of elimination will not be on us but on those who wish to exterminate us beyond the tears we see the bravery and the heroism from that we will rebuild with force and right when this is over the world would know that the people of Israel are one a question about hearing from minister benny god's addressing the public about the entire situation as we are in the 20th day of the war here in israel meanwhile as israel prepares for that ground operation and gaza gaza residents continue to be urged to flee the northern border meanwhile one gaza resident spoke to the idf and told them hamas is preventing them from evacuating south here's the recording i want you to take a listen i want you to come here i want you to come here This is just one example of Hamas continuing to use their own civilians as human shields. We know that Hamas their number one protection right now is their civilians and how they are using them to their advantage. Now I want to note something when we're speaking about the civilian issue. I think how Hamas has utilized these civilians to pull out this entire attack in the first place. It's important to notice the maps, the terrorist maps that they have targeting these different communities. Kubutsis, how did they get those guys? It's I think one of the biggest tragedies of this attack. The fact that so many Israelis, so many civilians on the border communities have for such a long time hosted thousands of Ghazan residents in their homes, allowing them to work in their communities. We've saw anyone who lives in the south used to see until three weeks ago thousands of Ghazans who entered Israel every day to work. Israelis given them that work in order in a hope for a better future for the people of Gaza in hope for coexistence. These people have led them into their homes. I can personally say that I had a Ghazan man working in my home just a month ago. This was the daily reality of the coexistence and Israel has extended the number of Ghazans that are allowed to enter Israel every day to 20,000 before this attack. The very sad reality was that many of them used this opportunity to get intelligence for the Hamas attack. They came with maps knowing exactly how many people live in each house, even in which houses they host weapons. They knew the communities so well in such detail. I think the tragedy, among all the other tragedies, is they lost of trust now for these communities. They wanted better future for these people and now that hope is lost. Professor Rabi, we're going out for a break but I want to hear your input before we leave. Well listen, I mean this is Hamas. Basically, you see what's going on there. Salah-e-Din road is one of the main actually roads in Gaza, one of two, where actually people could just go or move from the north to the south. They would like them actually to stay on, even if actually we have to say 700,000 something like that already moved. They are gathering them around Shifa, which is the main headquarter of Hamas's hospital, but you know this is the beginning of the Gaza metro, the city there, and this is it. Israel has to be very, very blunt and very, very strict while explaining to the international community, and this should be kind of international campaign, being actually supported or corroborated by people of the low here and there. These people who are gathering around Shifa should be, according to the laws of war, should be depicted or defined as supporters of Hamas, and Israel cannot actually stay on. I mean, I am sorry for whatever actually the consequences are going to be for innocent citizens, but Israel has to just make everything in order to be prevented, to prevent itself from that, but after having noted everybody that this could be the ghost, Hamas is cynically used. He is kind of a monster in that. Look at the usage he is doing with so vicious a trend with the kidnapes. So we have that kind of a thing, and we have to just find a way to deal with that. And that's the most difficult part when it comes to this. Professor Uzi Rabi along with Guy Azrael, thank you for breaking all of these latest developments down as the war continues into its 20th day here in Israel. Officially in a state of war, this is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do, we just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. We even welcome to i24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Lebanon Waldman. It has been 20 days since Hamas' full-scale attack on Israel. The IDF launched a targeted raid overnight in the northern Gaza Strip, sending in infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists, all while preparing the area for the next stage of the war. Meanwhile, Israel, keeping an eye on the north as well as Israeli air defenses, intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon after leaders of three main terror groups, as Bala Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad held a meeting in Beirut. And in a grim update from the military, the number of hostages held by the terrorists is now confirmed to be 224. So far, we have given notices to families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 kidnapped persons. This information continues to change according to the intelligence information that we have. Each sends us to the family. We continue together with operational efforts. We continue to hold raids to collect information, and to understand who is missing, who is kidnapped, that number may change. And we're standing in 224 kidnapped. Our hearts are with the bereaved families. We feel their pain. We'll continue to be with them and update the families of the kidnapped and missing with every development and with every piece of information that we hold. First of all, the families and then the media, the effort to return the kidnapped is a top priority in every way. Civilian operational intelligence, and this is how we will continue to operate. And we're going to open with our eye on the southern front where our correspondent, Pierre Kloschenler, is standing by in the southern border city of Ashkelon. Pierre, thank you very much for being with us. I want to address what we're hearing about this raid, a small-scale raid by the IDF into Gaza overnight. Now, we know that there had been some periodic raids since the beginning of the war. Is this just more of the same routine or is this something more significant? We hear reports that this raid was a bit more intense, a bit larger than the other raids that we've heard about and that were confirmed by the IDF. I think that since the war that was waged by Hamas on Israel, they confirmed two additional raids, but this one seems to be on a larger scale. And you heard what the rear admiral, IDF spokesman, Daniel Agari, said. It's not only to hit terrorists, it's not only to hit at anti-tank positions, scoring the area for IEDs, preparing the battleground for a further mass incursion inside the Gaza Strip. It's also in order to find any sign that could have been left on the ground by the hostages and trying to find any intelligence regarding the whereabouts of the hostages. Because he mentioned 224 hostages, but yet we know that there's over 100 people missing since October 7. We've heard also that some of the families have kind of identified their relatives on videos posted by Hamas terrorists, and they haven't been notified formally by the IDF regarding the fate of their relatives, and they're still declared missing because the IDF is trying to crisscross information. So that's part also of the endeavor to know more about the whereabouts of the hostages, no more about the number of hostages that have been taken to the Gaza Strip. It's definitely a tense situation, Pierre. We're going to come back to you over the course of the day for more information from that front. But before we do anything else, we're going to turn to our correspondent, Pierre Stechelbach, who is standing by on the northern border right now, where, from what I understand, you have been hearing some explosions. Right, Ariel. I'm speaking to you from a shelter here. We are less than two kilometers away from the Lebanese border here. We're told that there is an ongoing security incident. We have been hearing some what seem to be explosions. I just had a peek outside and saw smoke arising from the mountain range very close to us that basically separates Israel from Lebanon early on. We could hear what seemed to be an Israeli airplane in the sky and the loud explosion behind that mountain range. There is no official information in terms of what this incident is about. As of now, I can just tell you what we've been witnessing here on the ground. We're located in an area that has been completely evacuated. There's there are almost no civilians here. There are however security guards here keeping an eye on what is happening. There is an Israeli army base right behind that community where we are located in right now. You can also see the border wall here. And this comes amid very high tensions, of course, that we've been seeing throughout the past two weeks between Israel and Hisballah. Hisballah announcing two more of its operatives were killed, rising the number up to 46 Hisballah operatives and add to that also several Palestinian faction members that have been killed during, for example, infiltration attempts. Yesterday four rockets have been launched from southern Lebanon towards Israel. We're talking about an area further east from us, the area of Kiryat Shmone. They all fell into open area. Last night, a ground to air missile was launched also from southern Lebanon into Israel that was intercepted here. Really the skirmishes between Israel and Hisballah have increased and the front is heating up ever since as more and more civilians are evacuated from that area very close to the border here. We've been talking to the security guides here and they're also emphasizing that we're not only talking about the danger of anti-tank missiles or rockets being launched from Lebanon but also infiltration attempts that we have been seeing throughout the past two weeks. And that is a real danger here. And one of the reasons why these communities here have been evacuated fairly early, what they also brought up to us is that now we're in a quite tense waiting period. You do not also see the enemy from here. Lebanon is separated from Israel in many areas here in most of the border areas by that mountain range. So you many times don't see anything. You just hear the booms and the real danger here is as well because the landscape is very different from the Gaza border that infiltration attempts might not be registered early enough. Also as it seems that Hisballah is specifically targeting Israeli army bases, specifically their surveillance and radar systems there. Pia, this is all coming as the leaders of all these terror factions had a meeting in Beirut just the other day. What do we know? What is the upshot that came out of that meeting? Right, Ariel. That meeting taking place in Beirut yesterday morning between Hisballah, Lila Hassan Nasrallah and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhle, and as well another senior Hamas official Salih al-Aroori. They were discussing according to what Hisballah said about that meeting the next steps in that sensitive stage now and how to bring about the victory of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. We've been seeing the Iranian Axis, the Iranian supported factions trying to combine the fronts that really throughout the year what we've been hearing from Hisballah has been all over sympathizing with the Palestinian cause and announcing they will step into action. And this is also since the word began what they have been emphasizing that they are very, very closely watching the developments in Gaza before they actually full-scale join that war. And we have to say although the skirmishes are intensifying the front is seating up, we still haven't seen that full-scale escalation that security forces have been warning about during these past weeks. But of course we do see that Israel is getting ready and the area is being prepared for any possible scenario, Ariel. It's definitely a very tense situation. Everyone waits for that front to go hot in a way that we haven't seen in a very long time. We are going to move back to a look at the south where there's been some more evidence of Hamas' cynical disregard for human life, even on their own side. The IDF releasing new audio of a phone call between IDF intelligence units and civilian residents of Gaza who say Hamas will not let them evacuate and are using them as human shields. And we are joined in studio now by Lieutenant Colonel Doron Afital, former commander of IDF Special Forces. Doron, it's good to have you in the studio. We've been discussing all these probing raids, all this sort of PR campaign that the IDF is waging, but it's been three weeks since a war of genocide was launched on Israel. What can we say the IDF has actually accomplished in this time? Because from all I see it's taken pride they've hit some B-list Hamas commanders. In three weeks Israel won the Yom Kippur War. What's going on here? Every landscape of war is different and this is a totally different landscape and we had a terrible setback that required, first of all, to get out of the shock, stabilize the border. This was crucial. This was done with bravery and courage and talent. Now the border is set. Then we went into this bombing campaign limiting the capabilities to move and killing a few Hamas leaders. We shouldn't undermine disability. We got our intelligence bank, even those interceptions, those phone calls that we overheard are required in order to establish intelligence over the whole region. We are trying to locate where the hostages are, where they're hiding, and we are making our plans and preparing for the next stage. This was publicly declared by Bibi Netanyahu and Gantz that joined the government. The issue that right now came to the front is of course the hostages and this is the new dilemma and I think right now we see a new awareness. Also the Americans put their input. Also the Hamas played his hand by releasing a few through Qatar. This means that there's some window of opportunity to negotiate a release of the hostages or some of them, maybe the Sikh, the elderly, the kids. So I think this postponed our ability to move forward. You are very much right that there's a window of opportunity. I insist there's always in military campaigns too early, too late. So maybe we are not too early now, we are ready, but we shouldn't be too late and the window also connects with economical levels, with evacuation and so on. Then we had to stabilize the front, the northern border. And this was done I think very well and right now I think in those exchanges we have the upper hand and we are waiting. We don't do preemptively anything, but we worked with the whole might of the idea. And third, we had to stabilize the West Bank. There were like 500 arrests or more and I'm not sure the number of Hamas operatives. We don't want them to come out and instigate some riots or some mob demonstrations or whatever. And we had also exchanged a few, many terrorist Palestinians were killed in the West Bank. So the army now is flexing his muscles, three fronts, not an easy task, waiting in the south. The dilemma, the main dilemma now is the hostages. We are going to interrupt this for a brief moment because the mother of one of those hostages that you just mentioned is giving a press statement. So we're going to take this live first. I'm going to be 12 years old, Erez. Erez is 12 years old. My daughter, she's 16, Sarah, she's still there. My, their father, offer 52 years old is still there. They're all still kidnapped. Today it's his birthday. And I want him to be here. I want to celebrate him. I even have hope he will come today with all the rest of the family. He's a child who's full of love and love. And maybe he's going to come back more mature because the cruelness way he's been taken from his bed with Pijama in the 7th of October. They just came house by house, murdered, butchered, mustered, burned the house and took as a rest as kidnapped as hostage, just from their bed, with Pijama without shoes, just like this cruel way. So today, it's like a mountain train. The feeling, my feelings, it's like a mountain train. One minute I have hope, one minute I'm very deep down because every moment here is very critical. It's now 18 days after. How come they're still there? I'm asking my government. I asked the all world president governments, what's going on? What's going on? There are 220 citizens, babies, children, old, sick people who need medicines. They're all still there in bad conditions, in bad condition because we found out that they still, they leave them underground, deep underground in the tools, like 40 meters underground. I don't know, you know, if they can't see the sky, the sun, I don't know which hell they breathe. Think about babies and children in this situation. And I think as small as we losing the time is very critical because all people didn't get any medicine. I think half of them won't come back. They can't live without medicine and proper medical treatment. And just yesterday I heard that the UNRA is taking apart, they understand that they have to, they demand that this hostage must get the cross, the red cross, they must get medicine, we must get information about their condition. And I'm very happy to hear that they are supporting our fight. I have hope because I can hear that Qatar is involved, and France involved, and United States involved, and the whole world start to open his eyes and understand that it's not just my private story, it's an all-world story because we're talking about a very tough and cruel and merciless terrorist, not one, not two. It's like an army of terrorists, like a Qaeda, even worse because they did terrified, terrified things like, I can't even say that, but I have to say it because the whole world have to know, they cut baby's head, they cut hands and legs and head, they took even a baby from a pregnant woman, cut her stomach and took the baby out, they shoot dogs, they shoot all the people, they raped young women in a big party and then killed them. They make sure they butchered and killed and murdered full of families. And the survivor, they took as hostage. I can't do nothing about the people that not with us anymore about, I don't have the time to grieve not about my mom, my niece, I don't have time to grieve about my beautiful house. I don't have time to grieve about so many members and friends, childhood friends that disappeared, murdered or kidnapped. I don't have time to that. I have time for one thing and I want you because you have the power to scream and to take my words, to scream the whole words. We have to release the children and ostrich immediately, yesterday. We have to send them home. We mustn't make any army act anymore, any fight anymore. We must have this subject on the top. This subject, it's a main subject. It's a goal, main thing we have to fight for because it's 220 innocent citizens that's still there underground. It's a very, very delicate situation. We never know how it's going to be end this story. And I want begging and demanding the whole word, don't sacrifice my child, don't sacrifice our children. They are victim, victim of this war. And please, please help them and whatever you can do. Unfortunately, that is not an isolated story. The Black Saturday Massacre has shattered families across the entire nation that have witnessed unimaginable horrors and have lost literally everything possible. Joining us now is another survivor. Nir Shani, his son, Amit, was kidnapped just before his 16th birthday. Nir, I have no words of consolation to give you. I just would like you to share your story as best you can. So as he said, my son was kidnapped from his mother's house because we divorced. There were my ex-wife, my son, my two little daughters and I have an older daughter that wasn't with them that day. They stayed at the safe room since the morning till the noon around 12.30. That was the time the terrorists entered the room, their house. This succeeded to enter the safe room. Amit tried to struggle them, but his mother told him, give up, don't put any fight. So he raised his hand and he went down on his knees and they took them all out, put them on the grass. They entered the neighbor's house, took that family to the grass as well, and then they walked to a street a bit western inside the kibbutz. They brought a black car, they tied Amit, Yossi Sharabi, the father of that family, and Dufir Engel, who was a boyfriend, 17 years old. They took them all in a black car and drove away and is considered to be kidnapped. Near. I just saw my house. My house was burned. I was alone in my house. That's my house. They reached my neighborhood around 7.30 with gunshots and screaming in Arabic and they surrounded the house. They were preparing for a fight, but there was no army to fight them. So after about two hours, there was a huge mob from Gaza, Palestinians, who entered. They ruined everything. They tried to break the walls. They set the house on fire. I struggled to hold the door closed, hanging on the handle, suffocating from the smoke, but staying alive for like 10 hours till the army came. Near. We just heard a story from another mother who has almost an identical story to yourself and she thinks that everything, the war needs to be put on hold so that the hostages can be rescued. Yourself, for your part, what do you believe? Because this is a hard question for everybody, but you're in a position where your opinion has a terrible weight to it right now. I think the most important thing is to release the hostages because it's a crime war. He's just a boy. He's 16 years old. He celebrated last Saturday. He's 16 years old. And there are so many babies and children and elderlies who are just civilians and they did nothing. And they should be released. They should be released. I'm not saying what should be done with the Gaza Strip right now or later on. The problem was before the 7th of October and it will be later on. But the main focus should be release the hostages and everyone who can help should help. Primarily, the Emir of Qatar who supported them so badly, sponsored them, helped them build whatever they have. Next are all the Arab leaders who support them creating this evil country. I'm not calling them Hamas. The Palestinians are the people of Gaza. There is no one there that was helping anyone, risking his life to save a child's life, nothing like that. So I will hold them all responsible. And third of all, all the world, anyone who stands there and do nothing. Nair, at times like this, where are you placing your hopes? Do you still have hope? Yeah, I'm full of hope. I believe he's alive and I believe I'll see him. That's a hope that we all share. I guess finally, do you have a message for the rest of the world right now for everyone to hear? I understand the world is a bit surprised from what they did. I wasn't. I always expected that in case they will reach my kibbutz, my village, that's what they'll do, because that's what they say they'll do. And we just need to hear what they say and believe them. That's what they plan. They had a chance to do it and they did it. And they will do it again if they get the chance. And the world should choose whether they stand by them or by us. Yeah, there's really no middle ground here, Nair. I'm glad you could tell this story as horrifying as it is. And we're all praying for you. We're all at your back on this one. Thank you for coming on to tell that story. For everyone else, we are going on a short break now. We come back. We're going to be discussing all the possible angles here of this war as the situation develops on multiple fronts at once. So stay with us. We will be right back. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on i24 News. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for staying with us. All this is coming as Prime Minister Benjamin Nyahu addressed the nation, saying that the number one priority right now is the elimination of Hamas once the war is won. Israel will have some very major questions to answer, despite his promises, though, in the three weeks since Hamas launched what is a war of genocide against Israel. The IDF has not actually begun a major ground operation with very limited results to show and no sign of a decisive operation just yet. We are in the middle of a war for our existence. We have set two goals for the war, to annihilate Hamas by destroying its military and governance capacities, and to do everything possible to bring our hostages back home. We are raining hellfire on Hamas. We have already killed thousands of terrorists, and this is only the beginning. At the same time, we are preparing for a ground invasion. I will not elaborate on when, how, or how many. I will also not elaborate on the various calculations we are making, which the public is mostly unaware of, and that is how things should be. I want to be clear. The timing of the military's operation, the timing is determined by consensus by the war cabinet. The chief of staff and the cabinet together are working to ensure the ideal conditions for our troops for the coming operations. Citizens of Israel, October 7th was a black day in our history. We will fully investigate what happened along the southern border. We're hearing that there are sirens going off air raid sirens in central Israel right now, with a rocket barrage aimed at Rishon Lezion. We're going to come back to this as that situation develops. I want to turn back to Special Forces Commander Daron Avital sitting with us in studio. Daron, we're hearing these promises made by the Prime Minister. We're discussing some of the challenges inherent with actually initiating that ground operation, but there's a problem here. At least from an optics level, Hamas is winning right now. They've struck at Israel. They've displaced 200,000 people inside the country. They've taken 224 people. They've killed 1,400 people, and Israel has accomplished very little. The morale is plummeting amongst the reservists. The morale is plummeting in the nation, and the faith in our leaders has plummeted to a level we've never seen before. I think the war had not ended yet, so we have to look forward, and I'm sure we'll gain our forces back. In terms of trusting the leaders, of course, there's a problem here. In terms of the morale in the nation itself, I'm not talking about those painful testimonies that we heard. What I detect with the soldiers in the reserve, determination and willingness to go and fight, we have a real dilemma, and I think it was yesterday and today. It was outlined for the first time completely to the public in plain view, and this is the hostage dilemma. Whether we open a window for negotiations and how long can this window last? I want to insist, and I have to say again, even if a ground offensive is taking place, there would be dedicated special forces accompanying the soldiers, the patroopers and the Golan brigade and the Givadi brigade, trying to locate those hostages and try by force or even by negotiation in the localities where those hostages are to locate and rescue them. Of course, it all depends on intelligence, so I don't have the map before me. I can't tell you where do we have the right intelligence to do so, but I think it's part of the consideration that right now the generals are working out. I guess the question of the hostages is the one hanging over the entire nation, and that is how long of a window do we have? How much can hold these people for years, like they have in previous, and I'll just interject into the question, because I'm not sure if the audience can hear it, but we are hearing many, many explosions and interceptions, not that far from above our studio, even as we speak, and these sirens are going off, yes, right here in Tel Aviv where we are as well. This hostage situation could be dragged on for years. I'm not sure for years when you have this magnitude of people. We're not talking about gilacially, it hosted, but one family, a very closed loop nowhere is this can't go forever. I mean, there's a siege, there's a problem of oil, they have to maintain themselves, so I don't think we're talking about years, but there is a window of weeks. It has to do with other considerations that army has to take into account, whether, for example, a question of sight, the winter is coming. So it's not a question of month. It has to be decided in the next, I don't want to say days or weeks, what's going on, whether there's a real venue for negotiation or that Hamas is playing very cleverly his hand against us and then we'll have to just say, okay, and go to war. Why do people believe that they can be negotiated with still? I mean, it seems that they have shown they are not exactly a reliable negotiating partner. They have shown in every possible way that they are an enemy bent on genocide. If that's the case, is war not the only option? War, we are in war, and war is the option. But even in the context of war, there are many, many campaigns. And I think in terms of the siege, the elderly and the kids, there's an overall campaign also among, I would say allies like Egypt, but for sure, even somebody I'd say that is not an ally like Qatar, to show its hand and to prove that it's really on the right side of history and play along. So Hamas is also an organization depending on money, financial maintenance. So it also has to work out its consideration. I think a hostage deal concerning, unfortunately, maybe not the soldiers, but the elderly, the sick and the women might work out. I think this is the hope of the Israeli government. This is where everybody works now. And we're going to bring another complicating factor. That's because the amount of actual negotiating partners Israel could potentially rely on is shrinking. And we have to rely, well, we have to talk about what was said by Turkish strongman Recep Erdogan saying his nation fully supports Hamas. He called the murderers who burned civilians, women and children alive. He said they were simply Mujahideen freedom fighters and labeled Israel with a Turkish term for terror organizations and that Turkey owes Israel nothing. Turkey notably has very close relations with Hamas terror organization and hosts their leaders. And it seems we're going to have to wait on the actual soundbite until our control room is repopulated after that very recent air raid as Irene went off here. So we're going to turn now to Owen Alterman, our senior correspondent in the studio. Owen, this statement from Turkey coming as a surprise to anyone? Of course not. Not given what President Erdogan has done since the start of the war. By the way, Ariel, a call that he held with Pope Francis just over the course of the last few hours or at least reported in the last few hours. We're again, he took aim on that call at Israel and essentially trying to mobilize the Pope to take his side. But no, not surprising, given what we've seen from much of Tiber and our colleagues are filtering gradually back into the newsroom and presumably the control room too. Given what we've seen since the start of the war, not surprising over the trajectory of Erdogan's career, of course, not surprising either. Our archives are filled with his saying the most disgusting and vicious things about Israel and about Zionism. Watching him give that statement, I think in the Turkish parliament, the frame just looked exactly the same as the one where he said so many of the other things. So it doesn't, in that sense, come as a surprise. It has to be said in his partial defense that over the course of the time of the reconciliation between Turkey and Israel over the course of, say, the last two years, he had taken a different tack and it seemed to have been disciplined in doing so, even at times of escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Didn't take the bait of the escalation, tempered his statements and continued to be committed to a reconciliation with Israel that was soon set to culminate in him coming here for a visit, which he himself said is now called off, if not going to be called off by Israel, given what he said. And he had built up a certain reservoir of, I don't want to say trust because it's such a strong word after so many years, of, again, saying the most vicious things about us, but it started on that path. And obviously now that path has ended. Another try, quote, unquote, at reconciliation has ended and it's hard to see this relationship really recover over the long term and to something stable that Israel can count on. And again, Israel's leaders acted shrewdly and smartly by continuing to keep Israel's very close ties with Greece and Cyprus, which, again, I think will come back to being the focus. Absolutely. Does that mean Israel might have to be considering Turkey in the same vein as it considers Qatari, Iran as direct enemies or at least allied with direct enemies? Certainly not Iran. I mean, there's no country in the Middle East that's in Iran's category. I think that in a sense would be unfair to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The analogy to Qatari is an interesting one. Of course, the difference is that Israel has open diplomatic relations with Turkey and has had for decades, right? It feels like aviation when relations are good tourism as well, obviously strong economic ties of a much different magnitude than Israel has with Qatari, which there essentially aren't open relations in that sense. But in terms of their posture on this war and their position on Hamas, obviously it's fair to group those two countries together. But Turkey as always is a complicated example. And beyond that, of course, the NATO member state. It's part of the Western alliance that at least formally. And it's a very, very big and important economy. And for all of Qatari's natural gas wealth, it's the Turkish economy and Turkish ability to project power and Turkish military that make it an important force in the Middle East. And of course, that's not going away. And Israel won't want to ignore that. And I think at least put a floor on how far the ties could fall. But as for somehow reorienting our foreign policy to some kind of balance in the Eastern Mediterranean between Greece and Cyprus on one hand and Turkey on the other, including in the field of energy that we had been talking about over the last few months, it's over. We're going back to a closer set of relations with Greece and Cyprus. I think sidelining, Erdogan. I think the ups and downs in countries, and Erdogan is known for his inflammatory words also in the past. It's Turkey's part of NATO. NATO is our ally. European Europe is our allies. The U.S., we have to think, you know, when we go into this regional conflict, we have to think broadly. There's a global alliance that is being created, maybe in the future. It will also initiate some move towards reconstructing this area towards Saudi and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia initiative would come back. So we have to play it very carefully, not go by the words, play by the interests. We have an alliance. We have to keep it. We know who is our enemy. We have to fight our enemies. I agree Israel shouldn't escalate, but the escalation has already come from Ankara. And I think it's going to be reasonable and expected for Israel to again grow closer to Athens and to Nicosia at Turkey's expense. Turkey's an empire, Greece, surplus less. Of course, we have to reconsider the alliance, the general alliance, the broader picture. We're really in a global, I wouldn't say there's a global landscape here. It's regional now. It can go even ballistic. We have to be very careful. And you brought up the whole NATO angle before as well, because Turkey is a critical regional NATO ally. They're territorially situated in a place that cannot be ignored, but they find themselves consistently taking positions that other NATO members find reprehensible. That's right. That's right. And this is going to be the latest example, Arielle. You're absolutely right. It's been a constant frustration. And frankly, when you look at the North, like people ask, why is Turkey still in NATO sometimes? Well, I think the answer is very, very clear. If you look at the North Atlantic Treaty, it's not so possible to kick them out. And even if you were to try to do that in a clever way, they would raise questions about the stability of NATO and whether NATO would cut its allies loose. Obviously questions that are the last thing that NATO's leaders want in the midst of the war in Ukraine and all that it's meant for the alliance. But Turkey's been a constant frustration. It's going to continue to be a constant frustration for all the reasons that Doron explained. It's a constant frustration that is going to continue to have to be taken account of. And I agree, Israel will not want to escalate in any front with Turkey, but nor can Israel count on Turkey. And if there had been some kind of very cautious sense over the last two years that at the very least Israel could balance its ties in the Eastern Mediterranean, right, between Greece and Cyprus on one hand and Turkey on the other. Of course, not burning the ties, the hard-earned ties with Greece and Cyprus, but also taking into account Turkey's economy and military and regional position. Of course, Israel's desire, yearning almost for close ties with Muslim countries wherever it can have it, I think a lot of those hopes simply aren't going to be able to be realized. And not that people had illusions, but again, given the rhetoric, his refusal to cut ties with Hamas, even now it's going to be very, very hard for Israelis to go back to that reconciliation track. I think there's no avoiding it. You've brought up a very interesting angle that I've wanted to address. And this is ties that Israel's had wanted to have with the rest of the region, with the rest of the Arab world. We've seen in the past three weeks so much of these nations, many of the Abraham Accords nations come out, and if not explicitly officially condemn Israel at the UN, offer their own forms of condemnations, decrying Israel's necessary military operations in Gaza. And my question is, are these alliances Israel has built with these reasons, effectively acting as a straight jacket that constrains Israel's defense in times of need? If that's the case, is it making us weaker? Of course not. Of course not. And look, the statements from Abraham Accords countries, Ariel, while certainly they weren't written at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem, or for that matter, the US State Department, haven't been of the like, for example, of what the wretched type Erdogan has said. The Abraham Accords have held up, they've continued to hold up over the course of the war. Statements from Bahrain, for example, have been quite favorable, as we've seen, maybe for obvious reasons, right? But nonetheless, the Abraham Accords continue to be the great hope for the Middle East. Expanding them into normalization with Saudi Arabia continues to be the great hope of the Middle East, including if you take into account Saudi statements right now. It's obviously a longer path than it was before October 7th. It's obviously more complicated. It's obviously a costly signal that has become even more costly from Muhammad bin Salman. But everything that was true in New York in September, from those podiums, from those television interviews, is just as true today as it was. And I continue to be bullish on the future of Israeli Saudi normalization on the other side. And I want to take a look at a very different sort of international angle. Since the war broke out, 200,000 Israelis have returned from abroad to help in whatever way they can. But it's not just Israel's citizens coming back. It's Jews from abroad who have immigrated to the Jewish state in a show of solidarity in this solemn hour. Ruthie Sanders is one of them. She made Aliyah with the assistance of Nefesh Benefesh and the Ministry of Aliyah Integration, Jewish Agency, and Karen Kayem at least for Al as well as the Jewish National Fund. Her boyfriend, Morty, also made Aliyah just before her, currently serving in the military at reserves. Ruthie, thank you very much for being with us. Why did you decide to come here in the middle of a war? So I have always wanted to make Aliyah. This has been a lifelong dream of mine. I grew up in the Zionistic household and the Zionistic community from Cleveland. And I think this is the best time to make Aliyah. I think this is when our people need to come together. We need to be strong as ever. We need to show unity and just be together. I think that so many people here are doing so much for Israel and I wanted to be a part of that. And your boyfriend who came shortly before you, talk about his motivation as well. So he's actually been living in Israel for over 13 years. And we were in America when the war broke out and he got called up and he actually went to the airport almost every day to be able to get him on a flight back. And finally, on the fifth day, he was able to come back and go to his unit and serve. And it's very inspiring to me that he is risking his life to defend the country and defend our people. Absolutely. How do you feel your presence here is helping to assist your people in these trying times? I think that the best way to help everyone and to help the nation of Israel and to help the Jewish people is to be united and show strength and power. And so I think just coming together, volunteering here and showing that we will not back down and we're just going to persevere and grow the Jewish people is what we need to do. So what are your immediate plans now that you're here? So I am currently staying with my boyfriend's family. They actually met me at the airport. I was not expecting my boyfriend to come to the airport. He was able to get out and surprise me. And I am working as a nurse practitioner and I am trying to volunteer as much as possible by sorting clothing, sending food to Haileem and just being there for my friends and family in this hard time and scary time. Definitely very scary times. I had what message do you have for your fellow Jews around the world, many of which might be scared right now to make the same decision that you did fearful that maybe Israel is no longer a state that protects Jews given the immediate aftermath of what we saw? I think everyone should come. I think it's scary. I think it's unknown. But I think that Israel is still the safest place for Jews these days. And I think that everyone should summon up their strength and their courage and come together so that we can all see the redemption and we can all be here together. Ruthie, thank you very much for being with us and we all commend your decision to show solidarity with your people as well as to volunteer your time to make sure that we're all working together in this solemn time. Thank you. We're going to now look at a firsthand account of an Israeli colonel, Golan Bah, who was one of the first to get into Kibbutz Bayri after that attack. And he's going to recall some of the horrors that he saw there. Along the way that we have just walked, we found 20 victims all dead. But when we got to this house, I saw something I never faced before. It was a woman lying here, a woman lying here. It was still burning so she could be recognized. She was shot in the back and she was protecting a baby. A baby, small baby, I don't know exactly one or two years and the baby was decapitated. I carried the baby in my own hands. To display of nightmarish brutality there's very little that can be answered or said in light of that. But we have to discuss just what this means going forward so we return to our panelist studio. Oh, and when we look at something like this, what sort of human response is there? I have an idea. I think we need to remember. Look, Arielle, there's a big push in Israel and a big discussion now about how to rebuild, how to rebuild, of course how to restore security, but then how to rebuild and how to return people to the communities. I think that's going to be welcome across the political spectrum and throughout Israeli society. But we're sitting with Dorone thinks, I think that one of these communities should not be rebuilt and should be preserved as a testament to the brutality of what happened and as a testimony to what happened and a testament to the bravery of those who defended these communities and to the memory of those who were killed or who were captured Auschwitz style. The same way we make pilgrimages to concentration camps in Europe to understand the Holocaust, to try to relate to it, to try to do justice in a way for the people who were killed, one of these communities on the Gaza border should not be rebuilt, should be preserved the way it was on October 7th. Again, as a testament until the end of time about what happened here. I think that that's what we owe, what we owe the victims and in a sense what we owe the survivors to. It's difficult to say that because these are still communities with people who lived in them. And it's hard to do that to someone's own home and place where they were. But I wonder if that's the best thing we can do as a society to have a place where we can go to where this happened, where we can simply remember. I would say that more than anything what we owe the Israeli public is of course a victory in the battlefield afterwards. We'll have to really consider how to commemorate those terrible horrific events. But I will also suggest and I think it's clear to people that there would be a total political reconstruction after this war is won. The political infrastructure, current political infrastructure and the leaders of many of the organizations, the security organizations cannot hold onto the picture. Nobody can, this is a setback in a magnitude we never imagined even possible to the Israel that we know and the Israel that we cherish today is the Rabbi, Zchak Rabbi Day, all of us remember. My son went with the white shirt to the memorial event in school. We have to get back to the old Israel that we know that projects strength, also generosity when it's needed, talking to our alliance and working out a different future. Maybe the Saudi initiative, this would be the move, but it would go through. First it would go through the battlefield, no question about it, and there we have to gain victory. I agree 100%, but I think Doron's still talking about the day after and thinking about what we can do to remember and to perpetuate the memory of the victims. For sure. And God forbid the victims still to come because there's still more than 200 people in the tunnels in Gaza. I think that that's a discussion we can even have now and I think it could give him, give strength to people. Of course we're having a discussion about how to rebuild and that's even more important. How are we going to rebuild, get people back to those communities and show that we have resilience in life? That sort of links the day after and the battlefield that is building in front of us as well. And in addition to victory, in a distance to rebuilding, there needs to be justice done as well. And is this going to be something that is only decided on the battlefield, the destruction of Hamas's leadership, or will there need to be tribunals, international courts, crimes against humanity tried here? I think international court is not up to us to decide, but I think in the end it will be won decisively on the battlefield. We did it before. We did it with atrocities like the Munich Affair, of course, not the same magnitude, not the same numbers. We are going to hunt everybody that was participating in those horrific events and kill him. This is the way Israel all the time worked. This is our logic and we are going to gain this victory in the battlefield and get everybody that was behind this terrible attack. If I have a minute, three tracks. First is killing people who are involved. This is war. You are allowed to kill combatants or those directly participating in hostilities. And that of course is well underway. And we hope as many of these people who can be killed will be killed. And obviously that is well underway. And of course, that's the ultimate justice in a sense. Second, of course, there were Hamas fighters, murderers, if you will, who were captured, who are now in Israeli prisons, who are going to have to be given some sense of due process. And there's a live debate in Israel about what that looks like. Some people want to bring back the kind of system that was used, for example, to try out of Eichmann in the early 1960s. That's still a live debate. Third, the issue of international courts. I suspect that we'll have to double check this, but I highly suspect that the international criminal court does have jurisdiction here. Because, ironically, because the state of Palestine, of course, over Israeli objections, has ratified the Rome Statute and is part of the court. And one would imagine there will be jurisdiction for this. Of course, it's a double-edged sword, because once the ICC takes jurisdiction, they take jurisdiction for Israeli activities as well, which of course are not war crimes in the sense of what Hamas did. But there will be investigations, there will be gray areas, and it's a hornet's nest that Israel has been want to get into, has not wanted to get into. That's still well down the road. I suspect it's going to be very, very hard for the ICC because it's going to be very hard for the ICC not to take this on, given everything that happened. Down the road, and a very, very interesting question about international structures for accountability. The one thing about this is those processes take so long, so many years. They're so far into the distance that they're simply not part of the here and now, the way the other two tracks are. The war is not behind us. We have to acknowledge it. We are going to fight. Soldiers are going to get killed. We have a long way to go. We'll finish, we'll win, and then we'll set this area, the whole region straight back. Much like it's always been in this country, in this corner of the world, justice has to be done by our own hands and not waiting for the salvation of others. Thank you both for being here for everyone else. We are about to go on break when we get back. We're going to be discussing more angles of the war. So stay with us back in just about three minutes. 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured, and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. The phrases you know from where they come from. Come here. And the package for when. And loads that you already know where they're going. In my international loads, Altiz, your people at NRD, access our website, load.altiz.com.co, select loads and type the number you want to place the load. In addition, they receive double the balance in loads of 8 dollars or more. Altiz, the global network of the Dominicans. Back to our ongoing coverage of Israel at war. 20 days now since Hamas' full-scale attack on Israel. As of just a few minutes ago, there was a large rocket barrage launched towards Tel Aviv itself, including sirens going off just outside our studio here. The IDF launched a targeted raid over the course of the night in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, sending in infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists, all while preparing the area for the next stage of the war. Meanwhile, Israel also keeping an eye on the northern border air defenses. Intercepting a missile launch from Lebanon after the leaders of three major terror groups, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad held a meeting in Beirut. And in a grim update for the military, the number of hostages now confirmed to be 223. So far, we have given notices to families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 kidnapped persons. This information continues to change according to the intelligence information that we have. Each sends us to the family. We continue together with operational efforts. We continue to hold raids to collect information and to understand who is missing, who is kidnapped. That number may change. And we're standing in 224 kidnapped. Our hearts are with the bereaved families. We feel their pain. We'll continue to be with them and update the families of the kidnapped and missing with every development and with every piece of information that we hold. First of all, the families and then the media, the effort to return the kidnapped, is a top priority in every way. Civilian operational intelligence and this is how we will continue to operate. And just as a quick reminder of why this is all happening, we bring you the first-hand account of Israeli Colonel Golan Vak, who was one of the first to get into Kibbutz very after the massacre. And he recalls the horror that he saw there. Along the way that we've just walked, we found 20 victims all dead. But when we got to this house, I saw something I never faced before. It was a woman lying here. A woman lying here. It was still burning, so she could be recognized. She was shot in the back and she was protecting a baby. A baby, small baby, I don't know exactly one or two years, and the baby was decapitated. I carried the baby in my own hands. And we're joined in studio by Colonel Grisha Yukubuch, former head of the civilian department of Koga with the IDF. Grisha, it's been three weeks since Israel witnessed the sort of nightmare that we just heard some testimony of. In those three weeks, what has the IDF accomplished? They've hit Gaza from the air, touted the accomplishments of hitting a few mid-level Hamas commanders. And beyond that, we hear nothing, no massive ground operation, nothing that actually significantly has impacted Hamas' ability to wage war and terror. What's the IDF doing here? First of all, what we achieved, and it's ironic, but we achieved unity. Okay, let's start with that. This horrible event of October 7th brought unity to the state of Israel. And this is very, very important. This is the first achievement. It's a message to all the proxies in the Middle East of Iran. We are united. So if you thought that there is a window of opportunity to destroy the state of Israel, you are all wrong. Number one. Number two, we have time. Let's not forget that. Okay, we have time. They started the war. And from this war, we need to gain the maximum that we can, and we need to do it slowly. Okay? Step by step. Nobody is rushing, nobody is running, nobody is pushing. We have a mission as the state of Israel. The IDF got their missions, and they will implement the missions. So we accomplished that many, many soldiers prepared themselves. Training, continuing, creating this unity. And things that probably the IDF did not do for a long time, not to train all the soldiers. It's also an opportunity. You know, if you are in the reserve, and I've been in the reserve, a commander of a unit, so my unit trained once in four years. And here you have a unique opportunity to train everybody, okay? All the reserve in the state of Israel in one month. So this is something that Israel also achieved. And the last thing that Israel is going to achieve is, for the first time, we are about to delete Hamas achievements. I hope that also Hezbollah achievements during the years, when they implemented the Iranian strategy of, you know, slide by slide, you know, being there in the back launching, and recently posts on the border with flags of Hezbollah and Hamas on the border. And this is something that I hope that we will be able to achieve and to delete it. But is there such thing as too slow? The military knows it can't keep 350,000 reservists called up indefinitely. With each day, the window offered by the international community is fading. Their support won't last forever, especially with the images coming out of Gaza of these strikes on Hamas with the occasional civilian collateral damage. One of the biggest challenges when you have so many soldiers, and only if it's also only a brigade, okay? One of the biggest challenges as a commander is to keep operational tents, okay? This is the term that we use at the IDF. And I think that if we can look closely on what happened the last week, we can see that almost every night, something operational is happening on the ground, okay? As day goes by, as night goes by, there are units that every unit is implementing a certain small scale operation on the ground. Yesterday, we just published, the idea published it, okay? The Givati Brigade, I think, entered on the ground the area of Sajaya, if I'm not wrong. To do something, some anti-tank groups were destroyed. Some rockets launchers were also found. So this is how you keep the operational tents, okay? You train, you're ready, you plan operations. Every night, somebody else is doing something. As you remember, when we spoke about it, I said, the ground entry will happen. The question is when and how. It doesn't necessarily mean that we have to see all the 300,000 soldiers entering Togasa in once. It's a process. There's also the question, though, of soldier morale. I know in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th massacre, a lot of my friends who are combat reservists told me that they were ready to go in there and start taking heads themselves. Now, three weeks later, they're wondering what's going on at their leadership. They think they're being wasted on the border. They think nothing's happening, and they're losing faith in the military leadership. Well, I think that what is happening is actually something that will help us to gain legitimacy in the future. You know, if we would send the soldiers in after two day, three days, and what you just mentioned will happen, we will be probably defined as a brutal, cruel army. But the moment you keep the operational tents, okay, you train the soldiers and you also practice them, okay? And they chill a little bit. What you will get is professionality, okay? Not just chopping heads of people, but killing terrorists, okay? And we saw this raid the other night into Gaza. Now, we've seen periodic small-scale raids like this, but the one we just saw, from what I understand, was a slightly larger scale. How does this differ and how does it actually prepare the way for this main operation? This is part of the training. This is part of keeping the operational tents. This is part of checking your abilities, okay? So we will see that during the night, during the days, and we'll see more and more small-scale operations like we've seen last night. And are we ultimately just probing their defenses still, or do we have a good idea of what their capabilities are? Hamas just an hour ago, two hours ago declared that 70,000 fighters, for me it would be terrorists, are waiting to welcome us in Gaza. So, you know, for the Israeli soldiers, it's 70,000 targets. Let's not forget that, okay? They are, you know what, let's, I want to ask people, where are they, okay? And I can tell you what, they are hiding in their holes like rats on the ground, okay? Why they are not on the ground fighting the army? They are good at slaughtering civilians? This is where they got their victory, slaughtering kids and women? I want to see them fighting us men, you know, like men to men, like fighter to fighter. They will not be able to stand against the IDF, okay? So, yes, they are prepared. They had a long time to plan this war. They had a lot of money to be prepared to buy the weapons, the TNTs, the C4s, the explosives from Iran, and it's all booby trapped, and it's all underground. We know that the IDF knows it, and that's why the air force continues, bombing the Gaza Strip. So, we will weaken them. So, we will remove all the traps, and then we will be able to enter and to kill all the ones who massacred Israelis during October 7th. Each one of them, we have to put an X on his head. We're going to return to this discussion in a brief moment, but first we're going to take a look at the northern border, where correspondent P.S. Dekalbach is standing by. Can you give us what the recent updates were because you were hiding in a bunker not that long ago as explosions were raining down not too far from your position? Right, Ariel, and behind us you can actually see smoke rising still. It has become a little bit less, but we could also hear loud booms earlier. You can maybe also hear it in the background here, which sounds like gunfire earlier. We heard louder booms that sounded more like artillery. Actually, that fire is fairly close to us as well. Earlier we were in one of these communities closer to the border with Lebanon, where you said as well we were asked to enter a safe area, a safe shelter because there was an ongoing security incident. Now we still do not have any more information about what has actually happened there, but as you can see, there is smoke arising from the mountain range. It is very hard to say if we're actually talking about Lebanese or Israeli territory, as you can still hear fire behind us here on the road. Fire in very, very, very small very, very fast pace actually. We're standing in the middle of the road not too far away from the border. It is very hard to say exactly where that fire comes from. It seems to be actually a little bit further away from the border. We can assume that it is Israeli forces possibly firing towards the direction of Lebanon. You can see that smoke over there increasing. As I said, we're not exactly sure if we're already talking about Lebanon. If this is Israeli territory, what exactly has happened? Early on, we did hear an Israeli aircraft and what seemed to be a strike on the Lebanese side of the border. After that, we were asked to enter the shelter in one of these communities where we've been earlier. But Ariel, these skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah are going on now a louder boom here. This might be Israeli artillery firing there. We've been hearing those booms and these skirmishes really actually witnessing them now here. A louder boom over here. I'm sure you can hear it, Ariel. We've been seeing and witnessing these skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah really since the beginning of the war here. And this is how they manifest. You're actually not able to see a lot because the mountain range that separates Israel from Lebanon actually prohibits you from actually looking into the territory and seeing more. What you do see from, for example, when Lebanese forces Hezbollah are firing, now another loud boom, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells, you can see the smoke rising up on the Israeli side here. As you can see behind me exactly, we're not sure which location we're talking about if this is in Lebanon or Israel. But you also do hear the skirmishes in your own ear. You could hear the gunfire. You could hear what seems to be artillery here as the northern front is heating up continuously and the full blown escalation hasn't manifested yet. But these small skirmishes, the fact that hundreds of thousands of people also here in the north are asked to be evacuated, shows you how volatile the front is and how high the tensions are, Ariel, as you can still hear in the background. Definitely. Pia, if you're hearing small arms fire at your microphone there, it's close. Keep yourself safe out there. We're going to turn to the southern border now where correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Ashkelon, town not too far from the border. Pierre, give us the most recent updates on the southern front, not too long ago we were taking rockets here in Tel Aviv. Right, and I think that was the latest salvo of rockets was in Tel Aviv, in the Tel Aviv area, with a direct impact in the city of Petartigva, which is very close to Tel Aviv. Here, there is always that deadly trickle in inverted coma of rocket fire on the localities that are just near the Gaza Strip. But in Ashkelon, there is some sort of sense of abnormal normalcy, if you want, because since 10 p.m. local time yesterday evening, there hasn't been any rocket fire targeting this city, although Ashkelon is the hardest hit city in this war that has been waged by Hamas on Israel on October 7th. So a sense of abnormal normalcy in the sense that the city is really functioning, you have public transportation, you have food stores, cafes that are still open, you have people walking in the street, something that you don't see in Zderot simply because Zderot has been evacuated completely almost with only maybe 1,500 residents remaining. So here it's, I'm telling you it's quiet, but I'm adding it's quiet at this particular moment in time. Pierre, we're understanding that not that long, only about a half hour or so, aid trucks crossed over into Gaza as well, that despite promises from the government that aid would be restricted until we saw some of the hostages back. No, I think that the Israeli government has agreed with a bit of U.S. prodding to allow trucks, humanitarian trucks of only food, water and medicine, to be crossing the Rafa Egyptian Gaza border crossing. And I think it's the fifth convoy. Today, 14 trucks are entering Gaza. All in all, something like 60 trucks have entered the Gaza Strip. The needs are dire according to humanitarian organizations. Israel only insists that no fuel will be shipped into Gaza, arguing that Hamas will use it for its manufacturing of rockets and the ground of rocket launching or any other aspect of the war it waged against Israel. So no fuel. But on the other hand, it's a bit difficult to make sure that no fuel is being shipped into the Gaza Strip because Israel, as far as I understand, is checking those trucks at the Nitzan border crossing, which is about an hour drive from the Rafa border crossing. So in between, things can change. And we don't know, actually, if fuel is being smuggled into these humanitarian trucks. But in the meantime, and Benny Gantz said they're allowing those humanitarian trucks going into the Gaza Strip in order to alleviate the fate of those non-involved civilians in Gaza. Pierre, we'll come back to you over the course of the day's situation on the southern border changes. Now on the topic of the situation in Gaza, there's some more evidence coming out of Hamas's cynical disregard for human life, even on their own side. The IDF just released some new audio of a phone call between an IDF intelligence unit and civilian residents of Gaza who say Hamas will not let them evacuate until the terror group is using them as human shields. Do we actually gain anything from these exchanges or is this nothing more than PR for the international community to understand that Hamas is in fact as cynically evil as we've been saying for years? I think that nobody cares about it. If you ask me from my experience with the international community, with the people of Gaza, with Israelis as a businessman today after I retired, eventually our window of legitimacy was let's say the first four or five days. And as time goes by, the whole world is focused on the damages inside Gaza, on the number of casualties in Gaza. And Hamas knew that it's part of the strategy, as I mentioned here more than once, they pulled the humanitarian card, okay? And they are playing this game and people are falling into this trap. This is not something new. It happens all the years that I know Hamas, all the years, all the operations between Israel and Hamas, and it's not really something new. And as numbers will grow, we will lose our legitimacy. So what Israel is trying to do is to avoid from crossing between situations, what do I mean? Hamas is playing now on three parallel accesses, okay? One is fire management. Only half an hour ago they launched rockets into the center. I believe that at five, six o'clock in another center, four hours, there will be another launch to Tel Aviv twice a day. As day goes by, we will see less and less and less rockets because they need to manage fire, okay? They have enough rockets, I think for something like two months. That's my estimation from what I know. And two, they will continue playing with the hostages situation. They will release two. We already see the pattern, okay? They'll release two. And a week after they release two, I will not be surprised that if Sunday or Saturday, another two will be released. It's to extend the period that Israel will stay outside, that Israel will not enter exactly for those reasons that you just mentioned, that the IDF soldiers will lose motivation, okay? That we will not be able to maintain the operational tense, as I call. And the third thing is a humanitarian card. It's already pulled out. No fuel, no water, no nothing. So to increase our window of legitimacy or our abilities to strike Hamas and to reach to the goal of Hamas in collapse, we need to show to the Western world and to the Arab world that aid is being allowed to enter to the people in the south, okay? Of course, inside Israel, it sounds and looks bad. It's like, how can you send aid to people of Gaza while they hold 224? This is the official number. Civilians, kids, women are somewhere underground. The government need to balance all those, let's say, considerations. And they decided to allow it. And we need to understand the humanitarian card that was pulled. There are three situations. One is the stress, okay, humanitarian distress. We are at the top bar of the stress, okay? Professionally, this is where we are. This is how I know the subject I've been dealing with that, with the international community, with the UN, with the ICRC during my career. Situation number two is a crisis. So what we want to avoid, we want to avoid from the definition from moving from step A for a distress humanitarian situation to a crisis. And the third thing will be a humanitarian disaster. And this is what we want to avoid, and Hamas would want to bring it as fast as possible to the table, because this is what will delay our entry, for sure. We're going to continue this line of discussion a little later, but first, we're going to take a look at some other kinds of stories that came out of the October 7th attack. We've heard so much of tragedy and terror, but there's been also tales of heroism, as well as survival. One of them concerning a nine-day-old baby who's very brief life was almost brought to an end, but was saved due to the determination and the wits of his parents. Here's that story. Nice, still. In this picture, he is lying without any protection on the windowsill of the protected room. The house on the right in this video is that of Uriel, Amy, and little Kai. When Hamas terrorists stomped Kibbutz Nirim on October the 7th, Amy's mother was with the family as well. My mother grabbed Kai, the baby, he started crying. She just put a finger in his mouth so that he would be as quiet as possible. Uriel and I, together, just held a handle of the door in a locked position as much as we could. They just fought with us to try to open it, and when they couldn't get in at all, that's the same. And we appear to have some technical difficulties, and we're going to try to pull that up again a little later once we have that resolved. So I'll return to the studio with Grisha Yukobovitz. I was briefly asking a question. Is Uriel prides itself and makes the point of having the most moral army? But in a conflict like this, does it actually matter? Shouldn't we be striving for the most lethal army, not the most moral army? We are a moral army. We are the most moral army in the Middle East, at least. Now, let's not forget we are not alone. We are part of a Western coalition that is being built. The risk, the problems, let's say the dangerous things are actually not in Gaza, because we can deal with Gaza easily, as the IDF, with our morality also. And I think that the moment we call people and what you just showed, this call between an officer from the IDF calling to a family, please evacuate the house. This is part of our morality. This is what is expected from us. Would you imagine the situation? October 7th, somebody from El Qasam Brigades calls to somebody from Beiri, the skibouts that they slaughtered, 109 people, I think, and asking him, please, can you please evacuate your house? Because I want to enter and burn your house, or I want to enter and kill the soldiers there. We would not even expect that something like that will happen, okay? So this is why, first of all, we are moral. By the way, I'm proud to be an officer or even in the reserve in such an army, okay? First of all, too, we are part of a coalition. And as a coalition, we need this coalition because our enemies are in the North, our enemies are Iran, and we need them all with us. It's a topic of discussion that shows just haunting everyone in the country these days. We're sure we're going to be back with you in just a few brief moments, just like everybody else. We're going to go on a short three-minute break. When we come back, more on this and more stories of Israel at war, tales of heroism, and tales of survival. Stay with us. Is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Because we don't want to do, we just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Thanks for staying with us. It seems that U.S. President Joe Biden is using Israel's darkest hour to promote U.S. policy goals and advance a two-state solution, demanding an international effort to create a peace plan. The White House reportedly reached out to the Palestinian Authority to inquire if they could rule Gaza in the aftermath of the war, with Mahmoud Abbas repeatedly saying that could only happen as part of a wider peace initiative. Biden's remarks reiterated the U.S. commitment to the utter destruction of Hamas and denied any reports that the United States has pressured Israel to delay a ground operation into Gaza. There's no going back to the status quo as is stood on October 6. That means ensuring Hamas can no longer terrorize Israel and use Palestinian civilians as human shields. It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution. It means a concentrated effort for all the parties, Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders to put us on a path toward peace. And for more on this, we are joined by Yesi Beilin, former Israeli Justice Minister. You, Yesi, worked on the Oslo Accords, Israel's first push for a two-state solution. Thirty years later, I have to wonder what we've gotten from that, multiple military campaigns in Gaza, a second defied it, and now a war of genocide launched on Israeli soil by an independent Palestinian quasi-state in Gaza. In what way is a two-state solution like Biden is calling for even possible? Well, it is not the first time that he is calling for that, and I appreciate his consistency on this issue. There is no other solution. I mean, if you want to have Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, you need a border. The border cannot be the Jordan River, because then you will have a small minority of Jews ruling a majority of Palestinians, and then it will not be a democratic state. So you need a neighbor with whom you can draw a border. It could be Jordan in the past, but Israel gave up on Jordan, and today it is only the PLO. And I think that it is more realistic after, regretfully, in a dark hour after the war, after the situation in which people on both sides are paying the price of their life. And eventually, we come back to the same point. We must have an agreement. We must have peace. We know by now much better than when we were negotiating in the Oslo process what is going to be the solution on all the issues from Jerusalem to the refugees and the borders. And I think that this is a time in which we can go for peace after years in which the world gave up on us, and some of us were mistaken to believe that we can manage the conflict. We cannot manage the conflict. We have to end it. But by the same token, the other side of this conflict is chanting from the river to the sea, explicitly calling to annihilate Israel to replicate the events of October 7th across the entire country. Just who is there to even make peace with? Actually, when I began the Oslo process, this was one of the main reasons for me to do that, because Hamas, which was born in 88, became more and more popular. And I was worried that an ultra religious Islamist group, which called for violence against Israel, would become the most the strongest party on the Palestinian side, rather than Fatah in the PLO. Now, there is an opportunity to get rid of these people in Gaza. I'm not suggesting to make peace with them. Not at all. I never did it. Unlike Netanyahu, who wanted to have some kind of ongoing relations with them. I never believed for one moment that that was the right policy. And if they are out of Gaza, the leadership of Hamas, because you cannot get rid of all the supporters of Hamas, but the leadership of Hamas is not there and the military threat is not on us, then I believe that it will be much easier to make peace with the PLO. So who would that be, though? Who could take over in Gaza? If we're talking about a boss, he's got one foot in the grave and the other's not on steady ground either right now. Well, I'm afraid that the Palestinian Authority would not like to get back to Gaza on our tanks. This is what they are saying to everybody who wants to hear. So it should be a kind of a caretaker body. Of course, not Israel. Everybody is saying, don't involve us. We want to get out of Gaza once the war is over. So it can be a kind of a trusteeship led by countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, and maybe others, or another third body which will be ready to take it upon itself for a year or two until the Palestinian Authority or then already the Palestinian state is taking upon itself the responsibility for the Gaza Strip. So let's say theoretically there is some great breakthrough. There's a two-state solution. What stops a newfound Palestinian state from simply electing immediately another genocidal political party like Hamas and waging another campaign of destruction against Israel at their first opportunity? If God forbid that happens, and it is not, of course, you can never be sure that it will not happen. I believe that Israel will have to meet the challenge and take it as something that it had to deal with. We cannot assure ourselves or anybody that it will not happen. During our discussions with the Palestinians, we used to ask them that question, what happens if and they say that it will not happen and whatever. And we did not even imagine that it will happen on our side, that our prime minister will be assassinated because it was out of any plan and picture and it happened and the Oslo process died. So we cannot, I mean, both sides may ask these questions and we will never have 100% answers. We should know one thing, that if we make peace, the situation like with Egypt, like with Jordan, is changing. And the Palestinian problem for us is the major problem, the dream that we can make so-called peace with Sudan and other countries and then come to the Palestinians and say, hey, guys, you know, we are already having peace with all the Arab countries. Now you should submit all our demands from you. This was childish from day one. It was important to make peace with other Arab countries, but not to believe that it should be a substitute for making peace with the Palestinians and dividing the land between us. Yes, I think everyone is dreaming for peace right now. Most of us don't really see a good way forward to it. Thanks for being with us, absolutely. And hopefully there can be a straightforward plan in the near future to achieve something more lasting. Thanks for being with us. Grisha, I want to turn back to you as someone with a great deal of ground experience with the enemies that we're fighting right now and also with their civil structures. Because I want to bring out that same question I just asked Yossi Bailen a moment ago. Let's say theoretically there is hope for a political solution at some point in the future. What does stop them from just electing a new version of Hamas with a different name to do the exact same thing all over again? I will tell you what I think that will happen. And I think a little bit different than Mr. Bailen. And I remember him from Osloik Wood. There are two coalitions that are being created in the Middle East. One is the Western coalition of the Western countries that will have to fight radicalism against Iran, against the proxies. I think that the only thing that worries me is the Quds from Yemen. Because whenever they promise something they delivered, they are fully armed with ballistic rockets that they got from Iran and aircrafts. But there's also a Western Arab coalition. Arab countries that are part of this coalition and I think in the following weeks we will understand exactly who are the countries in this coalition. And this is exactly what Iran wanted to achieve. Iran wanted to achieve that all normalization between Saudi Arabia and the state of Israel or the West will be gained by the West. For now it is, for now it succeeded. But just imagine if it will succeed, if it will happen. We are talking about the country at the size of, I think the United States is not wrong. No, I'm sorry, I'm wrong. The size of Britain, okay? And it's like a bone in the throat of Iran. And those countries together will force the PA, Mahmoud Abbas or his successor, he's 87 years old. Eventually he will leave us naturally. But the Palestinian authority will be forced by the Arab Western coalition to do two things. One is an agreement and to go back to Gaza. And two, not to do it only top down as they did, but also to change the reality, bottom up, education, knowledge, openings, et cetera. Israel is also expected to pay a price, okay? Because whatever you get, and it's an open check that we got from the West, we will have to pay back. And to pay back, it means any government in Israel will be also forced maybe to reach to this agreement or solution that will include Gaza and the Westmen together. What will be the name? I don't know. Let's not forget, there is a statement of two countries, Egypt and Jordan, that send no to any solution in our land quite immediately. And you'd mentioned this whole Western regional alliance, but it's not just the West that gets a say. And if you're building a Western power alliance, Russia, China and addition to Iran are also going to get their own say here. Yes, we are going to see coalition in opposition. And this is part of the bigger game of this chess, not only in the Middle East, but also all over the world. And of course, backing that up and whose side are they on, we also have the challenge of Erdogan and Turkey because he just came out fully supporting Hamas. Erdogan said the murderers who burned civilians, women and children alive were simply Mujahideen freedom fighters and labeled Israel with a Turkish term for a terror organization, saying that Turkey owes Israel nothing. Turkey has very close relations with Hamas terror organization and often host their leaders. Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a liberation group, a group of Mujahideen that is fighting to protect its soil and its citizens. Dear brothers, we had good intentions, but Israel took advantage of our good intentions. We had a plan to go to Israel, but it's canceled. We did not go. If it had continued with good intentions, our relations may have been different, but now unfortunately that will not happen because they took advantage of our good intentions. Hey Israel, you may be an organization because the West owes you a lot, but Turkey owes you nothing. Now Grisha, we talk about a Western alliance, Turkey part of NATO and is falling down here right on the side of Hamas. It seems to complicate things. Now do we all understand why when they asked to be part of the EU, they were denied again and again and again? Okay, this is number one. Number two, this is a double standard, double gain. When it comes to cement, for example, I don't know if you know, seven factories in Turkey export cement to Israel. You know, we've built a big wall around the Gaza Strip, a big wall, an underground wall, some places 70 meters down. Okay, let's say, just let's say it's a big reason. Okay, I disagree to that, but let's say, and the contractors would build the first used cement from where? Not only from Israel, but also from Turkey. So he built the wall around the Gaza Strip with Turkish factories. And now he's saying that Hamas are not an organization. It's like, isn't that double standards? When it comes to tourism, when it comes to tourism, okay? Who is publishing commercials in Israel? Come and visit us, come and come to Turkey. So when it comes to money, it's okay. When it comes to IDF delegations that flew to Turkey to help during the earthquake, this one and the one that happened 12 years ago, he forgot it. And we said many, many Turkish lives. I think that he is, what Erdogan is doing is actually bringing Turkey to the opposition. Okay. But they are isolated. So it will be from Europe and he will get isolated because of that in the future. And we're going to return to this in a little bit with a first quick look towards the south. One of those Kibbutzian Kibbutz, but every has tragically become synonymous with the atrocities that Hamas terrorists commit on the 7th. The biggest Kibbutz in the area saw some of the fiercest fighting between terrorists and IDF forces. Now almost three weeks later, the place is in ruins, but some of its residents are already trying to pick up the pieces. Our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Esuram visited Berry and filed this report. And we're having some technical difficulties as well with that. We're trying to get our systems up and running again. So we're going to continue our discussion that we were just having Grisha because, hold on one moment, we are just going to we. Kibbutz Berry, once a peaceful paradise, now a small community in ruins, notorious for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. I've been in here in 7 October. My name is Aureli and I'm 30 years old. We, for many decades, have been in the front line, mainly for a peaceful purpose, to be in it together. This is what we're willing, but at the end, they didn't want it. What they did want. And this is what I'm going to tell you now. It's what actually happened in the reality that I see in my own eyes. All is the son of the former regional council head, Haim Yelin. Like all the survivors of the October 7th attacks, he was evacuated to a hotel. But he's back to guide foreign journalists who came to the Kibbutz. And on that horrific day, Ol was hiding in the safe room, along with his wife, his parents, and their two dogs. If you want afterwards, we can go and I can show you the stories inside the shelters when they kill, torture and did things that they are undescribable to the humanity in civilians, regular people. And I tell you the time privilege regarding I'm not three of my cotton and I'm privileged. This community, they are all of survivor. This is what we feel. Walking through the small pathways of the Kibbutz feels like entering a war zone, small and quaint homes bombarded or destroyed. Children's toys lying around while maintained lawns of grass ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank. The smell of death fills the air. This is just one of hundreds of homes that remain either completely demolished or burned to the ground after the October 7th rampage. Kibbutz Berry is the biggest Kibbutz in the area. Until October 7th, there were 1200 residents. Now, following the attack, 130 were killed and an unknown number are missing. And the Kibbutz is left with lines and lines of homes just like these homes over here that are a sad monument to the vibrant life that used to be here. All walks us through the destroyed home of the Bachar family, who like many households in Berry, suffered a devastating tragedy. What they did in here, they start, they break the door, you can see it, and then they burn all the house. When they burn the house, they open the gas, they put inside the tire to make a flame, and they hope that the people will run away and they can catch them. What has actually happened that the people didn't and they hide in the shelter? Let's get inside and we show you what happened inside. Then he takes us to the safe room where the Bachars, two parents, a boy and a girl, were hiding. They put wet towels on the floor to keep the smoke from entering as a group of five or six terrorists broke into the house and began shooting at the safe room. And you see all of this blood. At 12 years old, what she needed, she needed to protect her family. And 12 years old put a tourniquet in each one of them that she don't have a tourniquet, she need to immunize, to take something to stop the bleeding. So what happened to the Bachar family here? So Carmel, 15 years old, is died and murdered by the terrorist of ISIS and Hamas. Dana Bachar, bless her memory, died as well, murdered by the terrorist of ISIS and Hamas. Avida Bachar, the father, he lost his leg and he injured badly. And Adar Bachar, that she's the 12 years old, she injured as well, but she saved her father at 12 years old. Outside the house, Oll tells us about his own experience in the shelter when he and his wife thought that this was their end too. She told me, oh, if they're coming for us, you have just a kitchen knife, please kill me before. And you know what I will say to her? Yes, because I know what they aim to come, what they aim to do, to torture. Maybe they will rape her and after that they will tear her apart and then kill her. This is the reality. And if we're not going to face with the reality or the world will not face with the reality, it will come back to everyone in the world. That's it. Like many of the residents of these devastated border communities, Oll says he hopes to one day return to Beiri, but only after a clear and decisive victory over Hamas. As long as there is still a threat from Gaza, they will not return, he says. But not all of Beiri was destroyed that day. Just nine days after Hamas' horrific attack, the local printing factory, which emerged unscathed, was up and running again, even as bodies were still being pulled out from the destroyed homes. So actually, this is amazing. The CEO, Ben, my friend, his mother also murdered. And this is the biggest print factory in the Middle East, not just in Israel. And let's say that it's not for profit what we're doing now, it's to serve the community. And yes, this is an establishment and a statement that we're going to move on if you're going to help us. And we will do whatever we can to do it. On that cursed day of October 7th, Hell opened its mouth and swallowed Beiri and the nearby Kibbutzim. And despite 50 of its residents still unaccounted for, the rest of the survivors who have temporarily relocated as a community to the Dead Sea are starting to pick up the pieces, a much-needed sign of resilience in a place that suffered so much pain and devastation. And it's not just stories of horror and slaughter, there are stories of survival, there are some stories of heroism. One of those concerns, the story of a nine-day-old baby whose very brief life was very nearly ended that day, but was saved due to the determination and the wits of his parents. Here's that story adapted from Local Channel 12. Nine days before this picture was taken, Kai was in a safe place, still in the womb. In this picture, he is lying without any protection on the windowsill of the protected room. The house on the right in this video is that of Uriel, Amy, and little Kai. When Hamas terrorists stormed Kibbutznirim on October the 7th, Amy's mother was with the family as well. My mother grabbed Kai, the baby, he started crying. She just put a finger in his mouth so that he would be as quiet as possible. Uriel and I together just held a handle of the door in a locked position as much as we could. They just fought with us to try to open it, and when they couldn't get in at all, that's the stage. They just decided to drag things behind the door and set it on fire. The terrorists, unable to open the door of the protected room, set the whole house alight in an attempt to smoke out the occupants. The protected room began to boil. We just started seeing the orange of the flames and feeling the heat, and all I remember is Uriel simply saying, they are burning the house. It managed to get into the protected room. We had some water. We tried to dampen our clothes and put water on our faces, on the baby's face so that he would inhale as little smoke as possible. Six hours after the fire broke out, the room is black. Whenever there is silence and no shooting, they lay Kai on the window sill. It was one of the hardest decisions we had to make. On the one hand, if you leave him inside the room, he will probably inhale a lethal amount of smoke, and that can be horrible. And on the other hand, if I put him on the window sill, the terrorists are still walking around. We're still hearing explosions. There is still a code red and missiles falling. The worst thoughts came up. We look into each other's eyes. They say, I love you. When you hold him in your hands and he foams at the mouth and decries, and he already has soot in his eyes and nose, and the whole room is black, and everyone is in this situation for hours making difficult decisions. And at that moment, it looks like the right thing to do is to put him on the window sill, to at least let him breathe. From time to time, Amy nurses Kai. From time to time, she reaches out and takes a picture until the rescue comes. Get out. Help us out. Mom will help you out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Wait, my mother first. That's the moment we cried. All the emotions we tried to keep inside so we could function. At that moment, I was crying like I haven't cried since I was six. Let them just take the baby and save him first, that they rescue us, that they move us to a safe place, that this nightmare will end. What's in this room right now is all the possessions we have, because it's all burned. Over there is baby equipment. It's all donations or gifts from friends. All I wear are clothes that are donated. The crib is a donation. Actually, this room is our home. Amy still has a bad cough. Oriole has an eye injury. And Kai, he is perfectly fine. The meaning of his name is knowing how to follow