 Joining us on I-24 News at this hour as we broadcast the latest live updates from Tel Aviv as the Israel-Hamas war enters day 46, Israeli troops are engaged in active, intense combat in northern Gaza as the IDF pushes forward. Just within the last day, 250 Hamas targets eliminated in airstrikes. A short time ago, the IDF announcing the deaths of two more soldiers killed in firefights against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The IDF says five other soldiers were seriously wounded in the fighting. The IDF death toll since the ground invasion began is now 67. And rocket sirens continue to sound out. This time in the north of Israel where the border on Lebanon with Hezbollah continues to heat up. Let's go live now to I-24 News correspondent Zach Andrews for an update on this morning situation. Zach, what's going on? We have sirens again this morning in the 7 o'clock hour with the border with Lebanon. These communities once again under red alert, the IDF saying that they have overnight and yesterday had 25 interceptions. Now, these 25 different launches that they were able to detect, these ranged from mortar launches to artillery to heavy rocket launches that were reportedly shown on social media striking Israeli targets yesterday. A base in northern Israel was struck. The IDF says no casualties, but it does appear that there was extensive damage from this rocket launch that again appears to launch from a populated community in Lebanon and then does not have a very far range or long to go before it hits its target just over the Israeli border. The camera catches this rocket almost entirely in frame the entire time as it launches and then lands in Israel. So yesterday to recap, 25 over 25 launches detected and a strike on an Israeli base with no injuries but some damage. But Zach, as you mentioned, Hezbollah attacking an IDF base mainly from the attacks originating populated areas on the Lebanese side of the border is the IDF restrained in their response to these kinds of mortar or anti-tank missile or rocket attacks. It is a similar situation to what they face in Gaza in some respects that these rocket launches can come sometimes from populated areas. Now the ATGM fire that's been noted. The IDF has stated that these ATGM fires, ATG fires have been coming from personnel on the ground and that sometimes happened in less populated areas in the hills, the elevation. So they've used the landscape to their advantage sometimes, but in other points it does appear that they've been firing these heavy rockets from populated areas. Now Lebanese media says that unlike in Gaza where it's such a confined area and there is space here that some people have evacuated like the Israelis have in northern Israel that some people in Lebanon have been moving away from these communities. The IDF says that they've been restrained in their strikes, that they have not been on the offensive, that they've been targeting the points of origin. When they have detected launches they've been eliminating the point where the launch began. So it has been relatively restrained, but of course this has been a dance that's been happening day in and day out for the past 44 or so days and it has been very difficult to see what the end game here is if it continues to escalate in this manner especially with Hezbollah picking up the number of launches that has been occurring daily. Daily attacks, again this morning as well, more attacks from Hezbollah into Israel. Thank you Zach for that update. And US President Joe Biden says he believes a hostage deal is close to being finalized with Hamas. He made those remarks while being peppered with questions on the Israel-Hamas war during yesterday's annual Turkey pardon at the White House and the head of Hamas' political wing, Ismail Hania, also telling Reuters he believes Hamas is close to reaching, quote, a truce with Israel. The exact nature of a hostage deal is still very much unclear. Last night Israel's war cabinet, including Defense Minister Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu, holding a closed-door meeting at the IGF headquarters with family members of the some 240 hostages being held in Gaza. Let's turn into it now with Amir Oren, Defense and Government Analyst and Kolev Bendavid, host of the rundown prime time show here on I-24 News. Thank you both for being with me. I want to start with you, Kolev, the White House, this time the President no less, confirming that he believes a hostage deal is close. We've had several comments from the White House in recent days, day in and day out saying that they believe a hostage deal is going to materialize that it's close but nothing is set in stone. Why so much talking about this? What's the impact of that? Well, first of all, you have to understand the White House has a vested interest in seeing this hostage deal come about. One is simply because to show that it is active in the conflict and it is doing something other than supporting Israel's military operation in Gaza, which President Biden increasingly is getting heat from within Paul's show, weakening support within his own Democratic Party for the totally unqualified support one could say that President Biden has been giving Israel so saving lives in this case that would bring another dimension to that. Also, let's not forget this deal would include supposedly by what we know, ceasefire as people talk, a three to five days ceasefire. And the administration has said from the beginning it wants, they're calling them humanitarian pauses. So they want to see that achieved not just for the sake of getting the hostage released but to relieve this humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. So the White House has a vested interest in promoting this and trying to be positive, which is one way of also putting pressure on Israel to move ahead with the deal. I mean, also Qatar saying that the deal is closed. Qatar almost daily also announcing that the negotiations are proceeding, that the differences between the sides are very narrow. And Hamas saying yesterday in that statement to Reuters that any deal would be announced formally by Qatar. What's Qatar's role in this? And the reaction to that here in Israel? Qatar is producing the theater of the absurd play waiting for Yahya. And that is Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who is not in Doha, in Qatar, but rather in some bunker or tunnel probably in the southern part of Gaza. And the negotiations run by the United States through Qatar, through Egypt. Many filters eventually get to Yahya Sinwar and from Sinwar back. And Qatar wants to show that even though it has been heavily criticized for Al-Jazeera's bias towards Hamas in its broadcast from Qatar, it is more even-handed. It is willing to work for some amicable solution. And Qatar is hosting the biggest U.S. base in the region, Al-Udeid, Sancom's Air Arm. It doesn't want to get President Biden too angry with it for supporting Hamas. I want to turn live now to our correspondent Pierre Kloschender on the Israel-Gaza border as we look at these live images into the Gaza Strip where the Israeli offensive continues. Pierre, do we have information about the hostages inside Gaza behind you? Do we know their health? Forget their location. Do we know their health, their ability to prove of life, especially the children that are reported to be the primary focus of a deal? Do we know anything about them? No, we don't, Jeff. We absolutely have no clue of the whereabouts of the hostages, of their health condition. I'm just going to get out of the camera so that you can see the activity on the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. The front is very active. You've seen now a bombing. Another one in the area of Beit Hanun, Sheikh Zayed, and Beit Lahiya, which are on the extreme north of the Gaza Strip. And yet, that's not the most active front because the active front right now is in Zaitun, a neighborhood which is close to the city center of the Gaza Strip. In Zaitun, you have a lot of close quarters, combat. You see now a series of explosions from the left of your monitor to the right of it, a series of heavy bombing in Zaitun, close quarters, combat. We've heard that in the past 24 hours, the Israeli Air Force targeted terror targets 250 times, which is quite a lot. It's quite intensive given that the ground forces are operative in coordination with the IAF, sometimes very close to terror targets, sometimes 200 to 300 meters away from a blast. And then the forces enter booby-trapped mosques. For instance, the one that was found out yesterday in Zaitun, where there was a tunnel and a basement and in it, a manufacturing weapons lab inside a mosque, which was destroyed afterwards. Now, in the Middle East hospital, which is more or less... I mean, with these images, we can see the destruction behind you. We can see the activity as the IDF pushes forward. Is it unusual this early in the morning at this hour to see this level of military activity? Or is this expected even still in the north of Gaza as the IDF campaign continues? It's not unusual, especially in the morning. There's always an intensification of the bombing of presumed terror targets and the neutralization of tunnels, of tunnel shafts, of weapon depots, of terrorists that are still maybe entrenched in buildings. We know that the terrorists now have a lot of difficulty in moving around. The sniper nest and their observation posts are, first of all, neutralized. And then the forces enter into action when the terrorists already don't have any clue of the movement of the ground forces. And as a result, they rely only on the sound of the tanks and of the bulldozers in order to try and hit the Israeli ground forces with anti-tank weapons, such as RPGs. But that works less and less. We know that hundreds of terrorists have been killed in the past 24 hours, especially in the Zaitun area, in the Gaza city. The problem is that there are still tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp where fighting is also going on. And the army is urging them to join the cohort of displaced people that use the corridor, the humanitarian corridor that is unilaterally open by the IDF on the Salah Hadid axis that crosses the Gaza Strip from north to south. Yesterday it was open until 8 o'clock in the evening from 9 a.m. because there was the evacuation of 200 to 500 medical personnel, patients and displaced Palestinians from the Indonesia hospital. We've lost the connection temporarily there with Pierre. One thing Pierre mentioned during his live report was in the area where we saw those IDF attacks happening in that moment, the North Gaza and the Zaitun district, Pierre mentioned that the IDF finding yesterday under a mosque, a terror lab. In fact, we have video of that mosque and we have a walkthrough explainer from an Israeli soldier revealing the rocket lab and terror tunnel entrances. They found in that mosque, in that Zaitun district, here's what the soldier had to say. I just want to point out, Jeff, that if the IDF should believe there is a possibility of a multi-day ceasefire or a humanitarian pause coming even as soon as this week, it is certainly in their interest to intensify their activity. If you want to call it mopping up, it certainly seems more than that, in North Gaza to try to take out whatever resistance still has in North, get ahead of the pause, especially in North Gaza, because that would give it opportunity perhaps for some of those terrorists even join that trek down south. So that could count perhaps for increased activity. All eyes focused perhaps on this hostage deal which is reportedly near the exact detail still murky in flux, but there are indications that a deal may be approaching. And as I mentioned earlier, hundreds of family members of hostages met with Israel's war cabinet ministers last night, many family members leaving the meeting, saying they were both confused and disappointed. Family members say they're still getting mixed messages from the government over what is the top goal of the war, return of the hostages, or the total destruction of Hamas period. Some family members even leaving in the middle of the discussion, telling us on I-24 News last night that the meeting was pointless. You know, the meeting, the only reason I went in was to hear whether or not the entire war cabinet was going to make the same statement that we've heard a couple of days ago from Gantz and Eisencote. And they said when they've met with the families, they said very, very clearly that as far as they are concerned, the main goal of the war at this point is to get the hostages back. We wanted, I wanted to hear the entire forum say it, and we did not hear it. We heard the opposite. We said, or it was told that defeating Hamas and getting the hostages back are not, neither one is prioritized. They go together, which means that one goal, defeating Hamas that is expected to take months or maybe years is the same as the other goal of bringing the hostages back, which is a time-sensitive goal. Amir, through their unimaginable grief and pain, it is quite clear that many of these family members of the hostages, they are fed up as well. Yes, they obviously are and they have every right to. But look at it from the point of view of the cabinet, regardless of the personalities. When they meet with hundreds of people, it's a press conference. They are, they know that people are going to come out of the meeting, talk to us, the messages will get to Hamas. So it's part of the bargaining, telling the families that the destruction of Hamas has the same importance as getting their loved ones back is a sort of a signal to Hamas. Don't expect too many concessions. Now, whether Hamas believes it or not is something else, because obviously the Israeli public wants to have the hostages back, regardless of the price they will have to pay, Israel will have to pay. But the politicians running the cabinet, and especially in Tanyau, have other agendas too. In addition to the hostage release, they have staked their credibility and indeed their political future on achieving the war aim of destroying Hamas. But destroying Hamas also means that Sinwar, who is now leading the negotiations, will not come out alive. What sort of interest does he have in shortening the negotiations? So there are so many cross currents here that it is impossible for the cabinet to conduct it cool-headedly. Right. And no matter what decision is made by the government, and Prime Minister Netanyahu particularly, they're going to get criticized. Those among the hostages that are saying they don't want a complete deal, all the hostages released, not some of them will criticize a deal that only sees, say, 50 released, or even just the children released. There are those who, especially the extreme right of Netanyahu's government, will criticize any ceasefire that comes into play here. So Prime Minister Netanyahu is going, and especially, but even all the members of the government, are going to be criticized in some way. And then of course there's always the danger it could go wrong. They could agree to a multi-day ceasefire. We're hearing reports, 10 released each day over five days. But what happens if on day two or three Hamas breaks that ceasefire? And there's also the indication parents and children would have to be released together in part of the hostage deal. Maybe a child or a parent is released in the first batch with a pledge at the next day that the sibling or the parent, the child could be released in the next batch. It's unclear how the batches would work. We don't even know if all the parents and the children are being held together by the same groups. It could be Hamas is holding a parent, Islamic Jihad or another group. So there's tremendous risk involved in this. And there's going to be criticism no matter in how it comes out. It's a tough choice. And Prime Minister Netanyahu understands that. Hamas is in control of this process. And the second factor or actor is the United States. Only in third place is the Israeli government. It is being reactive rather than proactive. Do you think the fact that the Red Cross finally is able to meet with the leadership of Hamas, is that indication of a push for an update, a clear, tangible proof of the status of the hostages, even the location of the hostages to verify as the steelnears that it can be delivered? What do you make of the Red Cross? They were pressed and rightly so by the Israeli arguments that the Red Cross is not doing enough or anything for fear of being meddled by Hamas in Gaza. So they went through the motions. They are going to see Ismail Hania in Qatar. Hania has no control over Sinwar in Gaza. He may not even know the details of what is happening there. So this is mostly a public relations gesture. Colleva, in the last press conference, the last weekend media update, we heard something interesting from Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet and a political rival outside of the war with the Prime Minister. He said, we have years to destroy Hamas, but we may only have days to release the hostages. Right. Well, that actually relates to a very specific strategy in the fate of the Hamas leadership in Yixi Sinwar, which is, what do you do if down the road Yixi Sinwar is surrounded? He's still holding hostages and he says, I will release these remaining hostages, but if you give me safe passage out of Gaza to Iran or wherever other country, and there was a precedent of that, of course, Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership that was allowed to leave Beirut during the first Lebanon war. And what do you do about that? I think Benny Gantz was throwing an indication. And people have used this specific analogy. We can get him later. We can track him down the way we did. And people specifically referenced the hunt after the Munich Olympic terrorists, where in some cases it took 10, even 20, maybe even more years to finally track down and kill them. However, Benny Gantz is saying that may be an acceptable strategy. I'm not sure that other members of the government, and including Prime Minister Tenet, would see that. They may see that as a defeat. And that's going to be politically problematic for them. It's when they may also say, matter of principle, it's problematic for them. Perhaps as we are seeing, as you indicated, perhaps, that the idea of maybe stepping up airstrikes, or stepping up the goal of eliminating specific targets to jump ahead of a potential ceasefire, there is the concern, or the risk, or perhaps in Hamas's eyes, the goal of turning a three- or five-day humanitarian pause into making sure that is permanent. Is there a risk of that? Whatever you call it, this might be the end of an active campaign. Only a diplomatic risk. Militarily, the IDF would also benefit by being refreshed, by sending some reserve soldiers home, perhaps recalling them later. But look at this split between north and south in Gaza. It had two reasons. One is, of course, to make the dense urban landscape less dense, by urging northerness to go south for a while. But the other, and even more important reason, was that Israel had to keep some of its divisions up north, in case the war of attrition with Hezbollah turns into a full-scale war of maneuver, in which those very divisions will have to go into south Lebanon. Now that this particular threat receded, we can see that some of the forces are being moved south in order to attack south Gaza. So Israel doesn't want to be caught just in the middle of a move when the ceasefire comes, which is why it is still waiting to see whether the hostile deal is on. And only if not will we see some raids, or even more than that, an invasion of south Gaza. Cole, can you touch on that point, I mean, this full-scale, unprecedented number in scope, mobilization of reserves. I mean, it obviously had such an impact on the economy. But we're in this, about to be the seventh week here of the war. If there is an opportunity for the Israeli soldiers called up from reserves and the Israeli military to take, as Amir put it, refresh, it's important for Israel as well, perhaps. Yes, but of course, there is the danger of Hamas, this two, this couple. One is the diplomatic. As Amir said, once you have one ceasefire or humanitarian pause, it creates a precedent. So then you can have another one, and you can have a 10-day one. And then you say, why not a month? And every time that happens, it does maybe chip away at the goal of completely eliminating Hamas. There is a certain momentum. The public is willing to accept casualties to achieve that particular goal, and that could weaken over time. And yes, and then there are certain military contingencies we don't know. Maybe not from the side of the IDF. The IDF is prepared. They have their long-term planning. They know what's involved. Hamas, the south, is going to be a hugely daunting task that's going to take a lot of planning and intelligence and maybe the army could do it. But we don't know what Hamas will do in that time, for example. We don't know what Iranian proxies might do. Maybe his ball is receded. We don't know what pressure will be put on the U.S. So there's a lot of- So it's a Houthi threat. It's a Houthi threat. That's the 3-H, Houthi, Hamas, Hizballah. Right. So there is a lot of risk factors involved here. So there's benefits. There's risks. Again, nothing here is an easy decision. Very difficult calculus. Amir Kolev, thank you so much for being with us in studio for giving us your analysis. Again, as we go out for a break here, the update is that the strikes continue in North Gaza right now, as we've seen live throughout this broadcast, the IDF striking terror targets across the northern Gaza Strip. And also rocket sirens blaring out in the north of Israel. Once again, it's Houthi already this morning attacking positions across the Lebanon border. More live updates, more analysis. Stay with us here on I-24 News. Is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where you see us. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra. La reacción de los países hispano parlantes. News 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. News 24, únicamente en I-24 News. In Austin, I-24 News at this hour, as we broadcast the latest live updates from as the Israel Hamas War enters day 46, Israeli troops are engaged in active, intense combat in northern Gaza as the IDF pushes forward. Just within the last day, 250 Hamas targets eliminated in airstrikes. A short time ago, the IDF announcing the deaths of two more soldiers killed in firefights against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The IDF says five other soldiers were seriously wounded in the fighting. The IDF death toll since the ground invasion began is now 67. And rocket sirens continue to sound out. This time in the north of Israel where the border on Lebanon with Hezbollah continues to heat up. Let's go live now to I-24 News correspondent Zach Andrews for an update on this morning's situation. Zach, what's going on? Well, we have sirens again this morning in the 7 o'clock hour with the border with Lebanon. These communities once again under red alert, the IDF saying that they have overnight and yesterday had 25 interceptions. Now, these 25 different launches that they were able to detect, these ranged from mortar launches to artillery to heavy rocket launches that were reportedly shown on social media striking Israeli targets yesterday. A base in northern Israel was struck. The IDF says no casualties, but it does appear that there was extensive damage from this rocket launch that again appears to launch from a populated community in Lebanon and then does not have a very far range or long to go before it hits its target just over the Israeli border. The camera catches this rocket almost entirely in frame the entire time as it launches and then lands in Israel. So yesterday to recap, 25 over 25 launches detected and a strike on an Israeli base with no injuries but some damage. Zach, as you mentioned, the Hezbollah attacking an IDF base, mainly from the attacks originating populated areas on the Lebanese side of the border, is the IDF restrained in their response to these kinds of mortar or anti-tank missile or rocket attacks? It is a similar situation to what they face in Gaza in some respects that these rocket launches can come sometimes from populated areas. Now the ATGM fire that's been noted, the IDF has stated that these ATGM fires, ATG fires have been coming from personnel on the ground and that sometimes happened in less populated areas in the the hills, the elevation. So they've used a landscape to their advantage sometimes but in other points it does appear that they've been firing these heavy rockets from populated areas. Now Lebanese media says that unlike in Gaza where it's such a confined area and there is space here that some people have evacuated like the Israelis have in northern Israel that some people in Lebanon have been moving away from these communities. The IDF says that they've been restrained in their strikes that they have not been on the offensive that they've been targeting the points of origin when they have detected launches they've been eliminating the point where the launch began. So it has been relatively restrained but of course this has been a dance that's been happening day in and day out for the past 44 or so days and it has been very difficult to see what the end game here is if it continues to escalate in this manner especially with Hezbollah picking up the number of launches that has been occurring daily. Daily attacks again this morning as well more attacks from Hezbollah into Israel. Thank you Zach for that update and US President Joe Biden says he believes a hostage deal is close to being finalized with Hamas. He made those remarks while being peppered with questions on the Israel Hamas war during yesterday's annual Turkey pardon at the White House and the head of Hamas's political wing Ismael Haniah also telling Reuters he believes Hamas is close to reaching quote a truce with Israel the exact nature of a hostage deal still very much unclear. Last night Israel's war cabinet including Defense Minister Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu holding a closed door meeting at the IGF headquarters with family members of the some 240 hostages being held in Gaza. Let's turn into now with Amir Oren Defense and Government Analyst and Kolev Bendeved host of the rundown primetime show here on I-24 News. Thank you both for being with me. I want to start with you Kolev the White House this time the President no less confirming that he believes a hostage deal is close. We've had several comments from the White House in recent days day in and day out saying that they believe a hostage deal is going to materialize that it's close but nothing is set in stone. Why so much talking about this? What's the impact of that? Right well first of all you have to understand the White House has a vested interest in seeing this hostage deal come about. One is simply because to show that it is active in the conflict and it is doing something other than supporting Israel's military operation in Gaza which President Biden increasingly is getting heat from within Paul's show weakening support within his own Democratic Party for the totally unqualified support. One could say that President Biden has been giving Israel so saving lives in this case that would bring another dimension to that. Also let's not forget this deal would include supposedly by what we know sees fire as people talk of three to five days sees fire and the administration has said from the beginning it wants they're calling them humanitarian pauses so they want to see that achieved not just for the sake of getting the hostage release but to relieve this humanitarian situation the Gaza Strip. So the White House has a vested interest in promoting this and trying to be positive which is one way of also putting pressure on Israel to move ahead with the deal. I mean also Qatar saying that the deal is close Qatar almost daily also announcing that the negotiations are proceeding that the differences between the sides are very narrow and Hamas saying yesterday in that statement to Reuters that any deal would be announced formally by Qatar. What's Qatar's role in this and the reaction to that here in Israel. Qatar is producing the theater of the absurd play waiting for Yahya and that is Yahya Sinwar the Hamas leader who is not in Doha in Qatar but rather in some bunker or tunnel probably in the southern part of Gaza and the negotiations run by the United States through Qatar through Egypt many filters eventually get to Yahya Sinwar and from Sinwar back and Qatar wants to show that even though it has been heavily criticized for Al Jazeera's bias towards Hamas in its broadcast from Qatar it is more even-handed it is willing to work for some amicable solution and Qatar is hosting the biggest US base in the region Al Udeid sent comes air arm. It doesn't want to get President Biden too angry with it for supporting Hamas. I want to turn live now to our correspondent Pierre Klaus Schumler on the Israel Gaza border as we look at these live images into the Gaza Strip where the Israeli offensive continues. Pierre do we have information about the hostages inside Gaza behind you do we know their health forget their location do we know their health their ability to proof of life especially the children that are reported to be the primary focus of the deal do we know anything about them. No we don't Jeff we absolutely have no clue of the whereabouts of the hostages of their health condition I'm just going to get out of the camera so that you can see the activity on the northern sector of the Gaza Strip the front is very active you've seen now a bombing another one in the area of Beth Hanun Sheikh Zaid and Beth Lahia which are on the extreme north of the Gaza Strip and yet that's not the most active front because the the active front right now is in Zaitun a neighborhood which is close to the city center of the Gaza Strip in Zaitun you have a lot of close quarters combat you see now a series of explosions from the left of your monitor to the right of it a series of heavy bombing in Zaitun close quarters combat we've heard that in the past 24 hours the Israeli air force targeted terror targets 250 times which is quite a lot it's quite intensive given that the ground forces are operative in coordination with the IAF sometimes very close to terror targets sometimes 200 to 300 meters away from a blast and then the forces enter booby trapped mosques for instance the one that was found out yesterday in Zaitun where there was a tunnel and a basement and in it manufacturing a weapons lab inside a mosque which was destroyed afterwards now in yeah is this unusual which is more or less I mean these images we can see the destruction behind you we can see the activity as the IDF pushes forward is it unusual this early in the morning at this hour to see this level of your military activity or is this expected even still in the north of Gaza as the IDF campaign continues it's not unusual especially in the morning there's always an intensification of the the bombing of presumed terror targets and the neutralization of tunnels of tunnel shafts of weapon depot of terrorists that are still maybe entrenched in buildings we know that the terrorists now have a lot of difficulty in moving around the sniper nest and the and their observation posts are first of all neutralized and then the forces enter into action when the terrorists already don't have any clue of the movement of the ground forces and as a result they rely only on the sound of the tanks and of the bulldozers in order to try and hit the Israeli ground forces with anti-tank weapons such as RPGs but that works less and less we know that hundreds of terrorists have been killed in the past 24 hours especially in the Zaitun area in in the Gaza city the problem is that there are still tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp where fighting is also going on and the army is urging them to join the cohort of displaced people that use the corridor the humanitarian corridor that is unilaterally opened by the IDF on the Salah Hadin access that crosses the Gaza Strip from north to south yesterday it was open until eight o'clock in the evening from nine a.m. because there was the evacuation of 200 to 500 medical personnel patients and displaced Palestinians from the Indonesia hospital we've lost the connection temporarily there with Pierre one thing Pierre mentioned during his live report was in the area where we saw those IDF attacks happening in that moment in north Gaza in the Zaitun district uh uh Pierre mentioned that the idea finding yesterday under a mosque a terror lab in fact we have video of that mosque and we have a walkthrough explainer from an Israeli soldier revealing the rocket lab and terror tunnel entrances they found in that mosque in that Zaitun district here's what the soldier had to say um Okay, I'm just going to point out Jeff that if the IDF should believe there is a possibility of a multi-day ceasefire or a humanitarian pause coming, even as soon as this week. And it's certainly in their interest to intensify their activity, if you want to call it mopping up, it certainly seems almost more than that, in North Gaza to try to take out whatever resistance still left in North, get ahead of the pause, especially in North Gaza, unless that would give it an opportunity perhaps for some of those terrorists to even join that a trek down south. So that could count perhaps for increased activity. All eyes focused perhaps on this hostage deal, which is reportedly near the exact detail still murky in flux, but there are indications that a deal may be approaching. And as I mentioned earlier, hundreds of family members of hostages met with Israel's war cabinet ministers last night, many family members leaving the meeting saying they were both confused and disappointed. Family members say they're still getting mixed messages from the government over what is the top goal of the war, return of the hostages or the total destruction of Hamas period. Some family members even leaving in the middle of the discussion telling us on I-24 News last night that the meeting was pointless. The meeting, the only reason I went in was to hear whether or not the entire war cabinet was going to make the same statement that we've heard a couple of days ago from Gantz and Eisenkott. And they said, when they've met with the families, they said very, very clearly that as far as they are concerned, the main goal of the war at this point is to get the hostages back. We wanted, I wanted to hear the entire forum say it and we did not hear it. We heard the opposite. We said, or it was told that defeating Hamas and getting the hostages back are not, neither one is prioritized, they go together. Which means that one goal, defeating Hamas that is expected to take months or maybe years is the same as the other goal of bringing the hostages back, which is a time sensitive goal. Amir, through their unimaginable grief and pain, it is quite clear that many of these family members of the hostages, they are fed up as well. Yes, they obviously are and they have every right to. But look at it from the point of view of the cabinet, regardless of the personalities. When they meet with hundreds of people, it's a press conference. They are, they know that people are going to come out of the meeting, talk to us. The messages will get to Hamas. So it's part of the bargaining, telling the families that the destruction of Hamas has the same importance as getting their loved ones back is a sort of a signal to Hamas. Don't expect too many concessions. Now whether Hamas believes it or not is something else, because obviously the Israeli public wants to have the hostages back regardless of the price they will have to pay, Israel will have to pay. But the politicians running the cabinet and especially in Tanyahu have other agendas too. In addition to the hostage release, they have staked their credibility and indeed their political future on achieving the war aim of destroying Hamas. But destroying Hamas also means that Sinwar, who is now leading the negotiations, will not come out alive. What sort of interest does he have in shortening the negotiations? So there are so many cross currents here that it is impossible for the cabinet to conduct it cool-headedly. Cool up your thoughts. Right. And no matter what decision is made by the government and Prime Minister Netanyahu particularly, they're going to get criticized. Those among the hostages that are saying they don't want a complete deal, all the hostages released, not some of them will criticize a deal that only sees say 50 released or even just the children released. There are those who, even especially the right and the extreme right of Netanyahu's government, will criticize any ceasefire that comes into play here. So Prime Minister Netanyahu is going, especially, but even all the members of the government are going to be criticized and then of course there's always the danger it could go wrong. They could agree to a multi-day ceasefire hearing reports, 10 released each day over five days, but what happens if on day two or three Hamas breaks that ceasefire? And there's also the indication parents and children would have to be released together in part of the hostage deal. Maybe a child or a parent is released in the first batch with the pledge at the next day that the sibling or the parent, the child could be released in the next batch. It's unclear how the batches would work. We don't even know if all the parents and the children are being held together by the same groups. It could be Hamas is holding a parent, Islamic Jihad or another group. So there's tremendous risk involved in this. And there's going to be criticism no matter in how it comes out. It's a tough choice. And Prime Minister Netanyahu understands that. Hamas is in control of this process. And the second factor or actor is the United States. Only in third place is the Israeli government. It is being reactive rather than proactive. Do you think the fact that the Red Cross finally is able to meet with the leadership of Hamas is that indication of a push for. An update, a clear, tangible proof of the status of the hostages, even the location of the hostages to verify as the steel nears that it can be delivered. What do you make of the Red Cross? They were pressed and rightly so by the Israeli arguments that the Red Cross is not doing enough or anything for fear of being meddled by Hamas in Gaza. So they went through the motions. They are going to see Ismail Hania in Qatar. Hania has no control over Sinwar in Gaza. He may not even know the details of what is happening there. So so this is mostly a public relations gesture. Kolev, in the last press conference, the last weekend, the media update, we heard something interesting from Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet and a political rival outside of the war with a prime minister. He said, we have years to destroy Hamas, but we may only have days to release the Hassan. Right. Well, that actually relates to a very specific strategy in the fate of the Hamas leadership in Yixin War, which is what do you what do you do if down the road Yixin War is surrounded? He's still holding hostages and he says, I will release these remaining hostages. But if you give me safe passage out of Gaza to Iran or wherever other country. And there is a precedent of that, of course, Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership that was allowed to leave Beirut during the first Lebanon War. And what do you do about that? I think Benny Gantz was throwing an indication and people have used this specific analogy. We can get him later. We can track him down the way we did. And people specifically reference the hunt after the Munich Olympic terrorists, where in some cases it took 10, even 20, maybe even more years to finally track down and kill them. However, Benny Gantz is saying that may be an acceptable strategy. I'm not sure that other members of the government and including Prime Minister Tenor would see that. They may see that as a defeat. And that's going to be politically problematic for them. It's when they may also say a matter of principle it's problematic for them. Perhaps as we are seeing, as you indicated, perhaps that the idea may be stepping up airstrikes or stepping up the goal of eliminating specific targets to jump ahead of a potential ceasefire. There is the concern or the risk or perhaps in Hamas's eyes, the goal of turning a three- or five-day humanitarian pause into making sure that is permanent. Is there a risk of that? Whatever you call it, this might be the end of an active campaign. Only a diplomatic risk. Militarily, the IDF would also benefit by being refreshed, by sending some reserve soldiers home, perhaps recalling them later. But look at this split between north and south in Gaza. It had two reasons. One is, of course, to make the dense urban landscape less dense by urging northerners to go south for a while. But the other and even more important reason was that Israel had to keep some of its divisions up north. In case the war of attrition with Hezbollah turns into a full-scale war of maneuver in which those very divisions will have to go into south Lebanon. Now that this particular threat receded, we can see that some of the forces are being moved south in order to attack South Gaza. So Israel doesn't want to be caught just in the middle of a move when the ceasefire comes, which is why it is still waiting to see whether the hostage deal is on, and only if not will we see some raids, or even more than that, an invasion of South Gaza. Cole, can you touch on that point, I mean, this full-scale, unprecedented number in scope, mobilization of reserves. I mean, it's obviously had such an impact on the economy. But we're in this about to be the seventh week here of the war. If there is an opportunity for the Israeli soldiers called up from reserves and the Israeli military to take, as Amir put it, a refresh, it's important for Israel as well, perhaps. Yes, but of course, there is the danger of Hamas. There's two of this couple. One is the diplomatic. As Amir said, once you have one ceasefire, or humanitarian pause, it creates a precedent. So then you can have another one. And you can have a 10-day one. And then you say, why not a month? And every time that happens, it does maybe chip away at the goal of completely eliminating Hamas. There is a certain momentum. The public is willing to accept casualties to achieve that particular goal, and that could weaken over time. And yes, and then there are certain military contingencies we don't know, maybe not from the side of the IDF. The IDF is prepared. They have their long-term planning. They know what's involved. Hamunis, the South, is going to be a hugely daunting task that's going to take a lot of planning and intelligence and maybe the army could do it. But we don't know what Hamas will do in that time, for example. We don't know what Iranian proxies might do. Maybe his ball is receded. We don't know if what may proxies will be put on the US. So there's a lot of the Houthi threat. That's the 3-H, Houthi Hamas Hizballah. Right. So there is a lot of risk factors involved here. So there's benefits. There's risks. Again, nothing here is an easy decision. Very difficult, calculus. Amir Kalef, thank you so much for being with us in studio for giving us your analysis. Again, as we go out for a break here, the update is that the strikes continued in North Gaza right now, as we've seen live throughout this broadcast, the IDF striking terror targets across the Northern Gaza Strip and also rocket sirens blaring out in the north of Israel. Once again, it's husband already this morning, attacking positions across the Lebanon border. More live updates, more analysis. Stay with us here on I-24 News. When? Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where we see. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I-24 News at this hour, as we broadcast the latest live updates as the Israel Hamas war enters day 46. Israeli troops right now are engaged in active, intense combat in Northern Gaza as the IDF pushes forward. IDF airstrikes and artillery strikes ongoing at this moment. A short time ago, the IDF announced the deaths of two more soldiers killed in firefights against Hamas in Gaza. The IDF says five other soldiers were seriously wounded. The death toll since the ground operation began in 67, IDF soldiers killed. Let's go straight away to I-24 News correspondent, Pierre Klochendler, on the Israel Hamas border where strikes are still ongoing. Pierre, what's the situation now over the border? Get us caught up on the situation. Well, you can see there was presumed targets in Bet Hanun that was just hit instance ago, very close to the Israeli border, I must say. And as you can see, even in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, although the IDF has overall control, there are still a lot of work being done with the Israeli Air Force, the gunships. We hear also the artillery. This was a hit by the artillery, I think. Now, in other sectors for the south in the Jabalia refugee camp, the Jabalia refugee camp is the site of the northern brigade of Hamas and at least two battalions out of four are neutralized, but two are still operating and engaging Israeli forces. We know also that tens of thousands of Palestinians who are not involved in the combat are still stuck in the refugee camp and the Israeli army is trying to extract them, urging them to move to the Salahadin access on the east of the Jabalia refugee camp in order to move south and leave the battleground to save their lives. Now, this access was opened yesterday for the first time from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. because at the Indonesia Hospital, which is also in the direction behind me, 200 to 500 people were evacuated by the Red Cross. We don't know if that included the medical personnel, the patients, or only the displaced Palestinians who seek refuge in the hospital, but the hospital has not been taken over yet. There was fighting around the hospital yesterday. Tanks are rolling in the vicinity of the hospital complex in the Zaitun neighborhood near the Gaza city center. Close quarter combats have been going on. There has been a lot of findings by the Israeli army of basements and the mosques of reverse engineering of aerial vehicles that were intercepted by Hamas in the past Israeli vehicles that were intercepted by Hamas in the past and they tried to recreate those vehicles for their own purposes. We know also that weapons manufacturing labs were found underneath a mosque. We know also that the Israeli army wants to finish cleansing the Zaitun neighborhood in the next three days, but there is still a lot of work to do in other neighborhoods of Gaza, on the eastern side of Gaza city, such as Tufar, Aldaraj, or Shejaia. So there are still probably over a week of fighting in order to completely try and clean the area of the northern Gaza strip and Gaza city. Peter Kloshanler for us on the Israel-Gaza border. Thanks so much for that live update. Stay safe as you continue to report for us. As Peter mentioned, the IDF in these neighborhoods in North Gaza, the Jabalia camp, the Zaitun neighborhood, finding terror tunnels, terror shafts, weapons making laboratories, rockets, including in the areas of schools, civilian buildings, mosques, specifically the mosque that Pierre mentioned, the IDF releasing video of what they described as an advanced weapons lab under a mosque in the Zaitun neighborhood. Here's our IDF soldier revealing what they found. We're about to enter the mosque that is located below the mosque in the square. A square, a building and a cemetery, a mosque of the Hamas, and many many buildings and a building, a building of the Nafets. We're here at the 5,000 square meters of the mosque, and together with 10 volunteers, the Hamas are located below the Zaitun neighborhood, and the Hamas is located here in the cemetery, Let's turn our attention now to the North, where tensions continue to heat up with Hezbollah terrorists, still firing rockets and shells over the border with Lebanon into Israel. There have been attacks already this morning for an update. Let's go to the North with I-24 News correspondent Zach Anders. Zach, what's the latest? Well, that alarm in the seven o'clock hour was for three different firings of ATGMs, these anti-tank guided missiles. The IDF says targeting inside the community of Matula. This is community that's up in elevation and down below is Kira Trimona, where we've seen a considerable amount of mortar shelling in the last several days. These ATGMs have been a consistent part of the story here over the last 40 plus days as this fighting has been contained mostly to longer range weapons. With these ATGMs, they can be fired over a considerable distance. Same story with the mortars and the artillery and the rockets. These have not devolved into ground forces targeting each other with small arms yet, but of course this has continued to be the story on the North here with these forces attempting to strike the Israeli positions and then get as far away from where they did fire as they can because the Israelis have been very quick to respond and to target these points of origin for where the fire came from and eliminate those targets. The IDF says this morning that they are retaliating once again on this position that fired the ATGMs on their forces this morning. All right, Jack Andrews for us on the northern border with Israel. Thanks so much for that report. I want to begin with breaking news updates, important updates on the battle again in the south with Hamas. Here in the studio, I'm joined by the host of the primetime show and I'm going to introduce the rundown club, Ben David, and I'm going to introduce Middle East correspondent Ariel Oster. Ariel, new reports, new confirmation from the IDF on achieving some of their objectives in Gaza in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and where their troops are stationed currently. What's the latest? Right, Jeff. So with talk of a ceasefire, perhaps in the background, the IDF showing that they are not focusing on that, but they're focusing on moving forward, taking the fight deeper into Palestinian Gaza city territory. Now, according to the IDF and a statement released just a few moments ago saying that its forces have completed their encirclement of Jabalia. As Pierre mentioned, Jabalia, a key center for Hamas's military activity in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. So according to the IDF, it's a 160-second division has completed their encirclement of this area. Simultaneously, other forces have advanced also inside Jabalia throughout the night, multiple clashes between IDF forces and Hamas terrorists during this activity. According to the IDF, dozens of Hamas terrorists were killed and IDF forces, in addition to eliminating that threat, also managed to uncover tunnel shafts, which is a key part of the effort here, as well as weapons depots, places to manufacture weapons. And so this is just from the IDF under the mosques in Zaytun. Yeah, it's not the first mosque that they found and it's not the last mosque that they're going to find armaments inside. And eventually an eye towards the clock perhaps, if there's talk or if there may be a deal imminently, the importance of completing this encirclement and destroying the top tier targets while they can before there's a deal. Right, so I mean because the IDF is operating now with this kind of in the back of mind, it does raise the question whether perhaps they're not starting new military objectives or new operations, but rather trying to complete what they currently have because if we're talking about a ceasefire deal that could extend three, perhaps potentially five days, perhaps even longer than that, that would mean that the forces stay put. There is one issue that the IDF is adamant about is that any ceasefire deal will allow the IDF to continue to have drones above the forces to protect the forces because even if there's not fighting, there are still deep inside Gaza and the forces could be under threat. And so that is going to be potentially a sticking point, but obviously already from the Hamas side, we're getting indications that they passed their request, their demands over to the Qataris. And as far as they're concerned, this is at least what the Palestinians are saying. They're ready for a deal. Right, and actually there are now reports coming out of Israeli media citing Israeli sources basically agreeing to what appears to be the outline of a deal, which would be a deal that would free children and mothers staggered over a period of, we're hearing five days in which people would there be tranches, which people say 10 a day released. One way of Hamas, for example, making sure the ceasefire extends to full five days. And now we've been reports saying possibility. And I think I alluded to whatever extending beyond that if it should be successful and starting to release more. But then again, raising all kinds of questions, setting a precedent for these ceasefires. Even within these reports, would Israel have to also release terror prisoners? Do we know it's unclear? Well, I think that was part of the yes. I think that first of all it's unclear because nothing is confirmed or based on reports. But the initial reporting was that Israel would also release women. And I'll be very careful here. Children or minors held in Israeli prisons. One of the complications is that a minor, anyone under 18, includes 17 year old Hamas terrorists that have committed murders. So that's one of the complications. But that was initially said, but I repeat all of this unconfirmed as regards the details. Right. And also as we try to stick to as much basis that we can. So if we're looking at what Hamas officials are saying today is that Richard, he's a member of Hamas is a Politburo. He's obviously not in Gaza, like the majority of the leadership or the entirety of the political leadership. Basically, he's in Qatar with honey. And he's saying today to Arab media that the equation will be women and children held in Israeli prisons. That number will be matched with women and children released by Hamas. That's a big claim. I haven't heard that exact equation up until now. This comes from who? This is a member of Hamas's political bureau. And so that is an interesting statement. He's also saying that we're reaching a truce agreement closer than we have ever been. I will just note that what is very interesting to see in Palestinian media today is that they're focusing not on the release of prisoners, but on the truce element of this. If we're seeing what they're trying to present as the achievement, if they kidnapped and took hostage over 200 civilians, if the goal was to release prisoners, right now they're showing that the achievement is bringing a ceasefire rather than the release of prisoners. We're saying on their own Hamas's own survival within Gaza rather than freeing prisoners. I will note again, as we talk about the Hassan Jil, nothing is confirmed, nothing is announced, but there is at this point a commonality in loose terms between the reporting in Israeli media, Israeli television, speaking with sources, and also American media, the Washington Post, all kind of having the same loose outline of what a deal may look like. Let's bring into the conversation, I retired IDF colonel, Mary Eisen, currently the director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Grachman University, who has been listening in. Mary, give us your thoughts this morning, and I want to get you to touch on a precedent here being said that if there is a cease, whatever you want to call it, I mean a ceasefire, a truce, a pause in hostility, a humanitarian break, whatever, if there is some kind of end to active military campaign, the destruction of Hamas targets for our ever brief a period, does that not set a precedent that could be extended and extended again? Jeff, let's be clear, everything is unprecedented. So everything that you do now is making a precedent. It is unprecedented to attack a country, take hundreds of civilians hostages, take babies, grandparents. It's unprecedented. So the negotiation is unprecedented. Everything here has to do with that. Look at even the discussion, the wonderful discussion you just had with Khaled and with Ariel, because as I was listening to you, I was thinking, look at how we in Israel were talking about women and children for women and children. Can we be clear? The women in Israeli jails are terrorists who were put on trial, who were arrested, who were given time periods inside. Some of them, I imagine, were blood on their hands, where they chose to do those things. They were arrested, found, and children in that sense. That's been a point of contention forever. And again, these are minors, when I say children and my heart goes out to children, who have been put on trial, and children are put on trial too. And as I say, we can't do the women and children for women and children. I don't like that equation. When we talk right now about the dilemma, everything is going to be unprecedented. So when we have one live soldier and we give 1,129 Hamas terrorists for him in 2011, this doesn't mean that was the wrong decision then. It was unprecedented, and now it's unprecedented. And the dilemma in that sense is how much can you push Hamas in the meantime? Israel has constantly said the most important thing are two things, not one or the other. Hostages, the hostages, the hostages, but at the exact same time, to get the hostages and to make sure that we can all live here in the state of Israel safely. We need, and your Kalev put the point there, we need Hamas to be releasing hostages because of our pressure and not because they gained something from their having from the beginning done such an unprecedented attack. There is no easy way out of it. This is not a happy situation. But you have to keep the pressure on together with getting your hostages. There's no question that Hamas would like to have this not just as a ceasefire and as a pause, but that's part of their negotiations, which means that we're going to continue the pressure. How you do that, ma'am? We're in such an unprecedented arena. I don't know how you do that. Here we are. We're trying. It's trial and error at this stage. Mary, can you touch on, give us your thoughts from a counterterrorism perspective here as you give your analysis of Hamas as a terror organization still nevertheless having a military, militant wing and the Politburo, the political wing largely based in Qatar. We are now for the first time in almost seven weeks, the Red Cross finally being able to meet with Hamas leadership, not in Gaza, but in Qatar. We're hearing more messages from the Politburo. As we just heard earlier, I'll give a new update from Hamas leadership in Qatar. The Qatari wing of Hamas speaking out about a hostage deal, speaking out to the Red Cross for the first time. What do you make of that and how that distinction between the locations of Hamas as the fight goes on? So Hamas has always had two different portions within it, the military terror army, which is the one that attacked us, not a single attack on October 7th, but as part of the campaign and the political leadership that call both of them for the same aim. It's a question of how you got there. They want the annihilation of the state of Israel. And the political bureau will probably say it can take a long time and we can do it in stages. And the military said October 7th, we're going to attack and take apart Israel. They both have the same aim. Let's not be, like, Jeff, it isn't that the political guys are nice and easier and the military guys are harsher. I won't do that distinction. Having said that, most of the Gaza Strip, and certainly over the last 16 years, as Hamas ruled over the Gaza Strip, has a large portion of people who can support Hamas. That doesn't mean that they're part of the military wing. So in talking to those political figures, you have no choice. You want to get your hostages back. This is part of the dilemma. And having done so, it doesn't mean that you stop the pressure, both on the military, but I want to be clear, also on the political. You can't do that distinct separation. When you look at the continuation, and I put that in people's minds, at the end, there's 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. At some stage, this war that they inflicted on us, the Hamas, will be over. Somebody's going to have to run it. We talk about all sorts of Palestinians, but for example, about Hamas' political part are the ones that are acceptable there. So we have to look at it very broadly. It's going to make our stomach hurt, but I don't believe any of them. And bottom line, they're a terror organization. They'll call for our annihilation, and the military side wants to do it very, very, very violent. And the other one just wants to do it slower, but they have no problem with violence. Amira Eisen, thank you so much for being with us and giving us your analysis here today. Last night, Israel's war cabinet, including Defense Minister Galant, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they held a closed-door meeting with hundreds of family members of the hostages in Gaza, some 240 family members of hostages. Many of the family members left the meeting saying they were confused, but also very disappointed. They're saying that they're still getting mixed messages from the government over the goals of this ongoing war. Some family members even leaving in the middle of the discussion to tell I-20 for News that the meeting was pointless. You know, the meeting, the only reason I went in was to hear whether or not the entire war cabinet was going to make the same statement that we've heard a couple of days ago from Gantz and Eisenkott. And they said, when they've met with the families, they said very, very clearly that as far as they are concerned, the main goal of the war at this point is to get the hostages back. I wanted to hear the entire forum say it, and we did not hear it. We heard the opposite. We said or it was told that defeating Hamas and getting the hostages back are not, neither one is prioritized. They go together, which means that one goal, defeating Hamas, that is expected to take months or maybe years, is the same as the other goal of bringing the hostages back, which is a time-sensitive goal. Back in studio call, something we touched on earlier, the real politic of this, the decision now to meet with the family members from Israel's war cabinet, and also perhaps the reality that the war cabinet made up of politicians knows that when you meet with hundreds of family members, grieving, I mean, beyond struggling emotionally, beyond any rational personal can handle, the amount of grief and pain they have to deal with, but when you speak with them in a forum like this, you know that the messages are going to get out to the media, get out internationally. What do you make of the discussion and the family's reaction to what happened last night? Right. Well, first of all, this was going to be a loaded discussion. It doesn't sound like it was handled very well, I should say. There was some confusion at the beginning about finding a space big enough for all of them. Obviously, there was some mixed messaging, at least the hostages family say between members of the cabinet, Prime Minister Netanyahu talking primarily the goal of destroying Hamas, they say, Yoav Garland and Benny Gantz talking about freeing hostages. But obviously, this meeting, if indeed we're talking about a possible hostage, some kind of hostage deal in the coming days, this meeting had to happen. There had to be a meeting between the members of the war cabinet who are making this decision is going to be a painful decision. For example, freeing some of the hostages and not doing the complete deal that some of the hostage families say, no, we want to see a complete deal, all of the hostages freed at the same time. So there's going to be criticism no matter how this turns out. So this meeting had to happen just so the war cabinet could say, we did meet with the families and heard their concerns before it happened. But they knew going in, this was going to be difficult, and they were going to be criticized from it. And again, as you said before, there is a political element. Also, I don't want to get too far into that of the personal political survival of some of the participants in making that decision. The Gilad Shalit decision haunted some members of the government that made that decision over a decade ago. This will also be similar. So that's why also they had to have this meeting. Now I want to turn that again to the new developments just released from the IDF about some of their military accomplishments in North Gaza. Tell me a little bit more about the neighborhoods or the areas in North Gaza that have now been encircled, the IDF units that were able to complete the encirclement. We talked about Jabalia in a technical sense being a refugee camp. What does that mean? I mean, we've heard that term in previous areas of Gaza where it's more of an urban dense city environment rather than what would be classically thought of as a refugee camp with tents in wide open spaces. It's not that. It's actually the opposite. It's tall buildings in a dense area as opposed to tents in an open area. But we're talking about Jabalia. 75% of the population in Gaza are what the UN considers third generation refugees, meaning they're not their parents, but their grandparents were displaced and have relocated there. But these camps aren't temporary for their plan to return. But they're labeled refugees by the UN according to that definition. That's that. Now, prior to the encirclement of Jabalia, we were told by the IDF a few days ago that Gaza City was encircled. Now, Jabalia is one of the northern neighborhoods of Gaza City. It is a military hub for Hamas where their vast underground network has some key command centers. We saw throughout these past few weeks significant strikes on Jabalia on underground networks and in those strikes are believed to have been eliminated key field commanders as well as members of Hamas's political bureau. So it is seen. You can say about about Jabalia that if we've been talking over the past year and a half about the West Bank and Janine. So you can consider Jabalia, the Janine of northern Gaza. That's, I think, the best way to describe it as the military hub of Hamas. The encirclement of that means that it is easier for the forces to, first of all, disconnect the forces that are the Hamas fighters, obviously, that are fighting there in a way that they've already, the IDF has already significantly heard the chain of command in northern Gaza and also specifically in Jabalia yesterday after pretty much taking out the Zaytun battalion, even though there's still reports of clashes today. It appears that the next stage is to eliminate Hamas presence in Jabalia. That is going to be a tough task. It has been so far, but the IDF with a lot of success militarily on the ground so far. And completing that encirclement, the first most important part of, you know, disconnecting and then destroying the brigades there. Thank you so much, Ariel Kolev for being with us in studio. We're going off for a short break. Again, more live reporting from the northern border with Lebanon and the border with Gaza. More live updates and expert analysis. Stay with us here in I-20 for news as the war goes on. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. I-20 for news at this hour as we broadcast the latest live updates as the Israel-Hamas war enters day 46. Israeli troops right now are engaged in active intense combat in northern Gaza as the IDF pushes forward. IDF airstrikes and artillery strikes ongoing at this moment. A short time ago, the IDF announced the deaths of two more soldiers killed in firefights against Hamas in Gaza. The IDF says five other soldiers were seriously wounded. The death toll in the since the ground operation began in 67. IDF soldiers killed. Let's go straight away to I-20 for news correspondent Peter Kloshendler on the Israel-Hamas border where strikes are still ongoing. Peter, what's the situation now over the over the border? Get us caught up on the situation. Well, you can see there was presumed targets in Beth Hanun. That was just hit instance ago. Very close to the Israeli border, I must say. And as you can see, even in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, although the IDF has overall control, there are still a lot of work being done with the Israeli Air Force, the gunships. We hear also the artillery. This was a hit by the artillery, I think. Now, in other sectors further south in the Jebaliah refugee camp, the Jebaliah refugee camp is the site of the northern brigade of Hamas. And at least two battalions out of four are neutralized, but two are still operating and engaging Israeli forces. We know also that tens of thousands of Palestinians who are not involved in the combat are still stuck in the refugee camp. And the Israeli army is trying to extract them, urging them to move to the Salahadin axis on the east of the Jebaliah refugee camp in order to move south and leave the battleground to save their lives. Now, this axis was open yesterday for the first time from 9 a.m. till 8 p.m., because at the Indonesia hospital, which is also in the direction behind me, 200 to 500 people were evacuated by the Red Cross. We don't know if that included the medical personnel, the patients, or only the displaced Palestinians who seek refuge in the hospital. But the hospital has not been taken over yet. There was fighting around the hospital yesterday, tanks are rolling in the vicinity of the hospital complex in the Zaitun neighborhood near the Gaza city center. Close quarter combats have been going on. There has been a lot of findings by the Israeli army of basements and the mosques of reverse engineering of aerial vehicles that were intercepted by Hamas in the past, Israeli vehicles that were intercepted by Hamas in the past, and they tried to recreate those vehicles for their own purposes. We know also that weapons manufacturing labs were found underneath a mosque. We know also that the Israeli army wants to finish cleansing the Zaitun neighborhood in the next three days, but there is still a lot of work to do in other neighborhoods of Gaza on the eastern side of Gaza city such as Tufar, Aldaraj, or Shejaia. So there are still probably over a week of fighting in order to completely try and clean the area of the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza city. Peter Kloshandler for us on the Israel-Gaza border. Thanks so much for that live update. Stay safe as you continue to report for us. As Peter mentioned, the IDF in these neighborhoods in North Gaza, the Jabalia camp, the Zaitun neighborhood, finding terror tunnels, terror shafts, weapons making laboratories, rockets, including in the areas of schools, civilian buildings, mosques, specifically the mosque that Pierre mentioned, the IDF releasing video of what they described as an advanced weapons lab under a mosque in the Zaitun neighborhood. Here's our IDF soldier revealing what they found. We are now entering the mosque that is located under the mosque in the center of the mosque. A mosque, a palace, and a temple. A mosque of the Khamas. Lots of buildings, a church and a mosque of the Efez. We have five different buildings, with a group of ten people. The one under the Khamas is a mosque of the Efez of the Khamas. Let's turn our attention now to the north, where tensions continue to heat up with Hezbollah terrorists, still firing rockets and shells over the border with Lebanon into Israel. There have been attacks already this morning. For an update, let's go to the north with I-24 News correspondent Zach Anders. Zach, what's the latest? Well that alarm in the 7 o'clock hour was for three different firings of ATGMs, these anti-tank guided missiles. The IDF says targeting inside the community of Mutullah. This is a community that's up in elevation and down below is Kiryat Sharmona, where we've seen a considerable amount of mortar shelling in the last several days. These ATGMs have been a consistent part of the story here over the last 40 plus days as this fighting has been contained mostly to longer range weapons. With these ATGMs, they can be fired over a considerable distance. Same story with the mortars and the artillery and the rockets. These have not devolved into ground forces targeting each other with small arms yet. Of course, this has continued to be the story on the north here with these forces attempting to strike the Israeli positions and then get as far away from where they did fire as they can because the Israelis have been very quick to respond and to target these points of origin for where the fire came from and eliminate those targets. The IDF says this morning that they are retaliating once again on this position that fired the ATGMs on their forces this morning. All right, Jack Angus for us on the Northern border with Israel. Thanks so much for that report. I want to begin with breaking news updates, important updates on the battle again in the south with Hamas. Here in the studio, I'm joined by the host of the primetime show, and I'm trying to introduce the rundown club, Ben David, and I'm trying to introduce Middle East correspondent, Ariel Oster, and Ariel Neu reports new confirmation from the IDF on achieving some of their objectives in Gaza in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and where their troops are stationed currently. What's the latest? Right, Jeff. So with talk of a ceasefire, perhaps in the background, the IDF showing that they are not focusing on that, but they're focusing on moving forward, taking the fight deeper into Palestinian Gaza city territory. Now, according to the IDF and a statement released just a few moments ago saying that its forces have completed their encirclement of Jabalia, as Pierre mentioned, Jabalia, a key center for Hamas's military activity in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. So according to the IDF, it's a 160 second division has completed their encirclement of this area. Simultaneously, other forces have advanced also inside Jabalia throughout the night, multiple clashes between IDF forces and Hamas terrorists during this activity. According to the IDF, dozens of Hamas terrorists were killed and IDF forces in addition to eliminating that threat also managed to uncover tunnel shafts, which is a key part of the effort here, as well as weapons depots, places to manufacture weapons. And so this is just the latest example from the IDF under the mosques in Zaytun. Yeah, it's not the first mosque that they found and it's not the last mosque that they're going to find armaments inside. And you mentioned an eye towards the clock, perhaps, if there's talk or if there may be a deal imminently, the importance of completing this encirclement and destroying the top tier targets while they can before there's a deal. Right. So I mean, because the IDF is operating now with this kind of in the back of mind, it does raise the question whether perhaps they're not starting new military objectives or new operations, but rather trying to complete what they currently have because if we're talking about a ceasefire deal that could extend three, potentially five days, perhaps even longer than that, that would mean that the forces they put there is one issue that the IDF is adamant about is that any ceasefire deal will allow the IDF to continue to have drones above the forces to protect the forces because even if there's not fighting, there are still deep inside Gaza and the forces could be under threat. And so that is going to be potentially a sticking point. But obviously, already from the Hamas side, we're getting indications that they passed their request, their demands over to the Qataris. And as far as they're concerned, this is at least what the Palestinians are saying. They're ready for a deal. Right. And actually, there are now reports coming out of Israeli media citing Israeli sources basically agreeing to what appears to be the outline of a deal, which would be a deal that would free children and mothers staggered over a period of, we're hearing five days in which people would be tranches, which people say 10 a day released. One way of Hamas, for example, making sure the ceasefire extends to full five days. And now we've been reports saying passability. And I think I alluded to whatever extending beyond that if it should be successful and starting to release more. But then again, raising all kinds of questions, setting a precedent for these ceasefires. Or within these reports, would Israel have to also release terror prisoners? Do we know it's unclear? Well, I think that was part of the yes. I think that that it's first of all, it's unclear because nothing is confirmed or based on reports. But the initial reporting was that Israel would also release women. And I'll be very careful here. Children or minors held in Israeli prisons. And one of the complications is that a minor anyone on the 18 includes 17 year old Hamas terrorists that have committed murders. So that's one of the complications. But that was initially said. But I repeat all of this unconfirmed as regards to detail. Yeah, right. And also, as we try to stick to as as much basis that we can. So if we're looking at what Hamas officials are saying today, is that Richard, he's a member of Hamas is a Politburo. He's obviously not in Gaza, like the majority of the leadership or the entirety of the political leadership, basically. He's in Qatar with honey. And he's saying today to Arab media that the the equation will be women and children held in Israeli prisons. That number will be matched with women and children released by Hamas. That's a big claim. I haven't heard that exact equation up until now. This comes from who? This is a member of Hamas's political bureau. And so that is an interesting statement. He's also saying that we're reaching a truce agreement closer than we have ever been. I will just note that what is very interesting to see in Palestinian media today is that they're focusing not on the release of prisoners, but on the truce element of this, if we're seeing what what they're trying to present as the achievement, if they kidnapped and took hostage over 200 civilians. If the goal was to release prisoners right now, they're showing that the achievement is bringing a ceasefire rather than the release of their own Hamas's own survival within Gaza rather than freeing prisoners. I will note again, as we talk about the hostage, you'll know nothing is is confirmed. Nothing is announced. But there is at this point a commonality in loose terms between the reporting in Israeli media, Israeli television, speaking with sources and also American media, the Washington Post, all kind of having the same loose outline of what a deal may look like. Let's bring into the conversation. I retired IDF colonel Mary Eisen, currently the director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Grachman University, who has been listening in. Mary, give us your thoughts this morning. And I want to get you to touch on a precedent here being said that if there is a cease, whatever you want to call it, I mean, a ceasefire, a truce, a pause in hostility, a humanitarian break, whatever, if there is some kind of end to active military campaign, the destruction of Hamas targets for our ever brief a period, does that not set a precedent that could be extended and extended again? Jeff, let's be clear, everything is unprecedented. So everything that you do now is making a precedent. It is unprecedented to attack a country, take hundreds of civilians, hostages, take babies, grandparents. It's unprecedented. So the negotiation is unprecedented. Everything here has to do with that. Look at even the discussion, the wonderful discussion you just had. With Khaled and with Ariel, because as I was listening to you, I was thinking, look at how we in Israel, we're talking about women and children for women and children. Can we be clear? The women in Israeli jails are terrorists who were put on trial, who were arrested, who were given time periods inside. Some of them, I imagine, with blood on their hands, where they chose to do those things. They were arrested, found and children in that sense. It's been a point of contention forever. And again, these are minors. When I say children and my heart goes out to children who have been put on trial and children are put on trial too. And as I say, we can't do the women and children for women and children. I don't like that equation. When we talk right now about the dilemma, everything is going to be unprecedented. So when we have one live soldier and we give 1,129 Hamas terrorists for him in 2011, this doesn't mean that was the wrong decision then. It was unprecedented and now it's unprecedented. And the dilemma in that sense is how much can you push Hamas in the meantime? Israel has constantly said the most important thing are two things, not one or the other hostages, the hostages, the hostages. But at the exact same time, to get the hostages and to make sure that we can all live here in the state of Israel safely, we need, and you're Kalev put the point there, we need Hamas to be releasing hostages because of our pressure and not because they gained something from their having from the beginning done such an unprecedented attack. There is no easy way out of it. This is not a happy situation, but you have to keep the pressure on together with getting your hostages. There's no question that Hamas would like to have this not just as a ceasefire and as a pause, but that's part of their negotiations, which means that we're going to continue the pressure. How you do that, man, we're in such an unprecedented arena. I don't know how you do that. Here we are. We're trying. It's trial and error at this stage. Mary, can you touch on, give us your thoughts from a counterterrorism perspective here? As you give your analysis of Hamas as a terror organization, we're still nevertheless having a military militant wing and the Politburo, the political wing, largely based in Qatar. We are now for the first time in almost seven weeks, the Red Cross finally being able to meet with Hamas leadership, not in Gaza, but in Qatar. We're hearing more messages from the Politburo. As we just heard, I'll give a new update from Hamas leadership in Qatar, the Qatari wing of Hamas speaking out about a hostage deal, speaking out to the Red Cross for the first time. What do you make of that and how that distinction between the locations of Hamas as the fight goes on? So Hamas has always had two different portions within it, the military terror army, which is the one that attacked us, not a single attack on October 7th, but as part of the campaign and the political leadership that call both of them for the same aim. It's a question of how you got there. They want the annihilation of the state of Israel and the political bureau will probably say it can take a long time or we can do it in stages. And the military said October 7th, we're going to attack and take apart Israel. They both have the same aim. Let's not be like, Jeff, it isn't that the political guys are nice and easier. And the military guys are harsher. I won't do that distinction. Having said that, most of the Gaza Strip and certainly over the last 16 years is Hamas ruled over the Gaza Strip as a large portion of people who can support Hamas, that doesn't mean that they're part of the military wing. So in talking to those political figures, you have no choice. You want to get your hostages back. This is part of the dilemma. And having done so, it doesn't mean that you stop the pressure both on the military, but I want to be clear also on the political. You can't do that distinct separation when you look at the continuation. And I put that in people's minds that, you know, at the end, there's 2.2, 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip at some stage, this war that they inflicted on us, the Hamas will be over. Somebody's going to have to run it. We talk about all sorts of Palestinians, but, for example, about Hamas political part of the ones that are acceptable there. So we have to look at it very broadly. It's going to make our stomach hurt, but I don't believe any of them. And bottom line, they're a terror organization. We'll call for our annihilation. And the military side wants to do it very, very, very violent. And the other one just wants to do it slower, but they have no problem with violence. Amir Aizen, thank you so much for being with us and giving us your analysis here today. Last night, Israel's war cabinet, including Defense Minister Golan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they held a closed door meeting with hundreds of family members of the hostages in Gaza, some 240 family members of hostages. As many of the family members left the meeting saying they were confused, but also very disappointed, they're saying that they're still getting mixed messages from the government over the goals of this ongoing war. Some family members even leaving in the middle of the discussion to tell I-20 for News that the meeting was pointless. You know, the meeting, the only reason I went in was to hear whether or not the entire war cabinet was going to make the same statement that we've heard a couple of days ago from Gantz and Eisencote. And they said when they've met with the families, they said very, very clearly that as far as they are concerned, the main goal of the war at this point is to get the hostages back. We wanted, I wanted to hear the entire forum say it and we did not hear it. We heard the opposite. We said, or it was told that defeating Hamas and getting the hostages back are not, neither one is prioritized. They go together, which means that one goal, defeating Hamas, that is expected to take months or maybe years is is the same as the other goal of bringing the hostages back, which is a time sensitive goal. Back in studio, something we touched on earlier, the real politic of this, the decision now to meet with the family members by the Israel's war cabinet and also perhaps the reality that the war cabinet made up of politicians knows that when you meet with hundreds of family members grieving, I mean, beyond struggling emotionally, beyond any rational person can handle the amount of grief and pain they have to deal with. But when you speak with them in a forum like this, you know that the messages are going to get out to the media, get out internationally. What do you make of the discussion and the family's reaction to kind of what happened last night? Right. Well, first of all, this was going to be a loaded discussion. It doesn't sound like it was handled very well. I should say there was some confusion at the beginning about which finding a space big enough for all of them. Obviously, some of it was some mixed messaging. At least the hostage family say between members of the cabinet. Prime Minister Netanyahu talking primary of the goal of destroying Hamas, they say, you know, I've got a lot that Betty Gantz talking about freeing hostages, but obviously this meeting, if indeed we're talking about a possible hostage, some kind of hostage deal in the coming days. This meeting had to happen. There had to be a meeting between the members of the war cabinet who are making this decision is going to be a painful decision. For example, freeing some of the hostages and not doing the complete deal that all of the host that some of the hostage family say, no, we want to see a complete deal, all of the hostages freed at the same time. So there's going to be criticism, no matter how this turns out. So this meeting had to happen just so the war cabinet can say, we did meet with the families and heard their concerns before it happened. But they knew going in, this is going to be difficult. And they were going to be criticized from it. And again, as you said before, there is a political element. Also, I don't want to get too far into that of the personal political survival of some of the participants in making that decision. The Gillard-Shali decision haunted the members of the government that made that decision over a decade ago. This will also be similar. So that's why it also they had to have this meeting. Now, I want to turn it again to the new developments just released from the IDF about some of their military accomplishments in North Gaza. Tell me a little bit more about the neighborhoods or the areas in North Gaza that have now been encircled, the IDF units that were able to complete the encirclement. We talked about Jabalia in a technical sense, being a refugee camp. There's what does that mean? I mean, we've heard that term in previous areas of Gaza where it's more of a urban dense city environment rather than what would be classically thought of as a refugee camp with tents in wide open spaces. It's not that. It's not that it's actually the opposite. It's tall buildings in a dense area as opposed to tents in an open area. But we're talking about Jabalia. It's 75 percent of the population in Gaza are what the U.N. considers third generation refugees, meaning they're not their parents, but their grandparents were were displaced and have relocated there. But then these camps aren't temporary for their plan to to return. But that's their their labeled refugees by the U.N. According to that definition, that that's that. Now, prior to the encirclement of Jabalia, we were told by the IDF a few days ago that Gaza City was encircled. Now, Jabalia is one of the northern neighborhoods of Gaza City. And it is a military hub for Hamas, where their vast underground network has some key command centers. We saw throughout these past few weeks, significant strikes on Jabalia on underground networks and in those strikes are believed to have been eliminated. Key field commanders, as well as members of Hamas's political bureau. So it is seen you can say about about Jabalia, that if we we've been talking over the past year and a half about the West Bank and Janine, so you can consider Jabalia, the Janine of northern Gaza. That's, I think, the best way to describe it as the the military hub of Hamas. The encirclement of that means that it is easier for the forces to, first of all, disconnect the forces that are the Hamas fighters, obviously, that are fighting there in a way that they've already the IDF has already significantly heard the chain of command in northern Gaza and also specifically in Jabalia. But yesterday, after pretty much taking out the the Zaytun battalion, even though there's still reports of clashes today, it appears that the next stage is to eliminate Hamas presence in Jabalia. That is going to be a tough task. It has been so far, but the IDF with a lot of success militarily on the ground so far and completing that encirclement, the first most important part of disconnecting and then destroying the brigades there. Thank you so much, Ariel Koleff for being with us in studio. We're going up for a short break again. More live reporting from the northern border of Lebanon and the border with Gaza. More live updates and expert analysis. Stay with us here and I, 24 news as the war goes on. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Watching us here on I 24 News at this hour, there's a live images breaking news, huge explosions in Gaza on the as the Israel Gaza war anchors. Now it's 46th day. We can see huge plumes of smoke. We have seen a noticeable increase in strikes and attacks in the northern part of the Gaza Strip in recent hours this morning already. And now just moments ago, some kind of strike resulting in a huge explosion in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. We have our correspondent on the Gaza border. We'll go to him later here in our broadcast, Pierre Kloeschenler, who has been reporting what he describes as a noticeable uptick in IDF artillery strikes and airstrikes as well in the northern Gaza Strip. I want to stay here immediately in studio where I'm joined by Rafael Urushalmi, a former senior intelligence officer and an IDF and security analyst. And the host of the rundown here on I 24 News in prime time, Kolev Ben-David, Rafael, the images that we're seeing now live in Gaza, huge explosions today. Right now, huge plumes of smoke. And the fact that we know IDF is very active this morning in striking terror targets in the northern Gaza Strip. What does this mean? Do you think we are intensifying the attack because the ceasefire might be might be drawing near? So we have to score as many points as we can while we can fight. We also want to keep the pressure on the political branch of the Hamas. And because we think it contributes to the negotiation, it gives us leverage. And this pressure is what forced the political branch of the Hamas to start negotiating about the hostages. We also have to secure the northern part of the Gaza Strip so we can start continuing the action towards the center of south of Gaza, towards Hanyounis, which is the stronghold of the Hamas. And last but not least, we want to secure the northern part of the Gaza Strip in such a way that we might bring back the residents of the border cities and villages of Israel along the Gaza Strip. They have abandoned these places after the massacres of the 7th of October. And we are now planifying their return. And for that, we have to make sure the perimeter is safe around them. And, Colov, your reaction to these images that we're seeing, perhaps as we've been talking, an indication that the clock might be ticking out on the ability of the IDF to operate and strike terror targets if a ceasefire or a truce is coming near. But we are seeing huge explosions indicating there's a lot of terror targets still around. There certainly are, and we know there's air strikes and artillery fire on targets in the Jabalia and Beit Hanun camps or really neighborhoods of northern Gaza. Those are still strongholds of pockets of terrorists there, even though those areas are encircled, completely encircled within them, there are pockets of terrorists. The IDF basically has to go building by building even below building into tunnels to sort of bring out. And as Rafael said, we might have a situation of a ceasefire coming, a ceasefire that could be used for these terror groups within that area to regroup. There's also a possibility they could try to use that ceasefire to blend in with the civilian population. And there still are tens of thousands of civilians in the north of Gaza. The IDF is allowing them to go south through a humanitarian corridor. And the south is always a possibility that these terrorists could try to blend in with those groups and make their way to the south. So there is perhaps an urgency this morning, if indeed, and all of this is unconfirmed, if indeed, we are moving to a ceasefire that could last according to these reports up to five days and of course could serve as a precedent to extend even beyond the five days. I'll note here that the IDF has announced they've completed the encirclement of the Jabalia camp. The IDF this morning also announcing, sadly, the deaths of two more soldiers killed in firefights against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The IDF says five other soldiers seriously wounded in fighting. The IDF death toll in just since the ground invasion began more than six weeks ago now is up to 67 soldiers killed. Rafael has as clever alluded to the IDF announcing they've encircled the Jabalia neighborhood, which is a dense urban neighborhood. And a stronghold of some Hamas battalions, an area that may see active fighting, the IDF has encircled it. When we talk about refugee camps or a camp, there is this popular image of being an area in open fields and wide open spaces and tents. But Jabalia is a neighborhood of high rises and big buildings and a lot of spaces for these Hamas battalions to operate. Correct? Exactly. And some of these high rises were built by the Israelis because as a gesture to the Palestinians at the time, it's very important to understand that the Jabalia camp is one of the strongholds of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Right now, the concentration is on this particular camp and as well as Bed Hanun and Zeytun. All of them very important strategic spots. One of the big explosions is also a communication tower. We are yet again suppressing. We're going to come back to you, but we do have Pierre Kloshandler for us live, for us on the border where these explosions and strikes continue. Pierre, what's going on? Well, Daniel Noor, our cameraman, is going to show you Jabalia as we know that the refugee camp, which is one of the densest in the Gaza Strip, is completely encircled by the Israeli ground forces. And you see here an explosion against the presumed terror target in the vicinity of the Jabalia refugee camp. They've opened access into the camp. They've destroyed three tunnel shafts. As far as we understand, they've neutralized Hamas terrorists. And further south, that would be on the left side of your monitor in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City. The fighting is ongoing sometimes in close quarters with Hamas terrorists. What we know is the sniper nests and the observation points of those Hamas operatives have been neutralized, which leaves the Hamas operatives engaging the Israeli ground forces in Zeytun, only relying on the noise of the armored vehicles that are penetrating into the Zeytun neighborhood. The all in all, in the past 24 hours, we know that there's been over 250 air strikes on presumed Hamas targets. And we also know from the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniela Gary, in his nightly briefing yesterday, that the goal of the Israeli army is to take over the whole Gaza Strip. We don't know exactly when, but to comb with the metal comb, he said. Other neighborhoods of Gaza City, such as Tufa al-Daraj, and then move southeast of Gaza City to Sejaia, which is a neighborhood, a stronghold of Hamas facing Kibbutz Nakhal Oz on Israeli territory, which was the site of one of the October 7 massacres. Jeff Pierre, can the IDF screen for Hamas fighters amid the civilians that remain in North Gaza as these strikes continue and intensify as the encirclement tightens? How can the IDF screen for that? Well, you know, we know that some of the terrorists are fighting to the death, but others are switching quickly to civilian clothes in order to evacuate the zone of the fighting, trying to reach the southern Gaza Strip. That could be as a result of an order, although we know that the connection between the command centers of Hamas and those terrorists have been cut off in many instances. But some of them also might find refuge in one of the mazes and the ground, the tunnels, and that would allow them maybe also to move from one point to another and to move from the northern sector of the Gaza Strip to the southern sector of Gaza Strip. I don't think that the Israeli army is trying to kill all terrorist presence right now. They're trying, first of all, to dismantle the lines of defense. The infrastructure, the weapons depot, the manufacturing labs of weapons. We know that there's been reverse engineering of attack drones of the Israeli army to serve the purpose of Hamas. We also know that they found rocket launchers in civilian apartments. So all this infrastructure, the tunnel shafts, the tunnels is the emphasis of the army right now. And of course, killing those who confront the Israeli army. But I don't think that it's feasible to kill every one of those terrorists that are still present in those zones, in the battleground at this moment. Peter Kloshendl, for us. Stay safe. Thank you so much. We will be keeping an eye on the border as these airstrikes and our killery strikes continue to intensify this morning. Back here in studio with Col. Ben David and Rafael Urushami. I want to ask about a potential hostage that may result in a multi-day ceasefire, a multi-day truce, however you want to call it, to stop the fighting. There are reports and perhaps a big sticking point is even if the IDF agrees to a multi-day pause in fighting and attacking and destroying targets, they would demand that observation drones or observation ability continues to be preserved. Hamas reportedly not go not wanting to accede to that demand, not agreeing to that demand. How can how important is it? Is it for the IDF to have these drones still flying in Gaza, even if there is a break in hostilities? It will be even more important that it is now because the Hamas will avail itself of this ceasefire to regroup and redeploy. So the information we have now will not be valid in two days later. So we have to keep monitoring the moves of the Hamas fighters. This ceasefire is very dangerous, first of all, because the troops are going to be static, which is always a dangerous position. We remember that during protective border, one of our soldiers was kidnapped that way during a ceasefire. It allows the Hamas terrorists to gather more intel. Right now, they don't have that much intel. Their chains of communications are broken. They're mostly underground. They don't really know what's happening above ground. They will be able to come above ground. And the main trap, the main danger is that there will be skirmishes. There always are skirmishes. There's no 100 percent ceasefire. And some soldiers of the IDF might be ambushed, for instance, they will fight back to defend themselves. And then the Hamas will claim that we broke the ceasefire and they're stopping to give the hostages, they'll give 10 hostages the first day, maybe another 10 the second day, and then they'll stop all together, saying, look, the IDF is not keeping the truth. So all these are very dangerous traps that might be laid by the Hamas during this deal. A deal that we have to accept, we have no choice. Whatever decision we make, it's a horrible one and it's a terrible one. So we will do that. But there is here the possibility that we might be entrapped into this ceasefire and that we will turn against us. Come on, your thoughts on the way in. Right. By the way, also Hamas could use that ceasefire to move the remaining hostages around. Another reason why it's so important to maintain. Which is good because when they move, that's where we can spot them. Right. The moving of people usually can give you some intel. But of course, if they move them too far. Right. This is one of the reasons so important. The Israel wants to keep up that the drone observation activity is so important. Listen, as Rafael said, there are no good choices here. There's all kinds of difficulties, as I've said this morning. The government's going to be criticized on all sides for this deal from some of the hostage camp who want to see a release of all hostages or simultaneously and that some and this sort of selection process, which has all kinds of unfortunate associations, especially for Jews. There are those who in the government, within the government and outside, but certainly even within the government who don't want to see any kind of ceasefire at this time, saying it'll slow the operation. So again, no good choices. We saw that as a result of that very contentious meeting yesterday between the war cabinet headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and representative of the hostages families. But as Rafael said, there's a time element here. We don't know the physical condition of the hostages. Some of them may be quite ill. We may not get this opportunity later on, especially as the fighter intensifies. So time is of the is of the essence here for making some kind of deal. Clev, ultimately any hostage deal, any movement of the hostages would be reviewed and signed off by the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Hania. Is Hania a rational actor? There's a lot of questions. First, there's a lot of questions. First of all, who is really in charge of what's going on in Gaza? You know, we make this distinction between the so-called political wing, which is perhaps a misnomer of that and the military wing. But there are certainly elements within the leadership of it. Questions of Yixin Sunwar, who is the so-called military leader, is even answering to the political so-called political wing of it. And a lot of questions of Yixin Sunwar is rational individual. You could look at the October 7th attack and how it was carried out. That could have been carried out. I hate to use words like rationally or I felt so awkward. But there was a way that they could have had a more contained attack that maybe only targeted a military outpost on the Gaza Strip to take civilian soldiers hostage as they did in the Gilad Shalit deal and doing this massive attack across the entire border, taking civilians, taking babies hostage, taking old women hostage, doing the atrocities they did. Whether that was a rational thing, knowing that Israel's response would be an all-out war on Hamas. So that is a question about how rational people can be. I mean, if you look at what we, during World War Two or during the time, during the fighting, people assume, while the Nazi high command, there must be some rational, their military. But at the end of the day, we learn there really wasn't. It was not a rational decision being made there. That may be the case here, unfortunately. As the war goes on, another battle being waged around the world by Israeli advocates and diplomats to convince global governments that this ongoing war is justified, moral and necessary, even as it drags on. I, 24 News, Senior U.S. Correspondent Mike Wagenheim, now reports from the U.N. after a special screening of a video of Hamas atrocities. Alongside the military war between Israel and Hamas, there's also a war of narratives about the conflict, and it's especially prevalent here at the United Nations in New York, where Israel has been battered due to its response to Hamas's October 7th massacre and the high civilian casualty toll in Gaza, an Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Gilad Erdan presented diplomats, ambassadors and U.N. officials with an opportunity here on Monday to view 45 minutes of footage of the massacre itself, including footage from Hamas GoPro and phone cameras, along with closed captioned footage in several of the massacre sites. Erdan afterwards said that he wasn't surprised by the reactions of those in attendance in hopes it will have some impact diplomatically going forward. People are either shocked or very sad because it has human beings. It's very sad to see children screaming one minute after they lost their dad. I know this building very well. I understand international politics. I know that many of these countries, they play by their internal political interests, but we are all human beings and you can never know who of the ambassadors who watched this terrible footage might wake up and and and tell his country and tell his leaders what he what he saw here today. Earlier on on Monday, Israeli supporters together with families of hostages being held in Gaza protested outside the United Nations Children's Fund building UNICEF Monday is International Children's Day. They say that the UNICEF and the U.N. in general not doing enough to protect those children being held hostage in Gaza. Those same supporters have protested outside the home of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres two Fridays in a row urging him to do more to bring the hostages home. They say they will continue to do so on a weekly basis until those hostages return to Israel reporting here from the United Nations in New York City. Mike Wagenheim, I-24 News. Hello, I just want to say as a child growing up in New York City, a young child. I collected money for UNICEF at school. We would get these little cards. I don't know if they still do it and you go around to people and they give you a penny and it puts it in to save for the children. I'm not feeling great about that now, considering how UNICEF has completely ignored the plight of the children being held hostage in Gaza. Raphael, I want to ask one thing, Michael, is alluding to here. You know, the effort to preserve global support, to make the world's governments wake up to Hamas's atrocities and their genocidal intent against Jews, period. You know, the war in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, still ongoing. Key strongholds being encircled. So much attention is soon turning to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many as a million, civilians, Palestinians that were in the north now in the south, only a small trickle of daily humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. What's going to happen in the south? And can the military needs, can will they run into a roadblock with the humanitarian needs of civilians in the south? Not so far as the population being all concentrated in the very south near the Rafah Egyptian border. If this perimeter is secured and separated from the rest of the combat zone, then we will have much less collateral damage. We just have to make sure there is a large perimeter for all these refugees. So many civilians are refusing to leave. They're refusing to leave their homes. Or even it's unknown if this area could even contain up to two million people. Some are refusing. Some are being prevented from leaving their home by the Hamas terrorists. Those who refuse their homes to live their homes is their decision. I mean, if you have a family, you have a wife and children and you're being told tomorrow morning your house will be bombed because there is a war going on. And it's up to you to stay there or to leave. I think the normal reflex is to just leave. It's it's unpleasant. It's a bad situation. But that's the you have to save the lives of these people. The main guilt lies anyway, not with the IDF, the main guilt on the plight of the Palestinian people, nice with the international community, starting with the United Nations and also the Egyptian government. Because first of all, the Egypt should open its borders. All these refugees should be taken away from the combat zone into Sinai. Into Sinai, you can build a refugee camps and refugees like they were built in Turkey for the refugees of the Syrian civil war. And in Jordan as well, which is not helping out. You can absolutely have all these people safely there and the international community take care of them as they want to take care of them. So that's the responsibility of the whole world, not just of the IDF. By the way, in the military history of mankind, then never ever was so much effort invested by an army to preserve civilian, the civilian population, to avoid collateral damage. You will not find any history books, something similar to the efforts deployed by the the Israeli army. And these efforts we deployed for ourselves, not for Mr. Gutierrez, not for Mr. Biden, for us Jews, for us Israelis, for our own conscience and also because our army being the army of the people, our soldiers only fight and will only be motivated if they think they fight for just cause in a just way if it's a moral combat. So that's why we're doing it. First of all, second of all, we want to dissociate the people of Gaza from the terrorists, from the Hamas. When I said terrorists, I don't speak only about the fighters with weapons. I speak also about all the civil servants, all the people who work for Hamas. That's a lot of people. But we want to dissociate the general population from the Hamas because of the day after, because we have to live with these people. We have to rebuild with these people. Believe me, that most of them, if they were given the choice, Gazan people will leave Gaza forever. Nobody wants to live there. Nobody wants to stay there. There is no future. And this is a very densely populated area, very poor area. Most youngsters would prefer to move to Canada or Germany or wherever. But nobody wants them. Nobody wants them. Nobody wants to take care of them. Egypt is watching its hands off the Gaza Strip. They never wanted anything to do with it. And we're doing the dirty work for the world as a terrorism and also the dirty job for the Arabic world, because we're getting them rid of the last bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood. The last bastion, the last state in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood is Gaza. After that, the Muslim Brotherhood is out of territory. And that's a big, very big service and favor we're doing to the Muslim world. So we're doing all the dirty job for everybody. And once we're doing it, we still have to explain why. I mean, you're shooting at the guy who's shooting at you. And while you're shooting and defending yourself, you have to explain to a third guy why and how you're doing it. This is ridiculous. Kolev, is there urgency in killing Hamas commanders, Hamas leaders that we now know have fled from the northern part of Gaza to the southern part of Gaza who may flee Gaza entirely, who may use escape methods to get out of Gaza as the war intensifies? Is there urgency or is this something that Israel and the IDF can handle months or if not even years into the future? Well, that's a debate that they've had and you've heard people talk about, make reference and we, Benny Gantz made reference that we can get them. Eventually, there's a feeling that people, even if you allow some of that leadership to escape, either to Qatar or Iran or wherever would take them in. Israel, later they can track them down the way they did the Munich Olympic massacre killers and do them decade. But I think on the operational level, if Israel is going to go into the south, it is going to have to take out certainly as many of the military wing figures to do just in order to make it easier to go into those areas, just as they did in the north, because that is going to be hugely challenging, especially that Hamas area, which I personally familiar with. It is very tightly packed even more so than the north. It does not have the tall buildings, but in terms of the density of it is going to be extremely difficult there. And certainly you're going to want to to operationally just take out as many of the field level commandments as you can cause confusion, because that's going to be that could potentially be a very costly operation for the IDF. The IDF strikes and ground offensive continues to push deeper and deeper into north Gaza, the encirclement is now complete. The IDF says of the major stronghold of Hamas, the Jabalia camp, a bastion of battalions of terror fighters. And the IDF offensive continues perhaps intensifying amid these reports of some kind of pause and fighting, being imminent with a hostage deal, perhaps nearing according to reports. Kalev, Rafael, thank you so much for being with us. More live reporting from the Israel-Gaza border and also the north of Israel, where this morning already Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel as Hezbollah continues or daily attacks into Israeli territory. More expert analysis and guests here in studio stay with us after a short break. More coverage on I-24 News. Thanks for watching. In a state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she has. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Watching us here on I-24 News at this hour, there's a live images breaking news, huge explosions in Gaza. On the as the Israel-Gaza war anchors now is 46th day. We can see huge plumes of smoke. We have seen a noticeable increase in strikes and attacks in the northern part of the Gaza Strip in recent hours this morning already. And now just moments ago, some kind of strike resulting in a huge explosion in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. We have our correspondent on the Israel-Gaza border. We'll go to him later here in our broadcast, Pierre-Claude Schindler, who has been reporting what he describes as a noticeable uptick in IDF artillery strikes and airstrikes as well in the northern Gaza Strip. I want to stay here immediately in studio where I'm joined by Raphael Nourishalmi, a former senior intelligence officer and an IDF and security analyst and the host of the rundown here on I-24 News in prime time, Kalev Ben-David. Raphael, the images that we're seeing now live in Gaza, huge explosions today, right now, huge plumes of smoke. And the fact that we know IDF is very active this morning in striking terror targets in the northern Gaza Strip. What does this mean, do you think? We are intensifying the attack because the ceasefire might be drawing near. So we have to score as many points as we can while we can fight. We also want to keep the pressure on the political branch of the Hamas and because we think it contributes to the negotiation. It gives us leverage and this pressure is what forced the political branch of the Hamas to start negotiating about the hostages. We also have to secure the northern part of the Gaza Strip so we can start continuing the action towards the center of south of Gaza, towards Hanyounis, which is the stronghold of the Hamas. And last but not least, we want to secure the northern part of the Gaza Strip in such a way that we might bring back the residents of the border, cities and villages of Israel along the Gaza Strip. They have abandoned these places after the massacres of the 7th of October. And we are now planifying their return. And for that, we have to make sure the perimeter is safe around them. And, Colov, your reaction to these images that we're seeing, perhaps as we've been talking, an indication that the clock might be ticking out on the ability of the IDF to operate and act and strike terror targets if a ceasefire or a truce is coming near. But we are seeing huge explosions indicating there's a lot of terror targets still around this early on. We know there's air strikes and artillery fire on targets in the Jabalia and Beit Hanyoun camps or really neighborhoods of northern Gaza. Those are still strongholds of pockets of terrorists there. Even though those areas are encircled, completely encircled within them, there are pockets of terrorists. The IDF basically has to go building by building, even below building into tunnels to sort of bring out. And as Rafael said, we might have a situation of a ceasefire coming, a ceasefire that could be used for these terror groups within that area to regroup. There's also a possibility they could try to use that ceasefire to blend in with the civilian population, and there still are tens of thousands of civilians in the north of Gaza. The IDF is allowing them to go south through a humanitarian corridor. And the south is always a possibility that these terrorists could try to blend in with those groups and make their way to the south. So there is perhaps an urgency this morning, if indeed, and all of this is unconfirmed, if indeed we are moving to a ceasefire that could last according to these reports up to five days and of course could serve as a precedent to extend even beyond the five days. I'll note here that the IDF has announced they've completed the encirclement of the Jabalia camp. The IDF this morning also announcing, sadly, the deaths of two more soldiers killed in firefights against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The IDF says five other soldiers seriously wounded in fighting. The IDF death toll in just since the ground invasion began more than six weeks ago, now is up to 67 soldiers killed. Rafael has as clever alluded to the IDF announcing they've encircled the Jabalia neighborhood, which is a dense urban neighborhood, a stronghold of some Hamas battalions area that may see active fighting. The IDF has encircled it. When we talk about refugee camps or a camp, you know, there is this popular image of being an area in open fields and wide open spaces and tents, but Jabalia is a neighborhood of high rises and big buildings and a lot of spaces for these Hamas battalions to operate. Correct? Exactly. And some of these high rises were built by the Israelis because as a gesture to the Palestinians at the time, it's very important to understand that the Jabalia camp is one of the strongholds of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Right now, the concentration is on this particular camp and as well as Bedhanun and Zeytun, all of them very important strategic spots. One of the big explosions is also a communications tower. We have yet again suppressing, we're going to come back to you, but we do have Pierre Kloshemla for us live for us on the border where these explosions and strikes continue. Pierre, what's going on? Well, Daniel Noor, our cameraman, is going to show you Jabalia as we know that the refugee camp, which is one of the densest in the Gaza Strip, is completely encircled by the Israeli ground forces. And you see here an explosion against a presumed terror target in the vicinity of the Jabalia refugee camp. They've opened access into the camp. They've destroyed three tunnel shafts. As far as we understand, they've neutralized Hamas terrorists and further south, that would be on the left side of your monitor in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City. The fighting is ongoing sometimes in close quarters with Hamas terrorists. What we know is the sniper nests and the observation points of those Hamas operatives have been neutralized, which leaves the Hamas operatives engaging the Israeli ground forces in Zeytun, only relying on the noise of the armored vehicles that are penetrating into the Zeytun neighborhood. The all in all, in the past 24 hours, we know that there's been over 250 airstrikes on presumed Hamas targets. And we also know from the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Agari, in his lightly briefing yesterday, that the goal of the Israeli army is to take over the whole Gaza Strip. We don't know exactly when, but to comb with a metal comb, he said, other neighborhoods of Gaza City such as Tufa al-Daraj and then move southeast of Gaza City to Sejaia, which is a neighborhood, a stronghold of Hamas facing Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Israeli territory, which was the site of one of the October 7 massacres. Jeff. Pierre, can the IDF screen for Hamas fighters amid the civilians that remain in North Gaza as these strikes continue and intensify as the encirclement tightens? How can the IDF screen for that? Well, you know, we know that some of the terrorists are fighting to the death, but others are switching quickly to civilian clothes in order to evacuate the zone of the fighting, trying to reach the southern Gaza Strip. That could be as a result of an order, although we know that the connection between the command centers of Hamas and those terrorists have been cut off in many instances, but some of them also might find refuge in one of the mazes and the ground, the tunnels. And that would allow them maybe also to move from one point to another and to move from the northern sector of the Gaza Strip to the southern sector of Gaza Strip. I don't think that the Israeli army is trying to kill all terrorist presence right now. They're trying, first of all, to dismantle the lines of defense, the infrastructure, the weapons depot, the manufacturing labs of weapons. We know that there's been reverse engineering of attack drones of the Israeli army to serve the purpose of Hamas. We also know that they found rocket launchers in civilian apartments. So all this infrastructure, the tunnel shafts, the tunnels is the emphasis of the army right now. And of course, killing those who come from the Israeli army, but I don't think that it's feasible to kill every one of those terrorists that are still present in those zones in the battleground at this moment. Pierre Kloshendl for us. Stay safe. Thank you so much. We'll be keeping an eye on the border as these airstrikes and artillery strikes continue to intensify this morning. Back here in the studio with Khaled Ben-Divide and Rafael Yoroshami, I want to ask about a potential hostage deal that may result in a multi-day ceasefire, a multi-day truce, however you want to call it, a stop to the fighting. There are reports and perhaps a big sticking point is even if the IDF agrees to a multi-day pause in fighting and attacking and destroying targets, they would demand that observation drones or observation ability continues to be preserved. Hamas reportedly not wanting to accede to that demand, not agreeing to that demand. How important is it for the IDF to have these drones still flying in Gaza, even if there is a break in hostilities? It will be even more important that it is now because the Hamas will avail itself of this ceasefire to regroup and redeploy. So the information we have now will not be valid in two days later. So we have to keep monitoring the moves of the Hamas fighters. This ceasefire is very dangerous, first of all, because the troops are going to be static, which is always a dangerous position. We remember that during protective border, one of our soldiers was kidnapped that way during a ceasefire. It allows the Hamas terrorists to gather more intel. Right now, they don't have that much intel. Their chains of communications are broken. They're mostly underground. They don't really know what's happening above ground. They will be able to come above ground. And the main trap, the main danger is that there will be skirmishes. There always are skirmishes. There's no 100 percent ceasefire. And some soldiers of the IDF might be ambushed. For instance, they will fight back to defend themselves. And then the Hamas will claim that we broke the ceasefire and they're stopping to give the hostages. They'll give 10 hostages the first day, maybe another 10 the second day. And then they'll stop altogether saying, look, the IDF is not keeping the truth. So all these are very dangerous traps that might be laid by the Hamas during this deal. A deal that we have to accept. We have no choice. Whatever decision we make, it's a horrible one and a terrible one. So we will do that. But there is here the possibility that we might be entrapped into this ceasefire and that we will turn against us. Well, here are thoughts on the way in. Right. By the way, also, Hamas could use that ceasefire to move the remaining hostages around another reason why it's so important to maintain. Which is good because when they move, that's how we can spot them. Right. The moving of people usually can give you some intel. But of course, if they move them too far. Right. This is one of the reasons so important, the Israel wants to keep up that the drone observation activity is so important. Listen, as Rafael said, there are no good choices here. There's all kinds of difficulties, as I've said this morning. The government's going to be criticized on all sides for this deal from some of the hostage camp who want to see a release of all hostages or simultaneously. And that's some and this sort of selection process, which has all kinds of unfortunate associations, especially for Jews. There were those who in the government within the government and outside, but certainly even within the government who don't want to see any kind of ceasefire at this time, saying it'll slow the operation. So again, no good choices. We saw that as a result of that very contentious meeting yesterday between the War Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and representative of the hostages families. But as Rafael said, there's a time element here. We don't know the physical condition of the hostages. Some of them may be quite ill. We may not get this opportunity later on, especially as the fighter intensifies. So time is of the is of the essence here for making some kind of deal. Kalev, ultimately any hostage deal, any movement of the hostages would be reviewed and signed off by the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Hania. Is Hania a rational actor? There's a lot of questions. First, there's a lot of questions. First of all, who is really in charge of what's going on in Gaza? You know, we make this distinction between the so-called political wing, which is perhaps a misnomer of that and the military wing. But there are certainly elements within the leadership of it. Questions of Yixin Sunwar, who is the so-called military leader, is even answering to the political so-called political wing of it. And a lot of questions of Yixin Sunwar is rational individual. You could look at the October 7th attack and how it was carried out. That could have been carried out. I hate to use words like rationally or so awkward. But there was a way that they could have had a more contained attack that maybe only targeted military outposts on the Gaza Strip to take civilian soldiers, soldiers hostage, as they did in the Gilad Shalit deal and doing this massive attack across the entire border, taking civilians, taking babies hostage, taking old women hostage, doing the atrocities they did whether that was a rational thing, knowing that Israel's response would be an all-out war on Hamas. So that is a question about how rational people can be. I mean, if you look at what we, during World War Two or during the time, during the fighting, people assume, well, the Nazi high command, there must be some rational, their military. But at the end of the day, we learned there really wasn't. It was not a rational decisions being made there. That may be the case here, unfortunately. As the war goes on, another battle being waged around the world by Israeli advocates and diplomats to convince global governments that this ongoing war is justified, moral and necessary, even as it drags on. I, 24 News, senior US correspondent Mike Wagenheim now reports from the UN after a special screening of a video of Hamas atrocities. Alongside the military war between Israel and Hamas, there's also a war of narratives about the conflict and it's especially prevalent here at the United Nations in New York, where Israel has been battered due to its response to Hamas's October 7th massacre and the high civilian casualty toll in Gaza. The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, presented diplomats, ambassadors and UN officials with an opportunity here on Monday to view 45 minutes of footage of the massacre itself, including footage from Hamas GoPro and phone cameras along with closed caption footage in the several of the massacre sites. Erdan afterwards said that he wasn't surprised by the reactions of those in attendance and hopes it will have some impact diplomatically going forward. People are either shocked or very sad because as human beings, it's very sad to see children screaming one minute after they lost their dad. I know this building very well. I understand international politics. I know that many of these countries, they play by their internal political interests, but we are all human beings and you can never know who of the ambassadors who watched this terrible footage might wake up and tell his country and tell his leaders what he what he saw here today. Earlier on on Monday, Israeli supporters together with families of hostages being held in Gaza protested outside the United Nations Children's Fund building UNICEF Monday is International Children's Day. They say that the UNICEF and the UN in general not doing enough to protect those children being held hostage in Gaza. Those same supporters have protested outside the home of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez two Fridays in a row urging him to do more to bring the hostages home. They say they will continue to do so on a weekly basis until those hostages return to Israel reporting here from the United Nations in New York City. Mike Wagenheim, I 24 News. Hello, I just want to say as a child growing up in New York City, a young child, I collected money for UNICEF at school. We would get these little cards. I don't know if they still do it and you go around to people and they give you a penny and it puts it in to save for the children. I'm not feeling great about that now, considering how UNICEF has completely ignored the plight of the children being held hostage in Gaza. Raphael, I want to ask one thing Michael is alluding to here. You know, the effort to preserve global support to make the world's governments wake up to Hamas's atrocities and their genocidal intent against Jews period, you know, the war in the northern part of the Gaza Strip still ongoing, key strongholds being encircled. So much attention is soon turning to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many as a million civilians, Palestinians that were in the north now in the south, only a small trickle of daily humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. What's going to happen in the south and can the military needs will they run into a roadblock with the humanitarian needs of civilians in the south? Not so far as the population being all concentrated in the very south near the Rafah Egyptian border. If this perimeter is secured and separated from the rest of the combat zone, then we will have much less collateral damage. We just have to make sure there is a large perimeter for all these refugees. As you know, so many civilians are refusing to leave. They're refusing to leave their homes or even it's unknown if this area could even contain up to two million people. Some are refusing. Some are being prevented from leaving their home by the Hamas terrorists. Those who refuse their homes to leave their home is their decision. I mean, if you have a family, you have a wife and children and you're being told tomorrow morning your house will be bombed because there is a war going on. And it's up to you to stay there or to leave. I think the normal reflex is to just leave. It's it's unpleasant. It's a bad situation. But that's the you have to save the lives of these people. The main guilt lies anyway, not with the IDF. The main guilt on the plight of the Palestinian people, not with the international community, starting with the United Nations and also the Egyptian government. Because first of all, the Egypt should open its borders. All these refugees should be taken away from the combat zone into Sinai. Into Sinai, you can build a refugee camps and refuges like they were built in Turkey for the refugees of the Syrian Civil War. And in Jordan as well, which is not helping out. You can absolutely have all these people safely there and the international community take care of them as they want to take care of them. So that's the responsibility of the whole world, not just of the IDF. By the way, in the military history of mankind, then never ever was so much effort invested by an army to preserve the civilian population, to avoid collateral damage. You will not find any history books, something similar to the efforts deployed by the Israeli army. And these efforts were deployed for ourselves, not for Mr. Guterres, not for Mr. Biden, for us Jews, for us Israelis, for our own conscience and also because our army being the army of the people, our soldiers only fight and will only be motivated if they think they fight for just cause in a just way, if it's a moral combat. So that's why we're doing it. First of all, second of all, we want to dissociate the people of Gaza from the terrorists, from the Hamas. When I say terrorists, I don't speak only about the fighters with weapons. I speak also about all the civil servants, all the people who work for Hamas, that's a lot of people that we want to dissociate the general population from the Hamas because of the day after, because we have to live with these people, we have to rebuild with these people. Believe me that most of them, if given the choice, Gazan people will leave Gaza forever. Nobody wants to live there. Nobody wants to stay there. There is no future. And this is a very densely populated area, very poor area. Most youngsters would prefer to move to Canada or Germany or wherever. But nobody wants them. Nobody wants them. Nobody wants to take care of them. Egypt is washing its hands off the Gaza Strip. They never wanted anything to do with it. And we're doing the dirty work for the world, as to terrorism and also the dirty job for the Arabic world, because we're getting them rid of the last bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood. The last bastion, the last state in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood is Gaza. After that, the Muslim Brotherhood is out of territory. And that's a big, very big service and favor we're doing to the Muslim world. So we're doing all the dirty job for everybody. And once we're doing it, we still have to explain why. I mean, you're shooting at a guy who's shooting at you. And while you're shooting and defending yourself, you have to explain to a third guy why and how you're doing it. This is ridiculous. Collev, is there urgency in killing Hamas commanders, Hamas leaders, that we now know have fled from the northern part of Gaza to the southern part of Gaza, who may flee Gaza entirely, who may use escape methods to get out of Gaza as the war intensifies? Is there urgency or is this something that Israel and the IDF can handle months or if not even years into the future? Well, that's a debate that they've had and you've heard people talk about make reference and we, Benny Gantz, made reference that we can get them eventually. There's a feeling that people, even if you allow some of that leadership to escape either to Qatar or Iran or wherever would take them in Israel. Later, they can track them down the way they did the Munich Olympic massacre killers and do them decade. But I think on the operational level, if Israel is going to go into the south, it is going to have to take out certainly as many of the military wing figures to do just in order to make it easier to go into those areas, just as they did in the north, because that is going to be hugely challenging, especially that Hamas area, which I'm personally familiar with. It is very tightly packed, even more so than the north. It does not have the tall buildings, but in terms of the density of it, it's going to be extremely difficult there. And certainly you're going to want to operationally just take out as many of the field level commandments as you can cause confusion, because that's going to be that could potentially be a very costly operation for the IDF. The IDF strikes and ground offensive continues to push deeper and deeper into north Gaza, the encirclement is now complete. The IDF says of the major stronghold of Hamas, the Jabalia camp, a bastion of battalions of terror fighters, and the IDF offensive continues, perhaps intensifying amid these reports of some kind of pause and fighting, being imminent with a hostage deal, perhaps nearing according to reports. Hello, Rafael, thank you so much for being with us. More live reporting from the Israel Gaza border and also the north of Israel, where this morning already Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel as Hezbollah continues their daily attacks into Israeli territory. More expert analysis and guests here in studio stay with us after a short break. More coverage on I-24 News. Thanks for watching. Is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Joining us on I-24 News at this hour as we broadcast the latest live updates is Israel Hamas war enters day 46. Right now, Israeli troops are engaged in active combat across northern Gaza as the IDF ground offensive pushes forward. There are the IDF air strikes and artillery strikes ongoing at this very moment. The IDF announcing that troops have completed the encirclement of the Jabalia camp, a dense neighborhood in North Gaza and a stronghold of Hamas battalions. And the IDF saying they have eliminated over 250 terror targets through airstrikes within the last day. Two more Israeli soldiers have died in battle against Hamas. The IDF says recently five other soldiers seriously wounded as well. For an update now on the day's military offensive, let's go to the south. We're on joined along the border with I-24 News correspondent Pierre Kloeschendler. Pierre, what is the situation now? Well, in the particular sector where we locate the overlooking just one portion of the northern Gaza Strip, Bethanoon, Bethlehiyah, Sherzad, the pounding goes on relentlessly by the artillery, by the Israeli Air Force and also by ground troops that are initiating some explosions, probably of tunnel shafts or tunnels, but in the south, in this direction, in Jabalia refugee camp, one of the densest in the Gaza Strip, the army has completed the encirclement of the camp. They've opened access for penetration of ground forces. They've neutralized terrorists. They've neutralized also tunnel shafts. They've neutralized weapons depot and they are preparing for the ground offensive inside the refugee camp further south in the Zaitou neighborhood, which is east of the city center of Gaza City. The fighting has been going on for four consecutive days. The fighting is sometimes in close quarters. There, they found out a mosque under which there was a basement with a tunnel. They found in that basement a weapons lab manufacturing facility. They've also neutralized many of the observation points and sniper nests of the terrorists and the terrorists now, when they operate and confront Israeli ground forces, confront them by groups of five to ten terrorists. They have no way to observe the movement of troops from afar. They only rely on the noise of the armored vehicles. And thus they lose one of their very important capacity. The goal of the army is to complete within the next week or weeks the takeover, the complete takeover of all the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City. That means moving east to the neighborhoods of Tufaq and Daraj and even further south east to Shijaiya, which is a Hamas stronghold facing Nakhal Oz, a kibbutz, which was the site of a major massacre on October 7th. Are there still terror, major terror targets, important infrastructure to destroy in the north part of the Gaza Strip? Or at this point, is there a big eye towards the south in Hanyunis and several areas in the south of Gaza, where primarily the commanders and remaining infrastructure will be? There is still some remaining infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip. Look, they have had 16 years to prepare for that showdown. The lines of defense of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are very, very dense, and there is still a lot of work to be doing, but at the same time, the airborne being maneuvers of the Israeli air force goes on in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. This morning in Nusairat refugee camp. Yesterday, we heard of bombing in the vicinity of Hanyunis, where it is believed that the commander of the Isadin Al-Qasam Brigade of Hamas, Mohamed Def, is hiding as well as Yahya Sinwa, the political leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, because both are originated from Hanyunis. Pierre, thank you so much for that update. You belong to Israel-Gaza border. As the ground offensive in Gaza intensifies, Israel's allies are still aiming to convince governments that this ongoing war is justified and moral and necessary. The White House National Security Council spokesman given an impassioned answer about Hamas' ultimate aims. What Hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide. They want to wipe Israel off the map. They've said so publicly, more than one occasion. In fact, just recently, and they've said that they're not going to stop. What happened on the 7th of October is going to happen again and again and again. And what happened on the 7th of October? Murder, slaughter of innocent people in their homes or at a music festival. That's genocidal intentions. Yes, there are too many civilian casualties in Gaza. Yes, the numbers are too high. Yes, too many families are grieving. And yes, we continue to urge the Israelis to be as careful and cautious as possible. That's not going to stop from the president right on down. But Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel is not trying to wipe Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So when we're going to start, if we're going to start using that word, fine, let's use it appropriately. Meanwhile, the attacks continue in the north. There have been several rocket attacks already today from Hezbollah terrorists on the Israel-Lebanon border and a renewed threat from Houthi rebels, the Iran-backed terror group originating in Yemen. For more on that threat, let's let's join. Bring it to this conversation where I'm joined by Seema Shine, former Mossad agent, and now the former deputy head of strategic affairs for Israel's National Security Council. Seema, thank you so much for being with me. The Houthi threat, it appears to be intensifying. They've seized ships, they're threatening to repeat the attacks. Is how concerned are you about the global implications, perhaps in the Red Sea and the shipping and trade routes, if the Houthis continue to escalate? No, thank you for inviting me. I just want to correct one thing. I'm now in the Institute of National Security Studies heading the Iran program. I'm not an official anymore for some years. And it's important that everything I'm saying is on my own behalf and on my understanding the situation. What is happening now with Yemen is first and foremost is an issue that is relevant to the whole international community, because the trade, 25 percent of the trade of the world is passing in the Babel Mandab and the Suez Canal and others. So it's not just an Israeli issue. Of course, they are trying to hijack a ship that they think was connected to Israel. We all know probably there were some percentage of an Israeli businessman, but it's not an Israeli ship, it's owned by the Japanese. And so, you know, at the end of the day, they try to do something against Israel, but the world should be worried and should also have an answer to such a situation. I want to add one sentence and to say that it's not by chance that they decided to do it now, it is according to a directive that was published also, not only in diplomatic and military channels between Iran and Yemen, but also by the leader himself, the Khamenei, who has said some days ago that Israel, the Muslim state, should disconnect Israel from any kinds of commerce and energy. And this is what they are trying to do. I assume it will become an issue not just for Israel, but also for the international community. Seem of the attacks from Hezbollah, meanwhile, continue today alone. The rocket attacks from Hezbollah terrorists and an anti-tank missile fire into Israel the other day. Of course, the Hezbollah terrorists firing and causing significant damage at an IDF base inside Israel, that base was empty. What do you make of that? Was that planned? Was that a coincidence? Is there some kind of violent dialogue happening between Hezbollah and Israel? So as you correctly said, it caused the damage and it was empty of people. It is part of the Israel reorganization, reorganizing itself before, since the war started, so it's not by chance. And, of course, we see it as a severe, severe upgrade of the Hezbollah activity. But this is within the same framework that we have seen in the last in the last weeks, which is, on one hand, trying to retaliate vis-à-vis Israel. On the other hand, making sure that it doesn't escalate to a full-scale war. I think there is no major change on both sides, on the Israeli side, as well as on the Hezbollah side. Both sides still prefer to have these military activities without making sure that it doesn't escalate to a full-scale war. Sima, thank you with the Institute for National Security Studies. I want to bring into the conversation our correspondent, Zach Angers, who is live for us along the Israel-Lebanon border, again, attacks today as well. Zach, give us an update in recent hours on the situation in the north as these tensions escalate. And the IDF within the last hour has come out and stated that they struck three separate targets from launches earlier this morning. They also went further to strike infrastructure for Hezbollah. Now, they don't clarify where exactly these strikes are taking place. And they haven't done so since the war began. So these strikes, especially when they include the infrastructure, when they tell us that they're striking both the intelligence gathering, sometimes the weapons storage facilities, these are locations that are potentially much farther beyond the border inside Lebanon, where the Hezbollah forces are staging. Now, we aren't able to independently confirm this, but some of the media that Hezbollah itself is publishing does tend to show not only their rocket launch sites being close to the border, but some of the staging activity happening quite a bit a ways away. And that would speak to the fact that they obviously need to move their personnel and their resources and their equipment and stage them in different areas and then bring them closer to the border to fire these weapons, like the ATGMs, the anti-tank guided missiles, with a small crew, a small number of personnel. They'll attempt to strike vehicles and equipment from the Israeli side. And they have been doing so. But this morning, again, was more ATGM fire. The Israelis say they responded. We have been hearing the outgoing artillery this morning. We've also heard some of the jets. And these this has really just been the par for the course just about every day here has been that same story. Hezbollah fires, the IDF fires back, and they do so with their air superiority. Now, Zach, stay safe for us as you report along the border in the north. Thank you for that update. And with me now in studio is Kolev Ben-David, host of the rundown primetime show here on I-24 News. Kolev reports circling today, a flurry of new reports about perhaps an imminent hostage deal. We don't know the exact nature of how we deal with unfold, but there is a lot of commonality, similar details between reporting in Israeli media, Israeli sources and also American media and also what's being leaked out of Qatar as well, perhaps some kind of deal in the hours to come. Right. And the latest of that is Barak Ravid, who is a well-connected Israeli reporter now, I think reports for Axios out of Washington just in the last hour, tweeting that a source privy to the details of the negotiations says the Qatari government is expected to announce even today that a deal has been reached for the release of the hostage to make the announcement that the deal will be carried out today. And yes, there is a commonality among many of these reports claiming that this deal will involve the freeing of 50 hostages involving children and perhaps their parent or mother of the children, if there are. And that to those 50 hostages will be released over a five day period, a five day ceasefire period at 10 a day. Again, I want to stress no official confirmation of any of these reports. But there is, as you say, a commonality. And we do have that meeting last night, but the first meeting between the War Cabinet and headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and hostage families. And if there were to be a deal imminent, that meeting would have had to have taken place prior to the deal. So can you touch on, though, Kolev, I mean, even if a deal were to be announced, let's say Qatar announces the outline of the deal. A lot can happen and will happen between an announcement of a deal between the actual presence of Israeli hostages back on Israeli soil, including what happens with the Israeli military soldiers in Gaza, what happens politically with a vote as well. Right. So certainly, yes, a deal like this, if it involves the release, then we would involve the release of Palestinian security prisoners would need a vote from the cabinet. Presumably, it would have a majority there, though, would face some opposition from some of the more right or extreme right parties in the Israeli government. But again, you're dealing with Hamas. And we've seen before reports, claims of last-minute violations. As you reported, they're still ongoing fighting, very hard, the ongoing fighting in the north of Gaza. There could be some development on the ground that could involve that. So we must be extremely cautious. As I said, all we can say is that there is a flurry of reports in the media citing unnamed sources, basically with a commonality of the outlines of a deal saying that that is imminent. And we did hear President Joe Biden say yesterday at a Thanksgiving event in the White House, he was yelled at by a reporter, is there a reporter? Do you are confident that a deal is about to happen? He responded simply saying, yes. And one of the more popular annual events of the White House, even at that event, always being peppered with questions on the latest updates on the war. But the president Biden saying he believes a deal is close. Back to Seema Shain with the INSS. Seema, I want to get your analysis here on one reported sticking point in a hostage deal, which is that even if there is no elimination of terror targets, even if the ground offensive comes to a temporary break, Israel's insistence and having observation drones to be able to have eyes in the sky, so to speak, even during that pause and come off perhaps willing to to scrap the whole deal over that. How important is that ability to have observation ability even during the troops? Of course, it's very important. I don't know if it's an obstacle to a deal. I don't know where it stands since I'm not in the administration now. But I do think it's very important because we know why Hamas needs these five days. They want to reorganize themselves. They want to change places. They want they might decide to come nearer to Israeli forces. I think it's very important. I don't know where it stands, but it's very, very important. And at the end of the day, I think cautious is the war that we are using now, because at the end of the day, we don't know how Hamas will use these five days in different aspects, not only on what they will do on the ground, but also what they will do with the with the children and mothers that they want to release every day. They can on the day of the first day of the fifth day, they will say, OK, we didn't find someone give us one more day. This is a very tricky situation. And I think it's, you know, after what we have seen, what Hamas has done, there is no limit to any anything that they can use in order in order to make psychological war against Israel, but also in order to prove their own situation on the ground. So I would be very hesitant on how it will work, how it will follow the five days. It's a it's a very, very dangerous and delicate, sensitive and delicate situation. Of course, that's a very complicated calculus here. Thank you, Seema Shah, for being with us. Israeli families that were evacuated from the south have been uprooted, not just from their homes, but from their entire lives with little to no sense of normalcy. Children are in need of a constructive routine. One nonprofit is shifting its focus to that with special classes. Hannah Riffkin reports. Israel's evacuated families of the south are trying to overcome the traumatic events of October 7th and the instability which followed. At the same time, they're in hotels, biding time and seeking some sense of normalcy for their children. One organization has taken up mission to help those families regain routine instability by providing technology and innovation workshops. And the idea is to give them to sing one is to give them the entertainment. Unfortunately, they were after a very, very difficult, a very difficult experience, we wanted to give them some fun experience, but also to bring them some kind of window to what technology can bring. We already went to 10 hotels, mostly 100 to 150 people come in each of our activity. Now we're starting another activity, which is actually units that are fixed. So instead of coming to a hotel once a week or once every month, we basically want to give these kids a real sense of education. This is a debut community center event for Jerusalem youth to mingle with evacuated kids. Families are encouraged to come from their hotels. For some, this is their first time leaving hotel premises to socialize. With everything from virtual reality to 3D printing, video game programming and more. This weekly workshop not only provides a sense of stability, but also exposes them to new opportunities and skills. There's a big wow effect. They can see that they can actually experience new technologies. And for some of them, to be honest, you know, I think it's really important to have the opportunity to see new technologies and for some of them, to be honest, you know, in the first few days, there were people that didn't come out of the rooms in the hotel, so it was really a way to bring them out of their unfortunate situation, unfortunate experience they were and bring them something that they can finally open up, play, learn some new stuff. Seeing their creations come to life is an important component to the process. Dr. Modena says, as is easing them into a new normal. Noam and his cousins have high spirits. Hannah Rifkin, I-24 News, Jerusalem. We've been talking about perhaps a hostage deal nearing Israeli media reporting that a deal may be announced today, but the parameters aren't clear, but likely to include primarily, if not exclusively, women and children. There are reports already that one female hostage, a kidnapped, she was forced to give birth in captivity. Presumably, these victims have experienced unknown sexual trauma and rape. If they're able, with God's help to come back to Israel, to come back home, what kind of help will they need physically and emotionally? First of all, thank you for having me and I just want to preface it. But by saying that I may, a warning, I may become emotional. This is very emotional for all of us here in Israel. And I'm not the only one, but I am a daughter of two Holocaust survivors and the triggers and the feeling that 85 years after my mother was taken out of her home in Czechoslovakia at age 10, and my father, it's unbelievably difficult and horrible action. I'm really, really, really hoping that the deal will go through because whatever help the hostages, and we're talking now about the women and children, whatever help they'll need, obviously, it needs to happen yesterday or 46 days ago every day in captivity with treatment that we have no idea how it was with. But we do, in a way, because we know what Hamas terrorists did to the women on October 7th. There is no reason to think that they became gentle all of a sudden while they were in captivity. Your organization, how can they help? How were you able to jump in whenever needed? Well, our organization on normal days, works and fights for women's rights, human rights in childbirth to just choose where to give birth and how and with whom and what to say yes to and what to say no. We started right on October 8th. Helpline, hotline for all women affected. But those were women, obviously, outside of captivity. We are experts in helping women before, during and after birth with whatever they need emotionally, physically, just to have doula with them before, during and after birth, et cetera, et cetera. More importantly, we work in close cooperation with all the other relevant organizations and nonprofit organizations in Israel, the midwives organizations, the doula organizations, organizations, the assistance line for women, victim of sexual crimes, et cetera. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli families having to be displaced, at least temporarily, many of them pregnant women, needing new support, new avenues of support, new medical assistance, new emotions, new therapies. You mentioned the hope that the hostages are able to return your, I guess, reaction to the silence of so many global organizations around the world that in theory, you're supposed to speak up for and fight for women's rights that were silent and have been silent. It's a crime. It's it's an absolute crime. Keeping silent or in some cases actually speaking out only on behalf of Gaza, Gaza women and children as in the example of UN women and as in the example of the ICM, which is the International Confederation of Midwives, who were the first ones that I know to come out and say and have an official statement about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza without mentioning anything about Israel. I think people need to understand that keeping silent is a moral choice. Taking sides is obviously a moral choice. But keeping silent, a feminist organization, women organization all over the world. Dona, the international doula organization, nothing, not a peep. It's it's an absolute crime. I want to say something about UN. We have to go live for a break here. We're going to return to you here on I-24 News, but we have to go out for a short break, stay with us, more news ahead. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. That's an I-24 News at this hour as we broadcast the latest live updates. Israel Hamas war enters day 46. Right now, Israeli troops are engaged in active combat across northern Gaza as the IDF ground offensive pushes forward. There are the IDF air strikes and artillery strikes ongoing at this very moment, the IDF announcing that troops have completed the encirclement of the Jabalia camp, a dense neighborhood in North Gaza and a stronghold of Hamas battalions and the IDF saying they have eliminated over 250 terror targets through air strikes within the last day. Two more Israeli soldiers have died in battle against Hamas. The IDF says recently five other soldiers seriously wounded as well. For an update now on the day's military offensive, let's go to the south where I'm joined along the border with I-24 News correspondent Pierre Kloeschendler. Pierre, what is the situation now? Well, in the particular sector where we're located, overlooking just one portion of the northern Gaza Strip, Beth-Hannon, Bethlehiyah, Sherzai, the pounding goes on relentlessly by the artillery, by the Israeli Air Force and also by ground troops that are initiating some explosions, probably of tunnel shafts or tunnels. But in the south, in this direction, in Jabalia refugee camp, one of the densest in the Gaza Strip, the army has completed the encirclement of the camp. They've opened access for penetration of ground forces. They've neutralized terrorists. They've neutralized also tunnel shafts. They've neutralized weapons depot and they are preparing for the ground offensive inside the refugee camp. Further south in the Zaitou neighborhood, which is east of the city center of Gaza City, the fighting has been going on for four consecutive days. The fighting is sometimes in close quarters. There, they found out a mosque under which there was a basement with a tunnel. They found in that basement weapons lab manufacturing facility. They've also neutralized many of the observation points and sniper nests of the terrorists and the terrorists now, when they operate and confront Israeli ground forces, confront them by groups of five to ten terrorists. They have no way to observe the movement of troops from afar. They only rely on the noise of the armored vehicles. And thus they lose one of their very important capacity. The goal of the army is to complete within the next week or weeks the takeover, the complete takeover of all the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City. That means moving east to the neighborhoods of Tufaq and Daraj. And even further south east to Shijaiya, which is a Hamas stronghold facing Nakhal Oz, a Kibbutz, which was the site of a major massacre on October 7. Are there still major terror targets, important infrastructure to destroying in the north part of the Gaza Strip? Or at this point, is there a big eye towards the south and in Hanyunis and several areas in the south of Gaza, where primarily the commanders and remaining infrastructure will be? There is still some remaining infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip. They have had 16 years to prepare for that showdown. The lines of defense of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are very, very dense and there is still a lot of work to be doing. But at the same time, the air bombing maneuvers of the Israeli air force goes on in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. This morning in Nusairat Refugee Camp. Yesterday, we heard of bombing in the vicinity of Hanyunis, where it is believed that the commander of the Isadin Al-Qasam Brigade of Hamas, Mohammad Def, is hiding as well as the political leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip because both are originated from Hanyunis. Pierre, thank you so much for that update along the Israel-Gaza border. As the ground offensive in Gaza intensifies, Israel's allies are still aiming to convince governments that this ongoing war is justified and moral and necessary. The White House National Security Council spokesman giving an impassioned answer about Hamas's ultimate aims. What Hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide. They want to wipe Israel off the map. They've said so publicly, more than one occasion, in fact, just recently. And they've said that they're not going to stop. What happened on the 7th of October is going to happen again and again and again. And what happened on the 7th of October? Murder, slaughter of innocent people in their homes or at a music festival. That's genocidal intentions. Yes, there are too many civilian casualties in Gaza. Yes, the numbers are too high. Yes, too many families are grieving. And yes, we continue to urge the Israelis to be as careful and cautious as possible. That's not going to stop from the president right on down. But Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel's not trying to wipe Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So when we're going to start, if we're going to start using that word, fine, let's use it appropriately. Meanwhile, the attacks continue in the north. There have been several rocket attacks already today from Hezbollah terrorists on the Israel-Lebanon border and a renewed threat from Houthi rebels, the Iran-backed terror group originating in Yemen. For more on that threat, let's bring into this conversation where I'm joined by Seema Shah, former Mossad agent, and now the former deputy head of strategic affairs for Israel's National Security Council. Seema, thank you so much for being with me. The Houthi threat, it appears to be intensifying. They've seized ships. They're threatening to repeat the attacks. Is how concerned are you about the global implications? Perhaps in the Red Sea and in the in the shipping and trade routes, if the Houthis continue to escalate? Oh, thank you for for inviting me. I just want to correct one thing. I'm now in the Institute of National Security Studies heading the Iran program. I'm not an official anymore for some years. Some it's important that everything I'm saying is on my own behalf and on my understanding the situation. What is happening now with Yemen is first and foremost is an issue that is relevant to the whole international community, because the trade, 25 percent of the trade of the of the world is passing in the Babel Mandab and the Suez Canal and others. So it's not just an Israeli issue. Of course, they are trying to a to a hijacked ship that they think was connected to Israel. We all know probably there were some percentage of an Israeli of an Israeli businessman, but it's not an Israeli ship. It's owned by by the Japanese. And so, you know, at the end of the day, they try to do something against Israel, but the world should be worried and should also have an answer to such a situation. I want to add one one sentence and to say that it's not by chance that they decided to do it now. It is according to a directive that was published also, not only by in a diplomatic and military channels between Iran and the Yemen's, but also by the leader himself, the Khamenei, who has said some days ago that Israel should the Muslim states should disconnect Israel from a community or any kinds of commerce and energy. And this is what they are trying to do. I assume it will become an issue not just for Israel, but also for the international community. Seema, the attacks from Hezbollah, meanwhile, continue today alone. Iraq attacks from Hezbollah terrorists and an anti-tank missile fire into Israel. The other day, of course, the Hezbollah terrorists firing and causing significant damage at an IDF base inside Israel. That base was empty. What do you make of that? Was that planned? Was that a coincidence? Is there some kind of violent dialogue happening between Hezbollah and Israel? So as you correctly said, it caused the damage and it was empty of people. It is part of the Israel reorganization. We are organizing itself before since the war started, so it's not by chance. And of course, we see it as a severe, severe upgrade of the Hezbollah activity. But this is within the same framework that we have seen in the last in the last weeks, which is, on one hand, trying to retaliate vis-à-vis Israel. On the other hand, making sure that it doesn't escalate to a full-scale war. I think there is no major change on both sides, on the Israeli side, as well as on the Hezbollah side. Both sides still prefer to have these military activities without and making sure that it doesn't escalate to a full-scale war. Sima, thank you with the Institute for National Security Studies. I want to bring into the conversation our correspondent, Zack Angers, who is live for us along the Israel Lebanon border, again, attacks today as well. Zack, give us an update in recent hours on the situation in the north as these tensions escalate. And the IDF within the last hour has come out and stated that they struck three separate targets from launches earlier this morning. They also went further to strike infrastructure for Hezbollah. Now, they don't clarify where exactly these strikes are taking place and they haven't done so since the war began. So these strikes, especially when they include the infrastructure, when they tell us that they're striking both the intelligence gathering and sometimes the weapons storage facilities, these are locations that are potentially much farther beyond the border inside Lebanon where the Hezbollah forces are staging. Now, we aren't able to independently confirm this, but some of the media that Hezbollah itself is publishing does tend to show not only their rocket launch sites being close to the border, but some of the staging activity happening quite a bit a ways away. And that would speak to the fact that they obviously need to move their personnel and their resources and their equipment and stage them in different areas and then bring them closer to the border to fire these weapons like the ATGMs, the anti-take guided missiles with a small crew with a small number of personnel. They'll attempt to strike vehicles and equipment from the Israeli side and they have been doing so. But this morning, again, was more ATGM fire. The Israelis say they responded. We have been hearing the outgoing artillery this morning. We've also heard some of the jets. And this has really just been the par for the course. Just about every day here has been that same story. Hezbollah fires, the IDF fires back and they do so with their air superiority. Now, Zach, stay safe for us as you report along the border in the north. Thank you for that update. And with me now in studio is Kalev Ben-DeViet, host of the rundown prime time show here on I-24 News. Kalev reports circulating today, a flurry of new reports about perhaps an imminent hostage deal. We don't know the exact nature of how we deal with unfold, but there is a lot of commonality, similar details between reporting in Israeli media, Israeli sources and also American media and also what's being leaked out of Qatar as well, perhaps some kind of deal in the hours to come. Right. And the latest of that is Barak Ravid, who is a well connected Israeli reporter now, I think reports for Axios out of Washington just in the last hour tweeting that a source privy to the details of the negotiations says the Qatari government is expected to announce even today that a deal has been reached for the release of the hostage to make the announcement that the deal will be carried out today. And yes, there is a commonality among many of these reports claiming that this deal will involve the freeing of 50 hostages involving children and perhaps their parent or mother of the children if there are. And that to those 50 hostages will be released over a five day period, a five day ceasefire period at 10 a day. Again, I want to stress no official confirmation of any of these reports, but there is, as you say, a commonality. And we do have that meeting last night, but the first meeting between the war cabinet and headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and hostage families. And if there were to be a deal imminent, that meeting would have had to have taken place prior to to the deal. Can you touch on though, Kolev, I mean, even if a deal were to be announced, let's say Qatar announced is the outline of the deal. A lot can happen and will happen between an announcement of a deal between the actual presence of Israeli hostages back on Israeli soil, including what happens with the Israeli military soldiers in Gaza. What happens politically with a vote as well. Right. So certainly, yes, a deal like this. If it involves the release and we would involve the release of Palestinian security prisoners would need a vote from the cabinet. Presumably, it would have a majority there that would face some opposition from some of the more right or extreme right parties in the Israeli government. But again, you're dealing with Hamas. And we've seen before reports, claims of last minute violations. As you reported, they're still ongoing fighting very hard. The ongoing fighting in the north of Gaza. There could be some development on the ground that could involve that. So we must be extremely cautious. As I said, all we can say is that there is a flurry of reports in the media, citing unnamed sources, basically with a commonality of the outlines of a deal saying that that is imminent. And we did hear President Joe Biden say yesterday at a Thanksgiving event in the White House, he was yelled at by a reporter. Is there a report? Do you are confident that a deal is about to happen? He responded simply saying yes. One of the more popular annual events of the White House, even at that event, always being peppered with questions on the latest updates on the war. But the president Biden saying he believes a deal is close. Back to Seema Shah with the INSS. Seema, I want to get your analysis here on one reported sticking point in a hostage deal, which is that even if there is no elimination of terror targets, even if the ground offensive comes to a temporary break, Israel's insistence and having observation drones to be able to have eyes in the sky, so to speak, even during that pause and Hamas perhaps willing to scrap the whole deal over that. How important is that ability to have observation ability even during the troops? Of course, it's very important. I don't know if it's an obstacle to a deal. I don't know where it stands since I'm not in the administration now. But I do think it's very important because we know why Hamas needs these five days. They want to reorganize themselves. They want to change places. They might decide to come nearer to Israeli forces. I think it's very important. I don't know where it stands, but it's very, very important. And at the end of the day, I think cautious is the war that we are using now because at the end of the day, we don't know how Hamas will use these five days in different aspects, not only on what they will do on the ground, but also what they will do with the children and mothers that they want to release every day. They can on the day of the first day of the field, they will say, OK, we didn't find someone give us one more day. This is a very tricky situation. And I think it's after what we have seen, what Hamas has done, there is no limit to any thing that they can use in order to make psychological war against Israel, but also in order to prove their own situation on the ground. So I would be very hesitant on how it will work, how it will follow the five days. It's a very, very dangerous and delicate, sensitive and delicate situation. Of course, that's a very complicated calculus here. Thank you, Seema Shine, for being with us. Israeli families that were evacuated from the South have been uprooted, not just from their homes, but from their entire lives with little to no sense of normalcy. Children are in need of a constructive routine. One non-profit is shifting its focus to that with special classes. Hanna Rifkin reports. It makes me happy. Because after what I really believe, I really say, I have a lot outside, I have a lot of fear. And I think it's possible, it's possible. Israel's evacuated families of the South are trying to overcome the traumatic events of October 7th and the instability which followed. At the same time, they're in hotels, biding time and seeking some sense of normalcy for their children. One organization has taken up mission to help those families regain routine instability by providing technology and innovation workshops. And the idea is to give them two things. One is to give them the entertainment. Unfortunately, they were after a very difficult experience. We wanted to give them some fun experience, but also to bring them some kind of window to what technology can bring. We already went to 10 hotels. Mostly 100 to 150 people come in each of our activity. Now we're starting another activity which is actually units that are fixed. So instead of coming to a hotel once a week or once every month, we basically want to give these kids a real sense of education. This is a debut community center event for Jerusalem youth to mingle with evacuated kids. Families are encouraged to come from their hotels. For some, this is their first time leaving hotel premises to socialize. It's really fun, but the most I like here is to have all the friends and have fun and the reality is amazing. I've never done an amazing reality, and I've done it before, but it's like an opening. No one can explain it to me. With everything from virtual reality to 3D printing, video game programming, and more, this weekly workshop not only provides a sense of stability, but also exposes them to new opportunities and skills. There's a big wow effect. They can see that they can actually experience new technologies. And for some of them, to be honest, in the first few days, there were people that didn't come out of the rooms in the hotel. So it was really a way to bring them out of their unfortunate situation, unfortunate experience they were, and bring them something that they can finally open up, play, learn some new stuff. Seeing their creations come to life is an important component to the process, Dr. Modena says, as is easing them into a new normal. They're really nice to me, and it's fun that I do it, and it's really touching, and I really like it. Noam and his cousins have high spirits. I know that Israel was alive and strong. Khanna Rifkin, I-24 News, Jerusalem. With me now in studio is Hayuta Gorend, the CEO of Birth Freedom Israel Movement. Thank you so much for being with me. We've been talking about perhaps a hostage deal nearing Israeli media, reporting that a deal may be announced today, but the parameters aren't clear, but likely to include primarily, if not exclusively, women and children. There are reports already that one female hostage kidnapped, she was forced to give birth in captivity. Presumably these victims have experienced unknown sexual trauma and rape. If they're able, with God's help to come back to Israel, come back home, what kind of help will they need physically and emotionally? First of all, thank you for having me, and I just want to preface it, but by saying that I may, a warning, I may become emotional. This is very emotional for all of us here in Israel, and I'm not the only one, but I am a daughter of two Holocaust survivors and the triggers and the feeling that 85 years after my mother was taken out of her home in Czechoslovakia at age 10, and my father, it's unbelievably difficult and horrible, actually. I'm really, really, really hoping that the deal will go through, because whatever help the hostages, and we're talking now about the women and children, whatever help they'll need, obviously it needs to happen yesterday or 46 days ago. Every day, in captivity with treatment that we have no idea how it was, but we do, in a way, because we know what Hamas terrorists did to the women on October 7th. There's no reason to think that they became gentle all of a sudden while they were in captivity. Your organization, how can they help? How were you able to jump in whenever needed? Well, our organization on normal days works and fights for women's rights, human rights and childbirth, to just choose where to give birth and how and with whom and what to say yes to and what to say no. We started right on October 8th, a helpline, a hotline for all women affected, but those were women obviously outside of captivity. We are experts in helping women before, during and after birth with whatever they need, emotionally, physically, just to have doula with them before, during and after birth, etc. More importantly, we work in close cooperation with all the other relevant organizations and non-profit organizations in Israel, the midwives organizations, the doula organizations, the organization, the assistance lines for women victims of sexual crimes. And hundreds of thousands of Israeli families having to be displaced at least temporarily, many of them pregnant women, needing new support, new avenues of support, new medical assistance, new emotional, new therapies. You mentioned the hope that the hostages are able to return your reaction to the silence of so many global organizations around the world that in theory we're supposed to speak up for and fight for women's rights that were silent and have been silent. It's a crime. It's an absolute crime. Keeping silent or in some cases actually speaking out only on behalf of Gaza, Gaza women and children as in the example of UN women and as in the example of the ICM, which is the International Confederation of Midwives, who were the first ones that I know to come out and say and have an official statement about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza without mentioning anything about Israel. I think people need to understand that keeping silent is a moral choice. Taking sides is obviously a moral choice. But keeping silent, feminist organizations, women organizations all over the world do another.