 Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 News' coverage of Israel at war. Just a short while ago, Sirens activated in the South after a relatively quiet night. The idea is continuing to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip throughout the Saturday, targeting several Hamas operatives and positions, the military said. 450 Hamas military targets were struck in just the last 24 hours, and that during the fighting, one Israeli soldier was seriously injured, another moderately injured. The military also announcing they are increasing the number of soldiers on the ground in Gaza and warning residents of Gaza City that the area was now a battlefield, reiterated a call civilians in Gaza to move south. Israel also said that humanitarian efforts to Gaza, led by Egypt and the United States, will be expanding and that communications networks in Gaza are beginning to come back online after getting knocked out by airstrikes on Friday. On the diplomatic front, Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after President Erdogan praised Hamas's liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th and accused Israel of war crimes for striking Hamas targets in Gaza in response. Nenyeo also reiterated he had no intelligence warning Hamas's intention to commit a massacre, saying he believed intelligence estimates the terror group had been deterred. After backlash from his own war cabinet, Nenyeo deleted a post. We put all the blame for Israel's security failure on the various intelligence agencies. Israel now saying the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230. Their fate has become the number one priority to the Israeli public according to opinion polls, which also say the support for an immediate ground operation is beginning to drop. Nenyeo also announced the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas has begun with an expanding ground offensive into the Gaza Strip and that the road ahead will be long and difficult. On Friday evening, more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo. This is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear, the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the return of the hostages home. At every stage until now and at every stage from now on, we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families. The war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long and we're prepared for it. And we're hearing right now more reports of rockets in the south. We'll turn to that in a brief moment, but first we are going to turn to our correspondent in the north. That's Hamda Salhout standing on the northern border right now. Give us an appraisal of what's going on on that front right now, Hamda. Well, look, a little bit of quiet this morning on the northern front. The Israeli military's exchanges of fire and the tit for tat between Hezbollah and the Israeli military while paused for now, but you can be rest assured that it will continue as the Israeli military strikes several different cells inside of Lebanese territory and Hezbollah continues to destroy Israeli military observation posts and other military positions. Now yesterday, we did see a total of six rockets coming into Israeli territory, three of them in two separate locations falling in open areas siren sounding in several parts of the north as well because of different types of projectiles that were fired, not just rockets. We're also talking about anti tank fire and such. Now the Lebanese government has also been weighing in in the last 24 hours about the possibility of Hezbollah emerging into this conflict, saying that the country simply cannot handle a war due to the devastating economic situation. The state is already in the United States has been speaking to the Lebanese government who has been echoing that message to Hezbollah that they don't want a war, but Hezbollah's reaction to the Lebanese government is quote we understand. However, we cannot see the fall of Hamas. Now the Lebanese government has been telling the United States and all other mediators that are speaking to them that perhaps a ground invasion inside of the Gaza Strip will not be the best course of action because of how groups like Hezbollah and other adversaries in the region will react to this. But time will only tell as Israel now enters its second phase of this war how other groups in the region will react. Well, thank you, Hando. I'll be back with you over the course of the day as the Northern Front develops further. We're going to discuss this more in studio, though, with Ref Ali Rashami, former senior intelligence officer with the IDF, Rafael. Thank you for being with us. You're from our correspondent that the Lebanese Hezbollah is saying that if Israel threatens the existence of Hamas, they're going to join the front. There is now dropping support for a ground operation in Israel as the focus is more on the hostages. Is there any realistic way to destroy Hamas without a ground invasion? No, you need the ground invasion, but we see that you not necessarily need a very large, large, large scale ground invasion. So the IDF has accepted to listen to the advice of its American counterparts and to reduce the scope of that ground invasion. We are now really in a ground invasion. Let's put it that way. We call it a very major incursion, but it is the ground invasion. It has started. It is just in a lower scale, lower scope. And so long as we don't call it, you know, it's a lot of signals and dialectic. So the Hezbollah is threatening us with as usual, as they go into entering conflict and allow war. It's a lot of bluff. And we are not calling a spade a spade. This is a ground invasion. It's just being done in a different way. And it can be interpreted as an incursion. What is for sure the American advice was, in my opinion, a very good advice. We are seeing the results. The objectives are being reached without a major investment of all our troops and all our capacities, and obtaining extremely good results. And we could do that for a while. And maybe never reach the super massive. Now, to answer your question, can we annihilate the Hamas? No, we can only make sure the Hamas doesn't come back into power in Gaza. Remember that the Hamas doesn't only sit in Gaza. It has a presence in southern Lebanon. It has some presence in Sinai. And it's very strong in Judea and Samaria. So we cannot destroy the Hamas to the last man. What we can do is ensure that it doesn't come back as the ruler of Gaza, and it will be like he's eyes this today. He will eyes this without an Islamic State, meaning just like Al Qaeda, an organization that just roams around in the region. So that's the difference. And it's maybe a difference also in the objective. It's not realistic to think that we can suppress, like people say rightfully so, an idea. It's a doctrine. It's an idea. It's a movement. So we can't suppress it. But this is not what we want. We want to free Gaza from the Hamas rule. And the first one who will benefit from it is the Palestinian people of Gaza. The problem is that idea that organization has tens of thousands of soldiers, estimates here say 25,000 or so. Hamas bragging as much as 70,000 when they're talking about calling up more people for themselves. Can this limited incursion actually get rid of those tens of thousands of Hamas soldiers? Also the same note, my figure would be 40,000. But we have to remember that in guerrilla warfare, these 40,000, six times, you're talking like a huge because they're inside their city and they have booby trapped every place. And they've got snipers. So it's the 40,000 is much more really. So yet again, what we need to do and what we should have done a long time ago is reach the heads of the Hamas, the leaders, the commanders. That's what we're doing now. But it could have been done with targeted killings way before the war. So we're doing that now. We're also hoping that the violence of this present clash incursion will discourage some fighters and not all big heroes, you know, and martyrs, some of them might just surrender or flee with the civilian population towards the south. I gather that a good few thousand of the Hamas terrorists will just lay down their weapons when they see things are getting rough. But of course, you have to deal with the fanatics and those who are ready to die for the cause. And I can assure you that those who are not ready to die for the cause are the leaders. And that's why they're keeping these hostages as their life insurance, because when seeds will get really dodgy for them, they will say, okay, they give us free passage to Egypt. We don't want to be killed or arrested. Here, take your hostages back. Just let us go. So it's a very intricate situation. Yosiko and the former head of the Mossad said this morning something very true. We can deal with the Hamas. We can destroy the Hamas and at the same time deal with the hostage situation. People are saying impossible. Impossible is not in the vocabulary of the IDF. Impossible was never in the vocabulary of the Zionist movement or the Jewish people. There is no such thing as impossible. We've shown in Antebe. We've shown in the Six Day War. We've shown in many a time that we can do also the impossible. And we're going to return to this discussion in a brief moment. But first, we are going to turn our eye to the southern border where our correspondent, Pierre Kloschen, there is standing by just outside of Sterot, that border town in southern Israel. Pierre, give us a quick overview of how things stand on the southern front right now. Well, we're in a sort of a vintage point, if you could say, from where you can see the Gaza Strip right now. And the pounding is incessant. You can see maybe smoke billowing from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip near the village of Bethanoun. This is what's going on here as the grounding. We're going to have to interrupt this for a moment, Pierre, because it sounds like Daniel Higari is giving his IDF briefing, and we're going to turn to that and take that live. The IDF forces, more IDF forces entered the Gaza Strip, joining the forces already there. The ground war in the Gaza Strip continues. We're progressing along our plan. We're broadening our activity, our ground activity, and the number of forces on the ground. The ground activity is complex and includes risks for our forces. We will do everything possible from the air, sea, and land to secure our forces and achieve what we want in this war. In the north, in response to fire coming from Lebanon, we attacked overnight installations of Hizballah, infrastructure installations of Hizballah. The Hizballah terror organization is working on the northern border and we kill anyone working against us. Any Hizballah squad that is coming to the defense will be eliminated. In the home front, we make assessments every day to allow routine along the war. Please continue looking at the websites. Please continue listening to the instructions. We will, of course, let you know about every update and we will try to correct every problem that we have in the app. We have to be alert. The behavior of the civilians is intact. Amazing. Please continue like this. We've informed to the families of 311 soldiers who have been killed in 230 hostages. We hug the families and we will continue to be with them all along the way. We're doing everything to bring the hostages back home. It is our most important effort. The IDF soldiers are in the battlefield for this, for this goal as well. A new group of observers is enlisting to the IDF this morning. These observers have a very important role in protecting our soldiers and we saw how brave they were on that morning. They're all along our borders. In the coming month we will continue with the November enlistings as we have planned along with fighter soldiers. We will do everything we need to make sure that these enlistings go on as normal. Questions. Question regarding the tweet about the Prime Minister saying that he had no alert from the Army or the Israeli security agency tweeting. What do you think about the fact that the Prime Minister is tweeting in the middle of a war when our soldiers are on the field? What do you think about the fact that the Prime Minister is tweeting against the heads of the Israeli security establishment? And also if you can tell us what what did the letters who were sent to the Prime Minister and Defense Minister who were sent during the summer, did they include any warning regarding what can happen on behalf of Hamas? I will not answer this question. We're in war. We're concentrated about the war. Can you tell us what the documents were sent to the Prime Minister included because the Prime Minister is insisting to blame you the Army? But were there any warnings that were sent to the Prime Minister? We're in the Army and I'm also sure that at the security agency we will investigate ourselves and will present everything to the public because we rely on the public's trust. So we will publish everything but right now we're concentrated in the war. This is my answer. And I'm going to return to the studio now. We have our Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev sitting with us as well. We're hearing reports that roughly seven kilometers or about four miles inside Gaza and I believe we have some visuals of this and Israeli flag has been raised for the first time in nearly 20 years. What do we know about the progress being made by the ground forces as we speak? We know that the ground forces are coming in but if you're expecting this to be the ground maneuver the answer is no. I don't know if the mode of operation here will be a smaller incursion here, smaller incursion there, step by step pulling into Gaza as much as we're seeing now or a major operation beginning all at once. Let's remember one thing. If we up until three weeks ago Israel would perhaps look down at Hamas as some kind of a weak opponent. I think by now the IDF Israel understood that this is an enemy that should be given respect regarding its abilities and they're waiting for the IDF and the IDF is to think not only what is right to do but what is right to do and what Hamas is not expecting and I have to say this, I'm sorry, how do you expect the head of the Israeli security agency and the IDF chief of staff and everybody to operate when the Prime Minister tweets what he tweets in the middle of the night, they're conducting a war and they're not putting blames, we just heard the IDF spokesperson not putting blames but all the blame is being put on them by the Prime Minister. How are they supposed to operate? I don't know. The pressure is not just the internal pressures though because I want to turn to another angle now. That would be the US and Egypt brokering deals, pressuring Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip but the big question of fuel is still unanswered as Israel vows not to allow any fuel in that will allow Hamas to power its military but the world is ratcheting up pressure on Israel to allow exactly that in so to answer just what sort of energy capabilities Hamas has right now we are joined by Dr. Eli Retig assistant professor at the department of political studies Barlain University. Thank you for being with us. Let's talk about energy infrastructure in Gaza right now because we're also hearing that there are massive fuel stockpiles that Hamas is using. Yes, so on a regular day before the war around 50% of Gaza's electricity is coming straight from Israel and the rest is generated mainly by a big diesel powered power plant that generates around 25% and the rest is just a widespread of privately owned small-scale diesel generators and hospitals and water desalination plants and in people's homes that they generate electricity and sell to their neighbors it's a very unregulated market and a lot of solar panels with their own battery capacity which means that generally even if Israel cuts off electricity to Gaza it still has around 50% of its own capacity but only if it still has diesel fuel the problem is that on the first day of the war Hamas depleted all of the diesel fuel from the power plants the power plant shut down immediately which leaves Gaza with very little electricity the hospitals anyone who has small-scale diesel generators and of course Hamas bases underground bases they still have electricity but only the few people that have access to Hamas and Hamas diesel fuel have that capacity. And before we continue this discussion we're going to let you hear directly from people inside Gaza a phone call showing exactly that Hamas's stockpiles and how they took the fuel on the first day let's play that first We're going to return to you now Dr. Haredig because the big question is we heard on that phone call there something in the area of a million liters of diesel confiscated about half a million liters of diesel underground in Hamas's tunnel networks roughly 1.5 million total for combining those numbers there how long can they operate on 1.5 million liters of diesel? Very hard to assess because the question is how much they release to the hospitals to humanitarian concerns which I assume very little or not at all and it's very hard to assess because we don't really know the full capacity of these we call them tunnels but it's really an underground city under the under Gaza they need ventilation systems they need electricity they need communications I assume in preparation for an operation like this Hamas has stockpiled a lot of diesel in the underground bunkers not just in the silos that you see from the satellite images and I assume they have enough electricity for months ahead. Dr. Red I know this is not simply analysis to you and we're talking about this we understand that you have a personal story of loss from this conflict as well. Well I have a lot of everyone in Israel does I have colleagues and students that were killed on October 7th. One of them is Oyelevi he was Colonel Oyelevi was the commander of a commando unit a bona fide war hero he was injured in Gaza a few years ago recovered decided to go back into war I didn't know anything about that I mean I knew him as my students only after he died I realized he was a very top secret commando you know you couldn't guess that about him he was a brilliant student and very kind and his final paper was about energy cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians he wanted to help the Palestinians have their own energy generation capacity assuming that will create more trust building between the sides he wanted a better future for both sides and that's how I knew I only discovered he was a war hero after the fact that's that's how humble he was. So moving touching story Oyelevi I think all of us are hoping that there are better days and more peaceful ones ahead thank you for joining us and for helping us understand the situation there as well. We're going to return to the studio now with you Rafael to discuss some of what we were just discussing Hamas's capabilities and their infrastructure because that is the big question that's been hanging over everyone for the past few days now the IDF over the weekend releasing an assessment of their underground tunnels now hearing about some idea of their fuel usage how long can their leadership hold out how will Israel actually get to them. So first of all the leadership will hold out so long as it's alive or free and this is the mistake that was accomplished over many years of laxism on the part of the Israeli government. Many people and not just myself always said targeted killings strike at the top it's useless to we're doing the same mistake in Judea and Samaria we're resting hundreds of terrorists killing some of them but we're not striking high enough so yes we have to reach them wherever they are we have to reach them we speaking of these tunnels we knew about these tunnels we knew about the bunker under the hospital we knew all this when now we're learning more and as the troops advance they will gather more more intelligence on the ground and because they will capture terrorists who will tell the story. This being said the problem was there on the table for a long long long time and Mr Benjamin the prime minister cannot come now and say he was not warned he was warned for 20 years for 20 years he was warned about the problems caused by the Hamas there were missiles raining on the south of Israel for 20 years so the assessment might have been wrong at some point of some of the commanders of the IDF but not over all that period so in the end it was his decision even if you get the wrong information you have to remember one thing the prime minister in Israel is the supreme commander of the armed forces and the tradition in the army whether you're a lieutenant general a colonel is you are responsible for what is happening under your command so if your sergeant is doing something wrong okay you deal with that but you as the commander you assume responsibility you take care of the problem and you report to your superiors okay so maybe Mr Banner-Tanyou doesn't want to be the supreme commander anymore I don't know but certainly this behavior is not acceptable he was warned he had all the information for many many years he's the one who decided that it would be a good thing to have the Hamas in place there in Gaza because it's a counterbalance to the power of the PLO in Ramallah etc etc now of course like rightfully said absolutely by the IDF spokesman that I salute for his extraordinary job these days we're at war so leave let's leave all this aside for now and let's focus on how to make sure the Hamas doesn't come back into power so of course one of the elements is to suppress the the leaders I gather that you know about these terms I gather there's a few tunnels reaching Sinai and I'm not sure that the leaders of the Hamas will stay until the last minute in Gaza if thing gets dodgy they will run away to Sinai also they have these hostages as a life insurance in case they are encircled by the IDF and cannot escape they will probably use bargain you know their lives for the lives of our hostages that's why I do not believe one word of the negotiations going on they need these guys have their life insurance and then the last thing is reaching them is the problem of the tunnels if you can solve the problem of the tunnels there is a way you can reach them and you have been listening to what was said events if you don't have air you die so you can asphyxiate them you can throw gas into the events you can do what they said yesterday they alluded to that earthquake I mean you the missiles cannot reach and down down to the tunnels but we know more or less now how the tunnels are built what kind of materials were used to build them and maybe in some parts just you create an earthquake and they might just tumble on them so you can also bury them alive all these can be done the only problem we do have which is very important is we have the hostages there and we are afraid to to to hit them and that is a discussion how that we're going to be having over the course of the next few days and weeks ahead thank you very much for everyone else we are out of time we will see you again at the top of the next hour for more updates on the war Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped tell us we don't know what to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity from Israel with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries completely done down in their best bringing Israel's story to the world i-24 news channels now on hot for news is coverage of Israel at war just a short while ago sirens activated in the south after a relatively quiet night the idea is continuing to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip throughout the satellite targeting several Hamas operatives and positions the military said 450 Hamas military targets were struck in just the last 24 hours and that during the fighting one Israeli soldier was seriously injured another moderately injured the military also announcing they are increasing the number of soldiers on the ground in Gaza and warning residents of Gaza city that the area was now a battlefield reiterated a call civilians in Gaza to move south Israel also said that humanitarian efforts to Gaza led by Egypt and the United States will be expanding and that communications networks in Gaza are beginning to come back online after getting knocked out by airstrikes on Friday on the diplomatic front Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after president Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th and accused Israel of war crimes for striking Hamas targets in Gaza in response Nenyeho also reiterated he had no intelligence warning Hamas's intention to commit a massacre saying he believed intelligence estimates the terror group had been deterred after backlash from his own war cabinet Nenyeho deleted a post we put all the blame for Israel's security failure on the various intelligence agencies Israel now saying the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230 their fate has become the number one priority to the Israeli public according to opinion polls which also say the support for an immediate ground operation is beginning to drop Nenyeho also announced the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas has begun with an expanding ground offensive into the Gaza Strip and that the road ahead will be long and difficult on Friday evening more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo this is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas in the return of the hostages home at every stage until now and at every stage from now on we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families the war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long and we're prepared for it and we're hearing right now more reports of rockets in the south we'll turn to that in a brief moment but first we are going to turn to our correspondent in the north that's Hamda Salhout standing on the northern border right now give us an appraisal of what's going on on that front right now Hamda well look a little bit of quiet this morning on the northern front the Israeli military's exchanges of fire and the tit for tat between Hezbollah and the Israeli military while paused for now but you can be rest assured that it will continue as the Israeli military strikes several different cells inside of Lebanese territory and Hezbollah continues to destroy Israeli military observation posts and other military positions now yesterday we did see a total of six rockets coming into Israeli territory three of them in two separate locations falling in open areas siren sounding in several parts of the north as well because of different types of projectiles that were fired not just rockets we're also talking about anti-tank fire and such now the Lebanese government has also been weighing in in the last 24 hours about the possibility of Hezbollah emerging into this conflict saying that the country simply cannot handle a war due to the devastating economic situation the state is already in the United States has been speaking to the Lebanese government who has been echoing that message to Hezbollah that they don't want a war but Hezbollah's reaction to the Lebanese government is quote we understand however we cannot see the fall of Hamas now the Lebanese government has been telling the United States and all other mediators that are speaking to them that perhaps a ground invasion inside of the Gaza strip will not be the best course of action because of how groups like Hezbollah and other adversaries in the region will react to this but time will only tell as Israel now enters its second phase of this war how other groups in the region will react well thank you Hamdou we'll be back with you over the course of the day as the northern front develops further we're going to discuss this more in studio though with Rafael Urshami former senior intelligence officer with the IDF Rafael thank you for being with us here from our correspondent that the Lebanese Hezbollah saying that if Israel threatens the existence of Hamas they're going to join the front there's now dropping support for a ground operation in Israel as the focus is more on the hostages is there any realistic way to destroy Hamas without a ground invasion no you need the ground invasion but we see that you not necessarily need a very large large large scale ground invasion so the IDF has accepted to listen to the advice of its American counterparts and to reduce the scope of that ground invasion we are now really in a ground invasion let's put it that way we call it a very major incursion but it is the ground invasion it has started it's just in a lower scale lower scope and so long as we don't call it you know it's a lot of the signals and dialectic so the Hezbollah is threatening us with as usual as they're going into entering conflict and allow war it's a lot of bluff and we are not calling a spade a spade and this is a ground invasion is just being done in a different way and it's can be interpreted as an incursion what is for sure the American advice was in my opinion a very good advice we are seeing the results the objectives are being reached without a major investment of all our troops and all our capacities and obtaining extremely good results and we could do that for a while and maybe never reach the super massive now to answer your question can we annihilate the Hamas no we can only make sure the Hamas doesn't come back into power in Gaza remember remember that the Hamas doesn't all only sit in Gaza it has a presence in southern Lebanon it has some presence in Sinai and it's a very strong in Judea and Samaria so we cannot destroy the Hamas to the last man what we can do is ensure that it doesn't come back as the ruler of Gaza and it will be like his eyes is today with the eyes this without an Islamic state meaning just like Al Qaeda organization that just roams around in the region so that that's the difference and it's maybe a difference also in the objective it's not realistic to think that we can suppress like people say rightfully so an idea it's a doctrine it's an idea it's a it's a move a movement so we can't suppress it but this is not what we want we want to free Gaza from the Hamas rule and the first one who will benefit from it is the Palestinian people of Gaza the problem is that idea that organization has tens of thousands of soldiers estimates here say 25,000 or so Hamas bragging as much as 70,000 when they're talking about calling up more people for themselves can this limited incursion actually get rid of those tens of thousands of Hamas soldiers also the same note my figure would be 40,000 but we have to remember that in guerrilla warfare these 40,000 are six times you're talking like a huge because they're inside their city and they have will be trapped every place and they've got snipers so it's the 40,000 is much more really so yet again what we need to do and what we should have done a long time ago is reach the heads of the Hamas the leaders the commanders that's what we're doing now but it could have been done with targeted killings way before the war so we're doing that now we also hoping that the violence of this present clash incursion will discourage some fighters and not all big heroes you know and martyrs some of them might just surrender or flee with the civilian population towards the south I gather that a good few thousand of the Hamas terrorists will just lay down their weapons when they see things are getting rough but you of course you have to deal with the fanatics and those who are really to die for the cause and I can assure you that those who are not ready to die for the cause are the leaders and that's why they're keeping these hostages as their life insurance because when scenes will get really dodgy for them they would say okay they'll give us free passage to Egypt we don't want to be killed or arrested here take your hostages back just let us go so it's a very intricate situation Yoshiko and the former head of the Mossad said this morning something very true we can deal with the Hamas we can destroy the Hamas and at the same time deal with the hostage situation people are seeing impossible impossible is not in the vocabulary of the IDF impossible was never in the vocabulary of the Zionist movement or the Jewish people there is no such thing as impossible we've shown in Antebe we've shown in the Six Day War we've shown in many a time that we can do also the impossible we're going to return to this discussion in a brief moment but first we are going to turn our eye to the southern border where our correspondent Pierre Kloschen there is standing by just outside of Sterot that border town in southern Israel Pierre give us a quick overview of how things stand on the southern front right now well we're in a sort of a vintage point if you could say from where you can see the Gaza Strip right now and the pounding is incessant you can see maybe smoke billowing from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip near the village of Bet Hanun this is what's going on here as the grounding and we're going to have to interrupt you for a moment Pierre because it sounds like Daniel Higari is giving his IDF briefing and we're going to turn to that and take that live the idea forces more idea forces entered the Gaza Strip joining the forces already there the ground war in the Gaza Strip continues we're progressing along our plan we're broadening our activity our ground activity and the number of forces on the ground the ground activity is complex and includes risks for our forces we will do everything possible from the air, sea and land to secure our forces and achieve the what we want in this war and the north in response to fire coming from Lebanon we attacked overnight installations of Hezbollah infrastructure installations of Hezbollah the Hezbollah terror organization is working on the northern border and we kill anyone working against us any Hezbollah squad that is coming to the defense will be eliminated on the home front we make assessments every day to allow routine along the war please continue looking at the websites please continue listening to the instructions we will of course let you know about every update and we will try to correct every problem that we have in the app we have to be alert the behavior of the civilians is intact amazing please continue like this we've informed to the families of 311 soldiers who have been killed and 230 hostages we hug the families and we will continue to be with them all along the way we're doing everything to bring the hostages back home it is our most important effort the idea of soldiers are in the battlefield for this for this goal as well a new a new group of observers is enlisting to the IDF this morning these observers have a very important role in protecting our soldiers and we saw how brave they were on that morning they're all along our borders in the coming month we will continue with the November enlistings as we have planned along with fighter soldiers we will do everything we need to make sure that these enlistings go on as normal questions question regarding the tweet about the prime minister saying that he had no alert from the army or the Israeli security agency tweeting what do you think about the fact that the prime minister is tweeting in the middle of a war when our soldiers are on the field what do you think about the fact that the prime minister is tweeting against the heads of the Israeli security establishment and also if you can tell us what what did the letters who were sent to the prime minister and defense minister who were sent during the summer did they include any warning regarding what can happen on behalf of Hamas I will not answer this question we're in war we're concentrated about the war can you tell us what the documents were sent of the prime minister included because the prime minister is insisting to blame you the army but were there any warnings that were sent to the prime minister we're in the army and I'm also sure that at the security agency we will investigate ourselves and we'll present everything to the public because we rely on the public's trust so we will publish everything but right now we're concentrated in the war this is my answer and I'm going to return to the studio now we have our defense correspondent Jonathan Regev sitting with us as well we're hearing reports that roughly seven kilometers or about four miles inside Gaza and I believe we have some visuals of this and Israeli flag has been raised for the first time in nearly 20 years what do we know about the progress being made by the ground forces as we speak we know that the ground forces are coming in but if you're expecting this to be the ground maneuver the answer is no I don't know if the mode of operation here will be a smaller incursion here smaller incursion there step by step pulling into Gaza as much as we're seeing now or a major operation beginning all at once let's remember one thing if we up until three weeks ago Israel would perhaps look down at Hamas as some kind of a weak opponent I think by now the IDF Israel understood this is an enemy that should be given respect regarding its abilities and they're waiting for the IDF and the IDF is to think not only what is right to do but what is right to do and what Hamas is not expecting and I have to say this I'm sorry how do you expect the head of the Israeli security agency and the IDF chief of staff and everybody to operate when the prime minister tweets what he tweets in the middle of the night they're conducting a war and they're not putting blames we just heard the IDF spokesperson not putting blames but all the blame is putting is being put on them by the prime minister how are they supposed to operate I don't know and the pressure is not just the internal pressures though because I want to turn to another angle now that would be the U.S. and Egypt brokering deals pressuring Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip but the big question of fuel is still unanswered as Israel vows not to allow any fuel in that will allow Hamas to power its military but the world is ratcheting up pressure on Israel to allow exactly that in so to answer just what sort of energy capabilities Hamas has right now we are joined by Dr. Eli Retig assistant professor at the department of political studies Barlon University thank you for being with us let's talk about energy infrastructure in Gaza right now because we're also hearing that there are massive fuel stockpiles that Hamas is using yes so on a regular day before the war around 50% of Gaza's electricity is coming straight from Israel and the rest is generated mainly by a big diesel powered power plant that generates around 25% and the rest is just a widespread of privately owned small-scale diesel generators in hospitals in water desalination plants and in people's homes that they generate electricity and sell to their neighbors it's a very unregulated market and a lot of solar panels with their own battery capacity which means that generally even if Israel cuts off electricity to Gaza it still has around 50% of its own capacity but only if it still has diesel fuel the problem is that on the first day of the war Hamas depleted all of the diesel fuel from the power plant so the power plant shut down immediately which leaves Gaza with very little electricity the hospitals anyone who has small-scale diesel generators and of course Hamas bases underground bases they still have electricity but only the few people that have access to Hamas and Hamas diesel fuel have that capacity and before we continue this discussion we're going to let you hear directly from people inside Gaza a phone call showing exactly that Hamas's stockpiles and how they took the fuel on the first day let's play that first we're going to return to you now Dr. Haredegh because the big question is we heard on that phone call there something in the area of a million liters of diesel confiscated about a half a million liters of diesel underground in Hamas's tunnel networks roughly 1.5 million total for combining those numbers there how long can they operate on 1.5 million liters of diesel it's very hard to assess because the question is how much they released to the hospitals to humanitarian concerns which I assume very little or not at all and it's very hard to assess because we don't really know the full capacity of these we call them tunnels but it's really an underground city under the under Gaza they need ventilation systems they need electricity they need communications I assume in preparation for an operation like this Hamas has stockpiled a lot of diesel in the underground bunkers not just in the silos that you see from the satellite images and I assume they have enough electricity for months ahead Dr. Haredegh I know this is not simply analysis to you and we're talking about this we understand that you have a personal story of loss from this conflict as well a lot of everyone in Israel does I have colleagues and students that were killed on October 7 one of them is Roy Levy he was Colonel Roy Levy he was the commander of a commando unit a bona fide war hero he was injured in Gaza a few years ago recovered decided to go back into war I didn't know anything about that I mean I knew him as my students only after he died I realized he was a very top secret commando you know you couldn't guess that about him he was a brilliant student and very kind and his final paper was about energy cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians who wanted to help the Palestinians have their own energy generation capacity assuming that will create more trust building between the sides he wanted a better future for both sides and that's how I knew I only discovered he was a war hero after the fact that's how humble he was it's a moving touching story Eli I think all of us are hoping that there are better days and more peaceful ones ahead thank you for joining us and for helping us understand the situation there as well we're going to return to the studio now with you Rafael to discuss some of what we were just discussing Hamas's capabilities and their infrastructure because that is the big question that's been hanging over everyone for the past few days they have the IDF over the weekend releasing an assessment of their underground tunnels now hearing about some idea of their fuel usage how long can their leadership hold out how will Israel actually get to them so first of all the leadership will hold out so long as it's alive or free and this is the mistake that was accomplished over many years of laxism on the part of the Israeli government and we should many people and not just myself always said targeted killings strike at the top it's useless to we're doing the same mistake in Judea and Samaria we're resting hundreds of terrorists killing some of them but we're not striking high enough so yes we have to reach them wherever they are we have to reach them we're speaking of these tunnels we knew about these tunnels we knew about the bunker under the hospital we knew all this when now we're learning more and as the troops advance they will gather more and more intelligence on the ground and because they will capture terrorists who will tell the story this being said the problem was there on the table for a long long long time and Mr Benjamin Netanyahu the prime minister cannot come now and say he was not warned he was warned for 20 years for 20 years he was warned about the problems caused by the Hamas there were missiles raining on the south of Israel for 20 years so the assessment might have been wrong at some point of some of the commanders of the IDF but not over all that period so in the end it was his decision even if you get the wrong information you have to remember one thing the prime minister in Israel is the supreme commander of the armed forces and the tradition in the army whether you're a lieutenant a general a colonel is you are responsible for what is happening under your command so if your sergeant is doing something wrong okay you deal with that but you as the commander you assume responsibility you take care of the problem and you report to your superiors okay so maybe Mr Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't want to be the supreme commander anymore I don't know but certainly this behavior is not acceptable he was warned he had all the information for many many years he's the one who decided that it would be a good thing to have the Hamas in place there in Gaza because it's a counter balance to the power of the PLO in Ramallah etc etc now of course like rightfully said absolutely by the IDF spokesman that I salute for his extraordinary job these days we're at war so let's leave all this aside for now and let's focus on how to make sure the Hamas doesn't come back into power so of course one of the elements is to suppress the leaders I gather that you know about these terms I gather there are a few tunnels reaching Sinai and I'm not sure that the leaders of the Hamas will stay until the last minute in Gaza if thing gets dodgy they will run away to Sinai also they have these hostages as a life insurance in case they are encircled by the IDF and cannot escape they will probably use bargain you know their lives for the lives of our hostages that's why I do not believe one word of the negotiations going on they need these guys have their life insurance and then the last thing is reaching them is the problem of the tunnels if you can solve the problem of the tunnels there is a way you can reach them and you have been listening to what was said events if you don't have air you die so you can asphyxiate them you can throw gas into the events you can do what they said yesterday they alluded to that earthquake I mean the missiles cannot reach and down down to the tunnels but we know more or less now how the tunnels are built what kind of materials were used to build them and maybe in some parts just you create an earthquake and they might just tumble on them so you can also bury them alive all these can be done the only problem we do have which is very important is we have the hostages there and we are afraid to hit them and that is a discussion the how that we're going to be having over the course of the next few days and weeks ahead thank you very much for everyone else we are out of time we will see you again at the top of the next hour for more updates on the war over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped tell us we don't know what to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity my 24 news is ongoing coverage of Israel at war i'm ariel levin loveman Israeli defense forces continue to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip throughout saturday targeting several Hamas operatives and positions the military said that 450 Hamas military targets were struck just in the last 24 hours and that one Israeli soldier was seriously injured and another moderately injured during the fighting the military also announced they are increasing the number of soldiers on the ground in Gaza they're warning residents of Gaza city the area is now a battlefield reiterating a call for civilians in Gaza to move south Israel also said that humanitarian efforts to Gaza led by Egypt and the United States will be expanding net communications networks in Gaza are beginning to come back online after getting knocked out by airstrikes on friday on the diplomatic front Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from turkey after president Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on october 7 and accused Israel of war crimes for striking at Hamas targets and infrastructure in Gaza in response Nanyahu also reiterated that he had no intelligence warning of Hamas's intention to commit a massacre saying he believed intelligence estimates the terror group had been deterred after backlash from his own war cabinet Nanyahu deleted his tweet where he put all the blame for Israel's security failures on the various intelligence services Israel now saying the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230 their fate becoming the number one priority to the Israeli public according to opinion polling that also shows support for the immediate ground operation beginning to drop Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu announced the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas has begun with an expanding ground defensive in the Gaza Strip that the war ahead will be long and difficult on friday evening more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of evil this is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas in the return of the hostages home at every stage until now and at every stage from now on we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families the war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long and we're prepared for it and we turn our eye now to the southern border where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by just outside of Starotte border town in southern Israel Pierre give us an assessment of the southern front right now well Roy Platsman is going to give you a sense of what's going on in Gaza right now we're facing more or less the area of Bet Hanun which has been the stage of fighting since friday some of it is in open fields but some of it is already in urban areas there is a constant pounding of the Gaza Strip by sea by air and by artillery shells you might hear some of the artillery shells there's a battery not far away from where we are and it seems that they're pounding in in remandlessly the Gaza Strip it's like the slamming of like a door slamming on us when an explosion occurs sometimes you see smoke billowing now there was the roar of an air force jet flying over us we don't know what the target is obviously but what we know is that since friday since boots are on the ground intelligence is becoming even more accurate because the soldiers on the ground are indicating to the air force to the intelligence and to the artillery of the Israeli army the precise targets that they're confronting now in those confrontations there's been two officially confirmed wounded one IDF officer who was severely wounded by mortar fire and an Israeli soldier who was moderately wounded in a clash in an armed clash with a Hamas terrorist probably well Pierre thank you for the update down there and we will be returning to you as the situation develops we're going to cover some other developments going on in Gaza thousands of Gaza residents breaking into a warehouse and distribution centers for the united nations Palestinian refugee agency grabbing various food and basic survival items in their words the organization said this on sunday the agency has previously reported and then retracted incidents of looting in the past saying that Hamas stole their fuel reserves about two weeks ago for more on this we are joined in the studio by our Middle East correspondent Ariel Oceran tell us what we know about this looting situation right Ariel so before the looting of the warehouses there is an update regarding the unfortunate tweet of Prime Minister Netanyahu that he deleted so he now issued he tweeted a new statement saying I was wrong things I said following the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that I give full support to all the heads of the defense branches I strengthen the hands of the chief of staff of the army as well as IDF commanders and soldiers who are in on the front lines and fighting for the home front together we will prevail and so from statement to statement he appears to be backtracking and then attacking backtracking attacking this is the latest statement mentioning that he was wrong in trying to put the blame on military leaders now if we're looking at what is going on in the Gaza Strip regarding the looting of Unra warehouses and different sites that are holding humanitarian aid that are coming that's coming in from Gaza so according in an official statement by Unra the UN's Palestinian refugee Oregon agency saying that thousands of Gazans stormed and broke into broke into and looted several warehouses and distribution centers in the central part and southern areas of the Gaza Strip according to the statement they took basic supplies such as wheat flour as well as hygiene supplies and one of the warehouses is exactly is one of the warehouses that hold hosts that holds material coming in from Egypt in these humanitarian convoys so far 80 trucks have entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafa crossing and with these thousands storming the warehouses it could raise the possibility that these materials will make their way into the hands of Hamas similarly to what happened two weeks ago on the ninth day of the war Unra itself tweeted that Hamas stole thousands tens of thousands of gallons of fuel and other medical supplies they had then erased those tweets but indeed we're seeing that this situation of humanitarian aid it is not not only is it before it enters the Gaza Strip it is supervised once it's in Gaza there is no supervision and no one can promise that it doesn't it won't end up in the hands of Hamas similar to the previous time that Unra UN facilities were looted is there any indication that these material conditions on the ground could be driving a wedge between the population of Gaza and Hamas well so far the only wedge is that Hamas is preventing the population in Gaza to make its way down to the southern parts of Gaza the western part of Chanyunis and Mawasi which is a key area that humanitarian aid is also entering but also a place where the IDF called on residents of Gaza to make their way to so far we besides a few phone calls that IDF intelligence has intercepted and has been shared with the public in which Gazans are claiming that their movement south is being limited by Hamas there isn't free press free media in the Gaza Strip so you will not hear any claims like that any slight signal of criticism towards Hamas is quickly pushed down shut down and so this is an indication to the chaotic situation that is emerging in the Gaza Strip I will mention that Unra in its statement does not mention that there is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip they're saying we need these humanitarian supplies to maintain a normal situation there but they did fall short of saying that there's a humanitarian crisis obviously any criticism of Hamas you will not be hearing from any official organizations absolutely I mean I guess that the follow-up to that is more on those the day after the war sort of questions is there going to be a potential replacement for Hamas is there the groundwork to swollen the conditions to actually build an alternative well I mean you you asked that following a question as to the sentiment in Gaza I think if there is going to be it is a bit soon to talk about the day after but if we are going to allow ourselves to talk about that that period in time I think the people who are going to be asked last what they think are the people in Gaza unfortunately this is something that is going to be dropped over their heads either in international mediation obviously with Israel involved but this will not be I think brought to any vote or survey among Palestinians in Gaza who they would like to control them if we are looking at surveys in Palestinian population Palestinian public in the West Bank for instance if they were free and fair elections tomorrow Hamas would succeed the Palestinian Authority and so I don't think we're right now in a situation where Hamas has lost its support in the Gaza Strip but obviously as time moves on and destruction amplifies and continues that could change but I wouldn't hold your breath to hear any criticism coming out from Gaza at least not an immediate future definitely a distressing situation we're going to continue these discussions in a brief moment but first we are going to turn to the northern front where our correspondent Hamdut Salahut is standing by Hamdut thank you for being with us can you give us a quick assessment of what is going on on the northern front as we speak well look Israeli authorities saying that there's this expected security incidents in the city of Miesgav Am and residents are now required to stay indoors this is along the northern border the Israeli military has been increasingly afraid of infiltrations coming in from inside Lebanon along with the exchanges of fire that have been coming in but when someone infiltrates that border it's a little difficult to find them now because of the rough terrain the trees the mountainous area and also additionally because Hezbollah has been destroying a lot of Israeli military observation posts along the border and publishing footage of that on several of their channels specifically on telegram so the military advising residents in that area to stay indoors I'll remind you that the military has evacuated all communities within five kilometers of the Lebanese border we're talking about tens of thousands of people who have been relocated to more central and southern areas of the state of Israel and state-funded guest houses and hotels so the military continuously operating along all of the trails where there are trees there are imprints in the ground of tanks that are moving just closer and closer to the border to more artillery positions to continuously strike Hezbollah targets and cells that they are able to see so the exchanges of fire continuing infiltrations and security incidents at this time something that the military is still on the lookout for absolutely thank you very much for that report from the north Hondo will be back with you as the situation there changes over the course of the day for more on this though we are going to be going directly to our studio to talk to Colonel Jack Neria former deputy of assistant with Israeli military intelligence just hearing from our correspondent in the north Hezbollah has been knocking out sensor arrays and the like that their infiltrators are attempting to get in undetected do we have a breakdown of detection on the northern border right now well we don't have a problem of detection and the reconnaissance in the north because most of it is right now done by by drones and by aerial photos and by by reconnaissance units which are still on the ground and deployed so I mean the proof is that whenever the Hezbollah tries to penetrate the border through infiltration or a a cell a terrace cell in a few in a few moments I mean the less than an hour they are intercepted and and eliminated so from this point of view I I think that the fact that Hezbollah has destroyed all the cameras or most of the cameras doesn't help anymore doesn't help Hezbollah from and prevent him from being completely I'd say under under Israeli observation so this is this is one thing second as far as Hezbollah is concerned we are we are watching and we are witnessing a gradual testing of new weapons that Hezbollah didn't didn't use in the past I mean the the Kornet okay the anti-tank missile is there drones are there but the two things that were not in Hezbollah's possession or at least they didn't use them was one one thing was the attack drones used against the Israeli position this morning and second for the second time a ground to air missile in order to fire against a drone and against an aircraft these are elements of new things what is different I mean and what is bewildering us and say we are asking ourselves what's happening why Hezbollah is not is not moving as he promised that once there's a ground offensive why we should be the this would be crossing the red line we have set and we it's a it's a beginning of our total intervention well because the the decision making is in Tehran it's not it's not in Lebanon and the moment the the Ayatullah will decide that it is time for Hezbollah to act and they will give the order the order I mean the preparations are terminated there the deployment of Hezbollah Hezbollah's forces and militias pro-Iraqi mission militias in Lebanon and in Syria are there already the Iranian have tested the the defenses all around see what sort of what is the reaction of Israel and now they understand that there is no strategic surprise anymore because the army is deployed what can they say to the Hamas who's who's crying for help and assistance they say we are we are preventing the Israel has deployed huge amounts of units around the the border and this is how we retain those units instead of being sent to Gaza they are directed to the Lebanese from this is one thing that they can say and then they say the exchange of fire we have martyrs they are already more than 50 the 50 operatives have been killed they are skilled the skilled officers that that man anti-tank mostly anti-tank weapons so this is really the serious serious thing however I mean as as far as I understand the situation the decision of intervening in in the conflict has been taken the question is only a timing the timing it depends of what's going on right now on the ground Hezbollah I the fact that Israel has already been is already there in the in the Gaza Strip and the grounding incursions say we are in phase two now phase two is is is preliminary to phase three and and there's a constant input of new units and new troops inside Gaza and the the the IDF is just asking the population to move and we see huge movement of the of population from north to south those who are left in the in the north and and not accepting what Hamas is is trying to stop them that they are just messing towards the the southern part of Gaza preparing I would say the ground for the main the main confrontation which will happen between the IDF forces and Gaza City it's going to be a big operation ahead and how that develops is anybody's guest we're going to continue this conversation a little later certainly before that we are going to look at something that's happened in the various Kibbutzim during the October 7th assault and massacre many of those Kibbutzim were destroyed but in one of them it was not simply stories of running and hiding there were stories of people that fought back in Kibbutz Kisofim that is one area one such set of stories now the residents are sharing those stories as they come back and look at their shattered homes picking up the pieces they also placed explosives on children's bags here I ask you not to touch anything nothing that isn't really needed right now okay we've suffered enough losses here we have enough people dead I really want you all to get out of here alive on the ground in Kibbutz Kisofim a group of 20 members are returning for the first time to what was once their paradise to collect leftover equipment to map the damages a paradise that turned into hell this is my grandmother's home I will not go there if you may it's hard very hard incomprehensible I still can't digest the fact that I'm here and she's not we were here a lot now I'm here and she isn't around she was taken away from us she was murdered pure murder when she comes in Shashi examines the damage to her house on the kitchen table she finds a letter left by IDF soldiers who stayed there during the fighting Dear Shaked family thank you very much for your contribution to the country by making your home here you were the shield of our society and our country and hope for quiet days soon of our society and hope for good days and peace wow is this just a bad nightmare they're setting the neighbor's house on fire here we woke up at 6.25 a.m. by the vibration of the rocket fire alert on my phone and it went on and on then came sounds that were not used to something about the feeling it was different from the last 20 years when did you realize this is something else when I heard gunshots the time is now 141 power has gone out I'm afraid that terrorists will get into our house as well don't worry my love dad has a gun we sat in the security room until half past six in the evening after seven hours troops entered the kibbutz for seven hours the person who led the battle in the kibbutz was the deputy commander of our emergency team shai asher the emergency team that day was small three close friends Ronnie the commander saa mulgolis and shai asher on the 7th of october when the alarms rang it looked like an ordinary incident of rocket fire as far as you can call this reality ordinary shai immediately joined his friend saar saar took one I took the other saar took two more what do you mean by two I mean they were no longer able to threaten the safety of our community to mislead the terrorists shai breaks his house window and spreads ketchup on it in order for the terrorists to believe that this house was already massacred they continue fighting trying to join Ronnie I encountered a very massive force of Hamas terrorists and it's only the two of you two of us me and saar as far as we are concerned Ronnie is unaccounted for he's either kidnapped or killed I have two security rooms in this house in one of them my two daughters were sleeping they didn't even hear the gunshots and in the other room two more children I moved the two girls to the other room closed the door on them and sat here at the kitchen counter I took out the first terrorist here I shot him with the m16 then I had a malfunction so I took out the gun and fired several bullets at the other terrorist he fell to the ground almost instantly an explosive was thrown at me through this window it exploded I was hit with shrapnel I realized my time was running out I ran to the security room and held on to the door I locked it with my left hand and stood against it they went into Eliminator throwing grenades and explosives inside the house I didn't move from the door I fought them to keep it shut they came over and each time they pushed the door to break in they pushed with force and then with more force but my hand was locked in it did not move even an inch and they also shot at me through the door in the process in my mind I pictured them breaking in and you stood against and just held on what's going through your mind that they will not take them away and the terrorists were unable to penetrate and thus Ronny's children were saved thanks to his bravery and resilience Batzar Margolis a member of the emergency team was killed after a fierce battle with the terrorists who was murdered along with nine other members of the Kibbutz and six Thai nationals who worked there this week the members went from house to house to collect memories the meaning of the name Kisufim in Hebrew is longing a word that reflects so much of what they all feel today I remember the look in my son Eritz's eyes at night when he cries he says I can't it's weighing on my mind why did all the people I love had to die he bangs his head and cries answer that I understand with him and it hurts me too and he says but mom you always promised us that nothing would happen to us you promised us that this was not going to happen so now how am I going to believe you when you say it won't happen again those are the hard stories and the faces of the war and it's not just that there's of course the ongoing hostage situation the worst in Israel's history Prime Minister Benji Mninyahu met Saturday with representatives as families whose families whose loved ones are being held captive in Gaza and pledge that Israel will exhaust every possibility to bring their loved ones home the families are urging Niyahu to agree for what's called an all for all prisoner exchange with the Hamas terror group let's take a quick listen the demand is unequivocal that the operational activity will consider the fate of the abducted and missing persons and responsibility for this operation rests with the Israeli government we demanded that no move be made that endangers our family members and any move would take into account the safety of our loved one in the second part of the meeting we made it clear that from the point of view of the families a deal for the immediate release of family members within the framework of all for all is a consideration and will have broad national support and that is all the time we have at least for now we will see you again at the top of the next hour with updates from Israel war from every front and all the possible ramifications of each new development so we'll see you again so until then stay safe over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survive and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24news with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions in scores of countries bringing Israel's story to the world ongoing coverage of Israel at war the defense forces continue to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip throughout the satellite targeting several Hamas operatives and positions the military said that 450 Hamas military targets were struck just in the last 24 hours that one Israeli soldier was seriously injured and another moderately injured during the fighting the military also announced they are increasing the number of soldiers on the ground in Gaza and they're warning residents of Gaza sitting the area is now a battle field and reiterating a call for civilians in Gaza to move south Israel also said that humanitarian efforts to Gaza led by Egypt and the United States will be expanding that communications networks in Gaza are beginning to come back online after getting knocked out by airstrikes on Friday on the diplomatic front Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after President Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th and accused Israel of war crimes for striking at Hamas targets and infrastructure in Gaza in response Nanyahu also reiterated that he had no intelligence warning of Hamas's intention to commit a massacre saying he believed intelligence estimates the terror group had been deterred after a backlash from his own war cabinet Nanyahu deleted his tweet where he put all the blame for Israel's security failures on the various intelligence services Israel now saying the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230 their fate becoming the number one priority to the Israeli public according to opinion polling that also shows support for the immediate ground operation beginning to drop Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu announced the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas has begun with an expanding ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that the war ahead will be long and difficult On Friday evening more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo This is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas in the return of the hostages home at every stage until now and at every stage from now on we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families The war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long and we're prepared for it And we turn our eye now to the southern border where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by just outside of Starote border town in southern Israel Pierre give us an assessment of the southern front right now Well Roy Platsman is going to give you a sense of what's going on in Gaza right now We're facing more or less the area of Bet Hanun which has been the stage of fighting since Friday Some of it is in open fields but some of it is already in urban areas There is a constant pounding of the Gaza Strip by sea by air and by artillery shells you might hear some of the artillery shells there's a battery not far away from where we are and it seems that they're pounding in in remandlessly the Gaza Strip it's like the slamming of like a door slamming on us when an explosion occurs sometimes you see smoke billowing now there was the roar of an air force jet flying over us we don't know what the target is obviously but what we know is that since Friday since boots are on the ground intelligence is becoming even more accurate because the soldiers on the ground are indicating to the air force to the intelligence and to the artillery of the Israeli army the precise targets that they're confronting now in those confrontations there's been two officially confirmed wounded one IDF officer who was severely wounded by mortar fire and an Israeli soldier who was moderately wounded in a clash in an armed clash with the Hamas terrorists probably well Pierre thank you for the update down there and we will be returning to you as the situation develops we're going to cover some other developments going on in Gaza thousands of Gaza residents breaking into a warehouse and distribution centers for the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency grabbing various food and basic survival items in their words the organization said this on Sunday the agency has previously reported and then retracted incidents of looting in the past saying that Hamas stole their fuel reserves about two weeks ago for more on this we are joined in the studio by our Middle East correspondent Ariel Oceran tell us what we know about this looting situation right Ariel so before the looting of the warehouses there is an update regarding the unfortunate tweet of Prime Minister Netanyahu that he deleted so he now issued he tweeted a new statement saying I was wrong things I said following the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that I give full support to all the heads of the defense branches I strengthen the hands of the the chief of staff of the army as well as IDF commanders and soldiers who are in on the front lines and fighting for the home front together we will prevail and so from statement to statement he appears to be backtracking and then attacking backtracking attacking this is the latest statement mentioning that he was wrong in trying to put the blame on military leaders now if we're looking at what is going on in the Gaza Strip regarding the looting of UNR warehouses and different sites that are holding humanitarian aid that's coming in from Gaza so according in an official statement by UNR the UN's Palestinian refugee Oregon agency saying that thousands of Gazans stormed and broke into broke into and looted several warehouses and distribution centers in the central part and southern areas of the Gaza Strip according to the statement they took basic supplies such as wheat flour as well as hygiene supplies and one of the warehouses is exactly is one of the warehouses that holds material coming in from Egypt in these humanitarian convoys so far 80 trucks have entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafa Crossing and with these thousands storming the warehouses it could raise the possibility that these materials will make their way into the hands of Hamas similarly to what happened two weeks ago on the ninth day of the war UNR itself tweeted that Hamas stole thousands tens of thousands of gallons of fuel and other medical supplies they had then erased those tweets but indeed we're seeing that this situation of humanitarian aid it is not not only is it before it enters the Gaza Strip it is supervised once it's in Gaza there is no supervision and no one can promise that it doesn't it won't end up in the hands of Hamas similar to the previous time that UNR UN facilities were looted is there any indication that these material conditions on the ground could be driving a wedge between the population of Gaza and Hamas well so far the only wedge is that Hamas is preventing the population in Gaza to make its way down to the southern parts of Gaza the western part of Hanyunas and Mawasi which is a key area that humanitarian aid is also entering but also a place where the IDF called on residents of Gaza to make their way to so far we besides a few phone calls that IDF intelligence has intercepted and has been shared with the public in which Gazans are claiming that their movement south is being limited by Hamas there isn't free press free media in the Gaza Strip so you will not hear any claims like that any slight signal of criticism towards Hamas is quickly pushed down shut down and so this is an indication to the chaotic situation that is emerging in the Gaza Strip I will mention that Unra in its statement does not mention that there is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip they're saying we need these humanitarian supplies to maintain a normal situation there but they did fall short of saying that there's a humanitarian crisis obviously any criticism of Hamas you will not be hearing from any official organizations absolutely I mean I guess that the follow-up to that is more on those the day after the war sort of questions is there going to be a potential replacement for Hamas is there the groundwork to swollen the conditions to actually build an alternative well I mean you you asked that following a question as to the sentiment in Gaza I think if there is going to be it is a bit soon to talk about the day after but if we are going to allow ourselves to talk about that that period in time I think the people who are going to be asked last what they think are the people in Gaza unfortunately this is something that is going to be dropped over their heads either in international mediation obviously with Israel involved but this will not be I think brought to any vote or survey among Palestinians in Gaza who they would like to control them if we are looking at surveys in Palestinian population Palestinian public in the West Bank for instance if they were free and fair elections tomorrow Hamas would succeed the Palestinian Authority and so I don't think we're right now in a situation where Hamas has lost its support in the Gaza Strip but obviously as time moves on and destruction amplifies and continues that could change but I wouldn't hold your breath to hear any criticism coming out from Gaza at least not an immediate future definitely a distressing situation we're going to continue these discussions in a brief moment but first we are going to turn to the northern front where our correspondent Hamdas is standing by Hamdas thank you for being with us can you give us a quick assessment of what is going on on the northern front as we speak well look Israeli authorities saying that there's this expected security incidents in the city of Misgavam and residents are now required to stay indoors this is along the northern border the Israeli military has been increasingly afraid of infiltrations coming in from inside Lebanon along with the exchanges of fire that have been coming in but when someone infiltrates that border it's a little difficult to find them now because of the rough terrain the trees the mountainous area and also additionally because Hezbollah has been destroying a lot of Israeli military observation posts along the border and publishing footage of that on several of their channels specifically on telegram so the military advising residents in that area to stay indoors I'll remind you that the military has evacuated all communities within five kilometers of the Lebanese border we're talking about tens of thousands of people who have been relocated to more central and southern areas of the state of Israel and state-funded guest houses and hotels so the military continuously operating along all of the trails where there are trees there are imprints in the ground of tanks that are moving just closer and closer to the border to more artillery positions to continuously strike Hezbollah targets and cells that they are able to see so the exchanges of fire continuing infiltrations and security incidents at this time something that the military is still on the lookout for absolutely thank you very much for that report from the North Hondo we'll be back with you as the situation there changes over the course of the day for more on this though we are going to be going directly to our studio to talk to Colonel Jack Nairia former deputy have assessment with Israeli military intelligence just hearing from our correspondent in the north Hezbollah has been knocking out sensor arrays and the like that their infiltrators are attempting to get in undetected do we have a breakdown of detection on the northern border right now well we don't have a problem of detection and reconnaissance in the north because most of it is right now done by by drones and by aerial photos and by by reconnaissance units which are still on the ground and deployed so I mean the proof is that whenever Hezbollah tries to penetrate the border through infiltration or a cell a cell a terrorist cell in a few in a few moments I mean the less than an hour they are intercepted and and eliminated so from this point of view I I think that the fact that Hezbollah has destroyed all the cameras or most of the cameras doesn't help anymore doesn't help Hezbollah from and prevent him from being completely I'd say under Israeli observation so this is this is one thing second as far as Hezbollah is concerned we are we are watching and we are witnessing a gradual testing of new weapons that Hezbollah didn't didn't use in the past I mean the the cornet okay the anti-tank missile is there drones are there but there are two things that were not in Hezbollah's possession or at least he didn't use them was once one thing was the attack drones used against the Israeli position this morning and second for the second time ground-to-air missile in order to fire against a drone and against an aircraft these are elements of new things what is different I mean and what is bewildering us and say we are asking ourselves what's happening why Hezbollah is not is not moving as he promised that once there's a ground offensive why we should be this would be crossing the red line we have set and we it's a it's a beginning of our total intervention well because the the decision-making is in Tehran it's not it's not in Lebanon and the moment the Ayatollah will will decide that it is time for Hezbollah to act and they will give the order the order I mean the preparations are terminated there the deployment of Hezbollah Hezbollah's forces and militias pro-Iraqi militias in Lebanon and in Syria are there already the Iranian have tested the defenses all around see what sort of what is the reaction of Israel and now they understand that there is no strategic surprise anymore because the army is deployed what can they say to the Hamas who's who's crying for help and assistance they say we are we are preventing the Israel has deployed huge amounts of units around the border and this is how we retain those units instead of being sent to Gaza they are directed to the Lebanese from this is one thing that they can say and then they say the exchange of fire we have martyrs there are already more than 50 50 operatives have been have been killed they are skilled the skilled officers that that man anti-tank mostly anti-tank weapons so this is really the serious serious thing however I mean as far as I understand the situation the decision of intervening in the conflict has been taken the question is only a timing the timing it depends of what's going on right now on the ground Hezbollah and the fact that Israel has already been is already there in the in the Gaza Strip and the grounding incursion say we are in phase two now phase two is is preliminary to phase three and and there's a constant input of new units and new troops inside Gaza and the the IDF is just asking the population to move and we see huge movement of the of population from north to south those who are left in the in the north and and not accepting what Hamas is trying to stop them they are just messing towards the the southern part of Gaza preparing I would say the ground for the main the main confrontation which will happen between the IDF forces and Gaza city it's going to be a big operation ahead and how that develops is definitely anybody's guest we're going to continue this conversation a little later certainly before that we are going to look at something that's happened in the various kibbutzim during the October 7th assault and massacre many of those kibbutzim were destroyed but in one of them it was not simply stories of running and hiding there were stories of people that fought back in kibbutz kisofim that is one area one such set of stories now the residents are sharing those stories as they come back and look at their shattered homes picking up the pieces they also placed explosives on children's bags here I ask you not to touch anything nothing that isn't really needed right now okay we've suffered enough losses here we have enough people dead I really want you all to get out of here alive on the ground in kibbutz kisofim a group of 20 members are returning for the first time to what was once their paradise to collect leftover equipment to map the damages a paradise that turned into hell this is my grandmother's home I will not go there if you may it's hard very hard incomprehensible I still can't digest the fact that I'm here and she's not we were here a lot now I'm here and she isn't around she was taken away from us she was murdered pure murder when she comes in shashi examines the damage to her house on the kitchen table she finds a letter left by idf soldiers who stayed there during the fighting dear shaked family thank you very much for your contribution to the country by making your home here you are the shield of our society and our country and hope for quiet day soon wow is this just a bad nightmare they're setting the neighbor's house on fire here we woke up at 6 25 a.m. by the vibration of the rocket fire roller on my phone and it went on and on then came sounds that we're not used to something about the feeling it was different from the last 20 years when did you realize this is something else when I heard gunshots the time is now 141 power has gone out I'm afraid that terrorists will get into our house as well don't worry my love dad has a gun we sat in the security room until half past six in the evening after seven hours troops entered the kibbutz for seven hours the person who led the battle in the kibbutz was the deputy commander of our emergency team shai asher the emergency team that day was small three close friends Ronnie the commander saa morgolis and shai asher on the 7th of october when the alarms rang it looked like an ordinary incident of rocket fire as far as you can call this reality ordinary shai immediately joined his friend saar saar took one I took the other saar took two more what do you mean by took I mean they were no longer able to threaten the safety of our community to mislead the terrorists shai breaks his house window and spreads ketchup on it in order for the terrorists to believe that this house was already massacre they continue fighting trying to join Ronnie I encountered a very massive force of Hamas terrorists and it's only the two of you two of us me and saar as far as we are concerned Ronnie is unaccounted for he is either kidnapped or killed I have two security rooms in this house in one of them my two daughters were sleeping they didn't even hear the gunshots and in the other room two more children I moved the two girls to the other room closed the door on them and sat here at the kitchen counter I took out the first terrorist here I shot him with the m16 then I had a malfunction so I took out the gun and fired several bullets at the other terrorist he fell to the ground almost instantly an explosive was thrown at me through this window it exploded I was hit with shrapnel I realized my time was running out I ran to the security room and held on to the door I locked it with my left hand and stood against it they went into Eliminator throwing grenades and explosives inside the house I didn't move from the door I fought for it and I was shot I was shot I was shot I was shot I was shot from the door I fought them to keep it shut they came over and each time they pushed the door to break in they pushed with force and then with more force but my hand was locked in it did not move even an inch and they also shot at me through the door in the process in my mind I pictured them breaking in and you stood against and just held on what's going through your mind that they will not take them away the terrorists were unable to penetrate and thus Ronny's children were saved thanks to his bravery and resilience Batzar Margolis a member of the emergency team was killed after a fierce battle with the terrorists who was murdered along with nine other members of the Kibbutz and six Thai nationals who worked there this week the members went from house to house to collect memories the meaning of the name Kisufim in Hebrew is longing a word that reflects so much of what they all feel today I remember the look in my son Eritz's eyes at night when he cries he says I can't it's weighing on my mind why did all the people I love had to die he bangs his head and cries I answered that I understand with him and it hurts me too and he says but mom you always promised us that nothing would happen to us you promised us that this was not going to happen so now how am I going to believe you when you say it won't happen again those are the hard stories and the faces of the war and it's not just that there's of course the ongoing hostage situation the worst in Israel's history prime minister at benjim