 This is ongoing coverage of Israel at Wengaza grinds on. Forces from the IDF's Ghulani Combat Infantry fought a series of battles with Hamas' elite Nukba death squads, terminating the enemy with targeted air strikes. Soldiers also found more Hamas infrastructure, including tunnel shafts, rocket launching emplacements, and arms stockpiles. The West Bank, though, is also heating up at the same time. Border police entered Janine to conduct a counter-terror operation when a roadside bomb was detonated outside their vehicle, killing policewoman Sergeant Shea Jermay and wounding three of her fellow officers. Soldiers attempting to rescue the injured were attacked by Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen who hurled explosives at the Israeli troops. An attack helicopter was used to eliminate the terrorists in a strike that killed six. Israel seems to be moving inexorably closer towards a major war in the north against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the lynchpin of Iran's nexus of proxy militias, and the strongest terror army on the world stage. Europe is warning that all parties are drifting into a regional conflict, and now the United States is saying it's a conflict that Israel cannot win. That's an assessment from the United States Defense Intelligence Agency that says Israel would simply be stretched too thin across too many fronts. This comes as Israel says they are ready for exactly that sort of conflict, talk that has reportedly alarmed the United States. Well, we are turning now to our correspondent Pia Stekelbaal, who is standing by just from the northern border with Lebanon. Pia, walk us through the latest developments we've seen in the war against Hezbollah. Right, Ariel, what we're seeing here this morning is a tense come after a very eventful day yesterday, at least 40 rockets were launched by Hezbollah into different areas throughout the northern Israel. Hezbollah publishing a video of those attacks claiming that they targeted the Mehron military base in the central region of the Israel, Lebanon border, in an attempt to take out the aerial surveillance mechanisms there. We have not seen, not received any statement in terms of that incident yet from the Israeli army. But Hezbollah was saying that yesterday's attacks have been a partial retaliation for Salah al-Aroori's killing that is alleged to have been an Israeli assassination that was last week. And Hezbollah has vowed specifically Hassan Nasrallah in his latest speeches that there is more to come, that there will be a wider response. But time and place will depend on developments in the battlefield. So Israel is prepared and has been striking back Hezbollah targets, Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon also this morning. And Ariel, the question really is, what is there to come next? Will we really go towards a full-fledged war? Because this northern front has been quite active for three months now. The stead for tad attacks that we have seen being conducted by Hezbollah, Israel retaliating is something that is pretty much causing great trouble and great concern also among residents in the Israeli north. There are thousands of residents who are until this day evacuated and many of them do not know when they will be able to go back. And many of them are saying that they demand a sustainable solution from the Israeli security establishment. We've just heard this morning from Ben-Igans, a former defense minister and a member of this war cabinet saying that the northern front needs an urgent solution that it needs to be possible for those residents to go back to their homes without living in fear, without having the threat of Hezbollah sitting on the border. Now, Israel does not have any interest in opening up a full-fledged war. Also, the official Lebanese government is trying to ease the tensions we've just heard from the Tkateka Prime Minister Najib Mikati over the weekend. He was warning that this might develop into a regional war. And he emphasized also that Lebanon as a state has no interest in seeing a full-fledged war with Israel, a renewed war with Israel. The question is, though, how and if Hezbollah will continue its provocations. And it seems that this is what we are going to see, possibly more rocket strikes, but also a continuation of the daily anti-tank missiles and mortar shell attacks. And residency in the north and also the Israeli security establishment, of course, monitoring these developments with great concern. Well, thank you very much, Pia, for that explanation and the latest developments along that border. I am going to now turn for more analysis on this very topic to Lieutenant Colonel Darun Avital, former commander of IDF Special Forces. Darun, I want to take a look at what's going through Hassan Nasrallah's mind right now. As best as we can ascertain it, does he, at this point, not give that full response that he's promised, thus making Hezbollah look weak, possibly losing him some of his support from Iran, facing a lot of internal pressure from his own organization? Or does he return that response he's promised and then invite total destruction on Lebanon? No, I don't think Nasrallah wants a full blown war, as was described here, but he does want to show that he does engage us, that he's effective in engaging us, as was yesterday. He was boasting in those attacks on the IDF base in the Miran Mountain, which for him, if indeed we have to verify exactly what's the damage that was done and if, but not to cross the threshold of war. I don't think even his Iranian backers want it. And I think within Lebanon, we shouldn't forget that Nasrallah is still a Lebanese approximate Iran, but a Lebanese organization within the landscape of a Lebanese political landscape. We heard the leaders of Lebanon urging him not to take Gaza as a pretext for engulfing the Lebanon into a wall. This is tactic, but the threshold can be crossed. We are locked. We have our inhabitants not away from the border. It's a situation that we can't contend for too long. So situation is alarming. The two sides don't want the wall, but they might get the wall. But we keep saying that over and over again for almost three months now. At what point is the line crossed? Because as many Israelis have noted yourself in studio yourself, you can't have this war conclude with 70,000 Israelis still displaced from their homes in the northern border. And Hezbollah has said they are not going to make any sort of retreat beyond the Lattani River on their own. Yeah, the 1701 limit. So this is this is the real tension. I think what we hear lately is that the tone, for example, the Israeli does gallant and be this more moderate. I mean, we open the door for some kind of diplomatic negotiation using Amos Hochstein from the behalf of the U.S. and the French. The French have this intimate connection with the Lebanese leadership. So there's a pressure within Lebanon not to push Hezbollah into a war. But of course, we can't wait forever. It was gallant to say that how would we know that the threshold was crossed when we see us hitting the Dachia, but not Hamas leaders, but Hezbollah leaders. So we still have to wait. Alarm in situation can unfold into a full blown war. We hope not. I want to address another angle here. This coming from the assessment that was given out by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency saying that Israel is not ready for a war in the north with Lebanon saying they'd be stretched too thin between Gaza and fighting in Lebanon. Is this the United States trying to play games to undermine the Israeli approach to this? Or is there any truth to this assessment? No, as an ex military man, I can't accept this assessment. We've been fighting a few fronts in the past. We can do it. The question is what counts as a victory? What would be the objective that we want to achieve? So if the objective is more moderate and it goes along the 1701, the Littani border, creating some security zone in our northern border, I think this is achievable within the context of fighting still Gaza and the context of Gaza. And also we have to mention the West Bank. It is not quite. We saw the events yesterday. We saw we lost a soldier in the border patrol, and there was also a targeting in Arab-Israeli for Israel and was assassinated by terrorists. So the West Bank is not quite. So we have three fronts, in fact, and other fronts. I would emphasize this. To go on all those fronts, we need our alliance behind us. So we need the U.S. behind us in this context, for sure, in Lebanon. So we won't do a major move without some even quite tacit agreement with our U.S. coalition. Thank you very much, Jerome. We're going to actually discuss the United States a little bit longer, because it's a long trip for U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken through the Middle East. He is going to be visiting Jordan today, and then he's set to reach Israel and the West Bank Tuesday and Wednesday. His agenda, though, as full as ever. This is being broken down for us by our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Ultraman, from Blinken's stop number three. If it's Sunday, this must be Jordan. As U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken jets through Amman on his tour of the Middle East. Here, meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safdi. This after stops in Turkey and Greece. And before stops in Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt. These are not necessarily easy conversations. There are different perspectives, different needs, different requirements, but it is vital that we engage in this diplomacy now. Blinken is juggling at least three balls. The first one, preventing all out war in Israel's North, doing what he can to incentivize Hisbola to get to yes on a diplomatic agreement that allows Israelis to return to northern communities feeling safe. Here, Blinken is part of a larger Western push. It is imperative to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East. It's absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict. And the second juggling ball, the war in Gaza itself, where Blinken will continue to push Israel to lower civilian casualties, up the flow of aid, and move on to the next phase of the war. And then the third ball, Gaza's day after, where Blinken has now laid out some of the clearest American thinking yet. And we also talked about the role that Turkey can play both in the day after for Gaza in terms of the challenging questions of governance, Palestinian-led governance security rebuilding. So the United States is moving to bring in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help Rangaza. How does Israel feel about that? Blinken will presumably find out. Israel is stop seven on his tour. I'm going to return to Lieutenant Colonel Daron Avital because we've seen Jordan demanding the United States pressure Israel to force a ceasefire, or there will be dire consequences to the region. What exactly do they mean by dire consequences? And is this just a pipe dream for Jordan? Everybody's demanding for us a ceasefire right now, but how can we agree to a ceasefire when the hostages are there and still the senior leaders are in Chaneunis. So what we can agree upon is to start to reconfigure our forces in Gaza, but still focus on Chaneunis. So dire consequences, of course, it's a war in the Lebanon. Dire consequences can be also the diplomatic ties with Jordan. Jordan is part of our coalition in many, in many respects. So I think it's more of a warning out there, not with specifics, but he's afraid that all area would go to some big regional conflict next to Lebanon, then West Bank, and then who knows. Is there a legitimate fear that Jordan could contract diplomatic relations with Israel? I hope not. I mean, this exists for sure. I don't think the King of the King of Jordan would go this way, but of course you can do steps that are more declaration, declarative, not on, God forbid, cancelling the peace agreement. But sure, we have to listen to Jordan. We have good ties with the military establishment, the Jordan military establishment, and also with the Egyptian. And we have to keep those two allies, those two partners to peace together on this campaign. I think Israelis have to wake up to understanding that we are not alone in this world, not in the Middle East and not in the world, and have to work more carefully and more wisely with our coalition. But everybody understands we can't give up on our hostages, so I don't see how can we go into a ceasefire right now in Gaza. Now at the same time, we're hearing that Prime Minister Netanyahu has a message for Nasrallah saying that the lessons being learned in Gaza should be learned by Hassan Nasrallah in the North, that no terrorist is immune to Israel's reach. There's been this talk about the idea of deterrence in the North. And we've had this question before, whether or not the Shiite Islamists can be deterred by the fear of losing a war. What we're seeing now, this constant escalation, we have to reassess, can they be deterred? I'm sure they can be deterred, of course. I mean, if we achieve this objective of, for example, really the Shiite villages in the southern Lebanese attacked for holding those weaponries and holding those command posts of the Hezbollah for sure they can be deterred. I mean, we did it in the past with the PLO in the 80s. The question is whether if we go into a full-blown attack, what would be the fate of Beirut and the Dakhia, which is the stronghold of Hezbollah? This would be the, there used to be the military, military, the Israeli military used to have this concept that called the Dakhia concept, meaning you hit me in the south, we hit you in the Dakhia, in the center of Beirut. In the meantime, we are very careful. We did this, we did or did not question whether we take responsibility for this targeted assassination within the Dakhia under the control of Hezbollah, but the Hamas leader, whether we would go after Hezbollah leaders, this is a different story and this would be really a different kind of escalation. But for sure the southern part of Lebanon, this is what we call the security zone that we used to have. I want to remind our audience, until 2000 we had this security zone. It was commanded by us and by what was called the southern Lebanese army. A story like this can be reiterated if that's really necessary. To deter the Shia, it we can. And is it fair to say that perhaps Iran has written Hamas off as a lost asset at this point? This is an interesting analysis. I think Hamas, I think it's quite clear right now that while Hamas was supported by Iran and financially and in other ways, it's not like there was a command posted from the Iran leadership go to war with Israel. I mean Hamas did it on its own and I think Hezbollah, Nasrallah, keeps repeating. I was not aware, I was not part, I was not in the loop as we say in military terms. So I think right now clearly they have to reevaluate Hamas, but it very much depends on the outcome of our campaign in Gaza. If we succeed, either to kill or exile or whatever would be the final end game. Hamas leadership and Hamas operative from Gaza and create a new regime for Gaza and have our hostages back of course, then maybe Iran would have to write off this in the balance sheet, write off this asset as a loss. We hope so. But there's still a lot of work to do actually achieving those goals. Hamas's number two is now spread across the scenery in Beirut. But a lot of their other high-ranking people, particularly the ones on Israel's most wanted list, are still at large. Why have we seen no progress on that front? For the question of progress you know it's hard to to measure progress on the battlefield. Clearly this this campaign is slower than we have envisioned it has to do with the in the end with us not evaluating not understanding the mega infrastructure of Tunis and the Nif Gaza. So we control the northern side. Maybe we didn't succeed to dissect the north from the south. And therefore many of the leaders and the hostages went south. But now we are in Chanyounes. It is an incremental progress. We make progress. We have the tunnel. We have this of course constrained with it. We don't want to hit our hostages. So it's not an easy war on giving taking into account the humanitarian problems that comes in the Rafa in the south. So we have to work it out very carefully. That's what we are trying to do. And I think there will be progress I hope. Thank you very much for that analysis to run. We are now going to discuss some of those hostages even further a teenage girl who spent more than 50 days in Hamas captivity before being released speaking out about her traumatic or deals in Gaza. She watched her father murder in front of her own eyes when then she was dragged to Gaza by the terrorist. Here is her story. Yerubo Yashar. He came out. No, no, no. And Yerubo Yashar. And we sat down and sat down in the corner of the room. He brought us outside. So we passed by my father. We saw him laughing with his hands. Even though we didn't hurt him, or hurt him. He was all over the place and in their cellars. And then I got hurt. And she was killed too. We arrived in Gaza. You were killed. You don't know when it's going to happen. You don't know how it's going to be. You don't know if it's going to happen in the future. Or something will happen to Yerubo. Or the death of your father at all. All of this, we think about how the death is going to happen. How it's going to affect you. In one day we passed from home to the prison. Suddenly, the door opened. And there were six girls. And suddenly we realized that there were girls who were also dead. Many girls were killed. They were very difficult to get out of. They were very, very difficult to get out of. And they were dead. They didn't die. They were freeing themselves. Or we helped them to get out of. When we were with them, it was a time when they were freeing only five people. Because there were no more. Because I think now it's more difficult than ever. Because the cells were also suppressed. And the gun was going and shooting. And it's also a physical attack. And it's also a physical attack. I can't believe at all what their situation is. But in some cases, there's no hope. We are joined now by Miriam Schler, Executive Director of the Tel Aviv Crisis Center for Sexual Assault. Joining us right now from Tel Aviv, Miriam, I know we've had you on the show before on this very topic, a topic that none of us want to have to discuss, unfortunately. Every day we see more and more hard evidence coming out of Hamas's use of rape as a weapon of war and these other crimes against humanity. And at the same time, the entire world, much of it we should say, many world leaders, famous influencers and figures, denying that it happened, demanding proof when the proof is right in front of their eyes. Yeah, unfortunately, this is one of the most frustrating aspects of this whole atrocity that's been going on. And it's hard to believe that it's still happening. All the progress that we've made as feminist organizations, rape crisis centers, the whole Me Too movement, one of the biggest achievements that we made is that we're going to believe victims, we're going to believe survivors. And now all of a sudden, they're throwing us back with the fact that we have to have forensic evidence, which wouldn't even happen in regular cases. How many cases does a woman actually or a man that was abused or assaulted have forensic evidence from their perpetrator? It's not even, it's not even something that happens in day to day. We automatically, we learned how much, how important it is to give, to validate survivors' feelings and to validate the stories. And now we're just going back in time to a place that's really dark and very, very troubling, very frustrating, very scary. We have so much evidence coming out and it's just to utter disbelief that it's just being met with complete objection and not no compassion and not willing to understand what's going on. It's just beyond our ability to understand why. I mean, normally I would say is there a way that you could be enough definitive proof to ensure that people can't dispute the claims, but it doesn't even seem that it's about evidence anymore. The perpetrators live streamed their own crimes. They have their own videos coming out. They have their own crimes. They have their own videos coming out. They have their own investigations talking about what their plans were. There's hard evidence from pathologists, from Zaka, people that dealt with them all over. And it's just, it's beyond our comprehension. It just goes against everything that we fought for. It's something that's shattering as well, our beliefs. We thought that we had solidarity and sisterhood. There's something that has to just be clear and no matter what, that rape can never be used as a weapon. Rape can never be used as a form of liberation. We heard some really horrible messages being made by lots of women and lots of leaders all over the world about the fact that everything that happened on October 7th is because of the occupation and women deserve this and all these other horrible things. And you can totally, there needs to be an understanding that we can be totally against the occupation. We can actually feel for the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians that has nothing to do with the fact that rape can never be used as a war weapon. Gender violence, rape for men and women, by the way, cannot ever be used. No, there's no excuse for rape. We can't put it in context. We can't say but we can't try to understand it. It has to be absolutely 100% out of the boundaries of what can actually be done in a sane civil normal world. And these atrocities that have been committed on so many fronts in so many places since October 7th and apparently right now with the hostages as well, there's something that the whole world needs to stand up and cry out against and it's just, it's mind-boggling that this isn't something that's affecting the entire world and this is something that becomes legitimate. It's like we're taking this complete atrocity, this complete subject that was, that's supposed to be having a consensus that all normal human beings understand that rape is a horrible, horrible, horrible atrocity and violent act that can never be used and all of a sudden we're making excuses for it and it's just, it's beyond comprehension. Mayor, we say repeatedly the world needs to take a firm stance but it's blatantly obvious the world refuses to do exactly that. Is there a means to build alternative networks like your own crisis center that are divorced entirely from this perverse political incentive to ignore crimes when they're committed to the wrong victims? Well, I must say that it's one of the main things that we've been seeing right now is that this has been having a detrimental effect on survivors of all times because basically what it's doing it's echoing the discourse that they're so familiar with that people think they're crazy that they're denying it that they're lying that it didn't really happen so this is something that in rape crisis centers and what we do part of what we do is try to be there and validate and tell them no you're not crazy this really did happen but this entire discourse that's going on in the world is really, really detrimental to victims of all kinds and survivors of all kinds of trauma on sexual assault because it really, really reignites the post trauma and it really reignites the whole feeling that they had when they were alone no one believed them even people who have made progress and came for this story are now being having suffering terrible terrible setbacks because of what's going on in the world and the fact that this is not even it's not it should be at the top of the agenda every single person in their right mind should be calling for the freedom of these hostages who are completely innocent civilians who were taken out of their bed were being sexually assaulted and it's just there's no you know we've come to a world now where the lie is truth truth is lie there's no reason whatsoever so that makes our job at the rape crisis centers even more challenging and more significant right now we are here for every single person that needs us well we have a line for women one two oh two a line for men one two oh three all of the country we're here we're here to believe you to help you to validate what you've gone through completely anonymously completely discreetly another farce of this whole episode has been the demanding of the survivors to come forward which is also in strict contradiction to everything that we know about sexual assault women who are abused in general or men who are abused in general do not normally come forward with their story less than 17% of the people that turn to the rape crisis centers actually even file a complaint with the complete unregular normal circumstances these abnormal insane atrocity pogrom circumstances it's very very unlikely that someone's going to come forward and theirs keeps on they're upping the ante all the time and putting all this pressure on survivors to come forward which is even making more and more of the is deepening the trauma so that's another thing that we need to as a society at least understand how we can be there for these survivors for these victims not put any pressure on them to come forward on an individual and subjective level we can be there for them and help them try to heal from this horrible horrible ordeal thank you very much Mary I certainly hope that there are methods to do that despite the fact that the world is a whole and the ideological movements that we all believed were supposed to help people in these circumstances seem to have betrayed the common cause of humanity Mary I'm thank you for being with us I think though the the word that you said that the end is betrayal is pretty accurate and we it's our responsibility to try to fix that absolutely thank you Mary I'm for everyone though we are out of time for this segment we're going to go on a short three minute break when we come back we have so much else to cover so stay with us we'll see you again very soon Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well thanks for staying with us around the world some moderate Muslims are raising their own voices and demanding that murderous islamist groups not be made their representatives erring still other Muslims to reject these narratives the revanchists and eliminous messages of Hamas and similar groups saying they lead only to an early grave and ceaseless suffering for Palestinians and others warning the west that these extreme movements cannot be negotiated with let's take a listen if you stand against anti-semitism it does not mean that you hate Arabs if you condemn October 7th it does not mean that you wish the destruction of Gaza or Palestine if you condemn Hamas and the terrorism that comes from Gaza and the west bank it does not mean that you wish the genocide of the Palestinian people on the contrary when you condemn the islamism and extremism that comes from Gaza and the west bank then you are wishing for peace if you are critical of islamic extremism it does not mean that you support other forms of extremism we need to stop playing these manipulative games because they do not serve Palestinians they do not serve the Arabs and they do not serve Muslims and that was Lloy Ahmed columnist influencer and presenter at builders of the Middle East and he is also joining us right now to go further into his own activism Lloy thank you so much for joining us the west has a bit of a challenge right now so many people who have made large migratory movements to Europe and beyond are bringing ideas and ideals that are not compatible not just with western civilization but in many ways with Muslims that want to be in a more moderate society walk us through your own experiences and how that's related to the crisis we seem to find ourselves in now I think saying that their values are incompatible is a bit of an understatement I mean if you criticize Judaism Christianity Scientology any of them you know major religions and even smaller religions you wouldn't be putting your life at risk and the problem that we have in the Middle East and the majority of the Islamic Oma is a very strong and conservative interpretation of the religion where any kind or any form of criticism or scrutiny or examination or even comedy of the religion puts your life at stake that is what I grew up in that is what I learned that is the information that I observed as a Muslim growing up in Yemen and that is like you said also what has been brought to Europe and the West it is also a very alien culture that the Westerners are Okay, we appear to have lost that connection let's see if we are attempting we're attempting to reestablish our connection Luay, can you hear us? Okay, we're reconnected Luay, can you continue roughly where we left off? Yes, I can hear you. I believe we had cut out when you were talking about the migratory flows and the attitudes they were bringing into Europe. Yes, so like I was saying that the culture and the values that are being brought to the West are not only alien to the West but they are extremely in conflict with the Westerners believe in so in the West you believe that you have the ability to criticize religion or make fun of a prophet or draw Jesus but in the Muslim world drawing Prophet Muhammad or drawing Jesus would give you the death penalty or imprison you. So this is a major conflict that Westerners are having a very hard time trying to understand or deal with. So it is a very tough situation for the West and it will take a very long time for Westerners to understand what they're dealing with and I do believe that in countries like Sweden they're beginning to wake up and realize that the culture that they've invited is not going to integrate in the Swedish culture. Louie, one of the things we hear a lot from Western politicians is the idea of extremist versus moderate Muslims particularly in the West. We see as you mentioned in Malmo in Sweden we see polls across Europe of the Muslim populations these first generation mass migrants not just first generation but in the United States as well we see 57% supporting Hamas's massacre. Where do we find an opportunity for the moderate to thrive when it seems like it's the extreme voices that hold sway? You seem to have some delay. We lost Louie again. Hopefully we can get him back at least one more time because we are we're having some technical difficulties right now. Louie, what I was trying to ask I believe we have you back on the line is it seems more and more that we hear from the extreme portions of the Muslim ideological sentiments in the West and the moderates who are politicians tend to put so much hope in are drowned out by these voices. Okay, we're going to have to change topics because our connection has completely dropped unfortunately. This war is in the global headlines and as it's in the global headlines many entertainment studios around the world are eager to hide any Jewish characteristics to their stories. Something that's become all the more perverse when the story in question revolves around the Holocaust. Warner Brothers is now in the spotlight after their new movie called One Life which tells the story of a British man Nicholas Winton who saved 669 children overwhelmingly Jewish children from the Nazis in World War II. Well the promotional content for this film and all the reviews from places like IMDB Rotten Tomatoes and HMV simply said that Winton saved central European children and what many are saying is historical revisionism an outright Holocaust denial. We are working to evacuate these children by train to safety in Britain. Why are you doing this? Mr. Winton. Because I may be able to do something about it. I must. You must know we cannot save them all. Forgive yourself that. Started sir. I have to finish it. It is incredible what you achieved. Doing as much as we can. Save the world. Forgive him. I told the children I was speaking about. Who owes their life to Nicholas Winton. Well we are joined now in studio by Yuval David Filmmaker, director, actor and activist Yuval. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for having me. Give us a sort of better look at what actually happens inside these studios. Because this is not the first such story I've heard where all Jewish character and Jewish mentions are completely erased from the movie. We're dealing with a massive issue of erasure. With this war it's brought to light this existential threat that's facing the Jewish people. But that's not only in the battle of anti-Semitism that we're seeing with the demonstrations and the riots around the world or the battle with Hamas and Hezbollah. It's a total erasure our existence within our narrative. And sadly we're seeing this in Hollywood. I wish that the anti-Semites were right that we run Hollywood because obviously we don't. If we ran Hollywood we wouldn't be erased from a narrative that this film is about. They have removed the name Jew. They've removed the word Jew rather. And now there's a backlash or they're trying to course correct. It strikes me as an offshoot of an ideological position that we've seen overwhelm Hollywood in recent years and take over every single facet of existence in the studios. How did Hollywood get so thoroughly co-opted by the extreme progressive ideology and how did it turn on the same Jews that were in many cases champions of the ideology? Well I'm part of the communities that you mentioned the left, the progressive, the liberal and the Hollywood communities. We're seeing this massive, massive issue that many of us have been speaking about for decades and we've been treated as if we were crying wolf about anti-Semitism not rising because it's already risen. It's been around and now we just turn the lights on addressing these specific issues that are going on. Now what is happening here? It's the marketing and the PR that are worried that they'll lose their audience base they'll lose their demographic if they talk about Jewish issues because right now according to many people around the world being Jewish is not cool is not sexy is not hip and will not sell tickets to the shows so it's up to us as Jews in Hollywood and Jews around the world to do the advocacy to share our narratives to empower ourselves and to prove that our stories should be told and that our stories should be told by us not only by having other people tell our stories and nobody, nobody can erase our narrative. I'm a grandchild of Holocaust survivors when I saw that this film was changing the way they described a heroic man's efforts to save hundreds, 600 was it, 669 Jewish children primarily Jewish children there were other children who were amongst those as well and they took out the word Jew I found that deeply offensive and I speak as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors not just somebody in Hollywood not just a director who under an actor who understands the industry and not just as a Jewish advocate. You've been up a very interesting question about which is downstream from which is entertainment downstream from culture or vice versa because being a Jew is not hip these days but is the entertainment media responding to a trend in the youth or is the youth responding to a trend in entertainment and culture? Both that are happening at the same time one is listening to the other where the Hollywood industry is paying attention to what is happening on social media hashtag free Palestine is a much more popular hashtag than hashtag Am Israel Chai most people don't even know how to spell Am Israel Chai let alone pronounce it so we're having an issue where we need more people to go online to share the stories of our people and Hollywood will respond Hollywood and media including here at I-24 are not dictating to the population what the population needs to know it's the population that is also affecting the media and entertainment industries we need to raise our voices if we want to see Jewish people represented in a much better light then we need to represent ourselves and not only wait for the film industry to do so they're trying to sell tickets it is an industry it's a business who is going to buy the most amount of tickets or rent or purchase the film on their home devices they want to make sure that they can sell and make money we need to prove that our stories are interesting enough to sell that is a challenge you're describing what's an uphill battle there's 1.6 billion Muslims in the world there's 1.5 billion Chinese people in the world that are opposed to the Western narrative there's 15 million Jews yes there are 15 I think it's 15.3 million Jews 6 million of which live in the United States so Hollywood obviously based in the U.S. those Jewish people need to share how this story not only is about the Jewish people but it also resonates for other people this story specifically about Sir Winston is a story of heroism a story of helping children a story of his own narrative when he saw people who needed to be saved that is a story that can resonate with so many people not only Jewish people what we're facing now this existential threat also resonates for other people for other marginalized and victimized minorities we are a people whose narrative is not only about our victimhood it's a narrative of determination it's a narrative of survival and when somebody who's not of our community helps us well we have to say we plant a tree in their honor we let them know that they are an amazing person for doing what any human being should do and should have done now we're facing a time where the issue is we're seeing a lot of people who are against us and are not doing what human beings should be doing right now so that's what I hope this film will do will help us within our own narrative within our own advocacy initiatives and in your own experience from inside Hollywood I want to address more of that as well did you yourself see just blatant anti-Semitism? 100% I've been seeing it for years when I often as an actor was referred to as too Jewish or not Jewish enough where I had multiple auditions and screen tests for roles where they would say could you do it more Jewish? and I would say okay how's this? or wait a second hold on how's this? am I more Jewish now? oh are you time to have me be like this? is this what more Jewish is or more like this? do I have to talk like this? like what is being more Jewish? that's something that I've heard for such a long time and there have been people who told me that I should change my name because it's not mainstream enough that it won't sell enough tickets other than that people have also said to me and other people like me who are outspoken about their Jewish identity their support of Israel their being Zionist people said maybe you should silence that a little bit maybe that will affect your ability to work within this industry because it will alienate potential audiences this is an industry it is a business but to what other demographic do you say you should be less black or maybe you're not black enough or can you be more queer you're not queer enough or should you be more white or more Christian or more or less or hide who you are you know it's this double standard that we're facing and what's going on now we're seeing so many people we're entering award season we're seeing so many people who are worried about what they're going to say on the red carpets of the golden globes of the Oscars are they going to say free Palestine or will they speak about our hostages who are still being held captive it's a situation where people that really don't have the expertise to make these comments are tasked with being the representatives of entire nations Yvonne thank you so much for giving us this glimpse inside the industry and inside I guess everyone's sort of collective nightmare about it thank you so much for having me now on the topic of what Israel is fighting for we are now going to take you inside the nightmarish forensics labs where they are still trying to piece together remains and identifying what's left of people to provide some measure of closure for desperate families here's more in a report adapted from local channel 12 I just never thought or imagined that I would ever face the situation it's really not a simple decision and it's not a decision to be taken lightly at all it has enormous significance Dr. Hagar Mizrachi did not learn this in medical school to make one of the most shocking decisions of her career to pronounce death without first seeing a body the event is foreign to the world in general and to the world of medicine in particular because we have very strict rules on how to determine death there is a pulse and an ECG should be done we still look for all the signs and at all the doubts to resolve them in order to give the family an answer that is clear and unambiguous until the harsh news about Judy were received she had been thought kidnapped the last time she made contact was during the morning walk with her husband near Niroz last week the family was informed of Gadi's death now it's Judy one of the open cases that Dr. Mizrachi and the committee of which she is a member for many weeks one of the very complex cases we received a description of the circumstances of the incident but we also heard the phone call she made to the Maghen David a dome hotline we read WhatsApp messages with friends and family and watched relevant videos we understood that there was a very very serious injury here we sat more than once to try to understand what happened that black Sabbath raised many dramatic issues one of which is whether it is possible to declare the death of a hostage while in captivity some were murdered and taken to the Gaza Strip some were taken there wounded and did not survive the injury others were murdered in Gaza the Ministry of Health has established a committee to assess the situation of the hostages headed by Dr. Hagar Mizrachi a committee of experts trying to decide what happened to kidnapped citizens collecting every scrap of information watching hours of video we are on this committee by virtue of our position as doctors we want evidence whose essence is a medical basis it's not just watching videos it's literally sitting and analyze and looking for breathing movements you look for movements of the eyelids movements of the body a reaction to pain simply analyzing the movies frame by frame we also deal mainly with analyzing gunshot wounds where they hit where organs were hit and everything together with the fact that there is no medical treatment leads us to our conclusions this is how they came to determine that Aviva Tzili Ofra Kedar and Inba Haiman were murdered unlike legal matters where reasonable doubt is enough here the three doctors on the committee Dr. Mizrachi Dr. Kugel and Dr. Marin CEO of Sharetset Hospital need to be completely convinced before they tell the family we sit and if we don't come to a conclusion then we say we haven't yet decided additional material will arrive Hamas will release something some additional information will be received we will incorporate the new bits and watch one more time from beginning to end and then we'll make a decision each decision is made unanimously how much certainty do you need to determine is 99 percent enough we wait and check the points until we are all convinced for me it is 100 percent as far as I'm concerned not knowing is the worst thing I can't stay up in the air I need to know Danny Engel was informed that his brother Ronin was kidnapped with his family from their home in Irooz but his gut feeling said he was probably killed after all Ronin was armed fighting the terrorists who entered the apartment and no one has seen him since it was very alarming me too in this whole situation I hung on to some kind of optimism and forced myself not to eulogize him or to talk about him in the past tense so not to create you know this situation that there is no Ronin four days after his wife and daughters returned from captivity the news was received Ronin was murdered and the body was snatched the death was determined according to a video and other findings that were in the house Karina said that there was a large pool of blood where Ronin was standing other people who returned said that they saw his body being dragged outside out of the house I have this kind of closure they told me and beyond any doubt Ronin is gone it's the better option than not knowing and continuing to hope the message the ilus family received about the death of guy the 26-year-old musician who was at the party in Reim was a little different in his case there was no video only the knowledge that he was injured and kidnapped but about a month ago they were informed that Maya Regev who returned from captivity gave detailed testimony about their son I asked them tell me are you really serious you want me to state as an axiom that my son died in light of the fact that she was a prisoner who was in the room with guy that she saw him through the curtain and she was full of drugs and I have no idea what and in light of all the psychological warfare they are doing listen I'm not ready to accept it but I would love to meet with Maya Regev they really tried to give him CPR and he died from his wounds and at first I refused to believe it and after they took him I said that I had to see that it was really him I have this duty to go and talk to his family in the end I'm the only person who knows what really happened so I moved the curtain and saw that he really wasn't with us that he was gone after the parents heard Maya the subtleties the details how she described how they put him in a white bag for the dead they were convinced they sat Shiva and said goodbye to their boy saying goodbye is it's hard to bear it's not goodbye when you can say I'm saying goodbye because I saw that he died we didn't see we didn't see that guy is indeed no longer with us we separated from him based on testimony based on information the returning hostages brought with them a lot of new information to the committee about the fate and condition of those who were left behind but they say they are not satisfied with this evidence as a sole parameter for example we knew that someone had been shot and we saw the type of injury and we understood that in this condition he was taken to the Gaza Strip and in this condition we know that in order to treat the gunshot we need very intensive very advanced treatment if at all and over time and on and on it's a culmination of things especially if one of the abductees later states that he has passed away as long as this body does not arrive in Israel it's not doubt really it's not a question of doubt he won't be knocking on the door tomorrow and entering the house but for me the story hasn't ended the bodies of the hostages who did return to Israel were thoroughly examined by Dr. Mizrachi's committee to confirm the circumstances of their death the CT scan shows us whether there are bullets whether there are clots so far bodies have arrived and apparently Hamas said they were killed because of an IDF attack this is not true these are not the conclusions it is difficult in some cases to determine the exact cause of death but it does not appear that people were injured and the injuries match injuries from shelling the committee deals not only with the dead but also with those who return alive from captivity as a doctor Agar Mizrachi also tries to understand something about the medical treatment they received to her surprise she discovered that they were not given only prescription drugs but also dangerous ones apparently they were given treatment not exactly known in Israel which among other things causes some kind of sedation there was also ketamine in some of the cases ketamine is a drug that is given under anesthesia for surgery and today it is a drug that is used of course illegally and indeed there was testimony of people who came received ketamine unnecessarily as a form of sedation I'm not sure you want to emerge from captivity as a drug addict there was a prior claim that the terrorists had been given drugs before I don't have any proof of this but I can tell you honestly I can't understand from what I've seen how they did it without it I say they are not animals because it is unimaginable the full scope of the horrors of October 7th are still being uncovered and will likely still be investigated and uncovered for many years to come until the full extent is known with that said though we are about to go on a short break and when we come back in just over three minutes we're going to give you the latest news updates at the hour so definitely stay tuned for that coming right up so stay with us is 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 good afternoon and welcome to i-24 news's ongoing coverage of israel at war returning to our coverage i'm ariel levin waldman that war in gaza is continuing to grind on forces from the idf gulani combat infantry fought a series of pitched battles with hamas's elite nukba death squads terminating the enemy with targeted airstrikes soldiers also found more hamas infrastructure including tunnel shafts rocket launching emplacements and arms stockpiles but the west bank is heating up at the same time border police entered janin to conduct a counter-terror raid when a roadside bomb was detonated outside their vehicle that killed policewoman sergeant shai germay and wounded three of her fellow border police officers soldiers attempting to rescue the injured were attacked by palestinian islamic jihad gunmen who fired on them and threw explosives at israeli troops an attack helicopter was used to eliminate the terrorists in an airstrike that killed six and israel seems to be moving inexorably closer towards a major war on the northern front against hezbollah in lebanon that's the lynchpin of iran's nexus of proxy militias and the strongest terror army in the world europe now warning that all parties are drifting into a regional conflict the united states going so far as to say it's a conflict that israel cannot win that's a new assessment from us defense intelligence agency that says israel is stretched too thin across too many fronts but this comes as israel says they are ready for exactly this sort of conflict talk that has reportedly alarmed the united states greatly and here's prime minister ninyahu is showing a warning to hezbollah i suggest that hezbollah learn what hamas has already learned in recent months no terrorist is immune and we are determined to protect our citizens and return the residents of the north safely to their homes it is a national goal shared by all of us and we act responsibly to achieve it if we can we will do it in diplomatic ways and if not we will act in other ways and in gaza soldiers of the idf and the holler brigade have uncovered iranian instructions and technical training for hamas to manufacture precision weapons components and what is simply being described as strategic weapons that indicates a significant jump from their pre-existing capabilities components and equipment were found inside a 100 meter long tunnel being used as an arms factory here's more from the idf we are in the midst of a battle in dar al shtufar together with the visual combat team and all its forces in the past few days we've encountered the enemy many squads infrastructure and booby trapped houses we took care of everything we encountered at the moment we are in the middle of a so-called innocent field where we found defensive tunnels rocket launchers that were used to strike televiv and the gaza border villages and we are now joined by lieutenant colonel Dr. Shai Hartzfei senior fellow at the institute for policy and strategy at reichmann university thank you so much for being with us thank you for advising me I want to talk about one of the things that we just heard that's being the statement from the united states intelligence assessment that israel is not ready for such a multi-front war saying they're too stretched thin in gaza to fight a decisive action in lebanon this flies directly in the face of what israel itself has said which is israel's idea was designed to fight exactly at this kind of war who's right i'm quite sure that israel is capable of course to to fight to have a war in two fronts actually three fronts because we should not forget juda and samaria there is a gaza juda and samaria and the north of course it's better and there is no doubt about it to focus to to put all your efforts in one arena this is why our government decided from the beginning of the war to focus on eliminating khamas and trying not to escalate the situation against his banner but there is no doubt there is no doubt that at some time in the future it might be even in the near future we'll be forced to see how we can change the situation in the north because we have to change the security situation all over the border to allow the population to go back to their homes after they were forced to leave them a few weeks ago but i'm quite sure as i said we are capable to do it it's always better to to have a war only in one front but if we'll be forced to do it and we'll do it and that's the situation in the north we keep on using words like inevitable but is it truly inevitable does hezbollah have an interest right now in that escalation because it seems that the idf says it's ready this is the one million dollar questions it seems that from the beginning of the war in ron and hezbollah have reached a conclusion that they don't want to deter you of the situation don't want to escalate to go to a full war with israel this is why hezbollah is trying to to make a fighting not a war with israel and even the firing yesterday although it was a little bit more than they used to before from their point of view again it was not something that might cross the red line of israel but as i said before this is the iranian and hezbollah point of view we have our own point of view and there is no doubt that we prefer and we hope that maybe secretary brinken and all the diplomatic efforts might achieve something and try to convince hezbollah to pull back his forces to north of deletani but i'm not optimistic about that therefore that i do believe that at some point in the future even as i said in the near future will be forced to make a combination of military force and the diplomatic effort because even if you're going to to war and even if you force hezbollah to withdraw his forces north of deletani then you have to achieve some kind of diplomatic arrangement so it will be a crucial point actually i do believe that january might be a crucial point for gaza strip we'll be regarding our hostages for and also from the north because it will be very difficult for from our side to keep on with that situation for weeks and weeks and so on well you know let's actually bring our reporter in the north into this discussion right now our correspondent p.s. decobach is joining us from the border with lebanon right now we're hearing just not that longer the idf saying they struck hezbollah weapon depots in the north walk us to the latest developments we've seen on that front right a real one from the israeli saidi has been at a relatively a quiet morning after an eventful day yesterday hezbollah firing at least 40 rockets into different areas of northern israel hezbollah saying that this is the initial response to the alleged israeli assassination of hamas last week as a response to that israeli as per protocol has been targeting his bala sites in south lebanon such as weapons depots now what you can see behind me is very very close the area close to lebanese border we are about five kilometers away from the actual border what you can see is right behind this mountain range and this is the area where residents were evacuated from a long time ago because this area is not necessarily being targeted by rockets but by anti-tank missile firing also a mortar shells earlier we start we try to enter one of these communities here behind me the community of schlommi but we're told that this place is expected to be targeted within the very near future within the next possible minute so we were advised to stay away from that area and this is exactly where residents have been evacuated from early on we were in high five major city in the north where many of those residents from exactly this area are staying right now in hotels we had the chance to speak to an elderly couple from schlommi here what we had right now and they were telling us that they're not knowing when they will be able to return there's no horizon as they put it and this is really much the situation for thousands of Israeli residents of the north specifically of the area up to five kilometers away from the Lebanese border they were evacuated and they have no idea when they will be able to get back to their homes because many of them are simply not ready to return knowing that Hisballah continues to sit right on the border and continues to pose that threat and if we listen to the words coming out of the Israeli defense establishment Jovgalan saying that Israel's goal is it to push Hisballah away from the border now we've heard the former defense minister Benny Gantz and a member of the war cabinet saying that the northern front needs an urgent solution so that residents can be allowed to return home that really shows you how not only we're talking about the potential of this front to escalate but the fact that this front is very much open and has been open for almost three months now and of course yesterday we reached a new level of escalation with Hisballah firing 40 rockets and saying this is only an initial step but the anti-tank missile fire and the mortar shells is it your situation that these northern communities here have to deal with on a daily basis and there's still residency on of course all the security forces here guarding the northern front Ariel Well Pia thank you very much for that assessment of the situation in the north now at the exact same time the United States is attempting to scramble to preserve its own regional interests US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken making a tour through the Middle East visiting Jordan today and set to reach Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday his agenda as full as ever and our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ulterman explains just what these stops are and why If it's Sunday this must be Jordan as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken jets through Amman on his tour of the Middle East here meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi this after stops in Turkey and Greece and before stops in Qatar the UAE Saudi Arabia Israel the West Bank and Egypt these are not necessarily easy conversations there are different perspectives different needs different requirements but it is vital that we engage in this diplomacy now Blinken is juggling at least three balls the first one preventing all-out war in Israel's north doing what he can to incentivize Hezbollah to get to yes on a diplomatic agreement that allows Israelis to return to northern communities feeling safe here Blinken is part of a larger western push it is imperative to avoid the regional escalation in the Middle East absolutely necessary to avoid the Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict and the second juggling ball the war in Gaza itself where Blinken will continue to push Israel to lower civilian casualties up the flow of aid and move on to the next phase of the war and then the third ball Gaza's day after where Blinken has now laid out some of the clearest American thinking yet and we also talked about the role that Turkey can play both in the day after for Gaza in terms of the challenging questions of governance Palestinian life governance security rebuilding so the United States is moving to bring in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help Rangaza how does Israel feel about that Blinken will presumably find out Israel is stopped seven on his tour and we're going to return to Lieutenant Colonel Sy Hartzfe to discuss some breaking news that's just come in as we have some more details of what some of those precise and strategic weapons Hamas was developing with Iranian assistance now proven to be cruise missile technology for accurate strike weapons launched from the Gaza Strip this is of course a colossal escalation of their capabilities giving them the ability not to just rain down rockets but hit military targets with precision at great distances there's no doubt that if it's this is correct and of course we have to still wait and to see what is the what the weapon is really that Hamas has a lot of capabilities we know that they built their capabilities in the last few years we saw the tunnels that actually they've built in the last 10 15 years and actually they prepared for this kind of a war against the IDF and the fact that there is there might be I'm cautious because we're still learning what is it is really the fact that it might be an Iranian involvement by those technology it's another example how deep is the Iranian involvement in the Gaza Strip in Judea and Samaria in the region actually we must remember we are in a position of a war with Iran direct and indirect war and furthermore if there is one state that actually possess a sedition threat to Israel this is actually Iran it's a tertiary nuclear state and they have a lot of capabilities missiles capabilities UAV capabilities trying to conduct terror attacks against Israel having all its forces in the region Iran is the main target of course is the main enemy of Israel of course we first have to deal with the Hamas with the terror organization Judea and Samaria and Hezbollah in the north but by the end at the end of the day Iran we always have to keep in mind this is the main enemy of Israel Iran's proxies have engaged in direct kinetic operations against Israel they have killed many Israeli citizens does Iran not have its own internal enemies Azeri radicals on the border that Israel could be helping create a bulwark ring a fire around Iran to increase the pressure on them of course Israel has a good connection with Azerbaijan with other countries in the region but at the moment we have to focus with the war against the Hamas and Hezbollah but this is why it's very important to have a united front with our friends in the west United States the European countries other players in the region because only together we might we might possess a challenge to the Iranian axis but because actually Iran is supported by Russia it's not only Iran Iran is supported by Russia has good connection with China and of course all its proxies in the region actually we should keep in mind it is a war between two camps one is the one democratic camp led by the United States and Israel of course is part of it the moderate Arab countries is part of this camp but the other camp is the radical camp led by Iran supported by Russia China and other other proxies in the region and this is why the outcome of the war between Israel and Hamas the outcome of the war actually between Israel and Hezbollah will have a huge implication for all the region because just imagine if I do believe I do hope it's what happened Hamas at the end of the game will be able to stay in power in the Gaza Strip what does it mean for all the region what does it mean for the Palestinian Authority what does it mean for the stability in Jordan so there is no doubt that the war is between two camps and this is why it's so crucial from our point of view to eliminate Hamas to withdraw on Hezbollah the note of the deletani and we should always remember our actually immediate target is to bring back all the hostages alive this is because we are talking about it day by day the the sand clock is actually running out of time where the the hostages that came back talking yesterday what did they suffer when they were in Gaza Strip they don't have time we must bring them home immediately as you pointed out there the message that the war between Israel Hamas sends to the region if Hamas survives is that the west and the alliance of democracy as you described has no teeth and that's why it's so critical to discuss what just happened with Jordan and the United States negotiations with Jordan demanding the United States pressure Israel into a ceasefire despite the fact that Jordan is ostensibly aligned with the United States access there Jordan is in a very sensitive position why is that because they have a lot of internal pressure actually to stop the war to support the Palestinian I would like to remind you that 60 70 percent of the population of in Jordan of Palestinian origin but this is one thing on the other end from the strategic point of view there is no doubt as I as I mentioned before there is no doubt as far as I understand that Jordan wants and know that there's from their point of view there is no actually other alternative but easier to eliminate Hamas because as we said the outcome will be very severe even for the internal stability in Jordan so Jordan is trying to maneuver between internal pressure and strategic interest this is why from time to time we are saying some declaration even from King Abdullah and from Queen Rania and other diplomats calling for ceasefire but I do believe that from the bottom of the art and the secret the Kandestine negotiation or talks with the U.S. and other place in the region they do hope that Israel will be able to eliminate Hamas but as I mentioned they have some problem to say it clearly loud and clear because if Israel fails to eliminate Hamas in Gaza then Hamas becomes the dominant party in the West Bank as well this is one of the risks because I would like to remind you Abu Mazen is 88 years old he's probably is 32 years 32 years until 120 but I'm just joking but there's some in some point in the future three, four, five years there might be some change in the leadership in the Palestinian Authority and this is the point when Hamas will try to take to take control and this is a very risky situation not only for Jordan but also for Israel actually for all the region and we say Hamas will take control but if you look at the opinion polls of the people in the West Bank it certainly seems that they have de facto control at least over the popular consciousness yeah there is no doubt that but there is a lot of support not only in Gaza even in the Palestinian Authority to Hamas this is the outcome of Hamas investing a lot of effort in the last few years to get inside the Palestinian Authority you know in the last three months there are a lot of military operations from the IDF and from the Shabbat against the terror organization terror cells in Judea and Samaria and we have arrested more than 30 hundred Hamas terrorists more than 25 terrorists at all so do look at the number 13 hundred Hamas terrorists in Judea and Samaria and I'm sure there are much more so we see what was the outcome of Hamas operating actually quite freely in the region in the last few years well thank you very much for that assessment Shai now speaking of what the outcome of Hamas's operations are we now turn to the testimony of a teenage girl who spent more than 50 days in Hamas's captivity she's speaking out against her traumatic ordeals in Gaza she watched her own father be murdered in front of her very eyes before she was dragged to Gaza by those terrorists on October 7th this is her story my father stood in front of the church he stood in front of the church of the brotherhood they entered the church they were in the church he stood there and they were in the church and we were sitting there standing in front of the church they brought us out and then we passed from my father we saw him walking with his hands on the ground even though we didn't we didn't let him sit down or break his legs everything was in a hurry and in their seats and then I was taken to Gaza and she was killed too we went to Gaza you were alive you didn't know when it was going to happen you didn't know how it was going to happen you didn't know if it was going to happen in the future or something like that or the death of your father all of this was like think about how the death was going to happen how it was going to happen in one day we passed from home to the prison suddenly the door opened and there were six girls and suddenly we realized there were girls who were also alive many girls were killed they were in difficult situations they were very difficult and very painful they were not crying they were crying at the time or we helped them to cry when we were with them it was already a time when they were crying only five days because there were no tears because the soldiers were also killed and the police were going and it was very painful and it was also a physical pain and it was also a physical pain I couldn't believe at all what their situation was what their situation was what their situation was and former US Vice President Mike Pence currently in Israel touring Kibbutz, Kfar, Gaza and the city of Sirot where so many atrocities took place also meeting the families of abductees promising them he was going to act to bring their families home let's take a look over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday ever since dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel but only a few of them have reached this point former US Vice President Mike Pence stood here overlooking the Gaza Strip this is a safe room her brother and sister, Mithra and Amali were hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours not far from here was the house of the Idan family the parents, Roy and Smidar, were murdered the older brother and sister hid in a closet and Zlitalavi Gael was kidnapped to Gaza and later released Pence, who received a full update about what happened that morning has one clear message to the world I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message not just to Hamas but to Iran the United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released Pence served as Vice President of Donald Trump a conservative Republican a great friend of Israel he came here not only to express it's not a secret there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel but I think any message other than that we will support the decisions that are made by the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza that needs to be the message from the United States so afraid that we'll become back and everything will go back what's happening before the 6th of October the tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism penciled a candle in the memory of the victims dark time not great stuff but that's what it is so we're done accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament he met with the abductees families they asked him for help to put pressure on the red cross after saying what you have to say here does it meet the criteria of genocide Hamas came through that fence line to kill Jews and I know of no other definition of genocide than to target a people because of who they are next week we are being drugged by South Africa to the International Court of Justice blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action to use the international Court of Justice the United Nations to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of Hamas on the Jewish people with Israel's actions in self defense if Israel was in the business of genocide on October 8 there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip so what we do now is to eradicate Hamas eradicate Hamas's military and governmental capabilities this is what the IDF is doing Pence also called on the international community to stop using a double standard regarding Israel and that is all the time we have at least for now but catch our next broadcast at three local time 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 what I saw today was unbelievable the devastation on the homes the destruction the scenes still that you could imagine of what happened it was like something out of a movie it was an empowering it was an important day for me and to show the viewers of I-24 News but it was a difficult challenging day this was the home of Yaniv Ohana to see basically a modern day pogrom and to feel the vulnerability we live in Israel we are so dependent on the army and the government and authorities to provide security to see how all of that can be overturned I think it really makes us understand how fragile our lives are and how much we are going to have to fight for our existence our very existence in this corner of the world welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News I'm Khaled Bendevi this month marks the 38 years since I started as a journalist in Israel and nothing was like the last two months this has been the most challenging, most emotional most heartbreaking and in some ways the most complex story that I've had to cover during that time and never I felt the kind of responsibility that I had to present this story to the world in the right context with the right facts and to really speak truth to power in this situation good afternoon and welcome to I-24 News is ongoing coverage of Israel at war returning to our coverage I'm Ariel Levin Waldman that war in Gaza is continuing to grind on forces from the IDF Ghulani combat infantry fought a series of pitched battles with Hamas' elite Nukba death squads terminating the enemy with targeted airstrikes soldiers also found more Hamas infrastructure including tunnel shafts rocket launching and placements and arms stockpiles but the West Bank is heating up at the same time border police enter Janine to conduct a raid when a roadside bomb was detonated outside their vehicle that killed policewoman Sergeant Shai Ghermai and wounded three of her fellow border police officers soldiers attempting to rescue the injured were attacked by Palestinian Islamic jihad gunmen who fired on them and threw explosives at Israeli troops an attack helicopter was used to eliminate the terrorists in an airstrike that killed six and Israel seems to be moving inexorably closer towards a major war on the northern front against Hezbollah in Lebanon that's the lynchpin of Iran's nexus of proxy militias and the strongest terror army in the world Europe now warning that all parties are drifting into a regional conflict the United States going so far as to say it's a conflict that Israel cannot win that's a new assessment from US defense intelligence agency that says Israel is stretched too thin across too many fronts but this comes as Israel says they are ready for exactly this sort of conflict talk that has reportedly alarmed the United States greatly and here's Prime Minister Netanyahu is showing a warning to Hezbollah I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months no terrorist is immune and we are determined to protect our citizens and return the residents of the north safely to their homes it is a national goal shared by all of us and we act responsibly to achieve it if we can we will do it in diplomatic ways and if not we will act in other ways and in Gaza soldiers of the IDF's Nahal Brigade have uncovered Iranian instructions and technical training from Hamas to manufacture precision weapons components and what is simply being described as strategic weapons that indicates a significant jump from their pre-existing capabilities components and equipment were found inside a 100 meter long tunnel being used as an arms factory here's more from the IDF we are in the midst of a battle in Dar al-Shtufar together with the divisional combat team and all its forces in the past few days we've encountered the enemy many squads infrastructure and booby trapped houses we took care of everything we encountered at the moment we are in the middle of a so-called innocent field where we found defensive tunnels rocket launchers that were used to strike Tel Aviv and the Gaza border villages and we are now joined by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Shai Hartzfei, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Rechman University. Thank you so much for being with us Shai. I want to talk about one of the things that we just heard that's being the statement from the United States intelligence assessment that Israel's not ready for such a multi-front war saying they're too stretched thin in Gaza to fight a decisive action in Lebanon this flies directly in the face of what Israel and the IDF was designed to fight exactly at this kind of war. Who's right? I'm quite sure that Israel is capable of course to fight a war in two fronts, actually three fronts because we should not forget Judea and Samaria. There is a Gaza, Judea and Samaria and the North. Of course it's better and there is no doubt about it to focus to put all your efforts in one arena. This is why we decided from the beginning of the war to focus on eliminating Hamas and trying not to escalate the situation against Hezbollah, but there is no doubt that at some time in the future it might be even in the near future we'll be forced to see how we can change the situation in the North because we have to change the security situation all over the border to allow the population to go back to their homes after they were forced to leave them a few weeks ago. But I'm quite sure, as I said we are capable to do it. It's always better to have a war on one front, but if we're forced to do it and we'll do it. And that's the situation in the North. We keep on using words like inevitable, but is it truly inevitable? Does Hezbollah right now in escalation because it seems that the IDF says it's ready? This is the one million dollar questions. It seems that from the beginning of the war in Iran and Hezbollah have reached the conclusion that they don't want to deter you of the situation, don't want to escalate to go to a full war with Israel. This is why Hezbollah is trying to make fighting not a war with Israel. We have the firing yesterday, although it was a little bit more than they used to do before. From their point of view, again it was not something that might cross the red line of Israel, but as I said before, this is the Iran and Hezbollah point of view. We have our own point of view and there is no doubt that we prefer and we hope that maybe Secretary Hezbollah's diplomatic efforts might achieve something and try to convince Hezbollah to pull back his forces to north of Deletani. But I'm not optimistic about that. Therefore, I do believe that at some point in the future even as I said in the near future will be forced to make a combination of military force and diplomatic effort because even if you are going to war and even force Hezbollah to withdraw his forces north of Deletani, then you have to achieve some kind of diplomatic arrangement. So it will be a crucial point. Actually, I do believe that January might be a crucial point for Gaza Strip regarding our hostages and also from the north because it will be very difficult from our side to keep on that situation for weeks and weeks and so on. Well, you know, let's actually bring our reporter in the north into this discussion right now. Our correspondent P.S. Dekalbach is joining us from the border with Lebanon right now. We're hearing just not that long ago the IDF saying they struck Hezbollah weapon depots in the north. Walk us to the latest developments we've seen on that front. From the Israeli side, he has been at a relatively quiet morning after firing at least 40 rockets into different areas of northern Israel, Hezbollah saying that this is the initial response to the alleged Israeli assassination of Hamas, Lira Salah al-Aroor and Beirut last week as a response to that Israel as per protocol has been targeting Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon such as weapons depots. Now, what you can see behind me is very, very close to the area, close to the Lebanese border. We are about five kilometers away from the actual border, what you can see in range, and this is the area where residents were evacuated from a long time ago, because this area is not necessarily being targeted by rockets, but by anti-tank missile fire and also mortar shells. Earlier we tried to enter one of these communities here behind me, the community of Shlomi, but we're told that this place is expected to be targeted within the very near future, within the next possible minute, so we were advised to stay away from that area, and residents have been evacuated from early on. We were in Haifa, a major city in the north, where many of those residents from exactly this area are staying right now in hotels. We had the chance to speak to an elderly couple from Shlomi here, where we are right now, and they were telling us that they're not knowing when they will be able to return. There is no horizon as they put it, and this is really much the situation for thousands of Israeli residents of the north, specifically of the Shlomi. They were evacuated, and they have no idea when they will be able to get back to their homes, because many of them are simply not ready to return, knowing that Hezbollah continues to sit right on the border and continues to pose that threat. And if we listen to the words coming out of the Israeli defense establishment, Joff Galan saying that Israel's goal is it to push Hezbollah away from the border. Now we've heard the former Defense Minister Benny Gantz and a member of the Israeli Defense Forces of the Shlomi. Hezbollah's resolution so that residents can be allowed to return home. That really shows you how not only we're talking about the potential of this front to escalate, but the fact that this front is very much open and has been open for almost three months now. And of course yesterday we reached a new level of escalation with Hezbollah firing 40 rockets and saying this is only an initial step, but the United States is in their still residency on, of course, all the security forces here guarding the northern front aerial. Well, Pia, thank you very much for that assessment of the situation in the north. Now at the exact same time, the United States is attempting to scramble to preserve its own regional interests. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken making a tour through the Middle East visiting Jordan today and set to reach Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday. Let's see what the stops are and why. If it's Sunday, this must be Jordan. As U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken jets through Amman on his tour of the Middle East. Here, meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safdi. This after stops in Turkey and Greece and before stops in Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt. These are not necessarily easy conversations. There are different perspectives, different needs, different requirements, but it is vital that we engage in this diplomacy now. Blinken is juggling at least three balls. The first one, preventing all out war in Israel's north. Doing what he can to incentivize his Bullah to get to yes on a diplomatic agreement that allows Israelis to return to northern communities feeling safe. Here, Blinken is part of a larger western push. It is imperative to avoid the regional escalation in the Middle East. It's absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict. And the second juggling ball, the war in Gaza itself, where Blinken will continue to push Israel to lower civilian casualties up the flow of aid and move on to the next phase of the war. And then the third ball, Gaza's day after, where Blinken has now laid out some of the clearest American thinking yet. And we also talked about the role that Turkey can play both in the day after for Gaza in terms of the challenging questions of governance, Palestinian life governance, security, rebuilding. So the United States is moving to bring in Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help Rangaza. How does Israel feel about that? Blinken will presumably find out Israel is stopped 7 on his tour. And we're going to return to Lieutenant Colonel Sy Hartzfei to discuss some breaking news that's just come in as we have some more details of what some of those precise and strategic weapons Hamas was developing with Iranian assistance now proven to be cruise missile technology for accurate strike weapons launched in the Middle East. And we have a colossal escalation of their capabilities giving them ability not to just rain down rockets but hit military targets with precision at great distances. There is no doubt that if this is correct and of course we have to still wait and to see what is the what the weapon is really is that they've built in the last 10, 15 years and actually they prepared for this kind of a war against the IDF and the fact that there might be I'm cautious because we're still learning what is it is really the fact that it might be an Iranian involvement behind those technology it's another example of how deep is the Iranian involvement in the Gaza Strip, in Judea and Samaria in the region and actually we must remember we are in position of war with Iran direct and indirect war and furthermore if there is one state that actually possess a traditional threat to Israel this is actually Iran it's a nuclear state and they have a lot of capabilities UAV capabilities trying to conduct terror attacks against Israel having all its forces in the region Iran is the main target of course is the main enemy of Israel of course we first have to deal with the Hamas, with the terror organization Judea and Samaria and Hezbollah in the north but at the end of the day Iran we always have to keep in mind that this is the main enemy of Israel Iran's proxies have engaged in direct kinetic operations against Israel they have killed many Israeli citizens does Iran not have its own internal enemies Azeri radicals on the border that Israel could be helping create a bulwark, ring a fire around Iran to increase the pressure on them of course Israel has a good connection with Azerbaijan with other countries in the region at this point we have to focus with the war against Hamas, Hezbollah but this is why it's very important to have a united front with our friends in the west, United States the European countries other players in the region together we might possess a challenge to the Iranian axis but because actually Iran is supported by Russia is not only Iran, Iran is supported by Russia has good connection with China and of course all its proxies in the region actually we should keep in mind it is a war between two camps one is the one the democratic camp led by the United States and Israel of course is part of it the moderate Arab countries is part of this camp but the other camp is the radical camp led by Iran, supported by Russia China and other proxies in the region and this is why the outcome of the war between Israel and Hamas the outcome of the war actually between Israel and Hezbollah will have a huge implication for all the region because just imagine if I do believe what happened Hamas at the end of the game will be able to stay in power in Gaza Strip what does it mean for all the region what does it mean for the Palestinian Authority what does it mean for the stability in Jordan so there is no doubt that the war is between two camps and this is why it is so crucial from our point of view to eliminate Hamas to withdraw Hezbollah the note of Deletani the immediate target is to bring back all the hostages alive this is because we are talking about it day by day the sand clock is actually running out of time where the hostages that came back talking yesterday what they suffered when they were in Gaza Strip they don't have time we must bring them home immediately as you pointed out there the message that the war between Israel and Hamas if Hamas survives is that the West and the Alliance of Democracy as you described it has no teeth and that's why it's so critical to discuss what just happened with Jordan and the United States negotiations with Jordan demanding the United States pressure Israel into a ceasefire despite the fact that Jordan is ostensibly aligned with the United States access there Jordan is in a very sensitive position why is that? because they have a lot of internal pressure or to support the Palestinians I would like to remind you that 60-70% of the population in Jordan are of Palestinian origin but this is one thing on the other end from the strategic point of view there is no doubt as I mentioned before there is no doubt as far as I understand that Jordan wants from their point of view there is no actually other alternative Israel to eliminate Hamas because as we said the outcome will be very severe even for the internal stability in Jordan so Jordan is trying to maneuver between internal pressure and strategic interest this is why from time to time we are saying some declaration even from King Abdullah and from Queen Rania and other diplomats calling for ceasefire but I do believe that from the bottom of the art and the secret the Kandestine negotiation or talks with the U.S. and other places in the region they do hope that Israel will be able to eliminate Hamas but as I mentioned they have some problem to say it clearly, loud and clear because if Israel fails to eliminate Hamas in Gaza then Hamas becomes the dominant party in the West Bank as well this is one of the risks because I would like to remind you Abu Mazen is 88 years old he is 32 years 32 years until 120 but I am just joking but in some point in the future 3, 4, 5 years there might be some change in the leadership in the Palestinian authority and this is the point when Hamas will try to take control and this is a very risky situation not only for Jordan but also for Israel actually for all the region they say Hamas will take control but if you look at the opinion polls of the people in the West Bank it certainly seems that they have de facto control at least over the popular consciousness there is no doubt that there is a lot of support not only in Gaza even in the Palestinian authority to Hamas this is the outcome of Hamas investing a lot of effort in the last few years in the Palestinian authority you know in the last 3 months there are a lot of military operations from the IDF and from the Shabbat against the terror organization terror cells in Judea and Samaria and we have arrested more than 30,000 Hamas terrorists more than 25 terrorists at all so do look at the number 13,000 Hamas terrorists in Samaria and I'm sure there are much more so we see what was the outcome of Hamas operating actually quite freely in the region in the last few years well thank you very much for that assessment Shai, now speaking of what the outcome of Hamas's operations are we now turn to the testimony of a teenage girl who spent more than 50 days in Hamas's captivity she's speaking out against her traumatic ordeals in Gaza she watched her own father be murdered before she was dragged to Gaza by those terrorists on October 7th this is her story in one day we moved from home to Minara suddenly the door opened and there were six girls and suddenly we realized that there were girls who were also killed many girls were killed they were severely injured they were injured they were very, very injured they were wounded they were protecting themselves we helped them to protect when we were with them they were freeing every five days because there were no casualties I think now it's already in the most days because the terrorists were also killed and the attack was going on and it's also a physical attack and also a psychological attack I can't believe at all what their situation is in what direction and former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence currently in Israel and the city of where so many atrocities took place also meeting the families of abductees, promising them he was going to act to make sure that pressure is made to bring their families home let's take a look sir, we're standing right very close to the camera right now over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday ever since dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel but only a few of them have reached this point former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stood here overlooking the Gaza Strip this is a safe room her brother and sister were hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours not far from here was the house of the Idan family the parents, Roy and Smodar were murdered the older brother and sister was kidnapped to Gaza and later released Pence, who received a full update about what happens that morning has one clear message to the world regarding the abductees I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message not just to Hamas but to Iran the United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released Pence served as vice president of Donald Trump a conservative Republican a great friend of Israel he came here not only to express his support but also to offer help it's not a secret that there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel but I think any message other than that we will support the decisions that are made by the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza that needs to be the message from the United States I'm so afraid that we'll come back and everything will go back what's happening in the before 6th of October the tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism penciled a candle in the memory of the victims dark time, lots of not great stuff that we saw but that's what it is that's what we're doing great, good job man accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament he met with the abductees families they asked him for help to put pressure on the Red Cross after seeing what you have seen here does it meet the criteria of genocide? Hamas came through that fence line to kill Jews and I know of no other definition of genocide to target a people because of who they are next week we are being drugged in South Africa to the International Court of Justice blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action to use the international court of justice the United Nations to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of loss on the Jewish people Israel's actions in self defense if Israel was in the business of genocide on October 8 there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip so what we do now is to ready