 Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where we see it. As our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. At 24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war, I'm Ariel Levin Waldman. The IDF is now calling on residents of large swaths of Khan Yunus to leave and to move further south as combat operations renew further into Gaza. The Israeli Air Force is continuing to pound terror targets across the Gaza Strip, with hundreds being hit every day as the military regained its momentum after the week-long ceasefire ended. Hamas is continuing to fire rockets into Israel, with daily evening barrages even deep into Israel's center, underscoring that the group still has very significant military capabilities. Another two Israeli soldiers have fallen in battle against the enemy in Gaza, their name as Ashalawu, Samah and Or brandis, bringing the total to 71 that have died since the ground operation began. The IDF has announced that much of Hamas' underground fortress network in the north of Gaza has been destroyed, having destroyed more than 500 tunnel shafts since the war began and located 800 total. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, this war will not end until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are returned. He has promised to create a deep security buffer zone inside Gaza, bringing him into direct conflict with the United States, which has ordered Israel not to displace any Gazans or to reduce the total territory of the Gaza Strip. This is all happening as the fight in the north is heating up again as well. A number of Israeli soldiers injured in the past few hours after his fallout fired an anti-tank guided missile at the northern community of Bay Hillel. Reports say that 12 people, at least eight soldiers and four civilians, were wounded today from the strike in Bay Hillel according to local reports. And we're going to discuss this a little bit in the studio first with Amir Orhan, one of our defense and military analysts. Amir, it's good to have you in as usual. I'm not going to open on the north with you first because we are starting to see the sort of tit for tat escalations going back with Hezbollah. When they paused a week ago, have anything changed in the tempo of these operations? Not necessarily in that particular sector, but there is a growing concern that in the Golan Heights adjacent to this area where there are Shiite, pro-Iranian militias from Pakistan, Afghanistan and points east, they could be either acting on their own or joining the fight and putting pressure on Hassan Asrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who has been quite restrained up to now to throw all the caution to the wind and enlarge the fight, goading Israel into a full scale war in Lebanon in addition to its operations in Gaza. Now, one of the prevailing ideas that we've seen is that they don't want to commit to a full scale fight in Lebanon because the Air Force will level Lebanon if they do so. But we saw something interesting in the launch of a missile from Syria at Israel. This is believed to have come from Hezbollah's stronghold, which means it's very likely to have been that group. Does it mean they're more than willing to throw Syria into the fire given that it's already largely destroyed? Well, the fact that it was a stronghold or an area where Hezbollah is thought to have some sort of presence and maybe some measure of control does not mean that it was Hezbollah. Hezbollah doesn't have to use Syria as a launching pad because the rocket will get to Israel anyway. It would be more likely that some militia did it in spite of Hezbollah's guidance not to do so. Well, we are going to return to this conversation briefly. But first, I am going to bring our correspondent, Pia Stechelbach, into this discussion. She's standing by in Sterot. That's the border town just on the edge of the Gaza Strip. Pia, walk us through the latest developments we're seeing in the IDF operations inside Gaza now. Well, Ariel, in the morning already, the Israeli military called upon certain residents of Khanunas in the south to evacuate further down south as part of the new evacuation plan. Basically, since the ceasefire ended, the Israeli military separated the entire Gaza Strip into blocks, evacuating blocks that are expected to be targeted in the near future to minimize civilian casualties there. And now in the afternoon, the Israeli military also called upon residents of the old city of Gaza, of Jabalia in the north, and also of Asha Jai and Azaytun, these areas to also evacuate and to go further down south. Now, we do know that more than half of the population of the entire Gaza Strip have left or lost their home. So this new evacuation efforts will put more pressure on to the entire population to find actual safe places there to go to places that are deemed to safe such as UN schools that are already overwhelmed there. But this is part of the Israeli military's effort to minimize those casualties as the military is pushing further south. Now, the Israeli military has published a statement also saying that they, since the ground offensive began, found 800 tunnel shafts and destroyed 500 of them, many of them being located in residential areas, including residential buildings or close to residential buildings and mosques. Now, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the war will continue until its goals are fulfilled, which are basically to demolish Hamas and to return them more than 130 hostages. Now, we do know that the Israeli security system estimates that many of those hostages are being held in exactly those tunnels. So this is really one of the main challenges of that battle to demolish and to find more of those tunnels, but at the same time not to endanger those hostages there. And we can assume that this ceasefire, this truce, has also given the Hamas the ability to strengthen their forces. Again, what we could see is that they continuously still launch rockets, first and foremost to the Gaza border area. See the Kibbutzim surrounding the border area. But yesterday evening, we also saw an example of them still having the ability to shoot rockets to launch rockets to the center area, while Tel Aviv has also been targeted and also throughout the day. There were quite a few red alerts here, first and foremost in the Gaza border communities, Ariel. Not that long ago, we saw some unconfirmed reports of IDF activity in the south parts of Gaza as well. This is largely coming from social media, videos that claim to show tanks operating the Salah-Adin-Rod. What do we know if there's any confirmation or there's any further details on this? Well, Ariel, the Israeli military hasn't commented on any of that. We did some reports about a strike in the Rafa area, which is very much in the south of the Gaza Strip, actually very, very close to Egypt there. And we also saw a report about battles in Khanunis. None of that is actually confirmed there. But of course, these reports exist, and we do need to wait for confirmation there. We do know that it is part of the IDF's plan to push down further south. This has been part of the operational plan for a long, long time. And now that they're evacuating parts of Khanunis is an indication that the battles are going to continue there. Not possibly not only from the air, but also from the ground. But again, there's no confirmation there from the Israeli military yet. Well, thank you very much, Pia, for that report from the south. And I'm sure I'll be back with you over the course of the day as that situation there develops. But for more, we are now joined in studio by Colonel Olivier Rafouz, IDF spokesperson for international media. Thank you very much. And Amir Aran is still with us as well. I'm going to open with you, Olivier, because we do now see these warnings to Khanunis. Get out, because this is about to become an area of operations. Walk us through what exactly is going on there right now, and what's set ahead for the battle in Khanunis. Thank you to Amir. First of all, I mean, the war against Hamas continues. After the pause, I would prefer pause instead of truth of ceasefire, because there was no ceasefire. Not from the beginning, not to the end. And after this operational pause for the return of the stages, this early army, mostly right now the Air Force with artillery, are actually bombing Hamas targets all over the north, in the center, and also in the south. And concerning Khanunis, it is the second major city in the Gaza Strip, still very stronghold of Hamas in this area. And of course, as you know, we distributed thousands, another thousands of leaflets in order to make people know about the next military strikes. It sounds strange, because we are announcing before what we are going to do, but the goal here is to prevent civilians to be involved in the combats. And at this point, I would like to say that Hamas is actually trying to push from Mamoasi, an Italian area, from the area close to the sea, to the Khanunis major neighborhood in the city, to push civilians in order to make them being involved in the combats. So it's like a war in the war, because we want actually to, and we want to listen very carefully our allies, our friends, the Americans, who are actually very keen to ask us to make the most, I would say, most possible actions in order to prevent civilians in the Gaza Strip to be involved. And we're also, of course, listen our friends. We're also doing what we are doing, because we're in a war against Hamas, not against the Gaza people. Because you brought that up, I do want to bring in the American perspective. We've seen some rather confusing statements coming out of America's leaders. On one hand, there's a vow of ironclad support for Israel at war, but on the other, a list of conditions that make ending the war somewhat more difficult statements by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. That Israel couldn't have as little as a few weeks to finish the war, but also demanding less use of damaging air power that would end the war quickly. Also saying the war must be done without displacing civilians, but also not causing collateral damage while civilians are not being displaced. After these seemingly contradictory statements, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin repeated that despite this, American support is non-negotiable. You see, in this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat. So I have repeatedly made clear to Israel's leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative. The United States will remain Israel's closest friend in the world. Our support for Israel's security is non-negotiable, and it never will be. And we're going to return to Amir Aran this time. We see these statements coming from the United States that seem to be utterly contradictory. Are they just empty words to mollify the American electorate? Or is the United States trying to present Israel with an actual list of conditions that can't be met? Maybe they can be met. The two crucial elements which Israel needs are support and time. And there is some contradiction between the two because the operational plan which the US would prefer may necessitate more time than Israel would like it to take. For instance, if you look at what happened in the northern part of Gaza until the operational pause, this is not what the Americans would like to see in a copy-paste mode down south. They would prefer lightning strikes, raids, maybe from some solid base even inside Gaza, but not a rolling thunder sort of armored convoys going south, pushing the civilians ahead of them and buildings being flattened. But in order to devise that, Israel would need time, and it doesn't have time because of the international reaction. Now, what you heard Secretary Austin say is that the civilian population as a center of gravity shouldn't be heard not only because it is morally right to leave non-combatants out of the fire, but also because if, as General Petraeus used to say, if you kill one terrorist by creating 10 vengeful relatives and friends, you lose. So it does put a burden on Israeli ingenuity to come up with plans, especially as Pia mentioned in her report, the very tunnels which house probably Yahya Sinoir and his colleagues may also as human shields house the Israeli hostages. And then again, the Israeli pressure on Hamas to resume the hostage deal and return all the women and the Bebas children before going to a new list of elderly males. This is quite a gamble. And if any hostage dies in captivity, because of this insistence, there will be public pressure on the government to change its tactics. I want to turn back to you, Olivier, because one of the things we're discussing is the concept of time and how long Israel has to finish this operation. Israel's not yet finished in the north. Jabalia is still standing. There's still large areas of Gaza city where Hamas has not been largely touched for the most part in the center of the city. But we're also seeing this operational launch in Hanyunis and places further to the south. Is this because Israel is starting to worry that they might not have time to take it sector by sector, and they have to expand it to multiple areas of operation at once? First of all, if we talk about Jabalia, but we can also talk about Zajaya. Yesterday we killed the commander of the battalion of Zajaya. And now we are even calling the Hamas commanders in Zajaya to surrender. If they surrender, they can just go to investigation. If they don't surrender, they will be killed. They will be dead. And it's also the way to prevent civilians to be involved, because Hamas has also this option to surrender. We also need to talk about it, because in this war, a total surrender, I would say even a total unconditional surrender of Hamas would be maybe a good solution to prevent civilians to be involved in the combat area. But where you are right, it is that there are still, I would say, pockets of combat unit of Hamas terrorists, of course, in Zajaya, in Zaitun, and in Jabalia. And our forces are there ready for combat. The aerial campaign is still there. The artillery is still there. And we will finish the job only when all these areas will be clean of Hamas. But again, I repeat, if Hamas commanders and subcommandes and operatives surrender, it's also an option. And we're going to continue this discussion in a brief moment with both of you. But first, we are going to cast our eye to the northern border. We have our correspondent, Zach, and they're standing by right now. Zach, can you recap for us just what we've seen from the northern border over the course of the past day? Well, the last alert here came in about two hours ago. It's been quiet since then. But throughout the day, we have as many as five strikes attributed to Hezbollah's own claims that they were striking Israeli targets throughout the north today, targeting a military base here with injuries, some of them ranging from both soldiers to civilians. The IDF has yet to confirm the total number of injured, but Army Radio is reporting as many as 10 were injured. This also includes this figure includes civilians, and it is tied to an ATGM launch, an anti-tank guided missile that occurred earlier in the day targeting that Israeli base here in the north. And I guess the following question to that is, because it's not just about Hezbollah in Lebanon, we also saw a rocket fire from Syria. What do we know about that? And the IDF is saying that according to their policy, the projectile was not intercepted, but there are also no reports of any damage or hits, which leads to the question of if this was in the air and aimed towards Israeli airspace, where did it come down? Did it come down somewhere in Syria? Was this a failed launch? This are the questions that the IDF has not responded to at this hour or spoken to who potentially launched this. If it was a rocket or a drone, either the clarity around this event is thin. And this perhaps is that second element to this northern front here that often is overlooked as we turn our eye towards Hezbollah and southern Lebanon so often that we fail sometimes to measure the same level of activity that's happening inside Syria. Now, these Israeli strikes have been taking place inside Syria even since before the ceasefire began. And these are what the IDF says, retaliatory strikes that they're targeting the areas where previous launches have taken place or targeting the infrastructure that aided and abetted those launches to take place in the first place. Well, thank you very much, Zach, for that report from the North. We're going to continue this in studio with you, Olivier, because we are seeing this consistent and constant fire from the North. And it's North that let's face it. No Israelis are going to go back to as long as Hezbollah is on the border. So is there actually a strategy for getting Hezbollah back beyond the line set forth by the UN in Resolution 1701? I will talk if I may only on military grounds. Right now there is incidents almost every day, except during the pause. But even during the pause at the last days, there was some incident. And Hezbollah is actually supporting Hamas. They want to support Lebanon, but now they are working for Hamas against Israel. And they receive many messages from many sides in order to stop this situation in order to make clear that if the incidents continue and if the line will be overpassed by such incidents, they will pay a very big price. And Lebanon will pay a price because of Hezbollah. So for now, there is a kind of, I would say, controlled situation, controlled escalation, but still controlled. And today was maybe a change in the situation, but still it's still a controlled situation. And we are very, very cautious about this situation. We have many troops along the border from the Mediterranean Sea until the Golan. When we mobilized almost half million soldiers, a big part was sent to the south, but another big part was sent to the north in order to prevent any development facing Hezbollah. Hezbollah has lost more than 110 people, 10 terrorists in the last months and half, so they know the price. And they know that Israel will not stay without reaction if something continues in such a way. And we are, since we're talking about the international side of things, we do have to discuss another international angle that's Karim Khan, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, wrapping up his first ever visit to Israel. Invited here by the families of hostages in a statement closing his visit, he called the October 7th massacres some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. He also said that Israel's response to the attacks is subject to clearly what legal parameters that govern armed conflict. All this raises the question of how Israel should respond to involvement by the ICC, giving decades of bitter experience with international organizations weaponizing the courts sometimes. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultriman tells us the full story. The test for the court looks unavoidable, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is eventually heading here to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where the massacres of October 7th and the war that followed look set to cross the threshold, and someday come into the courtroom. If the International Criminal Court does not act against Hamas, no one will. Who will act against them? The Palestinian Authority who endorses them? The Hamas regime in Gaza? There's no one else besides Mr. Khan. Mr. Khan is Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor for the Court, seen here meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shteya in Ramallah on Saturday, on a trip that also took Khan to Bari and Kfar Azar on the Gaza border, and the central event, a meeting at their invitation with hostages families. Israel has long been suspicious of international organizations, with decades of bitter experience of perceived bias. Broadly for that reason, Israel is not a state party to the emerging ICC. One cannot deliberately target civilians or civilian objects. One can't rape or kill or mutilate or dismember. Willful killing, hostage taking are grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court's jurisdiction. The message coming from Karim Khan is a careful one. He is under scrutiny from both sides. Given the magnitude, he cannot look away from October 7th, or the pro-Palestinian side says look away from the war. But the young court's reputation will be at stake, and over time, a suspicious Israel will need to decide whether or not to take the risk of trusting the ICC and cooperating with it. Okay, I'm going to return to you, Amir, because look, Hamas is a terror organization. They don't have any rules. When the ICC is going to be investigating them, what's the point? Well, the point first of all is to highlight the atrocities, the horrific massacre. This in itself is good because if it has the imprimatur of the ICC prosecutor, and it comes out officially, it's good for the Israeli case. But yes, you are right. Hamas is a sub-national entity. Gaza is not a state. It cannot be a member of any international body. Even the Palestinian Authority, while it is called in the United Nations state of Palestine, it's not really a state. It doesn't have borders. It's not recognized as a state. So in that sense, it is futile. But it is also good for Israel, which has been portrayed as a perpetrator of crimes. Of course, these were unfounded charges. Nevertheless, now that it is a victim, not only the state, but also individual civilians, this is good. And one should also remember that this was one point of the protests against the so-called judicial coup in the months preceding the war, because what many Israeli veterans claimed was that without the protection of the High Court, as an esteemed body in the world, they will be prosecuted and persecuted by the ICC. And does this mean we're also seeing more scrutiny placed on international organizations overseeing this conflict as a whole? Is this going to extend to other UN organizations? Are we going to see maybe a review of UNRA, finally, that might actually have some impact on the long form? UN bodies have lost most or perhaps all of their prestige. Obviously, they are politically motivated. They are subject to parliamentary rules. And the majority in all of these parliaments is pro-Arab or composed of Latin American and other third world countries, which for some reason support the Arabs. And within the Arab camp, the Palestinians. And now within the Palestinian camp, Hamas. So it's really not up to these UN bodies to preach to anybody. Well, thank you very much. And as you as well, Olivier, thank you both for being here. I'll break us down, both the battlefield realities, as well as the sort of international angle that we're seeing, the pressures and just different aspects of the war than just that of the kinetic fighting. That said, for everyone else though, we are just about out of time. For our show anyway, there's going to be another broadcast beginning in just about a half hour where you can catch so much more stories that you're not going to catch anywhere else. An in-depth analysis, in-depth reporting on this war, you're not going to catch on any other channel. So definitely stay tuned for that, beginning at six o'clock local time. And of course, you can catch so much more online at i24news.tv for stories that didn't make it into this broadcast, but you will see much more of them anywhere else. Until then, thank you all very much for watching, and there will be another broadcast coming up very soon. Is in a state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where we see as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. The purge of Israel at war. The IDF is now calling on residents of large swaths of communists to leave and to move further south as combat operations renew further into Gaza. The Israeli Air Force is continuing to pound terror targets across the Gaza Strip, with hundreds being hit every day as the military regained its momentum after the week-long ceasefire ended. Hamas is continuing to fire rockets into Israel, with daily evening barrages even deep into Israel's center, underscoring that the group still has a very significant military capabilities. Another two Israeli soldiers have fallen in battle against the enemy in Gaza, their name as Ashalawu, Samah, and Or brandis, bringing the total to 71 that have died since the ground operation began. The IDF has announced that much of Hamas's underground fortress network in the north of Gaza has been destroyed, having destroyed more than 500 tunnel shafts since the war began and located 800 total. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, this war will not end until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are returned. He has promised to create a deep security buffer zone inside Gaza, bringing him into direct conflict with the United States, which has ordered Israel not to displace any Gazans or to reduce the total territory of the Gaza Strip. This is all happening as the fight in the north is heating up again as well. A number of Israeli soldiers injured in the past few hours after Hezbollah fired an anti-tank guided missile at the northern community of Bayt Hillel. Reports say that 12 people, at least eight soldiers and four civilians, wounded today from the strike in Bayt Hillel according to local reports. And we're going to discuss this a little bit in the studio first with Amir Orhan, one of our defense and military analysts. Amir, it's good to have you in as usual. I'm not going to open on the north with you first because we are starting to see the sort of tit for tat escalations going back with Hezbollah. When they paused a week ago, have anything changed in the tempo of these operations? Not necessarily in that particular sector, but there is a growing concern that in the Golan Heights adjacent to this area where there are Shiite, pro-Iranian militias from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and points east, they could be either acting on their own or joining the fight and putting pressure on Hassan Asrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who has been quite restrained up to now to throw all the caution to the wind and enlarge the fight, goading Israel into a full-scale war in Lebanon in addition to its operations in Gaza. Now, one of the prevailing ideas that we've seen is that they don't want to commit to a full-scale fight in Lebanon because the Air Force will level Lebanon if they do so. But we saw something interesting in the launch of a missile from Syria at Israel. This is believed to have come from Hezbollah's stronghold, which means it's very likely to have been that group. Doesn't mean they're more than willing to throw Syria into the fire given that it's already largely destroyed. Well, the fact that it was a stronghold or an area where Hezbollah is thought to have some sort of presence and maybe some measure of control does not mean that it was Hezbollah. Hezbollah doesn't have to use Syria as a launching pad because the rocket will get to Israel anyway. It would be more likely that some militia did it in spite of Hezbollah's guidance not to do so. Well, we are going to return to this conversation briefly. But first, I am going to bring our correspondent Pia Stechelbach into this discussion. She's standing by in Sterot. That's the border town just on the edge of the Gaza Strip. Pia, walk us through the latest developments we're seeing in the IDF operations inside Gaza now. Well, Ariel, in the morning already, the Israeli military called upon certain residents of Khanunas in the south to evacuate further down south as part of the new evacuation plan. Basically, since the ceasefire ended, the Israeli military separated the entire Gaza Strip into blocks evacuating blocks that are expected to be targeted in the near future to minimize civilian casualties there. And now in the afternoon, the Israeli military also called upon residents of the old city of Gaza, of Jabalia in the north, and also of Asha Jaya and Zeytun, these areas to also evacuate and to go further down south. Now, we do know that more than half of the population of the entire Gaza Strip have left or lost their home. So, this new evacuation efforts will put more pressure on the entire population to find actual safe places there to go to places that are deemed as safe such as UN schools that are already overwhelmed there. But this is part of the Israeli military's effort to minimize those casualties as the military is pushing further south. Now, the Israeli military has published a statement also saying that they, since the ground offensive began, found 800 tunnel shafts and destroyed 500 of them, many of them being located in residential areas, including residential buildings or close to residential buildings and mosques. Now, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the war will continue until its goals are fulfilled, which are basically to demolish Hamas and to return them more than 130 hostages. Now, we do know that the Israeli security system estimates that many of those hostages are being held in exactly those tunnels. So, this is really one of the main challenges of that battle to demolish and to find more of those tunnels, but at the same time, not to endanger those hostages there. And we can assume that this ceasefire, this truce, has also given the Hamas the ability to strengthen their forces again. What we could see is that they continuously still launch rockets first and foremost to the Gaza border areas here. They keep what seems surrounding the border area. But yesterday evening, we also saw an example of them still having the ability to shoot rockets to launch rockets to the center area, while Tel Aviv has also been targeted and also throughout the day. There were quite a few red alerts here first and foremost in the Gaza border communities, Ariel. Not that long ago, we saw some unconfirmed reports of IDF activity in the south parts of Gaza as well. This is largely coming from social media videos that claim to show tanks operating in the Salah Adina Road. What do we know if there's any confirmation or there's any further details on this? Well, Ariel, the Israeli military hasn't commented on any of that. We did some reports about a strike in the Rafa area, which is very much in the south of the Gaza Strip, very close to Egypt there. We also saw a report about battles in Chanyunas. None of that is actually confirmed there. But of course, these reports exist and we do need to wait for confirmation there. We do know that it is part of the IDF's plan to push down further south. This has been part of the operational plan for a long, long time. Now that they're evacuating parts of Chanyunas is an indication that the battles are going to continue there, possibly not only from the air but also from the ground. But again, there's no confirmation there from the Israeli military yet. Well, thank you very much, Pia, for that report from the south. And I'm sure I'll be back with you over the course of the day as that situation there develops. But for more, we are now joined in studio by Colonel Olivier Rafa, IDF spokesperson for international media. Thank you very much. And Amir Aran is still with us as well. I'm going to open with you, Olivier, because we do now see these warnings to Chanyunas. Get out because this is about to become an area of operations. Walk us through what exactly is going on there right now and what's set ahead for the battle in Chanyunas. Thank you to Amir. First of all, I mean, the war against Hamas continues after the POWs. I would prefer POWs instead of troops of this fire because there was no ceasefire, not from the beginning, not to the end. And after this operational pause for the return of the hostages, the early army, mostly right now the air force with artillery are actually bombing Hamas targets all over the north, in the center, and also in the south. And concerning Chanyunas, it is the second major city in the Gaza Strip, still very stronghold of Hamas in this area. And of course, as you know, we distributed thousands, hundreds of thousands of leaflets in order to make people know about the next military strikes. It sounds strange because we are announcing before what we are doing to, what we're going to do. But the goal here is to prevent civilians to be involved in the combats. And this point, I would like to say that Hamas is actually trying to push from Mamwasi, humanitarian area, from the area close to the sea to the Chanyunas' major neighborhood in the city to push civilians in order to make them being involved in the combat. So it's like a war in the war, because we want actually to, and we want to listen very carefully our allies, our friends, the Americans, we're actually very keen to ask us to make the most, I would say, most possible actions in order to prevent civilians in the Gaza Strip to be involved. And we're also, of course, listening to our friends. We're also doing what we are doing, because we are in a war against Hamas, not against Gaza people. Because you brought that up, I do want to bring in the American perspective. We've seen some rather confusing statements coming out of America's leaders. On one hand, there's a vow of ironclad support for Israel at war. But on the other, a list of conditions that make ending the war somewhat more difficult statements by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Israel couldn't have as little as a few weeks to finish the war, but also demanding less use of damaging air power that would end the war quickly. Also saying the war must be done without displacing civilians, but also not causing collateral damage while civilians are not being displaced. After these seemingly contradictory statements, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin repeated that despite this, American support is non-negotiable. You see, in this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat. So I have repeatedly made clear to Israel's leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative. The United States will remain Israel's closest friend in the world. Our support for Israel's security is non-negotiable, and it never will be. And we're going to return to Amir Aran this time. We see these statements coming from the United States that seem to be utterly contradictory. Are they just empty words to mollify the American electorate? Or is the United States trying to present Israel with an actual list of conditions that can't be met? Maybe they can be met. The two crucial elements which Israel needs are support and time. And there is some contradiction between the two, because the operational plan which the US would prefer may necessitate more time than Israel would like it to take. For instance, if you look at what happened in the northern part of Gaza until the operational pause, this is not what the Americans would like to see in a copy-paste mode down south. They would prefer lightning strikes, raids, maybe from some solid base even inside Gaza, but not a rolling thunder sort of armored convoys going south, pushing the civilians ahead of them and buildings being flattened. But in order to devise that, Israel would need time, and it doesn't have time because of the international reaction. Now, what you heard Secretary Austin say is that the civilian population as a center of gravity shouldn't be heard not only because it is morally right to leave noncombatants out of the fire, but also because if, as General Petraeus used to say, if you kill one terrorist by create 10 vengeful relatives in France, you lose. So it does put a burden on Israeli ingenuity to come up with plans, especially as Pia mentioned in her report, the very tunnels which house probably Yahya Sinoir and his colleagues may also, as human shields, house the Israeli hostages. And then again, the Israeli pressure on Hamas to resume the hostage deal and return all the women and the bebis children before going to a new list of elderly males. This is quite a gamble. And if any hostage dies in captivity, because of this insistence, there will be public pressure on the government to change its tactics. I want to turn back to you, Olivier, because one of the things we're discussing is the concept of time and how long Israel has to finish this operation. Israel's not yet finished in the north. Jabalia is still standing. There's still large areas of Gaza city where Hamas has not been largely touched, for the most part, in the center of the city. But we're also seeing this operational launch in Hanyunas and places further to the south. Is this because Israel is starting to worry that they might not have time to take it sector by sector, and they have to expand it to multiple areas of operation at once? First of all, if we talk about Jabalia, but we can also talk about Zajaya. Yesterday, we killed the commander of the battalion of Zajaya. And now we are even calling the Hamas commanders in Zajaya to surrender. If they surrender, they can just go to investigation. If they don't surrender, they will be killed. They will be dead. And it's also the way to prevent civilians to be involved, because Hamas has also this option to surrender. We also need to talk about it, because in this war, a total surrender, I would say even a total unconditional surrender of Hamas would be maybe a good solution to prevent civilians to be involved in the combat area. But where you are right, it is at the, I would say, pockets of combat unit of Hamas terrorists, of course, in Zajaya, in Zaitun, and in Jabalia. And our forces are there, ready for combat. The aerial campaign is still there. The artillery is still there. And we will finish the job only when all these areas will be clean of Hamas. But again, I repeat, if Hamas commanders and subcommandes and operatives surrender, it's also an option. And we're going to continue this discussion in a brief moment with both of you. But first, we are going to cast our eye to the northern border. We have our correspondent, Zach, and they're standing by right now. Zach, can you recap for us just what we've seen from the northern border over the course of the past day? Well, the last great alert here came in about two hours ago. It's been quiet since then. But throughout the day, we have as many as five strikes attributed to Hezbollah's own claims that they were striking Israeli targets throughout the north today, targeting a military base here with injuries, some of them ranging from both soldiers to civilians. The IDF has yet to confirm the total number of injured, but Army Radio is reporting as many as 10 were injured. This also includes this figure includes civilians, and it is tied to an ATGM launch, an anti-tank guided missile that occurred earlier in the day targeting that Israeli base here in the north. And I guess the following question to that is because it's not just about Hezbollah in Lebanon, we also saw a rocket fire from Syria. What do we know about that? And the IDF is saying that according to their policy, the projectile was not intercepted, but there are also no reports of any damage or hits, which leads to the question of if this was in the air and aimed towards Israeli airspace, where did it come down? Did it come down somewhere in Syria? Was this a failed launch? This are the questions that the IDF has not responded to at this hour or spoken to who potentially launched this. If it was a rocket or a drone, either the clarity around this event is thin. And this perhaps is that second element to this northern front here that often is overlooked as we turn our eye towards Hezbollah and southern Lebanon so often that we fail sometimes to measure the same level of activity that's happening inside Syria. Now, these Israeli strikes have been taking place inside Syria even since before the ceasefire began. And these are what the IDF says, retaliatory strikes that they're targeting the areas where previous launches have taken place or targeting the infrastructure that aided and abetted those launches to take place in the first place. Well, thank you very much, Zach, for that report from the north. We're going to continue this in studio with you, Olivier, because we are seeing this consistent and constant fire from the north. And it's north that let's face it. No Israelis are going to go back to as long as Hezbollah is on the border. So is there actually a strategy for getting Hezbollah back beyond the line set forth by the UN in Resolution 1701? I will talk if I may, only on military grounds. Right now there is incidents almost every day, except during the powers, but even during the powers of the last days, there was some incident. And Hezbollah is actually supporting Hamas. They want to support Lebanon, but now they are working for Hamas against Israel. And they receive many messages from many sites in order to stop this situation, in order to make clear that if the incidents continue, and if the line will be overpassed by such incidents, they will pay a very big price, and Lebanon will pay a price because of Hezbollah. So for now, there is a kind of, I would say, controlled situation, controlled escalation, but still controlled. And today was maybe a change in the situation, but still it's still a controlled situation. And we are very, very cautious about the situation. We have many troops along the border from the Mediterranean Sea until the Golan. When we mobilized almost half million soldiers, a big part was sent to the south, but another big part was sent to the north in order to prevent any development facing Hezbollah. Hezbollah has lost more than 110 people, 10 terrorists, in the last months and a half. So they know the price. And they know that Israel will not stay without reaction if something continues in such a way. And we are, since we're talking about the international side of things, we do have to discuss another international angle that's Karim Khan, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, wrapping up his first ever visit to Israel. Invited here by the families of hostages in a statement closing his visit, he called the October 7th massacres some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. He also said that Israel's response to the attacks is subject to clearly legal parameters that govern armed conflict. All this raises the question of how Israel should respond to an involvement by the ICC, giving decades of bitter experience with international organizations weaponizing the courts sometimes. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultriman tells us the full story. The test for the court looks unavoidable, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is eventually heading here to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where the massacres of October 7th and the war that followed look set to cross the threshold, and someday come into the courtroom. If the International Criminal Court does not act against Hamas, no one will. Who will act against them? The Palestinian Authority will endorse them. The Hamas regime in Gaza, there's no one else besides Mr. Khan. Mr. Khan is Karim Khan, chief prosecutor for the court. Seen here meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shteya in Ramallah on Saturday, on a trip that also took Khan to Be'eri and Kfar Azar on the Gaza border, and the central event, a meeting at their invitation with hostages families. Israel has long been suspicious of international organizations, with decades of bitter experience of perceived bias. Broadly for that reason, Israel is not a state party to the emerging ICC. One cannot deliberately target civilian civilians or civilian objects. One can't rape or kill or mutilate or dismember willful killing, hostage taking our grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court's jurisdiction. The message coming from Karim Khan is a careful one. He is under scrutiny from both sides. Given the magnitude, he cannot look away from October 7th or the pro-Palestinian side says look away from the war. But the young court's reputation will be at stake. And over time, a suspicious Israel will need to decide whether or not to take the risk of trusting the ICC and cooperating with it. Okay, I'm going to return to you Amir because look, Hamas is a terror organization. They don't have any rules. When the ICC is going to be investigating them, what's the point? Well, the point, first of all, is to highlight the atrocities, the horrific massacre. This in itself is good because if it has the imprimatur of the ICC prosecutor and it comes out officially, it's good for the Israeli case. But yes, you are right. Hamas is a sub-national entity. Gaza is not a state. It cannot be a member of any international body. Even the Palestinian Authority, while it is called in the United Nations state of Palestine, it's not really a state, doesn't have borders, is not recognized as a state. So in that sense, it is futile. But it is also good for Israel which has been portrayed as a perpetrator of crimes. Of course, these were unfunded charges. Nevertheless, now that it is a victim, not only the state, but also individual civilians, this is good. And one should also remember that this was one point of the protests against the so-called judicial coup in the months preceding the war because what many Israeli veterans claimed was that without the protection of the high court as an esteemed body in the world, they will be prosecuted and persecuted by the ICC. And does this mean we're also seeing more scrutiny placed on international organizations overseeing this conflict as a whole? Is this going to extend to other UN organizations? Are we going to see maybe a review of UNRA finally that might actually have some impact on the long farm? You know, Ariel, UN bodies have lost most or perhaps all of their prestige. Obviously, they are politically motivated. They are subject to parliamentary rules. And the majority in all of these parliaments is pro-Arab or composed of Latin American and other third world countries, which for some reason support the Arabs. And within the Arab camp, the Palestinians. And now within the Palestinian camp, Hamas. So it's really not up to these UN bodies to preach to anybody. Well, thank you very much for your answer. And as you as well, Olivier, thank you both for being here. I'll break us down both the battlefield realities as well as the sort of international angle that we're seeing the pressures and just different aspects of the war than just that of the kinetic fighting. That said, for everyone else though, we are just about out of time for our show. Anyway, there's going to be another broadcast beginning in just about a half hour where you can catch so much more stories that you're not going to catch anywhere else. An in-depth analysis, in-depth reporting on this war you're not going to catch on any other channel. So definitely stay tuned for that beginning at six o'clock local time. And of course, you can catch so much more online at i24news.tv for stories that didn't make it into this broadcast, but you will see much more of them anywhere else. Until then, thank you all very much for watching and there will be another broadcast coming up very soon. Thank you. And all broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. Bringing Israel's story to the world, i24news channels now on hot. 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 far as well. In i24news we're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 58 of Israel's war with Hamas. Terrorist groups in Gaza and Lebanon have fired rockets at northern and southern Israel. This Sunday we'll have the latest from our correspondence on the ground in just a few moments. The IDF says it has discovered more than 800 tunnel shafts in the Gaza strip since the beginning of the ground offensive which began in late October. Most of them have been destroyed. 137 hostages remain in Gaza. The overwhelming majority of them are Israeli citizens. Well let's find out then what is happening this hour in Gaza. We're joined now by our correspondent Pia Stechelback who is in the south of Israel. So Pia the IDF has turned its attention to the south of the Gaza strip including of course Sinwa's stronghold of Canunis. Right well Laura the IDF is definitely pushing more into southern Gaza. We have just heard the Israeli military's announcement that also the ground troops are now located in the south just north of Canunis. Ground forces are there and the IDF said that they would expand the operations in the south of Gaza there in the coming future. Now that comes after the warnings to residents in specific areas have been expanded to in the morning. The Israeli army spokesperson Arabic announced that certain areas in Canunis certain neighbors of Canunis were to be evacuated immediately not only in the late afternoon hours there was another warning to residents in the old city of Gaza city also Zeytun Shajai and Jabalia in the north. Residents there were called upon to also leave those areas immediately as it is part of the Israeli military's plan to really part or divide the entire Gaza strip into blocks and into parcels and evacuate them as deemed needed to minimize the civilian casualties there but of course more than half of Gaza's population has already left or lost their houses and the pressure on the civilian population is increasing there. Laura you mentioned it in the beginning since the ground offensive began late last late October and more than 800 tunnel shafts were discovered 500 of those were destroyed and a part of the Israeli military's plan is of course to as we know to get to all the Hamas strongholds in Gaza wherever they are located but especially when we speak about those towns and you also brought up the 137 Israeli hostages this is one of the main challenges to actually get to those tunnels without increasing the danger to those hostages as the Israeli military thinks that many of the hostages are located exactly in those tunnels now we heard Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying yesterday that this war is going to continue until the war goals are fulfilled which are basically to demolish Hamas and to bring back all those hostages now the following weeks and days will decide how this is going to look like whether this can be actually be combined Hamas is showing that they still have the ability to fire rockets we have seen rocket fire especially targeting here the communities surrounding the Gaza border they have been targeted by cons and rocket fire throughout the day and yesterday evening Hamas also showed that they regain power throughout this ceasefire and they also launched rockets towards Tel Aviv so this is also something that has not changed Laura all right Pia thank you very much Pia Steckelback there and the IDF says it has marked 10,000 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip over the past three weeks so the operation is now turning towards the south of the Gaza Strip well with me in the studio this hour Yaki Dayanez the former Israeli consul in Los Angeles we're also joined by our senior editor Guy Azrael and just picking up briefly Guy on what Pia was saying that there is confirmation now that IDF troops are operating in the south of the Gaza Strip right we just that was just cleared for publication something that has been going on since the morning hours it came with the news of artillery fire heavy fire this morning near the area of Hanyunis obviously when we speak about the Israeli war against Hamas it has so far only managed to achieve eliminating most of Hamas's capabilities in the northern part of the Gaza Strip including areas of Gaza City that have yet to be conquered by the IDF and there is still so much work to do especially in the south over in Gaza and your neighborhood like Sajaya and Jabalia are still Hamas strongholds still a lot of work to be done there but at the same time we're seeing that the IDF is moving ahead with the ground operation feeling that time is of essence here we can see the map right here Hanyunis is to the south there and residents will be asked to evacuate as the forces move closer to highly populated areas yeah this is a highly complex operation isn't it not only going into dense urban areas there's also of course the consideration of the 137 hostages who are still being held exactly so there are two goals as we are mentioning all the time a releasing all the hostages and be destroying the infrastructure of the Hamas both the military infrastructure and the administration of the Hamas now doing that you have to be that's extremely complicated as we know the pause took place more than a week and we were preparing for the next move which is taking place right now since the negotiations failed by the Hamas as we hear from the Americans and from all the other parties and this is something that will take place for the next few weeks definitely we see that the IDF is concentrating not only in Sajaya as Guy mentioned not only in Sajaya and Jabalia but they already started the operation in the southern part of Gaza in Hanyunas and that was part of the discussion that Israel had with the Americans with the partners how we should conduct the war in the southern part of Gaza as well yeah we'll pick up on that in just a moment but let's find out what's happening in the north of Israel and because northern Israel has also been under attack today 11 soldiers were wounded by Hezbollah 12 sorry 12 people were wounded after Hezbollah anti tank guided missile attack our Zach Anders is in the north of Israel for us now Zach what's the latest hi Laura that figure includes both civilians and IDF soldiers these injuries that are sustained from fire including Hezbollah launching ATGMs these anti tank guided missiles launched by personnel on the ground at Israeli targets the engagement here happening in very close proximity to one another although it is a different dynamic because the terrain here is much more open the structures are spaced out the settlements and cities are further apart and the terrain is mountainous so these forces these Hezbollah forces continue to take positions and fire upon Israeli bases here in the north and then retreat further inside the territory the IDF says that they're retaliating once again with artillery and airstrikes targeting not just these points of origin for where the fire was initiated but also for Hezbollah infrastructure that not only supplies the weapons sometimes storehouses where some of this equipment is held but also some of the intelligence gathering infrastructure that Hezbollah uses to coordinate its its fighting forces and maneuver move its personnel and equipment throughout the north here and we should remember most of these towns and cities have been emptied of their civilian populations haven't they Zach they have that that doesn't mean that there aren't still quite a few people that have remained of course we've seen quite a bit of discourse in the last week or so regarding the evacuation notice here because many people are put into scenarios or situations where they're told to evacuate here from the north but they don't know how long that that's going to last or how long it will be before it's safe to return here to the north and many of the residents share their frustration with that fact of course this is coupled with the understanding that Hezbollah continues to operate here an attempt to fire on both IDF and civilians that civilians have been caught caught in the crosshairs so there's an understanding that it's unsafe but still a frustration that they want to return or have at least some idea when it will be okay to return to their homes and places of business and worship too all right Zach thanks very much Zach Andrews there in the north of Israel 12 people injured most of them IDF troops after Hezbollah attack Hezbollah chose to observe the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and hostilities have picked up as you just heard there well with me in the studio Yaqui Dayan and our senior editor Guy Azriel Yaqui just to pick up on what we're talking about before the operation in Gaza and the American pressure on Israel to abide by certain guidelines no displacement minimize civilian casualties and there's a bit of a time limit on the operation as well the National Security Council spokesman John Kirby spoke to US media earlier he says he believes Israel is making an effort as he put it to spare civilian deaths in Gaza yes so definitely the there are some differences I would say tactical differences and one major strategic difference between Israel and the United States the tactical differences is that the United States actually is requesting that Israel will conduct its war in a much more in a much more incursions in the south definitely than what it's been done in the in the north part of Gaza and not bombing from the air as much as we did in the south this is definitely something which would be very hard extremely hard to to implement the Americans are asking to to maintain the humanitarian aid which is kind of a reversal of what we saw at the beginning of the conflict when there was a lot of pressure on Israel not to mount a ground invasion into northern Gaza yeah but listen there was an understanding that there will be a ground invasion also there is an understanding that there is a ground invasion into southern part of Gaza the the understanding with the Americans was and this is why they we released a very detailed map is to to try not to harm the civilians as much as possible and this is why we we issued a very detailed map in order to in order to direct the population outside the war zones and give them the the early warning it was done in the north many went back to the south and now while you enter to the south from Hanyunes you are trying to direct the population into southwest of of Gaza in order not to harm the civilians nevertheless there is an understanding that here Israel will continue at the same pace and at the same way they did up in the north the Americans want to maintain the same humanitarian aid as was done during the pause around 200 trucks a day that's extremely difficult but Israel will try to play accordingly with the Americans and the I would say the strategic difference between us and the Americans is the day after there is a long discussion I think that we are not willing to enter into with the Americans the Americans are already speaking about two state solutions and they're revitalized the Palestinian Authority that will enter exactly we are not willing to enter this discussion I believe that's a mistake I mean I believe the first and foremost Israel has to decide what they want the day after definitely we have to prepare that but at the same time we should enter such a discussion with the Americans because of the clock because it's important and also because to tell the Americans that we are dealing with the symptoms which is Hamas maybe Hezbollah the Houthis but we have in order to create a new Middle East as the Americans want and they understand that in order to do that we have to destroy the Hamas in order to do that we have to deal with the Iranians which is the problem the other things are the symptoms when he speaks when he speaks about the day after of course it depends a lot which government will rule here in Israel the day after we do not know yet how long will this war last we've we've heard assumption of going towards a year and and obviously the political uncertainty remains and when you want to know what the Israeli government wants it really depends who would lead Israel in the day after it is not to be taken for granted that the now will still be in office or this government as it is just two points regarding the hostages that were mentioned here one is another comment from John Kirby this evening saying it is unacceptable that Hamas isn't giving the Red Cross access to hostages obviously this is a main point an important one sensitive one for Israel over 130 Israelis still remain hostages the hands of Hamas and still no words about their well-being that Red Cross has not been given access and this is despite this was specified as part of the agreement between Israel and Hamas with the hostage exchange deal and we're also hearing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this evening saying we continue to speak to the enemy about further release of hostages but we speak with fire reiterating again what we heard over the weekend that Israel will continue to negotiate under fire trying to impose pressure on Hamas for a better deal for release for releasing more hostages in the future yes that's the argument isn't it that military pressure on Hamas is what will bring it to absolutely and it it has proved itself I mean this point but we have to understand that once the ground operation starts and it started as Guy mentioned this is extremely hard to stop it to reverse it now it would be much harder to stop that obviously if there is a serious seriously absolutely I mean once the this ground operation started as long as you have air operation that's much easier to to stop but once the the ground forces started to move that would be much harder to stop having said that no doubt that if there is a serious offer on the table I mean definitely it can be stopped but this is much higher and when we see that the ground operation started as it has today we understand that there is no serious deal on the table and I just wanted to pick up on your point about Iran that at some stage the United States is going to have to tackle the Islamic Republic I mean over the weekend two members of the IRGC the Iran's revolutionary guards were killed in a in an airstrike an Israeli attack according to Iranian estate media I mean the Americans their troops have come under attack dozens of times by Iranian proxies in the region and there hasn't been much of a response do you expect that to change and add to that the the Houthis that are attacking the ships ongoing on the all the time even now as we speak they're attacking ships around the the sea so yes I mean here the the American administration there is a difference let's say first there is a difference within the American administration between the Pentagon and the White House the Pentagon wants to be much more aggressive towards Iran to attack their militias in Syria in Iraq the White House does not want to do not does not want any escalation with the Iranians they are in an election year they want to to contain the the escalation to contain the war with Iran so this is why we don't see as a much harder response coming from the American forces and maybe one more point I mean whenever we raise the Iranian issue now with the Americans and they want to discuss the two-state solution they think that we are trying to avoid the the problem but this is exactly the problem I mean if you want to change the Middle East if you want to create a different Middle East you have to deal with the Iranian problem and thank you Jackie and just on that point of the Houthis of course it was the Biden administration that removed the Houthis from a list of terrorist groups and now we have seen direct attacks by the Houthis on Israel but also on international shipping as well well obviously the Americans say they'll re-examine that decision just to recap what's going on today well a senior official of the Pentagon has told Al Jazeera that both missiles and drones were launched toward the USS Carney today in the red sea and saying they are aware of reports of attacking of cargo ships in the red sea we also heard a report from the Qatari newspaper Al Arabi Al Jadid from Yemenites from sorry from naval sources that the Houthis have attacked two boats that were suspected to be Israelis and we also heard from the spokesmen of the Houthi forces in Yemen saying today that the Houthis will return to attack Israel after it has resumed that its attacks in Gaza it's very clear that that threat is still imminent on Israeli boats and on Israel as we saw with those both the rockets and the drones launched at Israel we will also remember that drone that hit a school in the city of Elat so that that threat is certainly serious and imminent Israel and the US are well aware of that and that is not only Israel's problem of course when it comes to the red sea well yeah I mean the that's a British ship an American ship the USS Carney I mean this is becoming a real headache for the Americans we have to see what we actually get let's go back up to the north now though because we want to talk a bit more about the ongoing threat from Hezbollah another terrorist groups based in Lebanon we're joined by Shadi Khalool he's the director of the strategic partnerships at the Alma Research Centre great to have you with us Shadi so Hezbollah of course chose of his own volition to observe the ceasefire that Qatar broken between Israel and Hamas now hostilities are back on are you seeing an escalation well we are at the same spot as we stopped at the ceasefire and we returned back to the same spot we saw a huge attacks today also in our forces in the northern front we saw an attack in Bet-Helel we saw another attack by Hezbollah on Zareed this afternoon and we can see here as citizens living in the border here with Lebanon we saw those attacks actually with from our homes by you know we saw the smokes we saw the attack we we hear the explosions this is a situation that we live in in this northern border and people live in fear from a very big monster that's sitting close by in our borders and we still don't know how it will end up and of course thousands of people have had to leave their homes the economy is as ground to a halt we're coming on for two months now that this has been going on I mean I've asked you before but how do you think Israel should respond is it going to have to wait till the the threat from the south is dealt with and then we will see as well turn its attention to the north well I am you know I am siding with my with my thoughts that we need to eliminate the threat on the north if it can happen peacefully that's the favorite option and why which I doubt it it can happen and if it happened I don't think if we we hear some some people talking about international community pressure on Lebanese government to retreat Hezbollah and to make him implement 1701 resolution and bringing international force to be in south Lebanon which is actually the situation as it should be since 2006 but was not implemented by Hezbollah and I doubt that this will happen again so if it won't happen peacefully I think the only option is to go to full-scale war with them because people will not allow another October 7th here in the northern border and we know it's a huge threat seven 10 times greater actually than Hamas threat in the south and the atrocities and the a crime against humanity that Hamas did in the south we can see it in a greater way here in the north if God forbid things will develop and with Radoan force here in the of Hezbollah in the north and front so we should we should initiate something here that if if they don't want to peacefully retreat and this arm according to 1701 and 1559 we Israel would need to take care of this threat here and shadowy this I mean these attacks on Israel have not been without cost for Hezbollah they have lost dozens of terrorists haven't they in in attacks by Israel I mean how is Hezbollah how is Hassan Nasrallah spinning this to the Arab world because we see there has been a lot of criticism of him and the group for not getting involved more in this war let me I said that before and I would say it again Hezbollah care less about Hamas and Palestinian Sunni Muslims they are a Shia terrorist the ISIS group all are belong to Iran Iranian a proxy strongest proxy in the region they get their orders from Iran and Iran as well using those Palestinians as actually cards in their hands only to implement their strategy of controlling the whole entire region from Iran to Lebanon controlling the Arab countries in their way Iraq Syria and Lebanon and that's the main mission for them so they sacrifice Hamas for that now and they are trying to show some solidarity and joining them in the north and the front especially when Hamas started that attack in October 7 Hezbollah don't want to show himself as only a follower he's always the strongest proxy and they should be the ones who are leading this actually a fight against Israel and not the opposite so I suspect that they will go now in a full-scale war it might happen only if one of our of the size either us in Israel or them will have a retaliation and in this retaliation will mean we might cause a damage great damage or casualties in the other side which will develop to a greater conflict but for now I think both sides have a understanding that they can keep the clashes in the border without taking this further and let's say let's think about it this way Laura we in Israel should first think about on and our own interest what is good for us if it is good for us to eliminate Hezbollah and now it's the time to do it then we should do it it's not about other people interest it's our existential existence either we exist or we don't exist that's what we think here as citizens we are here living in this border we feel the threat we feel how the other side is ready actually to attack us we actually in Alma center followed Hezbollah and in the borders for the last 10 years and we saw them in our borders before october 7 ready to attack us with Radoan Union so we should not take this risk we in Israel as Israeli leaders I call all of them watch out what's gonna happen if Hezbollah has tunnels that not crossing tunnels and they these tunnels can reach the border a little bit before the border and they can attack at any point if they have different tunnels that are not discovered or with their parachutes and different other you know attacks at once with drones with missiles with these tunnels they can cross and still cause a damage and the threat is great to our northern communities and cities uh any great actually scale Shadi thank you very much Shadi Halul there he's at Alma and thank you Shadi Anya you know given the multiple intelligence failures which led to the Hamas terrorist attacks on october 7th what would hope that the security services are listening very closely to Shadi and his colleagues and Alma we're gonna take a very short break and when we come back we'll have all the very latest on the operation in Gaza and of course on the 137 hostages who are still being held by terrorists on this day 58th of Israel's war with Hamas stay with us a state of war families completely gun 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 hostages are still being held by terrorists in Gaza on this day 58th of Israel's war with Hamas the IDF has confirmed that its troops are operational in the south of the Gaza Strip including in Hanyunis the stronghold of the Hamas leader Yakeh Sinwa well let me remind you who is with me in the studio this hour Yakeh Dayanis the former Israeli council in Los Angeles our senior editor guy Azriel is here with me as well and we're just going to start with some news that's come in in the last few minutes guy this is a British cargo ship which has come under attack in the Red Sea and this is being blamed on the Yemeni hostages the ship is in distress and yes we are hearing it was struck by a rocket while in the Red Sea well crossing the Red Sea approximately 34 kilometers west northwest of Maka in Yemen this is what we're hearing the crew reiterated to the citadel this is the latest info just the latest in the series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea as we saw Israeli vessels are under the targets of the Houthis this may have been a misidentification of that boat obviously in several other cases boats that were suspected to have some sort of relation to israel were attacked in some cases a very far relation to israel well in one case a boat that obviously had no Israeli crew members on board and just had a very some sort of an Israeli ownership yeah one of the owners are being targeted constantly and it's becoming a problem not just of israel but also a global problem obviously this is very important shipping lane not just for israel through that area of the Red Sea to the Suez Canal etc it has great implications on world economy absolutely okay all right thank you Guy and this would be a significant escalation wouldn't it by the Houthis this is an incident that cannot remain unanswered not neither by the British nor by the Americans I mean they will have to respond to the Houthis it's a growing escalation in the Red Sea but we have to remember yes I mean the Houthis are responsible for that but they are not an independent group I mean they cannot unc independently the entire ammunition that they are using is Iranian ammunition and eventually at the end of the day you can deal with the symptoms whether it's the Houthis and the Iranian militias in Iraq in Iran in Iraq in Syria and Hizballah or Hamas but till you don't deal with the main problem which causes all those symptoms to happen then the Middle East cannot be changed and this is something that the Americans first and foremost have to understand so unless this is happening we'll see you know a response to the Houthis and again the Houthis will act but we'll see it back and forth back and forth but we have to see a direct response to the Iranians by the Americans otherwise we'll see a deterioration in the Middle East Yeah we are seeing a regional expansion that's for sure okay thank you both let's talk a bit about the the people who are still being held by terrorists in Gaza of course that is a one part of Israel's goal in Gaza bring back the hostages the other of course is to destroy Hamas well 22-year-old Guy Jubba Adalal is one of those people who is still being held by terrorists Guy was at the Nova Music Festival near Reim when he was taken hostage and with me now his father Ilan Ilan thank you very much for being with us it's thank you it's been 58 long days now in your view when you see that the the war has started up again you know we had that brief window when we saw people coming home I mean what is your best hope of getting your son back well it's been almost two months and it's too long and now we see the hostages that release from captivity and their testimony about the condition they're held in and we understand that they don't have much time that time is running out for them and the condition are very bad they don't have enough food they don't have enough air they're treated they treat them awful they sometimes they torture them and we we just have to get them out as soon as possible and your family has been literally torn apart by this you have two sons and they were both at the the rave parties that right yes both my sons were there one of them managed to come back home after it went through hell in there and the other one unfortunately was was taken hostage have you yes sorry carry on no I just wanted to say that they were meeting at this party with some of their friends and once the shooting started they went each to to other side and the guy with his friend went there I don't know somewhere and the and guy and his best friend were taking hostage and two of their friends were murdered one so far in Amati yeah I understand have you had any response at all from the the Red Cross of course part of the deal was that workers for the Red Cross would access the remaining hostages people like your son have you had any response from them at all well unfortunately the Red Cross became unrelevant to Israeli hostages because they just can't deliver they they don't it seems like they don't want to get involved with this because well I heard of a family that went to the Red Cross officers with a pack of medicine that one of the others hostages needed and they just refused to take it and and they didn't even deliver one message or we even they didn't see one hostage so what what exactly are they doing I don't I don't really know yeah it's baffling how how they've treated this whole hostage crisis and how they've treated Israel a lot of people have a lot of questions about yeah they're just not relevant to us tell us a bit about guy I was reading about him he taught himself Japanese is that right then he he has a dream to visit Japan one day yeah guy is a charmer is is wherever he goes people just falling in love with him he's such a good boy always let his his mother know where he is and always phone I'm coming here I'm going there and he's a musician he played the guitar along with his friend that was kidnapped with him he learned Japanese by himself because he really really liked Japanese culture he liked anima and he was planning trip to Japan in three in three months and when cherry is blooming there and I still hope that you will make it and yeah that's it I can't imagine what you're going through must be absolutely unbearable and you know as as I say to the families on tour so I hope so much that your your son is back with you and and his family where he's supposed to be we wish for that so much yeah I'm sure we're all we're all we've been back in the house with us yeah it's terrible I'm sorry that you're going through this thank you Ilan thank you so much thank you thank you all right well with me now Gershon Baskin he's one of the negotiators who helped broker the deal to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilat Shalit back in 2011 he's now the Middle East director of international the international communities organization the ICO thanks for being with us Gershon so you know we hear the pain of those people day after day going through absolute hell 137 families are dealing with this Hamas broke the ceasefire on Friday there was a ceasefire and we were seeing hostages handed over day by day what are the hopes of getting those people back the people who are still being held I think we have to remain hopeful and we have to push the Israeli government to make the hostage issue the number one priority the war can continue at any time the goals of the war can be accomplished at any time the first priority has to be on getting the hostages back and even if Hamas broke the ceasefire which it did Israel still needs to continue to do everything possible to bring as many hostages home as soon as possible we've heard the horror that the hostages have gone through we can't allow them to stay in Gaza even another day right but when you've got tanks going into Hanyunis in the south of Gaza when we've got our troops now operational on the ground for them to halt the offensive would put their lives at risk we halted the offensive for a week we could have halted for another few days we could have tried more to get Hamas to make a deal it's true they did not submit the list that we wanted to they wanted to change the nature of the agreement they wanted to make other demands we should put our own offers on the table and push Haas Hamas to release as many hostages as possible as I said we could have waited another day another two days even another week the war isn't going anywhere the tanks are there the tanks can move down in the south to the Gaza Strip as soon as we want them to the first priority has to be to get the hostages out isn't it a fact though that it's only the military pressure on Hamas that got them to agree to a ceasefire in the first place no that is not a fact that is an assumption that some people in the government thing the army are making we don't know if that's true at all in fact what I know is that before the Israeli army surrounded the city of Gaza the Egyptian intelligence was working with Hamas to get a list of hostages that Hamas was ready to release and as soon as the Israeli army surrounded the city of Gaza and entered the city of Gaza Hamas froze that process it might have been possible to make this deal three weeks earlier than it was done there is an assumption made by the army and made by the government that the pressure the military pressure on Hamas is what pushed it to make the deal the opposite could be true I don't know and neither does anyone else it's a guessing game of what if and no one knows for sure but you have all people must know that there is sometimes a price that is too high to pay I mean you were involved in the deal to release Sinwa the man who orchestrated this operation I mean if the offensives is halted now not only would troops be put in danger but you are allowing Hamas to survive another day the troops were not in danger in the positions that they were held in for a week well I'm sorry but military I'm sorry I'm sorry but former generals and military experts say otherwise well I said also that a ceasefire requires redeployment and securing the place of the troops the troops know how to take care of themselves the army knows how to take care of themselves it's the army itself who was ready to wait another day or two if more hostages could be brought out it was the decision of the military cabinet and the government to restart the war most of the people in the army say that they could have waited another day or two or three or more whatever is required to get the hostages out it's a matter of priorities that the other Israeli government decides it's its right to decide but there is no one who can say for a hundred percent that the military pressure on the government of the government on Hamas is right about that deal and nobody can say no absolutely not nobody can say a hundred percent the other way either you've got these large protests in in Tel Aviv you know everybody everyone wants to see the the hostages come home but when you have these big rallies and you have people chanting now now bring them back bring them back is is this not kind of directing the anger at the wrong place putting pressure on the government when it's actually Hamas that decides when to release the pressure on Hamas what we do know we have military pressure i have 17 years of experience of negotiating with Hamas and one thing i can tell you is that Hamas doesn't change the price the the the saying in Israel the slogan is that the more pressure of the Israeli public on the government makes Hamas raise the price that's not true they have nowhere to raise it they put out the price they want all for all but we don't have to give them all for all we want the women and the children back we want the elderly men back the negotiations on the soldiers will be a different negotiation but there are deals that still can be made with Hamas without paying the ultimate final price that they want and that needs to be pursued by the government it is the moral responsibility of the government of Israel to bring these hostages home the government failed to protect them they were taken from their homes because of the failure of Israel to protect its citizens and the moral responsibility of the government is to bring them home and the fact that Yahya Sinwa was was free guy Azrael our reporter would like to know Yahya Sinwa is just one person you know there is no shortage of Palestinians who are willing to fight with terrorism against Israel as long as this conflict remains and this conflict has remained for too long as long as we make no sincere effort to end the conflict there is an endless amount of Palestinians who are willing to take up a gun against us and it's not Yahya Sinwa it's many many Yahya Sinwa okay the argument that is made of course the two arguments one is one of them is the fact that Hamas is not looking to end the conflict or the only end to the conflict that Hamas is willing to accept is the elimination of the state of Israel completely so how do you ask how do you meet halfway through that we don't negotiate with Hamas for peace we have to destroy Hamas there's no question okay and when we hear the former Mossad head of MIA Rami Igra he says that the this is his argument that the protests that we're seeing today from the families actually do raise the price that Hamas is asking for well with all due respect to Rami Igra he was in the position to deal with with missing people and hostages for many years and he achieved zero so I don't think we should listen to Rami Igra as the ultimate ultimate defender of policies that have never worked all right well we'll take that that up with him Gershon Baskin thank you very much you're welcome well among the children still being held in Gaza of course 10 months old Kfir Bebas and his four-year-old brother Ariel the whole family was taken hostage the video of terrified mother Shiri holding her two children in her arms surrounded by jeering crowds in Gaza has become one of the most disturbing images of the cruelty that was perpetrated by Hamas the terrorist group declared Shiri and the children dead and released a video of father Ya'den in tears their deaths though haven't been confirmed by Israel more in this report wow this is crazy that's a crazy week ups and downs many ups and downs it's an emotional roller coaster this last week is a real wind of emotions because every day we know not to hop too much so as not to be disappointed but every day people return and right now there are still lost here with us unfortunately even today even in the sixth exchange the Bebas family was not included these were shaky days for the whole country and certainly for the Bebas family a week of hope and disappointments while the whole country holds its breath and waits for the list when will the names of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri appear no one will hurt her so that you know how human we are you know she has children everything was said about this moment which became the symbol of this war evil versus purity terror versus horror Ariel is only four years old Kfir is nine months old I don't know how they spent the night there it's hard to believe that more than 50 days have passed since then the two red-haired brothers and their parents were kidnapped from Kibbutz near Oz and Kfir received the dubious and terrible title of the youngest abductee last Friday when the kidnapped children started to come back they were so hoping to see them but it was not to be I kept myself strong all the time to be strong but this morning I cried because I couldn't hear one more time they're not on the list it killed me this morning I just can't take it anymore that's it I can't take it anymore so the family decided it was time to further increase the pressure in Israel and especially in the world Hamas claims that they are in the hands of another faction but that does not change the message they should return home are these your enemies we will repeat this in both Hebrew and English are these the people threatening you like this with the pictures of the babies in terms of posters things do you need something for us to complete yes I need their pictures now I only have the sign they're getting ready for the statement they're going to give at four o'clock in hostages square and we need posters of the family members let's make another bet which before the declaration we will distribute to the people there to hold it during their declaration in the logistics warehouse in a horrifying order according to the alphabet the pictures are placed coming to the b-bus pictures a stack with high demand not a day goes by that we don't get what about the redhead the people with the balloons begin to gather in the abductees square after midnight the yellow changes to reddish orange if all members of the extended family are already waiting in the family room it's been everyone's effort for weeks I know that our family especially these two little ones entered everyone's hearts deeply and all of us together with the entire people of Israel we're already expecting them to be here we asked you here everyone is holding orange balloons we will blow them all into the sky hoping that they will reach I don't know wherever possible let's offer prayers let it reach Gaza for those who need it the main thing is that they return we want them home now now now a lot of international media has arrived at the square and the family enters the information battle terrified to death anyone willing to listen anyone willing to interview why the orange balloons is it because of their orange hair I feel like some kind of soldier in some kind of war that I don't understand they tell me go to the expedition I go they tell me get an interview I do the interview these little redheads these two young redheads really entered the hearts of everyone in Israel and also the whole world their photos appeared all over the world on newspaper covers no one remained indifferent to these sweet faces isn't there some fear that precisely all these interviews and the exposure and the fact that everyone knows them increases their price because they are the strongest card did it cross our minds of course it did eventually we have to make some kind of decision would we trust and what our intuition says and go for it and your intuition tells you to shout loudly bring them back yes today we had a conversation in the family about this whether we were wrong or not wrong all along but the picture of Shiri and the kids was much bigger than us and it spread like wildfire even if we weren't interviewed even once it just did its job so I absolve myself of responsibility for this thing what's going on what my thoughts are running about the night about los angeles the next morning they continued to the press yosi hesitates he's supposed to leave tonight in a delegation to meet with politicians and celebrities in LA in my opinion your trip to schwarzenegger is important you will be able to use it to convey it in a meaningful way to the world let's give it a few minutes and figure out what we're doing here the confusion becomes even more acute when a brutal push announced by hamas arrives something's happening here let's give it a few minutes and figure out what we're doing here at the moment there is a push on the bebis family on the two children on arielle and kfir and on their mother hamas announced that they were murdered we're connecting them to the team now the family does not know how to accept these news it may be that these news have nothing to do with reality maybe this event it is part of the psychological warfare it was announced that she died and she returned on her own two legs in good health i think everyone is holding on to it now we take this message with limited liability at this stage because we don't know psychological game with us hamas didn't know where they were until a minute before this message did not know turn the lifted every rug as soon as they run out before they run out of time they suddenly find them in my opinion this is a poor excuse for continuing negotiations it's not just the shaky manipulation from hamas that you have to deal with there's also the palpitations before the list is published actually this is the last one before the end of the ceasefire in the last few days i kept hoping i'm trying to convince myself it's just to abuse us a little more but they will release them they will release but it's scary because hey we've reached the day before the last day of the ceasefire the last day of release as far as i know now and they're not here yet there's a problem here the last day has arrived today is the day that if you are not freed there is one more day left we don't have time to wait we don't have time to wait we are very worried we're really afraid of the thing trying to pass the time until the situation clears up there's no other way but despite the expectation a sense of despair comes kfir arielle and shiri are not listed a chilling sign of life comes in the evening precisely from their father jordan a video that does not bode well for the fate of his family this is an act of psychological terror hamas's claims about the vivas family are still unverified i repeat they are still unverified on friday morning the fighting resumed and with it the concern of the vivas family and all the families of the abductees that their return is getting further away and again they oscillate between hope and despair between ignorance and immense longing the laughter of kfir the nonsense of arielle the smile of shiri the hug of jordan we want them back here healthy and whole and body and soul and the orange light we have in our heart will continue to shine and shine until they are home everybody wants the vivas family home here in israel where we're going to take a very short break when we come back we'll have all the latest on what's happening in gaza the idf has confirmed that ground troops are operational now in the south of the gaza strip um 12 uh people wounded after an attack by hezbollah in the north of israel uh lightly wounded 11 soldiers lightly wounded and the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has wrapped up his first ever vid