 The IDF also recently struck five residential homes that allegedly housed members of Hamas, including the brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinoir. Israeli military has now warned more than one million Gazans to head south within the next 24 hours away from the Israel-Gaza border and evacuating from Gaza City. Israeli attacks have killed 1,500 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. However, that number does not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. While troops are mobilizing in southern Israel, northern Israel is also preparing for attacks from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. The Iranian Foreign Minister was greeted by representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad when he landed in Beirut on Thursday. Foreign Minister Hussain Amir Ghulian had a clear threat to Israel that if the deep-hounding in Gaza continues, the war may open on other fronts. While the unrest continues inside Israel's borders, Hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world, as Israelis and Jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence today. Certainly a lot continues to happen, but we want to begin in southern Israel. For I-24 News correspondent Mary McAuliffe is in Stay Rote. Mary, this morning, tanks are mobilizing. We see thousands of troops on the ground. It's clear Israel is preparing for a ground invasion. But what exactly can you tell us from the southern city of Stay Rote? Hi, Nicole. Yes, we've been in the city probably about three hours now. We're just about two miles from the Gaza border, and so far we haven't seen any civilians walking around town. Everybody has been ordered to evacuate after the mayor of Stroh yesterday called for that to happen, because residents continue to be plagued by this incessant rocket fire in the area. We haven't heard any rocket alert sirens here. The last one that was in this area was at 8 p.m. last night, but still there are not many civilians walking around. I just saw the first civilian car just about 10 minutes ago. We still had a bullet in his window shield. So the damage from last week's events just under less than a week ago, these happened. The damage is still palpable. We can still see it walking around the streets, and we really do not see anybody walking around. It truly is a ghost town down there with the remnants of everything that did happen since Saturday. And meanwhile, as there are no residents, civilians down there, hopefully the IDF is continuing to attack the Gaza Strip. Overnight we hear 750 military targets in the Strip, correct? Absolutely. So we continue to see the IDF responding harshly inside the Gaza Strip, launching a number of different airstrikes, also firing tanks and mortar, and using other artillery at their disposal to try to attack what they're saying are some of these Hamas terrorist infrastructure within the Gaza Strip. In this warning, of course, to evacuate all residents from the northern area of the Gaza Strip coming now, but even Israeli defense officials are also warning that they understand this is not something that probably can happen within 24 hours. There's some 1 million people who live in the north part of the Gaza Strip, so this is certainly going to be a very difficult endeavor to try and remove these civilians and move them to, again, it's a very densely area of the Gaza Strip to move them all of them south. Whether or not that's feasible or not, we will have to remain seen today. For now, we do know Hamas is also telling international media that civilians in northern Gaza should ignore the IDF warnings, telling them that it is just more Israeli propaganda. Mary McAuliffe, we're looking at those live images from the Gaza border right now. Thank you so much for your coverage down in the south. Now I want to bring in our guests in studio. Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US and former deputy Israeli minister and parliament member, along with Rafael Jerusalem, former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and security analyst. Now, Rafael, I want to start with you. As Mary mentioned, the IDF is warning more than 1 million Gazans to flee the north to evacuate Gaza City because they are planning a major attack. So they're continuing to warn these civilians, yet Hamas is telling them to stay. Exactly. The Hamas is not holding 150 Israeli hostages. It's 150 hostages and 2 million people. These people are hostages of the Hamas, just the same. They are a human shield to protect the leaders and commanders of the Hamas who are dug in bunkers under schools, under hospitals. But this is OK with accusation. Now let's go to the concrete steps that have to be taken. You have to evacuate the district and the Hamas is disinforming the population, is creating confusion. There are in neighborhoods, certain neighborhoods, there is like a kind of local police. These police sometimes even prevents people from leaving because there are strategic places that you need civilians to be there, not only as human shields from the bombings of the IDF, but also as a playing card for propaganda on the international media. It's nice to have pictures of victims. So all this is a very cynical calculation. Now the IDF has done its job, Israel has done its job. We have warned properly the people, if you have a normal human being, especially with children, the first thing you do is run. You don't think, what am I going to do? The normal reaction, if you are a responsible person, first of all, leave because your life is at stake. The second thing, now the responsibility lies with the international community. Whoever doesn't help these people is an accomplice to Hamas. It starts with the NGOs on the ground. There are many NGOs there, their job, like UNRWA also, from the UN, their job is to help the population. So please help the population, help them to evacuate, arrange for places in the south. In the south of Gaza, even though Gaza Strip is a very densely populated area, in the south there are many fields of any open areas, countryside, where people can stay. The next step being to put international pressure on Egypt to open its border towards Sinai. Because if Erdogan in Turkey could receive millions of Syrian refugees, if people from Ukraine could be displaced, there is no reason why Egypt should not welcome, at least for the time of the war, these people. And if Mr. Assisi doesn't want to do it, then start just parachuting, and especially the UN tents and mattresses and everything on Sinai to force him to do so. Because that's the way to help these people. If you're not doing this, then you're doing nothing, you're just speaking. So I think the European Union, these NGOs, the UN, now if they want to save the Palestinian people, short of declarations should start acting. They can do so. They can put the pressure. Sinai is the solution. So the south of Gaza is not the best solution. We will, of course, not strike there where these people are. I am sure that we already have even in mind to bring humanitarian ourselves and parachute food and medicine to these people in those spots. But now it's a whole mission to save these human lives, and yet again, they are being held hostage by the Hamas, by force, and the confusion that is being created. I think by now the Palestinians are used to the blah, blah of Hamas. They know exactly. I think what they have to do, I can understand that they're confused because of the whole situation. They're under huge stress. But when you are even the worst of stress on you being told, if you go that way, you might save your life. You just go that way. Exactly. And we're continuing to hear more of just about the international response, as you were saying. Now it's on the international community. Michael Oren, what can you tell us about the international response that we're hearing from around the world right now? I just want to add to that really excellent analysis. Hamas doesn't have a military strategy. It has a military tactic. And that military tactic serves a media diplomatic and legal strategy. What is it? They attack us. They kill a lot of us. They get us to go in there, kill a lot of civilians. They're going to prevent. They don't want them to run away. They want them to die. And then that gets bad press, terrible press, pictures around the world. That becomes diplomatic pressure on us and ultimately becomes legal action against us, boycotts, sanctions to punish us for war crimes. So I do a tremendous amount of work with the international press around the clock. Prime time is usually 2, 3, 4 in the morning here. But what I've noticed over the last, say, even 24 hours is that the narrative is changing. OK, for about four days, we were unfortunately tragically the darlings of the international press. Everyone was focusing on the suffering of the Israeli families, those who had lost loved ones, those whose loved ones were captive, held hostage. And story after story after story, truly, truly heartbreaking. And you saw how this impacted the President of the United States. You saw how it impacted the Secretary of State, Blinken. And starting with the British press, the BBC, European fresh, French press, associated press, it is changing. Now it is about increasingly Palestinian suffering. And the initial headline of the New York Times was the first day was Netanyahu declares war. That was the headline. But I give you the first headlines from the top of the New York Times right now. Israel warns more than 1 million people to leave northern Gaza. As Israel prepares for war in Gaza, debate is out over how long and long. Israel's latest strikes on Gaza have drawn warnings from aid workers and residents of humanitarian catastrophe gone. Gone are the 1,200. Gone are the hostages. Gone are the massacres of Bahrain, Kva'aza. Almost gone. And so now the clock ticks. Now the clock ticks. And those of us involved in public diplomacy, the issue now is not explaining Israel so much to the world as it is to provide time and space for the IDF to do what it has to do to defend us. That's our goal here. But it's only going to get worse. And we continue to hear, just as you're saying, the images on both sides speak so strongly. Yet one side of the images are being portrayed more than the other. I mean, we heard from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken after viewing the images here in Israel, just how distraught he was. Meanwhile, he came to Israel. He just landed in Jordan. He's also going to be visiting Qatar, Egypt, the UAE. What exactly the purpose is Blinken's kind of world tour through the Middle East right now? What is he hoping to accomplish? He's trying to get an anti-Hamas from together. OK, so the reactions of the Saudis were very disappointing. The reactions of the Jordanians are almost uniformly disappointing. He wants to get everybody in the Middle East, those who are part of the peace camp in the Middle East, ostensible or deeply part of that peace. Because some countries are more closely aligned with us than others. UAE, for example, had a very positive response. Everyone on the same page about the need to deal with Hamas as a common threat, not just to Israel, but to moderate Arab regimes. Well, and meanwhile, as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in some of these other states, I also know some other prominent figures are in Lebanon right now with the Iranian Foreign Minister as the proxy threat from Lebanon continues in the north. I actually want to cross live to our correspondent Pia Stechelback, who is in northern Israel right now. Pia, tense calm, but there's definitely preparing for action up there, especially with the Iranian foreign minister currently in Beirut. Well, definitely, Nicole. This night has been very calm this morning so far as well. Yesterday there were three alerts triggered in the Upper Galilee region. At least the last one turned out to be false alarm that followed a major triggering of alerts that also turned out to be false later on Wednesday, sending really hundreds of thousands here in the area and to shelters. And that really shows you how finely tuned the Israeli aerial alert systems are tuned. Residents really make sure to stay close to their homes to stay close to shelters. The streets are quite empty also yesterday when we were touring here in the north. You did not really see a lot of people in the area. You're right, the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdullahi, is in Beirut currently. And there have been meetings taking place between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Iranian foreign minister exactly in Beirut, also leading up to what we're seeing now. He was supposed to travel to Syria as part of his tour through the region. Now yesterday two strikes targeted both the Damascus airport and the Aleppo airport. They are attributed to Israel that has been striking Iranian-related targets or has been said to strike Iranian-related targets in Syria before the Israeli army usually does not comment on these incidents. But also we have seen mortar shelling coming from Syria on Tuesday before. In addition to that, the Israeli army yesterday night named another soldier that was killed on Wednesday when the Hezbollah militia from Lebanon fired mortar shells into Israel that comes in addition to three Israeli soldiers killed on Monday when members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad tried to infiltrate also from southern Lebanon. As of now, Nicole, the atmosphere is tense, but it has been calm throughout the night, also this morning here. But people here are very much aware of the fact that if it comes to an escalation here that can be triggered by any minor security incident, this will be an escalation which consequences are not known yet as the northern front could develop into something that Israel has not known yet. 24 news correspondent P.S. Dekalbach, we will continue to keep an eye up there in the north. Thank you for your coverage up there. I want to bring in Raphael again with everything that is happening in the north. This is obviously one of the big threats to Israel, Hezbollah. However, Hezbollah is greater than Hamas. So if they get involved, what exactly does that mean for Israel? Well, it means a new front and a much more threatening front in terms of numbers of fighters. The Hezbollah doesn't have that many more fighters than Hamas, but in terms of shooting power of missiles, you're talking a very, very big threat. You're talking the conservative number is between 120,000 missiles of all sizes and ranges that can reach any part of Israel, some of them with large destructive capacities. Some of them might have already been equipped with sophisticated GPS equipment that would make them more lethal and precise, provided by the Iranians. We have over the years tried to destroy the convoys and the many ways of delivering these GPS systems to the Hezbollah, but they might have it. The threat is such that if you calculate, the threat is not only the number of missiles, it's the number of launching places from which to shoot the missiles. Why? Because if you shoot enough missiles that we've seen with the latest round with Gaza, and then the iron dome cannot stop them all. The iron dome is at the best a 95% success. So that leaves 5% out of 100 missiles, that's five. But out of 1,000, that's 50. And 50 with powerful ones, that's very, very bad. It can be in Haifa, where we have many chemical and oil storage that can explode. Very dangerous. So the Hezbollah today has a rough capacity of shooting at least 100 missiles in one go, and probably a capacity of an easy 1,000 a day. So you can do the mass. I'm not very good at that myself. So this is a huge threat. It's of course also the entry of a new factor in the war might encourage others to also embolden others to join. So for that, we have to bless the American presence in the Mediterranean, of course. And the Americans have said that when the Hezbollah starts, they might get, I don't think there will be a direct confrontation with the American troops, but there will still be some kind of an action. So it is something that we have to think of. Now, Hassan Nasrallah is not the Hamas. Hassan Nasrallah is very much more careful. He calculates his steps in a certain way, always for his own interest. So he's not even always obeying exactly to Tehran if it contradicts it. He has been known to say no sometimes, even though Tehran is the boss. The Hamas is in a vacuum. They do what they want in Gaza. Nobody's going to stop them. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah, they operate inside the nation, the Lebanon, with the government, with an army. He has to calculate his move. And today, I just finished with that. His dilemma is on the one hand. He doesn't have the effect of surprise that the Hamas had. On the other hand, he has an opportunity that might never come back. That we are so busy with the south and maybe something else that now is a time to strike. And just remember that there are other fronts that you're going to have to deal with, one being, of course, the West Bank that is so far quiet. I want to ask you also, because Israel has repeatedly said, Hamas will no longer exist at the end of all of this. But if Hezbollah gets involved as well, is that statement going to stand? Will Hezbollah no longer exist as well? Does Israel have that capability? Well, ideally, yes. The capability, yes. We have also the political will. It seems that, yes. We will prevail. We shall prevail. There are no doubt we have just to stick, because sometimes you put an objective and on the way you lose the objective and you change your mind. So let's do hope that this time, because the Israeli public opinion is united in this, let's hope that this time, if we have hostages, well, there should be the last ever hostages. We will have some casualties in the IDF. Let's hope there will be the last ones and not just yet another round. So this being said, it will cost us a lot. It will be very bad also for our economy. It will impact the weeks of the reserve being cold and the economy stopped. The price is huge. So if the price is huge, then the result should be just as huge. So we have to go until the end. It's doable. We can do it. We have the strength to do it. We were good enough for that. And now let's just hope that we can do it by stages and not everybody together. Let's finish with the Hamas and then let's deal with the Hezbollah. Take it one at a time. Now meanwhile, as we're talking about everything that's happening inside Israel's border, we're also hearing calls from Hamas for this day of rage around the world. Hamas supporters to come out. We're hearing stories of Israelis, Jews. They're told to stay on high alert for potential violence today. Michael, what can you tell us as far as this potential day of rage and what could unfold? Very, very dangerous. I'm an advisor to a wonderful organization called the Secure Community Network, SCN in the United States. It's an organization of 90 former FBI officials, law enforcement officials who monitor and intercept threats to about 12,400 Jewish institutions across North America. And they interact with the law enforcement officials and with the FBI. It's been very effective so far. We saw in 2021, during the last round of fighting with Hamas, that anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish individuals, against institutions went up about 80%. So it's a direct connection between the two. Those of you who think that anti-Semitism is an anti-Semitism, here's your hard and fast truth, proof of it. And so we have to be very, very high alert. And SCN interacting with FBI and law enforcement are really very, very closely monitoring these threats. And Jewish institutions, many of them, Jewish schools are closed. And the Shabbat should be certainly a challenge as people go to pray, but they're gonna have to guard their synagogues very closely. I think that's a great point to make that this is happening on the Jewish state of Shabbat. Now we are hearing these strong condemnations from different leaders around the world, different governments standing with Israel. However, the official response seems to be different than the public response from different... It's on the country. In the United States, of course, it's very, very high support. In France, very different. But even from the public in the United States, you are seeing these different rallies. You still are hearing those Jewish communities told to stay on high alert. Oh, that's very good. The Jewish community is rallying very strong. And you have local leaders like the mayor of New York and these wonderful, wonderful rallies in support of Israel. You have protests. You have protests saying horrible things about Jews, putting in gas chambers. The one that went viral was the protest in Sydney in front of the opera house. Yes, right now that's small. It is small. The more warrants of the phenomenon is going on American campuses, including the elite campuses, Harvard, 36 student organizations signing a petition, putting all the blame on the state of Israel. This has happened at other campuses in NYU, CUNY. And it is interesting not to see just the student reaction, see what the official reaction is. So it took the Harvard administration many days to react, NYU similarly. So we have to see whether the presence of these universities come out and condemn it. So far they've been rather reluctant. And as we continue to hear more about the atrocities that are happening, it's interesting to just look at the response on the international spectrum. Now Rafael, we are hearing just more information about the exact events that unfolded on Saturday reports that at least 2,500 terrorists were able to infiltrate. And our most recent report says about 70% were affiliated with Hamas. Now I want to dig into that statistic because why were only 70% affiliated with Hamas? What were the other 30%? So mostly Islamic jihad. That's the number two in Gaza. But also minor, they are like minor little groups. Some of them even affiliated to ISIS, to Daesh. So all kinds of different cells. And this is a problem when we speak of the hostage situation because the Hamas doesn't hold all the hostages. At first the Hamas, and not even even now, they have a complete list of the hostages that are held in Gaza, which one they hold. And that took them quite a while to organize that list. But some of them are at the hands of the Islamic jihad, for sure. And maybe some others at the hands of these minor organizations see what we don't know or people don't know is that there are loads and loads of small organizations. Everyone that starts an organization can be 20 people, can be 100 people, and they call themselves all kinds of names, Al-Adis, Muhammad, that, and that's it. And they are out of control. Actually Islamic jihad is more in control of the Hamas in Gaza. I mean, there are big factions. They coordinate their actions. Sometimes they argue, but more or less they're on the same page. But all these little ones, especially those affiliated to Al-Qaeda or Daesh, they are completely autonomous. There's no way to control them. Of course, strategically, they do not represent the threat. They don't have missiles, but they create havoc. So they join in. The only question that's to be answered at a later date, of course, is how come if this was a top secret operation of the Hamas and the Islamic jihad, how come these other organizations knew about it and could join at the last minute? So they also knew. That's a lot of people knowing for a top secret operation that didn't leak at all. That's amazing. There's definitely going to be a lot of information that needs to be released following this. Now you quickly mentioned the hostage situation. As we know that Israel has urged the 1 million Gazans to evacuate from Gaza City, from the north. How does this impact the hostage situation? The hostage situation, I'm afraid to say, is a problem without a solution. Would we know where they are? We could even dream of some kind of antebe, a commando operation, even though the chances of succeeding before the hostages are executed by those who ravaged them are very slim. But we could have that kind of dream, and we don't know where they are. And they are in many different locations, compared to the nuclear in Iran. It's all in different locations, not just one strike. So really what the real problem is, is that we cannot make the Hamas kneel down and give it. So we'll give the chance to Qatar and all the diplomatic ballet that's going around this. But really, really, the Hamas is not interested in even willing and dealing about this. They don't want to liberate Palestinian prisoners in our jails. They're not even asking Israelis to stop bombing. They're not asking for nothing. Why? These hostages are now the life insurance of the big leaders of the Hamas. Meaning, when the IDF comes in, and if it comes in and reaches them, then they will say, let us go out of here through Egypt. Let's spare us. You want your hostages back? Spare us. So now these hostages are the only last rampart after the human shield of all the Gazan people. The last rampart are these Israeli hostages when Mr. Sinoir, when he will have a gun pointed at his head, will say, OK, I'll give you ten hostages. Please let me go. It's going to be a very difficult situation that continues to unfold. Rafael Jusami, Michael Oren, thank you so much for joining us on this breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk, continuing to break down the latest developments here in Israel. Thank you. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us. We don't know what to do. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. The past but not the future. It's natural. From the start, from the fish to the production of the food of the plants. Because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure, the weight or the water above your head, we're able to save energy. A breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk, kind of a holesthetic life in Tel Aviv. People around the country are waking up to the seventh day of war here in Israel. Over the past week, the death toll has climbed to more than 1,300 lives lost. And while rocket alerts continue to blare through the south during the overnight hours, Israel is striking back in the Gaza Strip, hitting 750 military targets overnight. The IDF also recently struck five residential homes that allegedly housed members of Hamas, including the brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. Israeli military has now warned more than one million Gazans to head south within the next 24 hours, away from the Israel-Gaza border and evacuating from Gaza city. Israeli attacks have killed 1,500 Palestinians according to the Palestinian health ministry. However, that number does not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. Now while troops are mobilizing in southern Israel, northern Israel is also preparing for attacks from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. The Iranian foreign minister was greeted by representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he landed in Beirut on Thursday. Foreign minister Hussain Amir Aqdolian had a clear threat to Israel that if the pounding in Gaza continues, the war may open on other fronts. While the unrest continues inside Israel's borders, Hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world. As Israelis and Jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence today. Certainly a lot continues to happen, but we wanna begin in southern Israel. For I-24 News correspondent Mary McAuliffe is in Stay Rote. Mary, this morning, tanks are mobilizing. We see thousands of troops on the ground. It's clear Israel is preparing for a ground invasion, but what exactly can you tell us from the southern city of Stay Rote? Hi, Nicole. Yeah, so we've been in the city probably about three hours now. We're just about two miles from the Gaza border, and so far we haven't seen any civilians walking around town. Everybody has been ordered to evacuate after the mayor of Stroh yesterday called for that to happen because residents continue to be plagued by this incessant rocket fire in the area. We haven't heard any rocket alert sirens here. The last one that was in this area was at 8 p.m. last night, but still there are not many civilians walking around. I just saw the first civilian car just about 10 minutes ago. We still had a bullet in his window shield. So the damage from last week's events, just under less than a week ago, these happened. The damage is still palpable. We can still see it walking around the streets, and we really do not see anybody walking around. It truly is a ghost town down there with the remnants of everything that did happen since Saturday. And meanwhile, as there are no residents, civilians down there, hopefully the IDF is continuing to attack the Gaza Strip. Overnight, we hear 750 military targets in the Strip, correct? Absolutely, so we continue to see the IDF responding harshly inside the Gaza Strip, launching a number of different airstrikes, also firing tanks and mortar, and using other artillery at their disposal to try to attack what they're saying are some of these Hamas-Terrace infrastructure within the Gaza Strip. In this warning, of course, to evacuate all residents from the northern area of the Gaza Strip coming now, but even Israeli defense officials are also warning that they understand this is not something that probably can happen within 24 hours. There's some one million people who live in the north part of the Gaza Strip, so this is certainly going to be a very difficult endeavor to try and remove these civilians and move them to, again, it's a very densely area of the Gaza Strip to move them all of them south. Whether or not that's feasible or not, we will have to remain seen today. For now, we do know Hamas is also telling international media that civilians in northern Gaza should ignore the IDF warnings, telling them that it is just more Israeli propaganda. Mary McAuliffe, we're looking at those live images from the Gaza border right now. Thank you so much for your coverage down in the south. Now I want to bring in our guests in studio. Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US and former deputy Israeli minister and parliament member, along with Rafael Jerusalem, former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and security analyst. Now, Rafael, I want to start with you. As Mary mentioned, the IDF is warning more than one million Gazans to flee the north to evacuate Gaza city because they are planning a major attack. So they're continuing to warn these civilians, yet Hamas is telling them to stay. Exactly. The Hamas is not holding the 150 Israeli hostages. It's 150 hostages and 2 million people. These people are hostages of the Hamas, just the same. They are a human shield to protect the leaders and commanders of the Hamas who are dug in bunkers and their schools and their hospitals. But this is okay with accusation. Now let's go to the concrete steps that have to be taken. You have to evacuate this truth and the Hamas is disinforming the population, is creating confusion. There are in neighborhoods, certain neighborhoods, there is like a kind of local police. These police sometimes even prevents people from leaving because there are strategic places that you need civilians to be there. And not only as human shields from the bombings of the IDF, but also as a playing card for propaganda on international media. It's nice to have pictures of victims. So all this is a very cynical calculation. Now the IDF has done its job, Israel has done its job. We have warned properly the people if you have a normal human being, especially with children, the first thing you do is run. You don't think, what am I gonna do? The normal reaction, if you are a responsible person, first of all leave because your life is at stake. The second thing, now the responsibility lies with the international community. Whoever doesn't help these people is an accomplice to Hamas. It starts with the NGOs on the ground. There are many NGOs there, their job, like UNRWA also from the UN, their job is to help the population. So please help the population, help them to evacuate a range for places in the south. In the south of Gaza, even though Gaza Strip is a very densely populated area, in the south there are many fields of any open areas countryside where people can stay. The next step being to put international pressure on Egypt to open its border towards Sinai, because if Erdogan in Turkey could receive millions of Syrian refugees, if people from Ukraine could be displaced, there's no reason why Egypt should not welcome at least for the time of the war these people. And if Mr. Assisi doesn't want to do it, then start just parachuting, and especially the UN tents and mattresses and everything on Sinai to force him to do so, because that's the way to help these people. If you're not doing this, then you're doing nothing, you're just speaking. So I think that your opinion, these NGOs, the UN, now if they want to save the Palestinian people short of declarations should start acting, they can do so, they can put the pressure, Sinai is the solution, the south of Gaza is not the best solution, we will of course not strike there where these people are. I am sure that we already have even in mind to bring humanitarian ourselves and parachute food and medicine to these people in those spots, but now it's a whole mission to save these human lives. And yet again, they are being held hostage by the Hamas, by force, and the confusion that is being created, I think by now the Palestinians are used to the blah, blah of Hamas, they know exactly, I think what they have to do, I can understand that they're confused because of the whole situation, they're under huge stress, but when you are even the worst of stress on you being told, if you go that way, you might save your life, you just go that way. Do that exactly, and we're continuing to hear more just about the international response, as you were saying, now it's on the international community. Michael Oren, what can you tell us about the international response that we're hearing from around the world right now? I just wanna add to that really excellent analysis. Hamas doesn't have a military strategy, it has a military tactic, and that military tactic serves a media diplomatic and legal strategy. What is it, they attack us, they kill a lot of us, they get us to go in there, kill a lot of civilians, they're gonna prevent, they don't want them to run away, they want them to die, and then that gets bad press, terrible press, pictures around the world, that becomes diplomatic pressure on us, and ultimately becomes legal action against us, boycotts, sanctions to punish us for war crimes. So I do a tremendous amount of work with the international press around the clock, prime time is usually two, three, four in the morning here, but what I've noticed over the last, say even 24 hours is the narrative is changing. Okay, for about four days, we were unfortunately tragically the darlings of the international press. Everyone was focusing on the suffering of the Israeli families, those who had lost loved ones, those whose loved ones were captive, held hostage, and story after story after story, truly, truly heartbreaking, and you saw how this impacted the president in the United States, you saw how it impacted the secretary of state, Blinken, and starting with the British press, the BBC, European fresh, French press, associated press, it is changing. Now it is about increasingly Palestinian suffering, and the initial headline in the New York Times was, the first day was Netanyahu declares war, that was the headline, but I give you the first headlines from the top of the New York Times right now. Israel warns more than one million people to leave northern Gaza. As Israel prepares for war in Gaza, debate is over how long and long. Israel's latest strikes on Gaza have drawn warnings from aid workers and residents of humanitarian catastrophe gone, gone are the 1200, gone are the hostages, gone are the massacres of the area in Kva'u-Aza, almost gone. And so now the clock ticks, now the clock ticks. And those of us involved in public diplomacy, the issue now is not explaining Israel so much to the world as it is to provide time and space for the IDF to do what it has to do to defend us. That's our goal here, but it's only gonna get worse. And we continue to hear, just as you're saying, the images on both sides speak so strongly, yet one side of the images are being portrayed more than the other. I mean, we heard from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after viewing the images here in Israel, just how distraught he was. Meanwhile, he came to Israel, he just landed in Jordan. He's also going to be visiting Qatar, Egypt, the UAE. What exactly the purpose is Blinken's kind of world tour through the Middle East right now? What is he hoping to accomplish? He's trying to get an anti-Hamas from together. Okay, so the reactions of the Saudis were very disappointing. The reactions of the Jordanians are almost uniformly disappointing. He wants to get everybody in the Middle East, those who are part of the peace camp in the Middle East, extensible or deeply part of that peace, because some countries are more closely aligned with us than others. UAE, for example, had a very positive response. You have one on the same page about the need to deal with Hamas as a common threat, not just to Israel, but to moderate Arab regimes. Well, and meanwhile, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in some of these other states, we also know some other prominent figures are in Lebanon right now, with the Iranian foreign minister as the proxy threat from Lebanon continues in the north. I actually want to cross live to our correspondent Pia Stechelback, who is in northern Israel right now. Pia, tense calm, but there's definitely preparing for action up there, especially with the Iranian foreign minister currently in Beirut. Well, definitely Nicole. This night has been very calm this morning so far as well. Yesterday, there were three alerts triggered in the Upper Galilee region. At least the last one turned out to be false alarm that followed a major triggering of alerts that also turned out to be false later on Wednesday, sending really hundreds of thousands here in the area into shelters. And that really shows you how finely tuned the Israeli aerial alert systems are tuned. Residents really make sure to stay close to their homes, to stay close to shelters. The streets are quite empty also yesterday when we were touring here in the north. You did not really see a lot of people in the area. You're right, the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdullahan is in Beirut currently. And there have been meetings taking place between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic jihad, and the Iranian foreign minister exactly in Beirut, also leading up to what we're seeing now. He was supposed to travel to Syria as part of his tour through the region. Now yesterday, two strikes targeted both the Damascus airport and the Aleppo airport. They are attributed to Israel that has been striking Iranian related targets or has been said to strike Iranian related targets in Syria before the Israeli army usually does not comment on these incidents. But also we have seen mortar shelling coming from Syria on Tuesday before. In addition to that, the Israeli army yesterday night named another soldier that was killed on Wednesday when the Hezbollah militia from Lebanon fired mortar shells into Israel that comes in addition to three Israeli soldiers killed on Monday when members of the Palestinian Islamic jihad tried to infiltrate also from southern Lebanon. As of now, Nicole, the atmosphere is tense, but it has been calm throughout the night, also this morning here. But people here are very much aware of the fact that if it comes to an escalation here that can be triggered by any minor security incident. This will be an escalation which consequences are not known yet as the Northern Front could develop into something that Israel has not known yet. At 24 News correspondent Piaz Dekalbach, we will continue to keep an eye up there in the North. Thank you for your coverage up there. I want to bring in Rafael again with everything that is happening in the North. This is obviously one of the big threats to Israel, Hezbollah. However, Hezbollah is greater than Hamas, so if they get involved, what exactly does that mean for Israel? Well, it means a new front and a much more threatening front. In terms of numbers of fighters, the Hezbollah doesn't have that many more fighters than Hamas, but in terms of shooting power of missiles, you're talking a very, very big threat. You're talking the conservative number is between 120,000 missiles of all sizes and ranges that can reach any part of Israel, some of them with large destructive capacities. Some of them might have already been equipped with sophisticated GPS equipment that would make them more lethal and precise, provided by the Iranians. We have over the years tried to destroy the convoys and the many ways of delivering these GPS systems to the Hezbollah, but they might have it. The threat is such that if you calculate, the threat is not only the number of missiles, it's the number of launching places from which to shoot the missiles. Why? Because if you shoot enough missiles, then we've seen with the latest round with Gaza, and then the iron dome cannot stop them all. The iron dome is at the best 95% success, so that leaves 5%, out of 100 missiles, that's 5, but out of 1,000, that's 50. And 50 with powerful ones, that's very, very bad. It can be in Haifa, where we have many chemical and oil storage that can explode, very dangerous. So the Hezbollah today has a rough capacity of shooting at least 100 missiles in one go, and probably the capacity of an easy 1,000 a day. So you can do the math, I'm not very good at that myself. So this is a huge threat. It's, of course, also the entry of a new factor in the war might encourage others to also embolden others to join. So for that, we have to bless the American presence in the Mediterranean, of course. And the Americans have said that when the Hezbollah start, they might get, I don't think there will be a direct confrontation with the American troops, but there will still be some kind of an action. So it is something that we have to think of. Now, Hassan Nasrallah is not the Hamas. Hassan Nasrallah is very much more careful. He calculates his steps in a certain way, always for his own interest. So he's not even always obeying exactly to Tehran if he contradicts it. He has been known to say no sometimes, even though Tehran is the boss, the Hamas is in a vacuum. They do what they want in Gaza. Nobody's going to stop them. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah, they operate inside the nation, the Lebanon, with a government, with an army. He has to calculate his move. And today, I just finished with that, his dilemma is on the one hand. He doesn't have the effect of surprise that the Hamas had. On the other hand, he has an opportunity that might never come back, that we are so busy with the South, and maybe something else that now is the time to strike. And just remember that there are other fronts that you're going to have to deal with when being, of course, the West Bank that is so far quiet. I want to ask you also, because Israel has repeatedly said, Hamas will no longer exist at the end of all of this. But if Hezbollah gets involved as well, is that statement going to stand? Will Hezbollah no longer exist as well? Does Israel have that capability? Well, ideally, yes. The capability, yes. Do we have also the political will? It seems that, yes. We will prevail. We shall prevail. They have no doubt. We have just to stick, because sometimes you put an objective, and on the way you lose the objective and you change your mind. So let's do hope that this time, because the Israeli public opinion is united in this, let's hope that this time, if we have hostages, well, there should be the last ever hostages. We will have some casualties in the IDF. Let's hope there will be the last ones and not just yet another round. So this being said, it will cost us a lot. It will be very bad also for our economy. It will impact, you know, I mean the weeks of the reserve being cold and the economy stopped. The price is huge. So if the price is huge, then the result should be just as huge. So we have to go until the end. It's doable. We can do it. We have the strength to do it. We're good enough for that. Now let's just hope that we can do it by stages and not everybody together. Let's finish with the Hamas and then let's deal with the Hezbollah. Take it one at a time. Now meanwhile, as we're talking about everything that's happening inside Israel's border, we're also hearing calls from Hamas for this day of rage around the world. Hamas supporters to come out. We're hearing stories of Israelis, Jews. They're told to stay on high alert for potential violence today. Michael, what can you tell us as far as this potential day of rage and what could unfold? Very, very dangerous. I'm an advisor to a wonderful organization called the Secure Community Network, SCN in the United States. It's an organization of 90 former FBI officials, law enforcement officials who monitor and intercept threats to about 12,400 Jewish institutions across North America. And they interact with the law enforcement officials and with the FBI. It's been very effective so far. We saw in 2021 during the last round of fighting with Hamas that anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish individuals, against institutions went up about 80%. So it's a direct connection between the two. Those of you who think that anti-Semitism is an anti-Semitism, here's your hard and fast truth proof of it. And so we have to be very, very high alert. And SCN interacting with FBI and law enforcement are going to be very, very closely monitoring these threats. And Jewish institutions, many of them Jewish schools are closed. And the Shabbat should be certainly a challenge as people go to pray, but they're going to have to guard their synagogues very closely. I think that's a great point to make that this is happening on the Jewish state of Shabbat. Now we are hearing these strong condemnations from different leaders around the world, different governments standing with Israel. However, the official response seems to be different than the public response from different... It's on the country, in the United States, of course, it's very, very high support. In France, very different. But even from the public in the United States, you are seeing these different rallies. You still are hearing those Jewish communities told to stay on high alert. Oh, that's very good. The Jewish community is rallying very strong. And you have local leaders like the mayor of New York and these wonderful, wonderful rallies in support of Israel. You have protests. You have protests saying horrible things about Jews, putting in gas chambers, the one that went viral was the protest in Sydney in front of the opera house. Yes, right now that's small. It is small. The more warrants of phenomena is going on American campuses, including the elite campuses, Harvard, 36 student organizations signing a petition, putting all the blame on the state of Israel. This has happened at other campuses in NYU, CUNY. And it is interesting not to see just the student reaction, see what the official reaction is. So it took the Harvard administration many days to react, NYU similarly. So we have to see whether the presence of these universities come out and condemn it. So far, they've been rather reluctant. And as we continue to hear more about the atrocities that are happening, it's interesting to just look at the response on the international spectrum. Now, Rafael, we are hearing just more information about the exact events that unfolded on Saturday, reports that at least 2,500 terrorists were able to infiltrate. And our most recent report says about 70% were affiliated with Hamas. Now, I want to dig into that statistic because why were only 70% affiliated with Hamas? What were the other 30%? So mostly Islamic jihad. That's the number two in Gaza. But also, they are like minor little groups. Some of them even are affiliated to ISIS, to Daesh. So all kinds of different cells. And this is a problem when we speak of the hostage situation because the Hamas doesn't hold all the hostages. At first, the Hamas are not even even now. They have a complete list of the hostages that are held in Gaza. They know which one they hold. And that took them quite a while to organize that list. But some of them are at the hands of the Islamic jihad, for sure. And maybe some others at the hands of these minor organizations see what we don't know, or people don't know, is that there are loads and loads of small organizations. Everyone starts an organization. There can be 20 people. There can be 100 people. And they call themselves all kinds of names, Allah, this, Muhammad, that. And that's it. And they are out of control. Actually, Islamic jihad is more in control of the Hamas in Gaza. I mean, there are big factions. They coordinate their actions. Sometimes they argue, but more or less, they're on the same page. But all these little ones, especially those affiliated to Al-Qaeda or Daesh, they are completely autonomous. There's no way to control them. Of course, strategically, they do not represent the threat. They don't have missiles. But they create havoc. So they join in. The only question that's to be answered at a later date, of course, is, how come if this was a top secret operation of the Hamas and the Islamic jihad, how come these other organizations knew about it and could join at the last minute? So they also knew. That's a lot of people knowing for a top secret operation that didn't leak at all. That's amazing. There's definitely going to be a lot of information that needs to be released following this. Now you quickly mentioned the hostage situation. As we know that Israel has urged the 1 million Gazans to evacuate from Gaza City, from the north. How does this impact the hostage situation? The hostage situation, I'm afraid to say, is a problem without a solution. Would we know where they are? We could even dream of some kind of the antebe, a commando operation, even though the chances of succeeding before the hostages are executed by those who ravaged them are very slim. But we could have that kind of dream, and we don't know where they are. And they are in many different locations, cooperating the nuclear in Iran. It's all in different locations, not just one strike. So really what the real problem is, is that we cannot make the Hamas kneel down and give it. So we'll give the chance to Qatar and all the diplomatic ballet that's going around this. But really, really, the Hamas is not interested in even willing and dealing about this. They don't want to liberate Palestinian prisoners in our jails. They're not even asking Israelis to stop bombing. They're not asking for nothing. Why? These hostages are now the life insurance of the big leaders of the Hamas, meaning when the IDF comes in and if it comes in and reaches them, then they will say, let us go out of here through Egypt. Let's spare us. You want your hostages back? Spare us. So now these hostages are the only last rampart after the human shield of all the Gazan people. The last rampart are these Israeli hostages when Mr. Sinoir, when he will have a gun pointed at his head, will say, OK, I'll give you 10 hostages. Please let me go. It's going to be a very difficult situation that continues to unfold. Rafael Drew Salmi, Michael Oren, thank you so much for joining us on this breaking news edition of the I-24 News Dats, continuing to break down the latest developments here in Israel. Thank you. Israel is at war. Since the early hours of the morning, Israel has been facing infiltrations of terrorists, kidnapping of Israelis, and a barrage of thousands of rockets emanating from the Gaza Strip, the biggest and bloodiest attack in years. Tune in for our extensive and rolling coverage of the Hamas deadly attack on Israel. With reporters on the ground in depth analysis and most updated and accurate information, stay tuned with I-24 News. It's officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us. We don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. This is a breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk. I'm Nicole Zettick, live in Tel Aviv. We've entered the seventh day of war here in Israel. Over the past week, the death toll has climbed to more than 1,300 lives lost. And while rocket alerts continue to blare through the south during the overnight hours, Israel is striking back in the Gaza Strip, hitting 750 military targets overnight. The IDF also recently struck five residential homes that allegedly housed members of Hamas, including the brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. Israeli military has now warned more than 1 million Gazans to head south within the next 24 hours, away from the Israel-Gaza border and evacuating from Gaza City. Israeli attacks have killed 1,500 Palestinians according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. However, that number does not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. All troops are mobilizing in southern Israel. Northern Israel is also preparing for attacks from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. The Iranian foreign minister was greeted by representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he landed in Beirut on Thursday. Foreign minister Hussein Amir Abdulyan had a clear threat to Israel, that if the pounding in Gaza continues, the war may open on other fronts. All of this while the unrest continues inside Israel's borders, Hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world. As Israelis and Jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence today. Certainly a lot continues to unfold, but we wanna begin with our correspondent, Piaz Dagobak, who's in northern Israel right now. Piaz, let's begin with the latest. Iranian foreign minister in Beirut meeting with members of Hamas, the PIJ, and now also Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrullah. What can you tell us? Well, Nicole, the readout according to Lebanese media and Hezbollah affiliated channel, Amayyadine says that they meant to discuss, of course, the regional developments, the results of the Hamas operation on Israel. And Amir Abdulyan basically said that his goal of his visit to Lebanon is to keep Lebanon safe. But he also said that the continuing atrocities of Israel in Gaza might open the scene, open the war to other fronts. That's what he threatened with, and that he suggests to call it a regional meeting of regional leaders to discuss further developments. Now we do know that it is not the first time that the Iranian foreign minister travels to Beirut to meet with exactly the Hamas leadership, the PIJ leadership, and also Hezbollah representatives, including its leader Hassan Nasrullah. Now he was supposed to continue to Syria, but yesterday two airstrikes, both on Damascus Airport and Aleppo Airport, attributed to Israel, might make that impossible. We do not know if you will continue there. Now Israel is said to frequently target Iranian targets in Syria to really prevent weapon deliveries. Here in the North, the scene is quiet as of now. There were a few false alarms in the past, the two days really causing hundreds and thousands of residents here into their shelters. The streets are pretty much empty. People make sure to stay close to their homes. But as of now, it is quiet here. Now both Iran and also just recently, Hassan Nasrullah and Hezbollah have threatened to attack Israel. Nasrullah just after the Hamas operation began on Saturday said that this was an attempt to prevent further Israeli normalization in the region has hailed this operation. So residents here and also the Israeli security system, many reservists have been deployed to the North. The Israeli aerial defense systems are very much finely tuned to monitor any kind of infiltration in Israeli airspace. They know that an escalation here in the North could bring into Israel into unknown waters, not knowing what kind of militias would participate. But again, Nicole, we haven't had any alarms here in the North as of today. Yesterday there were a few false alarms, but people here are very much prepared. P.S. Tacklebox, definitely a tense calm up there. We'll continue to keep our eye on the North. Thank you. Now, I want to bring in Professor Koby Michael, who's a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former Deputy Director General for the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, joining us from Ness Ziona here in Israel via Zoom. Koby, let's begin with everything that's happening on Israel's northern border and the threat of Hezbollah as these high-level officials are meeting right now discussing what's happening here in Israel. Good morning. It looks that they are pretty concerned about the situation, which means that they are not so happy about the idea of opening the northern front. They are very cautious in this regard. In the very same time, they are walking till the edge, and they are trying to challenge Israel and the IDF. But I think that they have no interest right now to open in a full-scale the northern front. And I think that in the very same time, this is an Israeli interest as well, a class for the time being. It will be better for Israel to concentrate on the southern front in the Gaza Strip. But the IDF is well-prepared, and I hope that they will not force us to open the northern front. But it looks that they are concerned. Well, and meanwhile, I mean, we continue to hear a show of support from the United States, also urging Iran not to get involved. We now know US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin just landed in Israel, the second high-level US official to visit in two days. So how has the United States continued to show its support to Israel and hopefully deter other players from getting involved? It is important to understand that it is not only support or shoulder to shoulder with Israel. It is also an American interest about the broader Middle East and about its allies and its presence here and its interests in the Middle East. The American presence here in the Mediterranean is a signal, first of all, a deterrent signal towards the Iranians and Hezbollah. But in the very same time, it is a signal of support to the American allies here in the region, mainly the Saudis, the Egyptians, and some others, that says we are here and we are ready to intervene if there will be a need to intervene. And the Americans understand pretty well that the war between Israel and Hamas is not something which is limited to the local context. It's something which is much broader. It looks that the Iranians are deeply involved in this war. And the Americans are here in order to prevent Iran from deepening its involvement. Well, meanwhile, as things do continue to escalate in the south, the IDF urging more than 1 million Gazans to evacuate Gaza City and evacuate the northern territory. So how does this indicate that Israel is preparing to really step up its efforts in the Gaza Strip? Israel is making all the required preparations. It looks that there will be no option but to use the ground forces. I still don't know how exactly it will be realized, but at the end of the day, it will be realized. And the idea of the evacuation of the population has two targets. First of all, to avoid from collateral damage and to save lives of innocent people. And secondly, to prepare the zone, to prepare the area for the ground forces that will enter the Gaza Strip in the next phase. And I want to remind everyone, all of this escalation, as there are still 97 confirmed hostages, many speculate that there are dozens more. So how does that make this operation that much more difficult as there are Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip as the IDF wants to continue this operation? It complicates the event. The state of Israel is obliged to all of the hostages. And the state of Israel will do all the possible efforts in order to release them. And the state of Israel already works on that. But in the very same time, I think that the priorities are very clear. The first priority is, first of all, to defeat Hamas. We'll eliminate all the military capacities of Hamas. Professor Kobe Michael. I have to cut you off really quickly. I appreciate your effort. But we are getting a live feed from Daniel Higari, the IDF spokesperson. We want to take this live, as he's speaking. Take a listen. Also in the central command, the IDF is ready. On the Indar Middle East, it's ready to act anywhere where is a security interest to the state of Israel. We also hold strategic meetings with our partner, the US. And I'll speak about that later. Next to that, we continue to focus on the closer arenas. First, in the state of Israel, in the central command. I speak about the Judea and Samaria area. We're in Friday and Saturday, and we must be vigilant on the roads. We reinforce our forces. We're willing, ready to eliminate terror. We're asking the public to be responsible and listen to the instructions of the forces. We are spread out with the home front command soldiers all over the country, according to priorities. It happens from the north to Eilat. We're vigilant and on record alertness. We are ready, strong, both on defense and on offense with whatever is needed. Sometimes alerts are being triggered that is part of our readiness. Sometimes these are false alarms. We're trying to be more accurate. We prefer not to be wrong, to give an alert even if it's wrong. Even this is being improved over time. There is no change in the instructions of the home front command. But the public is asked to follow the instructions because the defense of Israel is not complete. Therefore, when you listen to the instructions of the home front command and stay in shelters, we save lives. And this reduces the damage to our population and allows us to focus on the offense, on the enemy. Yes, Secretary Austin has landed in Israel. He is in Tel Aviv now. He's being briefed by Defense Minister Yav Galant. We will be coordinated. The U.S. is our most important strategic partner. Anyone who looks at us in the Middle East sees the close cooperation between us. I want to emphasize the IDF knows by itself in the arenas that we're facing, center, south, and north, to work independently. But the coordination has an importance for deterrence in the Middle East. It has a great value for anyone who sees us. From the start of the war, we have given notices to 258 IDF soldiers who lost their lives, bereaved families who we care for at this time. We wish a speedy recovery to all the wounded in the hospitals, also civilians and soldiers alike. All members of the security forces that are taking part in the fighting areas around the Gaza Strip. It is still a battle zone. We work hard there with tens of thousands of soldiers working on the ground, searching for terrorists. There are shootouts over the past several hours. It has been quiet on the fence. Earlier, we have killed terrorists on the fence. This is still a threatened area. It is still a war zone and a closed military zone. I asked the public to listen to the instructions. Did not take unnecessary risks. We gave notices to families of 120 kidnapped. We lose sleep over this, with major efforts are dedicated to this. Itzal Alon is in charge of the intelligence operation. There are a lot of announcements on the media and also of Hamas. We will only report on concrete information. These are civilians of the state of Israel that are at the hands of a murderous terror group. Our goal is to see how we operate in order to bring them back. We enter into a tense weekend in all fronts. The fighting, IDF troops are spread all over the arenas in order to provide a response. Myself and the spokesperson unit will continue over this weekend to brief you twice a day on where things stand very accurately. I wish us all, except for the arenas and Shabbat without any security incidents. Questions, please. The IDF is instructing. We are listening to Daniel Higari, the IDF spokesperson, talking about how we continue to stay strong. However, also mentioning that, although it's been quiet on the fence, there are still active threats there in southern Israel. That's where we want to cross live to our I-24 news correspondent, Mary McOliv, who's in the Israel Gaza border near Steyrot. Mary, Daniel Higari also mentioned 120 kidnapped families have been noticed from the Israel forces. We also just referred reports from Hamas that claims 13 hostages were killed in airstrikes overnight. What can you tell us? That's right, Nicole. That's the news coming out of Gaza now. Israeli airstrikes continue there. We know they launched 750 airstrikes overnight. Those strikes have been continuing the entire morning that we've been here. We have heard these distant booms and explosions and the sounds of tank firing from afar. We talked earlier today about how we were hearing these tanks that were firing from this Gaza border community from the outside area into the Gaza Strip. And you can see some of them now behind me. These were some of the tanks that were firing. And our part of Israel's major operation to try and get ready for whatever the operation is coming, whether that's going to be a full-scale ground invasion, when there's going to be a ground invasion, all of this remains to be seen. But what we can tell you is that here in southern Israel we are seeing a massive, massive showing of Israeli forces, of Israeli heavy machinery, just like these Percona 5 tanks and many other artillery guns, heavy machine guns and many, many, many forces who have been called up to respond to the situation here and who are waiting to see what will come in the coming days. Mary McAuliffe reporting down in southern Israel. Thank you. We'll continue to keep an eye on all the latest developments happening out of there. Now I want to bring in Guy Azrael, I-24 News senior editor. Guy, we're hearing calls from Hamas calling for a day of rage around the world. And we are starting to see that instigate several reports that near the border with Jordan, protesters, approaching the Israel border. What can you tell us? Absolutely. So yesterday Hamas is issuing a call for a day of rage around the world to target both Israeli and Jewish targets. No surprise there when this radical Islamist movement is targeting Jews. This is the agenda of Hamas and ISIS-like group. And yes indeed, answering those calls, hundreds of Jordanians reportedly, and as we can see on their screens right now, marching towards the border with Israel. As far as we understand, security forces there in Jordan for now have managed to contain them or at least are trying to. But this is nothing new as well. We saw something similar two years ago during Operation Guardian of the Wall. Nonetheless, the events now are much more severe and much more volatile. Should this increase even further? And this is not the only incident that we can report on because in Beijing, staff member of the Israeli embassy has been stabbed yesterday. He is hospitalized. The background to that attack is unknown at this stage. But what we do know very well is that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has sent warnings to Israeli missions around the world and to Israeli and Jewish institutes to stay vigilant and made fear of attacks on these targets by Hamas and their supporters across the world. It's certainly something that will continue to keep an eye on for everything that is happening around the world. I want to come back to Kobe Michael joining us via Zoom. Now, Kobe, when we just heard from Daniel Hagar, the IDF spokesperson, he's talking about everything that's continuing to happen, especially heading into such a tense weekend here in Israel, continuing to say that although for the past few hours it might have been quiet on the fence, still residents need to listen to the alerts from the home front command as they continue to update everyone on the latest. I think that we are going to face some further difficult days. But the capacities of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad in the Gaza Strip are becoming, I would say, fewer and fewer, less. And I think that in the coming days we will be concentrating on the Gaza Strip and all the events will be inside the Gaza Strip and not from the Gaza Strip outside. But we still have to be alerted and we have to follow all the instructions because from time to time there might be more barrages of rockets. But it will be fewer and fewer in the coming days. Meanwhile, as we are paying attention to everything happening in the Gaza Strip, we are getting new reports as to exactly what did happen on Saturday with reports at least 2,500 terrorists were able to infiltrate during that initial breach. Reports stating about 70% affiliated with Hamas. So, Kobi, what exactly does that percentage mean? What are the other 30% of the terrorists who were able to infiltrate? I really have no good answers. There are many rumors now and many speculations about even infiltration that was from inside the state of Israel. I think that it is still early to make some conclusions in this regard. It should be investigated very carefully and very strictly. But this is the time that we have to concentrate on the other thing. We have to accomplish the mission in the Gaza Strip and we will have the time after the war to find out what exactly happened here. Maybe we will find out some surprises which are much bigger than the surprise that we are aware to right now. But I think that it will be pretty dangerous to make too many speculations right now and we have to take all our efforts and resources to concentrate on the right thing now. Exactly and some of those horrific images continue to come out of the Gaza Strip and some of the atrocities that were committed in those southern Israeli communities. In fact, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacting to the images that he saw. So we did see photographs, videos that the Israeli government shared with us. Some I think has actually already been seen in public media. Others were new to me and I think they are new to our team. It's hard to find the right words. It's beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see and God forbid experience. A baby, an infant, riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms. I could go on, but it's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. Blinken describing just some of these scenes of horror that have come out of the south and so many people here in Israel continue to be impacted by this tragedy. I'm joined in studio now by Ben Vaknin, a friend of Ilan Moshe Yaakov, someone who was murdered at the Nova Music Festival in Israel's south, one of the 260 people who were murdered at that festival. Ben, you knew your friend was at the festival. Can you tell me about how you found out about the news of his death? Actually, I knew about him going to the festival just like a few hours before he went. So, me and my friends went out a night before, so we continued just like a normal Israeli-Tel Avivian guys. We went to a party, like relaxing, and we stayed late at six in the morning. I see the last video that Ilan posted on Instagram story that he said that although all the situation in the country, it loves Israel. And then we found about the horror and the attack and how massive the attack was. Basically, so from that moment, we didn't know what happened. We keep continuing hearing about people that got shot, people that exploded, murdering, slaughter. So, we understood that we were dealing with something big that we didn't deal with before. From that day on, we didn't hear about Ilan anymore. But you were constantly worried, especially after seeing the horrific scene. Obviously, as the time passed, it's delusional that what I'm about to say in that situation, we were hoping that he was kidnapped to Gaza. At least he's going to be alive. By the time we lost hope, me, at least I lost hope, until yesterday that we found out that he's dead, been murdered by Hamas, the terror. We should mention that all the time that it's a terror organization. They recognize them by DNA. So, I guess when you recognize somebody by DNA, it means that something horrible happened to him. Finding out that news, I mean, there's no good option. There's two horrific instances, whether he's in Gaza right now or whether he was killed. I mean, as I said, the first option that you mentioned that he's in Gaza was the best option. At least he's going to be alive. At least we're going to see him again. That's the, I want to say the f-word, the situation that we're in, but we are on TV, so I cannot say, but that's how... That's how exactly... That's how crazy it is that you're hoping that a dear friend of you is in Hamas, in a terror organization, and that you're hoping that he's there, that you might going to see him alive and not dead. And as this continues, we continue to see so many of these stories. How are the family members, the friends coming together? What would you want your message to be to the public? First of all, I want to say to all IDF, Mada, all the forces in Israel. Thank you, big thank you. They're doing a great job. Zaka, for evacuating all the dead bodies. It's not something that, you know, you take for granted. And all of their work continues to... If I can give a message, Ilan would want people to smile and be happy. We'll continue to do that for Ilan. Ben Vaknin, thank you so much for sharing his story with us here on I-24 News. Thank you. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. We don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. This is a breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk. I'm Nicole Zedek, live in Tel Aviv. We've entered the seventh day of war here in Israel. Over the past week, the death toll has climbed to more than 1,300 lives lost. While rocket alerts continue to blare through the south during the overnight hours, Israel is striking back in the Gaza Strip, hitting 750 military targets overnight. The IDF also recently struck five residential homes that allegedly housed members of Hamas, including the brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. Israeli military has now warned more than 1 million Gazans to head south within the next 24 hours, away from the Israel-Gaza border and evacuating from Gaza City. Israeli attacks have killed 1,500 Palestinians according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. However, that number does not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. While troops are mobilizing in southern Israel, northern Israel is also preparing for attacks from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. The Iranian foreign minister was greeted by representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he landed in Beirut on Thursday. Foreign minister Hussain Amir Abdulyan had a clear threat to Israel that if the pounding in Gaza continues, the war may open on other fronts. All of this while the unrest continues inside Israel's borders, Hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world, as Israelis and Jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence today. Certainly a lot continues to unfold, but we want to begin with our correspondent P.S. Dagobak, who's in northern Israel right now. P.S., let's begin with the latest Iranian foreign minister in Beirut meeting with members of Hamas, the P.I.J., and now also Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrullah. What can you tell us? Well, they called the readout according to Lebanese media and Hezbollah affiliated channel. Amayyadine says that they meant to discuss, of course, the regional developments, the results of the Hamas, operation on Israel, and Amir Abdulian basically said that his goal of his visit to Lebanon is to keep Lebanon safe, but he also said that the continuing atrocities of Israel in Gaza might open the scene, open the war to other fronts. That's what he threatened with, and that he suggests to call it a regional meeting of regional leaders to discuss further developments. Now, we do know that it is not the first time that the Iranian foreign minister travels to Beirut to meet with exactly the Hamas leadership, the P.I.J. leadership and also Hezbollah representatives, including Hezbollah Hassan Nasrullah. Now, he was supposed to continue to Syria, but yesterday, two airstrikes, both on Damascus Airport and Aleppo Airport, attributed to Israel, might make that impossible. We do not know if you will continue there. Now, Israel is set to frequently target Iranian targets in Syria to really prevent weapon deliveries. Here in the north, the scene is quiet as of now. There were a few false alarms in the past, the two days really causing hundreds and thousands of residents here into their shelters. The streets are pretty much empty. People make sure to stay close to their homes, but as of now, it is quiet here. Now, both Iran and also just recently, Hassan Nasrullah and Hezbollah have threatened to attack Israel. Nasrullah, just after the Hamas operation began on Saturday, said that this was an attempt to prevent further Israeli normalization in the region has hailed this operation. So residents here and also the Israeli security system here, many reservists have been deployed to the north. The Israeli aerial defense systems are very much finely tuned to monitor any kind of infiltration Israeli airspace. They know that an escalation here in the north could bring into Israel into unknown waters, not knowing what kind of militias would participate. But again, Nicole, we haven't had any alarms here in the north as of today. Yesterday, there were a few false alarms, but people here are very much prepared. P.S. Tacklebox, definitely a tense calm up there. We'll continue to keep our eye on the north. Thank you. Now, I want to bring in Professor Hobi Michael, who's a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former Deputy Director-General for the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, joining us from Ness Ziona here in Israel via Zoom. Kobi, let's begin with everything that's happening on Israel's northern border and the threat of Hezbollah as these high-level officials are meeting right now discussing what's happening here in Israel. Good morning. It looks that they are pretty concerned about the situation, which means that they are not so happy about the idea of opening the northern front. They are very cautious in this regard. In the very same time, they are walking till the edge and they are trying to challenge Israel and the IDF, but I think that they have no interest right now to open in a full-scale northern front. And I think that in the very same time, this is an Israeli interest as well, a class for the time being. It will be better for Israel to concentrate on the southern front in the Gaza Strip, but the IDF is well-prepared. I hope that they will not force us to open the northern front, but it looks that they are concerned. Well, and meanwhile, I mean, we continue to hear a show of support from the United States, also urging Iran not to get involved. We now know U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin just landed in Israel the second high-level U.S. official to visit in two days. So how has the United States continued to show its support to Israel and hopefully deter other players from getting involved? It is important to understand that it is not only support or shoulder to shoulder with Israel. It is also an American interest about the broader Middle East and about its allies and its presence here and its interests in the Middle East. The American presence here in the Mediterranean is a signal, first of all, a deterrent signal towards the Iranians and Hezbollah, but in the very same time, it is a signal of support to the American allies here in the region, mainly the Saudis, the Egyptians and some others that says we are here and we are ready to intervene if there will be a need to intervene. And the Americans understand pretty well that the war between Israel and Hamas is not something which is limited to the local context, something which is much broader than the Iranians. It looks that the Iranians are deeply involved in this war and the Americans are here in order to prevent Iran from deepening its involvement. Meanwhile, as things do continue to escalate in the south, the IDF urging more than 1 million Gazans to evacuate Gaza City and evacuate the northern territory. So how does this indicate that Israel is preparing to really step up its efforts in the Gaza Strip? Israel is making all the required preparations. It looks that there will be no option but to use the ground forces. I still don't know how exactly it will be realized, but at the end of the day it will be realized. And the idea of the evacuation of the population has two targets. First of all, to avoid collateral damage and to save lives of innocent people. And secondly, to prepare the zone, to prepare the area for the first round for the ground forces that will enter the Gaza Strip in the next phase. And I want to remind everyone all of this escalation, as there are still 97 confirmed hostages. Many speculate that there are dozens more. So how does that make this operation that much more difficult as there are Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip as the IDF wants to continue this operation? It complicates the event. The State of Israel is obliged to all of the hostages and the State of Israel will do all the possible efforts in order to release them. And the State of Israel already works on that. But in the very same time, I think that the priorities are very clear. The first priority is first of all to defeat Hamas will eliminate all the military capacities of Hamas. Professor Koby, Michael. I have to cut you off really quickly. I appreciate your fair, but we are getting a live feed from Daniel Higari, the IDF Spokesperson. I'm going to take this live as he's speaking. Take a listen. Also in the Central Command the IDF is ready on the Indira Middle East is ready to act anywhere where he's a security interest to the State of Israel. We also hold strategic meetings with our partner the U.S. here. Next to that we continue to focus on the closer arenas. First in the State of Israel in the Central Command and I speak about the Judea and Samaria area. We're in Friday and Saturday and we must be vigilant on the roads. We reinforce our forces. We're willing, ready to eliminate terror. And listen to the instructions of the forces. We are spread out with the Home Front Command soldiers all over the country according to priorities. It happens from the north to Eilat where vigilant and record alertness is wrong both on defense and on offense with whatever is needed. Sometimes alerts are being triggered that is part of our readiness. Sometimes these are false alarms. We're trying to be more accurate. We prefer not to be wrong to give an alert even if it's wrong. Even this is being improved over and over again. The public is asked to follow the instructions because the defense of Israel is not complete. Therefore when you listen to the instructions of the Home Front Command and stay in shelters we save lives. And this reduces the damage to our defense on the enemy. Your Secretary Austin has landed in Israel. He is in Tel Aviv now. He's being briefed by Defense Minister Yav Galant. We will be coordinated. The U.S. is our most important strategic partner who looks at us and sees the close cooperation between us. I want to emphasize the IDF knows by itself in the arenas that we're facing center, south and north to work independently. But the coordination has an importance for deterrence in the Middle East. It has a great value for anyone who sees us. From the start of the war we have given notices to 258 IDF soldiers who lost their lives, bereaved families who we care for at this time. We wish a speedy recovery to all the wounded in the hospitals, also civilians and soldiers alike. All members of the security forces that are taking part in the fighting areas around the Gaza Strip. It is still a battle zone. We work hard there with tens of thousands of soldiers working on the ground searching for terrorists. There are shootouts over the past several hours. It has been quiet on the fence. This is still a threatened area. It is still a war zone and a closed military zone. I ask the public to listen to the instructions. Do not take unnecessary risks. We gave notices to families of 120 kidnapped. We lose sleep over this with major efforts that are dedicated to this. Itzan Alon is in charge of the intelligence operation. There are a lot of announcements on the media and also of Hamas. We will only report on concrete information. These are civilians of the State of Israel that are at the hands of a murderous terror group. Our goal is to see how we operate in order to bring them back. We enter into a tense weekend and all fronts. The fighting, IDF troops are spread all over the arenas in order to provide a response. Myself and the Spokesperson Unit will continue over this weekend to brief you twice a day on where things stand very accurately. I wish us all except for the arenas and Shabbat without any security incidents. Questions please. The IDF is instructing listening to Daniel Higari the IDF Spokesperson talking about how we continue to stay strong, however also mentioning that although it's been quiet on the fence there are still active threats there in southern Israel. That's where we want to cross live to our I-24 news correspondent Mary McOliv Daniel Higari also mentioned 120 kidnapped families have been noticed from the Israel forces. We also just heard reports from Hamas that claims 13 hostages were killed in airstrikes overnight. What can you tell us? That's right, Nicole. That's the news coming out of Gaza now Israeli airstrikes continue there. We know they launched some 750 airstrikes overnight. Those strikes have been continuing the entire morning that we've been here. We have heard these distant booms and explosions and the sounds of tank firing from afar. We talked earlier today about how we were hearing these tanks that were firing from this Gaza border community from the outside area into the Gaza Strip and you can see some of them now behind me. These were some of the tanks that were firing in our part of Israel's major operation to try and get ready for whatever kind of invasion. When there's going to be a ground invasion, all of this remains to be seen. But what we can tell you is that here in southern Israel we are seeing a massive, massive showing of Israeli forces of Israeli heavy machinery just like these for five to five tanks. And many other artillery guns, heavy machine guns and many, many, many forces who have been called up to respond to the situation here and we're waiting to see what will happen in Israel. Thank you. We'll continue to keep an eye on all the latest developments happening out of there. Now I want to bring in Guy Azrael, I-24 News, senior editor Guy. We're hearing calls from Hamas calling for a day of rage around the world and we are starting to see that instigate several reports that near the border with Jordan protesters approaching the Israel border. What can you tell us? Absolutely. So yesterday Hamas called to target both Israeli and Jewish targets. No surprise there when this radical Islamist movement is targeting Jews. This is the agenda of Hamas and ISIS like a group and yes indeed answering those calls, hundreds of Jordanians reportedly and as we can see on their screens right now marching towards the border with Israel as far as we understand security forces there in Jordan for now have managed to contain them or at least are trying to but this is nothing new as well. We saw something similar two years ago during Operation Guardian of the Wall nonetheless the events now are much more severe much more volatile should this increase even further and this is not the only incident that we can report on because in Beijing staff member of the Israeli embassy has been stabbed yesterday he is hospitalized the background to that attack is unknown at this stage but what we do know very well is that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has sent warnings to Israeli missions around the world and to Israeli and Jewish institutes to stay vigilant amid fear of attacks on these targets by Hamas and their hostilities across the world. It's certainly that something that will continue to keep an eye on for everything that is happening around the world I want to come back to Kobe Michael joining us via zoom now Kobe when we just heard from Daniel Higari the IDF spokesperson he's talking about everything that continuing to happen especially heading into such a tense weekend here in Israel continuing to say that although for the past few hours it might have been quiet on the fence still residents need to listen to the alerts from the home front command as they continue to update everyone on the latest I think that we are going to face some further difficult days but the capacities of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad in the Gaza Strip are becoming I would say fewer and fewer and I think that in the coming days we will be concentrating on the Gaza Strip and all the events will be inside the Gaza Strip and not from the Gaza Strip outside but we still have to be alerted and we have to follow all the instructions because from time to time there might be more barrages of rockets but it will be fewer and fewer in the coming days meanwhile as we are paying attention to everything happening in the Gaza Strip we are getting new reports exactly what did happen on Saturday with reports at least 2,500 terrorists were able to infiltrate during that initial breach about 70% affiliated with Hamas so Kobe what exactly does that percentage mean what are the other 30% of the terrorists who were able to infiltrate I really have no good answers there are many rumors now many speculations about even infiltration that was from inside the state of Israel I think that it is still early to to make some conclusions in this regard it should be investigated very carefully very strictly but this is the time that we have to concentrate on the other thing we have to accomplish the mission in the Gaza Strip and we will have the time after the war to find out what exactly happened here maybe we will find out some surprises which are much bigger than the surprise that we are aware to right now but I think that it will be pretty dangerous to make too many speculations right now and we have to continue to see all our efforts and resources to concentrate on the right thing now exactly and some of those horrific images continue to come out of the Gaza Strip and some of the atrocities that were committed in those southern Israeli communities in fact US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacting to the images that he saw so we did see photographs videos that the Israeli government shared with us some I think is actually already been seen in public media others were new to me and I think new to our team it's hard to find the right words it's beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine much less actually see and God forbid experience a baby an infant riddled with bullets soldiers beheaded young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms I could go on but it's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way Blinken describing just some of these scenes of horror that have come out of the south and so many people here in Israel continue to be impacted by this tragedy I'm joined in studio now by Ben Vaknin a friend of Ilan Moshe Yaakov someone who was murdered at the Nova Music Festival in Israel south one of the 260 people who were murdered at that festival Ben you knew your friend was at the festival can you tell me about like how you how you found out about the news of his death actually he knew about him going to the festival just like few hours before he went so me and my friends went out a night before so we continue like just like a normal Israeli television guys we went to party like relaxing and we stayed late at six in the morning I see the last video that Ilan posted on Instagram story that he said that although all the situation in the country he loves the he loves Israel and then we found about the horror and that tech and how massive that tech was basically so in that moment we didn't know what happened we keep continue hearing about people that got shot people that explode murdering slaughter so we understood that we have we dealing with something big that we didn't deal before from that day on we didn't hear about Ilan anymore but you were constantly worried especially after seeing the horrific obviously obviously as the time passed we were it's delusional that what I'm about to say that in that situation like that is kidnapping that he was kidnapped to Gaza at least he's going to be alive by the time we we lost hope me at least I lost hope until the yesterday that we found out that he's dead been murdered by Hamas the terror we should mention that all the time that it's a terror organization they recognize them by DNA so I guess when you recognize somebody by DNA it means that something like horrible happened to him finding out that news I mean I know there's no good option there's two horrific instances in Gaza right now or whether he was killed I mean as I said the first option that you mentioned that is in Gaza was the best option at least he's going to be alive at least we're going to see him again that's I want to say the F word the situation that we in on TV so I cannot say but that's how exactly that's how crazy it is that you open that a dear friend of you is in Hamas in a terror organization and that you open that is there that you might going to see him alive and not dead and as this continues we continue to see stories how are the family members the friends coming together what would you want your message to be to the public first of all I want to say to the all IDF Mada all the forces in Israel thank you big thank you they doing a great job Zaka for evacuating all the bodies it's not something that you take for granted it's and all of their work continues if I can give a message Ilan would want people to smile and be happy and we'll continue to do that for Ilan thank you so much for sharing his story with us here on I24 news thank you over 1300 casualties and over 3000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what Hamas did follow us as Israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join I24 news for the real story of what's going on a breaking news edition of the I24 news desk live in Tel Aviv we've entered the 7th day of war here in Israel over the past week the death toll has climbed to more than 1300 lives lost rocket alerts continue to flare through the south with more than 100 rockets launched toward Israel in the past hour Israel is striking back in the Gaza Strip hitting 750 military targets over night Israeli military has now warned more than one million Gazans to head south within the next 24 hours away from the Israel-Gaza border and evacuating from Gaza city Israeli attacks have killed 1500 Palestinians according to the Palestinian health ministry however that number does not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians while troops are mobilizing in southern Israel preparing for attacks from the Iranian backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon the Iranian foreign minister was greeted by representatives of Hamas the Palestinian Islamic jihad and recently met with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah as Iran warns the war may open on other fronts while the unrest continues inside Israel's border Hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world for violence today meanwhile US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has landed in Israel and is expected to hold a joint press conference with Defense Minister Joab Galant any minute now a lot to break down on these ever-developing situations but we begin in southern Israel where I-24 News correspondent Mary McOliffe is on the Israel-Gaza border Mary after more than 10 hours of silence in the south it's once again a red alert 100 rockets launched towards the south in the past hour what did you experience that's right Nicole so here where we are which is right just outside of stroke we are not hearing a lot of those rocket siren warnings they're in areas further concentrated north or in areas just generally around us but what we are hearing is the sounds of constant Israeli military strikes into the Gaza Strip including those from those machinery that you can see just behind me these are self-propelled howitzers which can fire 13 miles inside the Gaza Strip and we've seen in the past hour we've seen just continuous firing from some of this heavy machinery behind me I'll step out of the way so Daniel can show you exactly the scene that's going on here we can see heavy Israeli forces all along in these small little bunkers all of them pointed inside the Gaza Strip where we do continue to hear reports of strikes inside the Strip and the IDF continuing to say that it will continue its operation and continues to warn the civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate from the area because they are about to launch extensive strikes in the region in the area of the Gaza Strip and they want to try and do what they can what they're saying to try and safeguard civilians from these attacks which are about to only intensify and we can certainly feel here in the south that things are rapidly intensifying Mary McAuliffe 24 news correspondent we're going to continue to keep our eye down there in the south as everybody does continue to develop thank you now I want to bring in our guests in studio I'm joined by retired colonel Dr. Jack Naria former deputy head of assessment for the Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin plus guy Israel I-24 news senior editor let's start with you Jack because as we're continuing to hear about the IDF tactics warning one million Gazans to evacuate to flee from Gaza city and the north they are continuing to urge civilians to get to safety however Hamas is telling them the opposite Hamas definitely is doing the opposite I mean he's using this population as a human shield we know for sure that tunnels are dug under the houses we know of shelters and tunnels that are a city underground city that lives there and serves the Hamas leadership the Hamas the military command so it is very easy for them to ask the population to stay on the ground because for us would be aiming and killing the civilians and so we are just behaving according to the rules of engagement international rules of engagement goes into the rules of war we are just warning the population and give them enough time to just leave the place they could come back later but then by leaving the place we face directly the Hamas the Hamas terrorists and I think this is what we want and we don't want to annihilate a total population we don't want this population to go into Egypt we are not our intention is not to populate the Sinai peninsula this is not the case we want them just to go and to put themselves in a safe place where they would be under international even the UN supervision so that to leave the area where the battles are going to be held however we know that some people who can't evacuate are the hostages now is really confirming at least 120 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip how does this increased activity from Israel side impact that hostages concerning the hostages there are lots of rumors that are going on that one of the rumors is that maybe 50% of those hostages are not living right now and Hamas propaganda only a few minutes ago said that 16 of these hostages has been killed because of Israeli bombardments so this is a very sensitive issue and I think that we should concentrate here on the main priority our main priority is to eradicate Hamas and that's it we have to just eliminate all the collateral noises because if we do take that into consideration it will completely paralyze us meanwhile we're hearing more information red alerts siren through Ashkelon right now we continue to be bombarded with rockets more than 100 fired towards the south within the past hour continuing now but most of the residents in these southern cities not Ashkelon however instead of where our correspondent is they have evacuated well they have evacuated and the government has also asked the inhabitants of Sderot to evacuate also and I'll tell you the calculation is very simple Sderot is about 850 meters from the border with Gaza it is in full range of mortars so it's even worse than rockets because mortars you don't hear them firing just hear them when they just arrive so you have barely one second or two seconds just to take shelter and this is the reason and then instead of deploying and trying to protect the Sderot I mean the army has other missions in life and certainly the mission of fighting Hamas Hamas at this point in time and this is I mean the fact that all the population has been evacuated facilitates the task of the Israeli army of course Sderot is a city of almost 30,000 residents so if the instruction has been given to evacuate them that is a lot of people that need to be accommodated in the center that is in addition to the smaller communities those kibbutzes that were most most devastated by this attack sometimes entire communities eliminated those who survived have already fled Ashkelon is a much bigger city it's a much more complex operation to vacate the size of Ashkelon I don't think we will see an order of that sort but the reality is that many civilians without being instructed are taking initiative and seeking refuge because the situation is dangerous Ashkelon is used to rocket fire but over the past week there have been live bullets live shots being fired on the streets infiltrating out of the Gaza Strip that is a much greater threat than that of the rockets that of course are very dangerous but you can hide in a shelter and most likely you will be okay that is not the case as we saw when these brutal terrorists attempt to infiltrate homes and slaughter people innocent civilians obviously people want to stay away from those areas certainly most of the action right now as we can continue to get these red alerts but Israel also preparing for anything that could at any moment escalate in the north as well and that's where our correspondent P.S. Tekelback is right now in northern Israel the Iranian Foreign Minister in Beirut meeting with members of Hamas the P.I.J. also Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrullah what can you tell us about these these meetings and how it could potentially add to any escalation on the northern front well Nikola meeting that certainly does surprise the Iranian Foreign Minister has met with representatives of Hamas the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah before also leading up to that escalation we are seeing now according to a readout reportedly he said that his goal to come to Lebanon was to maintain calm in Lebanon but that he says that Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister is responsible for that recent escalation the Hamas attacks for what he called quote the cramps of the occupation Gaza first and foremost and he warned that the continuous atrocities of Israel and Gaza could lead to other fronts joining the war this is what the Israeli defense establishment but also residents here are afraid of we do not see a lot of people here in the streets also yesterday the streets were very very quiet we haven't seen any alert throughout the night also today not so it is a tense calm but it is calm as of now residents as I said stay close to their homes we have seen quite a lot of Israeli presidents also yesterday and there were a few false alarms triggered yesterday one in the major area of the city of Kiryat Shmone before that the day before false alarm sending hundreds of thousands into shelters here in northern Israel that really shows you how finely tuned the Israeli aerial defense alerts are and how much on edge the Israeli defense establishment is but also residents here are prepared for anything as of now we are hearing reports that the Lebanese state is setting up more more checkpoints to really prevent demonstrators from flocking to the border as we've seen for example in Jordan as of now as Hamas is calling for a day of jihad so that might be an indication that the Lebanese state is not interested in any escalation as Bala might be as it has also in the wake of the recent escalation said that they are on the side of Hamas they have recently called to attack Israel this is it has been quiet here at the border but of course residents are very vigilant and that could change at any minute as of now we haven't had any alerts since yesterday evening Our correspondent Pia Steccoback thank you for bringing us all the latest up there on our northern front we appreciate it now Pia mentioned something about just the day of rage that Hamas has has urged from everyone abroad and guy we've seen now some attacks specifically in Beijing what can you tell us about what you've seen Yes as far as that incident in Beijing the circumstances of that are still being investigated what we do know is that a staff member of the Israeli embassy has been stabbed in the face in a shopping center yesterday the circumstances as I said are being examined but the timing here obviously is very suspicious the Israeli foreign ministry yesterday issuing a warning to Israeli missions and to Israeli and Jewish institutions to be very vigilant ahead of this day of rage as Hamas has been calling to hurt to hurt both Israeli and Jewish institutions across the world and unfortunately as we saw this week Hamas has many supporters on the streets of many major cities around the world and as we continue to show these different images that are coming out of here and hearing some eyewitnesses from people in those southern communities do you think that the international response has been enough I know we've seen it on the government from the public front it's very divided obviously first we'll have to say that the U.S. response most of the western response has been extremely encouraging for Israel both in terms of the moral the the fact the mere fact that they are showing their solidarity the fact that both Blinken and Austin are here the German foreign ministers on their way here now that is very important also the British foreign ministers already travel to Israel earlier this week that is a great show of solidarity I think the west has a problem the west has a problem if within it there are such major groups that support a murderous terrorist organization like Hamas like ISIS on their home soils obviously the threat of radical Islam is not limited to Israel it is not limited to the U.S. and I think that many people around the world should be aware of that problem if they enable and we know that in some places those protests have been banned if they enable the growth of terror supporters in their countries that is an issue that they will have to deal with later on for now this is a major threat for Israel a threat that Israel cannot allow to continue the people of Israel will not settle for anything less than destroying Hamas destroying their capabilities the trauma that we experience this week here in Israel cannot return otherwise the state of Israel has no right to exist the constant support that we are receiving from the United States that Israel is receiving from the United States you have to just make a difference between the official support and what's going on on the ground and the pockets of those who hate us our host time to Israel is still there and they are very active and you can see that on the on the web and every site on the media and enough to see some of the interviews between the in several programs in the states with some officials or former officials in Israel like the Prime Minister Bennett to see to understand that there is a deep hate against the state of Israel and that they do not accept the fact that Israel has the right to survive and to fight as in self defense well there is so much happening and we talk about just the right to self defense and the defense of the civilians that were are under danger and we actually want to cross to some of those residents who had to evacuate from Eivry and Ahuva Eivry Adanani now you just recently evacuated you're joining us via zoom from the Dead Sea area when were you able to evacuate and what was it like for these past nearly a week now good morning to all the listeners thanks for allowing us to tell our story we left on Wednesday this week the fifth day I think it was the fighting for the first 60 hours we did not leave our house at all we had our doors locked occasionally opening the windows and the balcony just to see anything but there was all the uncertainty that we dealt with of having armed terrorists fire from the house numerous rocket attacks and having to jump to the safe room I actually just am a little shocked if you could repeat the rest of the question about getting out to the city I understand thank you so much for joining with us I mean being locked inside your house for five days I know well many of your friends families were they able to evacuate as well yes most of our first of all we're at the dead see now with a lot of my wife's extended family my family and any of whom live other parts of Stero but we were able to get out there's a ministry of welfare initiative to leave and be put up for now indefinitely at Dead Sea Hotels free of charge to have a little bit of rest and relaxation after a very chaotic five days just a small nuance is the only time we were able to go out in the last five days was the window where they opened grocery stores I think it was on Monday on the third day of the fighting and even then me and my brother-in-law getting groceries for the family because we're running low on supplies I had a rocket attack hit near the Romney-Levy supermarket in Stay Road maybe 15 meters within while we were at the cash register we continue to see these scenes of devastation in Stay Road I know you're evacuated you're safe for now but this is your home to look like when you are able to return we're really hoping to return there we bought a house there we intend to have a family there God willing this is our home we like the area we like the people we just want to have the confidence in our government and society that the threat will be permanently removed from Gaza I don't want to speculate we don't want to speculate what that will look like in terms of military policy and everything afterwards but Hamas needs to be fully destroyed and that's shared by everyone in our city and our family who lives in Stay Road one meanwhile as we're speaking we continue to get those red alerts in the south continuing to target those southern communities so even for to be able to evacuate right now I know it was difficult just to be able to leave for your safety also well still possible active terrorists in the area are you surprised that it took five days for the Israeli army the military to be able to let you leave after that time well just to clarify there were other people that left a few maybe by the third day after the lockdowns of staying at home or lifted but many people were wavering because there's all this uncertainty we don't know how long this conflict will go on a lot of us have it's not just not easy to take all your possessions to not know when you're going to be able to come back and you might have to go we don't know how long we'll be here at the Dead Sea maybe we'll have to go somewhere else and it just there's a lot of uncertainty we don't necessarily look at it even as the government's angle we got a lot of offers from friends and family to go to apartments that were available or you she votes or community centers and other cities and we're just happy that we're out now can get rest and relaxation and all of our family that we're living in steroid are also elsewhere in Israel and you mentioned just the support that you are getting I think that's one of the main messages that so many people are seeing the support of the community and the entire country of Israel really coming together right now have you felt that that support for the residents in the south? Yeah, we felt very support and a lot of people they tried to help us and even me like my friend, mom's friend, family it does come over we have like a free apartment or you can stay with us we got a support from a lot of people and so we're very happy to have you here today. Thank you so much for joining us sharing your story the same impact that so many of those residents in the south are experiencing but we are happy to hear that you are now safe in the Dead Sea and enjoying some much needed relaxation as you're saying thank you for joining us now I want to come back in studio we continue to be hearing these red alerts happening in the south continuing to show overnight there was a relative calm but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore not surprising to anyone. I don't want to be misunderstood but I think that the worst is not behind us the worst is definitely in front of us in all two areas in the north in front and the southern front in the southern front we know already what could be the cost but we know how to behave we don't know how to confront Iran because this is what we are talking about the fact that the Iran Foreign Minister has visited Lebanon is in order to say to Hezbollah, Hassan Asrallah to Hamas and to Islamic Jihad what would be the parameters of Iranian involvement and according to the declaration that he gave after the meeting you could understand his insinuation that according to certain developments Iran would intervene. This is why the Americans have understood that very quickly and the task force is here not to fight on the ground with Israel but to intercept ballistic missiles that might be fired from Iran ballistic missiles that could be fired from Iraq and from deep inside Lebanon so this is what it's all about. The question is when this would happen would it happen when as Hezbollah says that he has a red line and the red line is the ground incursion of Israel or would it be when they would understand that Hamas is on the verge of complete eradication and then it would be too late for them to begin the war but this is why I mean they already lost the surprise effect. This one was supposed to be synchronized with an attack imagine for a moment an attack from the north and from the south at the same hour on Saturday this would have been not a disaster but a collapse of the entire war system in Israel. So this has been lost to Hezbollah. What is left for Hezbollah is the tactical surprise either by drones or either by attacking the war or even initiating attacks from the sea or against oil rigs. This is something that could happen and of course I mean all this would be backed by a severe barrage of missiles 130,000 missiles that they have in their hands this would create havoc in Israel and this is a dimension that we don't know right now and we have to prepare ourselves for that. In the meantime we are on the defensive and as your correspondent said the nerves are on the edge. We feel that the commanders on the ground do not take any risk and whatever the little dart they have they just fire a missile they just send a patrol and we do not forget that since the beginning of this war we have already four soldiers killed on the northern front. So as I said this is not the worst of it unfortunately the worst is still in front of us. Meanwhile even as we are sitting here we are expecting a joint press conference from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with Defense Minister Joav Gond continuing to show that support so the United States urging Iran not to get involved but what does Iran really have to lose if they do get involved? Well the Iranians are not afraid of the Americans because they are locked, it is frozen for a lot of time and they will continue for years to negotiate on the hostages and so on. For six hostages they got 6 billion dollars and the monies in Korea and other places have been unfrozen. We know that after Soleimani Iran fired more than 100 missiles that hit an American air base and there are 200 or 300 Americans that were in shock and they were in trauma. So the Iranians feel that their country which has sustained a war of 10 years facing Iraq and losing a million soldiers can easily face Israel. So and then from the deep territory where they are what could Israel do? How many planes can Israel have without an American help? So this task is left for the Americans. This task has to be left to the Americans and we have to concentrate on what's happening in our area. That's what we will continue to hear especially as we are waiting from that joint press conference. Guy, quickly, anything new that you could expect from out of this? First of all the barrage of rockets continues mainly towards Ashkelon also slightly further up north near the center, near the area of Rechovot for those familiar with the geography. It is to be expected also we need to remember. Air bases? For sure. Without disclosing the information I'm sure the Hamas knows very well the locations of Israeli military bases. Hamas has already fired many thousands of rockets in this escalation. I'm not sure how many does it have left according to the estimates of some of the security sources? Let's say that 50% of their potential has been already fired. And Israel bombards there are a lot so hopefully at least on that front it will be slowing down. Stay up with the latest Dr. Jack Naria, Guy Azrael thank you for breaking down all the latest here on the breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk. Thank you. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. We just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Those who manage to survive for the real story. This is a breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk. I'm Nicole Zettick live in Tel Aviv. We've entered the seventh day of war here in Israel. Over the past week, the death toll has climbed to more than 1300 lives lost. Rocket alerts continue to flare through the south with more than 100 rockets launched toward Israel in the past hour. Israel is striking back in the Gaza Strip hitting 750 military targets overnight. Israeli military has now warned more than 1 million Gazans to head south within the next 24 hours away from the Israel-Gaza border and evacuating from Gaza City. Israeli attacks have killed 1500 Palestinians according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. However, that number does not distinguish between Hamas terrorists while troops are mobilizing in southern Israel. Northern Israel is also preparing for attacks from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. The Iranian Foreign Minister was greeted by representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and recently met with Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrullah as Iran warns the war may open on other fronts. While the unrest continues inside Israel's borders, Hamas is calling on its supporters to make a way of rage around the world. As Israelis and Jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence today. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has landed in Israel and is expected to hold a joint press conference with Defense Minister Joab Galant any minute now. A lot to break down on these ever-developing situations, but we begin in southern Israel where I-24 News correspondent Mary McOliff is on the Israel-Gaza Strip. Mary, after more than 10 hours of silence in the south, it's once again under red alert. 100 rockets launched towards the south in the past hour. What did you experience? That's right, Nicole. So here where we are, which is right just outside of Stroat, we are not hearing a lot of those rocket-siring warnings. They're in areas further concentrated north, or in areas just generally around us. But what we are hearing is the sounds of lightning that you can see just behind me. These are self-propelled howitzers which can fire 13 miles inside the Gaza Strip. And we've seen in the past hour, we've seen just continuous firing from some of this heavy machinery behind me. I'll step out of the way so Daniel can show you exactly the scene that's going on here. We can see heavy Israeli forces all along in these small little bunkers. All of them pointed inside the Gaza Strip where we do continue to hear reports of strikes inside the Strip and continue its operation and continues to warn the civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate from the area because they are about to launch extensive strikes in the region, in the area of the Gaza Strip. And they want to try and do what they can, what they're saying to try and safeguard civilians from these attacks which are about to only intensify. And we can certainly feel here in the south that things are rapidly intensifying. Mary McAuliffe, 24 news correspondent. We're going to continue to keep our eye on the south as everybody does continue to develop. Thank you. Now, I want to bring in our guests in studio. I'm joined by retired colonel Dr. Jack Naria, former deputy head of assessment for the Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin plus Guy Azrael, I-24 news senior editor. Let's start with you, Jack, because as we're continuing to hear about the IDF's tactics, warning one million Gazans to evacuate to flee from Gaza City and the north, they are continuing to urge civilians to get to safety. However, Hamas is telling them the opposite. Well, Hamas definitely is doing the opposite. I mean, he's using this population as a human shield. We know for sure that tunnels are dug under under the houses. We know of shelters and tunnels that are a city, underground city that lives there and serves the Hamas leadership, the Hamas military command. So it is very easy for them to ask the population to stay on the ground, because for us we'd be aiming and killing the civilians. And so we are just behaving according to the rules of engagement, international rules of engagement comes into the rules of war. We are just warning the population and give them enough time to just leave the place. They could come back later. But then by leaving the place, we would face directly the Hamas terrorists. And I think this is what we want. And we don't want to annihilate a total population. We don't want this population to go into Egypt. We are not our intention is not to populate the Sinai peninsula. This is not the case. We want them just to go and to put themselves in a safe place where they would be under international even the UN supervision. So that to leave the area where the battles are going to be to be held. However, we know that some people who can't evacuate are the hostages. Now is really confirming at least 120 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. How does this increased activity from Israel side impact that hostages? Concerning the hostages, there are lots of things going on that one of the rumors is that maybe 50% of those hostages are not living right now. And problem only a few minutes ago said that 16 of these hostages has been killed because of Israeli bombardments. So this is a very sensitive issue and I think that we should concentrate here on the main the main priority. Our main priority is to eradicate Hamas. And that's it. We have to just eliminate all the collateral noises because if we do take that into consideration it will completely paralyze us. Meanwhile we're hearing more information red alerts siren through Ashkelon right now we continue to be bombarded with rockets more than 100 fired towards the south within the past hour continuing now. But most of the residents in these southern cities not Ashkelon however and they wrote where our correspondent is and they have evacuated. Well they have evacuated and the government has also asked the inhabitants of Sderot to evacuate also. And I'll tell you that the calculation is very simple. Sderot is about 850 meters from the border with Gaza. It's in full range of mortars. So it's even worse than rockets because mortars you don't hear them so you have barely one second or two seconds just to take shelter and this is the reason and then instead of deploying and trying to protect Sderot I mean the army has other missions in life and certainly the mission of fighting Hamas at this point in time and this is I mean the fact that all the population has been evacuated facilitates the task of the Israeli army. Of course Sderot is a city of almost 30,000 residents so if the instruction has been given to evacuate them that is a lot of people that need to be accommodated in the center that is in addition to the smaller communities those kibbutzes that were most most devastated by this attack sometimes entire communities eliminated those who survived have already fled. Ashkelon is a much bigger city it's a much more complex operation to vacate the city of the size of Ashkelon. I don't think we will see an order of that sort but the reality is that many civilians without being instructed are taking initiative and seeking refuge because the situation is dangerous Ashkelon is used to rocket fire but over the past week there have been live bullets live shots being fired on the streets of Ashkelon by terrorists infiltrating out of the Gaza Strip that is a much greater threat than that of the rockets that of course are very dangerous but you can hide in a shelter and most likely you will be okay that is not the case as we saw when these brutal terrorists attempt to infiltrate homes and slaughter people innocent civilians obviously not only most of the action right now as we can continue to get these red alerts is happening in the south but Israel also preparing for anything that could at any moment escalate in the north as well and that's where our correspondent P.S. Deckelback is right now in northern Israel via the Iranian Foreign Minister in Beirut meeting with members of Hamas the P.I.J also Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah what can you tell us about these meetings and how it could potentially add to any on the northern front well Nikola meeting that certainly does not come as a surprise the Iranian Foreign Minister has met with representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah before also leading up to that escalation we are seeing now according to a readout reportedly he said that his goal to come to Lebanon was to maintain calm in Lebanon but that he says that Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister is responsible for escalation the Hamas attacks for what he called quote the crimes of the occupation in Gaza first and foremost and he warned that the continuous atrocities of Israel and Gaza could lead to other fronts joining the war this is what the Israeli defense establishment but also residents here are afraid of we do not see a lot of people here in the streets also yesterday the streets were very very quiet we haven't seen any alert throughout the night also today not so it is a tense calm of now residents as I said stay close to their homes we have seen quite a lot of army presidents also yesterday and there were a few false alarms triggered yesterday one in the major area of the city of Kiryat Shmone before that the day before false alarm sending hundreds of thousands into shelters here in northern Israel that really shows you how finely tuned the Israeli air defense alerts are and how much on edge the Israeli defense establishment is but also residents here for anything as of now we are hearing reports that the Lebanese army is setting up more checkpoints to really prevent demonstrators from flocking to the border as we've seen for example in Jordan as of now as Hamas is calling for a day of jihad so that might be an indication that the Lebanese state is not interested in any escalation as Bala might be as it has also in the wake of the recent escalation said that they are on the side of Hamas they have recently called to attack Israel this is nothing new but as of now it has been it has been quiet here at the border but of course residents are very vigilant and that could change any minute as of now we haven't had any alerts since yesterday evening our correspondent piaz deco back thank you for bringing us all the latest up there on our northern front we appreciate it now pia mentioned something about just the day of rage that Hamas has has urged from everyone abroad and guy we've seen now some attacks specifically attacking in is really in in Beijing what can you tell us about well yes as far as that incident in Beijing the circumstances of that are still being investigated what we do know is that a staff member of the Israeli embassy has been stabbed in the face in a shopping center yesterday the circumstances as I said are being examined but the timing here obviously is very suspicious the Israeli foreign ministry yesterday issuing a warning to Israeli missions and to Israeli and Jewish institutions to be very vigilant ahead of this day of rage as Hamas has been calling to hurt to hurt both Israeli and Jewish institutions across the world and unfortunately as we saw this week Hamas has many supporters on the streets of many major cities around the world and as we continue to show these different images that are coming out of here and hearing some firsthand eyewitnesses from from people in those southern communities do you think that the international response has been enough I know we've seen it on the government from from the public front it's very divided obviously first we'll have to say that the U.S. response the West most of the Western response has been extremely encouraging for Israel both in terms of the moral the the fact the mere fact that they are showing their solidarity the fact that both Blinken and Austin are here the German foreign ministers on her way here now that is very important also the British foreign ministers already traveled to Israel earlier this week that is a great show of solidarity I think the West has a problem the West has a problem if within it there are such major groups that support a murderous terrorist organization like Hamas like ISIS on their home soils obviously the threat of radical Islam is not limited to Israel it is not limited to the U.S. and I think that many people around the world should be aware of that problem if if they enable and and we know that in some places they have been banned if they enable the growth of terror supporters in their countries that is an issue that they will have to deal with later on for now this is a major threat for Israel a threat that Israel cannot allow to continue the people of Israel will not settle for anything less than destroying Hamas destroying their capabilities the trauma that we experience in Israel cannot return otherwise the state of Israel has no right to exist you mentioned just the constant support that we are receiving from the United States that Israel is receiving from the United States you have to just make a difference between the official support and what's going on on the ground and the pockets of those who hate us our host time to Israel is still there and they are very active and you can see that on the and every site on the in the media and enough to see some of the interviews between the in several programs in the states with some officials former officials in Israel like the Prime Minister Bennett to see to understand that there is a deep hate deep hate against the state of Israel and that they do not accept the fact that Israel has the right to survive and to fight as a defense well and there is so much happening and we talk about just the right to self defense in the defense of the civilians that were are under danger and we actually want to cross to some some of those residents who had to evacuate from stay wrote no wrong Ivory and Ahuva Ivory Adanani now you just recently evacuated you're joining us from the Dead Sea area when were you able to evacuate and what was it like for these past nearly a week now a good morning to all the listeners thanks for allowing us to tell our story we left on Wednesday this week the fifth day I think it was the fighting for the first 60 hours we did not leave our house at all we had our doors locked occasionally opening the wind the windows in the balcony just to see anything but there was all the uncertainty that we dealt with of having armed terrorists run around in our city hearing gunfire from the house numerous rocket attacks and having to jump to the safe room I actually just am a little shocked also if you could repeat the rest of the question about getting out to the city and I understand I thank you so much for joining with us I mean being locked inside your house for five days I know well many of your friends and family's were they able to evacuate as well yes most of our first of all we're at the Dead Sea now with a lot of my wife's extended family my family and many of whom live other parts of Stero but we were able to get out there's a ministry of welfare initiative to leave and be put up for now indefinitely at Dead Sea Hotels free of charge to have a little bit of rest and relaxation after a very chaotic five days just a small nuance is the only time we were able to go out in the last five days was a small window where they open grocery stores I think it was on Monday on the third day of the fighting and even then me and my brother-in-law getting groceries for the family because we're running low on supplies I had a rocket attack hit near the Romney-Levy supermarket in Stay Road maybe 50 meters within while we were at the cash register we continue to see these scenes of devastation in Stay Road I know you're evacuated you're safe for now but this is your home are you worried about what's it going to look like when you are able to return we're really hoping to return there we bought a house there we intend to have a family there God willing this is our home we like the air we like the people we just want to have the confidence in our government and society that the threat will be permanently removed from Gaza I don't want to speculate we don't want to look like in terms of military policy and everything afterwards but Hamas needs to be fully destroyed and that's shared by everyone in our city and our family who lives in Stay Road one meanwhile as we're speaking we continue to get those red alerts in the south continuing to target those southern communities so even for to be able to evacuate right now I know it was difficult just to be able to leave for your safety also well still possible active terrorists in the area are you surprised that it took five days for the Israeli army the military to be able to let you leave after that time well just to clarify there were other people that left a few maybe by the third day after the lockdowns staying at home or lifted but many people were wavering because there's all this uncertainty we don't know how long this conflict will go on a lot of us have it's not just not easy to take all your possessions to not know when you're going to be able to come back and you might have to go we don't know how long we'll be here at the Dead Sea maybe we'll have to go somewhere else and it just there's a lot of uncertainty we don't necessarily look at it even as the government's angle we got a lot of offers from friends and family to go to apartments that were available or or community centers in other cities and we're just happy that we're out now can get rest and relaxation and all of our family that we're living in Stay Road are also elsewhere in Israel the support that you are getting I think that's one of the main messages that so many people are seeing the support of the community of the entire country of Israel really coming together right now have you felt that that support for the residents in the south yeah we felt very support and a lot of people they tried to help us and even me like my friend my friend family it does come over we have like how you can stay with us we got a support from a lot of people Thank you so much for joining us sharing your story the same impact that so many of those residents in the south are experiencing but we are happy to hear that you are now safe in the Dead Sea and enjoying some much needed relaxation as you're saying thank you for joining us now I want to come back in studio we continue to be hearing these red alerts happening in the south continuing to show that after about 10 hours overnight there was a relative calm but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore not surprising to anyone I don't want to be misunderstood but I think that the worst is not behind us the worst is definitely in front of us in all two areas in the northern front and the southern front already I mean what could be the costs but we know how to behave we don't know how to confront Iran because this is what we are talking about the fact that the Iran Foreign Minister has visited Lebanon is in order to say to Hezbollah, Hasan Asala to Hamas and to Islamic Jihad what would be the parameters of Iranian involvement and according to the declaration that he gave after the meeting you could understand his insinuation that according to certain developments Iran would intervene this is why the Americans have understood that very quickly and the task force is here not to fight on the ground with Israel but to intercept ballistic missiles that might be fired from Iran ballistic missiles that could be fired from Iraq and from deep inside Lebanon so this is what it's all about the question is when this would happen would it happen when as Hezbollah says that he has a red line then the red line is the ground incursion of Israel or would it be when they would understand that Hamas is on the verge of complete eradication and then it would be too late for them to begin the war but this is why they already lost the surprise effect this one was supposed to be synchronized with an attack imagine for a moment an attack from the north and from the south at the same hour on Saturday this would have been not a disaster but a collapse of the entire of the entire war system in Israel so this has been lost to Hezbollah what is left for Hezbollah is the tactical surprise either by drones or either by attacking the the fans, the war or even initiating attacks from the sea or against the oil rigs this is something that could happen and of course I mean all this would be backed by a severe barrage of missiles 130,000 missiles that they have in their hands this would create havoc in Israel and this is a dimension that we don't know right now and we have to prepare ourselves for that in the meantime we are on the defensive and as your correspondent said the nerves are on the edge we feel that the commanders on the ground do not take any risk and whatever the little doubt they have they just fire a missile they just send a patrol and we do not forget that since the beginning of this war we have already four soldiers killed on the northern front so as I said this is not the worst of it unfortunately the worst is still in front of us Meanwhile even as we're sitting here we're expecting a joint press conference from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with Defense Minister Joab Ghulant continuing to show that support so the United States urging Iran not to get involved but what does Iran really have to lose is that the Americans are not afraid of the Americans let's say their money is blocked is frozen for a lot of time and they will continue for years to negotiate on the hostages and so on for six hostages they got 6 billion dollars and the monies in Korea and other places have been unfrozen and we know that after Soleimani Iran fired more than a hundred missiles that hit an American air base and you had about 200 or 300 Americans that were in shock and they were in trauma so the Iranians feel that their country which has sustained a war of 10 years facing Iraq and losing a million soldiers can easily face Israel so and then from the deep territory where they are what could the Israel do I mean how many how many planes can Israel send there and without an American help so this task is left for the Americans and will continue this task has to be left to the Americans and just we have to concentrate on what's happening in our area and that's what we'll continue to hear especially as we are waiting from that joint press conference quickly anything new that you could expect from out of this first of all the barrage of rockets continues towards Ashkelon also slightly further up north near the center near the area for those familiar with the geography it is to be expected also we need to remember for sure for sure there is without disclosing the information I'm sure the Hamas knows very well the locations of Israeli military bases Hamas is also has already fired many thousands of rockets in this escalation I'm not sure how many does it have left according to the estimates of the some of the security sources percent of their potential has been already fired and Israel bombards there a lot so hopefully at least on that front will be slowing down this doctor Jack thank you for breaking down all the latest here on this breaking news edition of the I-24 news desk thank you over 1300 casualties and over 3,000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic images so the whole world can see what Hamas did follow us as Israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join I-24 news for the real story of what's going on music out of war this is a very active scene and we need car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Tell us we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Tel Aviv. Of Israel's war with Hamas. In the last hour the terrorist group has fired some 150 rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon. This ending a period of some 14 hours without any rockets being fired at all. No reports of casualties at this time. One home note was hit. The IDF striking back with unprecedented airstrikes in Gaza. It has warned civilians in northern Gaza to move south in the next 24 hours. The Times of Israel says it has spoken to a garden resident who says Hamas is actively preventing civilians from leaving. He says anyone they see heading towards their car is being told to go back. According to the Hamas run garden health authorities some 1500 Palestinians have been killed. Although that figure does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists. Here in Israel the death toll from the Hamas onslaught at the weekend has now topped 1300. Between 150 and 200 hostages are being held in Gaza. Mainly Israelis but also Americans, French, Italians, Ties and others. And of course many young children are among the hostages. The US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Tel Aviv. He's the second high level US official to visit Israel in two days. He's expected to speak in an hour or so. The Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has now left Israel and is meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital, Amman. And in Jordan security forces used tear gas to disperse crowds of Jordanians trying to march towards the border with Israel. Well that's the update at this time. Up in the north the country on readiness preparing for attacks as well. We'll be speaking to our correspondents across the country as we go through this program. But let's go now to Jerusalem. Our reporter Hamda Sunhoud is there. She's at the Al Aqsa Mosque, a flashpoint very tense location in Jerusalem. Hamda, what's happening? Laura, the Friday prayer currently going on right now is really forces have restricted a lot of Jerusalem. So not a lot of people were able to know. And even though there were calls for protests, calls to go to the Al Aqsa Mosque, there are closures in and around the old city. And Jerusalem, alike, men under the age of 50 not allowed to enter. Women who are not from the old city not allowed to enter. This is probably the emptiest the mosque is during non-conflict times. And I'll take a walk just a little bit to show you exactly what we're talking about. There is nobody here in times, especially a Friday prayer. And you can expect about 70 to 100,000 people here. But that is simply not the case at this time because of the restrictions and the closures. But also because of the fear of the people. A lot of people don't want to get involved in the issues that have been going on. They don't want to get involved in anything that could earn them any sort of trouble with the Israeli police and the Israeli military. What was behind me earlier was the dome of the rock. And now here, directly behind me is the Al Aqsa Mosque, one of the most coveted sites in Islam. The third holiest place to Muslim in the entire world, this mosque, was the first liblah in Islam. The first place that the Prophet actually led a prayer for the religion. People in Jerusalem are extremely scared. It's a tense calm at the moment as people await perhaps other protests outside Damascus Gate Press is lined up. People are extremely nervous for what is to come. But here at the Al Aqsa really just calm people trying to pray and praying for what's going on on both sides. Praying for all of the innocent lives in the situation. I want to ask you, the reason that the Israeli security forces are so worried is because of an incident or an alert, I should say, is because of an incident in the Palestinian town of Hawara, a pizza restaurant owner posting online support for Hamas. The building was then destroyed. What happened? Well, look, there have been several instances where people have been voicing their support for Hamas. And the Israeli police are extremely vigilant. There was someone actually in the north putting support for Hamas on the social media. He was arrested and charged with incitement of terror. The Israeli military is also afraid of a protest breaking out here, Hamas flags and other types of things for them will be will be displayed here. And the Israeli military is really not keen on that happening yesterday at one of the gates that leads to this mosque. There was a shooting two police officers wounded the shooter later apprehended and killed in the neighborhood of the Israeli security apparatus is extremely alert for anything that could go on in Jerusalem after Hamas has called for young men to ascend to the Al Aqsa mosque. Hamda, thank you very much. Hamda Sahoud, there is live on the ground at the Al Aqsa mosque at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem. Well, I'm joined in the studio by Lieutenant Colonel Dawn Abital, former commander of the Special Forces for the IDF and our senior correspondent guy, Azrael, as well. And, Dawn, let's start with the very latest sirens going off in the south because of a suspected infiltration of an enemy aircraft and also an infiltration of a terrorist as well. As I understood, he was killed. I mean, those incidents are still happening. I mean, the border is stabilized and we are too full control. But those kinds of events still are, we have to be very aware and very alert for them. Sirens are going off right now. I'm being told as well. No, in the south. In the south. So the rocket launching continues all the time. And yesterday we had really heavy casualties in the road from those rockets launching. The situation is still tense and the Israeli army is preparing to whatever move is next and we have to wait. Guy, there was a period of calm, wasn't there? 40 hours, no rockets fired. Yes, as you can expect after seven days of fighting, Hamas' resources of rockets is dwindling a little bit. So it is choosing very carefully the times where it chooses to fire. Obviously, when people are out and about, when the day is now approaching noon time, people do want to maybe stack up, buy some groceries for the weekend. Not as good to send rockets overnight when people are already sleeping in their shelters. We have seen a barrage of rockets over the past hour. And in Starrot, there have been seven hits on the city. Five of them direct hits into homes. Very fortunately, no report of casualties. And that incident that we just spoke about that was in Zikim, the infiltration attempt. And yes, indeed, the forces there, we know have actually eliminated this terrorist. I don't know, we don't know yet whether he managed to hurt anyone, but he was spotted as a suspicious movement there next to the beach of Zikim. Of course, that is just around five kilometers north of Gaza, very close by, very easy for them perhaps to make their way into Israeli territory by sea if they're not spotted on time. In that case, that threat was eliminated. But as you can see, there's not one dull moment here. Hamas is trying whatever it can. By sea, by air, and by ground troops to infiltrate Israel to slaughter more Israeli civilians. This is what all that this is about. And this, of course, as it is under the unprecedented bombing by the IAF, hundreds of sorties over the past several days. And as I mentioned, we have reports. The Times of Israel spoke to someone inside Gaza, a resident who says that Hamas is not only advising people to ignore the IDF's warning to get out of northern Gaza. It is actively preventing people from leaving. This is very much part of their strategy, isn't it? For sure. I mean, there was a clear warning by the IDF spokesman. It was expected that this population would leave the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. And if Hamas does it, it's part of their longstanding strategy to prevent us from hitting them and who pays the prices. Of course, the civilians of Gaza, it's terrible. Not just preventing us from hurting them because Israel now is very clear about eliminating Hamas. For Hamas, the benefit, since they don't worry or don't worry too much about getting killed themselves, the benefit is casualties to civilian population. This is the tool, the human shields. Hamas is very happy to show that to the world, preventing those innocent civilians, some of them, of course, from being able to seek shelter as the Israeli Defense Force has asked them to do, saying you should do that for yourself and for your families. Seek shelter, move south of the Gaza city, basically. Hamas is not interested about the well-being of the people of Gaza. That is the last interest of Hamas. Right, absolutely. And the death toll, of course, here in Israel continues to rise. It has now topped 1,300 unprecedented atrocities committed against Israelis earlier this week. The United States says as long as it exists, it will be with Israel. It stands firmly behind Israel. What are you hoping to hear from Lloyd Austin later? I think we heard also our spokesman, the idea of spokesman says how important this alliance with the U.S. is. Of course, we don't expect the boots on the ground. Israel has the capabilities to protect itself on all three fronts. But this kind of alliance against the threat of the North, against the Iranian threat and against escalation of the conflict to other fronts is, of course, very important. And I think we'll hear the same tone that we heard from the Secretary of State from Biden, of course, in his very important speech that really touched the heart of the Israeli people. We'll hear the same things from the Secretary of Defense. And of course, it would be in the idea of thinking the plans that the IDF has with the presence of the U.S. aircrafts and U.S. forces here is important. Because thinking in the battlefield, thinking your plan is the most important thing. So I think we'll hear the same tone but also some operatives think in terms of planning ahead. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken meanwhile is in Amman right now, missing with Amman. That is actually very important. The timing here is extremely important because as we touched on a little earlier, Hamas has declared a day of rage today, calling on its supporters to target both Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. And no one have any doubts about what Hamas's intentions are. This is not about territory. This is not about a land dispute. This is surely not about occupation because Israel doesn't occupy Gaza unless the mere existence of Israel is an occupation for Hamas supporters. As a result of these calls from Hamas, we have been seeing hundreds of Jordanians marching towards the border fence. And stopped by the forces there for now. I want to bring in our guest now because this is very important and this is part of how this war is being covered around the world. The British government is putting pressure on the U.K.'s national broadcaster, the BBC, over its refusal to call Hamas terrorists. The BBC is using the term militants. It says it wants to let its viewers decide. This despite, of course, the atrocities carried out by the group last Saturday, the murder, torture and decapitation of children among Hamas' crimes. Joining me now, Noah Abraham, who is Jewish, was until recently a journalist for the BBC. He says the BBC's stance on this has made it impossible for him to stay. Noah, what happened? At what point did you decide this was unacceptable? Well, when they released their statement saying that they weren't going to change their stance, I'm a man of my morals. I stick by my morals and I don't believe this should even be the story because the story is the atrocities going on in Israel right now. But the BBC's negligence and the use of their terminology has made this the story. And my morals and I can no longer moralistically stand by the BBC. Did you get any support from your colleagues? I mean, how did people react? People have been very understanding. People have been supportive because people have their eyes open. People can use their common sense and can see how terminology, when incorrectly used, can have terrible connotations on the Jewish community. It can lead and build up antisemitism. And people can understand my point of view and people have been very supportive. And of course, today, as Guy was just telling us, is a day of rage according to the Hamas leadership based in Doha. They have called for around the world for a tax on not just Israelis, but also Jews. Do you feel safe as a Jew in the UK? I don't think anyone feels fully safe as a Jew in the UK, as a Jew in northwest London where I am. Our local high street, Gold is Green, was smashed up. We have kosher restaurants, windows destroyed. Jewish school children today will be terrified going to school. Four schools in the UK this morning and there may even be more will not open today because of the threats on the Jewish community. People are taking off their jewellery. People are avoiding London in fear. The British government has made it clear that it stands with Israel, even sending military aid to Israel as we speak. Going back to the BBC, John Simpson, one of the corporation's veteran journalists, is leading the defence of this BBC policy I mean, some of his own colleagues have criticised him, but he's standing by that. He says, this is how it is, even though we have the evidence we do, he's standing by that. It's astonishing that Mr Simpson is standing by that. Seven former culture secretaries, seven, have asked the BBC, have said to the BBC that their refusal to call Hamas terrorists risks blurring BBC impartiality. Rishi Sunak has said in this morning's papers, it's incumbent that the BBC change their stance because it's outdated and it's a nonsensical stance and it makes no sense in the world that we live in. Hamas are not freedom fighters and they're not militants. They are terrorists. To call them freedom fighters and to call them militants is dangerous. Well, I mean, quite, if you can't call someone who burned children and babies alive a terrorist, the word is pretty obsolete, isn't it? Exactly. When else would you be able to use the word terrorist? These people are murderers. And there's also the point that's made by the Chief Rabbi that by not using the word terrorist, it's in itself violating impartiality. And this isn't some visceral issue. This is as serious as it gets. And Tim Davy, who is the Director-General of BBC, is ignoring government advice and is ignoring the Jewish community. Ignoring government advice and let's not forget the BBC is a state-funded institution paid by licensed payers. Noah, thank you very much. Stay safe. Noah Abraham is there. Thank you. We're going to go to the south of Israel now for the latest news there. Mary McAuliffe is with us from the border with Gaza. Mary, in the latest news, seven rockets hitting Stelot. No injuries we're hearing. That's right, Laura. Well, as we do know, and as we've been talking about throughout this morning, all of Sarot residents have been ordered to evacuate. That was an issue that came last night. So since then driving through the city today, it really is a ghost town. The only people on the street you will see are press or members of the military. And here we're just outside Storot and right overhead, just moments before you came to me, another interception from another rocket that was fired towards the Storot area. If you can hear the sounds and the booms in the distance, these are both sounds, both coming from rocket launches from Gaza or interceptions overhead, as well as Israeli forces who are here in the area and heavily attacking the Gaza Strip. We have seen them and we have heard them attacking the Gaza Strip throughout this morning. And tanks are amassing. There are many around the world expecting a ground invasion. It's certainly the feeling that you get walking around here, driving around here in this area. We see many tanks and we see many tanks and heavy machines that are also on the move. Also armored personnel carrier, both belonging to the military and also armored military vehicles bearing the sign of McGendavida Dom. So Israel's Red Cross service, which would certainly suggest that they are planning to have some kind of casualty and casualty response. These are vehicles that you would see in an active war front, seeing these vehicles that can evacuate soldiers or can evacuate injured from active war zone as their shots overhead. This is the only reason why you would have armored personnel carrier is if you expect to be under fire and need to evacuate quickly. So we have seen a number of these types of forces and of course actually just the ground forces here throughout the area in many different areas. Rondo going here in the south as they wait for orders to come. We don't yet know if anybody has any orders or if any issues have been ordered. When this invasion will happen, if it will in fact be a ground invasion like we're all planning, but here on the ground we certainly do feel like it could be imminent. And of course Israel very much on a war footing at the same time. It's still uncovering the atrocities committed by those Hamas terrorists just under a week ago. Absolutely. So we do all know that Israel has moved to inform some 120 families of the hostages who they believe are kept in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also now coming out saying that intensive Israeli airstrikes that hit the area last night inside Gaza actually killed 13 of those hostages. So this is of course an ongoing situation as Israel also still continues to go through the rubble in some of these southern communities which were first hit by this attack which broke out last Saturday. So it's absolutely an ongoing situation. The Israeli peace tried to pick together this piece of both the civilians who were hurt, injured and killed in this area and whether they're ongoing threats in this area while also preparing for whatever retaliation is going to be done in the Gaza Strip. And we do know also that Israel has been one dropping leaflets inside Gaza City warning residents to evacuate as well as telling residents and telling the UN to try and get everybody in north of Gaza to evacuate southward. So this all suggests that Israeli strikes in the area are likely to continue and if not just continue to get significantly worse in the coming hours, days or weeks. Mary for now thank you very much indeed. Our reporter Mary McCall if they're down at the border with Gaza. Doha Navital, former commander of the Special Forces is with me in the studio and the IDF has been issuing statements today about the fact that it has warned civilians in Gaza to move south and we have reports that Hamas is actively protecting them. Egypt plays a role in this doesn't it because Gaza's southern border is towards Egypt. How do you see the situation? When we worked out the resolution of the war forward, we have to understand that we have to work out with our alliances. Alliances in the context. I'm talking about this in the Middle Eastern context is Egypt is Jordan as was mentioned earlier with the Jordanian protesters. So we have to work it out with the Egyptian. I mean it's not like we can push those refugees to Egypt. Egypt is an ally. I want to stress it in this context. But Egypt has told civilians in Gaza to say Egyptian has their own interests. Of course. The Egyptian intelligence is an ally. Even there's this story about them tipping us before. I'm not sure whether it's true or not, but about tipping us about this attack. So what we are trying right now I'm not sure and I know I would not have been able to spell out what are the plans of the IDF in terms of bombing, in terms of military incursion, ground incursion and so on. So of course Israel is very dedicated. The IDF is very dedicated in not hurting civilians if it's possible. And this is part of the effort that the IDF is making in the northern tip of Gaza Strip. And it's unfortunate that those Hamas terrorists that anyway are hiding in those tunnels are not willing to take the war heads on with us and not protect themselves by surrounding themselves with those civilians. And of course guys, all of this is going on in the south. The IDF on high alert in the north as well. We've got the Iranian foreign minister in Beirut. He's just been speaking again in the last few minutes. He has warned that the conflict could spread. He's criticised America. This is Amir Abdolyan, the foreign minister. Of course the Iranian is warning against opening new fronts unless the war stops. He also says that the important thing for us is the security and keeping the calm in Lebanon. I think Laura, all of us are experienced enough or traumatised enough by now not to take the word of any of these terrorists and terrorist supporters as it is. We have seen how we've been deceived by Hamas the entire Israeli intelligence and this entire establishment really has been deceived by Hamas for so many years. Go on. I'm sorry to keep you in touch. We're going to go to the north because we have got Pierre Stechel back now, our correspondent on the northern border. Very tense situation where you are, Pierre. Right, Laura. Well, the area is definitely very tense but there is a quiet tension. The entire morning has been calm, has been quiet. And also since yesterday evening we did not have any siren here yesterday. And also the day before there were a few false alert triggered here yesterday. There were three alerts in total in the upper Galilee region. So not where we are right now. One of them turned out to be false which really just adds to the anxiety here of people that are expecting a potential escalation any minute here. But as of now we do see that buses here in Nahria are running some of them at least. That more people now in the noon hours are on the streets preparing for their Shabbat which they're also probably going to spend next to shelters or in their homes. There is less traffic than usual. But we've also been touring the area yesterday and people have told us that they make sure to stay closer to their homes. Now this of course happening, the looming escalation now. Also against the backdrop of the Iranian Foreign Minister meeting in Beirut, Lebanon today with the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Asrallah. They discussed the regional developments. The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdul Ahyan suggesting a regional summit saying that the goal of his visit to Lebanon was in fact to keep the calm and the quiet in Lebanon. But also saying that what we're seeing, the ambush by Hamas is a result of Benjamin Netanyahu's policies and what he called the atrocities and Gaza and the occupation. That also we have seen airstrikes on the Damascus and the Aleppo airport yesterday because the Iranian Foreign Minister was in fact planned or scheduled to continue to Syria. It is attributed to Israel. Israel does not comment on that. As of now here the northern front it is, as I would describe it, a very tense calm. But again we haven't seen any alerts as of today here in the north. Pia, thank you very much indeed. We're going to take a break in a moment. But just to bring you up to date with all the very latest so far, there's been a barrage of rocket fire on the south of Israel this after a period of some 14 hours of quiet rocket sirens going off literally every few minutes in Ashkelon, in Stairoc. No injuries at all to report. A hostile aircraft intrusion alert at the southern border as well. A terrorist infiltration. The terrorist has reportedly been neutralized. And of course the IDF striking hard in Gaza. It has warned civilians in the north of Gaza to move south. But there are reports that Hamas is actively preventing civilians from leaving. And of course we will keep bringing you the update. Next time we'll be back with you. We'll be hearing from the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. He is in Tel Aviv right now and is expected to give a press conference at 2 o'clock. So in half an hour's time, we will of course bring you that live, the US Secretary of State meanwhile. Anthony Blinken has been over in Amman in Jordan meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. So many, many different situations developing at the moment. Military diplomatic, you name it. It's all going on. Stay with us. From the beginning, from the fish to the production of food from the plants. Because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure, the weight or the water above your head, we are able to save energy. Made for me, a unique concept in Israel. Custom made men's fashion to your measurements. Made for me, designer of all your events. Schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il. Made for me, official dresser of I-24 News. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. He's coming to you live from Tel Aviv. It is day seven of Israel's war with Hamas. In the last hour, the terrorist group has fired some 150 rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon. This ending a period of some 14 hours without any rockets being fired at all. No reports of casualties at this time. One home note was hit. The IDF striking back with unprecedented airstrikes in Gaza. It has warned civilians in northern Gaza to move south in the next 24 hours. The Times of Israel says it has spoken to a garden resident who says Hamas is actively preventing civilians from leaving. He says anyone they see heading towards their car is being told to go back. Well according to the Hamas run Gaza health authorities, some 1500 Palestinians have been killed. Although that figure does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists. Here in Israel, the death toll from the Hamas onslaught at the weekend has now topped 1300. Between 150 and 200 hostages are being held in Gaza. Mainly Israelis but also Americans, French, Italians, Ties and others. And of course many young children are among the hostages. The US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Tel Aviv. He's the second high level US official to visit Israel in two days. He's expected to speak in an hour or so. The Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has now left Israel and is meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital, Amman. And in Jordan, security forces used tear gas to disperse crowds of Jordanians trying to march towards the border with Israel. Well that's the update at this time. Up in the north, the country on readiness preparing for attacks as well will be speaking to our correspondence across the country as we go through this program. But let's go now to Jerusalem. Our reporter, Hamda Sunhoud is there. She's at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, flashpoint, very tense location in Jerusalem. Hamda, what's happening? Friday prayer currently going on right now. Israeli forces have restricted a lot of Jerusalem. So not a lot of people were able to know. And even though there were calls for protests, calls to go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, there are closures in and around the old city. And Jerusalem, alike, men under the age of 50 not allowed to enter. Women who are not from the old city not allowed to enter. This is probably the emptiest the mosque is during non-conflict times. And I'll take a walk just a little bit to show you exactly what we're talking about. There is nobody here in times, especially a Friday prayer, and you can expect about 70 to 100,000 people here. But that is simply not the case at this time because of the restrictions and the closures. But also because of the fear of the people, a lot of people don't want to get involved in the issues that have been going on. They don't want to get involved in anything that could earn them any sort of trouble with the Israeli police and the Israeli military. Behind me earlier was the Dome of the Rock. And now here, directly behind me is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the most coveted sites in Islam. The third holiest place to Muslim in the entire world. This mosque was the first libla in Islam. The first place that the prophet actually led a prayer for the religion. People in Jerusalem are extremely scared. It's a tense calm. At the moment, as people await, perhaps, other protests outside Damascus Gate Press is lined up. People are extremely nervous for what is to come. But here at the Al-Aqsa really just calm people trying to pray and praying for what's going on on both sides, praying for all of the innocent lives lost in this situation. I want to ask you the reason that the Israeli security forces are so worried is because of an incident or are on alert, I should say, is because of an incident in the Palestinian town of Hawara, a pizza restaurant owner posting online support for Hamas. The building was then destroyed. What happened? Well, look, there have been several instances where people have been voicing their support for Hamas and the Israeli police are extremely vigilant. There was someone actually in the north putting support for Hamas on the social media. He was arrested and charged with incitement of terror. The Israeli military is also afraid of a protest breaking out here where Hamas flags and other types of things for them will be displayed here. And the Israeli military is really not keen on that happening yesterday at one of the gates that leads to this mosque. There was a shooting. Two police officers wounded the shooter. Later, apprehended and killed in the neighborhood of Bethanina of the Israeli security apparatus is extremely alert for anything that could go on in Jerusalem after Hamas has called for young men to ascend to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hamda, thank you very much. Hamda Salhout. There is live on the ground at the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem. Well, I'm joined in the studio by Lieutenant Colonel Dawn Abital, former commander of the Special Forces for the IDF and our senior correspondent, Guy Azrael as well. And, Dawn, let's start with the very latest Sirens going off in the south because of a suspected infiltration, an enemy aircraft and also an infiltration of a terrorist as well. As I understood, he was killed. I mean, those incidents are still happening. I mean, the border is stabilized and we are too full control. But those kinds of events still are, we have to be very aware and very alert for them. Sirens are going off right now. I'm being told as well. No, in the south. In the south. So the rocket launching continues all the time and yesterday we had really heavy casualties in the road from those rockets launching. The situation is still tense and the Israeli army is preparing to whatever move is next and we have to wait. Guy, there was a period of calm, wasn't there? Fourteen hours, no rockets. Yes, as you can expect after seven days of fighting, Hamas' resources of rockets is dwindling a little bit without when the day is now approaching noon time. People do want to maybe stack up buy some groceries for the weekend, not as good to send rockets overnight when people are already sleeping in their shelters. We have seen a barrage of rockets over the past hour and in Sturot there have been seven hits on the city. Five of them direct hits into homes. Very fortunately, no report of casualties and that incident that we just spoke about that was in Zikim, the infiltration attempt and yes indeed the forces there we know have actually eliminated this terrorist. I don't know, we don't know yet whether he managed to hurt anyone but he was spotted as a suspicious movement there next to the beach of Zikim. Of course that is just around five kilometers north of Gaza very close by, very easy for them perhaps to make their way into Israeli territory by sea if they're not spotted on time. In that case, that threat was eliminated but as you can see there's not one dull moment here. Hamas is trying whatever it can by sea, by air and by ground troops to infiltrate Israel to slaughter more Israeli civilians. What all that this is about. And this of course as it is under the unprecedented bombing by the IAF hundreds of sorties over the past several days and as I mentioned we have reports the Times of Israel spoke to someone inside Gaza a resident who says that Hamas is not only advising people to ignore the IDF's warning to get out of northern Gaza it is actively preventing people from leaving. This is very much part of their strategy isn't it? For sure, I mean there was a clear warning by the IDF spokesman it was expected that this population would leave the northern type of the Gaza Strip and if Hamas does it it's part of their long standing strategy to prevent us from hitting them and who pays the prices of course the civilians of Gaza it's terrible. Not just preventing us from hurting them because Israel now is very clear about eliminating Hamas. The benefit since they don't worry or don't worry too much about getting killed themselves the benefit is casualties to civilian population. This is the tool the human shields. Hamas is very happy to show that to the world preventing those innocent civilians some of them of course from being able to seek shelter as the Israeli Defense Force has asked them to do saying you should do that for yourself and for your family's seek shelter move south of the Gaza city basically. Hamas is not interested about the well-being of the people of Gaza. That is the last interest of Hamas. Absolutely and the death toll of course here in Israel continues to rise. It has now topped 1,300 unprecedented atrocities committed against Israelis earlier this week the United States says as long as it exists it will be with Israel. It stands firmly behind Israel. What are you hoping to hear from Lloyd Austin later? I think we had also our spokesman the idea of spokesman says how important this alliance with the U.S. is. Of course we don't expect boots on the ground. Israel has the capabilities to protect itself on all three fronts but this kind of alliance against the threat of the North against the Iranian threat and against escalation of the conflict to other fronts is of course very important and I think we'll hear the same tone that we heard from the Secretary of State and from Biden of course in his very important speech that really touched the heart of the Israeli people will hear the same things from the Secretary of Defense and of course they would be in the idea of thinking the plans that the IDF has with the presence of the U.S. aircrafts and U.S. forces here is important because thinking in the battlefield thinking your plan is the most important thing so I think we'll hear the same tone but also some operatives think in terms of planning ahead. The Secretary of State Anthony Blinken meanwhile is in Amman right now. That is actually very important. The timing here is extremely important because as we touched on a little earlier Hamas has declared a day of rage today calling on its supporters to target both Israeli and Jewish targets around the world and no one have any doubts about what Hamas's intentions are this is not about territory this is not about a land dispute this is surely not about occupation because Israel doesn't occupy Gaza unless the mere existence of Israel is an occupation for Hamas supporters as a result of these calls from Hamas they've been seeing hundreds of Jordanians marching towards the border fence and they stopped by the forces there for now I want to bring in our guest now because this is very important and this is part of how this war is being covered around the world the British government is putting pressure on the UK's national broadcaster the BBC over its refusal to call Hamas terrorists the BBC is using the term militants it says it wants to let its viewers decide this despite of course the atrocities carried out by the group last Saturday the murder, torture and decapitation of children among Hamas's crimes joining me now Noah Abraham's who is Jewish was until recently a journalist for the BBC he says the BBC's stance on this has made it impossible for him to stay Noah what happened at what point did you decide this was unacceptable well when they released their statement saying they weren't going to change their stance I'm a man of my morals I stick by my morals and I don't believe this should even be the story because the story is the atrocities going on in Israel right now but the BBC's negligence and the use of their terminology has made this the story and my morals and I can no longer moralistically stand by the BBC did you get any support from your colleagues I mean how did people react people have been very understanding people have been supportive because people have their eyes open people can use their common sense and can see how terminology when incorrectly used can have terrible connotations on the Jewish community it can lead and build up anti-Semitism and people can understand my point of view and people have been very supportive and of course today as Guy was just telling us is a day of rage according to the Hamas leadership based in Doha they have called for around the world for a tax on not just Israelis but also Jews do you feel safe as a Jew in the UK I don't think anyone feels fully safe as a Jew in the UK as a Jew in North West London where I am our local high street Gold is green was smashed up with a kosher restaurant windows destroyed Jewish school children today will be terrified going to school schools in the UK this morning and there may even be more will not open today because of the threats on the Jewish community people are taking off their jewellery people are avoiding London in fear the Zuzas are being ripped off walls Rishi Sunak our Prime Minister has approved an extra three million pounds being spent on Jewish security it has got that bad it has got that frightening the British government has made it clear that it stands with Israel even sending military aid to Israel as we speak I mean going back to the BBC John Simpson one of the corporation's veteran journalists is leading the defence of this BBC policy some of his own colleagues have criticised him but he's standing by that he says this is how it is even though we have the evidence we do he's standing by that it's astonishing that Mr Simpson is standing by that the BBC have asked the BBC have said to the BBC that their refusal to call Hamas terrorists risks blurring BBC impartiality Rishi Sunak has said in this morning's papers it's incumbent that the BBC change their stance because it's outdated and it's a nonsensical stance and it makes no sense in the world that we live in Hamas are not freedom fighters and they're not militants to call them freedom fighters and to call them militants is dangerous well I mean quite if you can't call someone who burned children and babies alive a terrorist the word is pretty obsolete isn't it well exactly when else would you be able to use the word terrorists these people are murderers and there's also the point that's made by the chief rabbi that by not using the word terrorists it's in itself violating impartiality and this isn't some visceral issue this is as serious as it gets and Tim Davey who is the director general of BBC is ignoring government advice and is ignoring the Jewish community. Ignoring government advice and let's not forget the BBC is a state funded institution paid by licensed payers Noah thank you very much stay safe Noah Abraham is there thank you we're going to go to the south of Israel now for the latest news there our Mary McCauliffe is with us from the border with Gaza Mary in the latest news seven rockets hitting still what no injuries we're hearing that's right Laura well as we do know and as we've been talking about throughout this morning all of Sturrode residents have been ordered to evacuate that was an issue that came last night so since then driving through the city today it really is a ghost time ghost town the only people on the street you will see our press or members of the military in here we're just outside Sturrode and right overhead just a moment before you came to me another interception from another rocket that was fired towards the Sturrode area if you can hear the sounds in the booms in the distance these are both sounds both coming from rocket launches from Gaza or interceptions overhead as well as Israeli forces who are here in the area and heavily attacking the Gaza Strip we have seen them and we have heard them attacking the Gaza Strip throughout this morning and tanks are amassing there are many around the world expecting a ground invasion it's certainly the feeling that you get walking around here driving around here in this area we see many tanks and we see many tanks and heavy machines that are also on the move also armored personnel carrier both belonging to the military and also armored military vehicles bearing the sign of McGendavida Dom so Israel's Red Cross Service which would certainly suggest that they are planning to have some kind of casualty and casualty response these are vehicles that you would see in an active war front seeing these vehicles that can evacuate soldiers or injured from active war zone as their shots overhead this is the only reason why you'd have armored personnel carrier is if you expect to be under fire and need to evacuate quickly so we have seen a number of these types of forces and of course actually just the ground forces here throughout the area in many different areas Rondo going here in the south as they wait for orders to come we don't yet know if anybody has any orders or if any issues have been ordered when this invasion will happen if it will in fact be a ground invasion like we're all aware of and certainly do feel like it could be imminent and of course Israel very much on a war footing at the same time it's still uncovering the atrocities committed by those Hamas terrorists just under a week ago absolutely so we do all know that Israeli Israel has moved to inform some 120 families of the hostages who they believe are kept in the Gaza Strip Hamas is also now coming out saying that intensive Israeli airstrikes that hit the area inside Gaza actually killed 13 of those hostages so this is of course an ongoing situation as Israel also still continues to go through the rubble in some of these southern communities which were first hit by this attack which broke out last Saturday so it's absolutely an ongoing situation this really please try to pick together this piece of both the civilians who were hurt injured and killed in this area and whether they're ongoing threats in this area while also preparing for whatever retaliation is going to be in one dropping leaflets inside Gaza city warning residents to evacuate as well as telling residents and telling the UN to try and get everybody in north of Gaza to evacuate southward so this all suggests that Israeli strikes in the area are likely to continue and if not just continue to get significantly worse in the coming hours days or weeks Mary for now thank you very much indeed our reporter Mary McCall if they're down at the border with Gaza Dona Navital a former commander of the United Nations with me in the studio and the IDF has been issuing statements today about the fact that it has warned civilians in Gaza to move south and we have reports that Hamas is actively protecting them Egypt plays a role in this doesn't it because Egypt's Gaza southern border is towards Egypt how do you see the situation we worked out the resolution we have to understand that we have to work out with our alliances alliances in the context I'm talking in this Middle Eastern context is Egypt is Jordan as was mentioned earlier with the Jordanian protesters so we have to work it out with the Egyptian I mean it's not like we can push those refugees to Egypt Egypt is an ally I want to stress it in this context but Egypt has told even there's this story about them tipping us before I'm not sure what it's true or not but about tipping us about this attack so what we are trying right now I'm not sure and I know I would not have been able to spell out what are the plans of the IDF in terms of bombing, in terms of military incursion, ground incursion and so on so of course Israel is very dedicated IDF is very dedicated in not hurting civilians if it's possible and this is part of the effort that Israel is making in the northern tip of Gaza Strip and it's unfortunate that those Hamas terrorists that anyway are hiding in those tunnels are not willing to take the war heads on with us and not protect themselves by surrounding themselves with those civilians and of course guys all of this is going on in the south the IDF on high alert in the north as well we've got the we've got the Iranian in Beirut he's just been speaking again in the last few minutes he has warned that the conflict could spread he's criticized America this is Amir Abdolyan the foreign minister of course the Iranian is warning against opening new fronts unless the war stops he also says that the important thing for us is the security and keeping the calm in Lebanon I think Laura all of us are experienced enough or traumatized enough by now not to take the word of any of these terrorists and terrorist supporters as it is we have seen how we have been deceived by Hamas the entire Israeli intelligence and this entire establishment really has been deceived by Hamas for so many years I'm sorry to keep you in touch we're going to go to the north because we have got Pierre Stechel back now our correspondent on the northern border a very tense situation where you are right Laura the area is definitely very tense but it is a quiet tension the entire morning has been calm has been quiet and also since yesterday evening we did not have any siren here yesterday and also the day before yesterday there were three alerts in total in the upper Galilee region so not where we are right now one of them turned out to be false which really just adds to the anxiety here of people that are expecting a potential escalation any minute here but as of now we do see that buses here now we are running some of them at least that more people now in the noon hours are on the streets preparing for their Shabbat which they are also probably going to spend next to shelters or in their homes and we've also been touring the area yesterday and people have told us that they make sure to stay closer to their homes now this of course happening the looming escalation now also against the backdrop of the Iranian Foreign Minister meeting in Beirut Lebanon today with the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Asrallah they discussed the regional developments the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein suggesting a regional summit saying that the goal of his visit to Lebanon Lebanon was in fact to keep the refugees in Lebanon but also saying that what we're seeing the ambush by Hamas is a result of Benjamin Netanyahu's policies and what he called the atrocities and Gaza and the occupation that also we have seen a airstrikes on the Damascus and the Aleppo airport yesterday because the Iranian Foreign Minister was in fact planned or scheduled to continue to Syria it is attributed to Israel Israel does not comment on that as of now here the northern front haven't seen any alerts as of today here in the north Pia, thank you very much indeed we're going to take a break in a moment but just to bring you up to date with all the very latest so far there's been a barrage of rocket fire on the south of Israel this after a period of some 14 hours of quiet rocket sirens going off literally every few minutes in Ashkelon in Staira no injuries at all to report a hostile aircraft intrusion alert the southern border as well a terrorist infiltration the terrorist has reportedly been neutralised and of course the IDF striking hard in Gaza it has warned civilians in the north of Gaza to move south but there are reports that Hamas is actively preventing civilians from leaving and of course we will keep bringing you the update the next time we'll be back with you we'll be hearing from the defence the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin he is in Tel Aviv right now and is expected to give a press conference at two o'clock so in half an hour's time we will of course bring you that live the US Secretary of State meanwhile Anthony Blinken has been over in Amman in Jordan meeting with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas so many many different situations developing at the moment military diplomatic you name it it's all going on stay with us what's going on there are phrases that you know from where they come from and the package for when 924 news coming to you live from Tel Aviv it is day 7 of Israel's war with Hamas in the last hour the terrorist group has fired dozens of rockets at both the southern cities of Ashkelon and also Starrot no injuries reported it follows a period of some 14 hours of calm the IDF is striking back with unprecedented air strikes in Gaza and has warned civilians in northern Gaza to move south in the next 24 hours reports of Hamas actively preventing civilians from leaving their apartment buildings reported witness in Gaza saying that anyone seen heading towards their car is being told to go back according to the Hamas run Gaza Health Authority some 15 Palestinians have been killed that figure does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists here in Israel death toll at the weekend has topped 1300 the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Tel Aviv he's been meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and has said in his view Hamas is worse than ISIS he says that he was among the team that put the ISIS campaign together he says he knows a lot about ISIS and it is worse than what he saw with ISIS and he will be giving a press conference any minute now we will of course bring you that live he is the second high level US official to visit Israel in two days the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has left Israel he's been meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital Amman and in Jordan security forces use tear gas to disperse crowds of Jordanians marching towards the border with Israel there are also reports of protests in Iraq northern Israel prepared for attacks from the Iranian backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon the Iranian Foreign Minister is in Beirut he's called for additional attacks on Israel and while the unrest continues inside Israel's borders Hamas is calling on its supporters to stay of rage around the world as Israelis and Jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence today there is a report of a stabbing at a school in France for example that story is still developing let's go to the south of Israel now our Mary McAuliffe is in the town of Sterot which has been hit by barrage of rockets in the last hour Mary that's right Laura so this is a town again as we've said all of the residents have been ordered yesterday calling for the government to take this decision saying all the residents here remain under constant rocket fire and they're all frightened so asking the government to help assist us we saw that go through last night and we have seen this town evacuated but we still remain to see a number of different hits targeting and rocket strikes targeting this area our cameraman Daniel Bach will pan down just to show you I'm standing in front of one of the shrapnel that just landed we believe this is shrapnel from an iron dome defender that landed here in a parking lot this happened just 30 minutes ago and we're just going to walk across the street and you can see all along here this is damage that we've been covering from throughout the week the damage here in Sterot which was one of the first areas that these Hamas terrorists hit throughout the course of this week but we are still continuing to see them under an incessant rocket barrage you can see their people still cleaning up the glass from earlier in this week and they're doing so while still under rocket fire and still under threats of the sirens that keep going off the last one we heard here was about an hour ago and we're going to show you the damage to this building here these both happened around the same time so it's possible also that shrapnel was related to this rocket which fired and as you can see hit this building right here and when we got out of the car the first thing we could tell was the smell of whatever happened here in the burning from whatever rocket fired and came and hit inside here causing a number of damage luckily there were no casualties and no injuries reported as we said again most residents have evacuated from this building when it was hit again just 30 minutes ago so a huge barrage of rockets on the south no injuries Mary and all of this of course comes as Israel is still identifying the dead and discovering the atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel almost a week ago the US Defense Secretary saying the actions of Hamas worse than ISIS absolutely we've heard this and we're just hearing tremendously horrific stories coming out of the south area and these stories unfortunately are still emerging I think for many Israelis they thought they had heard the worst of it in the first few days of this war but unfortunately we're just uncovering more and more and Israeli forces are still working to comb through this area where Hamas infiltrators had been stuck in that area engaging in firefights where even just yesterday we are still seeing firefights between Israeli forces who are firing at what they believe to be Hamas infiltrators and again all this is happening while rockets continue to be fired at the border before I got on air with you we heard a number of different interceptions overhead as rockets were once again fired at the border communities all right let's take a listen to the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaking moments ago very happy to see you very appreciative of the strong stance that the President and you we're with you as the President said we're back you know it's an awful week it's a disgusting axe by this terrorist group and as you know I was the guy that initially put the ISIS campaign together and I know a lot about ISIS and this is worse than what I saw with ISIS Hamas is ISIS as the President said in many ways Hamas is worse than ISIS and just as the entire civilized world united to fight ISIS the United Civilized World has to unite to help us fight Hamas and I know that you stand with us and I appreciate it mightily Hamas is worse than ISIS the words not of an Israeli government official but the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who is in Tel Aviv right now we're hoping to speak to hear from him shortly he'll be giving a press conference the message also we're with you we have your back America has Israel's back we're joining me now Brigadier General Yossef Kulpovas the former director general at the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs thank you for joining us let's start with the situation in the south a heavy barrage of rockets on the cities of Ashkelon and Stelot this despite an unprecedented bombing campaign against Hamas targets in Gaza how many rockets could they possibly have left they still have a lot of rockets and they have used by now more than 6000 I think but they still have many rockets and they have the way to calculate how many rockets they have to use in order to be able to launch rockets as long as they wish it's because they can launch more or less according to their calculus I think that we are working in a way this war is a little bit different than previous wars previous operations that we contacted against Hamas because in the past what we were looking for is readiness on behalf of Hamas to stop shooting and once they stop shooting we reached some sort of an arrangement and we had relatively a period of time for relative calm for some time until the next round this is not the case here here we want to put an end to Hamas capability to carry out terror attacks against us not only rocket launching but everything else so we are not impressed by the fact that they keep launching rockets or not this is not a matter this doesn't matter so much what matters is that we have to put more and more pressure on them until they lose the capability to run the Hamas and cause terror threat to Israel that is the issue now it's going to take longer it's probably going to require some ground operation and much greater air offensive that's what we see right now the air offensive in the last couple of hours was focused not on the rockets but on the UAV capabilities of Hamas and we attacked a lot of targets that belong to the organization inside Hamas that deals with launching UAVs and in terms of that pressure of course no electricity no water inside Gaza how will that be affecting Hamas's operations not immediately but as time goes by it's going to put pressure on Hamas because they need the electricity in order to operate they need the fuel in order to operate they need food but I think food and waters are not going to have an immediate impact because I'm sure they have enough reserves there's not going to be any shortage in the short time but you have to start somewhere in order to create a shortage later on what we do simultaneously is we tell the people of Gaza the city of Gaza and the northern part of the Gaza Strip to live and move south so they wouldn't be wouldn't be in Hamas way and so because we don't want to cause any damage that's why we also evacuate our population from the area in order to minimize collateral damage and to minimize civilian damage and that's what is going on right now unfortunately Hamas as you reported is trying to prevent them from moving out but some of them do and those who do save their souls that's what is happening right now okay thank you very much no we were going to go to Jerusalem we were having a problem there so let's talk then about the situation in Gaza because it's also completely different this time around because of the number of hostages that are being held dozens but anywhere between 150 and 200 hostages Israelis in the majority but also French citizens, American citizens Italians many other nationalities among those being held does that change the IDF calculations at all it's one of the many elements that we have to take into account in planning the attack but it's not going to stop us from carrying out the attack first fully and decisively as need to be done because we have to win this war that's I don't think that the hostages that can be discussed in a separate channel are an obstacle for Israel defense forces to carry out the attack against Hamas the way it needs to be done as soon as with as little collateral damage as possible. Ok, so stay with us let's go to Jerusalem then our Hamda Salhut is there a very tense flash point where you are Hamda it looks absolutely deserted behind you on this Friday traditionally a day of Muslim prayer that's right Laura typically outside of Damascus gate you can see thousands of Muslim worshippers heading to Friday prayers but today the Israeli military out of fear protests and other incitement have blocked off several parts of the city leading to the old city where the al-Aqsa mosque is there we're only allowing people who are more than 50 years of age women from inside the old city the Israeli military is on high alert there are thousands of extra personnel deployed to help secure the city in case of any protests remember Hamas called for protests not only in this country but in the era world and all the likes of the police in the Israeli military alike really on high alert for anyone who's looking to protest inside the old city specifically at the flashpoint site and of course the al-Aqsa mosque the Temple Mount is controlled by the Jordanian authorities a special agreement that Israel has with Jordan Jordan finds itself in a very complicated situation right now they've just had the US they have the US Secretary of State there Jordan is a strong US ally and here we have Jordanians marching towards the border with Israel right remember and not too long ago this week Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was also in Jordan meeting with his Jordanian counterpart to discuss the developing situation in Gaza and what could potentially erupt both in the West Bank and in Jerusalem there are reports circulating that there will be a heavy military from the police because of what's going on in the Gaza Strip because what happened to the south of Israel last Saturday so the Jordanians find themselves in an interesting predicament here the king they're really trying to keep as much calm as possible but Jordanians answering the call to protest going to the border police there in the army using tear gas to even disperse some of those demonstrations Jordanian politicians yesterday and the day before calling on people to demonstrate calling on people to protest in support of Gaza so you have multiple actors here multiple people from all sides of the isle either trying to keep the calm or trying to tell people to protest so both the Israelis and the Jordanians here finding themselves in an interesting predicament trying to secure the city of Jerusalem okay thank you Hamda Hamda Sahud there in Jerusalem let's go back to Yossuf Kuba Brasso how concerned are you about the situation in Jordan well I think Jordan is really in the rock and the hard place because on the one hand they have a lot of Palestinians living in Jordan and they are protesting and putting pressure on the government regime on the other hand Jordan understands that this is a threat and that they have to control this threat in order to make sure that no threat to their stability and the way they try to overcome it is to show solidarity with the Palestinians in general and send humanitarian aid to Gaza and allow demonstrations but keep control of the situation so that the demonstrations will not go out of control that is the way they try to do it they are very experienced in that but this entire situation is unique never before something like that has happened so this is challenging for the Jordanians by the way they are not the only ones who are now between the rock and the hard place it's Nasrallah is in a similar situation he doesn't really know what to do that's relative yes but for him it's another everybody here is in a situation that is unprecedented Jordanians included and the Jordanians of course are a firm US ally they receive millions of dollars in aid from the Americans and then you've got the American Secretary of Defense just saying that Hamas is worse than ISIS a group that the United States worked hard to eliminate in Syria and Iraq what about the situation in the West Bank Yossef because in Hawaara a pizza restaurant put out a picture of one of the hostages mocking one of the hostages it was swiftly bulldozed is that right yes I think there's a limit of how much we can tolerate using the picture of an old Jewish Israeli lady being taken hostage by Hamas in order to promote the marketing of pizzas is something that cannot imagine something that can be done by a human being it's not a Palestinian how can that be so there was a need to take action and to we've seen how explosive the situation is in Jenin and in Nablus in recent months even before all of this what is the risk of an overspill there there is a risk but so far I think that people in the West Bank are cautious some of them are carrying out terror attacks here and there are unrest because they understand that we are not going to tolerate any kind of threats to our security at this point of time and this is true also for the Israeli Arabs they're also very careful not to get involved in demonstrations and all kinds of riots like they did two years ago and I hope this is going to be the case because we are already on a very high alert ready to anything and we are able to deter these people from doing that and maybe I hope so that some of them are appalled by the kind of action taken by Hamas and don't want to be identified with them at least from the Israeli Arabs some of them were target of this attack not a few victims that are Israeli Arabs absolutely stay with us Yossif we're going to head to Israel's northern border now where there is a very tense situation Israel anticipating some sort of trouble from Hezbollah the Iranian back terrorist group that is there Pia Stechelbach is there, Pia the town of Matula a large town in the north of Israel has been closed now and is a military zone that is correct Laura it has been published that Matula was closed off as a military zone and the Israeli army publishing another statement clarifying that we're not talking about the entire city by the way the most northern city of Israel sitting right next to the Lebanese border actually only the house is really located right next to the border and the first line next to the border are considered now a military zone that means that citizens cannot move in fact many of the Matula residents have evacuated the city already as tensions are really spiking here because the Israeli army said that in the next couple of hours also the declaration of the military zone and some areas of Matula accounts for a couple of hours only as of now they're expecting cross-border fires such as sniper fire that's why they're really trying to prevent military, sorry civilian movement there be it cars, be it citizens but again many people have already left their houses there there is a really quiet tense situation in the north although the entire day has been calm we haven't seen any sirens since yesterday evening there were two sirens in fact in the area of Matula there were Lebanese reports that three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, Israeli army saying that one landed in an open area but really not a lot of information about what has been happening there last night but again no casualties, no impacts of course all of that is happening against the backdrop of the visit of the Iranian foreign minister in Beirut Lebanon now we're hearing that the deputy leader Hezbollah coming out Naim Qasem that the Lebanese Hezbollah is actually ready and they're waiting for the right moment to potentially join the fighting that they're not listening to the calls of them staying out because they know their responsibility Alright Pia, thank you Yosef Kulpovraso is still with us Yosef for those who don't know talk to us a little bit about Hezbollah's military capabilities I know that they're not nobody knows exactly what their capabilities are of course they don't publicise them but give us an idea what the estimates are They have a wide variety of capabilities military capabilities starting with the rockets of various ranges including very long ranges that can reach the south of Israel from Lebanon which is in the north of Israel for those who don't know and we're talking about something around 150,000 rockets more than any other military force in the world I think most of them are for medium range but some of them are set for longer range some of them are were turned actually into missiles with precisely guided heads that make it possible for them to hit targets that are of high value on top of the rockets they have big force deployed along the border special units that their mission is to break into Israel and to carry out attacks against the Israeli communities just like what Hamas did on Saturday this was actually a tactic that was developed by the Iranians for Hezbollah and then taken for Hamas they have anti-aircraft capabilities they have anti missiles that can hit vessels as well that was some of them were used already in 2006 and that has improved Joseph we've just heard Mahmoud Abbas says that the Israeli call for Garzans to move south a second Nakbar so he's in terms of that is aligning himself with Hamas telling civilians in the north of Gaza not to move south yes for Abbas his mind everything he does is either war crime holocaust or Nakbar that's the options he was shaking hands with the US Secretary of State just yesterday that's unbelievable this is the guy that said that Hitler didn't kill the Jews because he hated Jews but because of their social function it's Joseph I'm sorry to interrupt you just one second do stay with us I mean all of this is going on as Israel is discovering the extent of the atrocities committed by Hamas in the south of Israel the US Defense Secretary saying those atrocities worse than those committed by ISIS the country really coming together identifying and burying the dead of course and other rescues going on offer Flynn is that the United Group for pet rescues because of course many people in the south they have pets didn't they and you're finding some of them still alive yeah first of all thank you for having me and it's an opportunity to send my condolences to all the families and may we have peaceful days as soon as we can get it and yes as alongside we are helping people at the war zones we also help the animals the pets and the rescue organization was established to address the complicity of rescuing animals in the war zone and in the last few days we have brought together a number of independent groups and initiatives under one center so that we can work in more organized and efficient way yeah and it's just one of those very very rare glimpses of good news and it's an example isn't it of the way this country is coming together okay Lloyd Austin is speaking now here we go he's in Tel Aviv he met with Prime Minister thank you all for he met with Israeli Prime Minister there he is alongside the Defense Minister Yoav Galant let's take a listen please minister you're Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin when you said that you stand with Israel you showed up you stand here with us Mr. Secretary you have shown us what it means to be an ally to be a friend to be a brother Secretary and I have just left the warm we set our decisions are made on Israeli security on our most sensitive interests I briefed the secretary on strategic developments in our region and the chief of staff together with the idea of leadership shared our operations defense cooperation and US support in the Pentagon in the White House in the Congress ensure freedom of operation and enforce our capabilities in fact today we will receive the second aircraft carrying essential munitions to the IDF US deployment of assets on land in air and at sea sends a strong message to both our partners and enemies in the region on behalf of Israel's defense establishment and on behalf of our citizens Mr. Secretary thank you very much let me remind you all our audience who is the enemy our neighbors is Hamas the ISIS of Gaza an organization enjoying the Iranian payroll I cannot let the world forget the brutal attacks Hamas terrorists conduct against Israeli children Israeli women Israeli elderly women family murder rape kidnapping this is what we face in this war this is a war on the existence of Israel as a prosperous state as a democratic state as the homeland of the Jewish people and on our common values and we are on the front line we will keep fighting and we will win this war we will prevail with your permission Mr. Secretary I'll say a few words in Hebrew from the next day the state of Israel is in a war we are fighting at home we are fighting our future he's switched into Hebrew so we're going to talk to Yusuf if he's still with us just react to what you heard so far Yusuf I think that the point is yes we are fighting we are the victims of this vicious Hamas attack we are the entire free world that's very important because Hamas is a part of an axis that looks beyond Israel but they look beyond Israel they are part of an effort to change the world order and that's why under this understanding under the fear that what they did would inspire other people who are in the radical Islamic world that is what led the United States to immediately Israel because obviously they are committed to Israel and their commitment is ironclad but because they understand that this is a threat for the United States this is a threat for all the civilized world and that's why everybody has to be their backing Israel and helping Israel because if Israel wins the world is going to be a safer place not only Israel every place is going to be a safer place and you see what happens when these people believe that they have a chance it is hard the entire world you see those demonstrations of Islamic radicals threatening the stability everywhere so that's what stands in my mind behind what the Americans are doing and they should be highly appreciated for what they do we should remind everyone that Hamas leadership in Doha, in Qatar has called for an international day of rage against both Israelis and Jews we've already had an anti-Semitic I'm sorry we don't know the details about the school but a man armed with a knife stabbed a teacher and several other people at a school in Arras in France so that's an individual answering the call to try to kill people in France let me bring in Grisha Yakopovic she's a colonel in the Reserves and has served for the team thank you for being with us the atrocities committed by Hamas worse than ISIS not an Israeli government official saying that the US defense secretary who is here in Israel right now well I've been saying that since Saturday that what we are facing is something worse than ISIS and ISIS is a complement to Hamas after what they did I've heard evidence I've heard people talking about it it's it's horrible but let's not forget the secretary the minister of foreign affairs is in Jordan and he's meeting the king it's also a message so we have the minister of defense here in Israel we have the minister of foreign affairs in Jordan and it's a message to the region that we are here we are here to stay and we are backed by the United States and we have Israel's back we are with you back to Lloyd Austin sorry one second back to Lloyd Austin we've been in close touch but it's good to see you again in person and it's good to be back in Israel even during such terrible days as a US secretary of defense I am here in person to make something crystal clear America's support for Israel is ironclad and I extend my deepest condolences to the Israeli people for those killed or wounded in this terrible slaughter by Hamas I'm also here in solidarity with all the families still living the waking nightmare of not knowing the fate of their loved ones and we will continue to coordinate closely with Israel to help secure the release of the innocent men, women and children in the clutches of Hamas including American citizens now Israel is a small country a place where everybody knows everybody and in times of trial the intimacy of your society deepens the intimacy of your grief but that's not a weakness it is a profound strength and in times of testing Israelis know what to do over this awful week we've seen Israeli hotels and homes taken those who've had to flee we've seen long line-ups to donate blood we've seen homes explode with messages as people race to support neighbors in anguish and perhaps because I'm a retired general I was especially moved by the story of a retired general named Noam Tebow his son called him on Saturday from his home near Gaza to say that Hamas terrorists had stormed their kaboots and were closing in and the retired general jumped into his car in Tel Aviv and raced toward the combat zone he linked up with other fighters and rescued his son his daughter-in-law and his granddaughters and when the general arrived at their house one of his granddaughters just said grandpa's here and these are rays of hope in a terrible week and in times like these sometimes the best the best thing that a friend can do is just to show up and to get to work now this is no time for neutrality or for false equivalence or for excuses for the inexcusable there is never any justification for terrorism and that's especially true after this rampage by Hamas and anyone who wants lasting peace and security for this region must condemn and isolate Hamas Hamas does not speak for the Palestinian people or their legitimate hopes for dignity, security and statehood and peace alongside Israel as a former commander of Central Command the deliberate cruelty of Hamas vividly reminds me of ISIS bloodthirsty fanatical and hateful and like ISIS Hamas has nothing to offer but zealotry bigotry and death the world has just witnessed a great evil the deadliest attacks on civilians in the history of the state of Israel and the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the end of the holocaust so make no mistake the United States will make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and Israel has a right to protect its people you know and there are many phone calls this week President Biden has told Prime Minister Netanyahu that the United States would also respond swiftly and decisively to such a massive terrorist assault and the President also underscored that democracies like ours are stronger and more secure when we uphold the laws of war terrorists like Hamas deliberately target civilians but democracies don't this is a time for resolve and not revenge for purpose and not panic and for security and not surrender at President Biden's direction we have moved urgently to respond to this crisis and to send a strong message of deterrence the USS Gerald our Ford carrier strike group is now in the region led by the largest aircraft carrier in the world we've augmented U.S. fighter aircraft squadrons in the Middle East and the U.S. Department of Defense stands fully ready to deploy additional assets if necessary Biden has said for any country for any group or anyone thinking about trying to take advantage of this atrocity to try to widen the conflict or to spill more blood we have just one word don't the world is watching and so are we we aren't going anywhere we will remain in close contact with our valued partners across the region and security assistance from the Department of Defense is already rapidly flowing into Israel that includes munitions and air defense capabilities and other equipment and resources it also includes more interceptors for Iron Dome to save Israeli lives and we will continue to ensure that Israel has what it needs to keep itself secure now Hamas attacked at a time of global challenge but the United States is the most powerful country in the world and we remain fully able to project power and uphold our commitments and direct resources to multiple theaters so we will stand with Israel even as we stand with Ukraine United States can walk and chew gum at the same time and U.S. security assistance to Israel will flow in at the speed of war and as this harrowing weak draws to a close and as Shabbat draws near we stand together and we stand strong United States has Israel's back and that is not negotiable and it never will be and after this terrible week I wish you and all the people of Israel Shabbat Shalom Shabbat Shalom Thank you We'll be starting with the question starting with Alon Benderby An unconditional message of support there from the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who has said Hamas atrocities are worse than those committed by ISIS he says the United States is with Israel sending reinforcements military aid he also had a warning for any country or group that was thinking about taking advantage of the situation and getting involved he said the United States had one word don't he also pointed out the fact that the global situation is complicated right now referring to the war in Ukraine and I should point out that the Russian President spoke earlier back to the press conference, I'm sorry State will continue to support Israel's right to defend itself Thank you Please, question to the Defense Minister Asar Galant you spoke at the beginning of the week about how the government's goal is to protect Hamas and the citizens of Israel do you see what is the meaning of this are you able to explain to us what you want to achieve and what's the outcome of this OK, they've gone back to you but let's quickly talk to Gwishey the very strong unconditional support from the United States would suggest they are not putting any pressure whatsoever on Israel to halt its bombing campaign in Gaza Well, it's not a surprise I think that for the first time the whole world are witnesses with us of our understanding of what are we facing now if it happened here it can happen anywhere else in the world and we must not forget that if we will not deal with the extremists here if we will not deal with the ones who are worse than ISIS here that are on our backyard it might happen anywhere in the world might happen in Europe and in the States and we had to pay the price and I what I understand from the statement the West is actually backing the State of Israel so nothing like that will happen anywhere else in the West and we heard also from the French President Emmanuel Macron last night but Lloyd Austin says now is not the time for neutrality and he also referred to military aid that is being sent to Israel as we speak a second ordnance shipment being flown in what are we talking about in terms of military aid to Israel? well we will have two tests the first one is today October 13th this is the first test Hamas are trying to set the borders around Israel on fire maybe demonstrations from Egypt maybe from Jordan it started and the military is stopping that in the North and in the West Bank we already see demonstrations all over the West Bank in Tulcane I think that only half an hour ago two terrorists were killed there when they crossed the fence if I'm not wrong and we will see that during the day I believe that Hamas will fail with this test and then the second test will be when the IDF actually put boots on the ground inside Gaza and into Gaza then we will see are we actually facing a multi arena war and to be prepared for that we need to fail our warehouses with ammunition with medicines, with hospitals, with beds with whatever we can because it's going to be long Hezbollah says it's fully prepared to join the fight against Israel the message from the United States was any country, any group thinking about getting involved thank you Lloyd Austin any signs that either Iran or Iraqis are seeking to exploit the situation and if you do come to see signs of an imminent attack on Israel are you in favor of preemptive strikes Iran Hezbollah and Hamas is one axis an axis of evil everything is directed generally from Iran the permission is given by Iran the money is supplied by Iran and the ideas are shaped in Iran therefore it doesn't matter if they give or didn't give the permission but the idea is an Iranian idea as to the actions, future actions of IDF I will stay confidential thank you Suleiman Masaouda Mr. Secretary thank you for this House Foreign Affairs Chair Mike McCall said that we know that Egypt had warned Israel three days prior that event like something like this could happen we don't know how we missed it we don't know how Israel missed it so can you tell us what really the U.S. knew before this attack what I can tell you is that if we had known or if we know of a pending attack against an ally we would clearly inform that ally but what we're focused on now Suleiman is we're focused on making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend its sovereign territory and to protect its citizens and the minister and I spent a good bit of time talking today about what those requirements are and what we need to do to urgently meet those needs Ria Saar thank you thank you thank you back to Hebrew we keep going back and forth because we can't bring a translation for you Gwisha Yakovovich is here with us in the studio unconditional support as we've been saying so the United States is not putting on any pressure whatsoever on Israel to stop its bombing campaign an unprecedented bombing campaign in Gaza the IDF has warned Palestinian civilians in Gaza to move south Hamas of course predictably is telling them to stay put and in some cases actively preventing them from leaving but Mahmoud Abbas a man who shook the hand of the U.S. foreign secretary yesterday Secretary of State Anthony Blinken yesterday is also joining that call he says that Israeli calls for move south will be a second so the message is to stay in northern Gaza well the Palestinian president is walking tiptoes on eggs he's trying to go in between it's his people in Gaza on one hand on the other hand he is obligated somehow to condemn the events and I will say it again and again the Palestinians never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity and this is what is happening again Mahmoud Abbas he had many years he's 87 years old he probably could understand long time ago that he can lead he can create history and he is missing that again the Hamas the Hamas regime in Gaza in June 2007 conquered the Gaza Strip from him and he can change this reality and he is missing that again he is losing again unfortunately he should think for a minute change his statements and take a side like the this is the time to choose sides this is not the time to not the time for neutrality exactly no neutrality it's not a time for neutrality or false equivalence or for excuses for the inexcusable and strongly and making a strong statement what we hear from Mahmoud Abbas is it actually excuses Yosef you're with us now this puts America's allies in the region in a tricky position doesn't it Egypt Jordan in particular and the Palestinian Authority which as I say it's president met with Blinken yesterday yes actually everybody very tricky situation and Abbas in particular is in a very difficult situation because he is afraid of saying anything about the terrible attack that would be against the attack because he's afraid from his own people and he basically also identifies with some of these ideas of fighting against Israel since he is responsible for the pay for slay system that the Palestinian Authority operates he is going to pay the salaries of those Hamas terrorists that are going to be in jail after they were captured by Israel he's going to be the one who's going to pay the allowances given to the families of the dead Hamas people that participated in the attack there are about 1000 people or a dozen terrorists of Hamas that got killed during the attack sorry Yosef one second Yosef well first of all I would like to remind all of us what happened less than a week ago 1200 Israelis were brutally murdered rape burned alive kids were tied one to the other and shot at their hands this is Hamas this is the ISIS of Gaza Secretary said they took evil to another level that's the first issue second Israel never and ever will not shoot civilians in purpose therefore we are asking all the civilians in Gaza city to go south of Gaza and the reason is that because Hamas is the most difficult the camouflage of the terrorists is the civil population therefore we need to separate them so those who want to save their life please go south we are going to destroy Hamas infrastructures Hamas headquarters Hamas military establishment and take this out of there they cannot live among human civilized people 24 hours is that deadline still holding the 24 hours thank you very much we are done for today thank you side by side with the Israeli defense minister you are gallant giving unconditional support to Israel saying that this is not the time for neutrality you also said that Hamas's atrocities were worse than ISIS the United States let's go to the south sirens in the south of Israel Mary what's happening we hear reports of sirens here in sterot we don't hear any sirens there have been a number of different sirens ringing out throughout the day though as we have been here since the early morning also a number of damage that has been done in sterot due to these rocket impacts here in the area I mean there are a number of different buildings that were hit by these rockets that targeted this area luckily there were no casualties and no reports of injuries because many of the residents in this city have evacuated that's after an official government order yesterday telling all residents who evacuate as it continues to see incessant rocket broads fired at this area and saying that for their own safety the residents need to go and try and seek shelter elsewhere in the country and a number of different areas hotels guest houses have been open to accommodate some of these residents from the southern border communities but as we do still hear we do still hear these rockets overhead and a number of interceptions as well a lot of sounds of the Israeli military responding inside the Gaza Strip as we're standing just about two miles from the Gaza Strip border we do from here also hear those noises and we've just heard from the American defense secretary saying that the atrocities committed by Hamas were worse than those committed by ISIS and he says he should know because he was part of the team put together to defeat ISIS two years ago. That's absolutely right Lauren we have heard these coming from a number of different officials this is probably the highest from the American official some of the strongest statements after President Biden speak earlier this week condemning what happened here in southern Israel and condemning the atrocities that were committed against Israeli civilians from all ages from the elderly down to young young children so we have seen a wave of international support against the Hamas actions here in the region we are continuing to see it we are seeing a robust presence from American officials both from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken who's also here at the same time as General Lloyd. It sounds very much like the United States does not intend to put any pressure whatsoever on Israel to halt its bombing campaign an unprecedented bombing campaign in Gaza that in itself is unprecedented That at least is what we've heard from American officials up until this point they have said again coming off these wave of atrocities we've just seen such a response from American officials coming out against what happened here and they've said that they do stand behind Israel and they will stand behind Israel in its response in whatever does come next but we are still bracing to see what exactly that operation is going to look like what the IDF steps are going to be in the next days and weeks to come nobody truly knows and the Americans for now are saying no matter what they will stand behind Israel and they support them and they will do whatever they can even include sending aircraft carriers to the region and the diplomats here to be on the ground and to meet with some of these residents who were affected by these terror attacks so we've certainly seen overwhelming support from American officials. Mary McCollough is in Stairot one of the cities under fire in the south of Israel by Hamas rockets this hour no injuries reported as yet inside Gaza a heavy bombing campaign continues by the Israeli forces both branches of the Palestinian leadership not just Hamas but now also Mahmoud Abbas telling Palestinian civilians not to heed Israel's warnings and flee northern Gaza but to stay put we've also seen tens of thousands massing in Arab capitals including Baghdad to denounce Israel and the threat from the north still hot as well Hezbollah has said in the last half an hour that it is fully prepared to join the fight against Israel and the Russian President Vladimir Putin says that a ground incursion in Gaza would be an unacceptable escalation in his view sorry it's been a long week let's kind of tie it all together the situation now where are we now what is the priority the road is to be prepared I'm sorry clashes in the west bank are being reported I'm sorry very fast moving situation we've got live pictures this is happening in the west bank right now I'm not sure exactly where this is north of Ramallah there we can see various stone throwing tear gas being used by the Israeli security forces Grisha what's happening are you concerned by what you're seeing there yeah from what I understand this is the area that is close to Betel it's called the DCO junction and yeah I've got those reports as I said there are some demonstrations in Hebron but look what you're looking at on your screen there in Betel in Tulkarem close to road 6 and they will continue to throw stones this is their way to support ISIS in Gaza let's take a break stay with us this is I-24 News live from Tel Aviv over 1300 casualties and over 3,000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what Hamas did follow us Israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join I-24 News for the real story of what's going on we're waiting for your response welcome welcome Tel Aviv on this day 7 of Israel's war across the south of Israel a barrage of rockets fired by the terrorist group Hamas at Ashkelon and also at Stairhot no injuries reported meanwhile the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has given unconditional support for Israel he has compared Hamas atrocities to ISIS he says this is not the time for neutrality and has confirmed that the United States is sending additional military aid to Israel after a first round was sent earlier this week meanwhile inside Gaza unprecedented airstrikes are being carried out on the strip by the Israeli Air Force and remember as well electricity and water has been cut off as well and the IDF has warned civilians in northern Gaza to move south ahead of an expected ground incursion both factions of the Palestinian leadership have told Palestinian civilians not to flee the north of the Gaza Strip the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says it would be as it was a second Nakbar in his words we've seen protests break out in support of Hamas in Arab capitals and we've also seen attempted terrorist attacks in the West Bank let's go to Jerusalem our correspondent Hamda Salhoud is there Hamda what is happening where you are as we see this rapidly escalating situation right Laura so clash is happening throughout several neighborhoods in the Jerusalem area the Israeli military put essentially blockades to prevent people from heading to the old city heavy restrictions set in Jerusalem because they don't want people gathering and protesting police even deploying a water cannon in neighborhoods like wedges the army and police mounted on horseback trying to get people to leave the area people were able to pray the Friday prayer together in those areas but then afterwards turning into clashes protests in several Arab countries like Jordan, Iraq Turkey, Yemen and some others in solidarity with the situation that is going on solidarity with Gaza but in Jerusalem as you can see behind me it is completely empty as the Israeli military has blocked off a lot of the area there is more press then there are locals here at the Friday prayers just under 5000 people attending there usually on a Friday you can see upwards of 100,000 people on a normal day but that was probably not the case because of all of the closures and Hamda in Ramallah right now we are bringing live pictures there are pro Hamas protests underway right now in Ramallah we've just heard from the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas he has called on civilians in northern Gaza not to flee as well so aligning himself with Hamas in that regard how what is the potential for overspill from the city of Ramallah well look there are large protests going on in several cities in the West Bank like Ramallah, Nablus and Genine Palestinians taking to the streets and perhaps what is the largest showcase of Hamas support to date the Palestinian Authority is not suppressing these protests remember there is conflict internally within Palestinian factions themselves specifically Hamas and Fetech and the PA so they are allowing these protests to happen simply because they are viewing them in solidarity with what is happening in Gaza with the casualties there due to civilian airstrikes however it is proving to the Israeli military that it could be a security threat as they approach checkpoints Hamas releasing memos for people to march to the furthest point they can to the al-Aqsa meaning these checkpoints that could be Khalandiyah so we could see clashes there as well but the Israeli military is on high alert as these protests are going on and really we can't expect a lot of clashes in the hours to come Hamda, thank you for now we need to talk about the situation in the north, sirens blowing across Spat we're hearing sirens going off in Spat, where else in the north are we yep, okay Gawisha the Hezbollah terrorist group has just said that it's not afraid of US firepower moments later we've got sirens going off across northern Israel we're looking at pictures from the north right now, live images coming to us from the north of Israel right now Gawisha from what I understand the military wing of Hamas just published that they launched new rockets it called Ayash 250 with range with a bigger or with the ability to hit at the northern part of Israel it's only the alerts now let's see that it's real that it's not, I don't know, something that we had a false alarm situation yeah, we had three times a false false alarm situation so let's first of all make sure and I'm not surprised that Hamas immediately declared that it's they who did it, okay, it's not Hezbollah saying we did it Hamas factions inside Lebanon Hamas factions and page factions in Lebanon, yes so this could very much be a problem for Lebanon it can be a problem for Lebanon but let's not forget the ones who are controlling the south of Lebanon are Hezbollah so whatever is happening there is the but it did come just moments after Hezbollah said it's not afraid of US firepower in response to that very thinly veiled warning from the US Defense Secretary who warned any non-state actors in the region from getting involved I think that it's about time but it's time we all understand the game so this is the game we are all playing the same game they are playing the game Lieutenant Masha Mikkelsen, Deputy Head of the International Press Department the IDF is on the line for us now thank you for being with us Mikkelsen, a lot of developments we're looking at a situation in the north we're looking at a situation in the West Bank and of course the ongoing situation in the south it really is on all fronts right now let's keep things in proportion yes we have heard reports from Hamas about things happening the situation is being looked into right now and we won't elaborate on that so we have more information the IDF is deployed and very very vigilant both in the north and in Judea and Samaria waiting to see if something develops and prepared to face it in the south we have seen as you previously stated but I'll specify a little bit it's not that they're asking people not to move the Hamas are actively setting up road blockades around the city of Gaza to prevent their citizens from moving south and continue using them as human shields from IDF strikes they're not allowing their own people to and Mahmoud Abbas has now also aligned himself with Hamas telling the civilians not to move south I want to ask you about the comments by Lloyd Austin the US Defense Secretary a very strong message of support we have your back he said this is not the time for neutrality what does it mean to the IDF to have that support from the United States America is our greatest and strongest ally they have always been we obviously appreciate their support they have sent carriers to they are sending more support and this companionship is a key to a strong and stable Middle East and the IDF appreciate that and of course tragically amid all of this there is the worst hostage situation Israel has ever faced in its history anywhere between 150 and 200 hostages most of them Israelis but also many other nationalities as well including Americans are being held in Gaza right now have all the hostages now been identified so far we have updated 120 families about the hostage situation of course it's still ongoing the reason why it's taking so long it's because families need to identify the bodies of their loved one which is made nearly impossible by Hamas who decapitated, burned alive and beheaded clearly showing that their main goal is to cause as much chaos and damage as possible to the State of Israel which is why the IDF is right now focusing on making sure that they have no ability to cause that much damage ever again can I get some clarification from what's happening in the north because Hamas has claimed responsibility for rocket fire in the north rockets that have been fired from Gaza or from inside Lebanon we know that there are Palestinian factions that are identified with Hamas in southern Lebanon I do not have the full picture on this situation as of now but we will get the information and we will let the public know what's going on okay thank you very much indeed Lieutenant Michelson there with the rail ladies, we can go now live to the north of Israel where sirens are sounding after Hezbollah said it was ready to enter the war Pierce Deckelback is there Pia right Laura well read a lot the central Galilee region a bit far away from here although we heard the boom of at least one interception we're talking about the region surrounding Nazareth the city of Tzvat now as I said we heard one interception and as we didn't get an alarm here Lebanon is right behind us and it seems like Hamas from the Gaza Strip is responsible for these rockets the Israeli defense establishment was aware that Hamas does have the capabilities to reach Israel's north although the farthest they went this recent round of escalation was Haifa now they went north from Haifa as I said to the area of Tzvat and Nazareth we do not have any reports on impacts or casualties yet but that was really a new level that Hamas reaches so far north as we're all expecting a looming escalation with Lebanon which is here right behind me you're right the Iranian foreign minister just meeting Palestinians and Hamas representatives as well as the leader of the Hezbollah group in Lebanon in Beirut today new threats coming from the deputy leader of Hezbollah Naim Qasem saying that Hezbollah is ready waiting for a moment to possibly enter this war and that they're not listening to any calls not to join because they know they have a responsibility this comes after continuous threats have been made by the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah himself throughout the years standing in solidarity with Hamas with other Palestinian militias and also now saying that this attack of Hamas that we've seen on Sunday was a reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu's policies was a reaction to Israel's attempts to force new normalizations in the region and also that again Hezbollah is ready but this is also what the sentiment you feel here in the north that people are waiting for a possible move any smaller security incident can trigger that the northern front will be dragged into this war as well as of now this northern region here has been very very quiet we here did not have a siren also not now when that rocket apparently came from the Gaza Strip from the south we haven't heard a siren here from from yesterday evening basically yesterday evening there was a major false alarm triggered we did hear that the Israeli army just declared that parts of Mathura which is the northern most city in Israel very very close to the Lebanese border was declared were declared a close military zone sealing it off for civilian movement but as of now here this area where we're at right now very close to the Lebanese border has been calm so far thank you Pia, thank you very much Pia Stekelback is there at the northern border with Lebanon Grisha Yakovovich it would appear Hamas has hit a new record by firing a rocket from Gaza with further reach than ever before it's hit the northern most point in Israel that's been confirmed now by the IDF that that rocket did come from Gaza yes and no the first time they used this rocket Ayash 250 was in May 2021 Operation Guardian of the Wall and this is the second time they used from what I also understand this rocket was launched from Gaza with increased range and it was intercepted by Patriot batteries yes it's a new ability and I'm sure that we will be able to deal with that also of course this at the very same time that Hezbollah is saying it is ready to enter the war reacting to those comments from the US Defense Secretary Roy Dostin saying they're not afraid of American firepower but it only shows to the whole world how it's all coordinated okay we have Iran behind the screens it's like they feel harmonic okay a band of Gaza, Hezbollah and let's see who will join them later on but Hezbollah and Hamas and Gaza are very very coordinated for example the visit yesterday of Mr. Blinken at the same time the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Iranian one was supposed to land in Damascus and he couldn't so he landed in Beirut later so it's all coordinated it's all between Hamas and Hezbollah they declare they launch the ones launched the others declare and as I said this is the test day let's see how it will end up and I believe that as of today nothing will happen and then the second test will be when there will be a ground entry to the gun strip okay and just to add to that 220 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since the massacre on Saturday the idea of just confirming that 35 Palestinians have been killed since the massacre last Saturday amid all of this an Israeli diplomat has come under attack in Beijing we can get the latest on that now with a correspondent Patrick Fock who's joining us from Singapore Patrick can you tell us what happened we still haven't got full details about the circumstances of this attack but reports say that it happened around 2.20pm local time in Beijing outside the Israeli embassy there were some reports suggesting that it happened within the vicinity of the embassy but that does not appear to be the case there is video circulating that hasn't been verified showing what appears to be a man dressed in white stabbing the Israeli staffer there was a bit of a tussle on the ground before the diplomatic staff was able to get up and walk away and then a man dressed in white which according to witnesses was not a man of Chinese ethnicity then left in the scene heading west it's hard to imagine that Chinese authorities won't be able to track them down Beijing is a city that is under heavy surveillance there are video cameras on every single street corner and it's also worth noting that this happened in an area which has a lot of security personnel it's an area which also houses the US embassy the French embassy the Japanese embassy among others so this was a brazen attack in broad daylight which happened in front of lots of security personnel one would have to say something that is extremely rare in Beijing has China commented at all on the attack yeah I didn't mention also that as far as we understand the staffer has been sent to hospital and is now in a stable condition but China has not made a comment as of yet there have been some reactions though notably from the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns who said that he was shocked by what had happened it offered his full support to the staff and the Israeli embassy the prominent political commentator and former chief editor of the state run Global Times who Xi Jinping said that you know this was absolutely illegal and not welcome in China and said that it was important not to draw any conclusions for this at this moment while investigations are ongoing and it's understandable that people are doing so because of the situation in Israel right now but you know that people should remain calm for the time being and the terrorism certainly wouldn't be welcome on Chinese soil and what is Beijing's official stance on Israel's war with Hamas Yeah well I mean this could arguably be part of the problem Beijing has come under criticism for what is perhaps can be described as an ambiguous response to recent events and one might make the argument this may have emboldened supporters of Hamas or the Palestinians to carry out an attack like this but I think it's important at this time that we still don't know what the circumstances of this attack is just yet but certainly the situation in Beijing will be seen as being tense and for these sorts of developments to be happening on Chinese soil as I say will be of great concern to the Chinese Government All right Patrick Falk in Singapore thank you Grisha Yakovlevich is here with me in the studio let's talk a bit more about what's happening in the West Bank 220 people have been arrested Palestinians arrested since the massacre on Saturday what does this tell you about how Israel is getting a hold on the situation in the Palestinian territories right now? I don't think that much has changed let's not forget for the last year and a half almost the reality in the West Bank has changed supported by the Palestinian Authority in some places also with Mahmoud Abbas and he's trying to if you remember Ahlini Al-Assad and Jeanine and Nablus in all those events so it's not really something new yes it was expected that Palestinians from the West Bank trying to support their family not families actually it's their brothers from the second country Palestine that is under Hamas role since June 2007 and this will be very worrying presumably for Mahmoud Abbas we saw what Hamas did to Fatah supporters in 2007 this is what shocks me each time again and again in June 2007 Hamas slaughtered actually executed 300 Fatah officials when they tied their hands in the back shot them in the knees and throw them down from high school buildings is that what he wants that the same thing will happen in the West Bank as I said I'm going to say it again they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity and now he can change the reality in the West Bank he's in a catch but he should choose sides this is the time okay this is this is a historical week that he should choose sides and actually from here the decision of who is where will be taken by him will they glue to themselves the brutality and barbarism made by Hamas in Gaza or they will become an entity that will want to reach a certain solution in the future and I mean it's not impossible to imagine he would be looking for protection from the Israelis I mean there has been security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel in the past is that all blown up right now you know there is always something that we always said to ourselves when I said that the IDF there is the reality on the ground and there is the price that the PA should pay for the ear of their own people I think it's about time we change it okay whatever you say whatever you declare must be the thing that you do on the ground and we should change it it's about time okay let's let's talk a bit more about that support from the United States and how that is kind of playing into everything I mean this is what all Western leaders are looking to avoid a conflagration in the region Hezbollah says it's not afraid of US firepower it says it will be on the lookout for any military craft sent to the Mediterranean from the US I mean a lot of bluster about getting involved if I understand the situation correctly we are all serious okay we are serious that's why Metula for example was declared just an hour ago as a close military area will that start from the north nobody knows are they playing the mind games yes they are doing a good job they always were experts in doing that but what I can say and it's clear the moment Hezbollah starts the northern arena we will see an implementation of President Biden's declarations do you think the United States would take part in an operation against Hezbollah? I'm sure that if Iran would get involved the United States will be there for us even with the complicated American political situation back home there are many complicated situations so it's a statement it's a statement for the whole western world it's not only a statement for the State of Israel this is what we need to understand and as I said if we will not put an end to this I don't know how to describe this organization Hamas but we have to put an end to that for once otherwise it will hit everybody all over the world let's go to the north our Robert Swift has taken over from Pierre he's at the northern border now he's in Israel's northern border close to Lebanon Robert a very fast moving situation what's happening? that's right Laura just a short while ago there were rocket warnings here in the north and due to the tension that has been permeating on this border over the last few days all eyes were instantly on Hezbollah however Hamas have acknowledged that the rocket was launched by them from the Gaza Strip making it one of the more long range rockets that they've fired but the fact that everybody was so quick to jump to the fear that it was Hezbollah it just goes to demonstrate the persistent tension that is occurring here over the last few days we've had several false alarms several instances of genuine fire including anti-tank missiles that have been fired from Hezbollah IDF positions and retaliations from IDF artillery and aircraft in response to this there's been a build up of troops along this border Rob, one second I just want to point out to the viewers we're looking at live scenes of Metula a town which has been declared an active military zone right now go ahead Rob keep going indeed so that's a little further to the north east of us this is an area that the IDF have declared an active military zone certain areas have been cordoned off at the minute we're still getting mixed reports as to what that's relating to possibly intelligence coming in there which has tipped off the IDF as to activity and causing them to be a bit more cautious around that region thank you very much indeed let's recap then a great deal that's happened in the last hour or so Hamas claiming responsibility for a long range rocket that has been fired at northern Israel it appears to be the furthest location that it has fired at it has fired a barrage of rockets at the south as well no injuries in either Stelot or Ashkelon as yet there have been arrests in the west bank there dozens of people has arrested let's just wrap things up Grisha before we go what is the most important thing that's happened for you in the past hour the most important thing is that Hamas is failing October 13th was supposed to be a test for Hamas and it looks like they are failing and I'm happy that they are failing why would you say that you know set the borders on fire and it looks like they are failing so yes maybe in the west bank we see some clashes Jordan is quiet Lebanon it looks like they will not join the arena as for now as I said the second test will be when the ground entry will start Egypt is quiet and let's see what will happen all over the world when they will start waking up let's not forget the ramifications for this conflict as far away as Beijing tonight we will keep you updated with all the very latest developments day 7 Israel is at war with Hamas stay tuned this is I-24 news we are coming to you live from Tel Aviv don't go anywhere over 1300 casualties and over 3000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what Hamas did follow us as Israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join I-24 news for the real story of what's going on Gaza we will hit the Hamas we will destroy but we have our value and our culture it is natural from the beginning from the fish to the food from the plants because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure the weight or the water above your head we are able to save energy Tel Aviv on this day 7 of Israel's war with Hamas across the south of Israel a barrage of rockets fired by the terrorist group Hamas at Ashkelon and also at Stairhot no injuries reported meanwhile the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has given unconditional support for Israel he has compared Hamas atrocities to ISIS he says this is not the time for neutrality and has confirmed that the United States is sending additional military aid to Israel after a first round was sent earlier this week meanwhile inside Gaza unprecedented airstrikes are being carried out on the strip by the Israeli Air Force and remember as well electricity and water has been cut off as well and the IDF has warned civilians in northern Gaza to move south ahead of an expected ground incursion both factions of the Palestinian leadership have told Palestinian civilians not to flee the north of the Gaza Strip the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says it would be as it was a second Nakhbar in his words. We've seen protests break out in support of Hamas in Arab capitals and we've also seen attempted terrorist attacks in the West Bank. Let's go to Jerusalem our correspondent Hamda Salhout is there Hamda what is happening where you are as we see this rapidly escalating situation right Laura so clash is happening throughout several neighborhoods in the Jerusalem area where the Israeli military put essentially blockades to prevent people from heading to the old city heavy restriction set in Jerusalem because they don't want people gathering and protesting police even deploying a water cannon in neighborhoods like the army and police mounted on horseback trying to get people to leave the area to pray the Friday prayer together in those areas but then afterwards turning into clashes protests in several Arab countries like Jordan Iraq even Turkey Yemen and some others in solidarity with the situation that is going on solidarity with the Gaza but in Jerusalem as you can see behind me it is completely empty as the Israeli military has blocked off a lot of the area there is more press than there are locals here at the Friday prayers just under 5,000 people attending there usually on a Friday you could see upwards of 100,000 people on a normal day but that was simply not the case because of all of the closures. Hamda in Ramallah right now we are bringing live pictures there are pro Hamas protests underway right now in Ramallah we have just heard from the Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas he has called on civilians in northern Gaza not to flee as well so aligning himself with Hamas in that regard how what is the potential for overspill from the city of Ramallah well look there are large protests going on in several cities in the west bank like Ramallah Nablus and Jeanneen Palestinians taking to the streets and perhaps what is the largest showcase of Hamas support to date the Palestinian authority is not suppressing these protests remember there is conflict internally within Palestinian factions themselves specifically Hamas and Fete in the PA so they are allowing these protests to happen simply because they are viewing them in solidarity with what is happening in Gaza with the casualties there due to civilian airstrikes however it is proving to the Israeli military that it could be a security threat as they approach checkpoints Hamas releasing memos for people to march to the furthest point they can to the al-Aqsa meaning these checkpoints that could be we could see clashes there as well but the Israeli military is on high alert as these protests are going on and really we can expect a lot of clashes in the hours to come. Hamda, thank you for now Hamda Salhut there in Jerusalem we need to talk about the situation in the north sirens blowing across Spat we are hearing sirens going off in Spat where else in the north are we okay, Grisha the Hezbollah terrorist group has just said that it's not afraid of US firepower moments later we've got sirens going off across northern Israel we're looking at pictures from the north right now live images coming to us from the north of Israel right now Grisha from what I understand the military wing of Hamas just published that they launched new rockets it's called the Ayash 250 with range with a bigger with the ability to hit at the northern part of Israel it's only the alerts now let's see that it's real that it's not something that is wrong we had a false alarm situation we had three times a false alarm situation so let's first of all make sure and I'm not surprised that Hamas immediately declared that it's they who did it it's not Hezbollah saying we did it Hamas factions inside Lebanon Hamas factions and in Lebanon so this could very much be a problem for Lebanon it can be a problem for Lebanon but let's not forget the ones who are controlling the south of Lebanon are Hezbollah so whatever is happening there is the ringlight but it did come just moments after Hezbollah said it's not afraid of US firepower and that very thinly veiled warning from the US Defense Secretary who warned any non-state actors in the region from getting involved I think that it's about time that we it's time we all understand the game so this is the game we are all playing the same game they are playing the game Lieutenant Masha Mikkelsen deputy head of the international press department the IDF is on the line for us now thank you for being with us we have a lot of developments we are looking at a situation in the north we are looking at a situation in the west bank and of course the ongoing situation in the south it really is on all fronts right now let's keep things in proportion yes we have heard reports from Hamas about things happening the situation is being looked into right now and we won't elaborate on that and so we have more information the IDF is deployed very vigilant both in the north and in Judea and Samaria waiting to see if something develops and prepared to face it in the south we have seen as you previously stated but I'll specify a little bit it's not that they're asking people not to move the Hamas are actively setting up road blockades around the city of Gaza to prevent their citizens from moving south and continue using them using shield from IDF strikes they're not allowing their own people to evacuate and Mahmoud Abbas has now also aligned himself with Hamas in telling Gaza civilians not to move south I want to ask you about the comments by Lloyd Austin the US defense secretary very strong message of support we have your back he said this is not the time for neutrality what does it mean to the IDF to have that support from the United States America is our greatest and strongest ally they have always been we obviously appreciate their support they have sent carriers to our shores they are sending more support and this companionship is a key to a strong and stable Middle East and the IDF appreciate that and of course tragically amid all of this there is the worst hostage situation that Israel has ever faced in its history anywhere between 150 and 200 hostages most of them Israelis but also many other nationalities as well including Americans are being held in Gaza right now have all the hostages now been identified so far we have updated 120 families about the hostage situation of course it's still ongoing the reason why it's taking so long it's because families need to identify the bodies of their loved one which is made nearly impossible by Hamas who decapitated burned alive and beheaded some bodies clearly showing that their main goal is to cause as much chaos and damage as possible to the state of Israel which is why the IDF is right now focusing on making sure that they have no ability to cause that much damage ever again can I get some clarification from you from what's happening in the North because Hamas has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire in the North is that rockets that have been fired from Gaza or from inside Lebanon we know that there are Palestinian factions that identify with Hamas in southern Lebanon I do not have the full picture on this situation as of now but we will get the information and we will let the public know what's going on okay thank you very much indeed Lieutenant Michelson there with the real ladies we can go now live to the North where sirens are sounding after Hezbollah said it was ready to enter the war pier, Stechelback is there Pia right Laura well read a lot in the central Galilee region a bit far away from here although we heard the boom of at least one interception we're talking about the region surrounding Nazareth the city of Tzvat as I said we heard one interception and as we didn't get an alarm here Lebanon is right behind us and it seems like Hamas from the Gaza Strip is responsible for these rockets the Israeli defence establishment was aware that Hamas does have the capabilities to reach Israel's north although the far they went in this recent round of escalation was Haifa now they went north from Haifa as I said to the area of Tzvat and Nazareth we do not have any reports on impacts or casualties yet but that was really a new level that Hamas reaches so far north as we're all expecting a looming escalation with Lebanon to see a right behind me you'll write the Iranian foreign minister just meeting Palestinian Islamic jihad and Hamas representatives as well as the leader of the Hezbollah group in Lebanon in Beirut today new threats coming from the deputy leader of Hezbollah Naim Qasem saying that Hezbollah is ready waiting for a moment to possibly enter this war and that they're not listening to any calls not to join because they know they have a responsibility this comes after continuous threats have been made by the Hezbollah leader himself throughout the year standing in solidarity with Hamas with other Palestinian militias and also now saying that this attack of Hamas that we've seen on Saturday was a reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu's policies was a reaction to Israel's attempts to force new normalizations in the region and also that again Hezbollah is ready but this is also what the sentiment you feel he in the north that people are waiting for a possible security incident can trigger that the northern front will be dragged into this war as well as of now this northern region here has been very very quiet we here did not have a siren also not now when that rocket apparently came from the Gaza Strip from the south we haven't heard a siren here from yesterday evening basically yesterday evening there was a major false alarm triggered we did hear that the Israeli army just declared the parts of Mathura which is the northern most city in Israel very very close to declared a close military zone sealing it off for civilian movement but as of now here this area where we're at right now very close to Lebanese border has been calm so far. Thank you Pia, thank you very much Pia Stekelback is there at the northern border with Lebanon Grisha Yakovovich it would appear Hamas has hit a new record by firing a rocket from Gaza with further reach than ever before it's hit the northern most point in Israel that's been confirmed now from Gaza. Yes and no the first time they used this rocket Ayash 250 was in May 2021 Operation Guardian of the Wall and this is the second time they used from what I also understand this rocket was launched from Gaza with increased range and it was intercepted by Patriot batteries yes it's a new ability and I'm sure that we will be able to deal with that also. And of course this at the very same time that Hezbollah is saying it is ready to enter the war reacting to those comments from the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying they're not afraid of American firepower but it only shows it only shows to the whole world how it's all coordinated we have Iran behind the screens it's like the Philharmonic band of Gaza, Hezbollah and let's see who will join them later on but Hezbollah and Hamas and Gaza are very, very coordinated for example they visited yesterday of Mr. Blinken at the same time the Minister of Foreign Affairs the Iranian one was supposed to land in Damascus and he couldn't so he landed in Beirut later so it's all coordinated it's all between Hamas and Hezbollah they declare, they launch the others declare and as I said this is the test day let's see how it will end up and I believe that as of today nothing will happen and then the second test will be when there will be a ground entry to the gunstrip okay and just to add to that 220 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since the massacre on Saturday the IDF just confirming that 35 Palestinians have been killed since the massacre last Saturday amid all of this an Israeli diplomat has come under attack in Beijing we can get the latest on that now with correspondent Patrick Fock who's joining us from Singapore Patrick can you tell us what happened yeah but we still haven't got full details about the circumstances of this attack but reports say that it happened around 220 pm local time in Beijing outside the Israeli embassy there were some reports suggesting that it happened within the vicinity of the embassy but that does not appear to be the case there is video circulating that hasn't been verified showing what appears to be a man dressed in white stabbing the Israeli staffer there was a bit of a tussle on the ground before the diplomatic staff was able to get up walk away and then a man dressed in white which according to witnesses was not a man of Chinese ethnicity then left the scene heading west it's hard to imagine that Chinese authorities won't be able to track them down remember Beijing is a city that is under heavy surveillance there are video cameras on every single street corner it's also worth noting that this happened in an area which has a lot of security personnel it's an area which also houses the US embassy the French embassy the Japanese embassy among others so this was a brazen attack in broad daylight which happened in front of lots of security personnel one would have to say something that is extremely rare in Beijing has China commented at all on the attack I didn't mention also that as far as we understand the staffer has been sent to hospital and is now in a stable condition but China has not made a comment as of yet there have been some reactions though notably from the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns who said that he was shocked by what had happened offered his full support to the staffer and the Israeli embassy the prominent political commentator and former chief editor of the state run global Times who Xi Jinping said that this was absolutely illegal and not welcome in China and said that it was important not to draw any conclusions for this at this moment while investigations are ongoing and it's understandable that people are doing so because of the situation in Israel right now people should remain calm for the time being and the terrorism certainly wouldn't be welcome on Chinese soil and what is Beijing's official stance on Israel's war with Hamas well I mean this could arguably be part of the problem Beijing has come under criticism for what is perhaps can be described as an ambiguous response to recent events and one might make the argument this may have emboldened supporters of Hamas or the Palestinians to carry out an attack like this but I think it's important at this time to say that we still don't know what the circumstances of this attack is just yet but certainly the situation in Beijing will be seen as being tense and for these sorts of developments to be happening on Chinese soil to say will be of great concern to the Chinese government Beijing Falk in Singapore, thank you Grisha Yakovic is here with me in the studio let's talk a bit more about what's happening in the West Bank the IDF says 220 people have been arrested, Palestinians arrested since the massacre on Saturday what does this tell you about how Israel is getting a hold on the situation in the Palestinian territories right now I don't think that much is changed let's not forget for the last year and a half almost the reality in the West Bank is changed supported by the Palestinian Authority in some places also with Mahmoud Abbas and he is trying to if you remember Arin Al-Assad and Jineen and Nablus and all those events so it's not really something new yes it was expected that the Palestinians from the West Bank trying or trying to support their families not families actually it's the brothers from the second country Palestine that is under Hamas role since June 2007 and well this will be very worrying presumably for Mahmoud Abbas we saw what Hamas did to Fatah supporters in 2007 this is what shocks me each time again and again in June 2007 Hamas slaughtered actually executed 300 Fatah officials when they tied their hands in the back shot them in the knees and throw them down from high school buildings and is that what he wants that the same thing will happen in the West Bank as I said I'm going to say it again they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity and now he can change the reality in the West Bank he is in a catch but he should choose sides this is the time this is a historical week that he should choose sides and actually from here the decision of who is where will be taken by him will they glue to themselves the brutality and barbarism made by Hamas in Gaza or they will become an entity that will want to reach to a certain solution in the future and I mean it's not impossible to imagine he would be looking for protection from the Israelis I mean there has been security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel in the past is that all blown up right now you know there is always there is something that we always said to ourselves okay when I said that the IDF that there is the reality on the ground and there is the price that the PA should pay you know for the ear of the of their own people I think it's about time we changed it okay whatever you say whatever you declare must be the thing that you do on the ground and we should change it it's about time okay let's talk a bit more about that support from the United States and how that is kind of playing into everything I mean this is what all Western leaders are looking to avoid a conflagration in the region Hezbollah says it's not afraid of US firepower it's probably on the lookout for any military craft sent to the Mediterranean from the US I mean a lot of bluster or do you think they are serious about getting involved if I understand the situation correctly we are all serious okay we are serious that's why Metula for example was declared just an hour ago as a closed military area will that start from the north nobody knows are they playing the mind games yes they are doing a good job they always were expert in doing that but what I can say and it's clear the moment Hezbollah starts the northern arena we will see an implementation of President Biden declarations do you think the United States would take part in an operation against Hezbollah I'm sure that if Iran would get involved the United States would be there for us even with the complicated American political situation back home there are many complicated situations but there is also it's a statement it's a statement for the whole western world it's not only a statement for the state of Israel this is what we need to understand and as I said if we will not put an end to this I don't know how to describe this organization Hamas but we have to put an end to that for once otherwise it will hit everybody all over the world alright thank you Grisha let's go to the north our Robert Swift has taken over from Pierre he's at the northern border now he's in Israel's northern border close to Lebanon Robert a very fast moving situation what's happening that's right Laura just a short while ago there were rocket warnings here in the north and due to the tension that has been permeating on this border for the last few days all eyes were instantly on Hezbollah however Hamas have acknowledged that the rocket was launched by them from the Gaza Strip making it one of the more long range rockets that they've fired but the fact that everybody was so quick to jump to the fear that it was Hezbollah it just goes to demonstrate the persistent tension that is occurring here over the last few days we've had several false alarms and also several instances of genuine fire including anti-tank missiles that have been fired from Hezbollah IDF positions and retaliations from IDF artillery and aircraft in response to this there's been a build up of troops along this border I just want to point out to the viewers we're looking at live scenes of Metula, the town which has been declared an active military zone right now go ahead Rob, keep going indeed so that's a little further to the northeast of us this is an area that the IDF have declared an active military zone they've asked certain areas have been cordoned off at the minute we're still getting mixed reports of what that is relating to possibly intelligence coming in there which has tipped off the IDF as to activity and causing them to be a bit more cautious around that region all right, Rob, thank you very much indeed let's recap then a great deal that's happened in the last hour or so Hamas claiming responsibility for a long range rocket that has been fired at northern Israel it appears to be the furthest location that has fired at it has fired a barrage of rockets at the south as well, no injuries in either Stelot or Ashkelon as yet there have been protests in the West Bank there are dozens of people arrested let's just wrap things up before we go what is the most important thing that's happened for you in the past hour the most important thing is that Hamas is failing it was supposed to be a test for Hamas and it looks like they are failing and I'm happy that they are failing why would you say that? because their goal was to set the borders on fire and it looks like they are failing so yes, maybe in the West Bank we see some clashes Jordan is quiet Lebanon it looks like they will not join the arena as for now as I said the second test would be when the ground entry will start Egypt is quiet and let's see what will happen all over the moment they will start waking up, let's not forget the ramifications for this conflict as far away as Beijing tonight, we will keep you updated with all the very latest developments day 7, Israel is at war with Hamas stay tuned, this is I-24 news we are coming to you live from Tel Aviv don't go anywhere is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we are talking within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped tell us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity this is going to be something we don't know where it is really difficult it is natural from the beginning from the fish to the production of the food of the plants because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure the weight or the water above your head we are able to save energy I-24 news we are coming to you live day 7 of Israel's war with Hamas the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel last Saturday were worse than the crimes of ISIS Austin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before holding a joint press conference alongside the Israeli Defense Minister Yav Galant Austin pledged additional military aid and gave a strong message of support for Israel OK we can listen to that in a moment where Austin went on to warn other non-state actors in the region against getting involved in the conflict in response the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah said it was not afraid of US threats and was ready to enter the war from the south where Gaza is being pounded by unprecedented IAF airstrikes Hamas fired a long range missile towards the lower Galilee region that was intercepted by the Israeli missile defense system with David Sling inside Gaza Hamas has been actively trying to prevent civilians from heeding IDF warnings to move south ahead of an expected ground incursion ahead of the rival Palestinian faction Mahmoud Abbas also urged the civilians in Gaza not to flee the north well the King of Jordan King Abdullah has been meeting with the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken today Blinken told the King that Hamas did not represent Palestinian aspirations there have been pro-Hamas protests in the West Bank and Jordan Jordanian security forces using tear gas to disperse the protests well the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also met with Mahmoud Abbas and remember between 150 and 200 hostages are still being held in Gaza mainly Israelis but also Americans, French Italians, Thais and others many young children are among them in Israel the death toll from the Hamas onslaught has now topped 1300 with 3400 people injured let's take a listen now to the US Defense Secretary a short while ago the USS Gerald our forward carrier strike group is now in the region led by the largest aircraft carrier in the world we've augmented US fighter aircraft squadrons in the Middle East and the US Department of Defense stands fully ready to deploy additional assets if necessary we will remain in close contact with our valued partners across the region and security assistance from the Department of Defense is already rapidly flowing into Israel that includes munitions and air defense capabilities and other equipment and resources it also includes more interceptors for Iron Dome to save Israeli lives and we will continue to ensure that Israel has what it needs to keep itself secure US deployment of assets and land in air and at sea sends a strong message to both our partners and enemies in the region this is a war on the existence of Israel as a prosperous state as a democratic state as the homeland of the Jewish people this is a war on freedom and on our common values and we are on the front line we will keep fighting and we will win this war we've also had a message of support for Israel from the German Foreign Minister take a listen the Excellency the Eli in these horrible days we the people of Germany we are standing with you we are feeling with you we are all Israelis in these days so I would like to convey our deepest solidarity from the government of Germany but also from the people of Germany to all people of Israel we are all Israelis the message there from the German government the German Foreign Minister here in Israel along with other foreign leaders let's go to Jerusalem our correspondent Hamda Salahut Hamda the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been meeting with Jordan's king Abdullah today Abdullah finds himself in quite a difficult situation right now doesn't he that's right thousands of Jordanians protesting today trying to really show their solidarity inside the Gaza Strip right now the Jordanian army using tear gas and other sorts of riot dispersal mechanisms to really get the people in order Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also meeting with the Jordanian king to discuss the ongoing situation protests also throughout the Middle East and Iraq Yemen, Turkey, Lebanon there are videos of people approaching the border holding Palestinian flags so not only does the Jordanian king find himself in a predicament but you're also looking at the Turks here who are an Israeli ally but also very pro-Palestinian so the international community stance on this is quite mixed as world leaders who are allies find themselves in quite the predicament now and it's interesting isn't it Hamda the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have been so bitterly divided for so long yet Abbas very much aligning himself with Hamas in terms of telling civilians who are in northern Gaza to stay put and not to move south as warned to do so by the IDF this is a message we've been hearing from several Arab leaders that Palestinians need to stay steadfast on their lands you remember just a couple of months ago all the different Palestinian factions met to try to form some sort of reconciliation between the two of them specifically Hamas and Fatah who've had internal disputes for years and remember in the Gaza Strip Fatah was overthrown and Hamas really took over in a coup type of way so the Palestinian authority now allowing a large showcase of support for Hamas these protests in Ramallah marching toward several checkpoints marching towards settlements and the protests still happening throughout other parts of the West Bank like Jinnin and Nablus but here in Jerusalem as you can tell behind me they really inserted its order there are no more road closures because any sort of clashes have now ended at the end of the Friday prayer just a few hours ago dozens of arrests of Palestinians over the past few days that's correct dozens of arrests everywhere both in the West Bank and in Jerusalem people taking to the streets people trying to really send a message to Israeli authorities that they are not going to be silenced that they are here there have been several instances of violence also in Jerusalem between Israeli settlers and Palestinians yesterday there was also a Palestinian who shot at the border police two officers injured there that shooter later found apprehended and actually was killed in a shootout with the Israeli military but there have been dozens of arrests there and you know you can be sure in times like this when the population is tense when there is heavy emotion among the people who are involved in the war there is sure to be conflict in other parts of the country not just where the war is but specifically in places like Jerusalem and the West Bank that have been really flash points and hotbeds for this type of violence for years Hamda, thank you very much Hamda Salahut there over in Jerusalem Grisha Yakovovich is with me in the studio Colonel and former serving in the COGAT organization thank you for being with us Grisha, in the past whenever Israel has gone to fight Hamas in Gaza it has found itself very quickly under international pressure to stop and to pull back and the consequences it has never in the past destroyed Hamas Israel says it will now destroy Hamas we've just heard, you heard the German foreign minister there they've been very pro-Palestinian in the past we've also had an almost unconditional message of support from the United States this is a completely different situation isn't it? Yeah, as I said previously it's an earthquake in Israel and it's an earthquake also at the western world and I want to explain what you've just said there were four rounds of escalation between Israel and Hamas and another three between Israel and Pej, Palestinian Islamic Jihad so let's refer only to the four with Hamas because they are the ones who are actually really matters as we remember Hamas aside when Israel engaged with Pej in the past and it was always about the balance of what would be the number of casualties inside the Gaza Strip, the damage with the legitimacy that Israel has to respond so four rounds of escalation 2008, 2012 2014 and 2021 it's always the moment that the casualties reached a certain number that was a little bit too high than what the western world can accept this is when pressure was imposed on Israel to stop, to reach to a ceasefire to negotiate and to open the humanitarian corridors etc and etc and this is where we were all wrong because actually the western world pressing or pushing Israel to the corner actually helped Hamas to create an equation that says the only way to get something from the west is by force so actually by doing that we all served Hamas goals and Hamas narratives of Mokawa in Arabic, it's called resistance not to mention the aid that has flowed in from foreign powers as well for the Palestinians of course, by the way 2014 it was to push all the aid that landed in Ben Gurion airport in Tugasa through Kerem Shalom crossing and errors and we did it, because we needed to get legitimacy to fight terror now I think the whole world sees that it's all changed and first of all we need to put an end to terror and only then we will start dealing with humanity the situation is different this time around as well tragically because Hamas is holding anywhere between 150 and 200 hostages most of them Israelis but other foreign nationals as well along with the airstrikes there is no electricity or water what are the conditions like will this have a significant impact on Hamas's capabilities because they have been firing rockets throughout the day do you think that they will start now to feel the brunt of that I want to talk about facts okay somebody asked me two days ago how come Israel declared that we stop all water to Gaza and it will lead them to a humanitarian crisis I said just a minute professor it was a professor actually what is the amount of water that Israel supplies to Gaza he said no I said did you know that it's only 10% of the consumption he said if that's so there's no question so let's talk about facts from the aquifer from the aquifer this is why energy is so critical by the way because the salinity of the aquifer is so high that they need to clean it using electricity so Israel supplied only 45% of the electricity consumption to Gaza from the power plant in Ashkelon and from Bel Sheva this is what Israel stopped let's not forget when Hamas built rockets in the terror industry underground they used electricity coming from Israel and who paid for that? the president from the West Bank it's not us Israelis they paid for that actually Hamas used we're getting word of protest in Yemen this is the latest Arab country where pro Hamas supporters have been out on the streets Yemen of course a country deep in conflict itself home to one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the war between the Iran backed Hussis and the Gulf state coalition so there you can see out on the streets of I'm not sure if it's Arden or Asana that we're looking at we're looking at a we're looking at we're looking at the capital Sanaa in Yemen there you can see pro-Palestinian protest we've also seen this in Baghdad today and in Jordan's capital Amman and this of course is a response to that call by the Hamas leadership in Qatar saying they wanted a global day of support for the Hamas onslaught so we're seeing in several Arab capitals interestingly though given Iran's role in all of this no protests in Tehran which is interesting you won't see Iranian civilians out on the streets voicing support for Hamas which is interesting I think we can go now to Ashkelon in the south of Israel the city has come under substantial rocket fire today Mary McAuliffe is there Mary hopefully still no reports of any injuries where you are that's correct Laura we haven't seen any reports of injuries so far we also don't see many people out here on the streets so it does seem that a lot of residents who lived here have perhaps gone north to more safer areas because they have seen incessant rocket barrages fired at this area over the past week and just today in the past few hours Hamas says it's fired over 150 rockets at Ashkelon and Ashdod so our camera man Dean Barenboim can show you some of the smoke you can see rising those three towers belong to the Ashkelon power plant and you can see just in front of it we just drove by there so there are two fires in that open area which just meters away from that power plant probably about 50 to 100 meters away so very near hitting those power plants which is of course a crucial part of electricity to bring electricity to those in this region and those in this area specifically we're also standing just next to Ashkelon that was hit by her mass rockets in recent days so Ashkelon has certainly seen very large barrages fired at them many of them hitting luckily today so far we have not seen injuries or casualties and of course you were in stalwarts earlier this morning weren't you Mary the scene of some of the Hamas atrocities that were committed last Saturday people there still identifying and burying their dead that's absolutely right Laura so we continue to see this happening as authorities identify exactly what happened finishing the work of completing the identification of some of the bodies that were found there so it was one of the first areas that was hit hard by these Hamas terror infiltrators last Saturday and authorities are still trying to comb through this wreckage and while there even today we still are seeing rockets fired at that city we were in an area in the center of town many shops cafes had their windows blown out and shattered luckily today again we didn't see any reports of injuries because that city has been completely evacuated over the rockets that have been fired there and for all the residents there and going what they've been undergoing for the past week a lot of them have already fled and gone north to safer areas inside the country yeah understandable people there have suffered like no human beings should suffer Mary thank you very much indeed Mary McCall if there is in Ashkelon in the south Grisha they're still firing rockets despite the sustained pressure from the Israeli Air Force they will continue firing rockets this is not something that would the temple of the rockets two days ago yeah two days ago they lowered the temple because they understand that we are entering into a long long war so they will launch rockets twice two times a day like drops they will try and pull maybe new cards from the sleeves like the rocket today that was launched from Gaza to the north and let's see what will be the new surprises but they understand that it's going to be long how has the iron dome been holding up excellent as we can see and we saw David Sling used which is also used as we can see also the second layer of our defense and we are prepared with the third layer when you look at the protests on the streets of Arab cities like Baghdad Sanaa in Yemen Amman in Jordan this is a response to the Hamas leadership in Qatar calling for a global day of support for Hamas what do you think they got in terms of a response I mean it's pretty expected isn't it that you would see in Baghdad which is essentially controlled by Iran and other cities it doesn't bother me Baghdad or Sanaa or whatever what bothers me is that in Sweden pro-Palestinians just kidnapped the police car and destroyed it totally this is what bothers me what's happening in the west in Paris no in Sweden also in Paris yes this is what the west should actually be aware of because it happens to us it will happen to them if they will not deal with that with us right now misguided humanitarian concerns led to this situation in Europe well I think we can go to the north now we can go to the north of Israel Rob Swift is there Robert Swift we've had a pretty tense chain of events haven't we this morning Rob first we had Hezbollah stating openly that it's ready to get involved in the conflict and just a couple of minutes later a long-range rocket fired at the north from Gaza that's correct once again I think as it was the case two days ago with the drone false alarm the two theaters the north theater and the southern theater slightly interfering with each other causing concern that Hezbollah were possibly about ready to enter the conflict but this rocket launch it has been claimed by Hamas it was a long-range launch from Gaza landing here in the northern part of the country it was actually one of the most long-range launches from the Gaza Strip that we've seen with Hamas saying that it was a launch of a Ayush 250 rocket and they said that this rocket was launched towards the north of Israel towards the Fed in response to what it termed the expulsion of Gazans from the north of the Gaza Strip now it's worth noting that as has been mentioned previously that this rocket was taken out with David Sling to remind our viewers Israel has three layers of defense with regards to air defense is the famous Iron Dome David Sling and also the Arrow 3 so this was the medium range interception that took place there with reports and some video clips coming through from one of our other teams on the ground just to the south of us of smoke on the ground there so that's possibly a location of where the interception may have fallen around the area of Kiryat Atta now going further north just to recap on the situation around Matula as we stated previously there was reports there that the Israeli military had closed off a zone now the army has said to refine the point that it was just a row of houses buildings which are looking immediately onto the Lebanese border that were being closed off and that this was due to fears of attacks from small arms fire RPGs and possible sniper fire these are all weapon systems that require direct line of sight so it makes sense that the army if they are concerned about this that they would cordon off the buildings which have an immediate face towards the Lebanese border out of caution towards attacks from there if this northern border is to heat up as the fears around that scenario continue Rob, thank you for now Israel's northern border with Lebanon well this country is coming together like never before people pulling together following the atrocities committed last week and the ongoing war with Hamas Volunteer centres around the country including one here in Tel Aviv thousands of volunteers are there rallying troops the American sector of state Anthony Blinken paid a short visit there today our correspondent Oris Shapiro reports The spirit of unity of volunteerism of people coming and having the backs of their brothers and sisters Thank you very much Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was the guest of honour here at the Expo Tel Aviv headquarter the biggest volunteer centre in Israel which opened right after the horrific wave of terror erupted last Saturday Secretary Blinken met Eyal Nave one of the leaders of Akim Laneshek in arms one of the organisations behind this enormous operation we saw what President Biden said and it was heartwarming this is exactly what we want him to say we want him to know that we have a strong democratic country and that we are the best of friends with America this huge compound which is used as an exhibition centre most of the year is now a mega centre which divided to several sections the main hall on the parking lot is where food and equipment is being handed, packed and delivered to the residents of the south it's like impossible to stay home you're not really walking because most of the people are recruited so we are half walking and I need it for myself I need it just to be to be focused on something like help and not just to grief at home another section is dedicated to locating and identifying missing people dozens of volunteers gather here using their computer and social media skills we are searching photos of the missing people on WhatsApp, Telegram all the social media our first goal is to reduce the list by eliminating people who were not there we want to create a database of people who were abducted or are suspected to have been abducted for now the work is by hand we search on each Facebook page and see if there is any activity in the profile brothers in arms is mostly known for its part in the protest against the Israeli government but the activists here say that starting from Saturday they are all united in one mission assisting the people of the south the Israeli heart was open wide nobody cares about who you voted for or if you are against or in favor of the judicial reforms everybody here just wants to help the crowd of people sang an iconic Israeli song to Blinken which says the whole world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to be scared at all perhaps a short minute of hope for the people of Israel in this terrible, traumatic week alright, so that is how this tense time Grisha, you've got a clip on your phone that's gone viral on Arab media tell us what you've seen I don't know if it's fake or not but it's something that is coming from the west bank Fatah military guy maybe Tendim or I don't know that is calling to the people of Gaza not to listen to Hamas that are stopping them from crossing Gaza from the northern part Gaza to the south because he says there on the clip it's like they behaved with us worse than the occupation and he's supporting the people of Gaza he's supporting their struggle and he says it should be under Fatah but he's breaking with Abbas who told civilians to stay in the north he's advising civilians in Gaza to the south he's advising civilians in Gaza we have his name he's covered it's gone viral, I don't know if it's fake if it's real, if it's true or not we need to confirm it but it's very interesting it's the first time I hear something like that absolutely, okay Grisha, for now thank you very much indeed we're going to take a short break we'll be back with more coverage shortly stay tuned, this is I-24 News, we're live from Tel Aviv is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us, we don't know what to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity of the world access to our website www.recargas.tis.com.co select the download and type the number you want to download also they receive a double of download for $8 or more this is I-24 News, we're coming live from Tel Aviv it's day 7 of Israel's war with Hamas the US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin says the atrocities committed committed by Hamas in southern Israel last Saturday were worse than the crimes of ISIS. Austin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before holding a joint press conference alongside the Israeli Defense Minister Yav Galant. Austin pledged additional military aid and gave a strong message of support for Israel. Take a listen. Okay, we can listen to that in a moment. Well, Austin went on to warn other non-state actors in the region against getting involved in the conflict in response. The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah said it was not afraid of US threats and was ready to enter the war. From the south, where Gaza is being pounded by unprecedented IAF airstrikes, Hamas fired a long-range missile towards the lower Galilee region that was intercepted by the Israeli missile defense system David Sling. Inside Gaza, Hamas has been actively trying to prevent civilians from heeding IDF warnings to move south ahead of an expected ground incursion. The head of the rival Palestinian faction Mahmoud Abbas also urged civilians in Gaza not to flee the north. Well, the king of Jordan, King Abdullah, has been meeting with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today. Blinken told the king that Hamas did not represent Palestinian aspirations. There have been pro-Hamas protests in the West Bank and Jordan, Jordanian security forces, using tear gas to disperse the protests. Well, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also met with Mahmoud Abbas and remember between 150 and 200 hostages are still being held in Gaza, mainly Israelis, but also Americans, French, Italians, Thais and others. Many young children are among them. In Israel, the death toll from the Hamas onslaught has now topped 1,300 with 3,400 people injured. Let's take a listen now to the US Defense Secretary a short while ago. The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is now in the region led by the largest aircraft carrier in the world. We've augmented US fighter aircraft squadrons in the Middle East and the US Department of Defense stands fully ready to deploy additional assets if necessary. We will remain in close contact with our valued partners across the region and security assistance from the Department of Defense is already rapidly flowing into Israel. That includes munitions and air defense capabilities and other equipment and resources. It also includes more interceptors for Iron Dome to save Israeli lives and we will continue to ensure that Israel has what it needs to keep itself secure. US deployment of assets on land in air and at sea sends a strong message on to both our partners and enemies in the region. This is a war on the existence of Israel as a prosperous state as a democratic state as the homeland of the Jewish people. This is a war on freedom and on our common values and we are on the front line. We will keep fighting and we will win this war. We've also had a message of support for Israel from the German Foreign Minister. Take a listen. The Excellency, the Eli. In these horrible days, we, the people of Germany, are standing with you. We are feeling with you. We are all Israelis in these days. So I would like to convey our deepest solidarity from the government of Germany but also from the people of Germany to all people of Israel. We are all Israelis. The message there from the German government, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is here in Israel as well along with other foreign leaders. Let's go to Jerusalem. Our correspondent, Hamda Salahut, is there and Hamda, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken has been meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah today. Abdullah finds himself in quite a difficult situation right now, doesn't he? That's right. Thousands of Jordanians protesting today trying to really show their solidarity for the situation inside the Gaza Strip right now, the Jordanian army using tear gas and other sorts of riot dispersal mechanisms to really get the people in order. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also meeting with the Jordanian King to discuss the ongoing situation, protests also throughout the Middle East and Iraq, Yemen, Turkey, Lebanon. There are videos of people approaching the border holding Palestinian flags. So not only does the Jordanian King find himself in a predicament but you're also looking at the Turks here who are an Israeli ally but also very pro-Palestinian. So the international community stance on this is quite mixed as world leaders who are allies find themselves in quite the predicament now. And it's interesting, isn't it Hamda? The Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have been so bitterly divided for so long yet Abbas very much aligning himself with Hamas in terms of telling civilians who are in northern Gaza to stay put and not to move south as warned to do so by the IDF. This is a message we've been hearing from several Arab leaders that Palestinians need to stay steadfast on their land. You remember just a couple of months ago all the different Palestinian factions met to try to form some sort of reconciliation between the two of them specifically Hamas and Fatah who've had internal disputes for years. And remember in the Gaza Strip Fatah was overthrown and Hamas really took over in a coup type of way. So the Palestinian Authority now allowing a large showcase of support for Hamas. These protests in Ramallah marching towards several checkpoints marching towards settlements and the protests still happening throughout other parts of the West Bank like Jenin and Nablus but here in Jerusalem as you can tell behind me the Israeli military has really inserted its order. There are no more road closures because any sort of clashes have now ended at the end of the Friday prayer just a few hours ago and dozens of arrests of Palestinians over the past few days. That's correct dozens of arrests everywhere both in the West Bank and in Jerusalem people taking to the streets people trying to really send a message to Israeli authorities that they are not going to be silenced that they are here there have been several instances of violence also in Jerusalem between Israeli settlers and Palestinians yesterday there was also a Palestinian who shot at the border police two officers injured there that shooter later found apprehended and actually was was killed in a shootout with the Israeli military but there have been dozens of arrests there and you know you can be sure in times like this when the population is tense when there is heavy emotion among the people who are involved in this war there is sure to be conflict in other parts of the country not just where the war is but specifically in places like Jerusalem and the West Bank that have been really the flashpoint set and hotbeds for this type of violence for years. Hamda thank you very much Hamda Salahut there over in Jerusalem Grisha Yakubovich is within the studio kernel and former serving in the Kogat organization thank you for being with us and Grisha in the past whenever Israel has gone to fight Hamas in Gaza it has found it itself very quickly under international pressure to stop and to pull back and the consequences it has never in the past destroyed Hamas Israel says it will now destroy Hamas we've just heard you heard the German foreign minister there they've been very pro-Palestinian in the past we've also had an almost unconditional message of support from the United States this is a completely different situation isn't it? Yeah as I said previously it's an earthquake in Israel and it's an earthquake also at the western world and I want to explain what you've just said there were four rounds of escalation between Israel and Hamas and another three between Israel and Pitch, Palestinian Islamic Jihad so let's refer only to the fall with Hamas because there are the ones who are actually really matters as we remember Hamas set aside when Israel engaged with Pitch in the past and it was always about the balance of what would be the number of casualties inside the Gaza Strip okay the damage okay with the legitimacy that Israel has to respond so four rounds of escalation 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021 it's always the moment that the casualties reached a certain number that was a little bit too high than what the western world can accept this is when pressure was imposed on on Israel to stop to reach to a ceasefire to negotiate and to open humanitarian corridors etc and etc and this is where we were all wrong because actually the western world pressing or pushing Israel to the corner actually helped Hamas to create an equation that says the only way to get something from the west is by force so actually by doing that we all served Hamas goals and Hamas narratives of Moqawama in Arabic it's called resistance not to mention the aid that is flowed in from foreign powers as well for the Palestinians of course by the way 2014 my responsibility was to push all the aid that landed in Ben-Gurion airport into Gaza through Karam Shalom crossing and areas and we did it okay we did it because we needed to get legitimacy to fight terror now I think the whole world sees that it's all changed and first of all we need to put an end to terror and only then we will start dealing with humanity and the situation is different this time around as well tragically because Hamas is holding anywhere between 150 and 200 hostages most of them Israelis but other foreign nationals as well as along with the the airstrikes there is no electricity or water what what are the conditions like it will this have a significant impact on Hamas's capabilities because they have been firing rockets throughout the day do you think that they will start now to feel the the brunt of that I want to talk about facts okay somebody asked me two days ago when I led a webinar with Canada how come Israel declared that we stop all water to Gaza and it will lead them to a humanitarian crisis I said just a minute professor it was a professor do you know actually what is the amount of water that Israel supplies to Gaza he said no I said did you know that it's only 10% of the consumption he said if that's so there's no question so let's talk about facts from that from that for this is why energy is so critical by the way because the salinity of the aquifer is so high that they need to to to clean it okay using electricity so Israel supplied only 45% of the electricity consumption to Gaza okay from the power plant in Ashkelon and from Be'er Sheva this is what Israel stopped let's not forget when Hamas built rockets when Hamas built their terror industry underground they use electricity coming from Israel and who paid for that Mahmoud Abbas the president from the West Bank it's not us Israelis they paid for that actually Hamas used we're getting a word of protest in Yemen this is the latest Arab country where pro Hamas supporters have been out on the streets Yemen of course a country deep in conflict itself home to one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the war between the Iran backed Hussis and the Gulf state coalition so there you can see out on the streets of I'm not sure if it's Arden or a Sanaa that we're looking at we're looking at a we're looking at Sanaa we're looking at the capital Sanaa in Yemen there you can see a pro Palestinian protest we've also seen this in Baghdad today and in Jordan's capital Amman and this of course is a response to that call by the Hamas leadership in Qatar saying they wanted a global day of support for the Hamas onslaught so we're seeing in several Arab capitals interestingly though given Iran's role in all of this no protests no protests in Tehran which is interesting you won't see Iranian civilians out on the streets voicing support for Hamas which is interesting okay I think we can go now to the Ashkelon in the south of Israel this city has come under substantial rocket fire today Mary McAuliffe is there Mary um hopefully still no reports of any injuries where you are that's correct Laura we haven't seen any reports of injuries so far we also don't see many people out here on the streets so it does seem that a lot of residents who lived here have perhaps gone north to more safer areas because they have seen incessant rocket barrages fired at this area over the past week and just today in the past few hours Hamas says it's fired over 150 rockets at Ashkelon and Ashdod and I'll step out of the way so our camera man Dean Barenboim can show you some of the smoke you can see rising those three towers belong to the Ashkelon power plant and you can see just in front of it we just drove by there so there are two fires in that open area which just meters away from that power plant probably about 50 to 100 meters away so very near hitting those power plants which is of course a crucial part of electricity to bring electricity to those in this region in those in this area specifically we're also standing just outside the hospital that was hit by her mass rockets in recent days so Ashkelon has certainly seen very large barrages fired at them many of them hitting luckily today so far we have not seen injuries or casualties and of course you were in stalwart earlier this morning weren't you Mary the scene of some of the Hamas atrocities that were committed last Saturday people they're still identifying and burying they're dead that's absolutely right Laura so we continue to see this happening as authorities continue to comb through the area and trying to identify exactly what happened finishing the work of completing the identification of some of the bodies that were found there Stroh was one of the first areas that was hit hard by these Hamas tear infiltrators last Saturday and authorities are still trying to comb through this wreckage and while there even today we still are seeing rockets fired at the city we were in an area in the center of town many shops cafes had their windows blown out and shattered luckily today again we didn't see any reports of injuries because that city has been completely evacuated over the rockets that have been fired there and for all the residents there and going what they've been undergoing for the past week a lot of them have already fled and gone north to safer areas inside the country yeah understandable people there have suffered like no human beings should suffer Mary thank you very much indeed Mary McCall if there is in Ashkelon in the south um Grisha they're still firing rockets despite the sustained pressure from the Israeli Air Force they will continue firing rockets this is not something you actually they lowered the the temple of the rockets two days ago have any did we yeah two days ago they lowered the temple because they understand that we are entering to a long long war so they will launch rockets twice two times a day like drops they will try and pull maybe maybe new cards from the sleeves like the rocket today that was launched from Gaza to the north and let's see what will be the new surprises but they understand that it's going to be long how has the iron dome been holding up excellent as we can see and we saw David sling used which is also used as we can see also the second layer of our defense and we are prepared with the third layer um when you look at the uh protests on the streets of Arab cities like Baghdad uh Sanaa in Yemen um Amman uh in Jordan this is a response to the Hamas leadership in in Qatar calling for a global day of support for Hamas um what do you think they they got in terms of a response I mean it it's it's pretty expected isn't it that you would see in Baghdad which is you know essentially controlled by Iran and other cities doesn't bother me Baghdad or Sanaa or whatever what bothers me is that in Sweden pro-Palestinians just kidnapped the police car and destroyed it totally this is what bothers me what's happening in the west in Paris in no in Sweden no but also also also also in Paris yes this is what the west should actually be aware of because it happens to us it will happen to them if they will not deal with that with us right now misguided humanitarian concerns have uh led to the situation in Europe well yeah uh I think we can go to the north now we can go to the north of Israel uh Rob Swift is there Robert Swift um we've had a pretty tense uh chain of events haven't we this morning uh Rob first we had um Hezbollah stating openly that it's ready to get involved in the conflict and just a couple of minutes later a long range rocket fired at the north from Gaza and that's correct once again I think uh as it was the case two days ago with the the drone false alarm the two theaters the north theater and the southern theater slightly interfering with each other causing a concern that Hezbollah were possibly about ready to enter the conflict but this rocket launch it has been claimed by Hamas it was a long range launch from Gaza landing here in the northern part of the country it was actually one of the most long range launches from the Gaza Strip that we've seen with the with Hamas saying that it was a launch of a Ayush 250 rocket and they said that this rocket was launched towards the north of Israel towards the Fed in response to what it termed the the expulsion of Gazans from the north of the Gaza Strip now it's worth noting that the as has been mentioned previously that the this rocket was taken out with David Sling to remind our viewers Israel has three layers of defense with regards to air defense is the famous iron dome David Sling and also the arrow three so this was the the medium range interception that took place there with we've reports and some video clips coming through from one of our other teams on the ground just to the south of us of smoke on the ground there so that's possibly a location of where the interception may have fallen around the area of Kiryat Atta now going further north and just to recap on the situation around Matula as we stated previously there was reports there that the Israeli military had closed off a zone now the army has said that to to refine the point that it was just a row of houses buildings which are looking immediately onto the Lebanese border that were being closed off and they said that this was due to fears of attacks from small arms fire rpg's and possible sniper fire these are all weapon systems that require direct line of sight so it makes sense that the army if they are concerned about this that they would cordon off the the buildings which have an immediate face towards the Lebanese border out of caution towards attacks from there if this northern border is to heat up as the fears around that scenario continue Rob thank you for now Rob Swift there at Israel's northern border with Lebanon well this country is coming together like never before people pulling together following the atrocities committed last week and the ongoing war with Hamas volunteer centers around the country including one here in Tel Aviv thousands of volunteers are there rallying the troops the american secretary of state antony blinkin paid a short visit there today our correspondent or should appear in force spirit of unity of volunteerism of people coming and having the backs of their brothers and sisters thank you very much secretary of state antony blinkin was the guest of honor here at the expo tel aviv headquarter the biggest volunteer center in israel which opened right after the horrific wave of terror erupted last Saturday secretary met a young one of the leaders of brothers in arms one of the organizations behind this enormous operation we saw what president biden said and it was heartwarming this is exactly what we wanted him to say we want him to know that we have a strong democratic country and that we are the best of friends with america this huge compound which is used as an exhibition center most of the year is now a mega center which divided to several sections the main hall on the parking lot is where food and equipment is being handed packed and delivered to the residents of the south it's like impossible to stay home you know you're not really walking because most of the people are recruited so like we are half walking and i i need it for myself you know i need it just to be to be focused on something like help and not just to grief at home another section is dedicated to locating and identifying missing people dozens of volunteers gather here using their computer and social media skills we are searching photos of the missing people on whatsapp telegram all the social media our first goal is to reduce the list by eliminating people who were not there we want to create a database of people who were abducted or are suspected to have been abducted for now the work is by hand we search on each facebook page and see if there's any activity in the profile brothers in arms is mostly known for its part in the protest against the israeli government but the activists here say that starting from saturday they're all united in one mission assisting the people of the south the israeli heart was open wide nobody cares about who you voted for or if you are against or in favor of the judicial reforms everybody here just wants to help the crowd of people sang an iconic israeli song to blinken which says the whole world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to be scared at all perhaps a short minute of hope for the people of israel in this terrible traumatic week all right so that is how the country is pulling together at this tense time grisha you've got a clip on your phone that's gone viral on arab media tell us what what you've seen well i don't know if it's fake or not but it's something that comes coming from the west bank fatah a military guy okay maybe ten theme or i don't know that is calling to the people of gaza not to listen to hamas that are stopping them from crossing the gaza from the northern part gaza to the south because he says they're on the clip it's like they behaved with us worse than the occupation okay that is it's a set of israel and he's supporting the people of gaza he's supporting their struggle and he says it should be under fatah but he's breaking with abbas who told civilians to stay in the north um he's advising civilians in gaza to himself he is advising civilians in gaza do we have his name is his name provided just uh he's covered it's gone viral i don't know if it's fake if it's real if it's true or not we need to confirm it yeah we will try and get an update on that it's very interesting it's the first time i hear something like that absolutely okay grisha for now thank you very much indeed we're going to take a short break uh we'll be back with more coverage shortly stay tuned this is our 24 years we're live from telepathy because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure the weight or the water above your head we're able to save energy these last 10 years i have not been in many areas of conflict for me the most intense mission but also certainly the most exciting and the one that brought me to mosul in june 2017 to cover the ferros battle between the iraq forces with who we were embarked on and the terrorists of the islamic state organization who had made of this city their caliphate in iraq a few years earlier after having crossed a mosul in ruin we finally found ourselves in the middle of kazba in the west part of the city nearer to the combats and bombings of the international coalition we are here a few hundred meters away from the mosque nourish it is the same we went from house to house to stay covered by daesh snipers before arriving on a roof at the level of the front line where the young iraq soldiers were able to spread their arsenal and their firepower in front of our cameras this is only after having left this theater of war that i took the measure of what i wanted to live when the information fell according to which a french television team had been killed by an explosive machine a mine in the same place where we found ourselves quelques jours plus tôt over 1300 casualties and over 3000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing knew the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what hamas did follow us as israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join i24 news for the real story of what's going on as i24 news coming to you live from televive it's day seven of israel's war with hamas the u.s defense secretary loyde austin is in televieve earlier he said the atrocities committed by hamas in southern israel last saturday were worse than the crimes of isis austin met with israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu before holding a joint press conference alongside the israeli defense minister yoav galant he pledged additional military aid and gave a strong message of support for israel take a listen the uss gerald our forward carrier strike group is now in the region led by the largest aircraft carrier in the world we've augmented u.s fighter aircraft squadrons in the middle east and the u.s department of defense stands fully ready to deploy additional assets if necessary we will remain in close contact with our valued partners across the region and security assistance from the department of defense is already rapidly flowing into israel that includes munitions and air defense capabilities and other equipment and resources it also includes more interceptors for iron dome to save israeli welcome back this is i-24 news coming to you live from televieve we just had to interrupt our broadcast briefly because hamas rockets were fired at central israel including televieve we have reports of a direct hit in the central city of the hovert no reports as yet of any casualties hopefully we won't have to report that still waiting to hear this is of course now day seven of israel's war with hamas the u.s defense secretary loyde austin in televieve said that the atrocities committed by hamas in southern israel last saturday were worse than the crimes of isis austin met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu before holding a joint press conference alongside the defense minister yoav galant he pledged additional military aid and gave a strong message of support for israel take a listen the uss gerald our forward carrier strike group is now in the region led by the largest aircraft carrier in the world we've augmented us fighter aircraft squadrons in the middle east and the u.s department of defense stands fully ready to deploy additional assets if necessary we will remain in close contact with our valued partners across the region and security assistance from the department of defense is already rapidly flowing into israel that includes munitions and air defense capabilities and other equipment and resources it also includes more interceptors for iron dome to save israeli's life israeli lives and we will continue to ensure that israel has what it needs to keep itself secure us deployment sends a strong message on to both our partners and enemies in the region this is a war on the existence of israel as a prosperous state as a democratic state as the homeland of the jewish people this is a war on freedom and on our common values and we are on the front line we will keep fighting and we will win this war the excellency the ilay in these horrible days we the people of germany are standing with you we are feeling with you we are all israelis these days so i would like to convey our deepest solidarity from the government of germany but also from the people of germany to all people of israel that was the german foreign minister speaking there as well she's also in televive along with other EU officials who have jetted into israel at this time of war to show solidarity while austin during his speech went on to warn other non-state actors in the region against getting involved in response the leavenese terrorist organization hezbollah said it was not afraid of us threats and was ready to enter the war well from the south where gaza is being pounded by unprecedented israeli airstrikes hamas fired a long-range missile towards the lower galley region that was intercepted by israeli missile defense system david sling and inside gaza hamas has been actively trying to prevent civilians from heeding i df warnings to move south ahead of an expected ground incursion the head of the rival palestinian faction also urged civilians not to flee northern gaza earlier in the jordanian capital amman the us secretary of state antony blinken met with king abdallah and he told him that hamas did not represent palestinian aspirations there have been pro hamas protests in the west bank and jordan jordanian security forces used tear gas to disperse those protests also in bagdad and in sanah the capital of yemen well antony blinken is now in doha meeting with the emir of katar a reminder katar is not only a close us ally it's also home to the hamas leadership and remember of course as well between 150 and 200 hostages are currently being held in gaza most of them are israelis there are also americans french italyans thai citizens and others and of course many young children are among them and the death toll from the hamas onslaught has now topped 1300 with 3400 injured and i'm joined in the studio by danie ayalon he's the former israeli ambassador to the united states thank you for hi laura hi danie thanks for being with us so let's start then talking about that message of support from the united states yes laura i would say it's almost unprecedented and it's you know given the global situation where the united states allies have been threatened all over whether it's taiwan by china the ukraine and nato by russia and and now with the iranian proxies against israel which is the most dependable and the best ally of the united states here in the middle east they had to show a real a real show of force hence the very very clear unequivocal messages from president biden all the way down blink on the foreign the secretary of state and of course now loyde austin and and and this is corroborates that this are not just empty words this is supported by the strike force that has been sent to the middle east the world's biggest aircraft carrier right and this is just to basically it's a warning to iran and khizballa not to open a second front at the same time we see that we have a green card in terms of a diplomatic um let's say um timeline to do what we need to do uh in gaza to usually at this point there is a lot of international pressure from the americans and the europeans to stop the bombing yes this time we haven't we haven't seen we haven't seen that quite the country because again the understanding is not only that hamas is the most savage organization just and it's it's just like isis and even more worse than isis is what even worse than isis yes people talked about them as as beasts you know beasts are not behaving as as badly as they do so so here there is this emotional issue there is the moral issue that you cannot allow such crime against humanities to be unpunished and secondly there is the strategic thinking whereby hamas now is looked upon as the main element for this stability and violence in the middle east hence it has to be neutralized as a force and of course uh the hamas leadership um is in doha is in katar which is a u.s. non-nato member ally uh tony blinkin is there right now he'll be meeting with the katari leadership i mean how can uh america possibly have a situation where it says it has israel's back is standing 100 with israel at the same time it still has relations with the country that hosts hamas this yeah it's a good point actually it's in cooperation with israel because the idea now in order to go after hamas with the minimum amount of civilian casualties which are which are held captive by as hostages by by hamas the attempt now is to create a humanitarian corridor from gaza for the hundreds of thousands of palatine refugees to leave the area to go into the Sinai to this vast expenses in the Sinai desert where they can be hosted by egyptians with tents and food and supply just like the millions of refugees from syria after they were butchered by their leader Assad they moved to turkey to be housed there so this is the idea now in order to do that you have to have cooperation from Egypt but both katar because katar is the one that can supply the uh the means in terms of financial support because Egypt cannot do it by itself okay and that's the diplomatic handle and danny stay with us um i just want to bring in uh some breaking news reports now that one woman um moderately wounded following that rocket attack uh that had a direct hit in the central city of rehovert one woman has been moderately injured uh no more casualties as yet um let's bring in our brigadier general hanan geffen former commander of the 8200 intelligence unit of the idf uh thanks very much for being with us brigadier your thoughts on this day seven of the war yeah we have to understand the i would say two main points i would like to add to the discussion we are running first of all just to remind us the way ISIS was uh was defeated is going after their leaders once their leader were targeted by the u.s forces very successfully laws in syria and iraq uh this group was vanished uh dispressed uh and this is exactly where we are standing right now um the population of gaza is of no interest to this leadership the only way the only thing that they are mine uh is uh acting against a jews this entity that they will not recognize as a um as a country as a nation uh it's a very uh un-rational uh actor not uh acting not rational in this area so right now they are uh going to be targeted that's why the population was asked to move uh trying to move the population south of the city of gaza where they are hiding under the hospitals and and and tunnels and it would be a very tough fight to get them out but there's no other way to get them to uh to let this uh go and i would like to make another point so far it seemed that they didn't understand that the the the changing of conditions the play the game is where it's playing is nothing compared to the way uh it was it acted in the last 15 years letting them uh in after every round of rockets getting away with it uh with international uh good souls the human uh cancels of the of the urinal or the Norwegian refugee cancels uh this or that cancels right now they are facing a different uh israel a very tough israel uh going through and the determination get them out where they are and finish this this country is reeling from a catastrophic intelligence failure that will be dealt with uh after the war once the war is won um but a lot of people in israel will be worried about what's happening in the west bank um uh in particular um can they count on their intelligence services now yes i would like yes they can and there is a very good the the intelligence services for the shabbat musad the police and then musad are acting very very solely very focused um even in this war we you see in gaza you see hundreds of buildings going down each and each one of these building is a target because it has something to do with Hamas capabilities military capabilities either a communication intelligence uh logistical offices and operatives there are two targets one is the the infrastructure of the Hamas and the other one is operatives are perpetrated part of the the the controlling commanding uh system of Hamas it's a very precise one it's very clear you are hitting uh uh uh in a building you are hitting a floor not all the all the building if it's not necessary so that the the intelligence is 100 percent now in work in both areas both in the gaza and uh israel's enemies have been carrying out a cyber campaign can you tell us about that they will try to do this and that cyber campaign some will be more successful than other but that is not there is nothing to compare to what they are getting they know it from the israeli uh cyber capability so there are hackers here or there with the modern hackers but that that will not change anything in the way this war is won what kind of cyber attacks are we talking about well they're trying to enter a organization trying to send their messages trying to interact activities um but uh nothing that will change actually okay all right have faith in the intelligence services that's a message from Brigadier General Hanan Geff and thank you thank you very much thank you well the russian president vladimir putin says an israeli grounding cushion into gaza would mean unacceptable casualties uh that from the uh russian president um he's also gone on to say that uh the siege of gaza is similar to the nazi blockade of leningrad uh so those are the statements coming out of mosco today uh putin says there is no plans to meet or have any contact with the israeli prime minister benjamin net in yahoo and in state-owned russian media outlet ria navosti many anti-semitic editorials are doing the rounds today including another which likens israel to nazi germany and around 200 000 jews live in russia uh right now uh we're joined by rabbi pinchez goldschmidt he's the former chief rabbi of mosco and the president of the conference of european rabbis and rabbi thank you very much for being with us um we've heard global a global call for support uh for hamas from its leadership in katar does that include russia hamas would like to get support from everywhere everybody and uh we know that uh russia today is a client state of iran getting arms from iran and iran has been the main supporter of hamas in the last year so we see definitely a connection over there and russia of course is not specifically condemned the atrocities committed by hamas is it russia has issued very neutral is not offered any kind of condolences and as you mentioned in ria navosti in the media and also in the propaganda channels of the russian national tv israel was ridiculed and israel was um when it happened a week ago and as you have said has been compared to the wehrmacht looking for a final solution for the palestinians are you concerned about russian jews uh rabbi you're still with us yes yes i am concerned about the fate of russian jews there is definitely a connection between mounting anti-israel propaganda and which is uh mired in also in anti-semitism and uh there is always correlation between foreign policy and internal policy and of course we've had as you know i've called i have called in the past the russian jews uh to follow me and to seek better places to live yeah and of course we've had a very strong show of support for israel uh from ukraine's president zelensky himself fighting a bitter war uh with russia after russia chose to invade his country also committed atrocities yes i think that uh this last week brought ukraine and israel closer than ever before what would you advise jews in russia right now if they're feeling scared they're feeling nervous to shabbat is almost upon us right my recommendation has not changed i'm still fearful and especially after this week and what we have heard through the media and russian comments these are not encouraging in science okay right by gorge mit thank you thank you very much and shabbat shalom to you shabbat all right uh let's go now to the south of israel our marim kolif is in stelots i believe uh i'm sorry ashkelon one of the cities that has come under sustained rocket attacks from hamas this morning um still no casualties mary is that right that's right we're actually here at the hospital now so we have been moving around we were in strokes earlier but here outside the ashkelon hospital day luckily haven't received any injuries yet from any of the strikes hamas did say that it fired over 150 rockets at ashkelon and both cities and areas in southern israel that have come under incessant rocket firing over the past week and so we've seen that continue today in the past couple hours it's been a bit quieter and there haven't been any sirens here in this area but of course as we know as you all have been discussing those sirens also rain out in the north and also in central tel aviv with direct hits there but luckily here in the south we haven't really heard anything in the past two hours meanwhile the israeli air force continues to pound gaza they've warned civilians to move south both factions of the palestinian leadership calling on civilians in gaza not to move to safety that's right laura we are very carefully watching the situation to see what unfolds this idf warning telling all residents to evacuate but also hearing from israeli officials who've said that they understand this is not something that can happen in a matter of hours or even 24 hours which was allegedly the first warning that was issued we have seen mass movements from some gossans evacuating south but of course we're talking about over one million people who are living in the north of gaza this is a tremendous amount of people who are all expected to move south while they brace for this coming israeli assault that israel is warning about that they are going to be conducting extensive activity and claiming they want to do everything they can to try and safeguard civilian lives but for many civilians in gaza they're simply nowhere for them to go and nowhere for them to go fast enough as israeli airstrikes continue to rain down overhead in gaza all right mary thank you very much mary mcculliff there um we can go uh now to no well let's uh let's talk a bit about uh what is happening in gaza then um they're still firing rockets seven days into this um people are saying that they're they're in for the long haul they're they're planning to send a drip drip drip of rockets as this goes on yes according to the intelligence estimates the best estimate they have that um they accrued 15 000 rockets some of them are very long range like the one we saw coming up to the north that was intercepted by the david sling so uh they so far fired about i mean still less than half so they still have some more but their capability is going to be degraded by the day and many of the their launchers have been destroyed but they still you know once you have these launchers you know in a very populated area you know in kindergartens and all this it's very very difficult so we have to brace ourselves for uh some more it's not going to be over until hamas is totally routed out and this is the message and the lesson that we've had from all the operations until now that always ended in a status quo almost where a ceasefire was reached with hamas still having its capabilities and uh this is why it is different now this is why um the americans understand that it has to be the hamas has to be uh eradicated as a uh a military entity hopefully political as well but their ideology of uh of the muslim brotherhood which is a very extreme islamist ideology i'm afraid still lives in the hearts and minds of people this is very hard to eradicate but you can at least limit it and contain it only to a abstract thing but without having weapons that we see they're willing to use in a way that is the most brutal against babies and old ladies and just civilians and of course the full horrors of those atrocities are still being revealed in the communities around the south of israel there have been large protests today in support of hamas in several arab capitals in sanar which is to be expected perhaps also in bagdad and in amman the king of jordan finds himself in quite a complicated position he's just been meeting with the u.s secretary of state tony blinkin of course there is a large palestinian population in jordan jordan has a cold peace with israel it's not an enemy state um what are your what are your thoughts on what's happening yeah palestinians they are they make about 70 percent of the jordanian population so the king has to be very very careful with them and palestinians have always you know already tried to overthrow the hashamite um you know kings back in 1970 when arafat was trying to actually depose king hussein which is the father of king abdallah abdallah of today so he will have actual memories or he has very vivid uh if not personal memories but understanding that actually the hamas and the as they call the islamic brotherhood is a mortal enemy they are mortal emily not just for israel but for all the moderate sunni regimes whether it's in egypt and jordan and the abrahamic states you know the abrahamic court states and saudi arabia this is why you see all these countries although they cannot come out um and how if you were to compare with egypt egypt has a very very strong security apparatus which can um keep protest down we saw what they did to the muslim brotherhood um is there a similar capacity in jordan yes they have a very good intelligence forces they have very good military forces and security forces but they are outnumbered you know in uh in in egypt still the proportion is not as um let's say obvious as it is in jordan we're 70 percent as we mentioned our our palestinian so he has to be very careful he has to kind of walk on eggshells but he is very determined and if push cuffs to shove he will have to do what his father did almost 50 some years ago but this is a very very tough situation and this is why for the united states not to lose its allies especially countries like jordan they have to keep supporting him and they have to keep supporting israel which they do to go all the way with ramas and um shockingly almost it's uh there is a similar situation in some european countries we saw in france yesterday um uh gerald darman the um interior minister banned pro palestinian rallies because of fears of of national security um almost straight afterwards there was a huge rally in uh in paris which was dispersed using tear gas i mean the e u has and continues to be the biggest donor to the palestinians they they cut the aid and then reverse the decision moments later we've just heard that statement from the german foreign minister very strong support from europe um but how do you see europe's role in this well lord this is incomprehensible that uh in europe you would see such manifestation of hatred nazi-like propaganda with swastikas and all that they are mostly they're not in indigenous europeans they're mostly uh muslims incoming muslims through the immigration of the last few decades and unfortunately in in france you have quite a few millions of frances home to the largest muslim community in europe and the largest jewish community as well so they've imported okay uh let's uh well as i said earlier we've have just had um uh rockets fired at central israel um and our piaz steckleback um is with us in central televiv uh pia any damage from those rockets yes exactly laurel rocket sirens have been herty and central israel ish on its beyond televiv and the city of rakhovod which is about 14 kilometers away from your 20-minute drive only where it seems like a house was hit and the traffic island as well we are hearing that a 30-year-old woman was brought to hospital because she was injured by a shrapnel she's lightly injured and in in light condition but she has been brought to hospital here close to a televiv other than there were no reports about direct hits or other injuries and this is of course happening now as prime minister benjamin paniel is meeting with senior members of the defense establishment in the kiria and the defense headquarters here in televiv laurel okay yep there's a security briefing going on right now thank you pia thank you pia steckleback there uh in central televiv which uh was subject to the most recent barrage of hamas rockets um all of this going on uh danie and uh of course we're looking closely what's happening in the north uh of israel there was a an explosion um at uh the uh the border fence i believe um that threat has been uh neutralized but it is very tense in the north isn't it oh it is very much so and uh if iran had its way then they would be willing to sacrifice khizbala to its last lebanese shiai soldier just like they are willing to sacrifice the uh to the the palestinians to the last one of them in case of hamas iran is the mortal enemy not just of israel but to all the sunni countries here and beyond and they are really the mastermind and we know that they have their proxies khizbala and lebanon of course and hamas and islamic jihad they have the hoodies in yemen hence we saw this demonstration in sanah in yemen as you just mentioned and of course they have their iranian militias in or shiai militias in syria in iraq in libya all over the place sudan and and you have so this is why uh the united states were was warning against opening a second front by khizbala and so far it seems like they are hitting and paying attention to that uh i'm not sure that uh they were not planning as a second you know wave of attack had the hamas been successful you know on 7th of october i'm pretty sure we would have seen another attack coming from the north but this was not the case because after very you know very tough week but the idea got a hold of itself and is back to its full capacity hamas atrocities worse than those committed by isis not an israeli official but the defense sector of the united states using those words today um 11 palestinians have been killed following protests across the west bank today answering that call for a global day of support for hamas our hamda salut is in jerusalem hamda what's happening laura good evening a tense calm here in jerusalem the israeli military still closing off a bunch of roads and fear out of people continuing to spill into the city in support of the the situation and in support and solidarity with gaza we've also been hearing from the palestinian prime minister in the last hour saying quote our people in gaza are going through a genocide and it has become a disaster going on to say that israel is committing war crimes and heavily civilian populated areas all throughout the west bank today there were demonstrations in support of gaza marching to settlements marching to checkpoints and the israeli military was really trying to make sure that this did not happen in jerusalem specifically at the flashpoint site of the alexa mosque where there have been demonstrations in the past the israeli military this time giving a zero tolerance policy for any of that and really taking a lot of measures beforehand to make sure people did not come into the city imposing heavy restrictions on who could enter the mosque and at what times so in jerusalem now it is a bit quieter it is a bit calm but look that is all subject to change given the very dynamic and unprecedented situation that the country finds itself in okay and um of course we've uh the idf has warned civilians in gaza to move south um both hamas uh actively preventing civilians from leaving and then uh the palestinian president mahmoud abbas uh saying that civilians should not uh flee likening it to a second knack bar um so that that is uh where we are in terms of the uh palestinian leadership that's correct the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas also meeting with the jordanian king in the last couple of days to discuss the developing situation i'll remind you that protests took place all throughout the middle east today specifically jordan jordanians really showing that solidarity for the situation that's going on in gaza the military they're firing tear gas and other sorts of dispersal mechanisms against them to prevent them from reaching the border now palestinian leadership has been firm on their support for the palestinian people not what while not directly supporting hamas remember there is a lot of inter conflict between the different palestinian factions specifically fetech and hamas they've had a long brutal history the two of them beforehand before this war had begun any display or showcase of support for hamas was uh completely uh destroyed by the palestinian authority they would arrest people they have previously gone into towns with their own security forces arresting people who are hamas operatives really removing any sort of support for hamas but today was a different situation as the palestinian seem to be unified in their support for gaza while not specifically supporting hamas but echoing some of the sentiments that they have well hamda i'm wondering if you're aware of a video that's doing the rounds which purports to show a fatah official um calling on civilians in gaza to ignore hamas and to flee for their safety um we are unable to independently verify but it is going viral on arabic media right there are a lot of reports saying that a lot of officials are telling palestinians not to leave the area a lot of this is because echoing the sentiment of the egyptian president yesterday who said that palestinians must remain steadfast on their land there are a lot of conflicting reports and statements that we are unable to verify ourselves however the palestinians a lot of them are starting to move south in the thousands but not a lot of them are going these really military dropping flyers and masses today throughout the northern part of gaza telling civilians to evacuate indicating a a heavy bombardment is ahead or perhaps a ground invasion that we've been discussing for the last several days the last week rather since this war began but a lot of different sentiments a lot of different rhetoric that has been coming out from from palestinians lora all right hamda thank you hamda sal hotte is in jerusalem um as night is falling um so a lot going on uh this day seven of the war and and the israeli people are are uh they're resilient they're pulling together they're uh volunteering in their you know thousands um a huge um deployment a call up of reservists um it tomorrow will mark one week of course since the atrocities the worst atrocities perpetrated against the jewish people since the holocaust um just your thoughts you know a week on how the country can can get through this okay well i would say in any campaign you know military campaign cannot be just independently uh carried out you have to be thinking already uh from the start what are the political goals the as font clausowitz the famous uh um philosopher of war said that actually the war is the continuation of diplomacy just in other means so we have to look at what is the end game here and in my mind the end game should be a demilitarized gaza where there are no weapons whatsoever no hamas and maybe maybe some civil administration that could be run either by the palestinian authority which were there to begin with until they were thrown out in 2007 by by hamas in order to achieve that you must eradicate hamas totally for that israel is now uh actually creating a humanitarian corridor whereby there's hundreds of thousands of poor palestinians that were held hostage by the hamas that is using them as human shields to go into the southern part of gaza cross the rafa border over to the uh cyanide on the egyptian side there isn't much appetite in egypt for that is that of course not of course not but this is now secondary because they are more much more you know bigger things at stake so uh the egyptians may not be happy with it but they will have to acquiesce and this is why i think the americans are also pushing on that this is why blinkin who was here just yesterday was going to cairo going to katar and um and they will have to do it because if they do not do it in an orderly way there's going to be a stampede of hundreds of thousands coming and they will just crush over so they uh it it would be better to have it in a more organized fashion from the egyptian's point of view uh it seems like a lifetime ago but we were before this happened um talking about the prospects of peace with saudi arabia uh the gulf states have made it clear they don't um they they before this happened they had made it clear that they want to move forward in a in a partnership with israel we were on the brink uh some say of a deal with saudi arabia well where do you see the gulf states and israel's relationship with the united arab emirates well yeah sure the interests are still there because the mortal enemy is iran iran and its proxies and the the best way to uh to actually meet this uh huge danger is by cooperating with israel by aligning with israel this is hence the abram accord and saudi arabias were are very close but ben salman on the phone with the racy the iranian president of course well the saudi is well they have to play a very very complex multi-layer uh a game and the saudi's uh on the one hand you know they have really formal relationship with the with iranians but there is no love lost between tehran and uh and jeda or riyadh so right now of course everything is on hold but once the dust settles and it could take months then i believe at some point the uh there would be the resumption of the diplomatic contacts between israel and saudi arabia right now it's certainly not in the cards we'll have to wait and see but again first and foremost we have a war to win and once this is done this may change the entire architecture of the middle east uh just a word on the unity government that we have in place now in israel that was um a source of real reassurance for many israelis wasn't it yes it was it was a signal basically for the israelis that we are united there is an important thing to do we're all in the same boat but also a signal to all our enemies that thought that they could take advantage of the major social rift we've had it laura and you know we have discussed it for the last 10 months and to show that we are now united and beware anyone who wants to join attacks attacking israel okay danie uh just another report coming out from the american network uh fox news it says as well that hamas is preventing palestinian civilians in guards from leaving their homes um they cite a diplomatic source and another source in gaza city uh so this is not coming from israeli media this is coming from american media fox news and a senior hamas official has denied uh that that is happening um but this is part of their day play isn't it it's an important part of it this has always been their their tactics i mean this is despicable uh media is cowardly as they use this uh civilians um as human shields but this will not help them this time because now it's a moment of truth not just for israel for the entire middle east and maybe for the entire globe how long do you think it will be there before the americans the europeans start telling israeli come on you need to hold back well i think but the with the europeans it's uh maybe a touch and go if i could just if i could just point out for example you look at some of the western media uh cnn the bbc will not call hamas terrorists i think this even though the king of england and the british government does morally reprehensible i don't know what's going on with the bbc they have to really check themselves very well if they are really on the right side of history but i think uh we do have a uh a few more days with the europeans for sure with the americans we have much more time because the americans are looking at it strategically also in the united states there is less pressure from the public to to halt the activities against the hamas you think american public opinion is very much with israel very much so and because we've seen these loud upsetting pro hamas rallies on university campuses that kind of thing but i mean these represent a tiny yes and they're going to be marginalized and you know laura for the first time in years now we see a bipartisan support on israel where israel is no longer a um a political issue between democrats and republicans you know this since barack obama and then donald trump and then some mistakes that here israel made with bibinez and now we just went right into the the the crossfire between democrats and republicans at this point no more and this is very reassuring and of course u.s elections not far off i mean those comments from donald trump yesterday were very worrying weren't they yes uh this is also inexplicable i think that what biden has shown is really um the best support of that an ally can provide uh from biden's point of view it's emotional of course but the presence of the united states cannot afford just being emotional so it wasn't just on an emotional basis it was on a very cool and calculated the strategic thinking that that actually relates to the entire position and image of the united states globally as we mentioned vis-a-vis china taiwan russia ukraine iran here so this support is very natural support because we are natural allies yeah uh daddy thank you uh daddy i along there uh okay we're going to head up to northern israel uh where the situation is tense uh after hezbollah vowed to get involved in the war and said it wasn't deterred uh by that warning by the u.s defense secretary loyd austin uh robert swift is there rob what's happening uh laura there's a firefight developing on the northern border around the community of hanita a little bit earlier about uh an hour ago there was a reports of an infiltration taking place there um an explosion was detected on the border um and idea forces moved in to to see if uh infantry had moved across into the israeli side of the border that has now developed into a firefight uh with the israeli military using small arms and tank fire there's also been israeli artillery fired onto the south lebanese territory um and although we don't have any uh confirmation of airstrikes the sky above our heads has been filled with jets um during the the for the duration of this period it's also worth noting that residents of some northern communities have been ordered to stay in their homes for the time being do we have confirmation from the lebanese side rob at the minute we've not hearing anything from the lebanese side with regards to that but obviously khizbullah have been making threatening noises all day long um so all eyes have been on them waiting to see if they do join the fight this may this may be that moment but it is worth bearing in mind that there's been a series of false alarms with regards to that in recent days and there are uh palestinian specifically khamas factions that do operate in the south of the country but obviously khizbullah is the the main player in that area uh and in terms of the civilian population there many of them are being moved away for example in the city of matula that's correct the the israeli authorities have been preparing for several days for the possibility of something like this taking place with two days ago hospitals started to move in patients out of the area and a number of warnings being given to civilians not so much to orders to evacuate but previously there were more recommendations and in many areas people have taken that advice and moved in with family and friends elsewhere in the country due to the tense atmosphere which appears to me maybe be hitting the boiling point as we speak all right rob thank you very much indeed just to wrap up there and israel is in its thank you rob israel in its seventh day of a war with uh khamas um before we go danie uh final words before we leave well we are a people of a very very long history more i mean longer than most other peoples we've had trials and tribulations we have survived we have prevailed we have thrived and we will continue to thrive once this is over okay danie uh an encouraging message to end the show we do have the world's most powerful uh military standing uh right beside us all this unconditional support from the united states uh today stay tuned to i24 news our coverage continues uh on this day seven of israel's war with khamas goodbye officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity that's what's natural because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure the weight of the water above your head we're able to save energy and breaking news coverage here on i24 news it is day seven of war here in israel over the past week the death toll has risen more than 1300 people were murdered by khamas with close to 3 300 wounded by their combined attacks rocket alert sirens continue to blare throughout communities in the south with some homes taking direct hits but thankfully no casualties in recent hours the garden terror group has expanded their reach by launching rockets at both central and even northern israel as well let's cross now live to our correspondent robert swift who is standing by for us near the israel-lebanon border robert thanks for joining us this evening there's a fear of possible infiltrations from lebanon into israel what's the latest what can you tell us that's correct there's actually been an exchange of fire near the the northern community of hanita which is a kaboots very close to the israeli lebanese border there was a possible infiltration detected there when there was an explosion on the fence line israeli forces moved in to investigate if anybody had used that explosion as a means to cross the border and from there a firefight seems to have developed there are reports of shooting from the lebanese side of the border with israeli forces responding with with artillery and with tank fire there's also been israeli jets in the air over our heads since that incident started to develop in the last hour although we do not have any information with regards to airstrikes and just to remind our listeners that this is one of several security incidents that have taken place in the north of the country so far today with our rocket being fired from the gaza strip all the way into the north it was one of the most long-distance launches from the gaza strip targeting the israeli city of safed although it was intercepted by the the david's air defense system and there are also reports of a security incident in the area of matula which is further to the north east of the country where residents in some buildings some homes along the frontier have been advised to evacuate from their homes for fear of a small arms sniper and rpg fire from across the border at the minute this is this is not an incident that is taking place it's a recommendation most likely based on intelligence a rub we can see quite a busy scene behind you and as you obviously mentioned that there is this fear of possible infiltrations but a lot of the time there does seem to be false reports of these infiltrations coming through on the northern france so how is the security establishment and the infrastructure setting up on the border there in fears of possible actual infiltrations not just from drones but from hezbollah terrorists as well that's correct for the last few days there's been a series of skirmishes at times there's been any tank fire from the lebanese side and israel responding with artillery and aircraft strikes now essentially this is because the big fear on the northern border is that hezbollah will join the fight will add its considerable firepower to hamas fighting on the southern front and so there's great fear with regards to that and so every time there's a small incident like this there there is concern that this could be the the tipping point for the time being there's no confirmation that doesn't appear to be the case this could be yet another skirmish in this series of skirmishes but but there is a great deal of fear with regards to that which goes some of the way to explaining the the series of false alarms that have taken place in the last couple of days correspondent robert swift there on the northern border thank you for that update we'll be touching base with you a little later in the evening meanwhile and while the unrest continues inside and near israel's borders hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world as israelis and jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence security has been upped at israeli embassies worldwide as it has as well at jewish centers globally as across now lifestyle correspondent hamza salchut who is standing by for us in jerusalem hamda good evening there's been a quite a bit of violence coming out of the west bank the latest report that we were getting nine palestinians in the west bank killed during that day of rage what are you hearing and seeing through the west bank and into jerusalem as well with regards to hamas's call right badia so that report now is 11 palestinians killed in those demonstrations a strong show of support in places like ramallah nebless and janine in jerusalem here it was quite calm all day the israeli military imposing restrictions on several parts of the city so that people would not answer that call and come to the city center here to the old city and to the flashpoint at al-qasamas compound today there were only about 5 000 worshipers on a regular friday that is not during a religious time you could see upwards of 50 even 100 000 people at the mosque but today because of those restrictions really restricting people of what age could come women only from inside the old city men over the age of 50 or 55 the protests are actually spread throughout multiple parts of the middle east in places like yemen and iraq turkey pakistan lebanon the demonstrations continue in support of gaza but additionally on the jordanian side a lot of jordanians trying to march to the border to showcase their support for the palestinian cause but the jordanian army stopped them throwing tear gas at them and other riot dispersal methods remember hamas called for people to show their support in a day of rage and a day of anger on friday but this call happened very early on in the week they were really getting the messaging out quite early so that people could prepare themselves for the days to come and hamdegyo mentioned tens calm in jr but what is the security apparatus like at least in the holy city at the moment a lot of reinforcements being sent to the northern and the southern borders what is it like in the capital well look an additional thousands of the border police officers were sent to help patrol the city and set up these blockades essentially that lead to the old city in several neighborhoods like wadil jos which is just a little bit of a walks away about 10 minutes so there is a heavy police presence here behind me you can see it's completely deserted because of those restrictions and blockades that the Israeli military has sent but throughout the old city there are police and army officers all over the place really trying to ensure that no one is getting through no one is trying to protest that no one is trying to cause any sort of unrest in the city correspondent khamdas al-khote in jr we'll be touching base with you a bit later as well and with me here in studio is nadav tamir the former diplomatic advisor for israeli president shimon paris good evening thank you so much for taking the time to be here with me this evening in studio news just in the former defense minister moshaya alone suggested during an interview to channel 12 that israeli should lower their expectations of what the idf is able to do in gaza most israelis at the moment are calling for the eradication of and and let's be clear the khamas terror movement in the gaza strip is the de facto rulers what exactly should israelis be lowering their expectations to according to the former to the former defense minister well every time we have another conflict with khamas even though this time of course is in it's totally different dimension it's the worst attack israel ever suffered but the facts remain that there's no military solution to khamas i mean we could take out many of their capabilities but khamas is a movement kham almost 30 percent of the palestinian society are supporters of khamas not necessarily supported of the terrorism but they're part of the movement of khamas so i think that all those mantras let's take take off khamas i i think he's definitely correct by saying that it's exaggerated so in in a likely scenario that israel does manage to deplete much of khamas's senior members but also they arsenal their facilities what should be left from a political point of view in the gaza strip because as you mentioned if we look at the situation albeit different circumstances with the united states and afghanistan they went in same situation with the idea of retaliation but they were there for 20 years assuming that they could fix the government issue on the ground and that obviously did not come to fruition are we going to be seeing a similar thing here is israel taking on that advice to know that its retaliatory actions have to be followed by something more permanent i hope so i'm not sure i think that what the biden administration was doing is embracing israel in an amazing way one of the most supportive messages ever came from an american president came from biden and also from secretary blink and when they visited here but they also spoke about the need to act according to international law and if you act according to international law there's no way you could because you're going after so many civilians that are there in gaza and they and someone have to take care of them and that requires a strategy political horizon which i don't think the current israeli government could do but we have to think beyond this government and they with american leadership with an international support we have to after this ends the military part we have to have an exit strategy that leads to a political arrangement stay with me because i i do want to touch on on one of the angles that you brought up with regards to a humanitarian corridor and and evidently the civilians inside gaza the israel defense forces has warned over one million gazaans to relocate to the south of the strip this is the israeli military is continuing to pound terror targets however local gaza sources have confirmed to israeli media that hamas is resuming their calls for civilians not to listen to idf propaganda and evacuate the area in some cases it has actually prevented citizens from doing so thus far almost 1800 palestinians have been killed by the retaliatory airstrikes with thousands more wounded although these numbers released by the hamas health ministry do not distinguish between hamas terrorists and innocent civilians well we're going now to our correspondent mary macaul who was standing by for us near the israel gaza border mary the u.s both nissan yaw blink and we also heard it coming out of the u.s defense secretary as well discussing safe areas inside the gaza strip where is there for them to go that's exactly the problem batia there really is nowhere that is safe this is the problem now with over a million residents in the north being told to flee south while israeli airstrikes are still ringing out and pounding the area and also israeli tanks we've continued to see them here in the border area especially we've also heard these israeli tanks throughout the day firing into gaza firing into hamas targets in the area so the citizens were being asked to flee or being asked to do so while under fire and with the added difficulty of there's really nowhere to go in this extremely densely populated strip with egypt also imposing that blockade from the southern exit not allowing palestinians to leave from there really is a burgeoning humanitarian crisis and i can see that you are at the birsey lion hospital in ashkelon so just to remind our viewers that's about a 30 minute drive from the gaza border area to that southern coastal city that coastal city was under a heavy barrage of rockets earlier this afternoon what has it been like there on the ground in the last while that you've been there absolutely bad yes we've been here in the south since this morning in ashkelon particularly hamas says it fired over 150 rockets towards this area and also towards ashtod earlier today we saw videos of massive interceptions taking place over the city driving into the city we saw a number of different smoke from fires that were caused by these rockets some in residential areas hitting cars luckily causing no injuries but also some that fell in open areas near the power plant and massive fires they're burning as these rockets continue to try and hit targets here for the past two hours or so i would say it's been relatively quiet just a few moments ago we did here rocket sirens ring out in ufkanim which is an area near the southern border in berseva really so a bit far from here but here in ashkelon things have quieted down a bit for now but residents are still bracing because they have been under these rocket barrages for a week now and we really don't see many people out in the streets if they are even still staying in the city and haven't already left to safer parts of the country correspondent mary mccall of there in the south of israel stay safe we'll be crossing to you a little later still with me here in studio is nadav tamir the former diplomatic advisor for israeli president shimon paris let's touch base on on what me on what mary was was pointing to there's been recommendations from the idf for a lot of these ghazan civilians to be moving down south towards egypt there's a big question here why is egypt not opening the borders for these ghazans in order to assist them or at least assist what they keep calling the humanitarian crisis that is likely to unfold with israel's striking of the strip why is egypt not involved in at least alleviating some of that pressure on the citizens egypt is concerned that this will spill over to their territories they have a lot of issues with the muslim brotherhood they don't want this to become their problem i think the american administration should work with egyptians to find a solution to this and also israel we have to understand that many of those ghazans are victims of hamas just like we israelis are victims of hamas and i can talk personally that i was today in a funeral and and many of my family were either brutally abducted or killed but we have to understand that the fact that we were hit so badly by really war criminal acts by hamas doesn't take from us the responsibility to be rational and humane in the way we respond to ghaza and i hope that first of all we will prioritize bringing the abductees back home that should be the priority because we can always hit hamas later and secondly whatever we do to eradicate the capabilities of hamas as i said we cannot take hamas completely but to eradicate their capabilities we have to do it in a way that will minimize the damage for the civilians in ghaza absolutely and just before we we bring in our next guest there is newly released footage that is coming out showing how the hamas terrorist open fire at people hiding in the portable toilets of the festival that was near every earm again i'll remind our viewers this was the peace festival where around 260 people were butchered in an open field area they were there to celebrate peace just absolutely unbelievable when we have those images that have just been coming out we'll show them through to you but in the meantime let's move now to another personal testimony of some of those tragedies that are unfolding here in israel i'm joined by al haramati the grandson of varda haramati who was murdered by hamas in kibbutz rayim near the israel ghaza border firstly thank you so very much for for joining us here on our breaking news editions of the i-24 news desk how are you and your family is the rest of you safe hi um thank you very much for having me uh me and the rest of my family are safe now uh i live in hodosh alone which is a little near the central of israel um i have many family that lived in the kibbutz and kibbutz rayim they're all in elat right now um they had to evict the kibbutz they can't stay there right now and unfortunately we didn't even have a few in a row yet for my grandma so the situation is pretty pretty bad you know i can only but begin to try and imagine what you and your family must be going through um can i ask you to talk a little bit about your grandmother and exactly what happened to her yes so it happened october 7th um i woke up in the morning at 6 30 to the first sirens um i was so confused it was it never happened that we have sirens out in hodosh alone i was really worried because there was nothing that indicated this prior to october 7 and when i woke up in the morning i called my sisters and my family to see if everybody's safe because i was very worried about everyone i didn't know what was happening i was scared um and then i got a call from my sister she screamed at the phone i was so i was i can remember her screams until now she was screaming grandma was shot grandma was shot she's dead she's dead and i would i just woke up i was so confused it's been half an hour i we didn't know anything like what's happening what's going on um and and i was just so scared i rushed to my sister's house she lives next to me and we were trying to process everything and trying to reach out to our family in the kibbutz and um we were texting our cousin we're asking him is this true what's happening are you safe he was texting us from the shelter no it's true she was shot dead she's in her bed boss found her boss is her partner he rushed to her the moment he heard that terrorists are in the kibbutz and he found her already dead in the bed my grandma was such a loving person and she would feed the neighborhood cat all the time and she usually doesn't listen to all the alarms and all the warnings that she gets so what we think happened is that she forgot to lock her house and she just went into the shelter and then they broke into her house that's what we think happened but we don't really know if they broke in or they just the door was unlocked but it's just awful because she was helpless she was an 81 year old woman she couldn't do anything and we were speaking to our cousins to see if they're safe at least they were hiding in their shelters they couldn't speak on the phone because they couldn't make any noise because they were running into houses they were breaking into houses they were trying to burn houses for people to come out one of my cousins he got hit by a rocket fragment in his hand and he had to go through surgery but he's safe now and it's just awful that this is the end of her story because she was such a loving person she had two kids seven grandchilds and she had one great granddaughter that was born less than three months ago and all she wanted in the rest of her years alive was to spend time with family and you know share her time with friends family cook for us be with us you know that's all they have left in that age like that's all they hold on to she she grew up in the kibbutz all of her life she loved Israel so much she loved her kibbutz she would never leave it not even when the worst times with the rockets and with all the terror attacks from the sky but who would have thought that it would come into their own homes you know just the images that we're seeing on the screen show just such a warm grandmother who just has almost just unconditional love for her children and her grandchildren I understand your grandmother's partner boy as as you mentioned hid with her body for over 12 hours at what point did anyone official get hold of your family to update you what had happened to your grandmother so um they were actually in the house while she was dead for 28 hours before they came and evict her because the kibbutz was under attack all day and until the IDF and the security forces came and rescued them it was not before like 11 p.m and they couldn't even bring in you know an ambulance or like anybody to come evict her because there was so much terror going around not only kibbutz rain but kibbutz berry which is right next to the kibbutz and the whole kibbutz is near the strip they were all going through their terrors and there was just not enough force to even come evict her when the IDF took back control so he he laid next to her with her in the shelter for 28 hours before they could even come help them Ayal Haramali the grandson of Arda Hammari who was murdered by Hamas in kibbutz rain near the Israel Gaza border Ayal our hearts and our thoughts are with you and your family and hopefully you are able to put your grandmother to rest sometimes soon thank you very much thank you for having me thank you for joining us and still in that area of southern Israel Reim is not only just the kibbutz but also just near that kibbutz an area where the party known as the massacre that happened 260 people were butchered at a peace party i'd like to remind you all the time that we are looking at disturbing images but what you're looking at right now on your screen is Hamas terrorists targeting the public toilets at this party not even bothering to open the doors but simply just shooting indiscriminately as they walk past we've also been given accounts that many people that were working at the bar area at this party were hiding in the refrigerators of which we were told that Hamas terrorists opened the refrigerators found them and shot them as well and still continuing the conversation in studio it's some of these testimonies it's it's at a loss for words and and as anchors that's a hard one for us because that's quite literally our job but it's so difficult because these are so raw and such human testimonies what would be the message to the Israeli public right now that even on seven days of war some still don't know what's happened to their family members whether they've been killed whether they've been taken into Gaza or at this point could many of them still possibly be in hiding well i don't have any comforting words as i said i was in a funeral today i also have family in re'im i lost family members in beri and i'm participating in a headquarters of you know civilians who are trying to help the families of the abductees and there's a lot of work many people are trying to help but for the families it's very hard to to bring comfort and i know that the blood is boiling and people are in anxiety it's the worst we ever had i mean the yom kippur war was also a surprise attack and very devastating but it was all soldiers and people are more prepared when soldiers are being killed but not civilians who were taken from their beds so this is indeed very devastating and not only you know anchors find if i find it hard to find the words but also diplomats like me it's very devastating we are getting word out at the moment that the idf has said that there will be almost a safe passage or corridor for garrisons to be able to flee up until 8 p.m local time that the idf will not target that area until 8 p.m local time um yesterday i was actually stationed in the south at the barzilei hospital in ashkelon where mary mccollif is now and and there was something that really stayed with me and i'm wondering if for the last minute of the broadcast if you'll touch on it one of the reservists was there looking after um his mother or father i believe was in hospital um so he is on standby but not being called up and he said to me there's a terrible sense of guilt with a lot of reservists that can't be brought up and i said i know i agree i didn't serve in the army and i have that sense of guilt he says no we shouldn't have that guilt because you are serving the country by broadcasting these images to the world the people that are donating food are serving the country by helping our brothers and sisters is that the takeaway here that humanity more certain terrorism just rises above it all yeah the solidarity is unbelievable uh you know we almost forgot that a few weeks ago um more than half of the country were demonstrating protesting and they were called anarchists by the government and now everybody are in this together trying to help the victims trying to help the soldiers putting the politics aside and the same mechanisms that we're organizing the demonstrations are now organizing the humanitarian aid which is an amazing show that israel is much more than its government and politics thanks for watching israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped because we don't know what to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity made for me a unique concept in israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen and breaking news coverage here on i24 news it is day seven of war here in israel over the past week the death toll has risen more than 1,300 people were murdered by hamas with close to 3,300 wounded by their combined attacks rocket alert sirens continue to blare throughout communities in the south with some homes taking direct hits but thankfully no casualties in recent hours the guards and terror group has expanded their reach by launching rockets at both central and even northern israel as well let's cross now live to our correspondent robert swift who is standing by for us near the israel-lebanon border robert thanks for joining us this evening there's a fear of possible infiltrations from lebanon into israel what's the latest what can you tell us that's correct there's actually been an exchange of fire near the northern community of hanita which is a kibbutz very close to the israeli lebanese border there was a possible infiltration detected there when there was an explosion on the fence line israeli forces moved in to investigate if anybody had used the explosion as a means to cross the border and from there a firefight seems to have developed there are reports of shooting from the lebanese side of the border with israeli forces responding with with artillery and with tank fire there's also been israeli jets in the air over our heads since that incident started to develop in the last hour although we do not have any information with regards to airstrikes and just to remind our listeners that this is one of several security incidents that have taken place in the north of the country so far today with our rocket being fired from the gaza strip all the way into the north it was one of the most long-distance launches from the gaza strip targeting the israeli city of safed although it was intercepted by the the david air defense system and there are also reports of a security incident in the area of matula which is further to the northeast of the country where residents in some buildings some homes along the frontier have been advised to evacuate from their homes for fear of small arms sniper and rpg fire from across the border at the minute this is this is not an incident that is taking place it's a recommendation most likely based on intelligence a rub we can see quite a busy scene behind you and as you obviously mentioned that there is this fear of possible infiltrations but a lot of the time there does seem to be false reports of these infiltrations coming through on the northern front so how is the security establishment and the infrastructure setting up on the border there in fears of possible actual infiltrations not just from drones but from hezbollah terrorists as well that's correct for the last few days there's been a series of skirmishes at times there's been any tank fire from the lebanese side and israel responding with artillery and aircraft strikes now essentially this is because the big fear on the northern border is that hezbollah will join the fight will add its considerable firepower to chamas fighting on the southern front and so there's great fear with regards to that and so every time there's a small incident like this there is concern that this could be the the tipping point for the time being there's no confirmation that doesn't appear to be the case this could be yet another skirmish in this series of skirmishes but but there is a great deal of fear with regards to that which goes some of the way to explaining the the series of false alarms that have taken place in the last couple of days correspondent robert swift there on the northern border thank you for that update we'll be touching base with you a little later in the evening meanwhile and while the unrest continues inside and near israel's borders chamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world as israelis and jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence security has been upped at israeli embassies worldwide as it has as well at jewish centers globally as across now lifestyle correspondent hamza salchot who is standing by for us in jerusalem hamza good evening there's been a quite a bit of violence coming out of the west bank the latest report that we were getting nine palestinians in the west bank killed during that day of rage what are you hearing and seeing through the west bank and into jerusalem as well with regards to khamas's call right but yeah so that report now is 11 palestinians killed in those demonstrations a strong show of support in places like ramallah nebless and janine in jerusalem here it was quite calm all day the israeli military imposing restrictions on several parts of the city so that people would not answer that call and come to the city center here to the old city and to the flashpoint at oxamos compound today there were only about 5 000 worshipers on a regular friday that is not during a religious time you could see upwards of 50 even 100 000 people at the mosque but today because of those restrictions really restricting people of what age could come women only from inside the old city men over the age of 50 or 55 the protests are actually spread throughout multiple parts of the middle east in places like yemen and iraq turkey pakistan lebanon the demonstrations continue in support of gaza but additionally on the jordanian side a lot of jordanians trying to march to the border to showcase their support for the palestinian cause but the jordanian army stopped them throwing tear gas at them and other riot dispersal methods remember hamas called for people to show their support in a day of rage in a day of anger on friday but this call happened very early on in the week they were really getting the messaging out quite early so that people could prepare themselves for the days to come and ham do you mentioned tens calm in jerusalem but what is the security apparatus like at least in the holy city at the moment a lot of reinforcements being sent to the northern and the southern borders what is it like in the capital well look an additional thousands of the border police officers were sent to help patrol the city and set up these blockades essentially that lead to the old city in several neighborhoods like wadil jos which is just a little bit of a walks away about 10 minutes so there is a heavy police presence here behind me you can see it's completely deserted because of those restrictions and blockades that the israeli military has sent but throughout the old city there are police and army officers all over the place really trying to ensure that no one is getting through no one is trying to protest that no one is trying to cause any sort of unrest in the city correspondent khamdas al-khut there in jerusalem will be touching brace with you a bit later as well and with me here in studio is nadav tamir the former diplomatic advisor for israeli president shimon paris good evening thank you so much for taking the time to be here with me this evening in studio news just in the former defense minister moshaya alone suggested during an interview to channel 12 that israeli should lower their expectations of what the idf is able to do in gaza most israelis at the moment are calling for the eradication of and and let's be clear the khamas terror movement in the gaza strip is the de facto rulers what exactly should israelis be lowering their expectations to according to the former to the former defense minister well every time we have another conflict with khamas even though this time of course is in it's totally different dimension it's the worst attack israel ever suffered but the facts remain that there's no military solution to khamas i mean we could take out many of their capabilities but khamas is a movement almost 30 percent of the palestinian society are supporters of khamas not necessarily supported of the terrorism but they're part of the movement of khamas so i think that all those mantras let's take take off khamas i i think he's definitely correct by saying that it's exaggerated so in in a likely scenario that israel does manage to deplete much of khamas's senior members but also they arsenal their facilities what should be left from a political point of view in the gaza strip because as you mentioned if we look at the situation albeit different circumstances with the united states and afghanistan they went in same situation with the idea of retaliation but they were there for 20 years assuming that they could fix the government issue on the ground and that obviously did not come to fruition are we going to be seeing a similar thing here is israel taking on that advice to know that its retaliatory actions have to be followed by something more permanent i hope so i'm not sure i think that what the biden administration was doing is embracing israel in an amazing way one of the most supportive messages ever came from an american president came from biden and also from secretary blinkin when they visited here but they also spoke about the need to act according to international law and if you act according to international law there's no way you could because you're going after so many civilians that are there in gaza and they and someone have to take care of them and that requires a strategy a political horizon which i don't think the current israeli government could do but we have to think beyond this government and they with american leadership with an international support we have to after this ends the military part we have to have an exit strategy that leads to a political arrangement stay with me because i do want to touch on on one of the angles that you brought up with regards to a humanitarian corridor and evidently the civilians inside gaza the israel defense forces has warned over one million gardens to relocate to the south of the strip this is the israeli military is continuing to pound terror targets however local garden sources have confirmed to israeli media that hamas is resuming their calls for civilians not to listen to idf propaganda and evacuate the area in some cases it has actually prevented citizens from doing so thus far almost 1800 Palestinians have been killed by the retaliatory airstrikes with thousands more wounded although these numbers released by the hamas health ministry do not distinguish between hamas terrorists and innocent civilians while we're going now to our correspondent mary mccauliffe who is standing by for us near the israel gaza border mary the us both nissan yaw blink and we also heard it coming out of the u.s. defense secretary as well discussing safe areas inside the gaza strip where is there for them to go that's exactly the problem batia there really is nowhere that is safe this is the problem now with over a million residents in the north being told to flee south while israeli airstrikes are still ringing out and pounding the area and also israeli tanks we've continued to see them here in the border area especially we've also heard these israeli tanks throughout the day firing into gaza firing into hamas targets in the area so the citizens were being asked to flee or being asked to do so while under fire and with the added difficulty of there's really nowhere to go in this extremely densely populated strip with egypt also imposing that blockade from the southern exit not allowing palestinians to leave from there really is a burgeoning humanitarian crisis and i can see that you are at the birsey lion hospital in ashkelon so just to remind our viewers that's about a 30 minute drive from the gaza border area to that southern coastal city that coastal city was under a heavy barrage of rockets earlier this afternoon what has it been like there on the ground in the last while that you've been there absolutely bad yes we've been here in the south since this morning in ashkelon particularly hamas says it fired over 150 rockets towards this area also towards ashtod earlier today we saw videos of massive interceptions taking place over the city driving into the city we saw a number of different smoke from fires that were caused by these rockets some in residential areas hitting cars luckily causing no injuries but also some that fell in open areas near the power plant and massive fires they're burning as these rockets continue to try and hit targets here for the past two hours or so i would say it's been relatively quiet just a few moments ago we did hear rocket sirens ring out in ufkan neem which is an area near the southern border in berseva really so a bit far from here but here in ashkelon things have quieted down a bit for now but residents are still bracing because they have been under these rocket barrages for a week now and we really don't see many people out in the streets if they are even still staying in the city and haven't already left to safer parts of the country correspondent mary mccall of there in the south of israel stay safe we'll be crossing to you a little later still with me here in studio is nadav tamir the former diplomatic advisor for israeli president shimon paris let's touch base on on what me on what mary was was pointing to there's been recommendations from the idf for a lot of these ghazan civilians to be moving down south towards egypt there's a big question here why is egypt not opening the borders for these ghazans in order to assist them or at least assist what they keep calling the humanitarian crisis that is likely to unfold with israel's striking of the strip why is egypt not involved in at least alleviating some of that pressure on the citizens egypt is concerned that this will spill over to their territories they have a lot of issues with the muslim brotherhood they don't want this to become their problem i think the american administration should work with egyptians to find a solution to this and also israel we have to understand that many of those ghazans are victims of hamas just like we israelis are victims of hamas and i can talk personally that i was today in a funeral and and many of my family were either brutally abducted or killed but we have to understand that the fact that we were hit so badly by really war criminal acts by hamas doesn't take from us the responsibility to be rational and humane in the way we respond to ghaza and i hope that first of all we will prioritize bringing the abductees back home that should be the priority because we can always hit hamas later and secondly whatever we do to eradicate the capabilities of hamas as i said we cannot take hamas completely but to eradicate their capabilities we have to do it in a way that will minimize the damage for the civilians in ghaza absolutely and just before we we bring in our next guest there is newly released footage that is coming out showing how the hamas terrorist open fire and people hiding in the portable toilets of the festival that was near riem again i'll remind our viewers this was the peace festival where around 260 people were butchered in an open field area they were there to celebrate peace just absolutely unbelievable when we have those images that have just been coming out we'll show them through to you but in the meantime let's move now to another personal testimony of some of those tragedies that are unfolding here in israel i'm joined by el hermati the grandson of varda hermati who was murdered by hamas in kibbutz riem near the israel ghaza border firstly thank you so very much for for joining us here on our breaking news editions of the i-24 news desk how are you and your family is the rest of you safe hi um thank you very much for having me uh me and the rest of my family are safe now i live in hoda shalom which is a little near the central of israel i have many family that lived in the kibbutz in kibbutz riem they're all in elat right now they had to evict the kibbutz they can't stay there right now and unfortunately we didn't even have a funeral yet for my grandma so the situation is pretty pretty bad you know i can only but begin to try and imagine what you and your family must be going through um can i ask you to talk a little bit about your grandmother and exactly what happened to her yes so it happened october 7th um i woke up in the morning at 6 30 to the first sirens um i was so confused it was um it never happened that we have sirens out in hoda shalom i was really worried because there was nothing that indicated this prior to october 7th and when i woke up in the morning i called my sisters and my family to see if everybody's safe because i was very worried about everyone i didn't know what was happening i was scared um and then i got a call from my sister she screamed at the phone i was so i was i can remember her screams until now she was screaming grandma was shot grandma was shot she's dead she's dead and i would i just woke up i was so confused it's been half an hour i we didn't know anything like what's happening what's going on um and i was just so scared i rushed to my sister's house she lives next to me and we were trying to process everything and trying to reach out to our family in the kibbutz and um we were texting our cousin we're asking him is this true what's happening are you safe he was texting us from the shelter no it's true she was shot dead she's in her bed boss found her boss is her partner he rushed to her the moment he heard that terrorists are in the kibbutz and he found her already dead in the bed my grandma was such a loving person and she would feed the neighborhood cat all the time and she usually doesn't listen to all the alarms and all the warnings she gets so what we think happened is that she forgot to lock her house and she just went into the shelter and then they broke into her house that's what we think happened but we don't really know if they broke in or they just the door wasn't locked but it's just awful because she was helpless she was an 81 year old woman she couldn't do anything and we were speaking to our cousins to see if they're safe at least they were hiding in their shelters they couldn't speak on the phone because they couldn't make any noise because they were running into houses they were breaking into houses they were trying to burn houses for people to come out one of my cousins he got hit by a rocket fragment in his hand and he had to go through surgery but he's safe now and it's just awful that this is the end of her story because she was such a loving person she had two kids seven grandchilds and she had one great granddaughter that was born less than three months ago and all she wanted in the rest of her years alive was to spend time with family and you know share her time with friends family cook for us be with us you know that's all they have left in that age like that's all they hold on to she she grew up in the kibbutz all of her life she loved israel so much she loved her kibbutz she would never leave it not even when the worst times with the rockets and with all the terror attacks from the sky but who would have thought that it would come into their own homes you know just the images that we're seeing on the screen show just such a warm grandmother who just has almost just unconditional love for her children and her grandchildren I understand your grandmother's partner boy as as you mentioned hit with her body for over 12 hours at what point did anyone any one official get hold of your family to update you what had happened to your grandmother so they were actually in the house while she was dead for 28 hours before they came and evict her because the kibbutz was under attack all day and until the IDF and the security forces came and rescued them it was not before like 11 p.m. and they couldn't even bring in you know an ambulance or like anybody to come evict her because there was so much terror going around not only kibbutz re'im but kibbutz berri which is right next to the kibbutz and the whole kibbutz is near the strip they were all going through their terrors and there was just not enough force to even come evict her when the IDF took back control so he he laid next to her with her in the shelter for 28 hours before they could even come help them. Al Haramadi the grandson of Arda Hamadi who was murdered by Hamas in kibbutz re'im near the Israel Gaza border Al our hearts and our thoughts are with you and your family and hopefully you are able to put your grandmother to rest sometimes soon. Thank you very much thank you for having me thank you for joining us and still in that area of southern Israel re'im is not only just the kibbutz but also just near that kibbutz an area where the party known as the massacre that happened 260 people were butchered at a peace party I'd like to remind you all the time that we are looking at disturbing images but what you're looking at right now on your screen is Hamas terrorists targeting the public toilets at this party not even bothering to open the doors but simply just shooting indiscriminately as they walk past we've also been given accounts that many people that were working at the bar area at this party were hiding in the refrigerators of which we were told that Hamas terrorists opened the refrigerators found them and shot them as well and still continuing the conversation in studio it's some of these testimonies it's it's at a loss for words and and as anchors that's a hard one for us because that's quite literally our job but it's so difficult because these are so raw and such human testimonies what would be the message to the Israeli public right now that even on seven days of war some still don't know what's happened to their family members whether they've been killed whether they've been taken into Gaza or at this point could many of them still possibly be in hiding well I don't have any comforting words as I said I was in a funeral today I also have family in the aim I lost family members in the area and I'm participating in a headquarters of you know civilians who are trying to help the families of the abductees and there's a lot of work many people are trying to help but for the families it's very hard to to bring comfort and I know that the blood is boiling and people are in anxiety it's the worst we ever had I mean the Yom Kippur war was also a surprise attack and very devastating but it was all soldiers and people are more prepared when soldiers are being killed but not civilians who were taken from their beds so this is indeed very devastating and not only you know anchors find if I find it hard to find the words but also diplomats like me it's very devastating we are getting word out at the moment that the IDF has said that there will be almost a safe passage or corridor for garrisons to be able to flee up until 8 p.m. local time that the IDF will not target that area until 8 p.m. local time yesterday I was actually stationed in the south at the Barsi Lai hospital in Ashkelon where Mary McAuliffe is now and and there was something that really stayed with me and I'm wondering if for the last minute of the broadcast if you'll touch on it one of the reservists was there looking after his mother or father I believe was in hospital so he is on standby but not being called up and he said to me there's a terrible sense of guilt with a lot of reservists that can't be brought up and I said I know I agree I didn't serve in the army and I have that sense of guilt he says no we shouldn't have that guilt because you are serving the country by broadcasting these images to the world the people that are donating food are serving the country by helping our brothers and sisters is that the takeaway here that humanity more so than terrorism just rises above it all yeah the solidarity is unbelievable you know we almost forgot that few weeks ago more than half of the country were demonstrating protesting and they were called anarchists by the government and now everybody are in this together trying to help the victims trying to help the soldiers putting the politics aside and the same mechanisms that we're organizing the demonstrations are now organizing the humanitarian aid which is a an amazing show that israel is much more than its government and politics thanks for watching over 1300 casualties and over 3000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what hamas did follow us as israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join i24 news for the real story of what's going on in 2013 i attended two births the one of my son and the one of i24 news that i joined at the very beginning of the adventure so of course in 10 years a lot of things happened in israel and at least enormously but if i had to remember only one memorable memory of my journalist career well it would be this exclusive interview that i managed to hook up with nasser burrita chief of the marocan diplomacy the same day where israel and maroc signed the agreements the serbo is a thank you first of all to welcome and to have chosen i24 news we are in december 2020 as usual donald printh announces the deal on the networks and a few weeks later a plane will take off from the Tel Aviv to rabah on its side of the beautiful world jarred kushner aviver kovic and the advice to the national security israeli mayor ben shabbat here i swear to enter the redaction with the interview of the minister kasslan tien i activate my networks and there in banko the minister gives his answer and then here are the hours of the lines we are at the hotel arab one hour only before taking off for tel aviv and the minister no longer gives any sign of life so i start to despair obviously and then suddenly who i see get into the hotel well the minister in person gives me signs of the head to ask me to follow him and in all of the contracts he will take the steering wheel of his vehicle and drive us to his office at the ministry of foreign affairs marocan where a long interview will take place for more than a quarter of an hour from the marocan mountain to inspire the efforts of maroc and it is during this interview that the minister will reveal to me that in 2018, two years before the agreements of abram, he met billiam in itania where it was in the march of the general assembly of the nations, it is a huge pride to have been able to interview the minister on the same day of the agreements of abram being in the right place at the right time, that's also it, the force of itanifornia. Welcome to our rolling and breaking news coverage here on i24 news it's day seven of war here in israel over the past week the death toll has risen more than 1,300 people were murdered by hamas with close to 3,300 wounded by their combined attacks rocket alert sirens continue to blare throughout communities in the south with some homes taking direct hits but thankfully no casualties in recent hours the garrison terror group has expanded their reach by launching rockets at both central and even northern israel as well meanwhile the israel defense forces have warned over 1 million garrisons to relocate to the south of the strip this is the israeli military is continuing to pound terror targets local garrison sources have confirmed to israeli media that hamas is resuming their calls for civilians not to listen to idea of propaganda and evacuate the area in some cases they have actually prevented citizens from doing so thus far almost 1800 palestinians have been killed by the retaliatory airstrikes with thousands more wounded although these numbers released by the hamas health ministry do not distinguish between hamas terrorists and innocent civilians let's cross now live to our correspondent mary macauliffe who is standing by it for us in the south of israel mary reports coming out now that the idf has sent over a warning for garrison citizens that they will need to leave the northern area specifically by 8 p.m local time they will not strike the area this this route that they will be taking to get out if need be before 8 p.m how likely is it that many of them are going to be able to leave that's exactly the big question right now batia and truly nobody really knows we've heard these warnings and there's been a lot of confusion and a lot of some panic and worry inside gaza since first this morning the un saying israel had warned all northern gaza residents to evacuate saying this needed to be done within 24 hours we then officially heard from idf spokesperson from the israeli forces saying that they understand that this is a large amount of people over 1 million people who live in the north section to get also to the south incredibly densely populated populated area all while under israeli's airstrikes they understand they understand that this is a very difficult defeat so this is something that they are trying to accomplish and the idf also saying that maybe it couldn't happen within coming days and we're also hearing reports of strikes on some of those who have been fleeing south these are unconformer parts coming out of gaza but so a lot of gaza residents are very worried now about the situation trying to decide whether or not to leave their homes as hamas tells them not to leave their homes and not to listen to israeli propaganda and try and go further south so this is the thing we're seeing now and then again the idf's person just now coming out in arabic releasing this message saying this specific route a very specific route going straight down through central gaza in the northern part down to the south we're going to run now dare sirens alert so we're going to run through the shelter this is the first alert that we've had in ashkelon i want to say for about four hours now it's been relatively quiet in this area but we have seen sporadic rockets islands going off in southern areas near closer to the border than ashkelon but earlier in ashkelon we saw hamas said over 150 rockets were fired towards this city mary i know from being in ashkelon myself that it's about 30 seconds when those rocket alerts go off for you to leave where the camera is currently standing along with the team with you to run in the shelter there the hospital being a fortification in and of itself we're also hearing the idf is confirming for the first time a sort of local infiltrate well not really infiltrations but at least into the gaza strip in order to try and locate some of those kidnapped and to properly cleanse the area of hamas terrorists what are you hearing coming out of the south with regards to that and also as you mentioned this is the first time that we have heard sirens on ashkelon how busy has the hospital been in terms of bringing the wounded and possibly those that have been found kidnapped or at least hiding to treatment that's right batia so this week obviously ashkelon has seen a lot of injured patients come in it is one of the main hospitals here in the southern region and has been incredibly busy with hospital staff working overtime to try and tend to all of the wounded civilians who have come in as well as also soldiers who are also being treated here in this area today it is relatively quiet thankfully despite those over 150 rockets that were fired earlier today towards this area there were no reports of injuries i talked to one paramedic who said they brought in an elderly woman over 80 years old but she was only treated for in light situation she came in essentially with panic and anxiety attacks but she was brought in from her house to this area and they said that's the only injury that they've treated today so luckily in recent days it has been much better that has been in recent days today excuse me and while perhaps not physical injuries the the untold toll of the psychological and trauma incidents are just going to be coming out for months to come i'll correspond to mary mccall of there in the south thank you for that update stay safe and while the unrest continues inside and near israel's borders khamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world as israelis and jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence security has been upped at israeli embassies worldwide as it has as well at jewish centers globally we're going now to our correspondent khamdes salchot who is standing by for us in jerusalem uh khamda violence has seen uh at least a bit of it outside of israel's borders being an incident in both beijing in china and also in france what are we seeing coming out of the west bank and possibly jerusalem with regards to khamas's call for a day of rage well batia 11 palestinians killed today in several demonstrations throughout the west bank palestinians listening to that call from hamas flooding the streets in support and solidarity for the civilians inside of the gaza strip now there were demonstrations from ramallah to nebless and janine however here in jerusalem there were none because of the restrictions imposed by the israeli military there were blockades that were set up all throughout the city so that people could not reach this part here behind me damascus gate even us as media we've all been removed from the steps of the gate because they want to keep it completely clear there's a heavy police presence and patrol here as the israeli military is still afraid that people will want to come here and demonstrate specifically as flat as uh at flashpoint sites like the alexa mosque the israeli security apparatus on high alert also for people who are perhaps uh posting on social media in support of hamas charging them and arresting them with incitement of violence and terror so the israeli security system on high alert in jerusalem but really trying to prevent everything they can in terms of riots and demonstrations here however earlier in the day in several palestinian neighborhoods that really bordered the old city the israeli military setting up blockades there a heavy force there people performing friday prayers there and then clashes breaking out among the palestinians and the israeli military trying to clear the area so for now in jerusalem it's a tense calm but look that we're in an ever-changing and dynamic situation as the war treads on so we really could see a change here in jerusalem even though for now it is calm as you're mentioning that tense calm but the situation likely to change at a moment what can you tell us in terms of the security presence at the moment in and around the old city and also in the capital we know that reinforcements in 300 000 reserves are being called up to four to five both in northern and the southern borders and no doubt some sending to the volatile west bank but what's happening in jerusalem in terms of the security presence there is a heavy security presence in jerusalem there is there always is but specifically when this war started the people that have been deployed to the city to patrol it are in masses inside of the old city in those narrow streets there are border police officers everywhere in every entrance to the old city there are several checkpoints that people need to pass through in order to get inside the only people they're really letting inside are people who live inside of the old city themselves so these really military really really um having a heavy presence here and having a heavy footprint here in order to try and prevent anyone from gathering and perhaps that erupting into clashes later on correspondent hamsa selkut there in jerusalem thank you very much for that update now the night was supposed to be a getaway thousands of youngsters gathered at a vast field in southern israel near the gaza border to dance and celebrate life and peace 24 hours later around 260 bodies were being recovered from the area now being called a mask rave the likes not seen since the holocaust hamas terror is indiscriminately massacred thousands and took others kidnapped this footage is very graphic a warning at what you are about to watch but they also shot at public restrooms making sure there were no survivors take a look i've been a hard one for local journalists and i'm sure foreign journalists as well to decide what gruesome images to show but i24news has decided to show these next images with permission from the guest who sent them to us he's also an eyewitness and a surviving victim the video in question is graphic and hard for many to watch it shows one of his friends in captivity by hamas the terror group filming they're kidnapping there are also photos of him personally hiding in the bushes of the nature reserve he luckily escaped survived and is here with us to share his story dean tesla joins us right here in studio dean thank you so very much for coming in to speak to us here at i24news i cannot even begin to imagine the ordeal that you have been through but if i may can you talk to us a little bit about what you went through at this nature party yeah so it's everything went well due to the 6 30 a.m and in the morning and when the rockets started to landing on our air and my job was to driving on the atv and to secure and lead the crowd to the cars since there was no shelter in the area while some of the crowd got in the cars and started driving they got attacked by terrorists and at that time and i saw a woman their whole head was bleeding and that time i realized that something happened something big and not just rockets and i have a radio on me and they told me that i need to give her on the ambulance and that's what i did and after 40 minutes we saw the terrorist with their cars coming to our way and at that point my friend told me you need to escape and to go where there was the festival and you run and the bullets you see right and left and you see people go down and you just run and that time i make a lot of phone calls to my friends that i know they're in the army and asking for help send location for my girlfriend my mom and my family my friends and you don't know what to do at that time you're only scared to to die and after a few minutes we understand that they're coming from another way and you need to escape you understand you need to escape and you run to the woods me and group from 10 people i think and you run from hideout to hideout for two and half hours you run in the woods and the last time that we're running we saw the terrorist it's maybe 50 60 meters between us and shooting in us and in that time we're separated and i've been alone i run and i saw a bush cactus i run into it with all the pain i just jump in and that time you see you see that it's a war and you all you don't have what to do and you call everyone in locations and in 2 in 2 24 a p.m i realized that the body is going to to end on the phone and my friends told me the help is coming for you and after 40 minutes i think 40 maybe 50 minutes i'm realized that three terrorists coming to me to the bush and i don't know how it's happened but they don't see me and that time i remember that you realize that you're going to die and you accept the death and and i don't know how but they don't see me and after one hour i think maybe it's 4 p.m something like that i'm realized that i start to illusion because i don't drink water from 6 a.m and i remember that bush behind me was on fire and i think that the terrorists want to burn me alive and you don't know what to do at that time and i remember that i close my eyes speak with the god and that time i realized that going to burn me and after one hour the hour was almost 6 30 6 40 p.m i'm still in the bush waiting for the help and no one is coming and and that time i realized it's going to be to die from no water or hypothermia and or i need to do something and search for help and that time i start to wave to the helicopter i think half hour something like that and no one see me while still in the bush still in the bush i start to wave i believe we do have images of that ordeal of you hiding while you're speaking sorry continue and at that time you think with yourself you want to do it all unite or you want to do something and move and i remember that i go out from the bush and i look in left and right and i hear a lot of war zone like a lot of rockets and weapon and shooting and you understand that you don't have a word to run i'm heard right right and where it was and i pray and i just make a decision to run and i run left and i run and i remember that i see a lot of bodies and i just run 20 minutes i think and at that moment you you think that you run hours and after 20 minutes and god helped me again and i saw a car with a with the lights and at that time you don't know if the terrorist or the army are you being in nine hours in the bush you don't know what is going on and i make a decision to yell and i yell help me i need the i need help and thank god it was the two soldiers and give me a lot of water and get me out from the from the woods and i charge my phone a little bit and then my brother of my friend bar called me asked me if i know where's bar and i told him that i don't know i only get out from the woods right now and he sent me the video that you did you see so the videos are the first time that you yourself understood that some of your friends had been taken captive by kamas yeah it was eight p.m. only the one minute that you are in the safe zone and you see the video and you start to cry and panic and you don't realize where you've been and and i start to cry and till now i'm every day and cry and pray for him and his family also have you heard anything from the government or the authorities about any of your friends that have been taken the government speak with his family every day so soldiers come to his house speaking with his mom but no one want no one know what happened to him till now six days and we're only one to tell us what is going on live not alive the family is broken his mother broken all the brothers we're just waiting for him Dean you were in the bushes for hours on end at times you mentioned even alone dehydrated in confusion scared the video that that was filmed you can hear almost the sense of complete panic when you were listening to what was going on around you left and right and not sure whether to come out were you listening to arabic being spoken with were some of these terrorists perhaps speaking Hebrew to try and lure people out of the bushes what was going on around you and when i was in the bush you heard a lot a lot of terrorists yelling alawakbar and a lot of arabic people the terrorist you hear them maybe 10 meters when i was all the time and you hear a lot of bullets and shooting and rockets if it's rpg i don't know what and of course i panic but only i want to be quiet that no one will see me that's it Dean tesla um i wish i could unplug myself and come and give you a hug i just thank you so much for being here and for sharing your testimony so that we can broadcast it to the world so that the world knows what happened at that nova nature party and just we are thinking and praying and hoping that your friends their location is found and that they can come home safely thank you very much thank you for being here i want to cross now live to our correspondent robert swift who's standing by for us near the israel lebanon border rabbit we do hear of possible skirmishes along the border between israel and hezbollah what's the latest what can you tell us on the ground that's correct just over an hour ago there was a skirmish just to the north of the israeli kibbutz of hanita um it's understood that the idf believed that an infiltration attempt may be taking place when a explosive was detonated on the border fence and some sort of firefight developed out of that it's understood that shots were fired from the lebanese side of the border and that israel responded with artillery and tank fire now we're getting reports of uh possible al-jazeera journalists have been wounded with three wounded and one possibly killed um it's unclear who was behind the explosion which struck them um there is a social media footage of this going around um they were on in the the south lebanese side of the border um but as i say that remains unclear and still developing now the security itself around the kibbutz of hanita the israeli military has said that that has come to a close they have told residents of that community that they can go back to their business as much as usual as they can do in these current circumstances but the the friction and the tensions continued not just in that location uh we're a bit to the east of that location and uh we are in the vicinity of where our rocket strike landed um the hill to the left of me uh there's uh essentially the side of the hill is on fire and we believe that's where the rocket or parts of the rocket's possibly landed our correspondent robert swift there in the north of the country thank you and stay safe here with me in studio is benjamin antony the co-founder and CEO of the maryam institutes um i want to switch angles now from the gut wrenching testimonies to the security angle when benjamin sannyale first spoke after the massacre after hearing what was going on in terms of the situation of hamas's onslaughts in the south the comment that israelis probably needed to hear was that we are going to wipe hamas out and instead it was the same comment that many of us are used to of will deal them a decisive blow and since then we've had many ministers changing their their rhetoric their narratives saying we are going to wipe hamas off the face of the earth there will be no more hamas in Gaza but we are seeing sort of from some uh moshia alone the former defense minister coming out and saying well israelis may need to lower their expectations where do we draw the line here between not having hamas anymore on our borders versus reality well i don't think that we're hearing conflicting messages from the prime minister and various ministers i think what we're actually hearing is perhaps escalating messages so benjamin antonyahu as you said did begin by saying that we're going to deal a very heavy blow one that will not be forgotten to hamas and it will change the shape and the contours of the area the region the middle east and so forth but today you heard defense minister you have gallant standing next to his american counterpart speaking very definitively about his resolve to wipe out and to destroy hamas now i would suggest that we focus upon those who are in situ rather than individuals as expert as they may be such as moshia bogie alone former defense minister as you said what they have to say from the outside i think the time will tell i think that we will see whether or not a ground incursion is indeed brought about many expect that to be the case but i can tell you having just been down in the southern part of the country having been among the troops just earlier this afternoon there is no question but that the israeli people who are our soldiers and our citizens they want to see the utter distraction of hamas whether that will come about or not we'll wait and see right and again this isn't from from a point of an offensive or an attack on hamas or even on the palestinian people for that matter it's a matter of retaliation we're talking about israel being hit first and then obviously retaliating to that hit and you mentioned that there is the possibility of a ground incursion obviously that is being reported widespread across the board not just here in israel but infantry troops and tanks did enter gaza today being friday for what they calling localized raids to clear the area of terrorists explain this just from a security point of view because to many watching the terrorists were in israeli territory crossing through the border fence breaking it down coming into kibbutz and moshave all the communities in the south why would then the idf be clearing the terrorists from the area with inside the gaza strip so first of all a little bit of context when you speak about retaliation a country cannot survive in this region if it falls prey to a horrific attack such as the one that we all bore witness to this past saturday morning unless it retaliates unless it actually dare i speak the word brings vengeance to those who wrought such horrors upon our people we need to retaliate it needs to be strong it needs to be decisive and as i say the extent of that retaliation remains to be seen we've got the war cabinet that's now been brought about we'll see what they decide i'm a little bit skeptical though i am a minority voice on this particular point i don't know if prime minister netanyahu and benny gantz and gadi eisencott who have all worked together with regard to the gaza front several times in the past and have always chosen a cautious approach to that front i'm skeptical as to whether or not we'll see them change tactics change strategy and go with defense minister gallant what's very interesting about this of course is that gallant is a bit of an unknown quantity here gallant is the current defense minister we have not seen him work with prime minister netanyahu in this capacity he may be able to pound his fist on the table and say the destruction of hamas is what's needed and what we are going to pursue now with regard to our movement there into the gaza strip i think that it makes all the sense in the world that we clear the area as best we can of anybody and everybody that's why you're seeing the air force flying sorties over the strip they are trying to soften the ground for the ground troops to move in in the case that that happens of course in order to reduce to its lowest number the number of casualties and soldiers that we receive back in an injured or worse state that has to be be undertaken it is being undertaken in a very professional manner and i hope that we are going to take the gloves off and hit them with a clenched rolled ball that fist ready to smash our enemy because at the end of the day this is an existential threat and it's been made very clear it's either us or them and i thank you for saying that because for many many years and you will have heard this as well so-called experts have said that the gaza strip does not constitute a strategic threat it's a low-level threat they were wrong i've believed that they were wrong and spoken about the fact that they were wrong they misunderstood the situation there we entered into as a people as a government our upper security establishment as well we entered into a mindset of complacency of failing to understand the intentions of our enemies and now unfortunately too many of our citizens have paid the price and too many of our citizens and soldiers are being held hostages and we must must bring back those hostages benjamin antony the co-found and CEO of the miriam institute thank you so much for being here in studio on our rolling and breaking news coverage thank you for having me that brings us to an end of this broadcast but stay tuned at the top of the hour we'll have more updates for you on day seven of the war here in israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity gaza we will hit the khamas we will destroy but we have our value and our culture part of the team that opened this place some 10 years ago it was dramatic to come in here post construction blow the sawdust off the table and get to work building the first broadcast for the channel even with all the experiences of that first year and being here 10 years later everything we've done since nothing compares to the tension-filled news period of that summer of 2014 all leading up to the ground invasion of gaza day seven israel defense force operation protective edge i was in the studio under rocket sirens rocket attacks where there'd be one person left the control room me sitting there seeing the newsroom clearing out the corner of my eye and continuing to talk to the camera about the moment we are in real confronts khamas in and around the gaza strip we're joining me now on set i've been exposed to the conflict for many years but something about that summer was just so much more unsettling than anything ever before maybe something inside me knew that there was more coming the big night came the night at the idf ground invasion of gaza we were here till well after two in the morning covering that exhausted and i went home i think it was by seven a.m already the idf was calling me one of the mobile reserves here sending them off to the war we got those phone calls and by friday night we were already told power officers we'd be inside gaza in 48 hours and you're going from one minute you're in your job you're in your normal life the next minute you're being sent off to war a collective experience that somebody had that summer it's a wholly unique experience for me covering the war telling the story to the international audience to covering those soldiers to the next day being one of those soldiers out there on the front lines i mean truly it's given me perspective that i've carried with me here ever since on covering this conflict Welcome to our ruling and breaking news coverage here on i24 news it's day seven of war here in israel and for the past week the death toll has risen more than 1,300 people were murdered by Hamas with close to 3,300 wounded by their combined attacks rocket alert sirens continue to blare throughout communities in the south with some homes taking direct hits but thankfully no casualties in recent hours the gaza and terror group has expanded their reach by launching rockets at both central and even northern israel as well meanwhile the israel defense forces have warned over 1 million gaza to relocate to the south of the strip this is the israeli military is continuing to pound terror targets local gaza sources have confirmed to israeli media that hamas is resuming their calls for civilians not to listen to idea of propaganda and evacuate the area in some cases they have actually prevented citizens from doing so thus far almost 1,800 palestinians have been killed by the retaliatory airstrikes with thousands more wounded although these numbers released by the hamas health ministry do not distinguish between hamas terrorists and innocent civilians let's cross now live to our correspondent mary macaulif who is standing by it for us in the south of israel mary reports coming out now that the idf has sent over a warning for gaza citizens that they will need to leave the northern area specifically by 8 p.m local time they will not strike the area this this route that they will be taking to get out if need be before 8 p.m how likely is it that many of them are going to be able to leave that's exactly the big question right now batia and truly nobody really knows we've heard these warnings and there's been a lot of confusion and a lot of some panic and worry inside gaza since first this morning the un saying israel had warned all northern gaza residents to evacuate saying this need to be done within 24 hours we then officially heard from idf spokesperson from the israeli forces saying that they understand that this is a large amount of people over 1 million people who live in the north section to get also to the south incredibly densely populated populated area all while under israeli airstrikes they understand they understand that this is a very difficult feat so this is something that they are trying to accomplish and the idf also saying that maybe couldn't happen within coming days and we're also hearing reports of strikes on some of those who have been fleeing south these are unconform reports coming out of gaza but so a lot of gaza residents are very worried now about the situation trying to decide whether or not to leave their homes as hamas tells them not to leave their homes and not to listen to israeli propaganda and try and go further south so this is the thing we're seeing now and then again the idf person just now coming out in arabic releasing this message saying this specific route a very specific route going straight down through central gaza in the northern part down to the south we're going to run out there sirens alert so we're going to run to the shelter this is the first alert that we've had in ashkelon i want to say for about four hours now it's been relatively quiet in this area but we have seen sporadic rocket sirens going off in southern areas near closer to the border than ashkelon but earlier in ashkelon we saw hamas said over 150 rockets were fired towards this city mary i know from being in ashkelon myself that it's about 30 seconds when those rocket alerts go off for you to leave where the camera is currently standing along with the team with you to run into shelter there the hospital being a fortification in and of itself we're also hearing the idf is confirming for the first time sort of local infiltrate well not really infiltrations but at least into the gaza strip in order to try and locate some of those kidnapped and to properly cleanse the area of hamas terrorists what are you hearing coming out of the south with regards to that and also as you mentioned this is the first time that we have heard sirens on ashkelon how busy has the hospital been in terms of bringing the wounded and possibly those that have been found kidnapped or at least hiding to treatment that's right batia so this week obviously ashkelon has seen a lot of injured patients come in it is one of the main hospitals here in the southern region and has been incredibly busy with hospital staff working overtime to try and tend to all of the wounded civilians who have come in as well as also soldiers who are also being treated here in this area today it is relatively quiet thankfully despite those over 150 rockets that were fired earlier today towards this area there were no reports of injuries i talked to one paramedic who said they brought in an elderly woman over 80 years old but she was only treated for in light situation she came in essentially with panic and anxiety attacks but she was brought in from her house to this area and they said that's the only injury that they've treated today so luckily in recent days it has been much better that has been in recent days today excuse me and while perhaps not physical injuries the the untold toll of the psychological and trauma incidents are just going to be coming out for months to come our correspondent mary mccullough there in the south thank you for that update stay safe and while the unrest continues inside and near israel's borders hamas is calling on its supporters for a day of rage around the world as israelis and jews abroad are urged to stay alert for violence security has been upped at israeli embassies worldwide as it has as well at jewish centers globally we're going now to our correspondent hamza salchow to a standing by for us in jerusalem hamda violence has seen uh at least a bit of it outside of israel's borders being an incident in both beijing in china and also in france what do we see in coming out of the west bank and possibly jerusalem with regards to hamas's call for a day of rage obat 11 palestinians killed today in several demonstrations throughout the west bank palestinians listening to that call from hamas flooding the streets in support and solidarity for the civilians inside of the gaza strip now there were demonstrations from ramallah to nebless and janine however here in jerusalem there were none because of the restrictions imposed by the israeli military there were blockades that were set up all throughout the city so that people could not reach this part here behind me damasca's gate even us as media we've all been removed from the steps of the gate because they want to keep it completely clear there's a heavy police presence and patrol here as the israeli military is still afraid that people will want to come here and demonstrate specifically as flat as uh at flashpoint sites like the alexa mosque the israeli security apparatus on high alert also for people who are perhaps uh posting on social media in support of hamas charging them and arresting them with incitement of violence and terror so the israeli security system on high alert in jerusalem but really trying to prevent everything they can in terms of riots and demonstrations here however earlier in the day in several palestinian neighborhoods that really bordered the old city the israeli military setting up blockades there uh a heavy force there people performing friday prayers there and then clashes breaking out among the palestinians and the israeli military trying to clear the area so for now in jerusalem it's a tense calm but look that we're in an ever-changing and dynamic situation as the war treads on so we really could see a change here in jerusalem even though for now it is calm as you're mentioning that tense calm but the situation likely to change at a moment what can you tell us in terms of the security presence at the moment in and around the old city and also in the capital we know that reinforcements in 300 000 reserves are being called up to four to five both in northern and the southern borders and no doubt some sending to the volatile west bank but what's happening in jerusalem in terms of the security presence there is a heavy security presence in jerusalem there is there always is but specifically when this war started the people that have been deployed to the city to patrol it are in masses inside of the old city in those narrow streets there are border police officers everywhere in every entrance to the old city there are several checkpoints that people need to pass through in order to get inside the only people they're really letting inside are people who live inside of the old city themselves so the is really military really really having a heavy presence here and having a heavy footprint here in order to try and prevent anyone from gathering and perhaps that erupting into clashes later on Correspondent Hamza Selkut there in Jerusalem thank you very much for that update now the night was supposed to be a getaway thousands of youngsters gathered at a vast field in southern israel near the Gaza border to dance and celebrate life and peace 24 hours later around 260 bodies were being recovered from the area now being called a mass grave the likes not seen since the holocaust Hamas terrorists indiscriminately massacred thousands and took others kidnapped this footage is very graphic a warning at what you are about to watch but they also shot at public restrooms making sure they were no survivors take a look it's been a hard one for local journalists and i'm sure foreign journalists as well to decide what gruesome images to show but i24 news has decided to show these next images with permission from the guest who sent them to us he's also an eyewitness and a surviving victim the video in question is graphic and hard for many to watch it shows one of his friends in captivity by Hamas the terror group filming they're kidnapping there are also photos of him personally hiding in the bushes of the nature reserve he luckily escaped survived and is here with us to share his story dean tesla joins us right here in studio dean thank you so very much for coming in to speak to us here at i24 news i cannot even begin to imagine the ordeal that you have been through but if i may can you talk to us a little bit about what you went through at this nature party yeah so it's everything went well due to the 6 30 a.m. and in the morning and when the rockets started to landing on our air and my job was to driving on the atv and to secure and lead the crowd to the cars since there was no shelter in the area why some of the crowd got in the cars and started driving they got attacked by terrorists and at that time and i saw a woman their whole head was bleeding and that time i realized that something happened something big and not just rockets and i have a radio on me and they told me that i need to give her on the ambulance and that's what i did and after 40 minutes we saw the terrorist with their cars coming to our way and at that point my friend told me you need to escape and to go where there was the festival and you run and the bullets you see right and left and you see people go down and you just run and that time i make a lot of phone calls to my friends that i know they're in the army and asking for help send location for my girlfriend my mom and my family my friends and you don't know what to do at that time you only scared to die and after a few minutes we understand that they're coming from another way and you need to escape you understand you need to escape and you run to the woods me and group from 10 people i think and you run from hideout to hideout for two and half hours you run in the woods and the last time that we're running we saw the terrorist it's maybe 50 60 meters between us and shooting at us and in that time we're separated and i've been alone i run and i saw a bush cactus i run into it with all the pain i just jump in and that time you see you see that it's a war and you all you don't have what to do and you call everyone in a locations and in 2 in 2 24 a p.m i realized that the body is going to to end on the phone and my friends told me the help is coming for you and after 40 minutes i think 40 maybe 50 minutes i'm realized that three terrorists coming to me to the bush and i don't know how it's happened but they don't see me and that time i remember that you realize that you're going to die and you accept the death and and i don't know how but they don't see me and after one hour i think maybe it's four p.m something like that i'm realized that i start to illusion because i don't drink water from six a.m and i remember that bush behind me was on fire and i think that the terrorists want to burn me alive and you don't know what to do at that time and i remember that i close my eyes speak with the god and that time i realized that it's going to burn me and after one hour the hour was almost 6 30 6 40 p.m i'm still in the bush waiting for the help and no one is coming and and that i'm realized i it's going to be to die from no water or hypothermia and or i need to do something and search for help and that time i start to wave to the helicopter i think half hour something like that and no one see me while still in the bush still in the bush i start to wave i believe we do have images of that ordeal of you hiding while you're speaking sorry continue and and that time you think with yourself you want to do it all night or you want to do something and move and i remember that i go out from the bush and i look in left and right and i hear a lot of war zone like a lot of rockets and weapons and shooting and you understand that you don't have a word to run i'm heard right right and where it was and i pray and i just make a decision to run and i run left and i run and i remember that i see a lot of bodies and i just run 20 minutes i think and at that moment you you think that you run hours and after 20 minutes and god helped me again and i saw a car with the lights and at that time you don't know if the terrorist or the army are you being in nine hours in the bush you don't know what is going on and i make a decision to yell and i yell help me i need i need help and thank god it was two soldiers and give me a lot of water and get me out from the from the woods and i charge my phone a little bit and then my brother of my friend bar called me asked me if i know where it's bar and i told him that i i don't know i only get out from the woods right now and he sent me the video that you did you see so the videos are the first time that you yourself understood that some of your friends had been taken captive by Hamas yeah it was eight p.m. only the one minute that you are in the safe zone and you see the video and you start to cry and panic and you don't realize where you've been and i start to cry and till now i'm every day and cry and pray for him and his family also have you heard anything from the government or the authorities about any of your friends that have been taken the government speak with his family every day so soldiers come to his house speaking with his mom but no one want no one know what happened to him till now six days and we're only one to tell us what is going on live not alive the family is broken his mother broken all the brothers we're just waiting for him dean you were in the bushes for hours on end at times you mentioned even alone dehydrated in confusion scared the video that that was filmed you you can hear almost the sense of complete panic when you were listening to what was going on around you left and right and not sure whether to come out were you listening to arabic being spoken were some of these terrorists perhaps speaking Hebrew to try and lure people out of the bushes what was going on around you and when i was in the bush you heard a lot a lot of terrorists yelling ala waghbar and a lot of arabic people the terrorists you hear them maybe 10 meters when i was all the time and you hear a lot of bullets and shooting and rockets if it's rpg i don't know what and of course i panic but only i want to be quiet that no one will see me that's it dean tesla um i wish i could unplug myself and come and give you a hug i just thank you so much for being here and for sharing your testimony so that we can broadcast it to the world so that the world knows what happened at that nova nature party and just we are thinking and praying and hoping that your friends their location is found and that they can come home safely thank you very much thank you for being here i want to cross now live to our correspondent robert swift who's standing by for us near the israel-lebanon border robert we do hear of possible skirmishes along the border between israel and hezbollah what's the latest what can you tell us on the ground that's correct just over an hour ago there was a skirmish just to the north of the israeli kibbutz of hanita it's understood that the idf believed that an infiltration attempt may be taking place when explosive was detonated on the border fence and some sort of firefight developed out of that it's understood that shots were fired from the lebanese side of the border and the israel responded with artillery and tank fire now we're getting reports of a possible al jazeera journalists have been wounded with three wounded and one possibly killed and it's unclear who was behind the explosion which struck them there's a social media footage of this going around they were on in the the south lebanese side of the border but as i say that remains unclear and still developing now the security itself around the kibbutz of hanita the israeli military has said that that has come to a close they have told residents of that community that they can go back to their business as much as usual as they can do in these current circumstances but the the friction and the tensions continue not just in that location we're a bit to the east of that location and we are in the vicinity of where a rocket strike landed the hill to the left of me there's a essentially the side of the hill is on fire and we believe that's where the rocket or parts of the rocket's possibly landed i'll correspond on robert swift there in the north of the country thank you and stay safe here with me in studio is benjamin antony the co-founder and CEO of the mariam institutes um i want to switch angles now from the gut wrenching testimonies to the security angle when benjamin is on y'all first spoke after the massacre after hearing what was going on in terms of the situation of hamas's onslaughts in the south the comment that israelis probably needed to hear was that we are going to wipe hamas out and instead it was the same comment that many of us are used to of will deal them a decisive blow and since then we've had many ministers changing their their rhetoric their narrative saying we are going to wipe hamas off the face of the earth there will be no more hamas in Gaza but we are seeing sort of from some uh moshia alone the former defense minister coming out and saying well israelis may need to lower their expectations where do we draw the line here between not having hamas anymore on our borders versus reality well i don't think that we're hearing conflicting messages from the prime minister and various ministers i think what we're actually hearing is perhaps escalating messages so benjamin antonyahu as you said did begin by saying that we're going to deal a very heavy blow one that will not be forgotten to hamas and that will change the shape and the contours of the area the region the middle east and so forth but today you heard defense minister you have gallant standing next to his american counterpart speaking very definitively about his resolve to wipe out and to destroy hamas now i would suggest that we focus upon those who are in situ rather than individuals as expert as they may be such as moshia bogie alone former defense minister as you said what they have to say from the outside i think the time will tell i think that we will see whether or not a ground incursion is indeed brought about many expect that to be the case but i can tell you having just been down in the southern part of the country having been among the troops just earlier this afternoon there is no question but that the israeli people who are our soldiers and our citizens they want to see the utter destruction of hamas whether that will come about or not we'll wait and see right and again this isn't from from a point of an offensive or an attack on hamas or even on the palestinian people for that matter it's a matter of retaliation we're talking about israel being hit first and then obviously retaliating to that hit and you mentioned that there is the possibility of a ground incursion obviously that is being reported widespread across the board not just here in israel but infantry troops and tanks did enter Gaza today being friday for what they're calling localized raids to clear the area of terrorists explain this just from a security point of view because to many watching the terrorists were in israeli territory crossing through the border fence breaking it down coming into kibbutz and Moshavim all the communities in the south why would then the IDF be clearing the terrorists from the area with inside the Gaza Strip so first of all a little bit of context when you speak about retaliation a country cannot survive in this region if it falls prey to a horrific attack such as the one that we all bore witness to this past saturday morning unless it retaliates unless it actually dare I speak the word brings vengeance to those who wrought such horrors upon our people we need to retaliate it needs to be strong it needs to be decisive and as I say the extent of that retaliation remains to be seen we've got the war cabinet that's now been brought about we'll see what they decide I'm a little bit skeptical though I am a minority voice on this particular point I don't know if prime minister Netanyahu and Benny Gantz and Gadi Aizenkot who have all worked together with regard to the Gaza front several times in the past and have always chosen a cautious approach to that front I'm skeptical as to whether or not we'll see them change tactics change strategy and go with defense minister gallant what's very interesting about this of course is that gallant is a bit of an unknown quantity here gallant is the current defense minister we have not seen him work with prime minister Netanyahu in this capacity he may be able to pound his fist on the table and say the destruction of Hamas is what's needed and what we are going to pursue now with regard to our movement there into the Gaza Strip I think that it makes all the sense in the world that we clear the area as best we can of anybody and everybody that's why you're seeing the air force flying sorties over the strip they are trying to soften the ground for the ground troops to move in in the case that that happens of course in order to reduce to its lowest number the number of casualties and soldiers that we receive back in an injured or worse state that has to be be undertaken it is being undertaken in a very professional manner and I hope that we are going to take the gloves off and hit them with a clenched rolled ball that fist ready to smash our enemy because at the end of the day this is an existential threat and it's been made very clear it's either us or them and I thank you for saying that because for many many years and you will have heard this as well so-called experts have said that the Gaza Strip does not constitute a strategic threat it's a low level threat they were wrong I believe that they were wrong and spoken about the fact that they were wrong they misunderstood the situation there we entered into as a people as a government our upper security establishment as well we entered into a mindset of complacency of failing to understand the intentions of our enemies and now unfortunately too many of our citizens have paid the price and too many of our citizens and soldiers are being held hostages and we must must bring back those hostages Benjamin Anthony the co-found and CEO of the Miriam Institute thank you so much for being here in studio on our rolling and breaking news coverage thank you for having me that brings us to an end of this broadcast but stay tuned at the top of the hour we'll have more updates for you on day seven of the war here in Israel made for me a unique concept in Israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity is because we go subsea and we utilize the hydrostatic pressure the weight of the water above your head we're able to save energy breaking news coverage here on i24 news it's day seven of war here in israel over the past week the death toll has risen more than 1300 people were murdered by Hamas but the close to 3300 wounded by their combined attacks rocket alert sirens continue to blare throughout communities in the south with some homes taking direct hits but thankfully no casualties in recent hours the garrison terror group has expanded their reach by launching rockets at both central and even northern israel as well well let's cross now live to the center of the country correspondent hamdas al-khod joins us from jerusalem hamda and updates on the security situation in the holy city batia 11 palestinians killed in the west bank today in several demonstrations that were actually marching towards checkpoints in support of the palestinian cause and solidarity with gaza and the continued bombardment there in jerusalem completely quiet completely deserted as the israeli military has set up blockades throughout several parts leading to the old city so that people wouldn't come here behind me at demascus gate and flashpoint signs to demonstrate the israeli military is on high alert there are so many troops deployed throughout the city because they're really afraid of a large show of force perhaps a pro-hamas demonstration happening inside of the old city so the israeli military is taking extra precautions extra closures a lot of additional security measures to ensure the safety of the surrounding area correspondent hamdas al-khod they're giving us an update in jerusalem meanwhile an update on the military responses in the north skirmishes have broken out between the idf and hezbollah after the lebanese terror group claimed responsibility for targeting israeli military posts on the northern border the idf now says its drones are striking hezbollah sites in lebanon in the south the idf says infantry forces entered the gaza strip earlier in localized raids in order to clear the area of potential terrorists and locate missing israelis this as the israeli militaries fighter jets and drones continue to pound the strip with me here in studio is reserve brigadier general amir avivi the director of the israel defense and security forum and the former idf deputy commander of the gaza strip division amir you were talking to me just before we went live on air that you were just in the south at the gaza division headquarters what can you tell us in terms of the idf's operational capabilities down there and the situation near the border well you know i entered the headquarters everybody is calm you go to the war room and you see a war machine people focused people come people very very motivated people very very hungry you know they really feel that hamas needs to be destroyed completely destroyed and you know i felt really a sense of proudness to see people coming you know it's reserve reserve soldiers and women and men coming and together really building the power of israel to launch this attack on gaza you reserve yourself so no doubt joining in that team effort now i know in particular here at the studio's journalists are exhausted and and also the state of israel many people not being able to get proper sleep for days on end as we are now in days seven you say that the idf is focused is there a sense of somewhat exhaustion among the ranks of the idf or there's a clear purpose and and a very sort of a weakness no it's definitely a weakness everybody is getting prepared for a possible ground forces attack which is imminent because if we want to destroy hamas there is only one way to do it is to go into gaza and destroy hamas and it cannot be done from the air from there we can weaken them but we saw it again and again and again even if we attack with the air force 51 days in two years they build up their forces again and we cannot have this kind of threat again we need to eliminate hamas but we also need to make sure that forever there will never be force like that an evil force like that on the other side of the border and this requires in the future full freedom of operation for the idf just as we have in janeen on shchem meaning the idf in the future will need to be able to apprehend terrorists stop people on every day basis just as the division in juden samara i'm here to stay with us because i want to continue this conversation but i do want to check in with our correspondent mary macauliffe who is standing by for us in the south of the country mary gaza city residents are heeding the warning and moving south according to the idf what do you currently know we know that there was a military corridor or a humanitarian corridor open until eight p.m. this evening it's now past eight p.m. that's right batia so in the last few minutes since that corridor allegedly closed we haven't heard reports about strikes immediately happening on these citizens but the israeli military at least says that it saw evidence of gaza residents fleeing of course earlier today and throughout the day we have seen evidence of some gaza rivers the residents deciding to go south but we've also seen disturbing footage that has also come out that apparently shows strikes hitting those convoys as they're evacuating south this was one after the idf spokesman then again put out that warning saying on this specific route through gaza city that goes from the north to the south they would not target it so that has just expired how many residents will have actually managed to make it south before the apm deadline did pass that remains to be seen it is over one million people who live in the north of gaza it's a very small densely populated area that will now be forced into the southern part of the strip where another million or so people live so again this is a very difficult task for the residents who are living there as they deal with electricity and food and what they say are water sources in the area and they say they are facing a humanitarian catastrophe israeli military for its part says issuing this warning saying that it wants to do everything it can to try and prevent civilian casualties this is why it ordered residents to evacuate south and that because they will continue to be striking extensively in the gaza strip as it continues to launch strikes there and speaking of strikes mary earlier when we spoke to you there was a strike from gaza into the southern communities of israel with you having to take cover yourself there in ashkelon around the 30 minute drive or some 25 kilometers away from the gaza border what has it been like since then has it been relatively quiet or siren still blaring in ashkelon it has been quiet here in ashkelon and as i was saying even just before the siren sir i had been telling you that had been a fairly quiet day here earlier this morning it was a very loud day for residents here who living here some 150 rockets were fired by from hamas towards this area many residents having to take shelter but walking around the city it's really unclear how many residents are still living here and how many have decided to move into safer parts of the country this is also what we saw on sterot where we were this morning we're almost all civilians have evacuated and that's under government orders and we're now seeing some in the israeli government trying to push to get extra measures taken to give steps to the residents here to try and give them more help during the situation as they continue to see these rockets fired from gaza towards their city correspondent mary mccall if giving us an update there in the south of israel thanks for that and still with me here in studios reserve brigadier general amir avivi amir just before we crossed to mary in the south we were busy talking about the operational capabilities of the idea in the south and it's been a big thing that many in the defense establishment have come out and said we are going to wipe hamas off the face of the earth they will not exist they will cease to exist however there are ministers even former ministers like moshe alon the former defense minister coming out and saying israelis need to perhaps lower their expectations because it is going to be impossible to completely wipe them out surely israelis in particular in the south and in particular with what's going on now the worst massacre and killing of jews since the holocaust cannot live with that kind of an answer well you know i was at the camp of moshe bogie alone and i'm sure that if he was chief of staff and he was in charge of a massacre that occurred when he is chief of staff he wouldn't talk like that he will make sure that we wipe hamas now this is about conquering an area and then really cleaning it up we know how to do it it's hard it's difficult i have been in the last few days setting expectations to the israeli public it's going to be long it will take months it there is two stages the first stages it's the initial attack where you go to really the centers of gravity of the enemy but then but this is not the difficult part the difficult part really is cleaning up later on house to house finally finding the tunnels finding the operatives the leaders the rocket launchers this will take a long time we'll have to regain control for the gaza street for a very long time and and even afterwards we will need to have full freedom of operation as i said just as we have in juda and samara and the west bank we this is the only way to prevent any possible build-up of terror infrastructure in the future i just want to tell our viewers rocket siren alerts have been activated in central israel not necessarily here in tel aviv but we did hear those booms just above the studio amir what next what next the the idea goes into gaza as as you mentioned a ground incursion wipes out hamas by no means comparing the situation but drawing similarities between what happened with the united states troops in afghanistan the first point as you mentioned was to get rid of the taliban but then they were there for 20 years of which they tried to somehow reform the country put a political institution or beef up the army in place and look where it is now we're back to square one with the taliban empower what happens next in gaza once hamas is defeated the distance between the towns that were raided to the sea it's five kilometers this is not the united state or one side of the globe in afghanistan on the other side of the globe it's five kilometers it's it's a simple joke in the morning it's you know it's it's really close and for the idea once you gain control to have freedom of operation in an area of the width of five kilometers it's not something difficult now we have to also really think out of the box about new solutions it wouldn't be wise for example to transfer gaza in the future to the palestinian authority which are are worse almost as hamas they they want to annihilate us they're funding terror with billions they have laws designated to pay terrorists to kill jews this is the palestinian authority so we really need new kind of thinking i can tell you that we in idsf have developed four different solutions none of them undermine israel security and all of them are also beneficial for the palestinians so we're stuck with all the ideas and the reality has changed dramatically and we need to really start talking about new ideas of course this will require a whole different discussion not now but first let's really defend our citizens do you think that there'll be almost a collaboration between the israeli military and israeli politicians and the international community because as you mentioned and as israeli politicians have mentioned gaza will not be the same we cannot go back what was is not what's going to be and so first stage get hamas out and completely annihilate them second stage possibly making sure that they don't come up from the ground again but again two million residents of which yes some are part of the hamas organization um what do we do then with two million people okay i'll start talking about gaza and then and we'll permission i'll zoom out and to to really get the big picture we need to evacuate the palestinians to the saini peninsula and for this we need the involvement of in the international community they must pressure egypt to open the border and let the palestinians move south into the saini peninsula the ui needs to build a city of tents provide food water and and not leave these people in a in a war zone to be used as human shields for these savage terrorists because this is what's going to happen well as part of you know these efforts and humanitarian aid in egypt saying they're part of the muslim brotherhood and they stand shoulder to shoulder with the palestinians then why then haven't they opened the borders well it's a good question and you know in the last decade 300 000 palestinians have crossed this border 2000 a day i've emigrated to turkey to europe palestinians don't want to stay there we should give them the chance and the opportunity to go out and this will keep their lives and also will enable us to focus on the terrorists and not on a you know hitting civilians which we all don't want to do but having said that we're not going to endanger our soldiers we are going to maneuver in a very aggressive way targeting military installations and making sure that we manage to do our job now you asked about in what's going on internationally this is not a local war this is a global war this is a war that was initiated because iran wanted to stop the buildup of a coalition a western israeli sunni coalition through the normalization with saudi arabia in order to counter the front that has emerged the russian iranian front that is backed up by the chinese economy and what iran did with hamas this really got the us angry because it's hurting dramatically us interest and this is why us is moving ships this is why they are threatening militarily iran and his bala in syria this is not a local war this is a global war he never even britain is sending warships to the region eventually it's not only about hamas and it's not only about gaza we'll have to destroy his bala and we'll have to deal with the iran's aggression and nuclear plans and until we we don't finish with all of that we cannot really say that we have secured the state of israel and the region i'm here stay with me i want to move now to a guest who joins us now on skype from televiv ted tiomkin a krav maga instructor who returned to israel to serve the country after hearing about the war ted thank you so much for joining me here this evening firstly talk to us a little bit about your experience my understanding is that you were in thailand heard what was going on here in israel and needed obviously to catch a flight to come back to the country what was that whole ordeal like yes so uh actually to be in all honesty i wasn't planning to like to stay longer i was supposed to fly back two days ago and actually had to postpone my flight because initially my flight was via a buddhabi so in the last minute i managed to get a straight flight can you hear me yes i can hear you yes so i got a yes uh flight from Bangkok there was a uh a flight that was basically uh giving chance to all israelis traveling in the far east there were people from all over i met a guys a bunch of guys from there were traveling in japan others scattered throughout thailand so we had this late night flight uh from Bangkok and um yeah so um just asking uh trying to understand everyone so most of the people i saw on the flight were young people indeed who uh wanted to get back and uh go join the army as a reservist as myself um i've been in my uh uh military service uh krav maga instructor so i am my case it's maybe a bit different i wasn't dispatched with a specific unit i was working in all of the army so currently i'm in contact with uh the chief instructor the head of the krav maga in the army and uh from what i hear from him uh there are many people many fellow instructors that are volunteering that uh um uh he said approximately 50 to each lesson they offer there are 50 volunteers so um um but yeah in in a in any way possible i'll be able to know probably within the next days what uh what i will be able to do whether it's in logistics or uh going to uh um to the front or in every way possible um yeah everyone's willing to contribute no doubt a sense of national pride that's in particular the israel defense forces israeli children grow up knowing that they have to serve and and want to serve israeli parents on the other hand mostly concerned about sending their children to the front line between you and your family was there ever almost a dilemma or or a decision to make or was it just clear that regardless of how you could serve you were coming home to serve uh it's funny you're asking that we we haven't questioned that too much but i had like a brief uh conversation with my mom and from what i got she's like obviously she's uh we have an expression in nibu which is uh to make someone like uh uh like deadly despair so i asked her if she's gonna make me feel that way about uh going to reserve but she and what she replied to me was no it's you that are going to do that to me but i'm able to live with that go and do just what you have to do so um so yeah i think that that uh i represents the the feelings of most israelis right now it's the right thing to do and we know what's at stake we know what's the risk uh but uh yeah um it's probably a feeling of no choice really it's it's a difficult thing for many onlookers in in particular non-jews perhaps or non-israelis to understand israel's a small country and everyone knows someone who has been directly impacted by this but there's a fortune of soldiers that reservists that also are foreign and are flying into the state to come and serve once again not necessarily knowing anyone that has been murdered by kamas there's a deep sense of connection amongst jews amongst israelis what does it feel like possibly going to the front lines you know certain countries don't fully understand fighting for a cause or perhaps because it's such an existential threat i think it's a latter i think the thing that i was like in this way last weeks that i've been uh actually this last week that the thing was brought on to the eyes of the world and i was discussing it with the people from all over the world in thailand is that uh we're not that much fighting for a cause for an ideology as much as we really are fighting from our home you know that could can be bombarded in in in any second it's not that we have a uh front line we have frontier which is uh miles from home and we're driven by ideology we just we are fighting for the home for the neighborhood for the city you know for your direct proximity it's much more tangible for an israeli and we know like or my my parents know the past generations if we don't fight we we're going to lose it like right away because israeli is so small you know we don't we don't have a what what usually happens uh is that you have like a buffer zone for deterrence and people are sent there in war for us it's the proximity we're fighting straight from home so um yeah the the the feeling is much more tangible ted tiom kena krav magai instructor and reservist to return to israel from thailand to come and serve your country we salute you and thank you very much for your service very much about you let's cross now live to our correspondent robert swift is standing by for us near the israel lebanon border robert sirens again going off on the south uh the southern communities in israel what can you tell us in terms of an update from the north in the north the idf has said in the last hour that it is striking hezbollah targets with uavs with drones and it has done this in response to hezbollah admitting that it was responsible for fire across the border at israeli targets this is the fifth admission by hezbollah that it has been responsible for attacks against israel in the last few days that incident took place in the uh close to the israeli kibbutz of of anita which is right on the border kibbutz where there was a suspected um infiltration across the border when idf forces moved in to investigate this they were fired upon and they responded with airstrike excuse me they responded with artillery fire and with tank fire now in that incident uh close to it there was a number of journalists on the northern side of the border on the lebanese side of the border that were were struck in an explosion including a reuters videographer named isam abdallah who's based out of beirut um who was killed and another number of other journalists were wounded this is still being investigated as to to who was responsible for the fire but that remains to be seen the actual security incident itself on the israeli side of the border closed up shortly afterwards with residents of the kibbutz being told that they could return to normal but that is not the only security incident taken place along this border which has seen heightened tensions for days and if you can if you look just behind me you might be able to see we're up on the hill uh about two kilometers from where we are there's a fire burning on the hill and this is close to the israeli community of misgav am where rocket alerts went off earlier and that fire which presumably caused by fall from the rocket continues to burn and as a result of that and and these security tensions which are taking place here for a matter of days there's been a number of skirmishes the the communities along here are really quite on edge we've been noticing it with our interactions with the locals and with the israeli soldiers who are defending this area that many of them are quite on edge and you can understand why with this being the seventh day of of the fighting and everybody is wondering whether this border here will also open up as a northern front to go alongside with the southern front correspondent robert swift giving us an update there from the north of israel thank you still in studio with me is reserve brigadier general amir aviv yamir the last point that rob main speaking of the residents being on edge in the north no doubt the residents across the country are on edge and there's no telling what what is going to unfold with regards to the trauma and the psychological aspect of this but there's reports coming out that hamas is now publishing videos showing that it was actually taking care of babies and children on a lot of these kibbutzim parents no way inside i'm hoping possibly in the coming hours we'll have this footage but is this part of the psychological war i think that hamas understands that we're going to annihilate them and they're trying to show excuses as if they are human but they're animals they're worse than animals and they cannot exist anymore i mean we see what happened in the israeli towns there is no words to describe the inhumanity that what of what happened hanged babies decapitated they decapitated you know heads of babies the raped women they burned people alive they did things we haven't seen since in the holocaust and we need to completely eradicate them destroy them and not only in Gaza all over the world like the Nazis we need to hunt them down and kill all of them this is what's going to happen we're not going to forgive the Jewish people will never ever forget what happened here and they'll pay the price reserve brigadier general amir avivi the director of the israel defense and security forum in the former adf deputy commander of the Gaza strip division who's currently in reserves thank you for that thank you more to come at the top of the hour over 1300 casualties and over 3000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what hamas did follow us as israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join i-24 news for the real story of what's going on a unique concept in israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i-24 news it's officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity more than a hundred israelis according to official reports by the government have been abducted to Gaza unprecedented these are military personnel but also civilians that have been abducted and the hospitals are full of patients that are being treated some others are hiding still perhaps and police forces and military forces are looking for them one of the scenes that had people fleeing from them yesterday was a party a nature party that was taking place in raeem on a holiday and we're now joined by shani tzaban who is looking for her sister bal zoho who was there at the party i understand thank you very much shani for speaking with us i imagine i can't imagine how distressing this day is thank you for being with us tell me what do you know about what happened to bal okay so first of all thank you for letting me speak because we want every we want to publish everywhere we can so should we could find her so my sister and her name is bal zoho she is 23 and yesterday and friday more correct she was at a party in raeem nova party and all we know is that she spoke with us around six in the morning six and a half uh she was calling my mom and asking her for coming to get her because we had rockets and we also had rockets we also were hiding from the rockets and i mean the Hamas were bombing us i mean from six in the morning we were just we couldn't get out out of the shelter it was it was something that we never ever had here and we and we didn't know how to react it and we thought about the the rockets and then my sister is calling she's at the party and she wanted us to come to take her and my mom told her okay so the the rockets will come down and i'll get out and come to get you and after like less than 10 minutes my sister called my mom and screaming mom mom mom and my mom said what what happened what happened and the call was disconnected just disconnected there wasn't a sign there uh i called her back and she didn't hear me i was trying to talk with her and she she couldn't hear anything and then she sent my mom a message around 7 30 we don't have a sign here i i can't speak with you and that's the only information we knew from her uh her friends is uh is at the hospital at Soroka and they say that uh they it's right so high of course take your time i can imagine how hard it is um i mean i can't imagine to be honest but um of course it's very very hard friends are getting hurt and get shot in the leg in another place we don't know we just don't know anything i mean it's unbelievable how can we not know anything about my sister where she is where what happened to her which reader we don't know anything i mean it's it's unbelievable she went to a party to to a party with her friends it's i mean who can imagine this stuff like this the terrorist come and just shoot everybody and we don't know what's going on with her we don't know know and we and we are my mom and my dad can't even speak that's why i'm on there i'm her i'm her big sister they can't speak they can we just we're sitting here 30 hours after this event we don't know what's going on with her like 30 hours after it it's it's unbelievable my parents all day yesterday and today went from site to site on country just to search for her in the hospitals and get dna tested so they can find her and you just want one piece of information of her and you learn why why why are you here today i understand that you're looking for your sister that's right since yesterday around the hour of a two o'clock p.m. that was the last time we heard anything any word from a little sister she is a medic in a kibbutz baeri that's one of the kibbutzes who was that's one of the kibbutzes who was under a very serious attack of terror attackers and the rockets shooting still it's under a very heavy shooting so as i was saying amici is the medic of the kibbutz she was trapped in the clinic with the injurance and a multiple amount of dead people and injurious people while they are surrendered by terror attackers in the outside around the hour of two o'clock they got inside i was open to break in they was able to break in and they shoot they shot all of them i meet my sister just record as a message because she was not able to type anymore she recorded us a message while we could have here all of the shotguns and ever since there we lost any connection with her we have no idea where is she if she's either alive or dead we have no idea if she's in the israeli field in the israeli territory or either in gaza strip we have no idea where is she or what happens where we are desperate for any piece of information we are miserable and desperate for every piece of information anything yes my sister was at the party she is the she's a young jury designer and she went there fulfilling her dream and to sell her jewelry and on Saturday the attack started and she started to run away with her friends my parents managed to call her during the during the time until last call until past eight when she told us that they're being shot at and that the battery is being lost she's lost and they're on the run after that while we try to understand what happens with a family and friends we discovered that she she ran away with a group of people they had to split a few times during that time because the terrorists shot them them while running and after after a while she split for the last time that we know it's about nine a.m. in the on the day morning and that's the last time that we know where she was we got it from a person that was running away with her and he told us the whole story from his point of view later on we continue searching the web and trying to understand what happened we found a few videos that shows that my sister was kidnapped my baby sister was kidnapped and then we were showing her with a few terrorists among the thousands of Israelis across the country concerned over the fate of still unaccounted for friends and family is Noi Levy now one of her friends Ofer Tsarfati went missing during that outdoor music festival after apparently he helped his girlfriend Noi's other friend Shoval Gaal escape from Hamas terrorists who attacked that events but unfortunately we don't know his fate no I just fill us in on what you know about that story what happened to your friends down at that music festival actually what happened is that they became they came to the party everything was okay suddenly all the music was shut off and the sirens began and all the alarms went wild and everyone started to run towards the cars and this exit and they were stuck in a like a line of cars that was both sided like there's no way out terrorists from the right from the left from each direction and he helped her to get into the car to escape and he was left behind and got on another car which was in the middle of a shooting fight and that is the last thing we know that he was shot and the other friends that was in the car with them was shot as well that's the the shoval Gaal your the your other friend what is her condition do we know I mean did she make it out safe and of course it must have been it must be even physically there just the trauma of having gone through that event yeah she's at home and she's safe with her family and friends but she's mentally broken she saw things that we can't even imagine to see she herself doesn't really know what she really saw and she's very very very wanted to find him and know he's okay he's alive we have no clue we have nothing about I want to go now to Lahavim in Israel south where I'm joined by Alex Sherman on the phone the father of Ron an adducted IDF soldier can you explain to us a little bit about how you know that your son was taken where he was what he was doing at the time and if you've heard any information on him okay let's start from it that I was on the phone with him since the start yeah and we was with us on the phone and he told us actually that terrorists are coming from him for him and they just took him we just heard last words that he said goodbye to us that he loves us and we didn't know that time if he was dead or alive a few hours later we just saw a video that was running on the media from the Hamas and then we saw all the procedure all the attack on the base the base was very badly bombarded and we saw those gunmen just coming into the base you have to think to know that this base was not the military base it's not the combat base it was just the limit and the way and the place that all the trades is done the coming inside and outside of the Gaza Strip and my son job was to give permissions to the drivers to get in and out that was his job all right so I want to tell you about a tunnel had a tunnel is my nephew is 12 and a half years old and my brother oh had is 49 years old they both live in Kibbutz near Oz at the morning of Saturday on the attack they actually my brother and he was just defending his family out of the safe room because there was a problem with the door so he was outside and the children with my sister-in-law was inside and he was waiting with the gun to the terrorist and then they there was shooting outside and probably he was injured by the shooting and and after they shoot him so they opened the safe room door and they took my sister-in-law Bacheva and her three children Eitan 12 years old Yael 10 years old and Liel one year and eight months old they took them and they put them on two bikes one bike Bacheva with the two daughters and the other bike Eitan the 12 and a half years old my beautiful nephew and they just gone to to the fence they just drove to the fence and something like 200 or 300 meter from the fence came two tanks that actually made some something that the bike of Bacheva and the daughter just stopped and the bike with Eitan continue through to the fence and Bacheva got the bravest decision and she managed to escape what a miracle what a miracle with the with the baby on her hand and Yael the 10 years old and she managed to escape no shoes with her their pajamas and they run back to the fields of Kibbutz Niroz and then they done and then they do do themselves dead because there was lots of terrorists running to the fence so Bacheva told the little child please make you we will get on the ground and you will make yourself dead and then they done it themselves dead and somehow two of the terrorists came nearby and tell them you are coming with us and she said and she said no there wasn't armed so she keep on running she just get up keep on running and then somehow they get to a bus with a bus with a soldiers Israeli soldiers um i'm sorry it's a little bit hard for me to really get out the entire story right here but what we know um and kind of a concise version is that Maya um my husband's sister went out to the party and at 6 30 a.m we woke up to rockets and we were looking for her we were so confused why she wasn't in the house um we were calling her and she was screaming that she was running away from famas terrorists on trucks shooting at everyone she's telling us on the phone that she's seeing people left and right you know falling from gunshots um and we were just trying to understand the situation trying to understand what was happening in and out of the mud of the shelter so it was hard for us really to read the news and to understand um and then once we finally got to the news we realized that Hamas terrorists had infiltrated Israel um through Gaza from the air the land and they tried to buy sea and we realized that this is not a situation that we'd ever experienced before we are at war and a war that we didn't predict and you know Israel wasn't ready for um I can tell you that we are currently living in a nightmare right now because we're really really just waiting we've been over 40 hours waiting for our my father-in-law my husband's dad to come home um so his daughter made it home she made it home right she got away from the party and while he was looking for her he was missing yeah they were 20 minutes away from each other they were also communicating on the phone we were communicating with him um he was 20 minutes drive from her when he was at so much Mifflas Mifflas seam um that's the last time we saw we had connection with him the phone got disconnected um and his car is still there but we got information from some IDF soldiers that he's not in the car um there are gunshots on the car but we're really just looking for anybody in the area of Mifflas seam or um Oane to tell us if they've seen him because we're just really really praying that he comes home soon around six a month Saturday he called to our our father an update that there is a missus alarm he and his friends found the cover under the deck of the bar and they waited that we're the the interception of the iron don't so they'll be ready to go out few moments afterwards he and his friends ran to the cars and started driving home in two vehicles my brother was alone in in his car he saw in the side of the road two girls that tried to escape as well they was very nervous and afraid and our brother with his special self-control and nonchalant he just told them with a smile jumping girls i will take you home don't worry it's on me they started to drive but in the but in a moment dozens of terrorists blocked the road from everywhere from both sides and started to shoot on them at that moment or he called again to our father he told them he told him that he's surrounded by dozens of terrorists they are shooting them with machine guns with kalashnikovs with and grenades he update my father that he must take an action he cannot stay in the car he cannot leave the car and you know hide be a hide in the field or something like that because they shooting the people like ducks he said that he will confront them he took a decision and speed up and try to avoid them since it was the only choice to escape this horror massacre my father told him do what you need i believe in you i trust you be strong and go ahead so we speed up against them but they shoot the car he injured he lost control on the on the car and that's a result the car flipped twice and he lost his conscience while the two girls had minor injuries the girls pretended to be dead but after 20 minutes our brother started to regain his conscience but the terrorists noticed it and in act of a pure evil shooting again in a scene taken from the holocaust period it's terrifying we got the entire story early from the girls that he saved we found them on saturday noon and they told us about the story they called him the angel that came from the sky to save them and you know in the summer from saturday in 7 a.m we didn't hear nothing from our brother in the end of the day we don't have any official information about or i don't know we don't know if he's alive and in injured in hospital or he's still in the field is he dead is he kidnapped nothing we are in completely darkness all right the government didn't have the point that it says a special coordinator gal hersh to deal with the issue of those missing and unaccountable have you had any contact with any but have you had any contact with officials yet your family on about your sister no we're just talking to the news and waiting for someone to talk to us i send gal hersh like a thousand messages no one is talking to me right okay prime minister netanyahu is apparently going to address the nation even in the coming minutes what do you want to hear from the prime minister i want to hear something about her something about her about the other ones that missing no one no one of the families knows anything we don't know nothing yes nothing we just keep posting on the seshuam and social media a lot of videos a lot of thoughts just about her someone if someone heard from her if someone saw her with their broken leg this is you can't miss someone you know with a broken leg in a party like this right no one saw her no one the idf spokesperson did say that the list of those being held captive it's being finalized uh have you heard anything from authorities until this point nobody nobody got in touch with me um so i have no idea what's going on um i still hope that this this courageous woman will just go out from her hiding place and i can hide i can hug her tomorrow um but it's hard it's really hard and listening to all these politicians makes me sick because that's all they need to know when all they want to know when everything they need to do they don't they just talk they just talk and the international community worth nothing because it doesn't matter what is happening israel is always to be blamed always and i said said it before and i will say again we don't need to think any longer about what the community around the world think because they will think anyhow bad about israel is always the one to be blamed and now they're the hamas is saying we'll do this if it's now there's no place for hamas yeah there is no place for hamas in this world it need to be destroyed the guy that came back to rescue them took them two of them gaya and rome and also another guy named afil he took them in his car and apparently he was going to the to the north and the next time i got a phone call from omie and she's crying and saying mommy i was shot i was shot and everybody in the car is shot and we cannot move we cannot go out of the car the car is is jammed we cannot we cannot drive and and we are stuck here mommy helped me i don't know what to do i think i'm going to die and and the guy near her saying mom please call my mom and tell her i don't know what you will tell her but just tell her that you heard from me that i was talking to you and he gave me his mother's number and and i was talking to them and saying you're not dying i you cannot die you are not dying we are rescuing you you will be okay and i told rome you you know what to do in this situation you have to breathe and and be very calm and take control over the situation you cannot lose blood you have to be very relaxed and i was talking to her and she was saying mommy i don't know what to do please help and i was saying and i know i lied we will send you help tell us where you are and we will send you help send us where you are from the phone where you are here and where you're staying now where the car is now so we can know look how to locate you i didn't know what to do with that and i was talking to her and saying to her mommy you will be okay you will be fine you will be we will help you and when you get better we will go to drink and we will go sitting in your rest and the restaurant that you're working in you will go hiking and you will be okay and i'm talking to her and saying to her how much i love her and she's not talking anymore and i can't shut around around them a lot of talking in arabic i didn't know what they are saying and then in 1058 they closed the call and since then we don't have any information about so i need to make sure that everything possible is done to find baal um and her friends uh so many families like you are looking for their loved ones it's it's heartbreaking and um yeah i just send you a lot of strength and uh we hope that you will hear good news very soon thank you thank you very much and we hope that everybody is going to come back home safe and healthy and we are just praying for for everything for to be better janita man thank you so much for for speaking with us thank you hopefully somebody hears this and might be able to help as well thank you thank you thank you it's no surprise the transition to parent-hood can be transformative for anyone with a new baby but what kind of mark is it leaving on the brains of new parents there are dramatic physiological hormonal and neuronal changes in the body and the brain that accompanies parenthood much like the changes that happen in the brain when picking up any new skill like learning a new language or mastering a new musical instrument the brain also changes when becoming a parent it's what scientists call experience-induced brain plasticity and professor adi mesrachi is doing some of his own digging into this at the hebra universities edmund and lily safari center for brain sciences the region of the brain called the amygdala it becomes more sensitive in the mothers when they hear baby sounds in short all these sensors get a boost to help a mother interact with her baby smell and sound to very strong stimuli are the areas professor mesrachi is focused on in his lab but does fatherhood have the same impact on the brain and bodies of men levels of testosterone which is the male hormone which is correlated with male-like behaviors like aggressiveness and things of that sort it goes down when the male becomes parents as professor mesrachi says each and every one of us has a parent or two parents most of us will become parents one day and as any new parent knows having a baby provides opportunities for enrichment learning and stress experiences known to transform the adult brain 1300 casualties and over 3000 injuries and the toll keeps climbing we bring you the testimonies from the front line from those who managed to survive in the most graphic brutal images so the whole world can see what hamas did follow us as israel battles a terror threat emanating from the south and the north join i24 news for the real story of what's going on ruling and breaking news coverage here on i24 news it's day seven of war here in israel over the past week the death toll has risen more than 1300 people were murdered by hamas with close to 3300 wounded by the combined attacks rocket alert sirens continue to blare throughout communities in the south with some homes taking direct hits but thankfully no casualties in recent hours the guards and terror group has expanded their reach by launching rockets at both central and even northern israel as well we go to studio now where i'm joined by reserve brigadier general america vivi the director of the israel defense and security forum and the former idf deputy commander of the gaza strip division who is now in the reserves for that division you mentioned earlier that you were near the gaza border in otef asa in the kvara asa area listening to the control group there's control commands or the war commands that are there everyone is focused everyone has a clear mission and what is that mission yeah i was surprised when i arrived to the headquarters after such a first fighting in the headquarters itself so many people dead people kidnapped everybody's calm everybody's focused everybody's motivated and everybody is very very angry they want to go in and destroy hamas everybody is ready to fight for israel for our future for our ability to really survive in this jungle and the forces are amassing training getting ready the headquarters and while that you know i visited the kvara asa and heard from the people who were rescuing and and taking the bodies the atrocities the the level of evil babies being decapitated women raped people were burned alive this is the level of cruelty that we haven't seen since you know since the holocaust and we cannot have an enemy like that on the other side of the border they need to be destroyed there are reports lately that indicate that israeli security top brass got wind of what hamas was planning before the attack but thought it was a drill so never actually took action now we've been speaking about the fact that there is going to be a time for reckoning a time to take responsibility and accountability and point fingers and blame but now is not that time but it is as you mentioned people are angry and and apart from just retaliating and getting vengeance for what happened people are no doubt also angry at the main question that they keep asking how did this happen our army is invincible how did this happen it's unbelievable and you know there was some intelligence during the night and the head of shin bet was called to the shin bet headquarters they spent their all night there was a discussion between him and the chief of staff and the chief of intelligence and the head of the thousand command but they really didn't understand what is going on they didn't understand intelligence and they said okay we'll continue this discussion later on the they didn't say anything to the minister of defense they didn't alert the prime minister and unfortunately we understand that also the Gaza division itself the place where they had to enhance alert didn't get any of this intel it's unbelievable you know even a bit of alert maybe would have changed with the same some lives would have changed the scenario but it didn't happen and as you said it's not time to really go into this now we need to stand the people of Israel need to stand by the government and the army and encourage him to bring a decisive win in Gaza and also looking at the Iran and his ballot we'll have to deal with that if not now later but we cannot allow these enemies to exist and threaten us the ways they have done for so long well let's dive into that i do want to point out to the audience that rocket alert sirens are ringing at the moment in the south in Ashkelon where our correspondent Mary McCall if there's a no doubt we'll be crossing to her later on in the broadcast for an update but the time of reckoning is not now however according to a new dialogue center poll that came out on Thursday four out of five Jewish Israelis believe that the government and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to blame for Saturday's massacre and the evidently unfolding war with the majority of respondents I believe it was 94 percent saying that Netanyahu should resign following the conclusion of operation swords of iron the question is are is this unity government now the emergency unity government between prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who for whatever his faults are has been a prime minister in times of war in times of clashes with both the north and the south and has been a prime minister for a long time capable of holding on to the reins alongside Benny Gantz a former defense minister and former chief of staff as well as Gadi Aizenkar the senior IDF official are all three of them together able to guide us through the next stages yes and these stages will be long because to destroy Hamas will take time we need to conquer the Gaza Strip we need to really clean it and it will take months and months it's not something that will happen fast and look I've been at the camp of the chief of general staff I know exactly what's the process of decision-making and at the end of the day politicians they listened to the army and the shin bet I mean we know how much we civilians if a political effect if a prime minister doesn't listen to them how irritated we get we expect our politicians to pay attention to what the army and the shin bet said and in this case they didn't see it coming and they didn't even alert the prime minister or the minister of defense they didn't even wake them up in the line in the night so I'm not sure that talking specifically about what happened here the government is to blame but from Oslo 30 years till now all the governments have failed to really deal with this threat and do what is needed to do and now I'll say the opposite and I say and I'm asking myself a question if Netanyahu or let's say the previous government would have suggested conquering Gaza as they should have would they have had the public support or international support and I think we know the answer and the answer is no I mean we saw in 2014 even when we were maneuvered a bit not a lot we had huge problems internationally and we didn't enjoy even the US support so this is complicated and I think that people are angry and are throwing blames all over the place now it's time to win there will be a time when when we really have to dig in-depth and and really analyze that I can tell you that last year in the eights of august 2022 I wrote in the Wall Street Journal an article explaining the failure of Israel to deal with Hamas and this was just at the end of the operation where everybody was so happy we hit the Palestinian Islamic Jihad we have been really in this misconception for many many years Amir hold your thoughts right there on this conversation because I do want to cross now to our correspondent Robert Swift who's standing by for us near the Israel-Lebanon border Rob just briefly while we still have you can you give us an update on what's happening on the ground in the north? Yes certainly I would say with the exception of the drone which I can hear buzzing over my head for the last hour it's been quite quiet here on the northern border but that has not been the case for much of the day and with an exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces to the west of here around the Kibbutz of Hanita taking place there with small arms fire from Hezbollah and artillery and tank fire from the IDF and two rockets into the northern region one fired from Gaza the most long-range rocket that Hamas have fired for some time and a second rocket landing this one fired from the Lebanese side of the border and landing in the hills just behind me and that is the situation as it stands at the moment. Thank you so much correspondent Robert Swift there on the northern border we'll be checking in with you a little bit later I do want to update our viewers that we have got word in that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing the nation this evening as soon as we have that broadcast live we'll be bringing it to you with those updates still with me here in studio is reserve Brigadier General Amir Aviv Amir I want to firstly touch on the clashes that are unfolding at the moment between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah because the same way and in an ironic sense the same way that Iran keeps referring to Israel as the little satan and America the big satan Israelis have also kind of seen Hamas as the smaller annoyance terror group versus Hezbollah a heavily backed group by Iran which has almost been seen as the big brother and the scarier brother are we equipped to handle clashes and an all-out war on both the south and the northern border with Iran's backing we are able to win on both fronts so of course it might look like the six-day war where we went into the Sanai Peninsula one then went to the Golan Heights one and then into Judah and Samaria and Jerusalem but I want to tell you something about Hezbollah at 6.30 in the morning Saturday when the war started and took a really short time to understand that this is a war and the atrocities the first question I asked myself okay why didn't Hezbollah attack simultaneously why wasn't this a multi-front war because they lost the element of surprise and the answer is Iran launched Hamas but need Hezbollah intact to defend Iran from a possible attack they're not going to waste both organizations unless I don't know something big changes and then this is dynamic but the basic idea why they didn't launch most of them they need Hezbollah intact and indeed we see that Hezbollah is very careful you know they should hear they should there but really they don't they're not looking they pick and choosing their battles very very carefully they don't want a full-scale war the other element is America is involved in America sent warships and threatened Hezbollah and threatened Iran and we heard President Biden saying one word don't don't even think to get involved because then you have a deal with us so Iran on one side needs Hezbollah intact America on the other side is threatening Hezbollah in this reality it will be very difficult for Hezbollah to enter into war unless I don't know Iran changes their assessment and are afraid to completely lose Hamas and they launch them it might happen but remember all the IDF has been recruited the northern command is in full capability to wage war in full readiness so if Hezbollah wants to challenge us when we are in full readiness and with American ships assisting they can try I think that we do just need to make clear that at least for the time being America is not sending troops or at least ground forces into Israel what they are essentially doing with the Gerald Ford airstrike carrier is sending as you mentioned a strong message to Iran in particular because a it needs to stand by Israel's side as its biggest allies but also a defense capabilities that can assist us dramatically to deal with Hezbollah this is a huge issue which is backed by Iran and also because of the fact that their their Saudi peace normalization with Israel they're changing of the Middle East is is now at stake here it's there you mentioned this earlier that their efforts in the Middle East are now being trampled on as well yeah definitely and you know this is a global war Iran is trying with the backup of Russia and Chinese economy to gain control of the Middle East the US is trying to counter that by building a coalition an American Israeli Sunni coalition by normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia in the whole Arab Sunni world Iran tried to disrupt it this got the Americans very angry and this is why they're involved the way they're involved and even Britain is sending warships to the region this is really a war between two blocks that have emerged in the last year and a half and it's a really a big big thing it's not just about Israel and Hamas Amir stay with us but as we're talking about the support that we're getting from our our strongest or staunchest ally the United States of America earlier today being Friday Israel's Defense Minister Joav Garland held a joint press conference in Tel Aviv at the Security Headquarters with the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on behalf of the United States and the Biden administration Austin said that American support for Israel is iron clad he also equated Hamas with ISIS here's more from the US Defense Secretary we're we're with you Mr. Prime Minister and as the President said we have your back and you know it's an awful week disgusting acts by this terrorist group and as you know I was the guy that initially put the ISIS campaign together and I know a lot about ISIS and this is this is worse than what I saw with ISIS well let's bring in Ella Kenan now a digital marketing professional and content creator who joins me from Tel Aviv Ella what is the campaign that you essentially started that broke the internet tell us a bit about it okay so after coming out of the shock on Sunday a day after the massacre occurred I've decided to write down and post about it in a very structured narrative so we can all share exactly what that happened in a manner that could serve Israel but also could be heard in western ears and create support in Israel the fact that the brutal massacre very much looked like an ISIS massacre and also the army found ISIS flags and ISIS books in the kibbutz in the south of Israel really said the truth for us and our main goal is to get to this western audience and make them know let them know them know the truth the truth is this this is ISIS we're fighting with it's not the oppressed and the oppressor it's a fundamentalist terror organization that sets to destroy Israel and all the Jews and it's us now and then you later and this is our narrative this is the truth and we want support from all our allies around the world many people are coming out and saying that at the beginning of this was you even mentioned on Sunday you became a focal point of information because you advanced the Israeli narrative across the globe where the government appeared to fail they only expressed the same sentiment days later how does it feel that perhaps you started what has now become the overriding general narrative amongst Israeli politicians and the defense establishment here in Israel I I don't I don't think it's a credit war and I don't think it's the main issue at the moment the main issue at the moment is to set this narrative and send it around the world so everybody will know what happened and how this could get to other western countries liberal countries such as Israel this is not the usual Israeli-Palestinian conflict this is something else and I don't want to get into politics I just want to say that what we've just seen is the most heartwarming thing I've ever seen in Israel everybody doing something in order to promote this and this is the success story of all Israelis taking part in this not only mine and well in terms of the government I really don't want to comment I think you can see it by yourself and Ella no doubt the unity in Israel has been on the darkest days some sense of light and social media is normally broadcast in such negative ways but those abroad are asking how they can possibly help we've all been sharing the atrocities all across social media platforms broadcasting them live on TV because the world needs to know what really happened that Hamas is equated and possibly even worse than ISIS so what is your message to international viewers in particular that are watching this how can they get involved and how can they help this is great so this is how you can support Israel and support spread our narrative around the world the main platforms we need to use our Twitter and Instagram if you don't have them download them you don't need followers you don't need a lot of followers at all what you need is to get into some influencers accounts my name is Ella Travels on Instagram and Twitter but there's also so many other influencers such as Yusuf Khadad, Ken Mazig and others that post all this content in English and other languages share this so everybody will know the truth when you share when you comment on Israeli supporting posts on social media when you like them then the algorithm lets it get to more people don't comment on anti-israeli posts that helps them to get more exposure we don't want that if there's fake news if they're spreading lies about what happened then you should report that so report the people that don't support Israel and spread false accusations and don't comment on them comment only on pro-israeli content and share it thank you Ella Kenna a digital marketing professional and content creator a travel blogger who essentially it turned into the global narrative here in Israel that Hamas is ISIS thank you so much for being a inspiration at this time of such heartache thank you so much Batya good to see you again now for nine months Israel's dominant story of 2023 was its protests then it all changed and I'll see a correspondent Owen Ultiman has a look at the push to get goods to reservists and civilians in need and I'm exactly who's leading it hands that held up protest signs now pack the boxes and there are a lot of them baby food and toys for families from Israel south blankets and equipment for reserve soldiers on their way to duty and at this spot at Tel Aviv's convention center all put together by organizations that just a week ago were focused on something else entirely we are social activists we're activists by nature we are trying to take care of our country and that's what we've been doing from the last 10 months so for us switching from doing every type of work that we did in the last 10 months to supporting the IDF it's the action the same thing we're trying to support the IDF even before right now we simply do it with boxes but the task the overall mission never changed this space more than any shows Israel's shift in an instant from protest to war months of wrenching debate and protest with the security situation in the background now war with protest at this point only a memory we are protesting because we want to protect our country and what we're doing here is to help our country it's the same action when you're protesting for the safety of our country and this horrible thing is happening and we are all here to help it's the same thing because this is our country we are here and we will help everyone that needs us we are the most Zionist and the most patriotic we have always said that we serve our country all our lives every year we go out to protect the borders in recent times we have been protecting the country from inside against people we felt were against Israeli democracy and it is most obvious that in one second we will direct all our resources for the benefits of the country the operation here is one of dozens if not hundreds up and down Israel for many parts of society showing a country mobilizing in every way oh and all term in i-24 news in Tel Aviv the international criminal court which is always quick to call out Israel and its atrocities has declared jurisdiction over potential war crimes carried out by not only Israel but also Hamas now Israel is not an ICC member but Palestinian territories fall under the court's jurisdiction in 2021 the court ruled that territories that claims are held by Israel since 1967 including Gaza and the West Bank are within its jurisdiction to prosecute as well take a listen to more from the ICC prosecutor I think any human being one doesn't need to be the prosecutor of the ICC and human beings heart must be chilled and frozen and heartbroken at seeing the pictures that are coming out of Israel and Palestine these last few days there's been many pictures over years but what we've seen is really heartbreaking I think that's the only word to use well the Rome Statute is clear we have jurisdiction on the territory of a state party and we have jurisdiction in relation to conduct committed by nationals of state parties so Palestine is a state party if there is evidence that Palestinians whether they're Hamas or Al-Qasem Brigade the unwing of Hamas or any other person or any other national of any other state party has committed crimes yes we have jurisdiction wherever they're committed including on the territory of Israel with me here in studios reserve Brigade General Amir Aviv Amir we have to discuss what's gone down with the ICC because normally they're very quick to point out the atrocities that Israel carries out on Gaza and the West Bank um but this allegedly correct but this is this is quite interesting that now they are turning the tables the question is can the atrocities the brutality of ISIS of Hamas actually even be tried as war crimes are they not just far far worse we keep saying that these are inhumane crimes how can they be charged by humans they are the same as the Nazis the same level of war of crime crimes against humanity things we haven't seen since the Holocaust it's the same and I really hope that we don't have to bring many to try we need to destroy them we need to really destroy them and this is what the IDF is going to do it's going to go in and destroy Hamas the White House has come out and says that there's no specific threat necessarily detected on America after Hamas's attack but there has been resurfaced videos of Hamas leadership saying that Israel is just the first step if anything was to be a wake-up call to the rest of the world outside of these awful images that we are seeing surely it is this surely it is knowing that the same way that we talk about Ukraine being just the the entry into Europe and then this could spread to more countries in Europe which is why it's so important to counter Russia's aggression is that not the same yeah I mean you know Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Brotherhood is spread all over Europe I believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking so I'll pause you right there let's take a listen and we'll come right back today we all understand if we are fighting over our home over our homeland the home of all of us and we are fighting like lions our soldiers our police men and police women our civilians our citizens the security forces the medical staff and you just citizens of Israel with your with your spirit that is is touching the entire world we're all recruited we're all united we will talk a lot about the heroism in this country in those days of grief and pain this bloody Saturday doors it will be engraved in the history of Israel we will never never forget the whore that were that were caused to us I spoke today with some of the families that their loved ones are their status is still unknown we will never forget the whores of our enemies that the enemy has conducted to us and will never let the world or anyone to make those wars disappear the wars that happened to the Jewish people in recent years we are attacking in an unprecedented manner I emphasize this is just the very beginning our enemy only started to pay the price and I will not elaborate on what is to come but I'm telling you this is just the beginning my position with the US president Biden and other leaders around the world and great efforts other great efforts we are recruiting is international support backing in Israel men support the method day with the defense of the US today we are securing the continuation of war with more munition that is making its way to Israel we will eliminate Hama we will bring the victory we'll take time but we will conclude this war stronger than ever before Shabbat Shalom with a message from the bible of reinforcement and strength well that was a brief update to buy the Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu still with me in studio Brigadier General Amir Aviv Amir I'm sorry I cut you off just before he was speaking but I think more important to break down Netanyahu was saying in an address on Shabbat first of all that they are striking at an unprecedented rate well it's true but having said that we know that the Hamas for years has adapted to two major capabilities the IDF has very advanced intelligence mostly technological and air force capabilities there is a city underneath Gaza and also we know that Hamas puts his main assets in areas like hospitals and places that we cannot really bombard and this means that there is no way to really destroy Hamas without a ground large ground operation and I believe that this will come at the end of the day we have no choice but really conquering Gaza and really destroying every infrastructure leaders and the terrorists that are inside Amir Aviv I want to thank you very much for being with us for the last two hours breaking down all the latest updates and hopefully we'll be back speaking about this but under better circumstances but again thank you very much for the update in particular that you visited the Gaza division headquarters and could give us more of an operational capability update of the IDF Shabbat Shalom to you and I want to bring in Danny Ayalon the former Israeli ambassador to the US Danny we just heard the Israeli premier speaking in an address updating the public a brief one but speaking on Shabbat again this attack a week ago happened on the Sabbath on the Saturday morning when most of the country has taken the day of rest has shut down even if those are not observant in themselves transport is closed down a lot of work is shut down as well it was this how significant is it to be getting these updates when a large part of the population perhaps can't get them or has Shabbat almost become in and of itself sort of a divine injustice that's happening right now because people have to be glued to their phones to get updates well but yeah this was a very short message by the prime minister and not very detailed so I think the message here was basically in the timing as you mentioned doing it in Shabbat and I think this is maybe to show the severity of the attack of the war we're in and maybe it's also a signal for all Israelis who are religious that this is the time you know that the the Bible tells us I'll say it in Hebrew when you are in life danger then this precedes Shabbat and I think this is the maybe the symbolic timing is that we are now in a time of life danger and in a dangerous situation and of course we know that we are winning the war we will win the war the cost may be too exorbitant but we have sustained victims and casualties throughout our existence as a nation as a people's and we're talking about 3,500 years now Denny stay with us I want to cross now live to our correspondent Mary McCauliffe who is still standing by for us in the south of the country at the Barzali hospital in Ashkelon Mary we just heard the prime minister speaking and saying that they were striking the IDF is striking Gaza at an unprecedented rate Ashkelon being not too far from the border what have you been hearing on the ground in the last few hours that's right Batya well we have heard the distant sounds of booms whether these are coming from Israeli airstrikes or tanks were firing in the region but there's definitely been activity that's been happening in the Gaza Strip and we do now know the IDF is confirming that it is launching what it's calling these unprecedented and extensive strikes in Gaza this comes after a day of warning for all residents in north of Gaza to flee south so it has been known throughout this day that these attacks are going to be intimate these strikes are going to be imminent really ever since last Saturday many Gaza have been bracing for a large-scale Israeli assault against Hamas positions so we have seen these evacuations underway also the IDF has apparently issued a warning telling one of the hospitals in northern Gaza that has two hours to evacuate this is of course going to be an extremely difficult task there are many people in hospitals inside Gaza many of them in critical conditions which is not feasible to move them but this does suggest that there's likely going to be some strike in that area as Israel does try to strike these Hamas terror targets in the region I think it's so important to point out the evidence coming through as well that Hamas is currently placing a lot of their arsenal under UN schools hospitals and largely in civilian populated areas yes it goes without saying that the Gaza Strip of two million people is already densely populated as it is but not allowing people out of these areas to head toward the south but also putting them in harm's way by strategically placing their rockets no doubt in these areas is only going to come out with collateral damage what have you been hearing about some of these Gazans potentially making their way down south we also know that the Barasi Lai hospital in I would say and say it lightly in normal times treats a lot of Palestinian kids coming across the border from Gaza absolutely absolutely right is an extremely densely populated area the Gaza Strip itself but we have known for years that Hamas has also used what the Israeli military says is civilian shields so placing terror tunnels that go underneath hospitals or under UN schools and saying that Hamas does this to use them as a shield so this is likely what we're going to see coming out if it in fact does strike the hospital this is likely the rhetoric we're going to hear from the Israeli military and we have seen evidence of these tunnels underneath some of these civilian areas in past wars when Israel has struck these terror targets including in 2021 when a lot of the tunnel infrastructure was dismantled and we really got a firsthand glimpse at really the extensiveness of these tunnels that do run under this incredibly densely populated area which I'm going to say it again just underscore really how dense it is these two million people living in this small area and we know of course for one million people to evacuate southwards into the southern half of the strip is a tremendous task the UN even calling it impossible we do know some Gaza residents have taken up that warning from the IDF to flee coming after numerous warnings both from the UN Israel itself from flyers that were dropped on Gaza city and throughout northern Gaza Strip today so we do know some have fled but some in Gaza are also saying that while they were fleeing Israel also struck this struck this escape route that they were using to flee so it is incredibly precarious situation on the ground in Gaza and we know it is likely only to intensify in fact Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirming himself that these strikes are likely to intensify so all the civilians have been warned to flee wherever they can our correspondent Mary McCall if giving us an update from the Bayez Eli hospital in Ashkelon in the south of Israel thank you very much for that as we were talking about the Israeli premier just addressed the public a first on the Sabbath about the strikes occurring in the Gaza Strip Israeli politics may be on the back burner but that doesn't mean that it's been taken off the stove especially as the government is now also facing growing criticism for a major intelligence failure over Hamas's attack on Israel the IDF now says that it will investigate the terror groups use of half a dozen training camps in Gaza after their locations were reported by cnn cleverest award has the details propaganda videos put out by Hamas revealed chilling details about the years of preparations that went into Saturday's bloody attacks right under Israel's nose analyzing metadata from the videos a cnn investigation can reveal the presence of at least six training sites inside Gaza one just 720 meters from the most heavily fortified and patrolled part of Israel's border in that camp Hamas recreated an Israeli compound with elements of the nearby border crossing including an insignia of the era's battalion the videos show they even practice taking prisoners and zip tying their hands at the camp satellite imagery indicates the camp was constructed within the last year and a half at two other locations in the southern part of Gaza Hamas trained for their audacious paraglider assault rehearsing takeoffs and landings at all six sites two years of satellite imagery reviewed by cnn shows no indication of offensive Israeli military action the imagery instead shows that in the last two years some camps even expanded into surrounding farmland and that there was activity in the last several months at the camps the stunning revelations raised questions as to how Hamas was able to train so openly so close to the border for so long and why Israeli officials were unable to pick up on and prevent the october 7th attack and still with me is Danny I along the former Israeli ambassador to the United States Danny there's a fortune to unpack here but i want to start with the support of the international community for Israel in particular the United States and its European allies they say when a friend is hurt you show up and that is exactly what we're seeing from the United States not just words but they are actually putting their money where their mouth is the United States sending both the US secretary of state state pardon and the defense secretary to Israel to see for themselves firsthand accounts and also to be able to be here but also reports that the European Union in particular the the European Commission chief on the ground in Israel Ursula von der Leyen actually going to Kfar Azar to see the atrocities there yes well first of all but yeah this is the decent thing to do so decent countries when they see such a barbaric savagery of course they stand to the to the victim this just a decency this is just a a matter of morality but also they understand that as far as the ayatollahs in Iran are concerned Israel is just the appetizer they would be the main course whether it's in Europe or whether it's in the United States and they they call Israel this the small satan the United States is the big satan for them there's no coexistence there is no peace negotiation or any kind of compromise or settlement for them it's do or die and I think it's very important that all the western countries that understand what's at stake and they do you know we are doing the right thing not only for doing the right thing but also to defend themselves the values their way of lives they're very light this is a war that has to be won with an unconditional surrender of Hamas ISIS or of any jihadist movement and jihadist force in the region and in many ways you know history sometimes repeat itself not exactly the same way but in many ways the surrender the demand to for the surrender of the Nazis back in 1945 was a unconditional surrender and this should be the case now and I believe more and more countries understand it let's dive in a little bit into the rhetoric that you're using there Danny you know the quite a lot of the countries in the western world and also a lot of people that are seeing these atrocities whether it be images videos or even hearing about it from eyewitnesses and the an actual testimonies from the ground are comparing Hamas to ISIS or comparing them to Nazis but we haven't really heard it spun the other way except earlier today the Russian president Vladimir Putin said and I quote the Gaza siege is unacceptable and comparable to the Nazi blockade of Leningrad well I don't think there is any credibility and I'm not sure we should pay any attention to what this Putin say we have to pay attention to what he does back in 2000 or so he flattened the capital city of Grozny in Chechnya indiscriminately killing thousands we know what he's doing in the Ukraine so he is the last one to be heeded to the fact that he said what he did proves again that he is part today of the axis of evil which includes Iran North Korea and and Russia and out in the wings we have China supporting those countries economically or even politically but how does that take away from the fact that Israel perhaps not a friendly relationship with Russia but does maintain its ties because of what's unfolding at the moment in Syria being that there are proxies of Iran in Syria even of Hezbollah in Syria and Israel has been able to strike those targets because of its relationship with Russia that appears to be all but deteriorating and very quickly and it wasn't because Israel failed to take a clear stance with regards to Russia's war in Ukraine well we took a very careful approach vis-à-vis the Russian attack on the Ukraine because of our strategic interests in the north in specifically in in Syria but when push comes to shove and especially after this beastly attack by Hamas then we do what do we need to do whether the Russians like it or not and in the Ukraine I think there should be and there is actually a more clear Israeli position when we have in the past few months supplying the Ukraine's with defensive equipment and and we probably will have to continue to because right now the line has been drawn in the sand on the one hand are the western countries the democratic countries on the other hand are the totalitarian and and I would say evil countries and now of course Russia has put itself clearly in the other camp of the evil and if we had any considerations vis-à-vis our free movement in in Syria this is a less of a concern now because we are capable of doing what we need to do in in Syria there is another concern of course which is the Jewish community in Russia there are a few hundred thousand Jews in Russia but not allow Putin to hold them hostage and I believe that they will be less of a factor just but yeah it's it's very unfortunate and it's it's it's a brutal honestly to say that just like the hostages in Gaza right now are being dealt in a parallel track that means the hostages the Israeli hostages in Gaza are not going to be in the way of what we need to do militarily vis-à-vis Hamas it's such a hard one because everybody knows that war is complex and it's messy but at the end of the day what the world needs to understand which I think we made clear in 2011 with the release and the exchange of Gilad Shalit for a thousand or over a thousand Hamas fighters and Palestinian terrorists from jails back into the Gaza strip is that human life even in Israeli life at the moment that is that is unfortunately been murdered by Hamas is important and that they need to be brought home but as you mentioned there's the complications as well that in Syria and speaking of those complications I want to ask you just briefly before we cross to our correspondence on the field Israel at the moment has been warning its embassies across the globe because of a day of rage by Hamas what have we been hearing in terms of some of the situations that have been unfolding France is now raised it's alert to the highest level at the moment yes well this this shows actually that actually the the wings unfortunately or the reach of the global jihadist movements is all over and the fact that Hamas today has supporters anywhere in the world and mostly it's Palestinian expatriates but the fact that they are supporting Hamas which by the way but yeah and this is very important to also to to to emphasize Hamas is not representing the national interest of the Palestinians quite the contrary if anything it undermines the Palestinian national interests and if there is another nakba as they call it another calamity for the Palestinians Palestinians in Gaza it's only because of Hamas like former leaders throughout the last century they were always responsible for this this their calamity first and foremost we can recall back in in the 1930s the leader of the Palestinians then was the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini from Jerusalem he is the guy who very proudly went over to Berlin to meet with Hitler and of course there are all the photos you know he was urging Hitler to do away with all the Jews he was a senseless murderer and you know with the most extreme ideology and those Hamas actually his descendants in terms of ideology terms of behavior and and again what the Mufti did for the Palestinians which was a calamity may occur all over again. Danny stay with us I want to get an update from our correspondent Robert Swift is standing by for us in the north near the Israel-Lebanon border. Rob we've heard throughout the day that there have been on and off clashes between the IDF as well as Hezbollah on the other side of the border but Hezbollah still not all in in terms of this war that's unfolding at the moment in the south between Israel and Hamas picking and choosing their battles in terms of the drones and the arms that they sending over the border at the moment. Yeah I think that's very much the case there's the open question of whether Hezbollah are entering or are they not I think at one point it seemed like possibly they were but this could the action seen today could just be a continuation of the skirmishes that have been seen for several days just a reminder of yours there was several rockets were fired one from Gaza and one from the Lebanese border both landing inside this the northern border area of Israel but the most significant incident was an exchange of fire between the Israeli military forces and Hezbollah forces around and Israeli kibbutz right on the northern border and the question still remains does Hezbollah want to enter this fight or does it not and I think we're no more wiser than we were earlier. The conversations that we've been having in studio for the last hours with experts and analysts pointed the fact that Iran wants to keep what it considers its bigger proxy Hezbollah over Hamas ready armed and waiting in case Israel does decide to retaliate possibly against Iran itself needing Hezbollah on its borders to be able to attack and so for the time being is it likely that we could be seeing perhaps even more of an uptick in terms of them choosing and picking their battles at the moment how big is the IDF reinforcement in the north that can give us an indication of whether they're expecting this to become out of hand well the IDF forces on the border are massive we've been I've seen dozens of tanks deployed here on the border the IDF used tank fire earlier to secure its border helicopters fighter jets drones you name it it's here on the border at the minute so it seems that Hezbollah you know if they had one wanted to enter the fight they most likely would have done so on Saturday when they had the element of surprise the fact that they are not and that the IDF are reinforcing here maybe goes add some weight to this your suggestion there that they're sort of being used as a reserve force potentially an insurance force something that that can be held over the head of Israel by those who are pulling the strings most certainly at least for the time being sounds like it now Robert you've been there for for quite a while today when you were driving up north from the center of Israel being in Tel Aviv did it appear like there was a lot of traffic coming the other way we have heard that quite a few residents from the north are relocating to the center because of the worries that this could get out of hand or at least increase the friction between the IDF and Hezbollah knowing full and while that Hezbollah well at least now it appears that that is a shattered belief syndrome that Hezbollah has more of a scary capability than Hamas but after what we've just witnessed it would appear that the two seem to be equated but our citizens did you see citizens returning to the center or coming down to the center for safety to be honest we didn't so much see that sort of traffic and when we were visiting residents in villages just two days back you know some of them seemed quite stubborn about the fact that they didn't want to leave there was one family that we spoke with who said that through all the the periods of tension and violence that there has been over the years between Israel and Hezbollah the only time that they did actually leave their home and travel down south to Tel Aviv was during the 2006 war and that family said that they were quite adamant that they did not intend to do so now but it's worth bearing in mind though that the capabilities of Hezbollah are considerably greater than that of Hamas so you know residents I think they do have that at the back of their mind people are still worried and it's clear that there is still quite a bit of tension on the ground even if people do want to put on you know a strong face and face up against it. Correspondent Robert Swift on the northern border giving us another update there thank you very much for that it's still with me on the line it's Danny Ayalon the former Israeli ambassador to the United States Danny while we were talking to Rob News coming out now of the opposition leader Yair Lapid ripping into the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for panicking Israelis over his prime time address again the first on the Sabbath that apparently had no new info is this really the time for political clashes right now remind our viewers this new unity emergency government still has a seat available for you Yair Lapid who to many has been a disappointment not rising to the occasion to fill that seat but for others sticking his ground and saying I'm not joining for as long as the extreme right is still in the government. Yes but yeah I think I think Lapid is wrong here and the fact that he did not use this emergency or unity government I think will haunt him politically and since he did not move in and he is lagging now behind Benny Gantz which did go in unconditionally because he said you know in time of war I'm going to go in just to save Israeli lives and just to win the war and it seems like now Lapid which is left outside he has to somehow separate himself or you know brand himself now as as the opposition but I don't think this will get a lot of traction within Israel today. Netanyahu just before we go out into the break Netanyahu gave this address on the Sabbath and I keep alluding to that because one of the sticking points from the protest movement that is now flipped on a dime instead of attacking the government is supporting the best way that they possibly know how unifying the country and being there to volunteer and to assist but the two main claims where they want a government that is a little bit more representative of the people and they want transport to run on the Sabbath did we really need a war for this to be come to fruition for this to happen. No we didn't but unfortunately this is the the nature of the beast which is politics and the Jews are probably the best in complex the politicking and politics but thanks God when we are attacked when there is an external threat we all unite and this time is no different than many other times in our history and this is what we see well Lapid decided to stay out but he has pretty much marginalizing some. Daniel along the former Israeli ambassador to the United States thank you so very much for joining us here this evening following the Israeli premier's address to the nation and I want to just wrap up for our viewers and circle back to everything that we've been covering at least until this moment again Danny thank you very much for being with us Israel is currently striking the Gaza