 strikes in Gaza and the threat of rocket fire towards Israel certainly still exists and people should be aware. Now, you're also keeping in touch with what's happening with IDF. The IDF has done an operation just recently where they struck yet another target. Yes, there are ongoing strikes in the Gaza Strip at this very hours, very moments. We saw the elimination of that PIJ member that the prime minister was talking about and what is very important here is the IDF continues its pressure on the Islamic Jihad until it eventually says, yes, we're ready for ceasefire right now. We are holding our fire until then. The IDF continues constant pressure, both on the rocket launchers, but mainly on the heads of this organization, on the heads of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. If you do not surrender, you will be next. This is what the prime minister said as well. You will be doomed. They've taken out five of these senior officers and more could be definitely are on the list. So our viewers know we're just getting word into the I-24 Newsroom that three rockets were now intercepted over Rahovot. That three rockets were intercepted. Rahovot is what, maybe a 30-minute drive from Tel Aviv, 35-minute train ride, I think from Tel Aviv. It's very close. So obviously they're getting closer and closer and closer with these rockets, including the Barak 85, which you just mentioned. You also make mentioned a guy of arrest that occurred in the West Bank. Tell us a little bit about that. Yes, we mentioned earlier the fear that the activity of the Islamic Jihad will linger into other arenas while the prime suspect, of course, is the West Bank overnight. The IDF and the Shin Bet arresting 25 operatives of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad across the West Bank. These were terror operatives that Israel said were planning terror activity inside Israel that was the fear once those rockets are being stopped by the Iron Dome, by the David Slink that the Islamic Jihad will find or try to find other means of harming Israel inside while a terror from the West Bank that could reach Tel Aviv, could reach Central Israel is one of those fears and as a precaution, the IDF has been arresting 25 of them just overnight. So just to get our viewers up to speed, the Prime Minister Netanyahu just moments ago released a statement saying that they will try, they will do as much they can to knock out the heads of all of the PIJ. It's a strong statement. I'm now joined by Nairi Zilber. He's a journalist and an adjunct fellow from the Washington Institute for Nairi Policy and Nairi. The prime minister's position is strong. He came out last night with a strong statement. He's come out today with a strong statement. This is making many people say this is showing leadership that he's finally stepping up. Well, he is showing leadership alongside the defense minister, alongside the chief of staff and the other security chiefs of the Israeli defense establishment. And that's to be expected. Israel is in the midst of a significant military operation in Gaza in and of itself. That's nothing new. But for this government, it is. We have to remember Netanyahu was reelected just late last year. This government is about four or five months old. And as many viewers likely know, it hasn't gone great for this government over the past five months, primarily due to the domestic internal unrest, but also in terms of the security situation. Terror attacks are up. Fatalities are up. Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip had been up as well. And so a few days ago, Netanyahu, along with his government, chose to take this action and to strike at the heart and the heads of the Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza. It had a strategic rationale to restore deterrence on Israel's part vis-à-vis its enemies, either in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, and beyond. But it also had likely a political dimension as well for Netanyahu, given the sorry state of his government and even his poll numbers. Let me just bring. We are now getting word into the I-24 Newsroom that there was a direct hit in Rojava that actually that the Iron Dome Mist was not able to intercept one of the missiles that came in. Guy, just you and I had talked about. I certainly hope the viewers were watching us and going to shelter as they're instructed by the home front command. Yes, we are hearing this report about a direct hit to a home in Rojava. There's no information as of yet about any injuries there. And of course, the big difference between those cities in the center and many of the communities in the south is the fact that thousands of the residents in the south have fled, have gone on vacation and on a relief to the center of Israel. So many of these communities, the houses are not occupied and that also saved a lot of lives that is of course not the case when it comes to Rojava, when it comes to Tel Aviv, when it comes to central Israel, a very highly populated country as we all know, and therefore the importance of running to shelter. Just so our viewers know around the world that Israel happens to be one of the densest population centers in the world. In terms of square kilometers, how many people are in square kilometers? It's probably one of the densest areas. I want to go back to Neary Zilber for one moment. There have been talks from what we understand the Egyptians wanted to get involved to try to get a ceasefire going. There's also been discussion of whether or not the Americans want to get involved in here too. What do you know about that? So the Americans are involved, but Egypt along with Qatar and the UN are taking the lead as they have in previous rounds in previous years to try to bring a ceasefire between Israel and the factions in Gaza. But the US, obviously, is Israel's closest ally, is also involved. Last night, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his counterpart, Joff Galant, here in Israel. Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, spoke with his counterpart, Sakhi Enigbi last night. And I'm sure, and according to the readouts that we received, there was clear public support by the Biden administration for Israel and Israel's right to defend itself. And at the same time, urging de-escalation and likely urging their Israeli counterparts to bring this latest round to a halt. I personally believe that is likely the plan of the Netanyahu government, despite the tough rhetoric that we heard earlier and even in previous days by Netanyahu and his deputies. I believe this Israeli government would like to put an end to this round. They've achieved many of what they set out, many of the objectives. They set out at the start of this operation, hitting Islamic Jihad very hard, killing at least five of their senior commanders. And so now it's likely time to bring it to an end. ceasefire talks so far have not proven fruitful. We'll hold up for just one second. I just want to let our viewers know around the world that there was a direct hit in Jojava at a house in an apartment. Some of the early pictures are coming in. Don't show any of the damage onto the building itself. But it seems to be a pretty large scene of shrapnel and such. We'll get the image very shortly. It's a three-story apartment building, and we are hearing of one female woman, one woman, sorry, that is wounded. We do not know her condition just yet. And by the way, Albert, on that point, Netanyahu would like to put this to a close sooner rather than later, precisely for the reasons like a rocket striking a building in central Israel and causing fatalities. Up till now, three days of warfare, hundreds of rockets, not one real injury on the Israeli side. Right. Let's keep our continuing coverage going on. We have all our I-24 news correspondents are out in the field. Pia Stachabach is actually right now in Tel Aviv, and she's going to join us in just one second to tell us about what's happening over there. Pia. Right, Albert. We are in Tel Aviv, which is only about 10 kilometers away from Rehovot, where that house was directly hit. As of now here in this city, it is still quiet. People are out and about. It is a Thursday night. It is the day before the weekend. People are still also here spending time at the beaches here in Tel Aviv. People have about one and a half minutes to run to the shelter. Here, people who are spending time at the promenade next to the beach, they would run to the closest hotel. There is a chain of hotels which is located right across from the beach. These hotels here will open up for the public. They will open up their shelters for people to run from the beach inside of those hotels. If they will not make it within one and a half minutes, they are advised to lie on the ground and protect their heads with their hands. But Tel Aviv, when you're here, it feels a bit disconnected from what is happening in the rest of the country because you can see that people are out and about. They do not seem too worried. We also have the chance to speak to some tourists beforehand, a business delegation from Kenya. They were saying that they spoke to Israelis in Kenya. They said that they calmed them down, that it is relatively safe also in these situations in Israel. And they said, Akuna Matata, they feel fine here in Israel these days, even. But, Albert, we are awaiting a response from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And throughout the day, they were threatening to target specifically the central area, specifically Tel Aviv, as this is considered a new level or another level of escalation in the Israeli security establishment. When the center is targeted, we see that the alerts come closer. Ramleh Rehovot, there were alerts just a couple of minutes ago. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, threatening retaliation for the killing of at least five of their senior officials. The death toll in total, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, is above 25 people. Also among them women and children, more than 80 people wounded. So retaliation is still to be awaited. We are hearing that there are many Syrians in the south throughout the day here in Tel Aviv. Everything has been quiet since yesterday in the late afternoon or early evening. That was when the last alert was here in the city. But of course, we're still awaiting a larger response from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Albert. Great. Piyas Dahabak, stay with us right now. You're a part of our live team coverage of all the I-24 correspondents out in the field at the moment. Let me go back to Guy Azrael for one second. And we're getting some more details coming in on that hit in Rehovot. Yes, very. The info is coming out. We are seeing the pictures. I hope we can AS. We can finally see them on our screens now. It's about three-story apartment building. And there was a direct hit on that building. We know at least one woman that was wounded. And there's also reports on a group of people that are trapped in the security room just in the floor above the hit. We certainly hope they are OK as there are in the safe room. But there's no information yet about their condition. We're getting a report in right now that the building was heavily damaged to the point where it's possible collapse. And we're going to wait to see if we can get that confirmed 100% as we get our folks there on the scene. This is a direct hit in Rehovot, which is about 30 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv. It's about a 20-minute train ride, a 30-minute car ride. We're also being told that the people were in that safe room. Just so you know, so that everyone knows, what generally happens is there's an alarm. People are told to go into the safe room. The safe room has no windows. It's blocked in. And that's where they are to remain. So this direct hit of this building here in Rehovot is quite a situation right now. We're getting some word in now from the Magan David Adon, which is the Israeli Red Cross. They received a report of an elderly woman who is injured inside the building. The teams have not been able to get to her yet. But they have not, at this time, have not been able to determine whether or not there have been any injuries. Now, this is just coming in right now into I-24 from Rehovot. Guy, this goes back to your point, that they are trying to get a lot of the targets taken care of in Gaza to prevent these incidents from happening. I think a very important point is that three days into this operation, the Islamic jihad so far, luckily, had no major achievements. Yes, much of the country is at least in the South. The daily life has been disrupted. And obviously, rockets are flying. But luckily, until now, no major bodily damage, no human casualties. That is the main thing for Israel so far. And we hope this continues. There have been no achievements. And this is part of the reason why, as Neri just explained, Israel is at least wanting to end this operation as quickly as possible. But under its terms, Israel would not agree to ceasefire as long as the rocket fire continues. It has its conditions, and it's applying as much pressure as possible on the Palestinian Islamic jihad. And as we saw in many previous escalations, the ceasefire can come very quickly, even within an hour or two after massive barrages like this. Once the OK comes from both sides, they can just happen at a certain time. But it can also take days. And that all depends on what the Islamic jihad decides and what its operatives do and what there are the instructions from Iran, for example, that has such a major influence on the situation. Well, let's talk Iran for a second, Neri. If you go back 30,000 feet, Iran seems to be the one with the puppet strings making this happen. Yes, Islamic jihad is a Iranian proxy. It's funded and supported and armed by Iran. It has been now for well over three decades. Having said all that, Islamic jihad is a Palestinian militant organization, a terror group. And it has its own more local concerns. Now, the local concern that started this escalatory round was last week when one of its senior leaders and figureheads died after an 86-day hunger strike in Israeli prison. Islamic jihad last week fired 100 rockets into southern Israel. The response by the Israeli military was fairly restrained because they were likely setting up what we saw three nights ago, which was the target assassination of those three leaders. I'm going to interrupt for one second. You're looking at a rocket right now being lobbed. We're trying to get, these are live pictures coming into I-24 News. This is a rocket being launched from the Gaza Strip that's headed into Israel. Don't know yet which direction it's headed. Gaigo, we're being told now that it's aimed for Netiva HaSara, which any moment now we'll be getting an alert. This goes back to our discussion about once that alert happens, they've got about 15 seconds, especially in that area of the country, to make it into their bunkers to make sure that they're safe. Let's go back a little bit to your point about Iran. So my point was, yes, Iran would very much like Islamic jihad to keep firing and to keep trying to kill Israelis and disrupt life in Israel. But Islamic jihad has more immediate concerns, like the fact that its senior leadership is getting hit one after the other. And it also lives in Gaza amongst Gazans. And the group who actually controls Gaza is the Hamas militant group, a much larger and more capable group. And would likely have a say in whether Islamic jihad continues to fire or doesn't continue to fire. But yet not be involved. Yes. Hamas, as it has done now in two previous rounds, going back four years, chose to sit this one out as well, letting Islamic jihad fight the IDF on its own. That in and of itself is highly controversial inside the Gaza Strip, inside Palestinian society. Why is Hamas staying out of it, why is Islamic jihad is getting hit? Yeah, so we are hearing from emergency services about the woman that was injured, that was wounded in this rocket head. She's about 65 years old. She was wounded in her head as a result of that impact. She's fully conscious and they're still assessing her condition beyond that. I'm sure she will be transferred to hospital very soon. But the worrying situation is also about regarding this building. I'm sure it is going to be evacuated completely as there is a threat that the building will collapse. And anyone who sees the pictures and there's more and more pictures coming in, the front wall of that apartment has disappeared completely. You can see inside the house just another emphasis again on how important it is to go into your safe room because anyone who was sitting in that living room, if they were, they would not have survived this rocket. It's absolutely true. One of the things that you and I have talked about in the past is the fact that when Israel strikes into Gaza, into one of those apartment buildings, they are told, get out of the building. Yeah, that is a common procedure of the IDF. It's called knock on the roof and it happens when the IDF wants to send a message rather than assassinate anyone. It's part of applying pressure on the terror group. So that is something that does happen in certain operations. We've seen quite a few examples of this as well over this operation. Knock on the roof, a very small rocket hitting the top of the building. That's when people know they need to leave and then a bigger one destroys the building. It's part of the pressure that Israel implies, imposes on these terror groups. Stick with us just a few minutes. Let me just give a recap to our viewers just joining us around the world. There has been a direct hit by one of the rockets into Jehovah Israel, which is about 30 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv. A 65-year-old woman has been injured. It appears that the building where she was injured will have to be torn down because it's in danger of collapsing. There are two more wounded we're being told now. It seems to be some sort of a serious scene there. This is coming in from our 24 correspondents that are on the way there. A long-range rocket also landed in the sea. We'll have more details as I-24 continues right after the break. Organism that pulsates through millennia. Touch it. Listen to it. Smell it. Taste it. Experience the Holy Land like never before. Holy Land uncovered every Sunday only on I-24 News. Discover I-24 News Radio. 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Bigger threats lead to new relationships and shared goals, meaning new opportunities. We speak to those who know the inside story and are at the heart of the changes. Don't get caught up with the same old story. Find out what's happening in Middle East now. Middle East now on I-24 News. We're Lieutenant of the I-24 Newsroom continuing our live team coverage of the Operation Arrow and Shield. There has been another red alert. We're getting it on the phone right now. The Oskaril and Southern Industrial Area is now under a red alert for missile headed that way. Now there has been a direct hit right now in Rojovo, which is about 35 minutes southeast of Tel Aviv. There are reports of injuries. There are reports of at least four injuries with some being trapped in there. Another one now. Another report for Zakeem and for Reem. Reem, sorry. It looks like another barrage guy. This is a major barrage and all these communities that are being mentioned. Zakeem, Netiba-Azara, Ashkelon, Yad Mordechai, Karmia. There are all communities right next to each other just on the coast, just north of the Gaza Strip. Netiba-Azara is the one closest to the border with Zakeem, Karmia and Ashkelon further north, a matter of just 10 kilometers for all these communities. There's been a barrage of rockets towards these communities. Look, as the conversation about a ceasefire continues, so do the Israeli strikes and the, I would say, even desperate efforts of the PIJ to reach an achievement of some sort to hit Israelis. This is the goal of this terror group. This is the goal of terror groups to shed blood of Israeli people. This is the goal. This is what they're doing. They're firing rockets towards civilian areas, towards populated areas, and their goal is to kill Israeli citizens, to injure them and to terrorize them. They haven't terrorized them for sure. Luckily so far, no fatalities in Israel, some injuries. And now the barrage you're talking about, we're looking at live pictures coming into I-24 News. This is another barrage of rockets headed from Gaza into Israel. Neri Zilber is joining us with us as well. He's a journalist and adjunct professor for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. We were talking about Iran earlier. We were talking about the fact that PIJ happens to be a puppet proxy for Iran. What about the other countries in the region? Where are they? They quietly, you don't hear from UAE, you don't hear from our friends, so-called friends in that area. We have heard some statements. Initially, they condemned Israel for the collateral damage and the tragic loss of life. And the initial strikes, the four women and four children that were killed. In Egypt, obviously, is trying to broker a ceasefire as is Qatar. And so the entire region is obviously looking on very closely. It's what's happening in Israel, what's happening in the Gaza Strip. It's wall-to-wall coverage in the Arabic satellite news channels. And so as it has been for many decades, Israel-Palestine and the conflict surrounding it is very much near and dear to their minds, if not their hearts. And so it has a political dimension. But everybody, whether inside Israel, inside the Gaza Strip or regionally in the Middle East, does expect this round, like all previous rounds, to end sooner rather than later. It's just a question, as Guy mentioned, how many rockets Islam Jihad chooses to fire, how much it chooses to at least pat itself on the back and present some kind of achievement to its own people before it stops firing. The question is whether or not PIJ, Islam Jihad says at some point, okay, we've accomplished the goal of stoking the fire and that will stop. Yes, and revenge also for the five senior commanders that were killed. So if the idea was yesterday afternoon and yet last night that a ceasefire was actually quite close, even just within a few hours, the fact that another senior commander was killed overnight, followed on by another senior commander, his deputy killed this afternoon, Islam Jihad would find it a lot more difficult to astrain itself and to not fire, including what we've seen now over the past half an hour, longer range barrages that can be a lot more difficult, a lot more lethal if they get through. Now, if there was an issue of the Islam Jihad feeling desperate that they were in that point, then why would Israel strike again then? If we know, what's the idea? The point that Israel wants to make is that it will only agree to ceasefire once the PIJ stops firing rockets at Israeli citizens. That is very clear as well. It's been very clear about that. A ceasefire cannot exist in one sided manner. And another thing that is important to think about is the strategy of the PIJ in the amount of rockets that it fires, it depends on how they evaluate the length of this operation they have fired well over 550 rockets already. According to some assessments, the PIJ holds between 6,000 to 8,000 rockets. In Gaza, the Hamas holds at least another 10,000, 20,000. These are a lot of rockets, and we're seeing live images because this particular barrage right now, just over the past 10 minutes, has been incredible. A very heavy barrage of rockets. We're seeing the images from Sderot, but it is overlooking to the west, towards the coast. This is where the major barrage of rockets is going right now to these Israeli communities, those Kibbutzes, those Mushaves, and Ashkelon, that stretch of coast from the northern part of the Gaza Strip near the area that's crossing, and all the way to the north, through the communities of Netiba Asara, Yad Mordechai, Karmia, Zikim, and Ashkelon, these are the communities that are being targeted now. Obviously, the effort here is to make it difficult for the Iron Dome to intercept those rockets when you have so many rockets fired at the same time. There's only a limited number of interceptors that could be fired at a certain time, when it is such a short range, they have to be very quick in reaching those rockets. Let's talk a little bit about the idea of terrorizing Israeli life. I mean, this is an aim, a goal of the PIJ. It is very much so. Look, their primary goal is to kill Israelis. Let's be clear about that, whether civilians or military doesn't really matter to them. We also have to keep in mind that from the Gaza Strip in particular, in recent years, Israel has done a very good job of cutting down other tactics and other weapon systems that the Palestinian factions in Gaza have tried to deploy. In the past, they've tried to dig tunnels under the border for cross-border infiltration attacks. They do have a naval commando unit that hasn't been quite successful. They have drones that they try to fly over the border. Those are shot down. And so what they're really left with, as we are seeing now in a very vivid way, are rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, into populated areas with the goal of either getting through and killing Israelis, or if they can't do that, to terrorize Israeli lives, to disrupt life, especially in southern Israel, but now up to and including central Israel, the more populated areas of Israel. And so that has been true now for many years. It's a tactic that they deploy because it has been quite successful in terms of disrupting Israeli lives. But in and of itself, the Iron Dome does keep Israeli lives safe. Guy, you have an update? You do have an update, an unfortunate update out of Hova at the emergency services reporting five Israelis injured in that rocket strike on that building. Five wounded among them, one of them in critical condition. Neri, let's go back a little bit about the fact that this is Hova. This is very close to Tel Aviv. There are a lot of people on a Thursday night going out. There's a big concert in town. I mean, what happens there? Yes, as we were discussing earlier, a concert here in Tel Aviv outside in a big park in North Tel Aviv. 40,000 people at least bought tickets for this concert. It is supposed to go ahead. Somehow the home front command and the authorities allowed it to go ahead or allowing it to go ahead. That may change. We still have a few hours until it's started. But the idea being is if they cancel it or if people say I'm not coming, then in a lot of ways they'll say, well, as long as you have this one. Yes. But look, the fact of the matter is that Israel is involved in the midst of a military operation. It's a military campaign. This isn't a child's game. Human lives are on the agenda here, whether inside Israel or by the way inside Gaza as well. And so I think that should take precedence over some optics and the perception that Israel is succumbing to terror threats. The fact of the matter is central Israel is now in a very real way under rocket fire. Just to update our viewers watching from around the world, Israel is once again under attack by a barrage of missile fire that's headed this way. There have been about 500 missiles that were sent over for the past couple of days now, but it looks like within the past hour there have been dozens and dozens of missiles that have been sent to the area of Ashkelon, Rojhovo. We're now getting word into the I-24 newsroom that there has been one death in the Rojhovo attack and the strike that hit directly into the building. This is the first fatality in this operation. Just to repeat now, there is one death now in Rojhovo for this direct strike into an apartment building in Rojhovo, 30 minutes, 30 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. We're now also getting more rocket attacks are coming in. The red alert are going off in all different towns all across the southern part of the country. Guy, this is... Still critical. I would not have confirmation about the death, but that person is certainly in a very serious condition, critical condition. We will update when we have more information about his condition. Obviously, there is a big hospital in Rojhovo and we hope that the emergency services will be able to get him there to get the treatment that it requires. Just so you know, I-24 is headed there. We should be getting an instant... The confirmation has come, apparently, so unfortunately. One is ready. Killed. This is the first victim from Israel in this operation. Obviously not what Israel wanted before the end of this operation. Of course, we still don't know how long will it take. It can take hours. It can take days. This is one thing that the PIJ certainly wanted. What they would call an achievement, as Neri mentioned. It's their goal to kill Israelis, Israeli blood. Here they did it. And I'll just add to what Guy said. Yes, it's an achievement for Islamic jihad. On the Israelis side, this is very much the reason why in Netanyahu's part and its governance part, they would have much rather it ended last night after they achieved their achievements. On the Israeli point of view, this could prolong this round of violence. Israel will have to respond quite forcefully to the dead citizen. If you're just joining us now, we're going into the I-24 Newsroom. There has been one death in a rocket attack, a missile attack that struck directly into an apartment building in Rochovot, Israel, which is about 30 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. We are now going to go to Pia Stachelbach in Tel Aviv. She has more details on this. Pia, go ahead, please. Right. Well, Albert Rochovot is about a 40-minute drive away from a Tel Aviv one person dead in a direct hit on House the first victim on the Israeli side recent escalation. Here in Tel Aviv, Albert, everything is still going on as per usual for Thursday evening. The city might be a little bit emptier, but also here on Tel Aviv, we have heard throughout the day warnings and threats from the Palestinian Islamic jihad saying that they have in possession, they are in possession of long-range missiles that can reach even more north from Tel Aviv that they also warn the residents specifically of Tel Aviv to get ready for rockets that they will target Tel Aviv as well. Now we have seen that Rochovot was targeted city really not far away from here. We are waiting possibly also rockets here, although in the city life goes on as usual. There is also a concert of the famous Israeli artist Aviv Geffen, a plant in an open area in the north of the city in the park Yerkon. That one has not been cancelled yet, although the alert is getting closer and we have seen the first victim on the Israeli side really not far away from here. But as of now here in Tel Aviv everything is quiet and in case of an alert people here have about one and a half minutes to run to public shelters. Now the injuries that we have seen on the Israeli side are mostly people sustain them when they run to shelters or from anxiety. But as of now here in the city of Tel Aviv it is quiet. Albert. Pia, thank you very much for joining us. Just a quick question for you about this. In the event that there was an alert how do you get 30,000 people in a concert into shelter in 30 seconds? Well the visitors of the cons that have received the instructions to just lay on the ground and cover their heads with their hands that is in an open area in a park so there wouldn't be enough time to really get that many people inside the shelter. Now people who hear out and about in the city they are advised to run to public shelters as I said they have about one and a half minutes and there are two departments. Great. Pia, talk about joining us live from Tel Aviv. Thank you very much for joining us and just a recap for our viewers there has been one death in a missile attack. I do have to say is there to be confirmed and Israeli media is still reporting him as critical we'll keep it at that I think. Okay. Any other updates from the alarms are going off from all these different areas across the southern part of Ibeem. The recent barrage according to the Ashkelon municipalities 20 rockets that were fired at Ashkelon at the city of Ashkelon and its neighboring communities just within several minutes again maybe last minutes efforts of the Islamic Jihad to take Israeli lives maybe it worked in the Chovot they're trying their best efforts this is what they attempt to do and this is why it is again cannot stress this enough so important for people to remain in shelters and it's not for nothing that that in Ashkelon in Sturot we have seen despite so many rockets we have not seen casualties because people are used to the situation whether they they moved out of their homes or they know to remain in shelters as much as needed and this is the great guy Israeli thank you very much we're going live team coverage continues now with Pierre close under he's in Sturot right now where that area the southern part of the country remains to have a large barrage of rockets headed that way let's go to Pierre right there was a barrage of rockets about seven minutes which are north of Derot and then there was an alert on Derot with interception but there was one rocket or maybe debris of a rocket that crushed a public building in Derot in this direction north of us and there are no casualties but damages on the building now that bad ring went on and went toward the central sector of the Gaza street facing Israeli territory and then the southern sector and then back in the northern sector there's been like a wind from south to north and north to south of rocket fire of rocket salvos which for most of them have been intercepted by the iron dome anti-muscle missile system and when this happens I mean are there people behind you're wearing a flatjacket you have helmets you're about to put on what else what are the people there on the street doing people that are on the street are just rushing to a public they're not protected they don't have a flatjacket they don't have a helmet you can see some of them there is an alert now go there is an alert we're going to get close oh you can see now the iron dome there was a spark I don't know if Ahmad el alami now there is an interception you see the black smoke there's been an interception another one that we haven't seen three booms and that's about it for the moment but we don't know we see only one spot of black smoke but we've heard three booms of interception so I suppose there was a salvo of three rockets now you can hear the alarm system of the cars that have been jumping because it's been ignited by the explosions and that's the reality here now Ahmad is going to show you we're going to see the shelter we're already going out of the shelter there are some officials here they're still some of them are still in the shelter but not all of them most people are not protected they don't have a vest they don't have a helmet another another one another iron dome another interception a second one and you hear the boom there is a helicopter there is two helicopters in the sky that are probably trying to spot the rocket launchers two Israeli army helicopters that you can maybe see in the sky and these are probably trying to spot the rocket launchers in order to neutralize them now people here are just crowding next to the shelter Ahmad the people are just next to the shelter you see them here some of them are taking pictures with their cell phone or looking at their application to see if there is any other area that has been hit and that's the reality here Albert so Pierre the people who are there it doesn't seem as though they have some sort of false sense of security that they're okay if they are outside as long as the iron dome takes care of it there is a false sense of security on two issues there is the iron dome and there are the mobile the public shelters and you have shelters at home in your private home so basically people are protected maybe it's fake because of the iron dome but the shelters that are just behind us the protected areas are fine they're safe and even if a rocket would explode 10 meters away from that public area or even 5 meters away they'd be protected so I think that that sense of protection is embedded into some rational it's not just a feeling in case you're just joining us now on I-24 Live Around the World just to let you know that there has been another barrage of rocket fire that has been aimed at Israel at Sterot at right where Pierre Kloschender is right now there were three interceptions you saw moments ago here on I-24 News Pierre is going to stay with us throughout the entire evening to give us updates as they become available let me go for now the guy for just one second here there are some people around the world who are going to say as long as Israel has enough rockets to counterbalance the PIJ then they'll be fine the situation is that the PIJ terrorizes Israel it terrorizes Israel for not a few days not a few weeks not even a few months rockets have been fired out of the Gaza Strip into Israel from early 2000 and they've been only growing in numbers every few months every few years Israel goes into an escalation that tries to put an end to the rocket fire not a long-term solution and nothing close to that because these terror groups control the Gaza Strip Hamas controls the Gaza Strip the Islamic Jihad operates from the Gaza Strip and both of these groups have thousands of rockets that are ready to be launched at Israeli citizens at any given time yes the Iron Dome which Israel invested billions of dollars into protects Israeli lives it is not 100% accurate but it does give a sense of confidence to the Israeli people although they need to remain to follow the Home Front Command instructions and go to shelters but this is not a reality in which a country can live with the mere fact that Israel has the Iron Dome to protect itself is not an excuse for these terror groups to be launching rockets that is ok it is not ok and I have to say something here because the fact that Israel has this Iron Dome is the one that prevents not just casualties in Israel it prevents a lot more casualties in Gaza because if these rockets were hitting dozens of buildings as they were unless the Iron Dome would have stopped them we would have seen dozens hundreds maybe thousands of Israelis killed from so many rocket launches and then the situation in Gaza would be completely different because Israel would not go for some sort of a mild operation that would be the end of these terror groups because Israel would have to go in and take over the Gaza Strip this is not something that Israel wants to do it's not something that Gazan people want to happen perhaps they do want to relief themselves from being taken hostage by these terror groups but the Iron Dome is the one that prevents more casualties in Gaza nonetheless this situation cannot last forever Neri we have about a minute and a half left I just want to ask you at what point does the Prime Minister Netanyahu say ok you know what we've accomplished we've knocked off everybody we want to we're good they already said that yesterday basically the sense coming from the high of the Israeli government was quiet I'm afraid you usually hear when they want to cease fire when they want to end this round from the Israeli point of view they've achieved a lot striking Islamic Jihad commanders and other military assets Islamic Jihad took a very heavy hit but there's two sides to any conflict including this one Islamic Jihad for its purposes felt that it needed to keep fighting to keep firing rockets that's what we're seeing right now there were so many mixed messages about the condition of that person that was wounded and now police does say one man has lost his life in that rocket strike in Rychovot so let's give an update to our viewers before the end of the hour just so you know that there has been one death in a rocket attack that struck but apart from building Rychovot Israel 35 miles southeast of Tel Aviv this is the first fatality a gentleman has died there are continued our I-24 team is on the way there and we should be getting an update from them shortly about it now just to give everyone an update there are this is now 500 plus rockets in the past hour there have been about 300 let's say more like another 100 rockets that have been aimed towards Israel mostly in the south where you saw moments ago here on I-24 news Peter Crosslender was there when there was interception three interceptions this continues through the day through the night there's no there's no discussion and no word from whether or not there will be any sort of ceasefire discussions at play we will keep you monitored in full detail as it happens I-24 news is throughout the area right now fanning through have our reporters fan throughout the area we'll give you an update as soon as we get them here at I-24 news you can update yourself on I-24 news .tv on the I-24 app for everyone here at I-24 I'm Albert Lewitton in Tel Aviv this week in Mallard at large my guest will be John Bolton, former NSC advisor to Donald Trump former number two of the White House and the prospect that if Baran had nuclear weapons that Hezbollah could deliver that Israel would be subject to a nuclear holocaust so I don't think the Israelis will allow that to happen Mallard at large with Christian Mallard this week on I-24 news I-24 news team of talented correspondents are working hard for you they're in the markets on the streets in the battlefields getting the pulse of the story we're going in for beyond the headlines to see how the top stories of the week are affecting real people no commentary, no debate best stories presented by our best Germans strictly security your weekly look into security intelligence and strategic affairs our team brings the latest on the major international conflicts analysis of the major security issues right here in the Middle East and around the globe 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We are in Tel Aviv, Israel welcome to I-24 news digital here we bring Israel and the entire Middle East right to your social networks on your phone on your desktop here I-24 news creates videos especially made for social media believe me we are out there working hard Israel and Nepal is how they begin making original content streaming live even in the hard moments and filming docuseries yes you will find all the big stories you missed on television so join I-24 news on facebook, twitter instagram and youtube and discover the Middle East with us inside of political and religious passions in Jerusalem breaking down the financial trends shaping the global economy giving you key context not just headlines with the stories from Israel that touch the US and those across the region with impact far beyond its borders Sunday to Thursday on I-24 news catch the run with the Middle East meets the world Middle East now with breaking news it's another day of heavy shelling on Israel and massive air strikes in Gaza a short while ago a residential building in the city of Rehovot in Israel was hit by a rocket five civilians were wounded one killed we'll go first to I-24 news correspondent Pierre Clochandler in the southern town of Sderot Pierre what's the latest well there's been a salvo of rockets from the north in Rehovot to Ashkelon then the bad wind went to Sderot and then further south in the facing the central sector of the Gaza Strip and the southern sector of the Gaza Strip in Rehovot one person died in a forties a direct hit on a building five wounded and in a village nearby Sderot there's been one Palestinian worker moderately injured by shrapnels I just said one Palestinian worker has been wounded moderately in a locality which is nearby Sderot from shrapnels hearings Sderot there was a direct hit on a public building there's only damage the building was not in use because kindergarten schools buildings are closed since the onset of this operation we hear rumors which are not confirmed of another hit on another house with only damage but no wounded but we cannot yet confirm that in brief this was quite a deadly salvo of rockets that crossed in an array of over 60 kilometers between Sderot south and north of Sderot toward Rehovot near Tel Aviv already all right Pierre thank you very much we'll get back to you soon also we'll be live in the city of Rehovot momentarily it was a chain of reactions and a very typical one we should say of one event leading to another here's a reminder how this round has begun it's been three days since Israel launched operation the air strikes come a week after P.I.J. spiritual leader Khadr Adnan died in Israeli custody after a nearly three month long hunger strike and a month after rockets were fired on Israel from multiple fronts during the 10th month of Ramadan becoming the catalyst for the most recent round of violence between Gaza and Israel after Adnan's death Gaza based militants fired more than 100 rockets into Israel with the Israeli Air Force responding with strikes on Hamas terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip that ended without casualties after the brief flare up a week of calm returned but after Israel's targeted killing of P.I.J. leadership in Gaza the violence sprung back in retaliation to the Israeli strikes the P.I.J. began firing barrage after barrage of rockets into Israeli territory as P.I.J. rocket launch and manufacturing sites as mediation efforts involving countries such as Egypt continue so does the fighting as of today more than 500 rockets have been fired from Gaza towards Israel and Israel has struck more than 150 targets throughout the Strip when will mediation efforts prove to be a success and when will the tense calm return to Israel's southern frontier as these questions remain open and both sides seeming unable to agree or the latest bout of fighting will continue we'll go to Gaza right now from Gaza live now is Sophie von Duttein correspondent for ARD German television thank you very much for joining us from there what do you see what do you hear in Gaza right now so I'm standing here in the northern Gaza Strip north of Gaza city not very far from the border to Israel and it was fairly quiet during the afternoon but then fighting picking up again we heard Israeli fighter jets bombing the Gaza Strip again and we also saw a barrage of rockets being launched towards Israel and then being intercepted as far as we can tell largely by the missile defense system and so far it's 28 people dead in the past three days right now you're hearing more fighting going on I don't know if you can hear it in the background and this morning Israel killed another Islamic jihad leader another his deputy was killed this afternoon and you can hear explosions maybe just right in the background so this is all happening while ceasefire talks are underway but the fighting obviously is continuing according to Israel the strikes are very precise do you see a major disruption of life over there in Gaza so what I can tell from here is that the streets are totally empty people are staying at home shops are closed the border is obviously closed also for those few that can leave that means a lot of people who are seeking urgent medical treatment are right now in Gaza and cannot leave this also means goods cannot enter the Gaza Strip there's reports that the Gaza power plant might soon run out of fuel public lives is basically at a standstill right now do you hear anything from Hamas organization which controls Gaza so far they seem to be staying at the sidelines the statements that are being made are usually joint statements of the different militant factions and the rockets that are being launched by Islamic jihad that is our understanding this is done in coordination with Hamas but Hamas seems to be not willing to let this further escalate that's at least the assumption because well the assumption is that Hamas is not interested in a fully flashed escalation knowing what this could mean further days of escalation more casualties more damage more suffering in the Gaza Strip that would ultimately undermine popular support for Hamas so there's also political interest in how this is going to develop but we'll have to see what actually is going to happen on the ground because especially after these few killings that just happened now there is retaliation to be expected Sophie thank you very much in Gaza tonight and I will switch live to the city of Rehoboth this is the city which as we have seen before one of its buildings was hit directly by a rocket just a short while ago 24 years and he called Cedric his live over there in Rehoboth yes in fact that building was just hit within the past hour and we still are learning more information but according to the most recent update from the police spokesperson unit they have confirmed that one person in this direct hit to a residential building you can see really a scene of chaos out here as dozens if not hundreds of residents are coming out of their apartment trying to get really as close as they can this is actually as close as we can so I haven't actually seen the damage to the building first hand but it is quite the scene out here according to the police spokesperson unit along with the one person who is pronounced dead there's two moderate casualties and five victims who have been evacuated with anxiety and that is definitely the feeling that we are getting out here really a sense of high anxiety out here I'm going to show you kind of pan over here through some of these people so you can see where the scene is and more of the building we are hearing reports that it is was really a direct hit and police right now are trying to evacuate as many people and searching to see if there is anyone still left in the building because it could really collapse at any time that's what we're hearing right now but you can see the police are trying to maintain order as much as possible but it is very chaotic out here as residents are trying to find out exactly what happened to see if any of their friends or neighbors were kind of impacted in this hit it is as far as what we're seeing out here also just from the response from not only police but the medics also out here when you're driving through the town of Rehovot from about maybe a half a mile away from this scene here that's when you're starting to see some of these active police presence active medical presence active fire and rescue presence so there is very much a heavy sense of security out here as we are still trying to learn more information about exactly what happened and if there are any more casualties or injuries as far as that direct hit here in the local building. Right, thank you very much Nicole. We'll get back to you later basically it's not a good idea for civilians to hang out like this outside but that's the situation over there in Rehovot. We'll take a break, we'll be right back with more live coverage here on I-24 News. Imagine being able to see into the future. What innovations will change the world as we know it? Meet the people changing our planet and discover the inventions shaping tomorrow. Israel Business Beat, Sundays and Wednesdays 9 30 p.m. GMT. The I-24 News team of talented correspondents are working hard for you. They're in the markets, on the streets in the battlefields getting the pulse of the story. Tune in for Beyond the Headlines to see how the top stories of the week are affecting real people. No commentary, no debate just the best stories presented by our best Germans. We're on the inside of political and religious passions in Jerusalem breaking down the financial trends shaping the global economy giving you key contacts not just headlines with the stories from Israel that touch the U.S. those across the region with impact far beyond its borders. Hatch the Rundown meets the world. Welcome back to our special coverage here on I-24 News. Rockets were fired at Tel Aviv last night but they were intercepted. I-24 News correspondent Pia Stekelbach is now live in Tel Aviv. Good evening Pia, what's going on? Good evening Jacob, exactly yesterday there were two rocket alerts here in the city of Tel Aviv. So far today it has been quiet and when you walk through the city Thursday evening although there are no special instructions in place there were threats that rockets might also reach Tel Aviv and when they do reach Tel Aviv people have about one and a half minutes to reach a shelter and as you can see here this is the great synagogue in Tel Aviv and it has a public shelter where people can go in times in case of an alert. But as you can see and I want to show you people have one and a half minutes but for example here the entrance is partially blocked with trash already since the day before yesterday but not every shelter is really prepared for the worst case scenario of a rocket as you can see and I want to show you how along the way to the actual shelter room is we're entering the basement of the great synagogue in Tel Aviv right now. This is the way that people will have to take in the case of an alert. We are going through the hallway right now and we still haven't reached the shelter yet. We're talking about the scenario where there is an alert and the Palestinian Islamic jihad has threatened with rockets on Tel Aviv specifically if they have issued a warning that residents of Tel Aviv should be prepared for another round of rockets as a retaliation. Now we have now reached the bunker room. This is the shelter underneath the great synagogue in Tel Aviv. As you can see quite a lot of trash, no facilitation for people to sit and in the worst case scenario of an attack people here with a lot of restaurants, Allen B Street with a lot of restaurants and bars is very close. People have together here in this room in the scenario of alerts which the Palestinian Islamic jihad has threatened with and that people can expect also throughout the night. Bia, thank you very much for this report. Here in the studio we have Major General Eitan Dango formerly from IDF. Thank you very much for joining us. So where are we standing almost 48 hours into this? I think we are more or less on the same strategic way that Israel is taking on attacking this kind of escalation. First of all it's against only jihad Islamic and Israel declare it and from time to time it's repeated. Secondly Israel succeeded in targeted association to kill five to five people from the jihad Islamic and it has a lot of meaning for the structure of the jihad Islamic in Gaza. It means the connection between high level of senior commanders and those who are giving the policy in Gaza had been killed and this is a very serious, I think, punishment to the organization that is using only in the last hours the luncheering as it has started from yesterday lunchtime. What we see is that there is also efforts on most of these luncheers were defended by the Israeli health defense system but as you see now after what happened today the two senior commanders of the rocket structure has been killed. It was like the jihad Islamic is looking for revenge or for something they can show it as a small victory from their point of view and what happened unfortunately recently in Reykjavik has been something that used their target the issue. On the other end we see that Egypt is making a lot of efforts from it has started already to bring for a ceasefire between under discussion between Egypt and jihad Islamic. The big question mark is the Hamas. On one end Israel is emphasizing that Hamas is outside on this kind of escalation Hamas is fulfilled this kind of policy but on the other end Hamas in my opinion and my experience involved deeply in what's going now in Cairo there is a tense between Hamas and jihad Islamic in Gaza because jihad Islamic is looking for Hamas as to push them to this kind of the battlefield and there is a tense in Hamas in jihad Islamic organization between the outside leadership in a jury from Damascus to those who are inside Gaza in order those demands from Damascus to continue so it's unclear situation my estimation we are already inside the very sensitive last between 12 to 16 hours if something is not going to change it dramatically it will be a ceasefire. We are already inside Israel but speaking of which in the center of this round as was said here is the Palestinian Islamic jihad and not the Hamas which is the bigger organization and the one who is controlling Gaza senior correspondent Owen Alterman reports on that. In the Gaza Strip for three senior figures from Palestinian Islamic jihad and civilians killed with the intention to show its strength. We confirm that this sinful crime will only increase our faith in God and accept his faith and make us persistent in the path that the martyrs had taken this path that will end with the defeat of the enemy. For Palestinian Islamic jihad or PIJ that's the rhetoric religious, nationalist and uncompromising in a sense not much but in another sense Palestinian Islamic jihad is different even more focused on fighting and terrorism and less on governance and welfare more focused on building a small cadre of fighters and less on winning broad public support and with close ties to Iran going back decades and shown as PIJ marks year in and year out Iran's Jerusalem day. Our message on this day Jerusalem's international day is to call for Palestinian unity first and foremost and for the unity of Arab and Islamic nations and to support our resistance and the steadfastness of our people. Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution was an inspiration for the founding of PIJ. Since the 1990s it has funded PIJ. It is Iran's main project in the Palestinian arena and Palestinian Islamic jihad has returned the favor by praising Tehran. In a Middle East riven in the last decade by Sunni Shia rivalry PIJ has straddled the divide proving that money matters and ideology does too. Meanwhile PIJ's source tells that the rocket that hit Rahavut city and killed one citizen at this point was an Iranian made rocket. That's an interesting piece of information as well. With us now here is Dr. Fadi Ismail I want to ask you what is the strategy of Hamas here because that's a big question mark. Hamas is in a very interesting place because the way PIJ is its competitor which is what Iran wants it to think as well and also Israel wants it to think that PIJ is a possible competitor to the leadership of Hamas. It's an interesting intersection of interest between Israel and Iran just to keep some kind of counterbalance inside Gaza. On the other hand Hamas cannot really come out against PIJ full blown citizens. By the way about the missile that PIJ says is from Iranian sources this is not the first time in 2020 is yet Nakhala has already declared that he received missiles from Iran and he has already shot them at Tel Aviv several times. I guess some people would wonder why do Iran need two organizations competing both answering to them because first of all, ideologically PIJ is closer given the history of Fathesh Kahi that basically if you read his book that explains everything but you have to understand the Iranians are not stupid they want to keep some kind of competition because there are some tensions with vis-a-vis Iran's policies during the Arab Spring even PIJ became really upset with Iran's involvement in Syria in Yemen in other countries they actually left Damascus for many years their headquarters were in Damascus and in protest against Iran the relationship is not so linear as some people might let you think it's actually much more complex so therefore the Iranians are keeping that counterbalance inside Gaza because they basically telling Hamas we have an option we have an alternative to you and also doing the same to PIJ same thing that Israel is trying to do as well Eitan Dengar just briefly we are seeing here some sort of a contract between Israel and Hamas you don't fire, we don't touch you this is a new honeymoon I think it's not it's very far away from honeymoon but it's the circumstances that the main strategic interests of both sides are meeting on the stage that non-Israel, non-Hamas is now looking for escalation between the both sides very clearly it will be probably later Hamas worked very hard to create the arena let's say cooperation coordination of terror between the movements and they are not going to give it up for this prisoner who died in the jail it's not the main reason for them they will do it at their own time and last but not least Jerusalem Day was the main target of Hamas for a week from now when I think the Jihad Islamic destroyed it they had plans you're saying alright let me bring in now Esther Marcus she's a manager of Resilience Clinic Resilience Center in southern Israel thank you very much for joining us what do you do Esther in those Resilience Centers oh wow at the moment we are crazy busy working 24-7 answering hotline answering calls all the time families calling in on the one hand unfortunately it's a situation that we've I don't even like to use the expression gotten used to because we don't want to make it sound as if it doesn't have any meaning but for over 20 years now this has been our reality which means that we've learned a lot people are absolutely fantastic with their ability to be resilient generally what we're busy doing on the one hand we give therapy to those who are already in some kind of sense of anxiety or traumas coming in but also we're very very busy helping to prevent the trauma through workshops working with families working with the communities basically trying to do everything we can to help prevent post-trauma we don't always succeed obviously because well just looking at this picture today I have to say my heart goes out to the family wow it's just shocking shocking news and just the fact that it's happening there in Rakhovod is just incredible I can't even like absorb it yet a few years ago I remember a reporter coming and interviewing children here on Kibbutz in Al-Uman and the reporter saying to one of the children don't you get upset that people in the rest of the country don't know what you're going through and the child who was maybe 11 at the time said no, she asked would you want them also to be hit and she said no why would I ever want anybody else in our country to be under attack like we are I just want it to stop here and now after all these years here Rakhovod, Yavna they say it's it's terror, it's hard but we keep working through what we can work through helping and preventing and as you can say this is not something you can get used to nobody can get used to living under shelling all the time thank you very much for that we're going to take a break now and move right back with more live coverage of the fighting between Gaza and Israel stay with us this week in Malar at large my guest will be John Bolton former NSC advisor to Donald Trump former number two of the White House and the prospect that if Iran had nuclear weapons that Hezbollah could deliver that Israel would be subject to a nuclear holocaust so I don't think the Israelis will allow that to happen Malar at large with Christian Malar this week on I-24 News we were a little bit tired of having clients who didn't know where to put these materials because to fire them is quite expensive so we wanted to bring a solution so these materials can be recycled Jordan is like my dream Jordan is like the world and I'm very happy that I'm in Jordan wait wait this is passions in Jerusalem breaking down the financial trends shaping the global economy giving you key context with the stories from Israel that touch the US and those across the region with impact far beyond its borders Sunday to Thursday on I-24 News catch the run where the Middle East meets the world your weekly look into security, intelligence and strategic affairs our team brings the latest on the major international conflicts analysis of the major security issues right here in the Middle East Saturdays only on I-24 News continues to grow into the most dynamic mobile hardware portfolio in the market today imagine being able to see into the future what innovations will change the world as we know it join us as we meet the people changing our planet and discover the inventions shaping tomorrow Sunday and Wednesday on I-24 News special coverage of what's happening between Gaza and Israel it was a day of shelling in Israel, hairstyles in Gaza and we have now one person killed civilian in Israel and five wounded when this building was hit directly by a rocket from Gaza from the Palestinian Islamic jihad here in the studio I want to ask you let's try to look from above will anything change after this round we've seen so many of those they done I don't see the great change but as you see the last I think more than 10 years it's going from escalation to escalation with the gaps of silence that you have in Gaza we are in another story now because if you're looking about Middle East area especially in Israel you see that the West Bank and Gaza and in Lebanon Golanites are like coordinate now together secondly I think that Israel wants two things first to close the circle that started last week with Jihad Islamic secondly to signal some messages to Hamas and to Hezbollah concerning the targeted assassination that it was used and also the capacity of the intelligence and what is the meaning in order to create or start to climb in the deterrence that we lost not only because outside because what happened in Israel inside so I believe it will be quiet by the way in my opinion Jihad Islamic is looking now to achieve some what we called ending pictures that will bring the situation of the movement not to be completely on the ground here's a question I think if I count correctly this is the 16th one in the last 20 years everyone has the name by the way I can't recite them don't ask me but I think it's the 16th one it is almost like trench warfare we're not still not at war of attrition but definitely it's like if you ask something changes it's like during trench warfare everybody takes a little every time so I think we're kind of a little bit stuck in this situation right now but something that is coming out of this I still think that something is coming out of this is the presence of PIJ in the consciousness at least in Arab consciousness as a leading force a leading entity of resistance this group was somewhat in the shadows of Hamas and everything else although they are a very powerful group and they have been very active in Jenin, in the West Bank they're still somehow not very well known even on the Arab street and to the extent that their own activists I mean sometimes they fumble around their WhatsApps even they think that there is a conspiracy to hide them I think they have gained some kind of notoriety which actually can work in favor of other forces in the region because that gives again Hamas some sort of a competition that it will be very interesting to study what's going on here let's talk about Egypt now let me bring in Ambassador Itzhak Levin formerly Israel's ambassador to Cairo, thank you very much and good evening Egypt has a unique role in trying to reach a ceasefire they've been trying and did this before how is it being done exactly? Good evening Egypt has played the role all the time that we had the round of military operations between us and Hamas or Gaza or Islamic Jihad etc so far the Egyptian has been unsuccessful in my mind this is due because of the bad relations existing between Egypt and the Islamic Jihad not with the Hamas but the Islamic Jihad and behind this also with Iran this is why we see that in the last few hours the contact between the Egyptians and the Israelis has slowed down a little bit this doesn't mean that there is no contact the contacts exist between Egypt the Islamic Jihad and Ziyad Nahleh who lives in Beirut but I think that the slowing down is due to the fact that Egypt has no good relations with the Islamic Jihad and Iran but they will continue to do the effort in order to reach a ceasefire so the Egyptians have leverage on Hamas but not so much on Islamic Jihad yes but look they have some leverage indeed they have Qatar who has you know have the Egyptians you have the United Nations intervened in this case but I think what happened in the last hours with the fatality the Israeli fatality I think that the situation has a little bit this you know change if you put all together the slow down with the Egyptian intervention if we see the fatality if we see what Nahleh is saying in Beirut and he is pushing the Islamic Jihad to make any compromise I think that we are going toward a kind of a stronger relation to move on into and the objective of the ceasefire I thank you for this we are going to move now live to Ruchovot where there was a direct hit as we have seen before and as we speak Nikol Serek in Ruchovot we have more and more rockets fired towards southern Israel yes and here it is definitely still in an active and a very tense scene as well as we have got confirmation that one person did die in a direct hit to a residential area we are just about as close as we can get you can see police are blocking off this area so this is as close as we can get to the apartment but our cameraman is zooming in to kind of give you more of a feel of all of the security personality medics the firemen that are still here I am it is just a sea of residents all coming here trying to get some more information really a tense time as I said I actually have had the opportunity to speak to some residents here in the area including one man who was inside the building when the hit happened he said that here in Ruchovot they don't expect something like this they are in central Israel they really haven't seen anything like a direct hit he is still anxious and very stressed his hands were still visibly shaking and that's the feeling that many people are having here although he will say he is just thankful that he did have those 90 seconds really a little bit less than that to run into a shelter stay in place because he says it probably saved his life so he said right now he is just thankful for that but the feeling of anxiety is definitely very strong here right now and as you can see people just kind of trying to get as close as they can to the scene to really experience and see what happened now this obviously is not exactly the scene that you want to see out here after something like that this is not what authorities or anyone from the IDF is encouraging right now these large groups of people but really especially at following such a direct hit with one fatality many of these residents just want to know exactly what happened trying to find out more information and coming closer during such a tense and stressful time. Nicole thank you very much right there in the hold at the clear smile I want to ask you it's going to be another ceasefire it's going to be another round everybody will say we won and move on. Yeah why not that's the way it is. Yeah everybody will claim victory and we'll get along with our lives until the next one until something basic breaks that's what happens in these kinds even in you know you need a little bit of game theory for that in the end something happens and it breaks the tie. Wait you have experience with the United States where's the United States. The United States is busy now we're busy with a lot of things there I don't think this is something that really bothers the White House right now there's such issues that go on inside the Beltway that economic the internal politics the people getting closer and closer to the next elections so this is not playing in the American streets right now it might if it keeps on going and we see bigger incidents maybe some huge attacks that will cause many civilian deaths in one soup like happened when Shadi was assassinated in 2002 was it we had like 11 children killed in one soup so all of a sudden the whole world wanted to watch we hope something like this doesn't happen as long as it doesn't happen that way I don't see the West at all getting involved over here all right but Shadi, thank you very much on the other hand there is from the West towards Israel a lot of let's say unsatisfaction because the first strike was eating also your thoughts will get back to this we have to take a break now and we'll be right back with more life coverage of what's going on stay with us I had this idea to do the biggest kiss of the world ten years ago I was in a bar with friends my 24 news team of talented correspondents are working hard for you they're in the markets on the streets in the battlefields getting the pulse of the story for beyond the headlines to see how the top stories of the week are affecting real people no commentary no debate just the best stories presented by our best germans to special coverage here on I-24 news we are monitoring what's been happening in the skies over the Middle East mainly Gaza and Israel we're hearing about sirens all the time the southern parts of Israel and of course this is the picture from the city of Rehovo where residential building was directly hit by rocket PIJs telling I-24 news in Arabic that the rocket was Iranian made and that's the result one person killed and five civilians wounded and this is the live picture from there back to your major general Eitan Dangotir in the city we were talking about the international community not being very involved in what's happening I think they're not deeply involved but they are bothering from the fact that it can grow to an area escalation and concerning the fact that Iran now with the contact with Russia in Ukraine and the American interest in order to find a way to let's say to see what's going with Saudi Arabia relationship with Iran I think when you connected together they are not looking for any escalation in this area you see much more let's say statement by the European Union and also I heard now that the Americans are talking with the Egyptian concerning the talks of the ceasefire but it's the outside circle the main circle inside is the Egyptian major task in this fact and this is some kind that Egypt also get its power towards the United States we know about the sensitivity of the relationship between Egypt and United States but secondly I think that Egypt has the main power to balance the situation because Egypt is the main gate that are using from Gaza to the world from Jihad Islamic and Hamas which brings me to Dr. Nasir Alomari which with you will talk about the Arab world view of what's happening you know there was the usual Security Council debate but not more than that right well thank you for having me well the sand in the Middle East is shifting again and I'm afraid if we think of what's happening today as just a repetition of what happened yesterday then we would be missing the big picture and the big picture is that there was an alliance between Israel the Gulf regimes and the United States to encounter Iran and now we have seen these Arab regimes moving in the direction of Iran and the Iran backed Arabic speaking media today you know are going at it they're saying this is a big bad America supporting big bad Zionist Israel protecting them and the Security Council and you know this has an effect on the Arab street and the absence of any regimes standing in the face of Iran they're definitely making headway and what's happening in Gaza today is just a continuation of what Iran has been doing and that is to incrementally corner the Middle East the Arab world and Israel and eventually probably threaten not just Israel but also the Arab world in its entirety maybe after the Abraham Accords some Arabic States may see more shades rather than black and white in what's going on here well they they saw American cowardice in the face of Iran when Saudi Arabia was attacked the United States and the Trump Administration sat around and did nothing this you know they saw what happened in Syria and how the Syrian regime was able to win the war so they basically I think they backed away from that alliance which was relatively effective against Iran and now if you listen to the media whether Al-Jazeera which is like Sunni Arab or Al-Mayadeen which is Iran backed Arab speaking media there is you know unity of opinion this is our enemy this is Israel and they're killing the Palestinians unfortunately the United States and its allies are missing the picture and that is the United States is really losing the ground in its war to you know to change the region to make it a more peaceful region I think that war is being lost so they're not paying attention to that shift in the sand interesting thank you very much for your insight Dr. Nasir Al-Amari thank you David Sling is a new Israeli air defense system that saw its first operation used this week while intercepting a rocket over Tel Aviv let's hear more about it in the next report a military campaign is the perfect playground to try new weapons and new defense systems the current campaign between Israel and the Islamic jihad is no exception today our battalion including the technicians and our support team conducted a first and successful interception using the David Sling defense system David Sling is part of the multi-layer defense system used by Israel to defend itself from incoming threats as opposed to the well-known iron dome which deals with short-range threats incoming from Gaza David Sling is meant to take care of medium-range threats those coming from longer distances it has been more than 10 years in the making as Israel understands very well the threats do not begin or end in nearby Gaza David Sling defeat all the threat up to very high altitude very high altitude very long range we are talking about 160 km range it's totally different the footprint that iron dome protected and that David Sling protected is huge the rockets intercepted by David Sling on Wednesday over Tel Aviv could have been intercepted by the iron dome but this was the perfect opportunity to use the mid-range system our battalion will remain on high alert to do whatever necessary to protect you the citizens of Israel this time the battalion operating David Sling intercepted rockets from Gaza the next time could very well be rockets making their way from Lebanon or Syria deep into central Israel and today Israeli prime minister Netanyahu always in campaign mode advertised a photo up by the David Sling's battery take a look behind me is a battery from David Sling missile defense system with its commanders this system successfully intercepted a rocket over the Tel Aviv area we will continue to act in defense and defense until the end of the campaign and I want to thank the soldiers who are doing sacred work here to protect our skies and our citizens and by the way as we speak all the time sirens in southern Israel all the time this evening back to you Major General retired Eitan Dangot this David Sling's we are talking the next phase of Iron Dome what's the message? the message is first of all that Israel completed the defense in the sky between the Iron Dome to the arrow with the David Sling inside it means we complete the defense from the short long and long long range missile that are threatening Israel the main message is successfully operational and this message signals to Kisbala in Lebanon Syria and above all Iranian who are planning to use this kind of area for launching rockets and missile towards Israel and I think it means that the readiness of Israel is improved and is now on a high readiness so Israel is really a world leader in this kind of defense systems we will go back live to Pierre Clauchandler in the city of Zderot as we've said before Pierre Sirens all the time right? right there was just a salvo of rockets but not targeting Zderot actually it's targeted one of the localities just north of Zderot was intercepted but you know you see them in the sky you're never sure that the loudspeakers are going to scream red alert so people are just you know their heart is jumping I'm here next to Barak Shmuel he's 17 year old he lives here and I'm just going to ask him how does it feel to live here? feels great sometimes it can be difficult with everything that's going on right now but in the end of it this is my home and I would not be anywhere else you're not afraid? everyone feels fear but just depends what you do with it and if you're calm you can make sure you're safe and just keep a smile on your face when a door slams because of the wind you jump? sometimes it could happen my dogs especially they got used to the sounds but you get used to it you kind of figure out what reality you live in and live in that reality right? we're doing it all the way we're going into the fighter unit we're not going to sit at home and cry this is my country and I'm going to fight for it what's going to be? you might be serving on the security border between Israel and Gaza and I hope I will I'm going to do what I need to do serve my country that's it you see that determination you know he's young he's very determined very motivated and that's reality that's reality in Israel that's reality exactly Jacob thank you very much stay safe over there now I will switch to Nikol Tzarek at the city of Rehovot the main story there tonight at this point after one civilian killed and five wounded in a direct hit to a residential building what's going on there Nikol? well we are now hearing reports that there could be actually up to 10 people wounded in that residential hit to a building and as you said one civilian killed the first civilian to be killed in this three day long barrage of rockets and it happened here in Rehovot in central Israel and so that is really taking residents here in the city in the town that's really shaken them up a lot expecting something like this especially such a direct hit to a residential building now I want to show you just a little bit of the scene here we're really as close as we can get you can see this red tape right here behind me with Israeli police security forces kind of making sure that as many residents do say stay safe back here away from the building and that's also because not only do they have more work to do but also we're hearing reports that the building was so badly damaged at any moment so they don't want any residents near that building in case something more does happen they want to make sure that everyone is a safe distance away if they can be but you see there's plenty of apartment buildings close by and that's we've even spoken to many people who lived just one apartment away two apartments away even one person who was actually in the apartment building when it happened he said he had about 90 seconds to run to his shelter as quickly as possible he got there with his mother in his safe place and just kind of immediately heard the shock of the building he said he had never heard something like it it's not like the usual eruptions in the air because this was the loudest boom he said he had ever felt because it was hitting his building he said the damage is still very very strong and he's worried about going back there and seeing what is left behind so definitely a very tense night you can see plenty of residents right here behind me and they get as close as they can learning some information but really that's where we're at right now Jacob Right, Nikolsedek, thank you very much live in Ruchovot this would be it for this breaking news edition of Middle East Now more special coverage coming up on the round-down with Batja 11th Eitan Derangot, thank you very much to you and ladies and gentlemen we'll see you here on Sunday meanwhile have a good and quiet night my name is India Naftali and welcome to our newest edition of Discover Bahrain today we are taking you into the world of art as we visit the three traditional spots where culture and art meets in Bahrain visitors will enrich their understanding of Bahrain's vibrant culture and traditions as they travel through pathways to the various houses of Sheikh Ibrahim center 26 mini museums with more to open in the future visitors will be satisfied with the magic of heritage on the other side of the doors as they immerse themselves with Bahraini coffee, traditional clothes and more head on back to Bahrain's golden era and discover the most captivating and colorful centuries old practice that the island kingdom has to offer situated west of Manama in the small village of Banijara visitors are welcome to watch some of the glass craftspeople left in Bahrain as they work on the looms learn about the art and tradition of fabric weaving in the Nasri factory explore all the wonder and mystery that Bahrain has to offer going to the village of Ahali located in the islands north history and mystery meet tradition and art and are kept sacred until this day by local families watch potters hard at work as they mold Bahrain's unique Ahali clay and prepare the pieces for the shelves and learn about the unique connection between pottery making and Ahali's famous burial mounds pottery lessons are also available and are sure to be the interactive family activity you were hoping for in Bahrain every bit of artwork has history woven into it thank you for watching this episode of Discover Bahrain until next time I'm India Naftali hey it's you again ready let's go a lot of perspective part of the problem you want to talk about deep clad forming people are losing their lives not just what happened but why does it matter I'd like to finish my point you're the one stretching terms here you could be a fantastic CNN reporter join us every night ACME's turn on global life the global conversation starts here organism that pulsates through millennia touch it listen to it taste it experience the holy land like never before holy land uncovered every sunday only on i20 for news this week in Mallard at large my guest will be John Bolton former NSC advisor to Donald Trump former number two of the White House and the prospect that if Baran had nuclear weapons that Hezbollah could deliver that Israel would be subject to a nuclear holocaust so I don't think the Israelis will allow that to happen Mallard at large with Christian Mallard this week on i20 for news we will continue to act in defense and offence until the end of the campaign and I want to thank the soldiers who are doing sacred work here to protect our skies and our citizens and I ask you the citizens to continue to help us protect you follow the instructions of the command and together we will win that was Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu giving a statement on operation shield and arrow hello and welcome to the special edition of the rundown on i20 for news I'm Batir Leventhal filling in for Kalev Ben David it continues to be the storm before the calm as airstrikes and rockets have not ceased between Israel and Gaza around 600 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel in the south of the country but as evening fell the central Israeli cities of Rahovot and Ramle came under fire too police say that one person has been killed and at least five have been wounded in the rocket strike on an apartment building in Rahovot the man's body was found under the rubble as medical and emergency workers continue to search for survivors the strike marks the first fatality on the Israeli side during the latest round of violence correspondent Nicole Sertek is standing by in Rahovot Nicole this was the first time cities in central Israel were targeted today how bad is the damage there especially as there was a direct hit as well as injuries and a fatality exactly Batir in fact we're hearing that the direct hit to the building is leaving it severely damaged and authorities are worried that it's at risk of collapsing that's actually why we are not right there the fireman has blocked off this section you can see the red tape right here and this is as close as we're allowed to get as authorities firemen medics continue to evaluate the area as the attack did just happen a short while ago as you said we are hearing reports one person was killed in that direct attack as well as upwards of five were hearing maybe even reports of ten people wounded in that residential building the citizens here they say they're not used to something like this happening here in central Israel I actually spoke to one man who was inside he lives in the apartment that was directly hit he said once he heard those sirens he knew he had less than really 90 seconds to get to his safe place he quickly grabbed his mother ran there as quickly as possible and when the rocket actually hit his building he said he had never heard an explosion so loudly he says he's still absolutely shaken thankful he did have a safe place to go to as he says many of the residents here you can see many of the apartments here they are all they're upwards of 40 even 50 years old and residents tell me many of them do not have a safe place to go to and here in central Israel they don't expect a direct hit either so when the sirens went off they did get to their safe place but no one was expecting something like this where a building so severely damaged and a casualty to happen that's why you can really feel the tense energy behind me to get as close as they can behind me here just try and learn some more information and see exactly what does end up happening to that building just just really mere feet away from us here at Batya. Nicole in the last minute that we have you in Islamic Jihad source tells I-24 news that the rocket that hit central Israel was Iranian made what more can you tell us exactly we are still finding out more reports from that but we do know that for a rocket to get here in central Israel it's not one of these will the past two three days that that land right outside of the Gaza Strip or even inside the Gaza Strip in many cases this one made it all the way here to central Israel and so that definitely pinpoints and ask the question is how this is escalating of day three of operation shield and arrow we're seeing this constant barrage of rockets and that's definitely the main question now is as authorities are still trying to figure out exactly where that rocket came from and how it's going to get all the way here. Nicole Zedek live for us there in Rehovot in central Israel thank you so much for those updates. Meanwhile Thursday's pre-dawn and late afternoon targeted assassinations by the idea of two top Palestinian Islamic Jihad military commanders has further dampened hopes for a ceasefire. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented shortly after the assassinations saying quote we will reach anyone who tries to harm Israel. What is different however fighting is that the rockets fired towards southern Israel and central Israel are not coming from the de facto rulers of the strip Hamas but from a smaller group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad which has been an important presence on the Palestinian scene for decades and now appears to be alone at the center of the conflict. Our senior correspondent Owen Ultiman tells us more about the group and their ties with Iran. Funerals in the Gaza Strip for Palestinian Islamic Jihad and civilians killed with them in an Israeli strike. Another chance for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization to show its strength. For Palestinian Islamic Jihad or PIJ that's the rhetoric religious nationalist and uncompromising. In a sense not much different from Hamas or other Islamist groups but in another sense Palestinian Islamic Jihad is different even more focused on fighting and terrorism and less on governance and welfare more focused on building a small cadre of fighters and less on winning broad public support and with close ties to Iran going back decades and shown as PIJ marks year in and year out Iran's Jerusalem Day. Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution was an inspiration for the PIJ. Since the 1990s Iran has funded PIJ is Iran's main project in the Palestinian arena and Palestinian Islamic Jihad has returned the favor by praising Tehran. In a Middle East riven in the last decade by Sunni Shia rivalry PIJ has straddled the divide proving that money matters and ideology does too. Also joining me to discuss another angle of this conflict is Dr. Refka Tuval a clinical psychologist and a faculty member at Barry Lund University Department of Psychology. Thankfully this time around very few Israeli casualties but dozens of people in Israel have been treated for suffering from wounds sustained either while running to a shelter as well as experiencing severe anxiety. Talk to us a little doctor about the psychological wounds of a conflict like this and the difference between those and those in the center where it's more of a rarity. Okay indeed we in Tal we see an uprise of many calls most of them are from people from the center of Israel who as you said are less used to finding their own mechanisms to cope with the situation they are less used to the missiles and the rockets in the center and they are prone to a variety of stress responses like anxiety, fear difficulty to sleep feeling lower levels of energy and more and more physical as well as emotional responses that we used to see when stress of terrorism is existing. Now I know as an Israeli citizen myself noise is very triggering during a flare up but I at least understand where and why that is for many tourists here before the summer holidays this must be terrifying. Is this a one sort of occurrence or could this affect these noises have an impact on them even once they leave Israel? So usually what we see is that these are short lasting responses and when things go back to routine the responses they slow down they disappear but we might have triggers if we go back to similar places similar events, similar occasions so it's a question of the repetition of ongoing exposure but it's important to know that most of the responses are short lasting and they will disappear with time. And just briefly what advice do you have for those sensitive to the situation or suffering psychologically at the moment? So the most important thing is to learn how to self-suff yourself but also to keep in touch with people who can help you to relax don't be afraid to look for help if you need it. We have our hotline in a towel you can call the hotline and get the help you need and the most important thing is to try to keep routine as much as possible especially for children but to adults as well the more we can stick to our regular habits it will be easier for us to cope with the situation until it goes back to routine. Dr. Rivka Tuval there thank you so very much for your analysis. You're welcome. Well we're going out now for a quick break but stay with us we'll have more on our hand down in our operation shield and arrow when we get back you're watching i24 news and get to the heart of the story even tougher to make sense of it all and that's where we come in I'm David Matlin and each weekday I'll take on the most important topics breaking down the issues so you can decide for yourself Zoom in each weekday here at i24 news the Middle East is changing old alliances make way for new partnerships bigger threats lead to new relationships and shared goals meaning new opportunities we speak to those who know the inside story and are at the heart of the changes don't get caught up with the same old story find out what's happening in Middle East now Middle East now on i24 news Viva Tech in Paris this June Viva Tech is Europe's biggest startup and tech event this is where business meets innovation jumpstart business deals with the leaders in tech discover cutting edge innovation meet the brightest minds changing the world is it worth it weren't you listening it's the number one startup and tech event in Europe be there welcome back and thanks for staying with us we're talking more here about the operation shield and arrow before the break we spoke a little bit about the Israeli side of this conflict and before we get to the other side of that the residents in Gaza I'd like to bring in our guest here in studio colonel reserves it's a maria the former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council and a director at Commanders for Israel security I want to discuss bigger picture with you everyone is focusing on an operation that's been given the name shield and arrow but this is one of many operations that Israel has held in the Gaza strip over the years is there a longer term plan here always to see a consistent flare up every few years we need to remember Israel is in a long struggle with a long list of groups some of them are terrorist groups some of them are others they try to hit Israel in every way that they can and they try to use every opportunity that they have and we when we don't have rockets or missiles or suicide attack or knives attack and others because they don't have the willingness is because they don't find the opportunity to do it so from time to time there is an opportunity and in many times in the past these groups including the Islamic jihad use these opportunities and send rockets and Israel had to respond to that what happened last week was that they have done exactly that everybody was or many were surprised that Israel didn't hit back immediately because Israel is checking its policy and when exactly and where exactly and how exactly we can implement our operations based on what is the best effect that it will have and the best effect as the decision makers realized was to attack in a surprise and this is exactly what that happened in the beginning of this week now but all that is only part of the bigger picture is that we are in a long long struggle with them now we need to remember that on the table there are many players the Islamic jihad is only one of them the Hamas is much bigger much stronger and from the Israeli side point of view the Hamas is a bigger challenge now I am afraid to say that the Israeli policy the undeclared policy in fact for many years already is not to hit the Hamas and in this way not to strengthen the Palestinian Authority what this policy have done along the years was that the Hamas became stronger and stronger people believe that it's the case in the Gaza Strip only but it's not only in the Gaza Strip because when the Hamas is stronger the Hamas is stronger in the West Bank as well when the Hamas is stronger in the West Bank and in Gaza it means that the Palestinian Authority or the moderate if we can call them are weaker and the long term interest of the state of Israel is to strengthen those elements that we can hope that one day we will be able to discuss with them what are the solutions that can come to the table we hear from the Hamas not to speak about the Islamic jihad that there is nothing to speak about because for them Israel will not exist but many other Palestinian areas and organizations that they don't like Israel as we don't like them but they understand that we are here and we are here for good and with them we need to open those and discussions now until we will be able to reach any kind of agreement we need to try to help them to become stronger and to the Hamas to become weaker I'm not so sure that what had happened in the last few days had drawn according to this policy right it's a Mariah stay with us but I do want to bring in the other side of this conflict being Gaza according to the Palestinian Health Ministry operating in the strip at least 28 people have been killed so far and many others injured in the strikes and I want to bring in from the Gaza Strip on the phone Leila a resident there Leila can you give us an update from your side on the conflict what has it been like in the area in which you live okay thank you so much for having me today actually the situation has intensively escalated the three political prominent Palestinians have been killed in their apartments in Hamas to the Hanuman and also a prominent Palestinian figure along civilians but they were killed by demolishing their home over their heads since the area hours of the Tuesday morning 20 hello yes Leila I can still hear you yeah hello I can still hear you Leila yeah thank you I'm wondering if you can still hear me and if so if you can continue telling us what it's been like there you saying that there's been an escalation I feel like the voice is not that clear to be honest alright it seems like we are having a little bit of difficulties there we can hear Leila there but I want to move on slightly at the moment so having a look a little bit at mediation efforts Egypt often plays a prominent role in mediating between the Gaza based terror groups Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad in Israel so much so that this time around sources indicate that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi himself and his intelligence chief Abbas Kamal are personally involved in the talks in Cairo and that an Egyptian security delegation is also visiting Tel Aviv for ceasefire talks Israel says quiet will be met with quiet while the PIJ says there will only be a halt to the rockets if Israel puts an end to its targeted assassinations in the strip Jerusalem has not agreed to this and with me now from Washington D.C. to look deeper into these efforts is Dr. Marwa Maziad visiting professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and an affiliate scholar for the strategic foresight initiative at the Middle East Institute and still with me here in studio as Colonel reserves it's Maria the former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council and a director at commanders for Israel security Marwa Egypt over the years has been a key mediator involved in the Israeli Palestinian conflict even though the United States and to some degree the United Nations play a role too where do they stand this time around and how come they are such a trusted mediator between the two sides unlike the United States in the UN they have been accused of leaning towards a particular side well Egypt of course I mean it's a history it's since the peace treaty it's the legacy it's a diplomacy it's like you know we can talk about 45 years of being able to create a connection with Israel to begin with and all the Arab different parties including the Islamic wave that took over politics in the in the Arab and Muslim world but I mean to get to that point I think Egypt is very frustrated this time around this full-fledged military operation you know is on Israel's decision to do that and it chose the timing but that is kind of in contradiction of what Egypt saw it reached with Israel with the ceasefire with the truce back in March with the Sharma Sheikh agreement and the Aqab agreement so there is a level of you know you do whatever you do at this point at your own risk the confrontation is going to increase Egypt is reaching a position right now as we speak is that the both sides don't want to reach a truce as we speak because Israel is interested in testing where Islamic jihad is at and clipping its wings and seeing the capabilities of Hamas it seems like both parties are engaging in something that is going to confront and escalate so while that is a given Egypt will continue to try to limit the confrontation so that it is not completely out of the hands of both parties and it will always be on standby if they are ready and willing to do that but as we speak I don't think they are so that leaves Egypt in a kind of frustrated position I would say and Dr. Stay with us I want to bring it Samaria into the conversation Israel says that it will not agree to cease targeted killings against Islamic jihad as part of any kind of ceasefire talks but they've also mentioned that they have dealt a major blow to the terror group so what could they possibly be waiting for we were hearing talks of ceasefires last night and tonight a completely different story as rockets continue flying both ways first of all I will not use the term ceasefire because when people use it now they speak about not a ceasefire they speak about finishing sending rockets from the Palestinian side and stopping attacking targets in Gaza from the Israeli side it's not a ceasefire because a real ceasefire will mean that the Islamic jihad and other organizations will stop any kind of action against Israel and against Israelis and they don't accept it and because of that from our side we will not accept a real ceasefire so we speak about stopping the round of sending rockets and hitting targets by ourselves now what are the interests of the players the answer is very clear Israel and Egypt have common interests to cooperate on a long list of different issues and because of that Israel have an interest to give the Egyptians a position as a mediator the organization Gaza have an interest with the Egyptian because Egypt is the only side where organizations can go out and in from Gaza so this is the reason why Egypt is a key player there now I believe perhaps it's said to say it but I believe that because the Israelis now have one casualty and few people that were wounded the chances now that the Egyptians will go back and will try again to find a way to stop this kind of confrontation is higher and bigger now why? because the Islamic Jihad can claim that they got something very very important and they win and it's exactly what they are saying in the last few hours and from the Israeli side those that thought that we can do whatever we like without any casualties understand now that there are limits so both sides now have an interest to stop and this is the best opportunity for the Egyptians to go and to try again Marwa, tensions in this volatile region flare up often and that's what we're seeing now but what would you believe would be a viable long-term solution especially as Hamas the PIJ, Egypt and Israel are all firmly rooted in the region I think there is this uniformat that is taking place today the foreign minister the Egyptian foreign minister is with the Germans and the French and the Jordanians and they're trying to revive that format that goes back to February 2020 so it was before the Abraham Accords and it's all about the two-state solution and all of this talk but I think Israel is at the point right now with this government with the voices that are very right-wing and even just a religious tone it has a very religious claim of the holiness of the land and all of that so Israel is going through a moment now that it's not politics it's talking almost religion so I think we are at an impasse because the politics are now religionized on the Israeli side which wasn't necessarily that much as much as it is on these Islamic elements within the Palestinian people so I think there will be multiple routes still people talking about two-state solution as if this is a revival of the secular political past but there is a recognition that of course someone like Ben Gvir and Smotrich and all these characters might be here to stay they might even outlast Netanyahu that might be the trend Israel is going and maybe the region will have to deal with this which entails annexations and all sorts of things so I think there are so many routes to be taken and Egypt will be constant in all of that because it's in of course national interest to have be involved in Gaza on its border and Israel on its border so and I agree with your guest that perhaps there is an opening now to de-escalate a little bit because both sides are showing their force and maybe they can call it quits for the time being but I don't think right away I think it will take a few more days if not longer just to assess really where they stand militarily the Israeli side and the Islamic jihad side Dr. Marroa Mazia joining us from Washington DC and here in studio Kernel Reserves Itzmeriyar thank you both very very much for your analysis but we are going out now for a quick break stay with us we'll have more on our special coverage here on the run down of Operation Shield and Arrow when we get back don't go anywhere It's you again ready let's go one show a whole lot of perspective he is part of the problem you want to talk about deep platforming people are losing their lives not just what happened but why does it matter I'd like to finish my point you're the one you could be a fantastic CNN reporter join us every night 8 p.m. eastern on global life the global conversation starts here organism that pulsates through millennia touch it listen to it smell it taste it experience the holy land like never before holy land uncovered every Sunday only on I-20 for news imagine being able to see into the future what innovations will change the world as we know it join us as we meet the people changing our planet and discover the inventions shaping tomorrow Israel business beat Sundays and Wednesdays 9 30 p.m. GMT continues to grow into the most dynamic mobile hardware portfolio in the market today the correspondence are working hard for you they're in the markets on the streets in the battlefields getting the pulse of the story to see how the top stories of the week are affecting real people no commentary no debate just the best stories presented by our best Germans just changing old alliances make way for new partnerships bigger threats lead to new relationships and shared goals new opportunities we speak to those who know the inside story and are at the heart of the changes don't get caught up with the same old story find out what's happening in Middle East now Middle East now on I-20 for news welcome back thanks for staying with us until the political angle now and until the start of hostilities with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group this week Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu's government seem to be on the brink of a possible collapse the premier was in a bitter row with some of his coalition partners with few calling for Netanyahu to resign and others boycotting meetings and threatening to leave the government critics of the recent escalation with Gaza have linked not only the conflict but its timing to these political troubles that would appear to now be taking a backseat to a more pressing security situation speaking of criticism there's also been a wave of condemnation from many in the international community calling for an end to the hostilities joining me now from Hebron in the West Bank is Yashai Fleischer the spokesperson for the Jewish community in Hebron and an advisor to Israel's national security minister it's a merit bank there Israel's foreign minister Eli Cohen has spoken with 10 foreign ministers since the operation started some of those counterparts even based here in the region just how crucial is it for Israel to protect its legitimacy with humanitarian operations I think most people don't have a question about Israel's legitimacy because they understand that Israel has a right to defend itself and you hear that all the time from so many politicians and world leaders it's very simple its rockets are going to be shot at our civilian population we're going to strike back and that's one of the ethoses of Zionism which is we're going to defend ourselves we're not going to allow people to arm themselves and with jihadism with an ideology that whatever who we're fighting we're fighting an organization named Islamic jihad I think the name says pretty clearly who we're dealing with and what they want which is the destruction of Israel and Israel has every right to fight back and most world leaders understand that perfectly now with regards to the political side things seem to be looking up for Netanyahu and if he can finish the Gaza fighting with public support intact and pass a state budget by the end of the month he'll be all but unassailable the question has to be asked could we be used as a political lifeline you know that's like a wag the dog type of a scenario I like to believe that our leaders are trying to defend us I think that we saw 100 rockets flying at us I don't think that Netanyahu secretly made a phone call to Islamic jihad and said can you help me you know stay in power by firing 100 rockets at us and therefore allowing me to strike back at you and make myself look good I don't think that that's that's the realistic situation I think that we have bad guys and if Prime Minister is the right person at the right time and God has helped them to be here at this moment to defend the Jewish people and then that's you know the that's the leader that we have and we got to be thankful for it your Shai Fleischer the spokesperson for the Jewish community in Hebron and an advisor to Israel's National Security Minister to my bank very thank you so very much for joining us this evening thank you and may God keep Israel safe thank you and with me here in studio now to discuss this further there's a former member of the Israeli parliament merits party and a former IDF deputy chief of staff here I'd like to give you a chance to respond to the last question that I asked you Shai could engaging in a conflict with Gaza be seen as a political lifeline or some kind of political tool of course the question is the answer is yes Benjamin Netanyahu is a political figure with much problems as a political figures and therefore yes he's going to exploit this situation behalf of the whole himself and it's not necessarily means that you know he was the one who initiative this operation but he look at the opportunity that was made by the Geodic Islam and told himself all right security crisis right now is not so bad for Benjamin Netanyahu is not so bad for the right in Israel and therefore all rights let's going on and I think that the fact that we attack the Geodic Islam has all possible justification but at the same time I think that we can move more forcefully in order to end this operation I don't see advantages by continue this mutual shelling on each other and the IDF does everything possible to limit civilian casualties in God's however in their precision strike just a few days ago on three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad members women and children were killed how does Israel and the IDF respond to intense criticism that's coming from the United Nations different countries including in the Middle East that we have just re-established relations with how does Israel deal with this kind of criticism I have a lot of experience with that and I can tell you the following there are few possibilities one possibility that it was unintentionally entirely it was a kind of a coincidence or a bomb that you know didn't follow the right track the right trajectory and you know exploded somewhere else that could that's happened you know here and there and this is very unfortunate it's a tragic tragedy but you know it could happen other opportunity that you know there was a kind of a permit for you know certain level of casualties but it was over because of you know not the perfect intelligence and the last possibility is that it was under you know what was instructed by the minister of defense and the prime minister and in this case this is a problem so I don't know I truly don't know but it's need to be investigate and we should look at any civilian casualties uninvolved casualties as something that need to be investigate and all possible professional conclusions and lessons should be erupted out of you know each case. Thank you so very much for coming to our studios this evening to be with us to break that down. Thank you. Let's cross now live to our correspondent Pierre Stechobach who is in Tel Aviv. Pierre rockets coming as far central as Rakhovot and Ramle but why Tel Aviv as we saw yesterday what is the situation on the ground but here in Tel Aviv it indeed is a quite normal Thursday evening you can see that people are out and about in this city they're sitting in restaurants they are walking along the beach Tel Aviv looks like a regular Thursday evening but the shelters here have been open for two days now as we've seen quite a lot of threats coming from the palace and Islamic jihad targeted at Tel Aviv kind of preparing the residents here in the central area for rockets and the shelters here are open such as this one here but we are at the grand synagogue in Tel Aviv in the middle of the city and as you can see quite the entrance to that public shelter is partially blocked by trash only the gate is half away open so you see although the shelters are open not all of them are really prepared for residents to run in case of an alert but people here have one and a half minutes to enter a shelter as you can see the way into that public shelter here in the basement of the grand synagogue is quite long we still haven't made it to the safe room again one and a half minutes in case of an alert we're now entering the actual shelter in Batya it also doesn't smell very good here and as you can see now the actual shelter room is partially blocked by old furniture that is appear it sounds like we're losing connection there from you but as our P.S. Dakovac was pointing out in Tel Aviv between one and a half to two minutes to get to the shelter we saw you at an area outside the great synagogue in Allenby street which is near a popular restaurant known as Port Sade which gets completely packed in the evening in particular on a Thursday evening that's known for going out very different scenarios that we see both in Tel Aviv in central areas and why such an attack including one dead Israel injured in a central city like Rakhovot and Ramle is so detrimental to this operation and why ceasefire as we've been speaking about here in studio seems to be pushed further and further on the back burner because of the fact that it is a rarity for these strikes to hit and to disrupt the lives of citizens in the center of Israel not necessarily the case in sterot in areas just outside of the Gaza envelope where residents are used to consistent rocket fire from range missiles will do a little bit more of an explanation coming up after the break the difference between the David sling and the iron dome both which are used to shoot down rockets but one obviously targeting rockets that are not necessarily short range that are more long and mid range rockets the first time a successful interception happened with that David sling will bring you that right after the break but as you can clearly see very different situations on the ground where a rocket did make a direct hit earlier this evening then in sterot and in other cities in Ashkelon Ashdod and all the areas around the Gaza border in the south very different indeed for the two will be right back after this break stay with us you're watching special coverage here on i24 news back thanks for staying with us as we spoke about just before the break the David sling air defense system successfully shot down a rocket over Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday marking the first real world interception for the battery the medium range David sling is expected to fill a hole in Israel's missile defense array which includes the short range iron dome and the arrow system number two and three which is designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles i24 news defense correspondent Jonathan regive has more a military campaign is the perfect playground to try new weapons and new defense systems the current campaign between Israel and the Islamic jihad is no exception today our battalion including the technicians and our support team conducted a first and successful interception using the David sling defense system David sling is part of the multi-layer defense system used by Israel to defend itself from incoming threats as opposed to the well-known iron dome which deals with short-range threats such as rockets incoming from Gaza David sling is meant to take care of medium range threats those coming from longer distances it has been more than 10 years in the making as Israel understands very well the threats do not begin or end in nearby Gaza David sling defeat all the threat up to very high altitude very high altitude very long range we are talking about more than 160 kilometer range it's totally different the footprint that iron dome protected and that David sling protected is huge the rockets intercepted by David sling on Wednesday over Tel Aviv could have been intercepted by the iron dome but this was the perfect opportunity to use the mid-range system our battalion will remain on high alert to do whatever necessary to protect you the citizens of Israel this time the battalion operating David sling intercepted rockets from Gaza the next time could very well be rockets making their way from Lebanon or Syria deep into central Israel I'm Jonathan Regev and Erica Jackson reporting there and joining me now in studio to help break down this impressive military mechanism is retired Brigadier General Uzzi Rubin a former director of Israel's missile defence organisation and a missile and defence analyst and also still with us we have not yet had enough Yair Golan a former member of the Israeli parliament for the merits party and a former IDF deputy chief of staff I want to begin with you Uzzi two years ago rockets were fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv and they were shot down by the iron dome this time round being yesterday on Wednesday it was shot down by David sling what is the difference between the two and why was this so impressive that it was the first interception from David sling I think that you said correctly to use the opportunity everything is a different class of system and was explained well by my friends in the graph it's a heavier system mostly a system designed not against rockets from Gaza or short range rockets from Lebanon but against longer range rockets like the Iranian Zalzal Fatah family short range ballistic missiles like SCAD and Super SCAD against UAVs against high flying aircraft it's also an excellent anti-aircraft system and against cruise missiles cruise missiles are today we see it in the Ukraine war or the war-winning war-winning or maybe war-winning weapons so it's specialized against cruise missiles too I want to just point out to our viewers that we are getting red alerts for the Gaza envelope area in cities such as Nakhal also fire is still being exchanged at this hour and Uzi back to the Iron Dome system when we talk about the cost here how financially feasible is this for the long term every single missile from the Iron Dome is depending on where you look anywhere between $50,000 to $100,000 is this a long term plan well what's the alternative it's not so costly we need to remember that the cost is about the interceptor it's also about to what extent you stop the financial life in Israel and when you have such an envelope you can continue all activity in the market while without something like this everything is shut down and therefore I think that the price should be calculated correctly and by the end of the day it's a good investment I should remind our viewers that a lot of this funding comes from the United States which at the moment seems to be sort of budding heads with the Democrats in power and obviously Joe Biden who doesn't necessarily see eye to eye with Benjamin Netanyahu or his right wing government so what I meant by my question was can Israel count on funding for their systems in order to be such a precision defense system or are we going to have to consider something else in play to be able to rely on the United States well for the time being we have contract to the United States it's a long term contract and it doesn't depend on administrations so the money comes in we've got so many hundreds of million dollars per year written already in law in the United States and alter creation will come and go this goes on and I think here we have a mutual interest strong mutual interest the problem of ballistic missiles cruise missiles UAVs, it's a world wide problem United States of America deals with it over and over and over again they have their own systems but this cooperation ongoing cooperation I think contributed a lot to the defense of the two countries therefore I think it's very very solid now the IDF keeps vowing to target senior Islamic Jihad commanders taking two out on Thursday today we're talking about top commanders so in total I believe that's now five but we're talking about an organization that is being funded by Iran you mentioned a common goal between the United States we know the United States also has that joint situation in mind but from a metaphorical point of view how important is it for the IDF to head off the snake so to speak it's important but we should not overemphasize the importance of this activity yes we know that that after you kill someone well it will take two months or two years or any period of time someone is going to replace this person so therefore on the one hand it's a very impressive operational achievement on the other hand it's not so important it wouldn't change the strategic situation entirely and it was a ceasefire yesterday we had talks of a ceasefire last night potentially going into an effect the hours kept changing as we're sitting here in studio there's been more rockets fired into the south even earlier this evening fired towards central Israel now Israel has a fatality and it's on its hands do you see a ceasefire in the near future or do you see that this is going to as the IDF said in the beginning continue for several days I'm an engineer not a politician but let's remember the situation like that happened before in the last two rounds with the Islamic jihad we had an eerily ceasefire but it's not necessarily true in Guardians of the Wall it took two weeks do you agree it's really hard to predict and there is no mutual claims of us and the jihadic Islam you know when to end this conflict but as far as I understand because the jihadic Islam is a relatively small organization with a very limited arsenal I believe it will take a few more days but not more than that it won't end like the operations of 2014 2009 General Uzi Rubin thank you both very much for being with us this evening a difficult evening for the state of Israel but we appreciate your time nevertheless thank you and I want to cross now to our correspondent Nicole Zedeck who is at the moment in Rehovot in the central city that was hit earlier and Nicole what updates can you give us a fatality several injured what can you tell us from the ground exactly that's exactly what we're hearing right now Batya one fatality and I want to let you hear it from the people themselves who do have the updates exactly at this hour what can you tell us about the new information I'm with Lieutenant Colonel Khecht and D&L's done with the Israeli police and the IDF what can you tell us right now a tragic evening we're here at the city of Rehovot where there was a direct hit on a building we have one casualty and four people injured I just looked at the details of how many launches have been into Israel as we speak more than 800 rockets fire the Israel we are dealing with a terrorist organization Islamic jihad who are firing sporadically at civilians and we are focusing only on their targets and during a situation like this how do these different security forces the IDF, Israeli police, even the fire and rescue how do you guys all work together in a situation like this so my friend here D&L we've been cooperating since the Ramadan if you look at the context of this event this has been kicked off already for a few weeks all the time in trying to say the narrative and explain to the international world what's happening here in Israel I'll tell you at the end of the day we have the same goal it's to defend our citizens and it's to protect everybody that's living here we're under attack from a terrorist organization you see right now they shot rockets indiscriminately into a residential area hitting a residential building one of the victims is a fatality and we're asking the public and the journalists away from naming names because we don't want this to be the way that families find out that their loved one was a victim of a terror attack what can we expect going forward through the night I see still there are teams currently in the building behind us any updates as far as the damage to the building and if we expect it to collapse so right now that we have our home front command the general was just here there was a full assessment our search and rescue warriors are here in the building if it's a threat and if it's unsafe to be there we'll know more as the evening goes ahead as far as any precautions that the citizens need to take I know it's not just here in central Israel it's all throughout Israel what do they need to know going into the night time and the overnight hours tonight so we're telling our civilians first of all we have faith in all of our security forces the IDF and the security forces are doing their job to protect us and here on the inside of Israel the home front command as well as the police stay close to protected areas such as bomb shelters stay clear from rocket impact sites you have nothing to find there the police EOD the bomb squad they're working diligently to clear the site to sterilize so that first responders can get in and make sure that any of the explosives that have landed the rockets have landed are not still alive and can injure anybody thank you guys so much for making sure keeping everyone safe thank you for these updates and as you know you are keeping people safe there's a lot of anxiety here that we are saying many residents even many of them seeking medical treatment because of the anxiety they are feeling and so I feel like for the international community to realize that as well as the injuries the casualties the fatalities it's also taking a major toll on people's mental health right now so there's a tragedy on both sides I mean we're not fighting against the Palestinian people and when we target Islamic, jihadists in Gaza we go for a specific target trying to minimize damage here we have organizations just fighting sporadically to kill any Jew they can it's important to understand that and what we're seeing right now is our iron dome has been doing a fantastic job but when it gets saturated an event like this can happen so people have to protect themselves thank you guys so much for this update as you guys can see here on the ground we do have all of our the different forces the different security forces working together right now evaluating the situation continuing to evaluate the situation as we do go into these overnight hours but right now the message is clear continue to listen to the Israeli home front command continue to listen to authorities and make sure that going into these overnight hours you do get these alerts on your phone in case anything does happen as we do go to sleep tonight Nikol Zedek live for us there as you mentioned on the alerts we are seeing that there have been red alert sirens of incoming rockets in the south in Ashkelon as well as in the border communities and we're now seeing more pushes coming through as well that more rockets are being fired at the moment into the Gaza envelope area we want to thank our viewers again for making sure to tune into our special coverage here on i24 news of operation shield and arrow be sure to continue following the updates on our website at i24news.tv and right here live on TV if you could travel to the Middle East right now without packing and without a plane ticket would you we are in Tel Aviv Israel welcome to i24 news digital we bring Israel and the entire Middle East right to your social networks on your phone on your desktop here i24 news creates videos especially made for social media and believe me we are out there working hard right here in Nepal is how they begin making original content streaming live even in the hard moments they're literally rockets flying off in a bomb shelter and filming docuseries with us you will find all the big stories you missed on television so join i24 news on facebook twitter instagram and youtube and discover the Middle East with us okay behind us we have migrants who are asylum seekers and they don't have access to food or to water today we're making khala bread with poppy seeds unlike regular bread khala is a braided bread part of Jewish cuisine and baked for ceremonial occasions such as the Sabbath and Jewish holidays khala is loaded with symbolism it's common to bake khala shapes for different occasions for the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah for example we make a circular khala symbolizing the cycle of the year for Yom Kippur the day of atonement we make a ladder shaped khala as a blessing to ascend to great heights we're in the Abihail Bakery located in the Meershehrim neighborhood in Jerusalem this spot started out in the late 1920s as a public oven for the local residents to use the big brick oven located in the middle of the neighborhood to which people used to bring their food to bake in 1932 my father and his father in law bought the oven because this place was small they used to prepare the dough at home and bring it here to bake over time the place has grown into what it is today as a child I used to come here and learn the job from my grandfather and father until it became my profession I've been working here for over 30 years and now so do my children my secret to success is loving what you do the recipe is not the most important thing you have to feel the dough between your fingers to determine if it's made well it's something about the feeling the heart I really don't know how to explain the test here on I-24 news operation shield and arrow a dramatic escalation this evening endless barrages of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel south and center several direct hits one on a residential building in the central city of Rehobot one person killed several others wounded another person injured in an attack on the south meanwhile the IDF as a nation top Islamic jihad commanders persist to senior officials targeted Thursday the hope for an Egyptian mediated ceasefire with the help of Hamas seem to be diminishing by the minutes really this hour Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister you have gotten convening the top brass of the security echelon for an assessment of the current state of affairs of the military headquarters in Tel Aviv with a senior official vowing it will not go unanswered the storm before the calm or just the beginning as always when it comes to the Gaza Strip how it starts you never know how it ends I-24 news teams are on the ground to bring us all the latest developments and here with us in studio for all the analysis and insight strategic analyst Elton Connell in the reserve Dr. Moshe Ben David chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund Summer Sinjilawi and former senior staffer at the US Congress Dr. Fadi Smail research fellow at the International Institute for Counterterrorism but before we begin here's what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to say earlier today take a listen we will continue to act in defense and offence until the end of the campaign and I want to thank the soldiers who are doing sacred work here to protect our skies and our citizens and I ask you the citizens to continue to help us protect you follow the instructions of the Home Front command and together we will win let's cross now live to the southern city of the I-24 news correspondent Pierre Kloeschendler sending by their pier you've been down south since the operation began 24 hours ago it felt like the swan song if you will now different sentiments what's the current situation well there are interceptions but not on the road particularly but around the road and we can see them and that adds stress on the people because on the road itself there's been five servos teams no casualties but four houses and public buildings who got it erected and there's another one now that one of the rockets we saw rockets toward Ashkelon and this one we don't know exactly where it's going but we haven't heard the red alert loudspeaker calling us, warning us so we suppose it's toward Ashkelon and not toward here but we're surrounded by rocket fire we could say from the west from the north from the south we hear some explosions or roar of planes and I want to talk about the stress that people here are enduring and I'm next to Ayelet Shmuel she's the head of the international center there is another one we gotta go we gotta go yes this is Wendy the reality there down south throughout recent days you can clearly see the interception you see early you see the shrapnels falling and that's also one of the things which are stressful because those shrapnels can be deadly from the interception of an anti-missile missile to a rocket it's very difficult another one is coming up there's two more there's two more yes and this debris you were talking about a heavy barrage on Israel south a heavy barrage on in Zerot and in Ashkelon here and in the communities along the Israel Gaza border yet another heavy barrage of rockets into Israel south you can clearly see the interceptions in the skies there and the shrapnel the debris Pierre Gulsandler I was talking about is precisely why the home front command guidelines instruct citizens to remain in shelter for several minutes after the red alert is being heard to avoid any injuries in the aftermath excuse me of such barrages for news Pierre yes can we talk to Ayelet where she's the head of the international resilience center as long as we don't have a rocket alert Ayelet is just next to me we're gonna can we talk to her or do we don't have time this time please Pierre until they will stop us go ahead okay Ayelet Ayelet is exporting the knowledge that Israel has accumulated to countries like Ukraine to the US but there is obviously a lot of work here regarding resilience Ayelet tell me what what do you do here in Zerot people are in stress you know metal bars are falling and your heart jumps right so it's called hyper vigilance which means that you're going into survival mode and then your whole body goes into stress mode and that's where people are experiencing all the heart palpitation right and the whole body kind of stresses out in this city we have a resilience center it's an amazing resilience center takes care of people we have a lot of intervention teams that go on site and help people we have hotlines that are open the whole construction or the whole network in this city is based on helping the community and helping people to deal with all the peaks of stress that we're seeing like right now when we see these rockets right we're seeing it right here and the noise makes people jump right and the sites are very difficult but the idea is that first a lot of people here are very resilient they know what to do they know how to calm down their families and their kids and we are here knowing all this stuff so we have people and we have workers and volunteers all over the city that are giving us eyes on the population so we know where we need to go we knock on almost every door thank you very much Ayala I'm sorry we are in very particular circumstances be safe thank you very much yes and this resilience this resilience she mentioned is a double end swords so to speak and we will have more in that later on in the broadcast on the news correspondent take care much more from Pierre later on this evening crossing now live to another dramatic arena this evening the central city of Holvautad 24 news correspondent Nicole Setic there on the ground Nicole you arrived there short hours ago a direct hit at a residential building the images really speak for themselves one person was killed several others what can you tell us exactly I feel like those images really do speak for themselves and the energy out here the atmosphere it is one of tense this and one of really anxiety from what we're hearing from the residents I want you to see just really the up close that we are seeing right now of this direct hit to this residential building in fact authorities, search and rescue teams the home front command is still evaluating this residential building because they are worried there is the possibility it was hit so badly it could collapse so they made sure to evacuate everyone there from there and right now they're continuing to evaluate the situation you can see just how really crowded and hectic it is out here with so many different authorities we have fire and rescue we have medics we have paramedics we have search and rescue teams Israeli police IDF it's really all hands on deck situation right now and the residents in the area are very you know scared after such as attack here in central Israel this isn't something that we'll stop you for a second because there is a fresh round of red alert in central Israel in the central cities of Holon and we see on actually we're sitting here in the studios of I-24 news at the Jaffa port and from the studios we could just hear a boom the exception probably right here the very center of Israel not far away from where you're at Nicole so as you were saying the home front comments evaluating the situation there what are the instructions for citizens in central cities not just down south yes actually I just you can see I'm putting my helmet on right now we did hear those eruptions as well and we got the alerts as well and we are now being told to evacuate kind of get away from this area right now so you can see really a tense situation and right now you just really have to listen to the authorities that's the main message right now Nicole you and the rest of the I-24 news crew there take care and we'll get back to you later on in the show here with us in the studio Lieutenant Colonel under Moshe Bendavid, Samar Sanjilawi Dr. Fadi Ismail thank you gentlemen very much for joining us Dr. Bendavid I do want to begin with you what we're seeing in recent hours is precisely precisely what Israel wanted to avoid I'm not sure about it really not necessarily no I think that Iran is building sort of a wall around Israel and Israel is trying to dismantle this wall Jihad is part of this wall not a big stone but part of this wall and Israel used the opportunity the current opportunity to you know dismantle that wall so to my best understanding I think that Israel will not hold its weapons and its attack until the Jihad Islamic what they call Jihad al-Islamia will kneel and ask for you know and that was more or less the situation 24 hours ago or let me rephrase it Israel wanted to conclude this round last night and with every minute passing there's more to lose so to speak by these scenes that we're seeing what Israel needs to do at this point in time Dr. Ismail to circle back to the power balance of last night well prescription I'm you know years since I was in a political staff that had in the policy staffs that we had to figure out so not turning back the time but advancing forward since I have a philosopher here can we step into the same river twice I don't think so not the same river not the same stepper so now things change all the time we do have a change right now something happened the Palestinian P.I.J in this round by the way it's the third round under the command of Nakhali who is the current leader of P.I.J it's actually the first time there's so much in the front and that does something psychologically people don't realize but in a way if the intent was to bring down P.I.J I think Israel is done in a way maybe deliberately the opposite think about this now the message to both organizations Hamas and P.I.J is hey you can we're treating you seriously and you can be also there the sponsor Iran who says hey to each one of them we have an alternative we always talk about Iran as if the relationship between it and those forces as if it is smooth and everything is fine and they just no it isn't there are also some tensions there and it's interesting I sometimes say that in this particular moment is almost like an intersection of interest between Israel and Iran to maintain two forces in Gaza that can be competitive to each other although Hamas says yes we have one command center the official states Hamas say we share the battle also in the field and so on and so on but really there is some internal dynamic that people don't pay enough attention to I don't think that respectively Colonel I don't think that this round is weakening P.I.J I think it does exactly the opposite and maybe deliver but again maybe deliver that could be the case I don't see I don't feel looking at how they talk to each other looking into the what's up group so I don't feel a sense of weakness there they are excited in a sense in a wartime sense not happy excited you know they are in a jet and adrenaline rush and I don't feel them breaking at all I would suggest if you want to be more cavalistic I would suggest that Hamas in Israel are cooperating to weaken Jihad that's exactly what happens I mean if Hamas had any interest you know to sustain or to back up Jihad it would do it long ago so think Jihad is threatening the authority of Hamas and since Hamas is controlling Hamas they have I mean it's for their benefit that Jihad is is being bitten and you know is channeled to its place being you know the little and quite which needs to be tell what I've read Mr. Scherchach is Dr. Scherchach's book I've seen a few conversations with Nachali himself the way they think I'm not sure they're not going to be able to spin this in their own favor and we will we will dive in further into the quote-unquote victorious image the PIJ needs in order to conclude this round from their standpoint but Mr. Sinjilawi speaking about this distinction between Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad something Israel has been emphasizing time and again our issue is vis-a-vis the PIJ Hamas and yet only short days ago Hamas was blamed for inciting terror in the West Bank for being responsible for this string of attacks against Israelis how come Hamas is all of a sudden quote-unquote kosher and in this respect is the fact and befitting our concept of a philosophical conversation tonight the fact that Hamas stayed out until this point in time does mean that it will continue referring at David Hume of course well I think Hamas is using the tools of the master since Netanyahu is playing some kind of strategic game with Hamas keeping them in power surviving so as to weaken Abbas now they are signaling to him let's talk a little bit about the day after Abbas we will prove to you that we are committed to whatever we say we control things and if we succeed in our relation here in Gaza let's expand it to the West Bank this could be some kind of undeclared communication between the leadership of Hamas they are very much opportunistic the Hamas they know how to use circumstances and to ride the waves but let me say some general comments he mentioned about it's a war against Iran we keep listening to this, Israelis talk a lot about Iran and by the end of the day they attack civilians in Gaza hit Iran if they are your fears the source of the security problems for Israel now yes Iran is existing if you drive your car from Beirut to Damascus to Baghdad to Iran whatever you stop you will talk Persian with people there they bought real estate they are now building a railway yes Iran is controlling you and you are hitting civilians killing kids in Gaza in their bedrooms and you are expecting to be heroes this is the source of weakness if you are a strong powerful military country here in the region you want to prove your leadership with the absence of the Americans prove it the Arabs built a lot of hopes on you when they signed the Abraham Accords and now they discovered that the Americans are really doing anything against the Iranians that's why they are getting them into bed that's why now Mohammad Ben Salman said that the Iranian president is more dangerous than Hitler now he is inviting him to Riyadh without interrupting you I'd like to make a few small facts first for most we are not rocketing us from among the civilians namely from his point of view civilians are his shelter whereas when we want to respond we need to pick pinpoint and try to discover exactly where Abu Emo or Abu Dunya is hiding in order not to hit his family while they are trying no no no you don't know but two days ago before he was hidden in his bunker it was impossible to hit him in his bunker he did not take his four years old kid it was sleeping in her bed but at the same time at the same time he shot rockets towards my grandchildren and maybe even to yours I mean if his rockets would reach the Palestinian Authority then your grandchildren would be or your children would hurt as well the first time in the last years where terrorist organization I'm reminding you the GRD was outlawed in all the European including the USA and his and his militants are imprisoned even in the Palestinian Authority not only the just if you allow me to conclude just to end few years ago the coalition launched an attack on ISIS in order to annihilate ISIS you remember well what happened in Damascus in Raqqa in Azor they murdered thousands of simple and innocent people who murdered and the Englishman and the French and the Jordanians and the Arab Saudis who supported them that was the price of annihilating ISIS that was the price we are very careful and we are very sorrow when we are hitting civilians I mean gentlemen we will continue our discussion in a split second I promise you that but we do want to cross now our live to our correspondents in Tel Aviv standing by for us Pia short moments ago Red Alerts adjacent central cities the cities of Hulon and Hulon Hulon and Tel Aviv on high alert as well as it is Thursday night usually a very busy one in the streets of Tel Aviv what can you tell us and he also under these circumstance that it is a very busy Thursday night people are out and about standing here in front of a very popular restaurant in the middle of Tel Aviv people decided to come out today to have drinks to meet their friends to go out for a nice dinner here in Tel Aviv you have about one and a half minutes in case of an alert you are right just a couple of minutes ago there were sirens in Hulon very close to here in fact we heard one of the interceptions there have been also two alerts in the city yesterday and there are recurring threats by Palestinians you had to specifically hurt the residents here of Tel Aviv and I am here with Ron resident Iran who decided to come out tonight despite of the security situation a couple of hours ago a directed one person was killed sirens in surrounding areas aren't you scared why did you decide to come out today despite everything ok so actually I have only heard about it like 15 minutes ago about the casualty and record because I didn't listen to the news too often but it's not that we are used to the situation but life goes on and people in Israel they are constantly sad occurrences obviously I am very sad about the situation also for the Israeli side and also for the Palestinian side but you know life goes on and we are used to it now yesterday there were two alerts here in the city take us through what you did in these situations so actually I was working at this time and I am working at the tallest being in Tel Aviv so I actually saw the rockets flying just above our office and everybody was panicking so as I and like as I said we are quite used to this situation I mean this is disturbing at all times but again life goes on we have to deal with this situation on a daily basis not on a daily basis but when it happens it's on a daily basis but we hold tight thank you very much Eran and this is basically what a lot of Tel Avivians who are out and about tonight think not far from here in the Palka Yakan in the north of the city a concert of the Israeli very popular artist Aviv Geffen is taking place with about 40,000 people attending that concert that has received a permission to take place as it was planned by the Israeli home front command in case of an alert these several thousand people are advised to lay on the ground and protect their heads with their hands because of course within one and a half minutes 40,000 people would not make it to a shelter in the rest of the city the public shelters are open of course as well as a lot might also happen tonight here in the city as of now everything looks like a normal first day night and this is the way Tel Avivians usually deal with the situations you feel quite disconnected from the areas in the south there when you feel the atmosphere here really abnormal normal if you will Pia Stakl Bacha in Tel Aviv thank you very much for this back here with our panel in studio Dr. Moshe Ben-David Mr. Samir Sinjulaoui and Dr. Fadi Ismail gentlemen let's stay on the Palestinian side of things if you will the the comeback of the targeted assassinations what are the pros and cons here who isn't it one head of snake after the other who is calling the shots at this point in time when it comes to PIAJ after this string of officials that have been assassinated so the question who is calling the shots on the Palestinian side well I assume they have a chain of command well Mr. Nakhala is still in command he's still there I mean he's not in Gaza but he is clearly the head of the organization chain of command underneath him so the idea that because some officer was taken out of the picture there's always somebody else so I don't see that they have a pretty good command structure in place we have to remember this is the third time Ziyad Nakhala is commanding of confrontation with Israel since 2018 he took I think it was to command in 2018 it's the third time he is facing Israel so he has already some experience also worked before with Ushala and others I mean he is a very, very experienced person I think he is honest I think his people don't pay attention to him enough I think he is underestimated I've seen enough speeches with him the man knows what he is doing from his standpoint so he's probably have all the contingencies in place the Palestinian picture in general we have somebody who is much more qualified to talk about it than I do but it is really a labyrinth if you look at the whole if we talk in terms of game theory they have such a labyrinth of interests that are not black and white I mean for example Israel wants Hamas in place but not too strong for that purpose they need PIJ in place but not too Palestinian authority is not very friendly with Hamas but on the other side not also PIJ they become too strong because PIJ has a very strong stronghold in the West Bank we have to speak the Genine area is a stronghold for PIJ they can cause a lot of trouble there so I assume from the standpoint of the Palestinian authority and I'm not qualified somebody is more qualified than me I think they don't want them to go up too I mean there is a whole labyrinth it's a very gentle balance now we put in the internal political structure and then the super powers and then the general picture Ibrahim of course all of that it's like we can I wish I had a board here to draw all of these connections I'm not sure it would clear the map the secluded map to begin with we need a super computer for that like the ones we have in Pentecost maybe next time you're in studio I would refer to that with your permission namely asymmetric wall is the toughest wall that the western world has encountered during the last 100 years it has to do with the fact that asymmetric wall is based on the idea that the so called weak are enabled to do whatever they want to shoot from shelters sheltered by children and wives and elders in order to kill the other size population from that point of view the more civilians which are being killed during the prevention of these attacks might eventually benefit them because they are gaining the support of the western world who watches the event from the scenes and is always supporting the weak from our point of view we haven't found neither us nor the Americans not others in the world have found any way to face or to combat that way of war what else can you do and the better you protect your citizens you have to shelter your citizens you have to avoid and we are very sorry colonel in the IDF sir I want to tell you frankly that I'm very sorry about those children who were killed but we want to do something I mean we want to stop them and we can't stop them eventually I mean what we can do is just delay you know and not let them accomplish all the plans once you are as you said you are hitting the snake's head then it takes time until they resume the chain of command and they are coming back to the force and that's what we can do unfortunately well before we continue our conversation gentlemen I would suggest a tiny bit of optimism if you will amidst all the chaos optimism with a grain of salt to an extent last night in one of many barrages of rockets towards the Israel south directed to the house in the area of Ashkelon the scope and scale of the damage as you can see now on screen to property makes it very clear what would have happened should the home owner 79 year old Miriam Karan was not following the home for command guidelines take a listen I think that in every home today in the state of Israel there should be a shelter because you may think no one holds for us no one knows we live now and the damage relates to property that's it I survived today and that's what matters thank you you see this vase flew out of my workshop it's my ceramics a remnant and Miriam Karan is one of many elderly residents of Israel southern communities who are on the one hand used to this surreal reality deeming you need to rush to shelter only a few seconds to do so and at some times and on the other hand can you really get used to that so in a bid to offer both physical and not less important mental security the Levganim literally a home in the central coastal city of Natania is offering to host any older resident who want a home away from home until a calm is restored before we speak to the CEO of Levganim here's one of their tenants Edna Press inviting her fellow young at heart Israelis for a quieter weekend to our friends that live in the surrounding area of Gaza where the security situation is a bit shaky we're inviting you to come stay with us at Levganim the most welcoming place you could come to in Natania so that you can relax and be with peace of mind with us so let's speak now to Yossi Kaplan the CEO of Levganim was also the chair of the association the umbrella organization of all elderly facilities here in Israel Mr Kaplan thank you so very much for joining us today you've already been down south personally bringing some of those elder residents into your home it may sound like a no brainer why wouldn't one prefer peace over war but for those resilient southern citizens it's not a needed decision to make to leave their homes especially not the older generation no it's not an easy it's not an easy step to leave your home and move to places might help you feel a little secure but the situation is very very complicated first of all I want to say that it's not only Levganim I want to thank all my colleagues that joined me and our association and opened their homes at their hearts and were prepared to host exactly to host elderly from the south living under missiles attack in these times are having a very hard attack on their homes and they're open their homes and host elderlies in their independent homes the situation is complicated the elderly used to his bad use to his surrounding area they find it very hard to leave their homes I myself was born in the south my mom is living in the south and she lives in seven kilometers from Gaza Strip she was under attacked many times and whenever I call her and ask her to come to my home to her net to her you know she's her surrounding and what we did we just called social services in Marzai Zaviteshko we, it's me and my colleagues in the association and we open our homes and host elderly who wants to leave their homes for as long as they need to relax and find a shelter place when we're talking about the elderly the reality of being on alert and rushing to shelter in a matter of seconds danger as on their way to shelter they're facing both physical and mental risks tell us more and also what the government can do to help yeah, first of all most of the elderly who lives in those places they don't have sheltered in their homes even if they'll try to run they don't have a place to run most of them live in old areas and apartments the government didn't build shelters in all the surrounding of you live more than 7 kilometers and I think that the government should do much more in that point of sheltered the homes of the elderly especially the elderly they cannot run to a shelter the risk of fall and break their legs it's a matter of life so most of them maybe move to a secure area in their homes but they don't go to shelters if they don't have it in their homes and it's a very complicated situation the risk of falls in elderly is a matter of life and should be high on the agenda of the government unfortunately I'm saying ahead of the next round not a matter of if but the matter of when we have thank you so very much for this interview and for your work I would like to thank all my colleagues and all of them thank you very much thank you very much Mr Kaplan for this back with our panel here in studio gentlemen we paused our conversation talking about what's happening PIJ let's talk about Hamas to an extent enabling aggression vis-à-vis Israel on the one hand on the other hand enjoying the fruits if you will of previous ceasefire agreements and this is facilitated by Israel Dr. Bendevid I'd say that you know Hamas I believe that Mr. Sinjalawi would agree with me to a certain extent is a mutual enemy of the Palestinian authority in Israel they are fighting to capture the West Bank and take control and due to the PLO what they have done in 2005 namely big massacre and they treated your activist in a very very murderous manner I mean Hamas is I think Hamas is trying to build to sustain his force to build Hamastan and to find an opportunity to make you know by lips and bounds capture the West Bank and take control of the Palestinian authority so that's what they are doing from that point of view the weakening of Jihad are like what Mr. Fadi have just said I think he serves their cause and that's why they are looking from aside watching what happens on the scene and they'll intervene when they want one point they are focusing on the mosque what Hamas is focusing on the mosque within few days there's going to be a flag march and if that's not going to pass quietly they might draw from the hip and do something unless that would happen I guess that they'll stand aside and watch what happens to that point Mr. Sinjalawi short term rather okay long term what is Israel gaining from the differentiation between Hamas and Islamic Jihad the West Bank and Gaza sleep gentlemen let me just know to our viewers we are showing now images from shopping mall in the central city of Batiam few kilometers away from the I-24 studios here a direct hit at the shopping mall in the central coastal city of Batiam heavy barrages of rockets that passed hours towards Israel south and center with several direct hits please Mr. Sinjalawi continue there is no military solution to this situation Israel could try another 60 years the only way out of this situation is negotiations it's political Israel need to accept the fact that it cannot control millions of Palestinians against the rule but there were so many attempts Mr. Sinjalawi if there were 100 attempts we should do 101 I'm not responsible on why the negotiation fell between Arafat and Huda Barak and why did it fell between Abbas and I want to try again with whoever wants to try now there is a new generation now a new Palestinian generation that thinks differently talk to the Israeli differently with his views is fresh enough to try he's irrelevant we should start with the Palestinian elections that Israel prevented we should start with it but you didn't permit the election Abbas supported by Nader Erdogan the head of the Shin Bet visited him at his home 29 days before he could roll elections but he's afraid that Hamas will take control I want to reply to some of your questions Hamas is not our enemy Hamas won the election in 2006 and we did not allow them to roll it's a big strategic mistake of Fatih at that time Hamas should have been given 4 years of government they won democratic elections that Jimmy Carter witnessed and he was the head of the observation team at that time it was Bush if I'm not mistaken he was the head of the American supervising team he came as an ex president we have so many failed past negotiations to address and more recently the failed context to reach about a breakthrough in ceasefire we will get back to that in a split second but the apiracal Chandler in the southern city of Delot still sending by there Pierre since the last time we spoke ongoing barrages of rockets non-stop really but since we've spoken actually there was no barrage of rockets over that city particularly but around the city yes what can I tell you it's a tough situation for the people you remember we spoke with the head of a resilient center in Delot and she explained that there is a whole network of employees and volunteers that are coming from house to house in order to check the people their mental state their mental condition and basically trying to help those people to cope with this immense stress that the people are grappling with at this moment now they've been four houses hit with a direct impact in Delot there's been a house hit in Kfar Maimon which is just nearby where a foreign worker was moderately wounded in Delot there are no casualties only damages to buildings but given that there's been also an organized campaign in the whole area to evacuate some people and if there's no victims in those buildings that were hit probably because these buildings were unoccupied because the people went to more peaceful places such as the Dead Sea in order to cope with the stress and in order to protect themselves Yes and Pierre briefly before you we let you go you've been there it's not your first rodeo so to speak they're down south and in recent days since this operation it was launched there was a sense of slight satisfaction I would even dare to say on behalf of Israel Southern residents that Israel is being proactive not just reacting to what is coming out of the Gaza Strip and yet the current state of affairs is that still the sentiment there? I think yes they take immense pride in the fact that Israel has been proactive in the initiative on the other hand there's the realization that this is only one round in a long cycle of violence that has been going on for 22 years in Zderot particularly so there's no real way out of that right now but still if Israel is proactive they're ready to endure I would say Pierre Kulchenler, high 24 news correspondent in the southern city of Zderot thank you very much for this much more from Pierre on high 24 news of course back here with our panel Dr. Ismail as we've been saying not the first rodeo in this respect from your understanding of the dynamics of ceasefire negotiations mediated by the Egyptians of course but Hamas also getting very much hands on when it comes to try and restore calm how can Israeli PIJ get back on track and what track would that be track of a ceasefire let me put it this way everybody now and the cousin are intervening everybody in their own way I can imagine the phone lines I can imagine the emails flying between everybody the Egyptians as usual are in the front but you mentioned Qatar there's Iran there's powers that have something to say as well so at this point there's a tactical situation everybody's trying to get the best pictures that they can get for themselves and the thing is how fast will the world intervene and it's interesting how slow it is this time notice that we barely hearing anything I mean yeah statement from here to there but it is really slow I mean it's like except for the Egyptians it's publicly we're not hearing any statements of outrage really big ones we'll just call upon the parties to sit down and avoid and escalate and that kind of diplomatic speech means I have no I'm not interested it's almost I'm not interested so how do you explain that Biden this of giving the rope for somebody to just entangle themselves in it there's a problem between the Biden administration and the current cabinet we know that and when people say well why do the Americans intervene in 100% of the cases and I know that for an absolute fact and I don't care who says otherwise every time that the people here want why America intervened and stopped us from doing something in all cases it was the Israelis who asked the Americans to intervene publicly and this perceived extended credit or leeway Israel is being granted it's not in its favor I'm gonna say not something that many people will be upset with but it's true that very soon the Israeli government will wish for the Americans to start screaming so that they can say oh those damn Americans have stopped them again and the worst thing that can happen to in this situation when you locked in that it's almost like a trench warfare now it's not still we're still not in a case of what do you call it it's not really war what you have now it's like more of a in this situation you want somebody from the outside to come and pick it out get you out of it and Netanyahu needs to be able to say they forced us to stop but also the other side the worst thing that can happen when you're caught up like this handle it on your own they will give you a couple of days to do this at the end it starts shifting the balance here but notice until now we're not hearing any cries in international there's no United Nations intervention the ambassadors are very quiet I'm still waiting for them to talk nobody's saying anything I'd like to comment on that I disagree with you sir I think the world views Hamas as a much more responsible organization with a responsibility to the the Dawa for their population and in contradiction to that they look at the Jihad as a real troublemaker they're not worried about weakening the but again this image of a responsible adult and a bad boy somewhat serving all those involved we will continue from this point exactly in the central city where a short hours ago a direct hit in a residential building killing one person and during several others and they call since then another round of rockets towards Israel's central cities what can you tell us absolutely in fact that another round of rockets we did hear those explosions overhead here in Rehoboth and it's leaving citizens residents here definitely on edge as they just begin to clean up from the first attack that hit this residential building right behind me really quickly I want you to see just the damage left behind here as authorities continue to look make sure for the final time that no one is left inside the building make sure kind of still looking at the structural integrity of the building to make sure that if anyone is in there they get out as soon as possible and see exactly when residents might be able to return to their home right now the street is really covered in debris and so right now you can kind of see some of the dirt behind me as they do begin to clean up the street and now I did speak to the deputy mayor in Rehoboth and he said that right now even with all of these cleanup efforts it's going to take a long time for the residents to mentally get over this because schools will be closed in the city tomorrow giving residents really a time to just kind of take in everything that has happened today and could continue to happen in the next over following hours. Nicole Tateca, 24 News correspondent thank you very much for this gentlemen we are nearing the end of our discussion Dr. Ben-David where are we heading next how do you understand the current you know Nils Bohr the Nobel winner said that prediction is quite hard especially when you want to predict the future so I don't know exactly but I assume that Israel I mean from the Israeli point of view there is an opportunity as I mentioned earlier to bring the Jihad Islamic to his knees and make him think twice or maybe three times the next time they are prepared to launch something against Israel with regard to what happens in the West Bank to their supporters in the West Bank etc so Israel taking into consideration the fact that the world is not intervening the Arab not only the world the Arab world itself the Jihad Islamic is outlawed even in many Arabic countries so it's a very good opportunity from the Israel point of view to knock the head to the wall as much as possible from the Jihad I think they want to bring some some trophy just present hope we stand a long battle against Israel and we have done it they don't need too much just to demonstrate one of those killed citizens might be enough maybe two but and they would they would say that's enough with us so these are the two points and I don't exactly don't know exactly how it's going to end Mr. Sinjolawi was the equation as it is being dubbed on the Israeli side was it indeed changed the operational the intelligence capabilities of Israel demonstrated very clearly without a doubt on the tactical level but in terms of deterrence is it enough to change the reality vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip 60 years of same strategy proved that no it's not enough but I think who initiated this escalation escalation because I believe we are now in the middle of the Third Intifada and the Third Intifada is a series of waves of escalation between Gaza and Israel and a continuous attacks in the West Bank this is the Third Intifada we are in the middle of it since long time but who initiated this is Israel by letting Adnan Khadr die in the prison and they know that this is a sensitive issue I don't believe that Netanyahu needs to cut this short I think he wants to make it go on until the after the day after the flag parades because why to do now a short break and then he knows that there will be escalation let's do whatever we can do now it's boiling let's try to hit as much as we can from our targets list and then there will be escalation on Thursday we'll take this into this and then we will start calming things down on Friday and Saturday and this helps him because now he's very confident he gained back his relation with Gallant and he has turned this page of uncertainty of the relation between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense and then he has gained back the problematic figures in his government that were shouting always asking for escalation against Hamas he is now in a very comfortable zone to pass the budget and then to go back to the judicial reforms strong, more controlling everything so it pays him very well and he knows that maybe it's okay that some 50-60 Palestinians will die and 2-3 Israelis will die now we have one casualty on the Israeli side which is something remarkable this could be a game changer he's managing the things he's the master of what's happening here he can stop things and he can continue the game because why does he need mediation he can just stop the operation and Jihad eventually will stop and I think the mediation process the mediation system is collapsing we have seen that the meetings in Akaba and Sharma Sheikh collapse because whatever they have agreed was imposed on the ground and now everybody is fed up from the mediators because they don't control Israel Jihad themselves why do they need to listen to the Egyptians and they know that Israel does not really commit to what they confirm to the Egyptians lack of trust on behalf of all those involved Dr. Ismail before we conclude our broadcast for the Gaza Strip look it has only been 16 such operations in the last 20 years only 16 only magically they all end up more or less the same the start more or less the same we have the same we could have actually played a recording from previous that's one way to save money maybe and so no this what I'm worried about is that in the end it will turn into some sort of a war of attrition and this is not something that we want to suggest this is already the case Gaza should be integrated with the West Bank under one leadership and that's well gentlemen not our discussion and I'm afraid nor this current trend of violence will solve the Gaza problem if you will thank you very much for this we continue our rolling coverage at the top of the hour thanks for watching I had this idea to make it bigger I was in a bar with friends this week in Malar at large my guest will be John Bolton former NSC advisor to Donald Trump former number two of the White House and the prospect that if Iran had nuclear weapons that Hezbollah could deliver that Israel would be subject to a nuclear Holocaust so I don't think the Israelis will allow that to happen Malar at large Christian Malar this week on I-24 News what we're making today it has a very long name it's called it's zucchini balls fritters with feta cheese with olive oil all kinds of different spices and greens the second version of it is tomato and leek same style this is food that is served as appetizer in a Greek tavern or in a Greek family lunch or dinner and it refers to the old days when Greeks were more poor than today they didn't have meat so they would substitute it with tomatoes and leeks or zucchini and make fritters like balls like kefte so that's where it all comes from Athens, Greece and I've been to Israel many many times as a journalist in the past because this is my morning job and that's how I met my wife Natalie and then we moved and a few months ago we moved to Yaffo for months I'm hosting here in our house and in other venues in Tel Aviv this event we cook a meal of 12, 13, 14 dishes sometimes it's a big you know a Greek meal should be big this is basic if it's not big it's not Greek and then we also had musicians with us guitar player the Greek dream is to be a tavern owner who spends over-eating every day this is the basic dream of every Greek person and that's what we want to give here the atmosphere of a family tavern that the wife and the husband are the only workers there they cook and serve and sing and do everything I love my culture, I love this part of Greek culture which is music and food and entertainment and I'm trying to bring it here and I enjoy it very much 3 days of intense fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic jihad in Gaza hundreds of rockets have been lobbed into Israel the barrage has not stopped Israel in precision strikes targeting the top members of Islamic jihad at least five top leaders have been killed and in Israel one person has been killed doesn't injured when a rocket slammed into an apartment building in Rychovot I-24 news has live coverage of the exchange of fire we begin first from Nikol Zedek who's on the scene at the direct hit in Rychovot Nikol, what's the latest? Well Albert, you can actually see the damage right behind me, I'm going to step out to give you a better view of the damage that we're talking about to this residential building that did kill one civilian and injured at least five others really the atmosphere ever since then it has been very very tense the efforts are just beginning to get underway because look at all that damage that this building took, in fact many authorities are evaluating it right now you can see some people still walking around inside, firstly making sure that no one is still left stranded or trapped in the building secondly evaluating because after all of this damage authorities are worried that there is the potential that this building could collapse so they want to make sure that residents are continuing to stay away as they also clean up the street from all of the damage that has been left behind now as far as what we're seeing here in the city of Rychovot as I told you it is definitely a very tense atmosphere, in fact we spoke to the deputy mayor who kind of explained everything that is happening right now and how he's helping his citizens handle such a devastating aftermath Now we make a round to see if someone, we left someone in the building last round, we find until now we have 14 people in the hospital and one people will die it's difficult, you know but all the government is coming now to help us to see together what we are going to do in all the next day but we are a strong community we're going back to work and we're not worried Certainly a strong community here and as the deputy mayor said it has been a team effort during not only the cleanup here making sure that everyone is safe we've seen fire and rescue units search and rescue units, medics paramedics, police, IDF really all of them on the ground right here as far as what residents in the area can expect going into tomorrow schools have been closed as well as events, they want to make sure that no more large gatherings are taking place here in Rychovot tomorrow and really making sure that children are staying safe staying out of the educational facilities as far as work, buses, all of that that's all going back to normal as unfortunately this is something that here in central Israel we don't see often but this feeling of anxiety they are unfortunately used to and so the deputy mayor tells me that life goes on they are a strong community and they will come back from this devastating aftermath Nicole Sider joining us live from Rychovot at the site of a deadly missile attack thanks so much for joining us Nicole I'm joined now in studio by Major General Etan Dungol military secretary to three defense ministers and former coordinator of government activities for the Palestinian territories for the IDF and I'm also joined by international security analyst Martin Hemel first Etan if I can talk to you a little bit about this these barrages, these hundreds of rockets that have been coming this way it's as though there's no let up here we are like 10 o'clock at night it's going to continue through the night it looks like two things first we don't see any new a way of arm that in this case jadislamic is using or trying really to make something to threat Israel besides what we are aware to with those rockets these rockets is a weak point for us it's on the stomach because all about the underground the tunnels and all the other kind of activities also by Hamas were closed and Hezbollah were closed by Israel with high technology and with high intelligence what's going now it looks to me that it's a sensitive evening it can be for the coming 12 hours in my opinion as it's coming to a situation that Hamas is not participate physically in what's going I think that the situation of jadislamic is coming worse and worse their activity are in a narrow place they are trying now to signal after what happened that Israel succeed to target the heads of the rocket structure I think that it's already the fifth person in a senior position jadislamic was eaten by Israel as a part of what started a week ago so now we are maybe coming to two opportunities or coming to close it and their Egyptian discussions with jadislamic but don't think that Hamas is not there with the Egyptian and on the other end it can be taken more days but I think that we already have faced such circles and this is the first part by Israel to react about something higher than it it's a strategic way that Israel has to continue on its way to see what it should be done against what started at the middle of Pesa holiday while rockets were launched from Lebanon and after that from Gaza this is another story the coordination cooperation of the arena terrorism against Israel and this is much more serious now we'll talk about Egypt in one second with Martin I just want to go back a little bit so the IDF targeted the top five military commanders of jihad they went down the list and took one out one by one point does as long as you had get back to a corner and they turn to Hamas and say you got to help us out here I think from the beginning the first attack that I think ended less than one minute was the main goal of this operation but you know it's not depend on one side it was clear you're taking a calculation risk like the launch of rockets etc and we are waiting I think that jihad islamic were expected from Hamas to join them physically because Hamas signals like a kind of leadership towards the arena circle of terrorism by the headquarters they are sitting together in Gaza etc and I think that there is even a heightens can be in Gaza between Hamas and jihad islamic kind of disappointment and I would like to emphasize another point inside the jihad islamic I know it there is also tense between the outside leadership what you can call the foreign leadership that are located in Damascus, Nakhale and Ajuri and between those that are in Israel it's a different movement it's not a conventional terror that have their structure very high hierarchy you think it's very narrow the hierarchy and in Gaza this is the effect of what Israel achieved by targeting those five the other two it's another intelligence way of achievement because during such a circle of violence people are reading it's very difficult to get the intelligence where they are and it come few hours one after the other in the area of Hanunez where they were targeting let me ask let me go back to Martin for one second about Egypt they said that they were signaling that they would want to get involved in some sort of ceasefire here what's in it for them? well they need regional stability if there's trouble serious chaos in Gaza that's on their border that's affects their side of the border as well and so they want regional stability that's the most important thing apart from that though I'd just like to emphasize that this war the statement as the general said is that the first minute showed there's a new ball game there's a new rules new ball game and the leadership of Islamic jihad in Damascus the leadership of Hamas in Gaza they're all thinking about it that can happen to me they have ways of getting to us and that's really the message of this whole operation right now in 30 seconds I know it's tough to do that but in 30 seconds what does Prime Minister Netanyahu do today does he continue the fight does he continue the drops that strikes well I think it depends if he's got other targets that are really open and could embellish the point if he does he might continue and if not he might look for a way out and it looks as though the barrage hasn't stopped from Islamic jihad so it's not as though they're waiting to hear whether there'll be anyone coming to the table they're just going to keep going well they can keep going for a short while they don't have the logistics and depth the big army there's only so much time they can go without sleeping great thank you both very much we'll be right back right after this live tip coverage of operation shield and arrow continues right after the break hey it's you again ready let's go one show a whole lot of perspective he is part of the problem you want to talk about deep platforming people are losing their lives not just what happened but why does it matter I'd like to finish my point you're the one stretching terms here you could be a fantastic CNN reporter join us every night 8 p.m. eastern on global live the global conversation starts here sometimes it's tough to get past all the noise and get to the heart of the story even tougher to make sense of it all I'm David Matlin and each weekday I'll take on the most important topics breaking down the issues so you can decide for yourself zoom in each weekday here at I-24 news imagine being able to see into the future what innovations will change the world as we know it join us as we meet the people changing our planet and discover the inventions shaping tomorrow Israel business beat Sundays and Wednesdays 9 30 p.m. GMT thanks from around the world thank you this is I-24 news continuing coverage of operation shield an arrow there has been a strike a direct strike on an apartment building in Jehovah that killed one person and injured about 12 people this comes as hundreds of missiles were lobbed at Israel from the Gaza Strip I'm joined now by Yonatan Rottenberg he's a medic with the United Hatsala they were the first to arrive at the scene at in Jehovah Jonathan welcome are you there yes I'm here when you first arrived at the scene what did you see first of all there was a lot of smoke people calling for help and running out of the building the building was devastated so we tried to figure out how to get in when we managed to get into the building we climbed up to the second floor and we understand that it's actually was totally destroyed and then we try to figure out where are the people inside and we help them to go outside slowly and took some time and afterwards in a few minutes later we understand that we actually have one person that died unfortunately was the person who died were they in the were they in the protected space or were they in their apartment they were in the apartment probably not in the right so I guess that's the issue with the fact that when the sirens go off the fact that you need to get into the you need to get into the protected space within 90 seconds it appears that person did not make it in time probably as you can see right now in the image you can see that the apartment is actually destroyed totally and it was a direct hit so I cannot tell you if actually if they were in the apartment or not if it could help them I don't really know now there was also a report earlier maybe you can help us confirm that some people were trapped they were unable to leave their protected space were you able to see that when you arrived there were a few people that were trapped but the fire troops helped them to get out and afterwards the IDF soldiers from Pikudovo if they came by and they managed to take them out great and Yonatan as far as you know most of the injuries were what minor in terms of bleeding and of broken bones and such or what kind of injuries did the others sustain all kinds of trauma injuries but not severe trauma injuries all of them were evacuated very very quick to the hospital we managed to help them there were like around 10 people that we took out of the building and all of the other person were not injured great Yonatan thank you very much for joining us Yonatan Ronberg with United Huts alive joining us live from Rehoboth Israel I just wanted to get our viewers up to date there are continuing to be some sirens going off in the southern part of Israel more about Askelon and Rehoboth area and now I'm being told we have Kloestrander who's joining us live from Sderot, Pierre are you there yeah yeah I'm here hi go ahead tell us what's going on where you are well 15 minutes ago there was another red alert it means you know about 3 or 4 rockets I don't remember that's where magically intercepted by the iron dome anti-missile system and you know a spread of sparks in the dark night and then the bad wind went over to another direction and that's the way it's going on here and people are just you spoke with a rescue worker who's in these protected areas the problem is in Sderot and in the old city of Askelon for instance there are tenements that don't have these protected rooms in their own apartment simply because these buildings were built before the first Gulf War and only after the first Gulf War in 1991 did the Israeli government decide to in any new building protect a dreaming apartment so in Sderot you still have people that are not protected so they have to go downstairs and they have to calculate exactly how long it takes them to go to the next public shelter you have only 15 minutes where a few kilometers away from the Gaza border from the rocket launching pads so the distance is measured in time and that crucial time you need to calculate it in advance you need to go to a bakery to buy bread you need to calculate where is the next protected area are there any obstacle on the ground that you need to avoid if you're an old person you need to avoid them you need to watch the ground you need to be careful because if not you're going to wound yourself you're going to fall and then you're going to be vulnerable from the debris of the interception if the rocket has not crushed in Sderot now Sderot is really in a sense an epicenter of that rocket fight that has been going on for already 22 years I just spoke to a young boy 17 year old earlier and he was born in Sderot he's going to tell me next year he's going to be 18 and he wants to go to a fighting unit he's very resilient he's very determined and his dream is to protect his family who lives in Sderot where on the border which is only 5 km away from here so that's the complexity of the situation here now of course there is the magic Iron Dome but that's not enough and there is also the fact that Israel was proactive took the initiative but then there's also the realization that it's only a rounder fighting and maybe on the 15th of May when the Palestinians commemorate their knockback catastrophe the creation of the state of Israel or on the 18th of May when there's going to be a Jerusalem commemoration of the reunification of Jerusalem after the 6 day war when right-wing Israelis are going to march in Muslim neighborhoods in the old city of Jerusalem and that's the sacred Saint Jerusalem for all three monolithic religions if we go over this hurdle how long will it stay how long will we have to wait for the next round of fighting that's the question they ask themselves and that's the question we'll be following and Pierre thank you very much come back to us as things continue through the night let me go now to Martin let me ask you a question about that where Pierre is right now a lot of the residents there said not enough was being done in advance as over the past months they were getting barraged by rockets what changed? I think local leaders see that the rules of engagement have changed they've assassinated top Jihad leaders and they've made it clear to my minister that if you need more time to keep up this new engagement to get more aggressive about it they'll give him all the time he wants what they don't want to see is okay you score a few points here you've got a new rule of engagement but then it goes quiet until the next time I think they're going to be somewhat disappointed because there's no panacea no all-inclusive solution that's going to solve this with just through a might it's a political, military and progress basically if I can go to General Eitan at this time last night the prime minister would announce some sort of a ceasefire and then all bets were off at the last minute why take that tack and come out and say no we're not going to have anything like this I really don't know what was personally the reason of making this kind of statement yesterday because the day before when it started another kind of statement by the prime minister chief of defense head of the interior security service and also a minister of defense yesterday it was like a sign that something is preparing for a kind of ceasefire it can be because I've been there you know you start two activities that are not touchy each other one is the escalation the second one is immediately what will be achieved by the policy or the political level is done by Egypt probably maybe they got a positive science and it was disappeared during the evening and meanwhile Israel continues we need very responsibility way of heroic targeting the jihadislamic people in being very careful to divide between Hamas and jihadislamic meanwhile I've had a very important distinction and what was achieved by Israel it was a great let's scan again a second surprise to jihadislamic that now the demon kind of revenge or kind of the end of the game like to have some pictures that they succeed to launch a rockets and they succeed to wounded people etc I don't know if it's going to end tonight I don't think it needed more statement not by the prime minister not by anybody just to make it patient and to work from my experience the Egyptians are working I think that if it will be close under the parameters that are now in this kind of area I believe that in the coming 12 14 hours can be achieved something but everything I'm making I'm saying it carefully it can be moved dramatically to the other side if you have any kind of tactic event that cause casualties or you have also interfere with Hamas that decide to change their concept we'll talk a little bit of that in just a moment I just want to let our viewers up to date know what's happening in the past few hours there have been some alerts some sirens going off that there were some missiles headed towards the southern part of Tel Aviv there was a missile that struck a Balyam mall and not too far away from Balyam Balyam is about 15-20 minutes away from Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv itself that's where we have Piyas Tachibak who's joining us live from Tel Aviv there was a very big concert tonight in Hayarcon Park 40,000 people there that concert still went on despite the fact that you could hear booms out front of our studios here in Yafo exactly Elber that concert in fact only started a few minutes ago it's the concert of the popular Israeli musician Aviv Giffen as you mentioned 40,000 people attending that concert they got still permission to go through with it although also from there they could see the interceptions from the rockets that were targeting the area as you mentioned in Holon to cities not far away from Tel Aviv those 40,000 people received the instructions to lie on the ground to protect their heads with their hands in case of an alert also here in the city of Elber it is a regular Thursday evening at least that is what it looks like here people are out and about standing in front of the popular restaurant in the middle of Tel Aviv you can see those people here in that line are still waiting for a table people are meeting friends for dinner for drinks now there are also public shelters here in Tel Aviv we have about one and a half minutes to run we are here right now looks like it is in the basement of the great synagogue in Tel Aviv in fact it is blocked by a car right now you see some trash also partially blocking the entrance so although the city of Tel Aviv opened its shelters already two days ago not all of them are prepared and here in the atmosphere you can really see that it is very different from what people are experiencing right now in the south it feels quite disconnected although the rockets came quite close to Tel Aviv great Piaf Sakhabaks joining us live now from Tel Aviv where people are out and about late at night thanks so much for joining us I have about 10 seconds to each I'm sorry you wanted to jump in there for a quick second but I wanted to ask you very simple is that do you see this ending tonight you said you have my estimation that it will be ended in the coming 16 14 hours great thank you very much i24 news continues with live keep coverage of operations shield and arrow have more after the break i24 continues the pixel family continues to grow into the most dynamic mobile hardware portfolio in the market today pulsates through millennium listen to it smell it taste it like never before we land uncovered three sunday only on i24 news shalom and welcome to Jewish World Weekly I'm Khaled Bendevede and each week we're going to bring you the latest from the Jewish world from politics to religion entertainment to the latest trends and everything in between don't miss Jewish World Weekly only on i24 news the Middle East is changing old alliances make way for new partnerships lead to new relationships insured goals mean new opportunities we speak to those who know the inside story and are at the heart of the changes don't get caught up with the same old story find out what's happening in Middle East now on i24 news for breaking news i'm albert lewitton at the i24 news headquarters in Tel Aviv continuing our live team coverage of operations shield and arrow three days of intense fighting between Israel and palestinian islamic jihad in Gaza hundreds of rockets have been lobbed into Israel the barrage has not stopped Israel in precision strikes targeting the top members of islamic jihad at least five top leaders have been killed and in Israel one person has been killed doesn't injured when a rocket slammed into an apartment building in rachovot i24 news has live team coverage of the exchange of fire we begin first with Nicole Zedek who's on the scene at the direct hit in rachovot Nicole what's the latest albert you can actually see the damage right behind me i'm going to step out to give you a better view of the damage that we're talking about to this residential building that did kill one civilian and injured at least five others really the atmosphere ever since then it has been very very tense as cleanup efforts are just beginning to get underway because look at all that damage that this building took in fact many authorities are evaluating it right now you can see some people still walking around inside firstly making sure that no one is still left stranded or trapped in the building secondly evaluating because after all of this damage authorities are worried that there is the potential that this building could collapse so they want to make sure that residents are continuing to stay away as they also clean up the street from all of the damage that has been left behind now as far as what we're seeing here of Rehovo that as I told you it is definitely a very tense atmosphere in fact we spoke to the deputy mayor who kind of explained everything that is happening right now and how he's helping his citizens handle such a devastating aftermath now we make a round to see if someone we left someone in the building we make a last round we find until now we have 14 people in the hospital and one people will die it's a difficult you know but all the government is coming now you know to help us to see together what we are going to do in all the next day but we are a strong community we're going back to work and we're not worried certainly a strong community here and as the deputy mayor said it has been a team effort during not only the clean up here making sure that everyone is safe we've seen fire and rescue units search and rescue units police IDF really all of them on the ground right here as far as what residents in the area can expect going into tomorrow schools have been closed as well as events they want to make sure that no more large gatherings are taking place here in the Hovo tomorrow and really making sure that children are staying safe staying out of the educational facilities as far as work buses all of that that's all going back to normal as unfortunately this is something that here in central Israel we don't see often but this feeling of anxiety they are unfortunately used to and so the deputy mayor tells me that life goes on they are a strong community and they will come back from this devastating aftermath Nicole said joining us live from Hovo that the site of a deadly missile attack thanks so much for joining us Nicole I'm joined now in studio by Major General Etan Dungal the former military secretary to three defense ministers and former coordinator government activities for the Palestinian territories for the IDF known by international security analyst Martin Hemel first Etan if I talk to you a little bit about the this these barrages these hundreds of rockets that have been coming this way it says though there's no there's no let up there and here we are like 10 o'clock at night it's going to continue through the night it looks like two things first we don't see any new way of arm that in this case jadi slamming is using or trying really to make something to threat Israel besides what we are aware to with those rockets these rockets is a weak point for us it's on the stomach because all about the underground the tunnels and all the other kind of activities also by Hamas were closed and his bala were closed by Israel with high technology and with high intelligence what's going now it looks to me that it's a sensitive evening it can be for the coming 12 hours in my opinion as it's coming to a situation that Hamas is not participate physically in what's going I think that the situation of jadi slamming is coming worse and worse their activity are in a narrow place they are trying now to signal after what happened that Israel succeed to target the heads of the rocket structure I think they it's already the fifth person in a senior position jadi slamming was eaten by Israel as a part of what started a week ago so now we are maybe coming to two opportunities or coming to close it under Egyptian discussions with jadi slamming but don't think that Hamas is not there with the Egyptian and on the other hand it can be taken more days but I think that we already face such circles and this is the first part by Israel to react about something higher than it it's strategic way that Israel has to continue on its way to see what it should be done against what has started at the middle of Pesach holiday while rockets were launched from Lebanon and after that from Gaza this is another story the coordination cooperation of the arena terrorism against Israel and this is much more serious now we'll talk about Egypt in one second with Martin I just want to go back a little bit too so the IDF targeted the top five military commanders of jihad they went down the list and took one out one by one at one point does Islamic jihad get back to a corner and they turn to Hamas and say you got to help us out here I think from the beginning the first attack that I think ended less than one minute was the main goal of this operation but you know it's not depend on one side it was clear you're taking calculation risk like the launch of rockets etc and we are waiting I think that jihad islamic were expected from Hamas to join them physically because Hamas these signals like a kind of leadership towards the arena circle of terrorism by the headquarters they are sitting together in Gaza etc and I think that there is even a high tense can be in Gaza between Hamas and jihad islamic kind of disappointment and I would like to emphasize another point inside the jihad islamic I know it there is also tense between the outside leadership what you can call the foreign leadership that are locating in Damascus, Nakhale and Ajuri and between those that are in Israel it's a different movement it's not conventional terror that have their structure very key Is it a hierarchy you think? It's very narrow the hierarchy and in Gaza this is the effect of what Israel achieved by targeting those five the other two it's another intelligence way of achievement because during such a circle of violence people are reading it's very difficult to get the intelligence where they are and it's come few hours one after the other in the area of Hanyunis where they were targeting let me go back to martin for one second about Egypt and now Egypt has said that they were signaling that they would want to get involved in some sort of a ceasefire here what's in it for them? they need regional stability if there's trouble, serious chaos in Gaza that's on their border that affects their side of the border as well and so they want regional stability that's the most important thing apart from that though I'd just like to emphasize that this war the statement as the general said is that the first minute showed there's a new ball game there's a new new rules, new ball game and the leadership of Islamic Jihad in Damascus, the leadership of Hamas in Gaza they're all thinking about it, that can happen to me they have ways of getting to us and that's really the message of this whole operation right now in 30 seconds I know it's tough to do that but in 30 seconds what does Prime Minister Netanyahu do today right now does he continue the fight does he continue the drops, the strikes well I think it depends if he's got other targets that are really open and could embellish the point if he does he might continue and if not he might look for a way out and it looks as though the barrage hasn't stopped from Islamic Jihad so it's not as though they're waiting to hear whether there'll be anyone coming to the table, they're just going to keep going well they can keep going for a short while because they're a small terrorist organization they don't have the logistics and depth, the big army there's only so much time they can go without sleeping great thank you both very much after this live tip coverage of Operation Shield and Arrow continues right after the break this week in Mallard at large my guest will be John Bolton former NSC advisor to Donald Trump former number two of the White House and the prospect that if Iran had nuclear weapons that Hezbollah could deliver that Israel would be subject to a nuclear holocaust so I don't think the Israelis will allow that to happen Mallard at large with Christian Mallard this week on I-24 News smart phone, tablet or desktop to stay connected in the Middle East and around the world don't wait any longer head to our website or mobile application and click on I-24 news radio to subscribe in case you're just joining us from around the world thank you this is I-24 news continuing coverage of Operation Shield and Arrow there has been a strike a direct strike on an apartment building in Rojovo that killed one person and injured about 12 people this comes as hundreds of missiles were lobbed at Israel from the Gaza Strip I'm joined now by Yonatan Rottenberg he's a medic with the United Hatsala they were the first to arrive at the scene in Rojovo Jonathan welcome are you there yes I'm here so when you first arrive at the scene what did you see first of all there was a lot of smoke and people calling for help and running out of the building the building was devastated so we tried to figure out how to get in when we managed to get into the building we climbed up to the second floor and we understand that it's actually was totally destroyed and then we tried to figure out where are the people inside and we helped them to go outside slowly and it took some time and afterwards in a few minutes later we understand that we actually have one person that died unfortunately was the person who died were they in the mamad were they in the protected space or were they in their apartment they were in the apartment probably not in the mamad so I guess that's the issue with the fact that when the sirens go off the fact that you need to get into the mamad but you need to get into the protected space within 90 seconds it appears that person did not make it in time as a probability as you can see right now in the image you can see that the apartment is actually destroyed totally and it was a direct hit so I cannot tell you if actually if they were in the mamad or not if it could help them I don't really know now there was also a report earlier maybe you can help us confirm that some people were trapped they were unable to leave their protected space were you able to see that when you arrived there were a few people that were trapped but the fire troops helped them to get out and afterwards the IDF soldiers from Picudo if they came by and they managed to take them out great and Yonatan as far as you know most of the injuries were what minor in terms of bleeding and of broken bones and such or what kind of injuries did the others sustain all kinds of trauma injuries but not severe trauma injuries all of them were evacuated very very quick to the hospital we managed to help them there were like around 10 people that we took out of the building and all of the other persons were not injured great Yonatan thank you very much for joining us Yonatan Rodenberg with United Hatsala joining us live from Rehoboth Israel I just wanted to get our viewers up to date there are continuing to be some sirens going off in the southern part of Israel more about Ascalon and Rehoboth area and now I'm being told we have close under who's joining us live from Sterot Pierre are you there yeah yeah I'm here hi go ahead tell us what's going on where you are well 15 minutes ago there was another red alert it means you know a salvo of rockets about 3 or 4 rockets I don't remember that's where magically intercepted by the iron dome anti-missile system you know a spread of sparks in the dark night and then the bad wind went over to another direction and that's the way it's going on here and people are just you spoke with a rescue worker about the protected areas the problem is in Sterot and in the old city of Ascalon for instance there are tenements that don't have these protected rooms in their own apartments simply because these buildings were built before the first Gulf War and only after the first Gulf War in 1991 did the Israeli government decide to in any new building to have a protected room in apartments so in Sterot you still have people that are not protected so they have to go downstairs and they have to calculate exactly how long it takes them to go to the next public shelter you have only 15 minutes we're a few kilometers away from the Gaza border from the rocket launching pads so the distance is measured in time, the crucial time and that crucial time you need to calculate it in advance you need to go to a bakery to buy bread, you need to calculate where is the next protected area are there any obstacles on the ground that you need to avoid if you're an old person you need to avoid them, you need to watch the ground, you need to be careful because if not you're gonna wound yourself you're gonna have you're gonna fall and then you're gonna be vulnerable from the debris of the interception if the rocket has not crushed in Sterot now Sterot is really in a sense an epicenter of that rocket fight that has been going on for already 22 years, I just spoke to a young boy 17 year old earlier and you know he was born in Sterot he's going to the army next year he's gonna be 18 and he wants to go to a fighting unit he's very resilient, he's very determined and his dream is to protect what is in Sterot where on the border which is only 5 kilometers away from here so that's the complexity of the situation here now of course there is the magic Iron Dome but that's not enough and there's also immense pride in the fact that Israel was proactive, took the initiative but then there's also the realization of counter fighting and maybe on the 15th of May when the Palestinians commemorate their knockback catastrophe the creation of the state of Israel or on the 18th of May when there's going to be a Jerusalem commemoration of the reunification of Jerusalem after the 6 day war when right-wing Israelis are going to march in Muslim neighborhoods in the old city of Jerusalem and that's you know the 10% Jerusalem for all three monolithic religions if we go over this hurdle how long will it stay how long will we have to wait for the next round of fighting that's the question they ask themselves and that's the question we'll be following all through the night and Pierre thank you very much come back to us as things continue through the night let me go now to Martin and let me ask you a question about that but where Pierre is right now Pierre said not enough was being done in advance as over the weeks over the past months they were getting barraged by rockets what changed well I think local leaders see that the rules of engagement have changed they've assassinated top jihad leaders and they've made it clear to the prime minister that if you need more time to keep up this new engagement to get more aggressive about it they'll give him all the time he wants what they don't want to see is okay you score a few points here you've got a new rule of engagement but then it goes quiet until the next time I think they're going to be somewhat disappointed because there's no panacea no all-inclusive solution that's going to solve this with just through might it's a political, military work in progress basically if I can go to General Eitan last night at this time last night the prime minister there was talk the prime minister would announce some sort of a ceasefire and then all bets were off at the last minute why take that tack and come out and say no we're not going to have anything like this I really don't know what was personally the reason of making this kind of statements yesterday because a day before when it started there was another kind of statement by the prime minister chief of defense head of the interior security service and also a minister of defense yesterday it was like a sign that something is preparing for a kind of ceasefire it can be because I've been there you know you start two activities that are not touching each other one is the escalation the second one is immediately what will be achieved by the policy or the political level like is done by Egypt probably maybe they got a positive science and it was disappeared during the evening and meanwhile Israel continues we need very responsibility way of heroic targeting the Jihad Islamic people in being very careful to divide between Hamas and Jihad Islamic meanwhile a very important distinction and what was achieved by Israel it was a great let's scan again a second surprise to Jihad Islamic that now the demon kind of revenge or kind of the end of the game like to have some pictures that they succeed to launch rockets and they succeed to wounded people etc I don't know if it's going to end tonight I don't think it needed more statement not by the prime minister not by anybody just to make it patient and to work from my experience the Egyptians are working I think that if it will be closed under the parameters that are now in this kind of area I believe that in the coming 12 14 hours can be achieved something but everything I'm making I'm saying it carefully it can be moved dramatically to the other side if you have any kind of tactic event that cause casualties or you have also interfere with Hamas that decide to change their concept we'll talk a little bit of that in just a moment I just want to let our viewers up to date know what's happening in the past few hours there have been some alerts some sirens going off that there were some missiles headed towards the southern part of Tel Aviv Kholon was hit there was a missile that struck a Balyam mall and not too far away from Balyam Balyam is about 15-20 minutes away from Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv Tel Aviv itself that's where we have who's joining us live from Tel Aviv there was a very big concert tonight in Hyarkon Park 40,000 people there that concert still went on despite the fact that you could hear booms out front of our studios here in Yaffo exactly Elbert that concert in fact only started a few minutes ago it's the concert of the popular Israeli musician Aviv Geffen as you mentioned 40,000 people attending that concert they got still permission to go through with it although also from there they could see the interceptions from the rockets that were targeting the area as you mentioned Kholon to cities not far away from Tel Aviv those 40,000 people received the instructions to lie on the ground to protect their heads with their hands in case of an alert also here in the city of Elbert it is a regular Thursday evening at least that is what it looks like here people are out and about here standing in front of the popular restaurant Port Said in the middle of Tel Aviv as you can see those people here in that line are still waiting for a table people are meeting friends for dinner for drinks now there are also public shelters here in Tel Aviv we have about one and a half minutes to run to one in case of an alert and I want to show you how this shelter close to where we are here right now looks like it is in the basement of the great synagogue in Tel Aviv in fact it is blocked by a car right now you see some trash also partially blocking the entrance so although the city of Tel Aviv opened its shelters already two days ago not all of them are prepared and here in the atmosphere you can really see that it is very different from what people are experiencing right now in the south it feels quite disconnected although the rockets came quite close to Tel Aviv great Pierre Schuchbach joining us live now from Tel Aviv where people are out and about late at night thanks so much for joining us I have about 10 seconds to each ask of you I'm sorry you wanted to jump in there for a quick second but I wanted to ask one simple is that do you see this ending tonight you said you have my estimation that it will be ended in the coming 16 14 hours great thank you very much i24 news continues with live team coverage of operations shield and arrow and we'll have more after the break i24 continues I started to have clients who didn't know where to put their equipment because it costs quite a lot so we wanted to have a solution where these materials can be recycled inside of political and religious passions in Jerusalem breaking down the financial trends shaping the global economy giving you key context not just headlines with the stories from Israel that touch the U.S. and those across the region with impact far beyond its borders Sunday to Thursday on i24 news catch the run with the Middle East meets the world news radio now you can listen to i24 news anywhere anytime for free i24 news radio is the audio live stream of the television network with world headlines every 30 minutes starting from 7 a.m. top news and magazines editions while in the car in your office join us from your smartphone tablet or desktop to stay connected in the Middle East and around the world don't wait any longer head to our website or mobile application and click on i24 news radio to subscribe an organism that pulsates through millennia listen to it smell it taste it experience the holy land like never before holy land uncovered every Sunday only on i24 news imagine being able to see into the future we can take you there what innovations will change the world as we know it where can you get the most bang for your buck I'm Natasha Kierchuk journalist of Israel business beat join us as we meet the people changing our planet discover the inventions shaping tomorrow Israel business beat Sundays and Wednesdays 9 30 p.m. GMT this is i24 breaking news I'm Albert Lewatin in the i24 news headquarters in Tel Aviv continuing our live team coverage of operation shield and arrow three days of intense fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic jihad in Gaza hundreds of rockets have been lobbed into Israel the barrage has not stopped Israel in precision strikes targeting the top members of Islamic jihad at least five top leaders have been killed and in Israel one person has been killed five injured when a rocket slammed into an apartment building in Rechovot i24 news has live team coverage of the days events we begin we begin first with Nicole Setic whose i24 news correspondent joining us from Rechovot, Nicole yes it's been actually just about three hours since the attack on this residential apartment behind me here and although crews are beginning to really clean up the damage there is still a lot to be done and they continue to look and evaluate the building behind me crews are in there right now making sure no one is left in the building but also really doing an assessment of all of the damage making sure that any residents who are surrounding this area are okay because they're not sure as far as the structural integrity of the building if it is at the possibility of collapsing and so that is why crews are still actively working here they're still just debris covering the ground in fact a street sweeper just came through and now the road is back open surrounding this residential apartment building because people are trying to get back to their apartments right now it's kind of a back to this sense of tense calm that we have been experiencing but as far as what the residents in the area are feeling right now they're saying they're just shocked that this area in central israel was struck so so heavily a lot of them are very very shaken up right now many of them had just barely enough time to run to their safe place or shelter if they even had one many people just had to either lie down on the ground or just stay in the staircase wherever another safe place is because they don't actually have a shelter in their home right now we also spoke to the deputy mayor here and he said as far as tomorrow what residents can expect following this tragedy is schools will be closed and events will be prohibited but other than that as far as public transportation businesses those are all allowed to be up and running as far as tomorrow but there's definitely this feeling of anxiety right now and the deputy mayor which to make sure that everyone can kind of come together following this tragedy he says rohobot is a strong city a strong town and people are going to come together following such a tragic event and and also with no end in sight they don't know if this could happen again we haven't heard any explosions overhead for the past about 45 minutes to an hour now but as residents go to sleep tonight especially following attack quite literally in their home so close to home many of them are sleeping on edge tonight here in rohobot in central Israel I want to emphasize we're not near the near some of those southern cities right near the border this is central Israel where many people don't expect an attack like this to to take down an apartment building as it did today so Nicole said it was in rohobot let me ask you a question in terms of the I hear a lot of noise behind you I suspect a lot of the residents of the city are coming to take a look at the damage as it turned into a a site for people to see that is exactly what we've been seeing all day today I'm actually going to have you you pan the camera about 180 all the way around here so that you can see what we're experiencing here on the streets as you can see still plenty of security officers out here but also if you kind of look down this residential street as people are gathering people are looking cars are as I said beginning to be allowed that's only been in the past 20 or 30 minutes here but people are coming out of their building taking a look kind of gathering and and also comforting each other as I said this is a tight knit community you know it's a good city and so all of these people are coming out here this is something that we have seen for the past three hours I want to say exactly when it did happen and when we showed up the crowd was even larger but we have still continue to see people as now this road is fully open more and more people are coming Albert and definitely taking a look at the damage seeing it firsthand it definitely does impact many of the residents here once they can see it with their with their own eyes themselves great great Nicole said thank you so much for joining us from Rojava and you keep us updated as things progress there thanks again so now the latest volume between the two sides comes after the killing of the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Shahad's rocket brigade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made comments earlier today here now the Prime Minister early this morning we eliminated the commander of the rocket array of Islamic in Gaza an hour ago we also eliminated his deputy I repeat anyone who comes to harm us will be doomed and his replacement will be doomed as well we are in the middle of the campaign both on the offense and on the defense behind me is a battery from David sling missile defense system with its commanders this system successfully intercepted a rocket over the Tel Aviv area we will continue to act in defense until the end of the campaign and I want to thank the soldiers who are doing sacred work here to protect our skies and our citizens and I ask you the citizens to continue to help us protect you follow the instructions of the home front command and together we will win so I'm joined in studio right now by international security analyst Martin Hemel Martin thanks for joining us you know we were talking a little earlier about it this let me just have says that they're not going to come to the table unless the Israelis stop attacking the top leadership what why are they so adamant about not doing that because they don't want to get killed the ones that are conducting negotiations are frightened that they're going to die and they want to be able to sleep at night and take care of their families and so that's a pretty existential place to be and that's why they're fighting so hard to try to get some sort of guarantee but I don't think they're going to get a clear and cloud guarantee from Israel maybe they'll get hints saying well if you behave we'll behave but I don't think it will go anything more than that in terms of hitting the top leadership there I mean it doesn't seem like they have a hierarchy that's set up for the next level to move up to the next level up ahead I don't think it's as rigid disciplined hierarchy like a military or even Hamas which has a much bigger infrastructure it's smaller it's a military asset for Iran it's financed by Iran it certainly couldn't finance itself and once you are engaged for several days and take out their top people fatigue is going to settle in and that's why we'll probably see a ceasefire sooner rather than later and we're seeing a lull I mean a lull as it is for a couple of hours here I mean that's probably reasoning behind between manpower and technology yes and last night they didn't fire at all they have to sleep in the night shift but I'm sure it's not as extensive and they're not sleeping very well they're probably sleeping with one eye open because of what's been going on there was mention overnight that Egypt was going to try to negotiate some sort of a deal here Egypt wants to see things as it was 110 hours ago not as it is today it does it wants stability because Egypt doesn't trust what happens in Gaza the radical Islamic movements there let's not forget that they had Morsi who was a brotherhood Islamist and that's what Hamas is so they don't want to see a return to that they don't want to see those kind of spirits whipped up not long ago in Sinai ISIS was a dominant force so they won't quiet on that border in terms of the regional players here I mean I'm sure everyone's looking at what's happening and they're doing the calculus how does a play in the regional world well I think Iran for Iran this was a trial balloon to see how well its military asset Islamic Jihad holds up and I don't think they're very impressed right now yes they fired some rockets they didn't shut down Israel firing 8 talking about in cold numbers firing 800 plus rockets and extracting one casualty is not very impressive and even a rock concert took place so they're not really getting into the Israeli psyche and on top of that five of the top leaders there were taken out so I think that hasn't gone too well for the Iranian impression of what's going on here and then with 30 seconds left in terms of the international community it seems as though the US is not taking an active role in trying to negotiate some sort of a choose here I don't think so I think that they're letting that for the Egyptians who have the real influence on all sides well live team coverage of the missile barrage Israel continues you know I-24 news coverage crews are all fan across the region but there have been no alerts as of now within the past hour just to recap our viewers around the world there have been about 700 missiles that have been lobbed into Israel since the past couple of days the skies over Gaza and the skies over Tel Aviv and through southern Israel are quiet at this time live team coverage of the missile barrage into Israel continues right after the break Middle East is changing old alliances make way for new partnerships bigger threats lead to new relationships new rules new opportunities we speak to those who know the inside story and are at the heart of the changes don't get caught up with the same old story find out what's happening in Middle East now Middle East now on I-24 News this week in Mallard at large my guest will be John Bolton former NSC advisor to Donald Trump former number two of the White House and the prospect that if Iran had nuclear weapons that Hezbollah could deliver that Israel would be subject to a nuclear holocaust so I don't think the Israelis will allow that to happen Mallard at large with Christian Mallard this week on I-24 News hey it's you again ready let's go one show a whole lot of perspective he is part of the problem maybe you want to talk about de-platforming people are losing their lives not just what happened but why does it matter I want to finish my point you are the one switching terms you could be a fantastic CNN reporter join us every night 8 p.m. eastern on global on the global conversation starts here we're on the inside of political and religious passions in Jerusalem breaking down the financial trends shaping the global economy giving you key context not just headlines with the stories from Israel that touch the U.S. sports catch the rundown where the Middle East meets the world I'm Albert Lewerton of the I-24 newsroom in Tel Aviv giving you an update as to the breaking news that's been occurring all through the night and a direct hit by a missile into an apartment building has killed one and injured five we now go to Avi Marcus who's the deputy director of medical division for United Hats-a-Lahis joining me now from Avi thanks very much for joining you were there right as it was either what did you see so once I arrived the scene was hectic people running around screaming trying to understand what happened what was at scene if people were injured or killed or the building looked like as if it was bombed and you can see in the videos right now so the first few minutes were trying to understand in the building searching through all the floors injured people and helping people come out to the building there's an issue in terms of the building's stability you went in there risking your own life to try to get the people out because the building could have collapsed on you exactly so we didn't go in straight away number one we waited for people to understand and told us we can go in which is the fire brigade in Israel that arrived at scene together with us and of course the other safety issue we had was all the things of maybe having more bombs coming down so all the people that went in at the beginning had helmets on and anything that could help them in order to shooting it would be safe now I have a one question in terms of where did you find the people who were injured the most were they in the Mamad were they in the protected space or were they outside the building so the people who were injured were in the building but not in the Mamad people that were one flight up in the Mamad nothing happened all they heard was the shatting of the windows but the people most probably the women were killed and other people were most probably not in Mamad but we arrived so quick at scene so we still had smoke and dust etc around now in terms of the people who are injured can you talk to us about what kind of injuries they sustained so it looks like Muslim were cuts from glass or falling down when they tried to run away from the bombing so that was one aspect the other aspect was psychotrauma that we started straight away giving psychotrauma therapy to the people that had seen family members and people that lived over the street or maybe a door away and heard the bombing and understood it as a catastrophe so our psychotrauma unit of the United Atsala we arrived at scene within 10-15 minutes and started giving psychotrauma therapy what does that entail so for people who are not familiar with that what does that entail because people would think that something like this happens it's just it's such a trauma how do you help that because it's a trauma and it's something you cannot prepare to what we try to do is when we arrive at scene to destabilize the situation let people know they're in a safe place connected with family members or give them things to do in order not to feel the feeling when you have the bomb coming down usually the the feeling of not being in control is the worst thing once you bring people back into control and show them and make them understand that they're in a safe place and the thing is okay usually the trauma relieves and they feel much better straight away afterwards great hopefully they're getting their treatment now and they're trying to do the can to lessen their trauma since the moment happened a few hours ago Avi Marcus the deputy director for the medical division of the United Atsala thanks again for joining us from Rojovo thank you again for all the work so we continue our live team coverage of this event and for news correspondent joining us from Siderot Israel Pierre there's been a lull so to speak for the past hour or so but that's not to say that everyone's guard is down now no you know our senses are very awake even though we are very tired and I think that the residents of Derot are very very tired and for instance we heard the engine of a car the roar of a car and everybody jumped and then we heard jets and about 15 minutes ago or 20 minutes ago there was a huge explosion emanating from Gaza and it seems that they were targeting a launching pad in this direction which is exactly the direction from where most of the rockets we've seen earlier were magically intercepted by the iron dome anti-missile missile system so you know that's the routine right now we hope that there's going to be a prolonged lull just like yesterday night when you know at some point the rocket stopped the rocket fire stopped and people had a quiet night but there is no guarantee at all there is no guarantee and nobody seems to be talking about a ceasefire anymore yesterday we were told we are on a brink of a ceasefire not anymore and it seems it's just a lull now Pierre are the streets behind you deserted or are there people out it is a Thursday night in Israel which means that people do go out are they out at all or is everyone just at home there's something quite incredible because on one hand the road just in this direction is closed because it goes along the border and there's been instances of previous rounds of fighting of anti-tank cornet Russian made missile fired at vehicles which provoked fatalities so this road is closed the road in this direction the backyard of Zderot I would say is open there is traffic the trains are not functioning but there is traffic and there was a guy here who came out of curiosity believe me he's from Yerucham which is a very small city in the midst of the Negev desert a city which has never been bombed by rocket fire because it's for the Palestinians it seems insignificant as a target and the guy came here and we're talking and he tells me what should I do if I'm in an open space because you know when you're in an open space the iron dome doesn't intercept the rockets because in principle there is no habitat there there is nobody living there so he says I'm going to drive home to Yerucham what am I going to do my car is fueled with diesel diesel is not a flammable liquid he says you see the kind of calculation that the guy has and okay no diesel so I'm telling him listen but the car is made of metal you're going to have metal from the shrapnels and then you're going to have metals from the car on your body you'd better be safe and follow the instruction of the home front command get out of your car go on the ground protect your head and let it go and that's the thing everybody is in the middle of a calculation how do I negotiate my way to the closest shelter are there any obstacles how many steps do I need 15 seconds is that enough you know that kind of thing Pierre Kloschunder stay safe out there and let us know if anything happens out there give us a good ring when it happens okay thanks again stay safe have a great night okay Pierre thank you very much International Security Analyst Martin Hemmels is staying with us in studio he talked about calculations Prime Minister Benjamin Net's now who had a calculation also calculation and all of this talk to us about that well I think he's scoring points here I think he knows he's scoring points he was being criticized for not being tough enough and assassinating five top Islamic Jihad leaders surely shows shows that he's being tougher he's taking some chances and he's winning right now on that front and I'm sure he's scoring points and he's trying to capitalize that with regular press conferences and by showing that he's overcoming his own fighting with the defense minister over political issues by being a real team so he's trying to repair the damage to his image and in some ways he is. Martin stand by one second I just want to continue our team coverage we have live team coverage from reporters all over the region. Pierre Stakhebach is now joining us she is in Tel Aviv right now in the heart of a city that is vibrant people are out they're about to talk to us about that. Exactly Albert as you can see we're here in the middle of the city we're standing next to a very popular restaurant in an area where there's lots of bars and restaurants and you're right people are out and about because here in Tel Aviv you feel quite disconnected from what is happening in the south because it feels so normal it feels like any other Thursday evening although about two or three hours ago earlier this evening there were rockets as close to neighboring cities such as Rishon Le Tzion which is really not far away from here also here in the city not far from here in the north there is a concert from the famous Israeli singer Aviv Geffen taking place with about 40,000 people attending that concert it is taking place outside in the Palka Yakon venue 40,000 people of course when there is a rocket alert you have about one and a half minutes to go to the nearest shelter 40,000 people won't manage to do that the instructions from the home front command for those people are in case of a rocket alert lie on the ground and cover your head with your hands now the city of Tel Aviv has opened its bomb shelters already two days ago there are many throughout the city but as you can see here with this example not every shelter is really prepared what you can see here is the shelter at the grand synagogue in the middle of Tel Aviv but it is blocked by a car and by some trash here partially blocking the entrance so in case of a rocket alert all these people that you can see here sitting they would have together in that shelter that is blocked by a car so although the shelters are open not it's not really made sure that they're indeed also accessible now we haven't had a red alert here throughout the day but there have been quite specific threats from the palestinian Islamic jihad warning residents of specifically Tel Aviv that this is what might happen as a retaliation yeah in fact the palestinian Islamic jihad sent out a video that had Tel Aviv on a crosshairs as if it was something like a warning that hey we're coming for you exactly this is what we've been seeing in videos and photos from the palestinian Islamic jihad they also ranged videos from their long range rockets which could even reach further than Tel Aviv further to northern cities in israel so Tel Aviv often is seen in the Israeli security establishment when Tel Aviv is reached by rockets this is a new level of escalation now when this recent military escalation began yesterday the palestinian Islamic jihad was very quick to send rockets to the central area here there were two red alerts in southern east Tel Aviv yesterday also the rockets came very close to cities like Holon, Rishon and Tzion only a couple of hours ago this night is not over yet and this military escalation for sure is not as well great P.S. Sachebach is joining us live from Tel Aviv thank you again but let me go back to Martin Hill on this there you mentioned earlier in the evening that you don't expect this barrage back and forth to last much longer you expected to end within the past in the next couple of hours why do you say that as long as Hamas doesn't decide to join the fight then Islam Jihad doesn't have the resources the manpower the missiles the logistics and the resources to keep this going for days on is the fear that Hamas says okay you know what we're a big brother we're going to help you out here yes that is a fear that is a calculation because they don't want Islam Jihad completely decimated they wanted to show that it was stood the brunt by that being a victory so Hamas is in an anxious point right now and imagine that Hezbollah is looking at this Hamas is looking at it from the West Bank perspective as well they are indeed Hezbollah is looking from a Lebanese area let's not forget that Hassan Nasrallah leader of Hezbollah has been living in a bunker for the last 16 17 years he's worried about assassination now I think he's even more worried about it and I think Hamas leaders are worried too if they launch offensives or they strike too hard in the West Bank maybe a rocket will come through their apartment window as well thank you very much for joining us tonight I just want to give everyone an update there have been about 500 rockets that have been sent over in the past three days one of them struck a building in that killed one person and injured five you can keep up to date on what's going on today we're making decorated gingerbread cookies they're the perfect treat for wintery Christmas since they're made with spices like cinnamon and ginger that keep you warm I first made these cookies for my grandchildren so I wanted to get just the right recipe that would be child friendly not too sweet, not too spicy it's not that spicy it's not that spicy it's not that spicy it's not that spicy it's not that spicy it's not that spicy I'm going to make the same we're in Fasuta an Arab Christian village in northern Israel Fasuta is one of the very few places in the country that celebrates Christmas in a big way we decorate the village streets and run a Christmas market for outside guests to visit for me Christmas is the most important and beloved holiday of the year in past years I've decided to combine it and opened my own baking business I get a lot of support from my family we all do it together every Christmas we prepare decorated cookies and run workshops for adults and kids I love hosting and Christmas is a great time for that when I have visitors in my house whether it's groups of people, friends or family I want them to enjoy generous portions of good food alongside Christmas treats I serve sweets from the Arab cuisine such as date cookies and pumpkin dessert because I want to expose them to elements from my world doing that brings me a lot of happiness and joy your weekly look into security intelligence and strategic affairs our team brings the latest on the major international conflicts analysis of the major security issues right here in the Middle East and around the globe there is only an I-24 news hey it's you again ready? let's go one show a whole lot of perspective he is part of the problem maybe you want to talk about deep platforming? people are losing their lives not just what happened but why does it matter? I'd like to finish my point you're the one switching terms you could be a fantastic CNN reporter join us every night 8 p.m. Eastern on Global Live starts here the Middle East is changing old alliances make way for new partnerships bigger threats lead to new relationships insured goals meaning new opportunities we speak to those who know the inside story and are at the heart of the changes don't get caught up with the same old story find out what's happening in Middle East now Middle East now on I-24 News