 You're watching I-24 News, this is Breaking News Edition as we continue our rolling coverage of Israel's war now at day 73. Just a short while ago, rocket alert sirens were heard on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. In the West Bank, a shooting attack earlier today has left one Israeli woman wounded. Shots were fired at two vehicles near the town of Atir bin Yameen and the attackers fled towards Ramallah. The woman's husband and two children, who were with her in the vehicle at the time, were not injured. The military meanwhile continues to investigate the tragic killing of three hostages who escaped Hamas, only to be gunned down by two IDF soldiers. Signs with SOS calls for help were found in a building nearby where it is possible that they stayed prior to the incident. This as the IDF continues its battle on the ground throughout the Gaza Strip, attacking over 150 terrorist targets in the last day from the air, sea and land. And the head of the Israeli Mossad, David Barnea, is reportedly meeting at this very hour with CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari prime minister Mohamed bin Abd al-Thani, the three who are in Warsaw are discussing a new agreement to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and another possible pause in the fighting. As part of the ongoing operation, the IDF yesterday exposed the largest Hamas underground terror tunnel to be found so far and today the military has found where much of the world's humanitarian aid is going to, not in banks or humanitarian facilities, but rather in the homes of senior Hamas leadership, suitcases of cash worth $1.4 million, along with many weapons in the Jibalia area. I-24 News senior correspondent Jonathan Reagan has the story. Slowly but decisively the IDF is moving deeper into Gaza. In practically every corner here signs of terrorism are found as the forces raided the private residence of a senior Hamas official. This is what they found. Suitcases containing five million shekels, roughly $1.5 million, meant purely for terrorism, as well as weapons and rocket launchers, yes, all this in a private residence. Along with the ground maneuver and the aerial activity, there is a constant search for hostages following the tragic incident in which three hostages were mistakenly shot by the IDF. Chief of Staff Heretzi Alevi came to visit the forces in order to reinforce the rules of conduct in these very delicate situations. If it's two Gazans with a white flag coming out to surrender, would we shoot them? Absolutely not. That's not the IDF. Even those who fought us and now lay down their arms and raise their hands, we arrest them. We don't shoot them. It may be somewhat unfair to judge the soldiers acting in this very tense environment, but even if he doesn't say directly, the Chief of Staff believes this incident could have had a different outcome. Three people came out. They took the risk of approaching the IDF troops. To minimize that risk, they took off their shirts so that no one would think they have an explosive device, and they held a white cloth on a pole to identify themselves. The Friday incident and the desperate Hebrew signs found in the home where the hostages were held, serve as a reminder of this tragic reality, a reality that needs to be resolved. Let's take you live now to Israel's southern border, I-24 News, Pierre Kloshander. Is there for us, Pierre? Rocket fire has resumed a couple of hours ago and intense fighting continues across the Gaza Strip. What is the latest over there? Well, since Friday, there's been a stark decrease of rocket fire. The last rocket fire yesterday in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip was at 5.41 p.m. local time. And 20 hours later, one single rocket fire on one of the communities facing the central Gaza Strip, and that's it. So there is intense pressure by the IDF inside the Gaza Strip, and as a result probably rocket fire is decreasing very, very starkly now. Regarding the state of the operation in the Gaza Strip, one of the brigades just announced via the IDF spokesperson that it completed its mission in Beth-Khanun. Beth-Khanun is just behind me, and I'm not sure whether you can see there was a pillar of smoke just behind me that has dissipated with the wind, and that was in Beth-Khanun. So probably most of the terror infrastructure in Beth-Khanun has been neutralized. That's what they say in the communique, including infrastructure and the ground infrastructure, terror tunnels, et cetera, et cetera. But still, there are strikes in Beth-Khanun. So it shows you how fragile the completion of a mission can be in this area, which has been the staging ground of the invasion of the Gaza Strip by the ground forces starting from October 27. Further south in the Jebaliah refugee camp and in the town of Sajaya, still fighting, although the IDF estimates that it should be coming to a close quite soon. But there are still fights, and in Khanunes, the weight of the ground offensive have moved to the central and southern sector of the Gaza Strip, which is more complicated because over 80 percent of the total population of the Gaza Strip now is crammed in those areas of fighting. That makes the task of the IDF all the more so complex and sensitive because the IDF has no interest in fighting the non-involved Palestinian population. It says repeatedly it's in war against Hamas, not against the Palestinians. Pierre Kloschendler on Israel's southern border. Thank you for that update from the south. Now, for more insight, I'm joined in studio by IDF Brigadier General in Reserves and Anand Geffen, the former commander of 8200 Intelligence Unit. Anand, thank you very much for coming on the show. First let's speak about what we just heard from Pierre there. The next stage of the fighting, the IDF has managed to eliminate Hamas' terror infrastructure in Beit Khanun, not really all over the northern part of the Gaza Strip yet, and we are facing a new phase in that war. Yeah, it will be a phase that is anticipated from, I would say from day one, there will be a fierce fight at the first phase, which is trying to get to the stronghold of Hamas, and then it will be a war, a kind of raids that we see much of it in the West Bank, trying to target Hamas' world bouts. It might take months. It will be on a different scale. It will not be a kind of war. It will be a kind of, I would say, attrition, trying to get Hamas out of focus, out of balance, to be constantly on the defense. Now in the northern part, we are nearing this part, which means the command posts no longer are active or operational. The major command post of Brigadier Battalions in the northern part, there will be leftover of Hamas, and that's what the forces are trying to locate in the piers and wherever they can find them, houses, still we will see houses that are targeted bombed because they're trying to relocate themselves in various places to hide, and the idea of distracting them. In the southern part, the war will still go on for a while. The Hanunas area, there are some huge camps, refugee camps, which shelters the Hamas as well, so it will take another while. But then again, it will not end as a truce, but it will be a new phase where Israel will keep on tracking Hamas. And that is the message that we are getting from the military to the civilians, because Israeli civilians are moving to a different phase. We have, let's say, a peace and ceasefire, but we have a phase where there's no ceasefire. And this is where the military will be preoccupied. I assume there will be different build-up forces that will be specified together with the Shabbat operative in special areas. So there is a lot of talk now about the possible return of Israelis, civilians to the southern communities, maybe not those that are right on the border, but certainly others like the city of Sturot, which is, by the way, just over a kilometer from the Gaza border. The residents there are saying no to that. They're not ready to go back while the fighting isn't going. To what extent does the Israeli military, the Israeli government, secure the safety or the sense of security of those residents as the fighting goes on? Yeah. Guy, for the last year or something, a year ago, just in October last year, I was part of a group that participated in Sturot in an evacuation plan when such a missile attack was frequently in the last 10 years. So they were ready to live there, to live in Sturot, and getting the weakened population evacuated for a few days during such an attack. Now, after the 7th of October, I would say the mayor of Sturot and the people will not return to Sturot, most of them until a real safety is promised to their safe situation. But they see today it's not a situation. And we're seeing live images from Gaza. Those plumes of smoke seems like from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as we heard from here. Yeah. You see the attack here, the military, they have information. And one thing about the part of intelligence in this war, as the war continues, every day there are more information, the population is willing to cooperate. The situation is worsened by the Hamas, and many of them will cooperate. And this information is immediately turned to be targets. This kind of targets, probably most of them we didn't know before, were not known. For instance, locations, houses, and so on, of operatives, which were hardly new in numbers that we have never seen. So it probably is a consequence of a real ground collection of efforts there. Let's speak about that massive tunnel that was exposed yesterday, 300 meters away from the Eris crossing, that is, of an extremely strategic point. This is also where Hamas has penetrated Israel in the first minutes of this operation, a massive metro. This is a tunnel that vehicles can go through this tunnel to such extent. Did the IDF have information about this tunnel? And if so, why wasn't it destroyed in advance? This is quite staggering to see the build-up of Hamas for so many years while Israel either didn't see or just turned a blind eye. Well, I don't know exactly about this tunnel, but let me tell you how the intelligence did. The intelligence understood, the understanding that the tunnels are the main strategic weapon of the Hamas. They built it all over like crazy, like 15 years. There were four or five tunnels discovered four or five years ago. And a huge wall was built underground to make sure that they are not penetrating into Israel. It was about 2 billion checkers were invested in this operation because we know that we might be surprised by this kind of tunnels. The IDF is holding this tunnel probably others. Yesterday the IDF spoke from the internet that there are three more that are being studied right now. The whole town, it's a terror city called it, under Gaza, and probably we'll find more of it. But discovering it, when we speak about exposing or getting rid of Hamas capabilities, attacking Hamas capabilities. This is one of the most important capabilities, the Hamas head, in order to accomplish what you have. I want to speak about moving to the next stage. All these tunnels, all this infrastructure has to be destroyed before this war comes to any sort of a pose, Hamas stay with me because I do want to discuss more. Israel emerges from the tragic killing of three hostages by a friendly fire. The government is making efforts to show the public that talks on a new hostage deal are moving forward. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman sketches out the terms for the talks and how, this time, they're different from talks on that first deal in November. The funerals remind Israelis of the stakes. Here, the funeral of hostage Alon Shamriz killed in the tragic friendly fire incident. His hands raised, his white flag not enough to earn his rescue, a reminder to many in Israel of the price of waiting on another hostage deal. You already saw the light, but it became darkness. Those who abandoned you, the government, also murdered you after you did everything right. And so the Israeli government reportedly ramps up talks on a new hostage deal with meetings afoot and progress made, now with two key differences from that first hostage deal in November. First, that November deal focused on women and especially children who were in the twisted logic of Hamas' assets, but also liabilities, with the terror group taking a beating internationally for holding three-year-olds hostage. So Hamas had more incentive to free the kids for a lower price. And then the second difference, the balance of power on the battlefield. Only continued military pressure will lead to the release of all of our hostages. My directive to the negotiating team is based on this pressure, without which we would have nothing. That first deal in November came when military pressure in Gaza was at a high, with a sense of big incremental gains each day. And so big incremental losses each day for Hamas. The sense now is of a war that is making slower progress. Less incremental pressure on Hamas means less sway for Israel in talks, all of which adds up to tougher decisions for the Israeli government and public. Not only to want fervently to bring them home, but also to understand the price in all its dimensions. Still with me, Khanan Geffen, let's talk about the possibility of reaching another hostage deal. Of course, we saw the first deal in November that released a few dozens Israelis, almost all of them women and children. And now, as the fighting has intensified, as Israel is all across the Gaza Strip, Israel still is looking to return the remaining hostages over 120 of them still at the hands of Hamas. Talk to us about the strategy or the tactics. How is this done? What does the Mossad chief has to offer to the heads of Hamas when Israel officially continues to claim at least that it is also looking to eliminate those same people? Yeah, what actually the head of the Mossad is coming to the table is one offer. He said, we might grant you ceasefire, temporary ceasefire during the exchange. Now, this is built, the assumption is built on the fact that the Hamas leaders right now are grasping for air. They are under attack. They would need any moment. Hopefully, something will change in the public, the Israeli public, the mood in the Israeli public, the effect of the hostages, the relatives of the government. Because they were used to in the past that Israel in such an operation after 10 days, 20 days, one month, the public opinion in Israel asked for a ceasefire. Now, this is not happening yet. The Hamas leaders are hoping that they will reach this point. They are exerting the pressure when it comes to the hostage families, their immediate return. And the public opinion, which is that we have soldiers, we lost soldiers, this also they hope will influence the public opinion, will change them in a way. So they want to have this ceasefire as long as possible, and the head of the Mossad is coming. We are going to grant you days of ceasefire in return for this or that number of hostages every day, probably on the same form that was done last time. They will ask, of course, for total ceasefire and a total exchange. On that point, I want to just to mention that I'm not sure that they have control of all the hostages, because what we have seen so far, the cases, five or six cases, we have seen that they do not control all the hostages. They are probably the hostages are held by private families, by separate groups, and seem that Hamas command commanders lost control of them, at least from the cases we've seen so far. Speak to us about the fact that those Hamas chiefs have yet to be eliminated. This is a question on everyone's mind. In Israel, Yikhasinwar, the perpetrator of this onslaught, of this entire tragedy for the people of Israel, and even for the people of Gaza, is it just a matter of intelligence for which he was not eliminated? Is it the fact that he is surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields, or is this an Israeli decision to keep him alive so that you'll have someone to negotiate with? Well, if I might guess what the Israeli leaders are, I prefer to kill him, to get him out of the picture in one way or another, preferably killed, but if not just move to exile, not to be in this area, because this is the big perpetrator of what happened here in the last 15 years. Now, the question of intelligence is very difficult to answer. This guy is very experienced with Israeli tracking in the last 15 years, so he will be very, very careful of whereabouts. The people who know whereabouts, I would say very, very few people, if any new way will stay every night, or every place he will change places frequently, they eat they out. Adif Brigadier General in the Reserves, Ghanan Geffen, thank you very much for this insight. Now, the International Red Cross was founded with the purpose of ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and other situations of violence, but for many Israelis, the IRC is failing that mission when it comes to the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, more in the next report. Many emotions on display at the demonstration in front of the Jaffa home of Alessandra Menagon, the Red Cross representative in Israel. These voices are from all over Israel and testify to the broad feelings among the public. Israelis simply do not like the Red Cross. Let her move from Jaffa, go, leaving Gaza. I don't think she should be here. I don't think she should be sharing the same oxygen with me right now. These are some of our offices for our operations. We have cooperation, some economic security. This week, we receive permission to visit the offices of the International Red Cross in East Jerusalem, a body that acts discreetly. Its officials say this is the most successful way to deliver humanitarian aid to war victims around the world. We do also have more teams operating in Gaza and in the West Bank area. But the fact is, for over 70 days, the organisation has not met any of the scores of hundreds of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. They have not provided any humanitarian aid or medicine. The Red Cross says it's not that it doesn't want to, it's that it can't. People sometimes have the idea that the Red Cross is an organisation that can achieve anything in conflict, that we can swoop in anywhere, we can access anywhere, and while we work so that we can do this, we always need the agreement of parties in conflict. One of the fundamental principles of the Red Cross is the fact that it is neutral. It must not take sides in any conflict in order to be acceptable to both parties. Our neutrality means that sometimes publicly, we don't say things so that behind the closed doors, in the direct discussions with the people involved, with the parties involved with Hamas, we can say what needs to be said and know that we can have that dialogue that we can engage with them. But when Red Cross president Mirjana Spoliarecch visited Gaza two weeks ago, she released a video that outraged many. I've just visited the European Gaza hospital and the things I saw there are beyond anything that anyone should be in a position to describe. It took her a minute and a half to mention the Israeli abductees, and then it appeared only casually. We have to protect the rights of the hostages. When she arrived in Israel for a short visit, she met the members of the families of the abductees. They had harsh words for her. My son is suffering from asthma. This is his inhaler. Please make sure that he will get it. I don't know the address for a visit in Gaza, but we need, he needs to get it. In recordings obtained by Yulan Cohen, the tone of the meeting is clear. It's been too much and I haven't said a word publicly, condoning what happened on the phone itself. We did, I did, yes. This baby and this child didn't come back. No, please, let me finish, please. I left the meeting shaken. I don't know how you can sit so coldly in front of people, who tell you that their loved ones are in such a difficult situation, and your answer is so correct and so measured. My son has a colitis disease and is with medicine. I don't want my son that will come back in a black plastic bag. You've been at Gaza last week at the Palestinian hospitals. If they afford you to go inside Gaza, you need to ask or maybe to condition it by medicine for our kids or beloved that are injured and they are sick. The members of the families also brought up Spaliaric's message from Gaza. As I saw it, I thought the ICRC is going only on one side, so I'm asking you, if the Hamas don't give you any operation to go to the hospital or to give us a sign of life, they'll go inside Gaza. Israel and the abductees' families expect the Red Cross to take a clear position against Hamas. The organisation claims it cannot do this. A condemnation by the Red Cross, which has such a large platform and so many international connections, can change the narrative in the entire world as soon as it condemns Hamas, and that will change the story here as well for the abductees. 3 days since that Hamas onslaught and still no visits from the Red Cross of the Israeli hostages. That's a wrap for now from the I-24 News Desk. More updates coming up at the top of the hour. I'm Gaya Azrael. Thank you for watching. Dozens of correspondents throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. Bringing Israel's story to the world, I-24 News Channels, now on Hot. You're watching I-24 News. This is Breaking News Edition as we continue our rolling coverage of Israel's war now at day 73. Just a short while ago, rocket alert sirens were heard on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. In the West Bank, a shooting attack earlier today has left one Israeli woman wounded. Shots were fired at two vehicles near the town of Atterit bin Yameen and the attackers fled towards Ramallah. The woman's husband and two children who were with her in the vehicle at the time were not injured. The military, meanwhile, continues to investigate the tragic killing of three hostages who escaped Hamas only to be gunned down by two IDF soldiers. Signs with SOS calls for help were found in a building nearby where it is possible that they stayed prior to the incident. This, as the IDF continues its battle on the ground throughout the Gaza Strip, attacking over 150 terrorist targets in the last day from the air, sea and land. And the head of the Israeli Mossad, David Barnea, is reportedly meeting at this very hour with, say, Chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, the three who are in Warsaw are discussing a new agreement to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and another possible pause in the fighting. As part of the ongoing operation, the IDF yesterday exposed the largest Hamas underground terror tunnel to be found so far, and today the military has found where much of the world's humanitarian aid is going to, not in banks or humanitarian facilities, but rather in the homes of senior Hamas leadership, suitcases of cash worth $1.4 million, along with many weapons in the Jibalia area. I-24 News senior correspondent Jonathan Regill has the story. Slowly, but decisively, the IDF is moving deeper into Gaza. In practically every corner here, signs of terrorism are found. As the forces raided the private residence of a senior Hamas official, this is what they found. Suitcases containing 5 million shekels, roughly $1.5 million US dollars, meant purely for terrorism, as well as weapons and rocket launchers. Yes, all this in a private residence. Along with the ground maneuver and the aerial activity, there is a constant search for hostages. Following the tragic incident in which three hostages were mistakenly shot by the IDF, chief of staff Herazi Alevi came to visit the forces in order to reinforce the rules of conduct in these very delicate situations. If it's two Gazans with a white flag coming out to surrender, would we shoot them? Absolutely not. That's not the IDF. Even those who fought us and now lay down their arms and raise their hands, we arrest them. We don't shoot them. It may be somewhat unfair to judge the soldiers acting in this very tense environment. But even if he doesn't say directly, the chief of staff believes this incident could have had a different outcome. Three people came out. They took the risk of approaching the IDF troops. To minimize that risk, they took off their shirts so that no one would think they have an explosive device. And they held a white cloth on a pole to identify themselves. The Friday incident and the desperate Hebrew signs found in the home where the hostages were held serve as a reminder of this tragic reality, a reality that needs to be resolved. Let's take you live now to Israel's southern border. I-24 News Pierre Kloschendler is there for us. Pierre Rocketfire has resumed a couple of hours ago and intense fighting continues across the Gaza Strip. What is the latest over there? Well, since Friday, there's been a stark decrease of Rocketfire. The last Rocketfire yesterday in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip was at 5.41 pm local time. And 20 hours later, one single Rocketfire on one of the communities facing the central Gaza Strip. And that's it. So there is intense pressure by the IDF inside the Gaza Strip. And as a result, probably Rocketfire is decreasing very, very starkly now. Regarding the state of the operation in the Gaza Strip, one of the brigades just announced via the IDF spokesperson that it completed its mission in Beit Hanun. Beit Hanun is just behind me. And I'm not sure whether you can see that there was a pillar of smoke just behind me that has dissipated with the wind. And that was in Beit Hanun. So probably most of the terror infrastructure in Beit Hanun has been neutralized. That's what they say in the communique, including infrastructure and the ground infrastructure, terror tunnels, et cetera, et cetera. But still, there are strikes in Beit Hanun. So it shows you how fragile the completion of a mission can be in this area, which has been the staging ground of the invasion of the Gaza Strip by the ground forces starting from October 27. Further south in the Jebalah refugee camp and in the town of Sajaya, still fighting, although the IDF estimates that it should be coming to a close quite soon. But there's still fights. And in Hanun, the weight of the ground offensive have moved to the central and southern sector of the Gaza Strip, which is more complicated because over 80 percent of the total population of the Gaza Strip now is crammed in those areas of fighting. That makes the task of the IDF all the more so complex and sensitive because the IDF has no interest in fighting the non-involved Palestinian population. It says repeatedly it's in war against Hamas, not against the Palestinians. Pierre-Claude Chandler on Israel's southern border. Thank you for that update from the south. Now for more insight, I'm joined in studio by IDF Brigadier General in Reserves, Hanan Geffen, the former commander of 8200 Intelligence Unit. Hanan, very much thank you for coming on the show. First, let's speak about what we just heard from Pierre there. The next stage of the fighting, the IDF has managed to eliminate Hamas' terror infrastructure in Beit Hanun, not really all over the northern part of the Gaza Strip yet. And we are facing a new phase in that war. Yeah, it will be a phase that is anticipated from, I would say from day one. There will be a first fight at the first phase, which is trying to get to the stronghold of Hamas. And then it will be a war, a kind of raids that we see much of it in the West Bank trying to target Hamas whereabouts. It might take months. It will be on a different scale. It will not be a kind of war. It kind of, I would say, attrition, trying to get Hamas out of focus, out of balance, to be constantly on the defense. Now in the northern part, we are nearing this part, which means the command posts no longer are active or operational. The major command post of Brigade Battalions in the northern part, they will be left over of Hamas. And that's what the forces trying to locate in the piers and wherever they can find them houses. Still, we will see houses that are targeted bombed because they're trying to relocate themselves in various places to hide. And the IDF is tracking them. In the southern part, the war will still go on for a while. The Hanunas area, there are some huge camps. There are refugee camps which shelters the Hamas as well. So it will take another while. But then again, it will not end as a truth, but it will be a new phase where Israel will keep on tracking Hamas. And that is the message that we are getting from the military to the civilians, because Israel is civilian, moving to a different phase. We have, let's say, a peace and ceasefire, but we have a phase where there's no ceasefire. And this is where the military will be preoccupied. I assume there will be different build-up forces that will be specified together with the Shabbat operative in special areas. So there is a lot of talk now about the possible return of Israelis, civilians to the southern communities, maybe not those that are right on the border, but certainly others like the city of Starrot, which is, by the way, just over a kilometer from the Gaza border. The residents there are saying no to that. They're not ready to go back while the fighting isn't going. To what extent does the Israeli military, the Israeli government, secure the safety or the sense of security of those residents as the fighting goes on? Yeah. Guy, for the last year of starting a year ago, just in October last year, I was part of a group that participated in Starrot in an evacuation plan when such a missile attack, which frequently in the last 10 years, so they were ready to live there, to live in Starrot, and getting the weakened population evacuated for a few days during such an attack. Now, after this 7th of October, I would say the mayor of Starrot and the people will not return to Starrot, most of them, until a real safety is promised to their safe situation. But they see today it's not a situation. And we're seeing live images from Gaza. Those plumes of smoke seems like from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as we heard from here. Yeah. You see the attack here, the military, they have information. And one thing about the part of intelligence in this war, as the war continues, every day, there are more information. The population is willing to cooperate. The situation is worsened by the Hamas, and many of them will cooperate. And this information is immediately turned to be targets. This kind of targets, probably most of them we didn't know before, were not known, for instance, location, houses, and so on, of operatives which were hardly new in numbers that we have never seen. So it probably is a consequence of a real ground collection of efforts there. Let's speak about that massive tunnel that was exposed yesterday, 300 meters away from the Eris crossing, that is, of an extremely strategic point. This is also where Hamas has penetrated Israel in the first minutes of this operation, a massive metro. This is a tunnel that vehicles can go through this tunnel to such extent. Did the IDF have information about this tunnel? And if so, why wasn't it destroyed in advance? This is quite staggering to see the build-up of Hamas for so many years while Israel either didn't see or just turned a blind eye. Well, I don't know exactly about this tunnel, but let me tell you how the intelligence did. Intelligence understood. Intelligence was the understanding that the tunnels are the main strategic weapon of the Hamas. They built it all over like crazy, like 15 years. There were four or five tunnels discovered four or five years ago, and a huge wall was built underground to make sure that they are not penetrating into Israel. It was about 2 billion shekels were invested in this operation because we know that we might be surprised by these kind of tunnels. But the IDF is holding this tunnel, probably others. Yesterday, the IDF spoke for a hint that there are three more that are being studied right now, that the whole town is terror city called it, under Gaza, and probably we will find more of it. But discovering it, when we speak about exposing or getting rid of Hamas capabilities, attacking Hamas capabilities, this one of the most important capabilities, the Hamas head, in order to accomplish what you have. And what we speak about moving to the next stage, all these tunnels, all this infrastructure has to be destroyed before this war comes to any sort of oppose. Hanan, stay with me, because I do want to discuss more. Israel emerges from the tragic killing of three hostages by friendly fire. The government is making efforts to show the public that talks on a new hostage deal are moving forward. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman sketches out the terms for the talks and how this time they're different from talks on that first deal in November. The funerals remind Israelis of the stakes. Here, the funeral of hostage Alon Shamriz killed in the tragic friendly fire incident. His hands raised, his white flag not enough to earn his rescue. A reminder to many in Israel of the price of waiting on another hostage deal. You already saw the light, but it became darkness. Those who abandoned you, the government, also murdered you after you did everything right. And so the Israeli government reportedly ramps up talks on a new hostage deal with meetings afoot and progress made. Now, with two key differences from that first hostage deal in November. First, that November deal focused on women and especially children who were in the twisted logic of Hamas assets, but also liabilities, with the terror group taking a beating internationally for holding three year olds hostage. So Hamas had more incentive to free the kids for a lower price. And then the second difference, the balance of power on the battlefield. Only continued military pressure will lead to the release of all of our hostages. My directive to the negotiating team is based on this pressure without which we would have nothing. That first deal in November came when military pressure in Gaza was at a high, with a sense of big incremental gains each day. And so big incremental losses each day for Hamas. The sense now is of a war that is making slower progress. Less incremental pressure on Hamas means less sway for Israel and talks, all of which adds up to tougher decisions for the Israeli government and public. Not only to want fervently to bring them home, but also to understand the price in all its dimensions. Still with me, Hanan Geffen. Let's talk about the possibility of reaching another hostage deal. Of course, we saw the first deal in November that released few dozens Israelis, almost all of them women and children. And now as the fighting has intensified, as Israel is all across the Gaza Strip, Israel still is looking to return the remaining hostages over 120 of them still at the hands of Hamas. Talk to us about this strategy or the tactics. How is this done? What does the Mossad chief has to offer to the heads of Hamas when Israel officially continues to claim at least that it is also looking to eliminate those same people? Yeah, what actually the head of the Mossad is coming to the table is one offer. He said we might grant you ceasefire, temporary ceasefire during the exchange. Now this is built, the assumption is built on the fact that the Hamas leaders right now are grasping for air. They are under attack. They would need any moment. Hopefully something will change in the public, Israeli public, the mood in the Israeli public, the effect of the hostages, the relatives on the government, because they were used to in the past that Israel in such an operation after 10 days, 20 days, one month, the public opinion in Israel asked for ceasefire. Now this is not happening yet. The Hamas leaders are hoping that they will reach this point. Exerting the pressure when it comes to the hostage families, their immediate return. And the public opinion, which is that we have soldiers, we lost soldiers, this also they hope will influence the public opinion, will change them in a way. So they want to have this ceasefire as long as possible. And the head of the Mossad is coming, we are going to grant you days of ceasefire in return for this or that number of hostages every day, probably on the same form that was done last time. They will ask of course for total ceasefire and the total exchange. On that point, I want to just to mention that I'm not sure that they have control of all the hostages, because what we have seen so far, the cases, five of six cases, we have seen that they do not control all the hostages. They are probably the hostages are hauled by private families, by separate groups, and seem that Hamas command commanders lost control of them, at least from the cases we have seen so far. Speak to us about the fact that those Hamas chiefs have yet to be eliminated. This is a question on everyone's mind in Israel. Yehissin Wah, the perpetrator of this onslaught, of this entire tragedy for the people of Israel and even for the people of Gaza. Is it just a matter of intelligence for which he was not eliminated? Is it the fact that he is surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields? Or is this an Israeli decision to keep him alive so that you'll have someone to negotiate with? Well, if I might guess what the Israeli leaders are, I prefer to kill him, to get him out of the picture in one way or another, preferably killed, but if not just move to exile, not to be in this area, because this is the big perpetrator of what happened here in the last 15 years. Now, the question of intelligence is very sophisticated and difficult to answer. This guy is very experienced with Israeli tracking in the last 15 years, so he will be very, very careful of whereabouts. The people who know whereabouts, I would say, very, very few people, if any new way will stay any every night or every place he will change places frequently, they eat they out. Adi of Brigadier General and the Reserves, Hanan Geffen, thank you very much for this insight. Now, the International Red Cross was funded with the purpose of ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and other situations of violence, but for many Israelis, the IRC is failing that mission when it comes to the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. More in the next report. Red Cross Pixel! Many emotions on display at the demonstration in front of the Jaffa home of Alessandra Menagon, the Red Cross representative in Israel. These voices are from all over Israel and testify to the broad feelings among the public. Israelis simply do not like the Red Cross. Let her move from Jaffa. Go, leaving Gaza. I don't think she should be here. I don't think she should be sharing the same oxygen with me right now. So these are some of our offices for our operations. We have cooperation, some economic security. This week, we received permission to visit the offices of the International Red Cross in East Jerusalem, a body that acts discreetly. Its officials say this is the most successful way to deliver humanitarian aid to war victims around the world. We do also have more teams operating in Gaza and in the West Bank area. But the fact is for over 70 days the organization has not met any of the scores of hundreds of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. They have not provided any humanitarian aid or medicine. The Red Cross says it's not that it doesn't want to, it's that it can't. People sometimes have the idea that the Red Cross is an organization that can achieve anything in conflict, that we can swoop in anywhere, we can access anywhere and while we work so that we can do this, we always need the agreement of parties in conflict. One of the fundamental principles of the Red Cross is the fact that it is neutral. It must not take sides in any conflict in order to be acceptable to both parties. Our neutrality means that sometimes publicly we don't say things so that behind the closed doors in the direct discussions with the people involved, with the parties involved, with Hamas, we can say what needs to be said and know that we can have that dialogue, that we can engage with them. But when Red Cross president Mirjana Spoliaric visited Gaza two weeks ago, she released a video that outraged many. I've just visited the European Gaza hospital and the things I saw there is beyond anything that anyone should be in a position to describe. It took her a minute and a half to mention the Israeli abductees and then it appeared only casually. We have to protect the rights of the hostages. When she arrived in Israel for a short visit, she met the members of the families of the abductees. They had harsh words for her. In recordings obtained by Yulan Cohen, the tone of the meeting is clear. I left the meeting shaken. I don't know how you can sit so coldly in front of people, who tell you that their loved ones are in such a difficult situation, and your answer is so correct and so measured. The members of the families also brought up Spoliaric's message from Gaza. Israel and the abductees' families expect the Red Cross to take a clear position against Hamas. The organisation claims it cannot do this. A condemnation by the Red Cross, which has such a large platform and so many international connections, can change the narrative in the entire world as soon as it condemns Hamas, and that will change the story here as well for the abductees. It's from the Red Cross of these ready hostages. That's a wrap for now from the I-24 News Desk. More updates coming up at the top of the hour. I'm Guy Azrael. Thank you for watching. 73, just a short while ago, rocket alerts and alerts also for an incoming drone are heard in Israel's northern border with Lebanon. We'll give you more updates on those sirens when that becomes available. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, a shooting attack earlier has left one Israeli woman wounded, the woman's husband, and two children who were with her, were not injured. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the IDF continues its battle on the ground, attacking over 150 terrorist targets in the last day from the air, sea and land. And meanwhile, as pressure on Israel grows to reduce human suffering in Gaza, the IDF releases footage showing how airstrikes against Hamas terrorists are often aborted when pilots notice unexpected civilian presence. Let's take a listen to IDF spokesman Daniel Higari addressing the footage a short while ago. War is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. Hamas sees civilians' deaths as a strategy. We see it as a tragedy, which is why we use many measures to try and minimize the civilian harm and suffering. That is the tragic reality in this war that Hamas started. We warn civilians before attacks, whenever is possible. We also recommend civilians to temporarily move away from areas of intense fighting. We know this is hard, but we are trying to save lives. Let's take a look now to Israel's southern border. Our Arial Osirhan Middle East correspondent is Daniel Higari. For us, an Arial rocket fire on the south has been scarce in recent days. Certainly a good development with regard to the achievements of the IDF at this point. Indeed, Guy, an indication of the achievements of the IDF limiting Hamas's capability of firing rockets towards southern Israeli border communities as well as to central Israel. If it were up to them, they would fire as much as they could. The only rocket launch today so far was about three hours ago to the area of Kisufim. There were no reports of injuries in that attack. That is what is the situation in the community surrounding the Gaza Strip. Inside, reports of widespread clashes, firefights between IDF forces and Hamas terrorists across the Gaza Strip from Beit Lahiya to the north, to Abraj in the center as well, as in Chanyunis, the main focal point of the IDF's ground operation so far. This comes after over 60-65 days of ground operation, where just about a couple of hours ago, the IDF releasing information regarding the status of the fighting, saying that its forces, the IDF's 252nd Reserve Division, managed to defeat basically Hamas's Beit Chanyun battalion that is in the northeastern part of the Gaza Strip. Basically, the smoke that you see over my shoulders, that smoke is arising from Beit Chanyun, from that same battalion that has been defeated by IDF forces with a vast majority of their headquarters and compounds destroyed as well as intelligence recovered, and the current status of that of the IDF's operation in Beit Chanyun has been handed over to the Gaza Division, indicating of the status of the current situation there in terms of IDF control on the ground. Certainly hope that the relative calm on the Israeli communities will remain, at least that, a real loss around reporting from Israel's southern border. Rather, thank you very much for that update. And now for more, that's bringing in IDF colonel in reserves, Grisha Yakubovich, the former head of the civilian department of Kogat in the IDF. Grisha, thank you very much for coming on. Let's speak first about the Hamas tunnel that the IDF exposed yesterday. It is just 300 meters from the areas crossing, a vital point for the IDF where Gaza residents used to cross into Israel every day, that's the civilian crossing. And that is a massive tunnel that also was able to bring in vehicles through it. Hamas announcing today that the IDF was too late in exposing this tunnel as it was already used, of course, on October 7th. Let's try and listen carefully to what Hamas said after this tunnel was exposed. They said it's already been used. The meaning, this tunnel is not a surprise, and this is something that you found out, but we actually, as Hamas used it to attack the headquarter of Kogat at the areas pedestrian crossing. This is where they actually entered and killed some Golan soldiers and kidnapped soldiers that belonged to Kogat. By the way, the unit that actually is responsible to coordinate humanitarian aid and services to the people of Gaza. But yes, this is not a surprise, not to me. I remember when we've been talking about tunnels between Gaza and Egypt during the period of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt, Hamas operated close to 1,000 tunnels under that border between Gaza and Egypt. And there were tunnels dedicated to a product, a tunnel for cows, a tunnel for ships, a tunnel for fuel, a tunnel for buses, a tunnel for trucks. So it's not a surprise. Making the entire borders obviously a joke when it comes at least for the Rafa crossing or anything that goes between Israel and Gaza. Israel has managed to stop those tunnels from arriving into Israel, for penetrating into Israel. Yes, but not between Gaza and Egypt. But it did not care less about those tunnels within the Gaza Territory, and we saw that they were used bringing in all those vehicles that penetrated Israel. We saw the Toyotas, we saw the bikes, etc., where 3,000 terrorists infiltrated Israel. Why didn't Israel destroy those tunnels if it had any prior knowledge? Israel could not destroy those tunnels. Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005. All the settlements were evacuated, and Israel actually was cleaned from responsibility on the Gaza Strip because of the fact that there was a border since 2005 and until today that was between Hamas and Egypt. Israel was not there. So to the ones who said that Israel is responsible on the situation in Gaza legally, not legally, that's not how the reality was on the ground. Hamas and Egypt could coordinate whatever they wanted to coordinate. Now in the Middle East, like in the Middle East, especially in Gaza with Egypt, there is a unique policy implemented. It's called the three monkeys policy. I don't see, I don't hear, I don't talk. The meaning, on the border, there is the Rafa crossing. Yes, everything will be checked. But on the ground, if we are not there as Israel, there are tunnels, like highways, that they can bring in whatever they want to bring. Obviously, that is not satisfying for the Israeli public to hear, knowing that everything went for so long without Israel or the Egyptians doing anything about it. But when we speak about this tunnel, for example, that was 300 meters from Eris crossing, and we saw how Israeli soldiers were abducted and then murdered by Hamas on October 7th, if Israel knew about those tunnels, why did it not destroy them from the air? Well, until the last, I can't say around of escalation because this is a war. But until the event from the Black Saturday, there were some limits on Israel. If Israel wanted to, I don't know, enter to Gaza or to start a round of escalation that will be something like what we are doing right now, the international community, the entire world will probably push Israel, press Israel, and make Israel stop. And Israel would not have the legitimacy to do that. Actually, the whole world needed to see the massacre in October 7th to understand that Israel is obligated to defend itself, and it's not surprising that we found it. Yes, it's amazing to see that, but it's not a surprise to find it. It had to take over 1200 civilians and soldiers murdered by Hamas for Israel to do a lot of money for Israel to do anything. Stay with me Grisha. I do want to discuss more as Israel emerges from the tragic killing of three hostages by friendly fire. The government is making efforts to show the public that talks on a new hostage deal are moving forward. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman sketches out the terms for the talks and how this time they're different from the talks of last November. We will give you that report later, but for now, let's cross straight to Tel Aviv where I-24 news correspondent Pia Steckelbach is standing by for us. Pia, you are near the Kiryat that is the headquarters of the Israeli military where the families of the hostages blocked the road earlier in protest. What are you hearing from them? Whitewill guy, there are dozens of family members of the hostages who are gathering here and they're demanding a deal. They're demanding the Israeli government to make an initiative and to agree to a deal. We do know that the Israeli Mosque chief is meeting with the Qatari prime minister today in Poland. So this is giving people here hope that a new hostage exchange deal might be on the horizon and you can hear it in the background. They are really demanding that on loudspeakers and also family say they gathered here. Some of them have built up tents to really make their presence felt and I'm here with one of the family members, Amir Al Fassa. Thank you very much for being with us. You're the nephew of Maya Goren and Avner Goren Avner who was unfortunately murdered on October 7th and Maya who was taken hostage and you received the message two weeks ago that she was killed in captivity. First of all, I want to express my heartfelt condolences to you and to your family and I want to ask you Amir, why did you come specifically here to the Kiryat today? Here in the Kiryat our government, part of the government government are taking the decisions of what they're going to do and the families here with every single day are getting more and more afraid about their loved one because in the past weeks we received the sad messages about more and more people that murdered in captivity. There's one like Arias Zalmanovich from Niroz who was alive in the captivity and then was murdered there or died because no one took care of him of the injuries he had and he was an old man. So the families are really afraid about what will happen to their relatives and Maya Goren, my aunt, she was kidnapped from Niroz in a very bad situation. She was shot by Hamas terrorists and injured really hard. So me and my family that we also know a lot of the people that are now in captivity and their relatives that are here from Niroz, we wanted to support them. We don't want that their loved ones become to what happened to Maya, that they won't die. We want the government to save them as soon as possible to bring them out of here out of Gaza back to Israel. Now the families are another reason that they are afraid that is that they gave a list of medicines that their sick people need in Gaza and these medicines never got to the hostages. They gave it to the Red Cross and the Red Cross didn't do anything with this information. So they live with the tough and the feelings that no one took care of them. They are in the hands of Hamas terrorists and they don't know nothing about their situation and they know nothing about who take care or doesn't take care. I want to ask you Amir, do you have the feeling that the government is hearing your crisis, hearing your demands by you coming here, by you staging this protest together with all the other family members? Do you feel like this has an impact? Yes. I'll say frankly that I didn't know what to think about that if all these things are are affect their decisions but I know that a lot of families do feel that, feel that all this action that the family does, we did a march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a couple of weeks ago and not a long time after that the deal began. So the families have the feeling that when they put this topic on the news, on the streets, in front of the government, in front of the place they take the decisions in, it has an impact about them. So they don't want to stop and we're gonna be with them and we also have a loud one in Gaza, all that she's not alive. We want her body to get back to Israel. We know that it's more urgent to bring the live people to Israel of course and the injured and the sick people and in the end of all of it, her turn will come too so their children can have some of closure and they can bury her in your house in Israel. Although your aunt and your uncle are no longer with us, I want to ask you what kind of people have Maya and Avna been? Can you maybe talk a little bit about them? Maya was a lovely person. She took care of everyone. When we met her in the family meetings, she always took care of us and that will have things to eat and always wanted to visit us and to organize the family meetings in the birthdays and holidays. She loved her children very much. She was a kindergarten in the kibbutz and loved the kids and their parents. This Saturday in October 7th, she woke up early and went to this kindergarten to prepare it to the next day and when she was here, the alarms and the terrorists met her there and captured her there and she has nowhere to go. They shot her and all these things that she has to take care of everyone, that's what brought her to this kindergarten in this morning. They wanted to prepare it and to be there for the kids to the next day. Thank you so much and may their memory be a blessing. Thank you so much for being with us and guys, you can see there are dozens of families here who are coming here to put pressure on the government by their presence here outside. Again, some people here put even tents outside to make their presence felt and to demand the Israeli government to push for another hostage deal to release the 129 hostages that are still in Gaza right now. People who also are known to have been killed in captivity, such as the aunt of Amir, as we heard right now, but also for them families are saying it is equally important that they are also being brought back to Israel. Yes, unfortunately, so many tragic stories from that October 7th massacre and time that is running out for those hostages that are still alive. Thank you very much for that report. Let's speak about the negotiations for our hostage deal. We know that David Barnea is meeting with the CIA chief right now and with the Qatari prime minister. What can Israel possibly offer Hamas that it would accept in order to release Israeli hostages when, of course, Israel at the same time is threatening to eliminate all of the heads of Hamas like Yighe Sinouar? Well, it was expected that Hamas will use two major tools in their strategy. One is the situation of the civilians in Gaza and actually they even made it worse for the people in Gaza. So there will be a humanitarian crisis. So the whole world will demand from Israel a ceasefire or to increase the aid. And the second thing in parallel was the issue of the people in captivity. It was well planned at the beginning. They knew that there will be pressure on the state of Israel, and they knew that this pressure will force Israel even to ask some other region to deal. So the situation now is a critical situation. Hamas demand, by the way, they've been saying that for the last 48, 72 hours, all of them, all the seniors, everybody saying one thing, all of them, Hamas demands to stop the fighting. Hamas demands not a ceasefire, but to stop all military actions in the Gaza Strip and reconstructing the Gaza Strip and only then releasing or negotiating about this deal. Israel's approach is very simple. Let's release and then talk about the second step. Easy to say or easy to ask, at least. It's two approaches. Now, there is a build-in conflict in the Israeli approach, because on one hand, there's this pressure from the families, values, culture, society, responsibility of the government to bring the sons, to bring the families back home. On the other hand, there is an obligation to the people who were killed and butchered to eliminate the enemy. So it's what I understand that we are reaching to a certain point that Israel must increase the pressure in Gaza and it started. We can see the pressure now in Hanunas. It started that it will bring Hamas to a certain, not breaking point, but to an understanding that they should reduce their demands. And I think that this is what Israel is trying to gain. A complicated situation, no doubt. Let's bring in, and now for more developments, let's bring in Dr. Mayor Javan Daffar, Iran lecturer at the Reichmann University, and he's joining us from Tel Aviv. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So let's start with the latest out of Iran. Israel-linked hacking activist group has claimed responsibility for an alleged cyber attack that paralyzed half of the gas stations across Iran, with some 70 percent of gas stations across the country not functioning. How much of a damage is this for the regime in Tehran? And if Israel is indeed behind this, what message is it sending? Obviously, this is not something that's going to make any significant impact on the Iranian state, not to mention their strategy in the Middle East. I think such an attack, if it was carried out by Israel, would send a message that the Iranian and Hezbollah attack against the hospital in Israel at the end of November, and then in which they stole the files of tens of thousands of Israeli patients, would not go unanswered. I think this is one of them. This would be one of the goals. Another is that in Iran, the issue of fuel is of paramount importance to regime stability. We saw, I think, was it 2017 or 2018, major uprising in Iran, because the regime raised the price of subsidized fuel, which is why today we see after this cyber attack, we see there's now security forces turning up at petrol stations, because petrol being cut off could have destabilizing impact on the regime and on Iranian society. So this is an important attack, which not only has economic consequences, but could also have security and social consequences for the regime, which is why I think the regime is taking this attack seriously. And if it was done by Israel, I think this could be the beginning of direct cyber attacks by Israel against the regime, because since the October 7 massacre, and since the start of the Gaza war, we've seen repeated cyber attacks against the state of Israel. Obviously, last year we saw the massive protests following the death of Mahsa Amini that many in Israel and the West, obviously, hoped that would bring some sort of a change in Iran with the regime. That didn't happen. Iran has managed to curb those protests. Do you feel as if more of these cyber attacks and other actions that are being made on Iranian soil could perhaps reignite that fighting spirit in Iran? To be honest with you, if you're looking for a revolution in Iran, I don't think we could count on demonstrations by the people of Iran. Of course, I hope I could be wrong, and more importantly, I hope I'm wrong. But from where I can see the regime is willing to use violence to put down demonstrations time and time again. And now it has the support of the Russian and the Chinese regime who view the Iranian regime as an important member of the new access they're building against pro-Western countries in the world. So even if let's say the demonstrations reach a crescendo in Iran in the future, I think it's very likely that the Chinese and the Russians will supply crucial help to the regime in order to make sure that it doesn't fall, because they would view such a scenario as a setback for the access that they're building against the United States and the pro-Western and the pro-US countries across the world. However, I would also say that as a result of the Gaza war, we could see in the future more proxy confrontation between Iran and Israel. And we could also see perhaps repeat of operations against the Iranian regime in the past that have been attributed to Israel. And Mayor, just very briefly, we're seeing more and more companies announcing that they're pausing their shipments of oil through the Red Sea after those attacks from the Houthis there and the straits of Baben Maldab. What do you make of the Iranian connection here? We know that the Houthis have been fighting against the Saudis, against the Emiratis for so long, and it doesn't seem like they're being deterred by greater powers. Well, I think here the answer goes back to Tehran. To finish the war, the Houthi-Saudi war, to stop the Houthis from fighting, the Chinese reached a deal with Iran. They didn't reach a deal with the Houthis. This goes to show how much power Tehran has over the Houthis. And I think this too, in order to solve the question of the Houthis, the security challenge, we have to have a new Iran strategy. A new Iran strategy. And for now it seems like Iran, nor the Houthis, nor Iran, or the Houthis are deterred by the Western pressure. For now they're doing whatever they want in the Middle East. And the Americans, the Israelis are only reacting to that aggression. Mayor Javan Daffar of the Rachman University, thank you very much for your insight. Also, thank you very much Grisha Yakubovich, the former head of the civilian department of Kogat, in the IDF. That's a wrap for now from the I-24 News Desk. More updates are coming up at the top of the hour. I'm Gaiazriel. Thank you very much for watching. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. You're watching I-24 News. This is Breaking News Edition. As we continue our rolling coverage of Israel's war. Now at day 73, just a short while ago, rocket alerts and alerts also for an incoming drone are heard in Israel's northern border with Lebanon. We'll give you more update on those sirens when that becomes available. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, a shooting attack earlier has left one Israeli woman wounded, the woman's husband and two children who were with her were not injured. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the IDF continues its battle on the ground, attacking over 150 terrorist targets in the last day from the air, sea and land. And meanwhile, as pressure on Israel grows to reduce human suffering in Gaza, the IDF releases footage showing how air strikes against human, sorry, against Hamas terrorists are often aborted when pilots noticed unexpected civilian presence. Let's take a listen to IDF spokesman Daniel Higari addressing the footage a short while ago. War is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. Hamas sees civilians' deaths as a strategy. We see it as a tragedy, which is why we use many measures to try and minimize the civilian harm and suffering. That is the tragic reality in this war that Hamas started. We warned civilians before attacks, whenever is possible. We also recommend civilians to temporarily move away from areas of intense fighting. We know this is hard, but we are trying to save lives. Let's take a look now to Israel's southern border. Our Arial Osirand Middle East correspondent is standing by for us and a real rocket fire on the south has been scarce in recent days, certainly a good development with regard to the achievements of the IDF at this point. Indeed, Guy, an indication of the achievements of the IDF limiting Hamas's capability of firing rockets towards southern Israeli border communities as well as to central Israel, because if it were up to them, they would fire as much as they could. The only rocket launch today so far was about three hours ago to the area of Kisufim. There were no reports of injuries in that attack, and that is what's the situation in the community surrounding the Gaza Strip. But inside, reports of widespread clashes, firefights between IDF forces and Hamas terrorists across the Gaza Strip from Beit Lahia to the north, to Abraj in the center as well as in the main focal point of the IDF's ground operation so far. And this comes after over 60, 65 days of ground operation, where just about a couple hours ago, the IDF releasing information regarding the status of the fighting, saying that it forces the IDF's 252nd Reserve Division managed to defeat basically Hamas's Beit Hanun battalion that is in the northeastern part of the Gaza Strip. Basically, the smoke that you see over my shoulders, that smoke is arising from Beit Hanun, from that same battalion that has been defeated by IDF forces with a vast majority of their headquarters and compounds destroyed, as well as intelligence recovered, and the current status of that, of the IDF's operation in Beit Hanun has been handed over to the Gaza Strip, indicating of the status of the current situation there in terms of IDF control on the ground. I certainly hope that the relative calm on the Israeli communities will remain, at least that Arial Osirah and reporting from Israel's northern southern border. Rather, thank you very much for that update. And now for more, that's bringing in IDF Colonel. In reserves, Grisha Yakubovich, the former head of the civilian Department of Cogut in the IDF. Grisha, thank you very much for coming on. Let's speak first about that Hamas tunnel that the IDF exposed yesterday. It is just 300 meters from the arrows crossing, a vital point for the IDF, where Gaza residents used to cross into Israel every day, that's the civilian crossing. And that is a massive tunnel that also was able to bring in vehicles through it. Hamas announcing today that the IDF was too late in exposing this tunnel, as it was already used, of course, on October 7th. Let's try and listen carefully to what Hamas said after this tunnel was exposed. They said it's already been used. Okay, the meaning, this tunnel is not a surprise, and this is something that you found out, but we actually, as Hamas used it to attack the headquarter of Cogut at the area's pedestrian crossing. This is where they actually entered and killed some Golan soldiers and kidnapped soldiers from that belong to Cogut. By the way, the unit that actually is responsible to coordinate humanitarian aid and services to the people of Gaza. Okay, but yes, this is not a surprise, not to me. I remember when we've been talking about tunnels between Gaza in Egypt during the period of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt, Hamas operated close to 1000 tunnels under that border between Gaza and Egypt. And there were tunnels dedicated to a product, a tunnel for cows, a tunnel for ships, a tunnel for fuel, a tunnel for buses, a tunnel for trucks. So it's not a surprise. Making the entire borders obviously a joke when it comes, at least for the Rafa crossing, anything that goes between Israel and Gaza. Israel has managed to stop those tunnels from arriving into Israel, for penetrating into Israel. Yes, but not between Gaza and Egypt. But it did not care less about those tunnels within the Gaza territory. And we saw that they were used bringing in all those vehicles that penetrated Israel. We saw the Toyotas, we saw the bikes, etc., where 3000 terrorists infiltrated Israel. Why didn't Israel destroy those tunnels if it had any prior knowledge? Israel could not destroy those tunnels. Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005. All the settlements were evacuated. And Israel actually was cleaned from responsibility on the Gaza Strip because of the fact that there was a border since 2005 and until today that was between Hamas and Egypt. Israel was not there. So to the ones who said that Israel is responsible on the situation in Gaza legally, not legally, that's not how the reality was on the ground. Hamas and Egypt could coordinate whatever they wanted to coordinate. Now in the Middle East, like in the Middle East, especially in Gaza with Egypt, there is a unique policy implemented. It's called the three monkeys policy. I don't see, I don't hear, I don't talk. The meaning on the border, there is the Rafa crossing. Yes, everything will be checked. But on the ground, if we are not there as Israel, there are tunnels like highways that they can bring in whatever they want to bring. Obviously that is not satisfying for the Israeli public to hear, knowing that everything went through for so long without Israel or the Egyptians doing anything about it. But when we speak about this tunnel, for example, that was 300 meters from Eris crossing and we saw how Israeli soldiers were abducted and then murdered by Hamas on October 7th. If Israel knew about those tunnels, why did it not destroy them from the air? Well, until the last, I can't say around the escalation because this is a war, but until the event from the Black Saturday, there were some limits on Israel. If Israel wanted to, I don't know, enter together or to start a round of escalation that will be something like what we are doing right now, the international community, the entire world will probably push Israel, press Israel and make Israel stop. And Israel would not have the legitimacy to do that. Actually, the whole world needed to see the massacre in October 7th to understand that Israel is obligated to defend itself. And it's not surprise that we found it. Yes, it's amazing to see that, but it's not a surprise to find it. It had to take over 1200 civilians and soldiers murdered by Hamas for Israel to do a lot of money for Israel to do anything. Stay with me Grisha. I do want to discuss more as Israel emerges from the tragic killing of three hostages by friendly fire. The government is making efforts to show the public that talks on a new hostage deal are moving forward. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultraman sketches out the terms for the talks and how this time they're different from the talks of last November. We will give you that report later, but for now let's cross straight to Tel Aviv where I-24 news correspondent Pia Stekelbach is standing by for us. Pia, you are near the Kyriac, that is the headquarters of the Israeli military where the families of the hostages blocked the road earlier in protest. What are you hearing from them? Whitewill guy, there are dozens of family members of the hostages who are gathering here and they're demanding a deal. They're demanding the Israeli government to make an initiative and to agree to a deal. We do know that the Israeli Mosque chief, David Bainia, is meeting with the Qatari prime minister today in Poland, so this is giving people here hope that a new hostage exchange deal might be on the horizon and you can hear it in the background. They are really demanding that on loudspeakers and also families here that gathered here, some of them have built up tents to really make their presence felt and I'm here with one of the family members Amir Al Fassa. Thank you very much for being with us. You're the nephew of Maya Goren and Avner Goren Avner who was unfortunately murdered on October 7th and Maya who was taken hostage and you received the message two weeks ago that she was killed in captivity. First of all, I want to express my heartfelt condolences to you and to your family and I want to ask you Amir, why did you come specifically here to the Kyriac today? Here in the Kyriac, our government, part of the government, are taking the decisions of what they're going to do and the families here with every single day are getting more and more afraid about their loved one because in the past weeks we received the sad messages about more and more people that murdered in captivity. There's one like Arya Zalmanovich from Niroz who was alive in the captivity and then was murdered or died because no one took care of him of the injuries he had and he was an old man. So the families are really afraid about what will happen to their relatives and Maya Goren, my aunt, she was kidnapped from Niroz in a very bad situation. She was shot by Hamas terrorists and injured really hard. So me and my family that we also know a lot of the people that are now in captivity and their relatives that here from Niroz, we wanted to support them. We don't want that their loved ones become to what happened to Maya, that they won't die. We want the government to save them as soon as possible to bring them out of here out of Gaza back to Israel. Now the families are another reason that they are afraid that is that they gave a list of medicines that their sick people need in Gaza and these medicines never got to the hostages. They gave it to the Red Cross and the Red Cross didn't do anything with this information. So they live with the tough and the feelings that no one took care of them. They are in the hands of Hamas terrorists and they don't know nothing about their situation and they know nothing about who take care or doesn't take care. I want to ask you Amir, do you have the feeling that the government is hearing your crisis, hearing your demands by you coming here, by you staging this protest together with all the other family members? Do you feel like this has an impact? Yes, I'll say frankly that I didn't know what to think about that if all these things are affect their decisions, but I know that a lot of families do feel that. Feel that all this action that the families, the family does, we did a march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a couple of weeks ago and not a long time after that the deal began. So the families have the feeling that when they put this topic on the news, on the streets, in front of the government, in front of the place they take the decisions in, it has an impact about them. So they don't want to stop and we're going to be with them and we also have a loved one in Gaza, she's not alive. We want her body to get back to Israel. We know that it's more urgent to bring the live people to Israel of course and the injured and the sick people and in the end of all of it her turn will come to their children can have some closure and can bury her in her house in Israel. Although your aunt and your uncle are no longer with us, I want to ask you what kind of people have Maya and Avna been? Can you maybe talk a little bit about them? Maya was a lovely person. She took care of everyone. When we met her in the family meetings, she always took care of us and that will have things to eat and always wanted to visit us and to organize the family meetings in the birthdays and holidays. She loved her children very much. She was a kindergarten in the key boots and loved the kids and their parents. In this, in the Saturday in October 7th, she woke up early and went to this kindergarten to prepare it to the next day and when she was here, the alarms and the terrorists met her there and captured her there and she has nowhere to go. They shot her and all these things that she has to take care of everyone, that's what brought her to this kindergarten in this morning. The wanting to prepare it and to be there for the kids to the next day. Thank you so much and may their memory be a blessing. Thank you so much for being with us and guys, you can see there are dozens of families here who are coming here to put pressure on the government by their presence here outside. Again, some people here put even tents outside to make their presence felt and to demand the government, the Israeli government, to push for another hostage deal to release the 129 hostages that are still in Gaza right now. People who also are known to have been killed in captivity such as the aunt of Amir as we heard right now, but also for them families are saying it is equally important that they are also being brought back to Israel. Yes, unfortunately, so many tragic stories from that October 7th massacre and time that is running out for those hostages that are still alive. Thank you very much for that report. Let's speak about the negotiations for a hostage deal. We know that David Barnea is meeting with the CIA chief right now and with the Qatari prime minister. What can Israel possibly offer Hamas that it would accept in order to release Israeli hostages when, of course, Israel at the same time is threatening to eliminate all of the heads of Hamas like Yeris Enoir? Well, it was expected that Hamas will use two major tools in their strategy. One is the situation of the civilians in Gaza. And actually, they even made it worse for the people in Gaza. So there will be a humanitarian crisis. So the whole world will demand from Israel a ceasefire or to increase the aid. And the second thing in parallel was the issue of the people in captivity. It was well planned at the beginning. They knew that there will be pressure on the state of Israel. And they knew that this pressure will force Israel even to ask some additional region to deal. So the situation now is a critical situation. Hamas demand, by the way, they've been saying that for the last 48, 72 hours, all of them, all the seniors, everybody saying one thing, all of them. Hamas demands to stop the fighting. Hamas demands not a ceasefire, but to stop all military actions in the Gaza Strip and reconstructing the Gaza Strip and only then releasing or negotiating about this deal. Israel's approach is very simple. Let's release and then talk about the second step. Is it to say or is it to ask at least? It's two approaches. Now, there is a built-in conflict in the Israeli approach because on one hand, there's this pressure from the families, values, culture, society, responsibility of the government to bring the sons to bring the families back home. On the other hand, there is an obligation to the people who are killed and butchered to eliminate the enemy. So it's what I understand that we are reaching to a certain point that Israel must increase the pressure in Gaza. And it started. We can see the pressure now in Qanunas. It started that it will bring Hamas to a certain, not breaking point, but to an understanding that they should reduce their demands. And I think that this is what Israel is trying to gain. A complicated situation. Yes, it is. No doubt. Let's bring in, and now for more developments, let's bring in Dr. Mayor Javen Dahfar, Iran lecturer at the Reichmann University. And he's joining us from Tel Aviv. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So let's start with the latest out of Iran. And Israel-linked hacking activist group has claimed responsibility for an alleged cyber attack that paralyzed half of the gas stations across Iran with some 70 percent of gas stations across the country not functioning. How much of a damage is this for the regime in Tehran? And if Israel is indeed behind this, what message is it sending? Obviously, this is not something that's going to make any significant impact on the Iranian state, not to mention their strategy in the Middle East. I think such an attack, if it was carried out by Israel, would send a message that the Iranian and Hezbollah attack against the hospital in Israel at the end of November, and then in which they stole the files of tens of thousands of Israeli patients, would not go unanswered. I think this is one of them. This would be one of the goals. Another is that in Iran, the issue of fuel is of paramount importance to regime stability. We saw, I think, was it 2017 or 2018, major uprising in Iran because the regime raised the price of subsidized fuel, which is why today we see after this cyber attack, we see there's no security forces turning up at petrol stations because petrol being cut off could have this stabilizing impact on the regime and on Iranian society. This is an important attack which not only has economic consequences, but could also have security and social consequences for the regime, which is why I think the regime is taking this attack seriously. If it was done by Israel, I think this could be the beginning of direct cyber attacks by Israel against the regime because since the October 7 massacre and since the start of the Gaza war, we've seen repeated cyber attacks against the state of Israel. Obviously, last year we saw the massive protests following the death of Mahsa Amini that many in Israel and the West, obviously, hoped that would bring some sort of a change in Iran with the regime. That didn't happen. Iran has managed to curb those protests. Do you feel as if more of these cyber attacks and other actions that are being made on Iranian soil could perhaps reignite that fighting spirit in Iran? To be honest with you, if you're looking for a revolution in Iran, I don't think we could count on demonstrations by the people of Iran. Of course, I hope I could be wrong, and more importantly, I hope I'm wrong. But from where I can see the regime is willing to use violence to put down demonstrations time and time again, and now it has the support of the Russian and the Chinese regime who view the Iranian regime as an important member of the new access they're building against pro-Western countries in the world. So even if let's say the demonstrations reach a crescendo in Iran in the future, I think it's very likely that the Chinese and the Russians will supply crucial help to the regime in order to make sure that it doesn't fall because they would view such a scenario as a setback for the access that they're building against the United States and the pro-Western and the pro-U.S. countries across the world. However, I would also say that as a result of the Gaza war, we could see in the future more proxy confrontation between Iran and Israel, and we could also see perhaps repeat of operations against the Iranian regime in the past that have been attributed to Israel. And Mayor, just very briefly, we're seeing more and more companies announcing that they're pausing their shipments of oil through the Red Sea after those attacks from the Houthis there on the straits of Baben Mandab. What do you make of the Iranian connection here? We know that the Houthis have been fighting against the Saudis, against the Emiratis for so long, and it doesn't seem like they're being deterred by greater powers. Well, I think here the answer goes back to Tehran. To finish the war, the Houthi-Saudi war, to stop the Houthis from fighting, the Chinese reached a deal with Iran. They didn't reach a deal with the Houthis. This goes to show how much power Tehran has over the Houthis. And I think this, in order to solve the question of the Houthis, the security challenge, we have to have a new Iran strategy. A new Iran strategy, and for now it seems like Iran, nor the Houthis, nor Iran, nor the Houthis are deterred by the Western pressure. For now they're doing whatever they want in the Middle East, and the Americans, the Israelis are only reacting to that aggression. Mary Javan Daffer of the Rehman University, thank you very much.