 from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. Live images on your screen of the Iqilav Medical Center in Tel Aviv. Kamas released two elderly Israeli hostages on Monday evening identified as Narek Cooper and Yorkevit Lifshitz after 17 days in captivity. The families will soon be addressing the media from the Iqilav hospital where they were taken for examination and further health checks. And as soon as they do start addressing the media will take you there live for those presses. In the meantime, it is day 18 of war here in Israel. Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip has been renewed early this morning as Hamas launched a barrage at Israeli communities in the south and along the border which continued well into the morning. Thus following the release of two additional hostages from Gaza late yesterday evening as part of Hamas's psychological warfare. On the northern border the IDF also destroyed Hezbollah terror infrastructure in overnight strikes. In a recent address to the public IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Haagari told the nation to be prepared for long weeks of fighting ahead. Meanwhile on the diplomatic front, French President Emmanuel Macron has landed in Tel Aviv for a one-day solidarity visit meeting with families of French victims and the Israeli leadership. He is currently meeting on a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he met with his French counterpart a little earlier. I want to go now in studio to Avi Puzner, the former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy and the former world chairman of Karen Hayas-Saud, United Israel Appeal. Avi, stay with us because we do see that Gamzou is speaking at the moment. Again, I'll remind the viewers that's Ronnie Gamzou is the head of the Ikhilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. Let's take a listen. Here, with the first goal of having a medical assessment and find their medical situation and give them all the support to create a situation in which medically they can see their families or obviously very excited and also that we ensure that their medical condition is strong. This is what we need throughout the night with a lot of medical care and further examinations. It is possible that in the next couple of days that at least one of the kidnapped will be released to her home and the other will continue medical examination and treatments. We make sure all the time examine all the time their mental state and the physical state and are here to assist with everything that is needed. All of this together with the connection to the families. What we care about right now is let them pass this first few days and the best possible manner and to attend to the medical conditions. Obviously at a very old age we check every thing that is needed as part of the greater treatment to all the patients in the hospital. I will give the floor to the kidnapped you have it left shifts Hello, everyone. My name is Yorkebet Lipschitz. I was born in 1938, born here in Israel. I thank you for coming to hear about the tragedy of myself and my friends. We hope to pass through this period. I repeat what she says. She will speak to me. My mother said, she thanks you for coming here today. She was born here in Israel in 1938. Take your time. We went through hell. We never thought we'll reach such a state. They went, Berserk, in Archibalds, put me on a motorcycle on the side, and drove through the fields. They blew up the fence, the electronic fence that was built for two and a half billion dollars. It did not, to no avail. Masses stormed our homes, hit people. They kidnapped many. They did not care about kidnapping elderly and children. It was extremely painful. They brought us to the entrance. When I laid on the motorcycle, I was on the side. And on the way, they beat me. They didn't break my limbs, but it was extremely painful for me. I repeat what she said. We are not taking questions at this point. My mom is telling the horrific stories. She is saying that many, many people, a swarm of people, came through the fence. The fence cost two and a half billion shekels, and it didn't help even a little bit. My mom is saying that she was taken on the back of a motorcycle with her legs on one side and her head on another side. That she was taken through the plowed fields with a man in front on one side and a man behind her. And that while she was being taken, she was hit by sticks by Shabab. Shabab people. They reached the tunnels. There are a few kilometers on the wet ground. There are a huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spider web. I will repeat it in Hebrew. Mom says she was taken on the back of a motorcycle. One man was sitting in front of her and another one behind her. Her legs to the side. She said they drove through the plowed fields and as they drove, she was beaten with sticks to her back. They took off the watch and the jewellery as she was driving. I don't want to be in the plane for more than 17 days. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Carry on. When we got there, they told us that they believe in the Quran and they will do us no harm and give us the same conditions that they have. When my mom... Continue her story. We started walking through the tunnels with a wet ground with extreme humidity. We reached a big hole where some 25 kidnap were concentrated. After two or three hours, they separated from my kibbutz, five people, and they put them in a separate room. Their guards were next to us with a paramedic and a doctor. Carry on. We laid there on mattresses. They took care of the sanitary situation. A doctor came every two or three days to check on us. A paramedic was there as well and provided some medicine. There was a guy that was carried by the motorbike. He was wounded very badly in his hands and his legs. It was very difficult to see him. He is in a better condition now. The doctor prescribed some sort of antibiotics. His condition started improving. We were fine. Each had a guard that was in charge of us. There were a lot of women there. They took care of having the women hygiene. They cleaned us up for a disease. They fear that they themselves will be contaminated by infections. They did not wish to enter to speak about politics. They spoke about all sorts of things. They were friendly in their way. My mom is telling about coming through the tunnels. My mom is talking about coming, driving into a large, about 25 hostages. She among them, when they took care of them, that they were given the medicine and antibiotics, that the people were friendly, that they kept the place very clean. They were very concerned about them. We brought the microphone. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's hear what they have to say. Everyone, please step back. Everyone, please step back. Everyone, please step back. Everyone, please step back. Everyone, please step back. Everyone, please step back. Everyone, please step back. Let's do this in an ordinary manner. In an ordinary way. The main silent. Mother, speak to the microphone. Let's speak to us about what is happening. They divided us into groups and according to Kibbutzes, the chicken of our needs, that I would say, eat the same food that they eat, white cheese and cucumbers. That was a meal for a whole day. My mom is talking about the conditions and being... My mom is speaking about the time there. She is telling us about sharing food with the people that the people... When she first arrived, they told them that they are Muslims and they're not going to hurt them. And that they ate the same food that the Hamas was eating. My mom feels that it's quite enough at the moment. But they're back. They're back. It's wonderful. My mom is very much hoping that all the people that were with her will come back. And the story is not over until everybody comes back and we can start building again some more. Last message. We were very hurt by the fact that the IDF did not know. Where are the scapegoats? They warned us three weeks prior with people who came to the road and burned fields, sent incendiary balloons to burn our fields. And the IDF did not address this seriously. Suddenly on Saturday morning, when everything was quiet, there was a heavy bombardment of the communities. And with that, the masses infiltrated, blew up the expensive fence, opened the gates of the kibbutz and entered in their masses. It was extremely difficult. I keep having those images in my mind. He's asking why did he shake the hand of the Hamas terrorist in the visual? They were gentle with us. Our needs were supplied. My mom is saying that they treat them kindly and provided for them. They were prepared for this. They were prepared for a very long time. Including the needs of the women. We will not take questions. They said once that Israel announced that there are 900 people killed, but they have a thousand if not more. Thank you. Only know about the group that was with me in the room. We will stay here and we will answer questions. Thank you. Give us one minute and we will answer questions. We were just watching a live presser from the Iqilov hospital in Tel Aviv. Earlier we heard Ronny Gamzou the director of the hospital speaking from one of the two elderly hostages, who was released after 17 days in captivity. I'm almost at a loss for words myself. This is a frail and fragile woman who doesn't look like she belongs in the IDF, who doesn't look like a militant herself, a soldier, troops. It's almost unfathomable as to how she was taken and how the rest of the world is almost justifying the fact that Hamas had a right to do that. But something that I picked up with regards to the interview perhaps you did too and others did is the fact that she described the fact that on the way down into Gaza and into the tunnel network, which she has now said out of her own words that there is this vast tunnel network underground, that she was hit by Hamas terrorists and yet when she was underground, they treated her nicely. I don't want to be the one to speculate, but the question does have to be asked. Is there a possibility that other hostages' lives could be at stake based on what she was saying to the press? Because from the atrocities and the brutality that we've heard from Hamas treating them nicely just doesn't quite add up. You know, Batya, I was quite shattered when she told how she was abducted. She's 85 years old, okay? On a motorbike with somebody beating her all the way to Gaza. I mean, what wrong did she do? Why was she beaten? And I think, I don't want to say, but if this is what they did to an elderly lady, what do they do to younger women or to children? To toddlers. To toddlers. They're two years old, three years old. I mean, it's incredible that an organization should take that kind of people as hostages. If they were a soldier, I don't want to say that I can understand, but there is a rationale to it. But this lady, what has she done? Why? I mean, it's incredible. And now, Batya, to know that there are still more than 220 there. We don't know the exact number, but more than 220. In which condition they are in. What do they need? Now, what we have discovered through what she said, that they are hidden in the tunnels. They are also in the tunnels. But some of them, and again, I don't want to speculate, but she mentioned that some were separated. Could this be, and I tread lightly saying this, could this perhaps have been a control group of people that were treated relatively nicely, given food, given medical supplies, that were different to the rest of the groups for the purpose of knowing that some of these elderly, possibly even children, American citizens would be released, and then wouldn't really have anything negative to say about their captors? Certainly. It's a possibility. Because Hamas, I think, planned that well ahead. And they have such a number of hostages that they knew they would release some of them, like they did, for were released, okay? Women were released. So it's very possible that they are treated in a certain way, and that younger people are treated incomplete in another way, let alone soldiers. Let alone soldiers. So it's perfectly possible. And you said the word, which really sends shivers through my back. They were separated. You remember in World War II, the Jews were somehow separated from their families? Selectia, the selected for this or for life. Something similar happened there, at least as far as the treatment is concerned, of the conditions in which they are held. It's a terrible situation. But yeah, a terrible situation. I want to point something out. Someone asked her a question that our guy, Asriel, translated about why those viral images of her shaking the hand of the terrorist, her captor. And I want to just remind our viewers something as well, perhaps, that needs always worth mentioning. Her grandson, Daniel Lifschitz, has been on the channel a few times. We've spoken to him prior, obviously, to his grandmother, Jochevet, being released from captivity. And he's spoken extensively about the fact that his grandparents are peace activists. That his grandfather often fetches or picks up sick children in the Gaza Strip where he is crossing and drives them to hospitals in Tel Aviv, like the Sylvan Adams Hospital for these children, to get medical care. How is this not the story that is being, apart from them being innocent civilians, elderly ladies, these are peace activists that are standing on the side of the Palestinians? When people say that they support the Palestinians, do you understand what it is that you're saying? And this is their reward of being peace activists, that they are being taken hostages. And she is released, but her husband is not released. The one that you say take children from Gaza to the hospital, he is still in the Hamas jail. For the Hamas, there is no difference, but being a peace activist or being a right winger, you are an Israeli, you are a Jew. This is what is important for the Hamas. Nothing else, not what you do, not what your ideas are, not what your politics is. Do you love Palestinians? It doesn't, you are a Jew, so you are subjected to that kind of treatment. I'm happy she came out alive because, you know, at that age you are so fragile. I can imagine how she felt. I'm happy for her, and I hope that her husband also will make it. Her husband is elder than she is. I hope that he also will make it. But look at the inhumanity of the Hamas, to release her and to keep her husband. I mean, this is also a punishment. I mean, stay with us, but the daughter of Mrs. Lifschitz is now giving questions and answers to the media, so we're going to defend her life now. Her parents and children are still in Gaza. They are our top priority. My mother is here to tell her story, so that you could tell the world and remind that we want them back home. I'm going to say it in English. My mom is back from Gaza. She's a wonderful woman, and we are so delighted to have her. She is a ray of light in our lives, in a big darkness. This is wonderful. But our hearts is with over 200 hostages still there. We are heartened to hear that they're well looked after. We do not know that that is everyone, because there's many that my mom did not meet. Our heart is with our friends and brothers and mothers and sisters that are still waiting like us to our dad and to their children. Please go ahead and tell the story and bring them back home. Your mother, did she tell you how many hostages did she meet? My mom said that she was with about 25 hostages. Do you think your mother believed that they should... She translated. She said that she had a guitar in the sleep of her family. That's wonderful. It's possible that out of this nightmare there may be some peace. I'm not going to get into politics. I'm not going to speak about that now. I think that my mom is a human being that loves humanity. What did you say when she said Shalom? Can you tell us a little bit more about how your mother was treated? My mom said that she was treated well and that the people were kind to her. We do not know what is the story of the hundred and seventy-five or so other prisoners. We cannot deduct from it that they too are in a good condition. What about your mother? How did she meet? How did she meet? They only had one brain. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. My mother said that she was treated well and that she was kind to her and that was her experience. We do not know what has happened to a hundred and seventy-five other people that she hadn't met because she was in a group of twenty-five people. Your father is still being held. Can you tell me what your hopes are for him? Our hopes for our father and for all the hostages is that they will come home safely. My father and all the other kidnapped and returned home safely. My mom and my dad were separated at the very beginning and so we do not know from my mom's story what happened to my dad. We do know that he was injured. Can you explain to him if he is alive? I do not speculate. I do not speculate. Can you explain to him if he is alive? Can you explain to him if he is alive? There were children with her. There are children that she saw. She did not address the treatment of any other person. From the moment she was taken home until she got there she was not treated well. There was a human place and they were laying on mattresses. She said that they were informed about the number of Israelis killed. She speaks openly about She separates between two stories. One is being inside the kibbutz and being kidnapped. My father was injured and a separate story on how she was carried like a bag of potatoes to where she was captured. Over there she was treated by a doctor. Is this psychological warfare? I do not think that is the word. What they did was planned. They took whatever they wanted. Threatened. Once they were in captivity she was treated well. The first part was extremely brutal and cruel. She shook the hand of the doctor who took care of her that happened to many other prisoners in the past. It has nothing to do with what she has been through. She hopes that the rest of the kidnapped will be released. We all need to continue to work on that to pressure do everything that is possible. There are children, babies and people whose condition is not good. There is not a good condition. I really hope that everything will be done in order to bring back all the other kidnapped. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much. That was the Lifshut family, the mother, the I believe the daughter pardoned the son and the grandson addressing the media on her behalf giving some questions and I'd like to now cross to I'd like to now cross to Kibbutz Khamim in southern Israel where I'm joined by Lisha Vlavi. Lisha, you were able to escape from Kibbutz Nakhal Oz with your kids which was one of the most badly hit by Khamas terrorist infiltrations and in that total devastation your husband, Omri was abducted by Khamas into the Gaza Strip. I'm not going to ask how you're feeling because I don't think words can articulately even describe the pain that you must all be going through but I am hoping that you can share with us a little about your story that unfolded some two weeks ago. Yes, I start from the morning at 6 o'clock at the morning they start to miss us, we have our at Sevadom it's our already now in our area in the start we usually know this situation. I live in this area for more than 20 years and more than 20 years every time we have every month we have the masses and we know how to we usually do this, you know so we go to our safe room and me, Omri, my husband my men and my little girl Alma, my little daughter that six months old Roni is her bedroom this is the safe room, it sleeps every night and she was over there also and after one hour that we were there we start to understand that it's not a regular scenario, it's something us, it's something really big we start to to see message in the WhatsApp, in a group of WhatsApp that there is a terrorist there is a Mechablim in the kibbutz, in this house in this house and many people start to to write help us and all this stuff we understand that it's not a normal situation, it's not the regular situation at 10 o'clock something like this the Mechablim broke to our house from the window in our in our bath and we heard the guns, we heard they speak with us in Arabic and English and they knock on our door, the door of the safe room with their weapons and we are in silence, we we try to be in silence and hope that they leave us, they think that we don't over there or something like this but after two minutes and there is a boy his name is Tomer Elias unfortunately he is the mother he was murdered after this but in this situation he speak with us, he tell us it's Tomer and please open the door, because if you don't open the door they going to shoot me and shoot you, so open the door and everything going to be okay we understand that we don't have choice, we need to open the door because if not they start shooting and maybe if we open the door everything is going to be okay so we open the door and we go to our kitchen in this moment we go Omri, Alma and me and Ronnie, my little daughter Ronnie, she is two years old, she is staying in the Mamad we begin that they give us to take care of with us and they didn't give me to to go to do it and after a few minutes they told Tomer ask him to do it and they give him to take my daughter and give us her they start trashing our house and search for a weapon, they were sure that we have a weapon in our house and when they understand that there is no weapon they told us to go with them to another house to Mishpacha Didan house when we get to Mishpacha Didan house they are our neighbors we found the mother Gali Dan and two children Yael and Chacha and the father Sachi sit on their kitchen on the floor and when they understand that the oldest children 18 years old Mayan was murdered in the safe room we sit and go over there for two hours something like this all this time they film us in Gali phone on the Facebook we was live on Facebook all this time and they told us that everything going to be okay just sitting quiet and don't speak and they don't want they don't want us they don't want to do anything to us they want the soldiers and if we just sitting in quiet and don't do anything everything going to be okay yeah in 120 p.m. something like this and you didn't not tell me that we live in Saturday things came also they came with the Mechablim the terrorists to this house also and after 10 minutes that they came they start to organize the other weapons and in 113 one and a half they told Mayumri Sachi the father of the other family Sachi Dan and you didn't tell me to get up they they put I'm sorry I forget how to say it but you know they put on their hands they put them like this and in this moment I am I just say to Mayumri in silence that I love him that I really I will care to our daughter and we waiting for him and don't be a hero and this is my last word that I told him after one minute he go and we don't know anything and after this with my little children Ronnie two years old this is the first time that she start to yell and she wants to go with him I am she yell I want my daddy and she really want to go after him I have to take him in firm force and hold his and hold her because she she wants to go with him she she fall in a sleep after this and when she wake up after 20 minutes she she was not two years anymore she is not a regular of two years children girl something else she is like for now and we waiting over there the two family me, Gali and the children my two daughter and her two children her another four hours until five five and a half and when everything start to burn we heard all this time shooting and yelling and screaming in Arabic so we just sit and pray that they didn't come back to us I I cannot even begin to contemplate fathom how you all went through this real and survived and are continuing to share your story although your dear husband is taken hostage by Hamas into the Gaza Strip and I just I want to thank you so very much for being so brave and I just want to say one sentence really one you know now it's something that we all the time we talk about it but it's not something that's going to finish in this weekend or after two weeks it's something that we know that it's going to to take a lot of time and we need all the world with us we need all the world that understand it's not a regular world it's like a holocaust it's something really really big and we need all the world understand this and all the world understand us and scream with us that all the hostages the children the women the husband the soldier all of them need to come back home we need to bring them home and we need all the world with us that's why I want to that's why I want to thank you so much for your bravery and I'm hoping that we've given you a story and so that the world can stand with you stand stand with the Jews can stand with Israel in solidarity and demand that the hostages be brought back to Israel safely we are praying for it I know many around the world are and I just want to tell you to stay strong and hopefully you will see the return of your wonderful husband soon thank you very much thank you so much for joining us thank you still with me in studio is Avi Pazna the former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy and the former world chairman of the Karen Hayasot united Israel appeal and now joining us as well from Ness Ziona in central Israel is professor Kobe Michael senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and the former deputy director general of the Israeli ministry of strategic affairs gentlemen Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli prime minister is sitting in a meeting with the French president Emmanuel Macron who is here on a solidarity visit we are currently looking at live visuals of the podium at the prime minister's office where the two will deliver a statement and as soon as that statement begins we will be bringing it to our audience live Kobe I'd like to ask you in the meantime because there's so many moving parts to what is unfolded in Israel right now between the politics the economics the social the psychological the military it almost feels perhaps the wrong word given the fact that one of the hostages just recently referred to it but a spider web of so many moving parts how do we break through this noise and make sense of what's now to come we still have yes these hostages have been released but I'll remind our view as their husbands are still in captivity in Gaza potentially all underground separated as Avipazna pointed out very similar to the past this idea of selection and moving women children certain people from certain kibbutz into the same areas how do we make sense of all of this in terms of what is about to happen militarily what's happening diplomatically and also from the social aspect it's almost the one million dollar question this is a very complicated situation and we are at war and the Israeli public must understand that we are at war this is not another operation which is similar to the other operations that we used to know in the Gaza Strip since December 2008 and war is something which is very cruel and there are many uncertainties in war this is the the basic nature of war secondly this is the time of moral clarity not only among the Israeli public but in the entire international community and unfortunately there is no moral clarity or there is no enough moral clarity because if there was enough moral clarity I think that the international community would have behaved differently first of all with regard to the hostages all the idea of the immoral principle of selection secondly the idea of Qatar Qatar is an enemy and should be declared as an enemy enemy of Israel an enemy of the United States enemy of the civilized war because Hamas is the biggest provider and supporter Qatar is the biggest provider and supporter of Hamas Qatar hosts on each soil the heads of the snake Ismail Haniye and Khaled Mashal were from the Qatarian soil call all the Arab and the Muslims in the war to go out to the streets and to slaughter Jews Hamas the most dangerous inciting media in the war and Qatar should have got an ultimatum from the Americans you have 24 hours to throw out all Hamas terrorists from your soil to stop immediately any kind of support in Hamas and to shut down Al Jazeera and instead of that the Americans and the Europeans are using Qatar as a mediator here with Hamas where there are some Israelis who supported and I think that this is a mistake this is a moral mistake this is a strategic mistake this is the time as I said of moral clarity you are with us or against us there is no anymore sitting on the on the fence a fit here and the fit there and we have to have a lot of determination a lot of patient and we have to understand that we are in front of a long journey this is not going to be a piece of cake not a six day war this is going to be a long war Kobi I apologize for cutting you off but we are getting live visuals now President Macron thank you for coming your support that of your delegation is highly appreciated on October 7th Hamas Wage War in Israel it was the worst terrorist attack the world has known since 9-11 but for Israel proportionally it was like 29-11 it was the worst act of anti-Semitic violence since the holocaust I described to you some of the horrors it's impossible to describe all of them but like I and Frank Jewish children hidden addicts from these monsters and they were found and butchered as in Babiar Jews were machine gun killing pits Hamas butchered Hamas beheaded Hamas burned babies alive Hamas raped Hamas kidnapped hostages over 200 babies, children elderly holocaust survivors we are in a war between barbarism and civilization Chancellor Schultz who visited Israel Hamas are the new Nazis and as in the Second World War when the allies fully supported the French anti-Nazi resistance today the international community is uniting in support of Israel for Hamas Barbarism not only threatens the Jews it threatens the Middle East it threatens the region it threatens Europe it threatens the world Hamas is the test case for the civilization against barbarism Mr. President you and the French people have known the horror of terrorism you experienced it in Nice and Lyon in Paris you refuse to tolerate this threat and the people of Israel refuse to have ISIS in a terror enclave on its border I have to explain this is not an enclave of ISIS thousands of kilometers away from Europe it's ISIS in the suburbs of Paris it's ISIS you can drive 20 minutes and you reach the suburbs of Paris and you have ISIS there we cannot live like that nobody could live like that so we are doing everything we need to do to destroy Hamas in Gaza we will dismantle its terror machine we will dismantle its political structure we will make every effort to release our hostages and we will make every effort to keep Palestinian civilians out of harm's way it's important to understand Hamas is committing a double war crime it's not only murdering our civilians targeting our civilians doing unspeakable war crimes they are also hiding behind civilians their own civilians we asked the people of Gaza to leave to go to a safe zone in the south where we are enabling humanitarian aid to reach them checkpoints with people with guns to prevent Palestinians from leaving the war zone Hamas is responsible for civilian casualties but we will do every effort to avoid them and to fight this war as speedily as rapidly as we can but it could be a long war when this is over the people of Israel will rebuild their communities and the people of Gaza will no longer live under any uncertainty but first there is one condition one condition for anything that could happen and the good things that could happen once this war is over and that condition is that Hamas must be destroyed and I thank you Emmanuel for coming here to Israel for standing with Israel for standing with us in Israel and expressing your support we rely on your continued support as this important battle proceeds till victory thank you Mr Prime Minister I came here to speak about the condolences of France we are terrified what happened to us to you those condolences are from a nation from a country from a country from a country from a country from a country those condolences are from a nation that also had suffered and we know what happened to you and we are with you the condolences are from millions and millions of French people that were shattered by the violence and the cruelty that happened to you we don't understand how you could overcome what the terrible acts of barbarism that you have suffered this was raw hatred when we were hit by terrorism you were with us and you marched with us in the streets of Paris when we had terrorism and today I come and give you the support of the French people our two countries are united in the same this is the most horrendous terrorist act and we also know what it is we have hostages taken we have nine French within the hostages and we are not ready to take that and we will do whatever we do to liberate them I met the families I wanted to express my solidarity and our support for them we want all the hostages to be liberated all of them completely this is a priority for France we all have to be liberated without any differences and I come to tell you the solidarity of France against terrorism Israel has the right to defend itself this is a just cause you have Hamas is the terrorist group that aims to destroy Israel Hamas is like Daesh and in the intention they operate in the same way the priority of you and of France and of all democracy is to fight these organizations you are not alone I came to tell you you are not alone we are ready that international coalition against Daesh in Syria and Iraq will also fight against Hamas we want to build a coalition regional, international to fight terrorism it's in Israel interest and we are also threatened by these groups the struggle does have without thinking we are democracies and we hate terrorism but we have to work within the rules of law of law we will not target civilians not at Gaza, not anywhere else we should have humanitarian help reach the Gaza we have to have electricity in the hospitals of Gaza we cooperate with you on that we are ready to help all populations we talked about this in our meeting and we will speak also with your neighbors we want to avoid the original war with Hezbollah I want Iran don't take the risk don't take the risk to attack Israel if you will do so there will be a regional confrontation and you will suffer from that we have to do everything to avoid more tears we have to pay attention to the acts of some of the Palestinian civil guards in the threat violence I want also to draw your attention to act against civilian Palestinians we have to renew the political process for peace Hamas is a terrorist group he doesn't represent the Palestinian people we have to fight against him but the Palestinian cause has to be heard we have to go back to the normalization which we were thinking about Israel has the right to defend itself but Israel also has to accept the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to have their own territory and live in peace with Israel and the security of Israel has to be maintained the common struggle against terrorism the respect of human rights the opening of a political horizon we have to open a political horizon we have to see that Israel is safe we have to fight terrorism but we have to keep hope alive thank you Mr. Prime Minister thank you for your time and thank you for your fighting against terrorism and we will continue to talk together and I will go to Ramallah and I will meet with some leaders of the region in tomorrow in Jordan but because I'm lucid about the fact that this fight against terrorism is obviously a matter of existence for Israel but it's a matter of existence for all of us this is why we discussed together and I just reminded this issue but I consider that this is an international coalition in order to fight against this terrorist group that we have to build I just reminded my people in my language what we discussed about fight against terrorism humanitarian action but as well political process and obviously I want against any escalation and I want as Bola and some other regimes not to be part of what's happening we had a very precise discussion and I want to thank you for that now we will follow up this discussion in the coming hours in order to see what we can improve in the coming days but I'm sure in the coming weeks and months I know how committed you are let me express once again my solidarity, my friendship and the fact that France stands with you in this awful terrorist act you had to experience who we are with your people Thank you Amano since you mentioned the regional aspects let me say a word about that there is a battle here between the axes of evil led by Iran, Hezbollah Hamas, Houthis their minions who are fighting to bring back the Middle East, the world to the early Middle Ages with that kind of barbarism with bondage, with slaughter with murder and there is the axis of the free world and the moderates who want to bring the world to the progress and prosperity of the 21st century this is the battle, it's engaged now the test for the west and for civilization Hamas if Hamas emerges victorious we will all lose Europe will be endangered everyone will be endangered civilization will be endangered so if Hamas wins if Hamas loses and is defeated then the forces of civilization win that is why this battle is not merely our own it's Europe's battle it's America's battle it's civilization's battle for the heart and soul and the future of the Middle East and the Arab world I think many understand that but there's no going around the fact that we must have a decisive victory against Hamas if Hezbollah makes the mistake of joining this war in a significant way it will regret it they will long for the second Lebanon war which they regret it but if they're embedding themselves like Hamas in the civilian population in Lebanon we will have to take action against them and the devastation against Hezbollah will be unimaginable so I hope they heed your warning our warning the warning of the United States not to do so but if they will they'll suffer horrible consequences we have to join together and win the forces of civilization we have to win that goes through the defeat of Hamas I thank you Emmanuel for everything you said thank you for coming here starting with us thank you thank you and you just heard the speech from French President Emmanuel Macron to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the translation was provided here in studio by former Israeli Ambassador to France and Italy Avi Puzner sitting right next to me here for everyone that's just joining now good afternoon and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war I'm Ariel Levin-Waldman now that speech you just saw was a discussion by French President Emmanuel Macron of what France's ultimate goals are in this conflict now the putting forth the need to free as many hostages as possible given a number of French and generally many international citizens currently being held by Hamas terror organization and Emmanuel Macron stressed that the battle has to be against Hamas itself while preserving as much civilian life in Gaza as possible despite the atrocities commit by Hamas against Israeli civilian populations as well now on the topic of the hostages that number is now confirmed at least to be 220 it's coming as the terror group released another two hostages for the purpose of psychological warfare to force western powers to pressure Israel into delaying that ground operation into Gaza until it becomes no longer feasible the two that were released named as Yelchavit Lipschitz aged 85 and Narit Cooper aged 79 the release came after unconfirmed reports in Israeli media claimed that efforts to secure the release of around 50 hostages with foreign citizenship broke down Yelchavit Lipschitz recently spoke about who are a deal and it's necessary to understand that Hamas is still holding her husband in the hostage that the testimony she's giving is in the context of a direct threat to her family's lives I've been through hell we never thought we'll reach such a state they went a zerk in Archibald put me on a motorcycle on the side and drove through the fields they blew up the fence the electronic fence that was built for 2.5 billion dollars it did not to no avail masses stormed our homes hit people they kidnapped many they did not care about kidnapping elderly and children it was extremely painful they brought us to the entrance when I laid on the motorcycle I was on the side and on the way they beat me they didn't break my limbs but it was extremely painful for me they told us that they believe in the Quran and they will do us no harm and give us the same conditions that they have we started walking through the tunnels with a wet ground with extreme humidity we reached a big hole where some 25 kidnapped were concentrated after 2 or 3 hours they separated from my kibbutz, 5 people and they put them in a separate room their guards were next to us with a paramedic and a doctor we laid there on mattresses they took care of the sanitary situation and doctor came every 2 or 3 days to check on us and as we sit here the families of British Israeli citizens that were kidnapped by Hamas are also giving their own address let's take a listen I was circulating around noon so until noon I didn't even imagine the possibility I just thought I've lost them and all I wanted was my other brother and my friends and my friends' families out because I figured this tragedy hit me it's going to hit me really hard I don't want anyone else to know how to go through around noon the news about the kidnappings started circulating and I started thinking maybe the pictures were proof of life maybe they were taking I didn't even know what was the better option being killed or being kidnapped by Hamas so it was a waiting period until around 7 in the evening the army managed to get to my mom and my brother's house and I got a phone call from there telling me my mom and my brother were missing and so was my older brother I wasn't in touch with him all day because we never spoke during a missile attack an event we always spoke after so I wasn't in touch with him I was informed that he was missing too his phone was found in his house the next day 9 o'clock in the morning I drove to the nearest police station to my house to file a formal missing persons report and to submit my DNA and as I went into the police station I received a phone call from my family's cowards that my brother Roy who was 54 was found his body was found at daylight he was shot dead behind the house murdered so I filed a missing report for my mom and my brother the mass casualties bodies are still being identified as we speak because of the numbers and because of the conditions of those who were murdered 18 days later my brother's body hasn't been identified officially just yet I'm 46 years old my life at the moment is worrying for my diabetic mom and brother who are being held by Hamas my mother needs instilling shots I don't know if she's getting them and how long she can survive without them and then on the other hand I'm chasing dental records and x-rays and filing forms asking me if my brother had scars or tattoos or which he didn't so trying to identify my brother so we can bury him and bring him to rest and then bringing my mom and my other brother home so this has been my life for the last 17 18 days now 18 days I find it when I ask people what day is it they say Monday or Tuesday and I count by numbers no it's day 18 my life stopped on the 7th of October I try not to deal with my loss of my brother at the moment because I find it too painful and if I start thinking about that then it will hurt very much and it will break me and I don't have the privilege of breaking because I have a mission and I need to be efficient and effective and productive trying to get the Red Cross to our family members to see them to get lists of who's been taken these are 18 days later we haven't had any information are they getting the medications so we're chasing information we're trying to get the hostages hope and we're trying to get information out and we don't have that just yet I'll show you the this is my mom she was supposed to be in London now on a holiday with my brother Nadav they had tickets booked a hotel shows on Sunday I had to cancel everything because they were in Gaza and they're still there this picture was taken on the last trip on the airport on the way to London because they came here often this is my brother Nadav he's 51 they're just simple people living in a small agriculture community Akibut is the closest thing you can imagine to a village where everybody knows everyone we all go to the same schools I know people from Akibut is around us it's that type of community with farmers, my brother who was my dad in the dairy many years like my dad 35 years my dad passed away years ago I worked in the dairy as a young teenager this is the life we lived it's a quiet, simple peaceful life that's been shattered to pieces on October 7 and all we did was work in the fields and milked the cows and now my brother is dead and my family is being held against the will in Gaza and I'm here to raise awareness for my family for all families who have young children and Holocaust survivors and young women and men elderly in medical need and I'm here to speak for my family and just for everyone who can't be here with us now this is a humanitarian crisis this is a crime a war crime and the hostages have to be released and returned this isn't a political issue this is a human crisis and we demand the return of our loved ones home so you can start feeling from this trauma thank you you're just hearing some of the harrowing tales from the families of some of the kidnapped victims of Hamas's October 7 rampage and massacre before we discuss this further we're going to take a quick look at some of the developments on each front on the southern front the IDF did hit 400 Hamas targets in Gaza in the last 24 hours the Army said they've hit about 10,000 locations in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict most recent efforts focus on making out potential ambush sites in sniper positions in advance of a long-awaited ground offensive the military says that readiness is high and they decry political pressures preventing them from launching a decisive operation to destroy Hamas once and for all and even during all this Hamas was firing a steady barrage of rockets at Israel's southern border towns while they've not fired on central Israel since Sunday Israel has warned citizens do not be lulled into a false sense of security Hamas say the terrorists are saving the bulk of their arsenal in reserve US President Joe Biden and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone after the release of those two hostages from Gaza as part of Hamas's psychological warfare campaign in an attempt to delay the ground offensive the IDF also released some images showing Hamas's fuel stockpiles as the group claims Gaza has no fuel for humanitarian purposes fuel is blockaded as Hamas steals all of it to use for their military projects on the northern front the IDF destroyed Hezbollah terror infrastructure in some overnight strikes and we are now going to go to discuss this more in studio where we have Dr. David Shimoni part of the commanders for Israel Security a group of former high ranking Israeli military officials discussing all of the needs of the state of Israel in the coming hard times ahead of us the big challenge we're looking at in front of our eyes right now is this hostage situation Hamas is facing a slow trickle a hostage here a hostage there each time they do it gets pressure from Western governments to delay a ground offensive and that causes Israel's window to actually do a decisive ground operation it's causing that window to close ultimately how long does Israel have to act I think Israel can act whenever it wishes to act we have time I think the delay in the major ground assault Gaza Strip enables Israel to do many things to adjust battle plans according to what we know now we know now that the Hamas knew a lot about our forces about their displacement and so things have to be adjusted to accumulate the forces I believe we have too many forces in the south we know now that the Gaza Strip will be divided into two major areas the north and the south I believe that if an assault a major assault will take place it will be more in the north so maybe we don't need to keep so many troops there yes behind your question we're holding 350,000 troops most of them reservists they don't go to work their families are worried their wives have to take care of the kids as an elder citizen their grandparents are taking care of things for them and this is a damage to the economy to the society people are getting tired and fatigued and waiting and eventually something will have to happen and I believe something will happen yes but there's also a second challenge there because we talk about these 350,000 reservists that were called up if Israel goes into Gaza that is very likely Israel's bullet in the north commits to the front to the fight as well which means that suddenly 350,000 soldiers isn't too many called up we're going to need that on the northern front as well we need it on the northern front the northern front is fully prepared lots of troops there lots of defense, lots of attacking units there I think if we have to fight on both fronts Israel will win will prevail Israel is very, very powerful very strong soldiers, equipment, technology intelligence very, very powerful but I think Israel will try to avoid two fronts at the same time and therefore another consideration to see what exactly is the threshold that will force Hezbollah to do something major because they're active all the time they're firing small rockets, small weapons rockets add civilians add military targets in the north they're all the time active but it's not what Hezbollah is prepared to do they prepare to inflict much more damage in the north of the country and also in the center of the country so I believe first of all as we know the Israeli army spokesman has said that there have been already some incursions of Israeli units into Gaza mostly to do two things he said to recover remains of people who were killed and who are inside the Gaza Strip and to improve our opening conditions for a big ground assault so yes you're right we I think we should try to avoid conflict in the north I think that's one of the reasons why the Americans are intervening to try to deter Hezbollah maybe also us of doing things that might be very very costly to Israel now we know that Hezbollah has been training for two years the same as Hamas was to conduct an identical style of operation to the massacres we saw on October 7th that means a conflict with Hezbollah can at best be delayed it cannot be avoided in the long term what are the favorable conditions for Israel to finally take Hezbollah out of the picture as well it's interesting because militarily we are now ready we are in a very very good position to launch an attack on Hezbollah and to try to destroy as much as their capabilities lacking one thing one element and that's surprise so because of the recruitment of all the reservists and the northern front being prepared we are prepared but we lack the element of surprise they know that we are prepared they see us they have drones watching us they have intelligence and so I believe if possible we should delay our action and our initiative in the north now we see the United States with its carrier groups in the region and a promise to have Israel's back should Iran and Hezbollah commit to a massive fight against Israel that's right now at a future date when Israel is forced to eventually confront Hezbollah will that still be the case? I believe so I have faith in what the American president says and the American president says we will not leave you alone and we will not let you lose a battle but I think he has a broader view and he means much broader things than not being destroyed by Hezbollah or not being badly hit by Hezbollah he's something big happening in the Middle East he wants the Palestinian issue to be addressed and solved he's talking about he said in his statement he said he wants to ensure the citizens of Israel that America will stand by and enable us to remain a safe Jewish democratic state and I think when he's talking about Jewish he's talking about the two state solution and when he's talking about democratic he will ask questions about the way our politics are shifting and so I believe his commitment to our safety is fantastic, he means it he will come to our military rescue should we need it I don't think we need it against Hezbollah but should we need it he will come to our aid but his intentions are far more futuristic than the present crisis and as we're speaking right now we're getting reports of air raid sirens going off in the Gaza border area Hamas appears to be firing rockets once again at those communities in the south we're going to be coming back to that as we get some more information coming in I'm going to return to you Dr. Shimonit for a little bit more one of the things we heard Macron say during his own speech is comparing the fight against Hamas to the fight against the Islamic State something that ultimately involved an international coalition so I think Macron did bring up to crush the terror groups holdings to crush their military abilities and reduce them to more or less an ideology and little more is this rhetoric or is there actually the potential to see an international coalition attempting to fight groups like Hamas and possibly Hezbollah here in the Middle East if the sentiment of dealing with Hamas as with ISIS will expand and other countries we see the huge support we're getting now France from the United Kingdom, from the United States the Netherlands, Italy their leaders coming here at the time of war on the risk they're flying into Ben Gurion airport and they're giving support statements and I believe they mean it that's another reason to rethink a major assault on the Gaza Strip because there are other means to try to reduce Hamas and to destroy Hamas which are economic, which are political so I say I believe it's not only rhetoric I believe what people saw on October 7th signifies the brutality of Hamas and their uninhibited actions against civilians will cause the world to unite against them and to try to dismantle this ability what do you see as being the trigger conditions for that sort of international effort I think the the trigger was October 7th I believe the world is shocked I believe politicians in the world are shocked I I wouldn't I want to go now into the broader questions of Islamic immigration into all those countries and the way they assist the threat of terrorist groups simmering inside or hatching inside their territories it's also a factor it's also a factor but I believe the trigger was October 7th but what the world saw on October 7th is the trigger and we are going to bring in another voice here that of Natalie Bloom one of the survivors of the Nova Rave massacre I-24 News had the chance to hear her personal story and some of the horrors she endured we came to the party a day earlier there was another party nearby when the whole thing started to change what was happening we heard the rocket interceptions in the air we heard the bombings I had an anxiety attack we started to move towards our cars the first group of people who left was killed we started to hear gunshots we left the party area towards the main road and of cars people told us that there is a terrorist infiltration at that point I started to run I lost contact with my friends each one ran in a different direction I got inside the car of two girls we heard screaming we started to drive to an agriculture field we left the car and started to run again I saw a police officer yelling at me run fast one of the girls who was with me got shot in the back when she fell down she looked at us we continued to run I couldn't help her I continued to run we spent five hours in the field and we didn't see any security forces then I saw a car he stopped and I was shaking I thought to myself they're Jews they yelled at me get into the car and we drove away at one point we had to choose whether to turn right or continue to drive straight through the field whoever turned right was shot I love trance music I started to go to rave parties during the past year but I didn't think I'd ever go to a party again people say that if we stop partying the terrorists will win but I don't see myself dancing again when I danced people used to smile they told me don't stop dancing but I don't think I'll ever dance again across the western world a distressing show as massive pro Hamas rallies in the major capitals of just about every western country from Europe to the United States to Canada as well showing rampant radicalism spreading through those countries with genocidal rhetoric at many of these rallies that have hundreds of thousands of people popping up left and right governments that were previously so quick to clamp down on misinformation and hate speech when it ran against their governmental narratives now largely hands off amidst these growing calls for terrorism and violence and all this including a veritable legion of young people who know very little about the conflict but are happy to take the most extreme positions possible with incredible convictions we take a quick look at one pro Hamas rally in Canada first a Hamas fighter told one of the women can I have a banana to eat he asked if you could eat a banana that was in her home does that sound like a f***ing terrorist to you as I mentioned two sides you handled the philanthropy from your organization but your organization is stuck in a sort of milieu in Canada where you have what we just saw in the streets going on how do we explain just what's going on in Canada and how you guys are effectively beating this narrative I think the Canadian Jewish community has since the establishment of the Jewish state's been profoundly involved in Israel the Jewish community that was founded on the Holocaust and as such the Holocaust stories that are coming out of Israel today the pogroms that are coming the stories of pogroms and carnage and barbarity that are coming out of Israel today touch the hearts and souls and gone of the imagination of the Jewish community in Canada and they've been mobilized towards the philanthropic effort to make a difference within Canada with their philanthropy to Israel and at the same time with these massive rallies is there a very large pro-Palestinian population in Canada that's posing like a sort of counterweight to this there are strong voices the Jewish community in Canada is working incessantly to ensure security of the Jewish community in Canada the Jewish community in Canada is approximately 365,000 Jews a relatively small community in relation to the United States and alongside calls for philanthropy and support with Israel there's been calls to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community across Canada what sort of operational things has the Jewish community been doing in Canada to really exactly guarantee that the local security well even on the day local Jewish community organizations do not normally put out statements on Shabbat or on Jewish festivals that is a really rare practice so just the dissemination of information making sure people are safe particularly on university campuses but not only that's the kind of stuff that the Jewish community has done in cooperation with the obviously the national bodies that are doing that kind of stuff as well but again I'd like to focus on this 102 million 102 million dollars that have come from the Canadian Jewish communities across Canada it is relative to the size of the community such a profound statement of consistent Zionism, consistent support the Jewish federations of Canada UIA, the organization that I head up in Israel has not left the city of Starrot since for 20 years it is involved, it is engaged on the ground and together with our representatives here in Israel we've been able to really respond to the desire to be connected to Israel at this time so even though as you describe a kind of what feels like an oppressive culture across Canada what you have is the vitality of the Jewish population in Canada a purposefulness that we haven't seen for a long time not only amongst the higher echelons of the community the more well established but across the board I heard of a young woman say the other day she said I was a quiet Jew, I've been a quiet Jew for many years young woman, a late teens but I can't be a quiet Jew anymore this is about me this is my story, I'm implicated in this and we all need to stand up speak up and be present both in the rallies, in the vigils in the calling for the release of hostages and also in our philanthropic efforts absolutely, that reinvigoration I think is the key word here and 102 million dollars can do a lot of good and a lot of repairs do you have a breakdown of where this money is going and what causes its bolstering what we're trying to do here in Israel with our team on the ground we have representatives across Israel in a strange turn of events we have Vancouver and our coast to coast communities across Canada our support are involved in Etzbaha Galil, the northernmost communities of Israel, such as Kiryat Shmona and Matula, we have Montreal Federation involved in Bereshava and we have the Toronto Federation that's involved in Sterotineilat so across the country we're working to find out what the emergency needs are and then plan for medium and long-term care, this is going to be a long-term process of repair, rehabilitation and trauma care, so our work is first to look at the emergency needs and then to work on the midterm in the future My last question is from the Israeli side, what has the biggest demand been from you guys? What are the needs that they're saying are the most critical? Well, I should say that every day from hour to hour those needs change so there isn't a consistent answer to that and anybody on the ground that's saying this is exactly what we need for the last week, that's not accurate Kiryat Shmona was not evacuated and then it was evacuated and we're trying to find and care for people that have displaced people and the displaced populations of Israel that is urgent, these people don't know how long they're going to live in hotels and away from their homes and people don't have homes to go back to so taking care of that population ensuring there are frameworks for young kids, for teens that are on their phones largely and are kind of adults but not really like really ensuring that those populations we're there with our people on the ground to pay close attention to make sure that we see the gaps and we're there right now to fulfill those needs Absolutely and Sarah I'm glad that people like you are out there keeping up the good work and ensuring that there are resources where they are necessary We're going to keep on the topic of philanthropic needs because in Israel it has become such a pressing concern we have seen a demand from the health ministry for more and more mental health counselors calling it a mental health mass casualty and we have seen upwards of 200,000 people internally displaced in Israel that need help at every possible hour people with no homes, without enough access to food and to help us understand a little bit more about that we are joined by Eliana Mandel-Brunner the director of the Kobe Mandel Foundation Thank you Eliana for being with us Ultimately when we are seeing this massive need in Israeli society right now for additional assistance additional help what are the biggest pressing needs and how do you help supply those needs? So like you said right before me there is a very very big need for therapy we need, we are hiring therapists we have volunteer therapists right now we are calling each and every one of our families and trying to understand their need of the current bereaved families not the newly bereaved just for the citizens of Israel who haven't gone through the attack but are living through a war right now there is a very very strong need of therapy and of therapists and to help to help go through this together really people want to talk about it and want to make sure that the trauma is in continued trauma and it stays in the now And when we are talking about these needs you have had a lot of experience with your agency dealing with the aftermath of this sort of horror and nightmare there is a hard question for a lot of people right now and it's for parents talking to their children to help them understand what is going on how do you explain to children that have seen this sort of nightmare that their parents can't always protect them from the monsters how do you explain to people around there that sometimes the monsters win So for parents I always say the thing that we have to do is be honest we need to talk to our children when we are calm and collected not when we are emotional but be honest tell them what's happening because if we don't tell them they'll hear it from their friends they'll hear it from conversations we have with our friends children know what's going on and if we are honest with them we say to them this is what's happening there is a war going on we are doing everything we can to protect you there are soldiers our army is protecting us the police is protecting us and for those who believe Hashem is protecting us that's the main thing to say another thing is to make sure to keep telling our kids how much we love them and how much we are here for them and if they ever want to talk and tell us any needs that they need met that they should come to us and tell us and share with us and just keep the lines of communication open that's the most important thing that we can do for our children and the follow up is it's not just the children but also so many adults who have had a sort of innocence shattered by this and are having to confront the fact that there is a great deal of evil in the world surrounding them and that the psychological change has to be how do you not be broken by evil but instead become ready to confront and to fight evil because that's a big question as an entire society we're asking these days so I can tell you about myself I live in the community of Tekoa we are surrounded by Palestinians my husband is in the reserve Dewey right now and it's very very scary we are very scared I have my children sleeping in the room with me so that if I need to run to the Miklat or if something happens they're right there with me and I've confronted these questions myself and my friends and my community have all confronted this question of we have faced evil in a way that we've never seen before my brother Kobe and his friend Yosef Yishran were murdered right outside our home 22 years ago and they were brutally they were stoned to death by Palestinian terrorists and we thought that their murder was the most terrible thing that could ever happen because of the way they were murdered and now with what's happening in Israel with a massacre that over a thousand four hundred people were murdered in such brutal way in such a brutal way dealing with that and knowing that what we thought was a one-time thing is now so huge and the need to deal with it is so huge and it's just what I do and what me and my community do and what we tell our families is that we know that there's a bigger picture here and it is our job as the Jewish nation to spread light among the world and to do as much good in our communities and for us at the Kobe Mandel Foundation for our families and for the newly bereaved families and there is evil in this world and there is no discounting that and it's our job to counter that evil and do good and bring light and laughter and keep on living and it's so hard to say that when we see these images but that is our job at the Kobe Mandel Foundation at the Jewish nation to keep being resilient to keep standing strong never to forget the people who are lost but to keep on living that's a good message that the people of Israel and I guess the people of the world as a whole need to hear here, Eliana thank you very much for those words and for being on our show with us we're going to return now to the studio and we have Dr. David Shimoni with us to help us understand once more the security situation we've been hearing a lot about the hospitals about the victims and I want to turn our eye to the south where so much of this might nourish horror took place and the big question I think that's hovering over everyone's mind is after seeing that these images that are effectively seared into the very soul of the Jewish people for all time going forward how do we rebuild, how do we go forward to the south as part of Israel it's not just a site for nightmare and massacre I think that should be the future of Israel in the next decade to rebuild the south yes the trauma is fantastic big enormous people that evacuated their kibbutzim and farms say they're not sure they'll get back and I think the big mission of a government in Israel is to rebuild the south to resettle the south to create the not only the military but also the political conditions for us to live to live in peace in the south should be a major major effort to rebuild the south a lot of money invested there I think the south should be a place where children school children will go annually to visit the place to learn about what happened to learn about the attacks about the mistakes that led to this terrible massacre and to make this a national project of rebuilding the south again but to do that Israel also needs to reestablish deterrence and to send a message not just to Hamas and the Palestinians but also to their backers ultimately when we're talking about the military strategy how is Israel going to also make a message clear to everyone around like this again? I think we have an experience of trying over a few decades something happens we retaliate it's a big blow to our enemies and they learn a lesson but eventually they creep up again and they rebuild themselves and re-equip and we're in a new round of violence I think I said here before the reason that a state has an army is to avoid war is to prevent war so yes we have a formidable army it's big and strong but eventually it has to serve us to make peace and to do that because we always use in these regional conflicts and these military operations in the course of the past decade the words we dealt a strong blow we hit them hard we have established deterrence but the blow isn't deterrence we actually have to break the enemy you have to break the enemy by any means it could be militarily it could be financially it could be politically it could be by boy cutting them by dismantling their abilities by cutting the the money from flowing into Hamas or to any other terror organization but yes definitely a strong a strong reaction military reaction is necessary as a deterrent what do we say about American concerns that Israel isn't actually ready for the military operation in Gaza I think first of all the appearance of military forces American military forces in the region testifying that they have their questions or their doubts it's quite embarrassing even that we are now aware that we are advising IDF generals which is quite a new thing for us I think Israel is prepared, I think Israel knows what to do, has the means to do it I believe the army is well trained and well equipped I believe Israel is now adjusting its plans according to changes new intelligence has to come in where are the people positioned abilities that Hamas lost but I think the American concern is a bit exaggerated about our military ability to overcome a conflict in both fronts absolutely because what you described there with the Americans advising the IDF for regional conflicts seems to be a reverse of the conventional wisdom ultimately how does Israel once again reclaim not just its image but its actual ability I think Israel has to regroup itself we're talking about arguments within the government, within the cabinet within the military I think after this war is over Israel should ask itself many many questions about its social stability about its strength as a society has to make many many adjustment and improvements we spoke earlier about the Canadian Jews from all over the world should be invited to participate in this discussion to convey their sentiments towards Israel and the big questions that Israel still did not answer what does it mean to be a Jew what does it mean to be democratic what are our borders major major questions that the society has not agreed upon yet absolutely it's going to be more just that because it's going to be about reforming a compact with the people of the nation what it means to be a nation as a whole these are very big questions are going to be hovering over all of us moving forward David, thank you brings me back if I have another second to the question of the hostages I think this would demonstrate our ability to maintain the ethos of a state that takes care of its citizens and soldiers and never abandons them with the enemy that's going to be the pressing question of how to do that and how to actually win that war at the same time David thank you so much for helping us understand many of the strategic and political concerns that are cracking our society as we speak and we're going to be right back in a few minutes after a short break with more coverage and more aspects and angles to this war and all possible ramifications over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you some testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news this it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior and reloads that you already know where to go on international reloads your people in rd access our website reloads.altis.com.co select reloads and type the number you want to place the reload also they receive the double of balance in reloads of 8 dollars or more Altis, the global network of the Dominicans was of course the hostage situation facing the international community today the international community is uniting in support of Israel for Hamas barbarism not only threatens the Jews it threatens the Middle East it threatens the region it threatens Europe it threatens the world Hamas is the test case of civilization against barbarism Hamas is a terrorist group that aims to destroy Israel Daesh, Al-Qaida Hamas is like Daesh and Al-Qaida they operate the same way we are ready that international coalition against Daesh in Syria and Iraq will also fight against Hamas we want to build We want to build a coalition, regional, international, to fight terrorism in Israel's interests. And we are also threatened by these groups. And first a quick look at the southern front where, mere moments ago, our air raid sirens went off in Beersheva as it came under rocket fire from Hamas. The IDF over the course of the past 24 hours has hit about 400 Hamas targets in Gaza. The army said they've hit about 10,000 total since the beginning of the war. The most recent efforts are focusing on knocking out potential ambush sites and sniper positions in advance of a long-awaited ground offensive. Military says that readiness is high and they are decrying political pressures that are preventing them from launching a decisive operation to destroy Hamas once and for all. But Hamas also fired a steady barrage of rockets at Israel's southern border towns that has continued even throughout the morning and into the afternoon. While they've not fired on central Israel since Sunday, Israel has warned citizens not to be lulled into a false sense of security. As analysts warn, terrorists are only saving the bulk of their arsenal in reserve. U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone after the release of two additional hostages from Gaza, part of Hamas' psychological warfare campaign to delay the ground offensive. The IDF also released some images showing some of Hamas' fuel stockpiles, as the group is trying to claim that Gaza has no fuel for humanitarian purposes. Fuel is a blockaded item, as Hamas steals all of it to use for their military projects. On the northern front, the IDF destroyed his bullet-terror infrastructure in overnight strikes as well. And we are now going to turn our eye directly to the north, where our correspondent Hamda Salhu is standing by to give us the most recent updates on that front. Hamda? Well, look, renewed shelling happening across the Israeli-Lebanon border. About three booms heard just moments ago. The Israeli military has said that they've been preemptively striking Hezbollah cells that are looking to carry out anti-tank attacks on Israeli territory. The military also saying that overnight they did strike several other cells. Yesterday, a drone from Lebanon infiltrating Israeli airspace, causing sirens in Karyat Shmone, a town that has already been evacuated. The Israeli military has declared a lot of these communities within five kilometers of the Lebanese border a military zone. And on the other side of the border in Lebanese territory, it is the same type of situation. The 100-kilometer border has been evacuated. Some 20,000 residents have fled north to central parts of the country in places like Beirut. In places like Thira, schools have been converted into bomb shelters, but the Lebanese government is saying that they simply don't have the means to handle the influx of people that have been coming into the country. Now back here in Israel, the military is saying they are prepared for a larger confrontation should that happen. Though the Americans have been privately and publicly telling the Israelis not to have a larger preemptive attack against Hezbollah in fears of a more semi-regional conflict breaking out and making it a full-scale war here on the northern border. Just north of that border, does Arabic media give us any indication of what sort of plans we've heard from Hezbollah and what sort of pressures they're under right now? Look there are no visuals really of what is happening in terms of military preparation by Hezbollah. Arabic media on the other side of the border is simply reporting what is happening when there is retaliation from the Israelis. They're reporting from the sites of the fire, but as to what Hezbollah is saying, there has been quite the silence from them. They have said the 32 combatants have been killed. Last week, a Hezbollah spokesperson said that the tit for tat exchanges were simply a warning to Israel and not an indication that they were joining the fight. So a lot has been left unsaid and there's a lot still left to be seen on whether this will open up into a full-scale war. Thank you very much Hamda for that report from the front and we'll be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation there develops. Before anything else though, we are joined in studio by Benjamin Anthony. He is the CEO of the Maryam Institute, an advisor to the Biden administration as well as a combat veteran of every major Israeli military action since the second Lebanon war. Benjamin, it's good to have you in studio. You have that experience the second Lebanon war. I want you to give us your own appraisal of what's going on on the northern front as well. Yes. So first of all, thank you very much for having me a quick correction. I held an advisory position to the Trump administration, not to the Biden administration. And with regard to my own experience inside Lebanon during the second Lebanon war, I feel as a consequence of that and I think that it's very important that we speak to this. There is too much leeway and too much silence being applied to the complete failure of the defense establishment that has resulted in the most horrific attack upon the Jewish people inside the Jewish state since the events of the Holocaust. I want to explain what I mean by that. Firstly, with regard to Hezbollah in the north, as we just heard from your reporter there, it is absolutely essential that the Israel Defense Forces launches a first strike against their aerial munitions. I remind everybody, they have the ability to launch up to 2,200 munitions against us that can blanket the entirety of the state of Israel. It is absurd that we are playing this tit for tat with Hezbollah. This is a terror organization that has the abilities that would make everything that Hamas did to us, which was horrific, look like child's play. We have to defund Hezbollah right now, not the day after. The other thing, yes, please. Well, I think many people were looking at that and I think everybody agrees that Hezbollah needs to be broken eventually. The question is, when Israeli attention is divided between the north and the south, is that the best time? This is absolutely the best time to strike Hezbollah's aerial capabilities. Now, we have missed the opportunity for a true preemptive strike. We have lost the element of surprise. But the Second Lebanon War broke out because the shared language between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces resulted in a series of misunderstandings. Right now we are at a point where there seems to be an understanding that military and terror infrastructure, military in the sense of Israel, terror infrastructure in the sense of Hezbollah, those can be targeted like for like, but one miscalculation, one misunderstanding and Hezbollah will launch towards us. Also, after the Israeli people have suffered so greatly as a consequence of the murderous rampage of Hamas, it is improper and wrong that all of us should carry this concern about whether or not Hezbollah will begin to rain hellfire down upon our citizens and our citizenry. We have a duty and a responsibility to use this as a pretext to rid our borders of these massive, massive threats. I also want to tell you that too many people are saying, leave the generals in situ who are in situ today. Let them prosecute this war and investigate afterwards. Nonsense. There are individuals who must be removed from their roles in command right now. I'm referring to the commander of the southern front. He absolutely, Finkelman needs to go. Aaron Khaliba needs to go immediately. Some people say you don't change horses mid-race. This is not a horse race, but I can give you a different metaphor. When a horse is lame, it's put out to retirement and it's time to get rid of these generals and bring in people who actually want to fight this fight and have the confidence of the troops, the mid-career officers, the simple soldiers who they lead, because I will tell you, it's from their ranks, the simple soldiers, the low-ranking officers, the mid-career officers, but the stories of heroism and salvation will come. Not from these generals. They have failed. It needs to be spoken about now, not later by way of a commission. This is a call for some bold actions in multiple theaters. We have right now the United States promising their backing in the form of two aircraft carriers, but demanding Israel not preempt in any way on the northern front. Do we gain a better advantage from having the United States and its aircraft carriers that are back or from taking that first strike? In my mind, unquestionably, from taking that first strike and that's why I think it's important that I speak to this now and I think it's important that people understand it now. Jump in because we're getting reports right now that there are sirens going off, arid sirens in Ash-Doad as Hamas is firing more rockets towards Israel's southern communities. We're going to update that depending on what the results of that end up being. So right now we have to make that first strike. We get a greater advantage to the state of Israel when we take our destiny in our own hands. We cannot outsource that even to a great friend such as the United States of America. And let's remember something. The United States is our most important ally, but its primary concern is for itself. Rightly so, Israel should emulate that, be primarily concerned with our security and what we're able to do to secure our citizens and our civilians and that absolutely requires a first strike on Hezbollah's airborne munitions capabilities right now. In fact, I would make the argument that that ought to be prioritized by the defense establishment even over and above an imminent ground incursion in the event that that's going to take place. First, let's get rid of that potent dangerous enemy to the north and then let's act with greater ability and more military impunity down in the south inside the Gaza Strip. We cannot leave the situation as it is. It's about 150,000 missiles that Hezbollah has pointed at Israeli cities enough to level cities as you've described. The question is, if Israel takes that first strike, how much of that capacity can realistically be knocked out before the counterattack comes? A significant amount. We've heard the demonstrative language of the defense establishment, particularly the Israeli Air Force, time and time again, expressing that what we've visited upon Hezbollah from the air during Lebanon 2, the war in which I served, will look like nothing compared to what we're able to do now. People have said in the Israeli defense establishment, we stand primed in the event of an attack from Hezbollah to bomb Lebanon, not Hezbollah, but Lebanon back into the Stone Age. Either we mean that we have the capabilities of reducing down to the lowest number the amount of munitions that they can launch towards us, or we do not mean it. I think it's time to show that we mean it. I think it's very important. And I can tell you, over too many years, we come to this war divided. We come to this war as a divided society as a result of the tremendous rift that was sown around the issue of judicial reform. Now, there's a sense of unity at the moment. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to last very long. But for as long as it lasts, I want you to understand something. We have a challenge. We have to show our civilians. We have to show our soldiers that we know how to bring security back to our borders. And there is entirely too much groupthink atop the tree of the defense establishment here. I've spent a lot of time with generals, both here and in the United States of America. Too many of them think the same. They learn the same, they study the same, and they make the same flawed presumptions. The true fighters, those who truly want to take the fight towards our enemies, get proverbially knee-capped during the course of their career. It's time to bring some of those into the fray, let them lead. And we've seen examples of this in the past. It happened during the Yom Kippur War. Shmuel Gonen, down on the southern flank, was replaced by Chaim Barlev, because he didn't function. We need to replace the commander of the southern command. We need to replace Khaliba right now. And there are others as well. You're touching on a critical issue that we've seen brought up over the past two weeks. And that is Israel's military readiness. We hear reports that soldiers don't have basic equipment, no tactical vests to carry their grenades and their magazines. They don't have enough uniform sown for the reserves call up. There was the obvious intelligence failure. Ultimately, how do you repair this readiness factor? We have the United States breathing down our neck saying you're not even ready to go into Gaza right now. This is just a monumental failure and a bad look for Israel. How do we fix all of this and actually do what you're describing? It's a terrible failure for the state of Israel. Unfortunately, it's not surprising to me at all, not at all. And I will tell you something from my own personal experience. In 2016, I was called in to advise the then Trump campaign about alternatives to the two-state solution, which I did. In 2017, I talked personally, along with my companion in our organization, Rosita Panini, my colleague and co-founder, I took a group of generals from the Israel Defense Forces, retired generals, up to advise the negotiating team of the Trump administration on what to do with regard to the Gaza Strip. Not one of those generals supported my predicate for this idea, which was that there needed to be a military activity that toppled and destroyed Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. All of them were deterred, all of the generals were deterred by Hamas. None of them wanted to operate against Hamas. None of them believed in the IDF's ability to operate and to destroy Hamas. There was only one who did. His name was Brigadier General Shmuel Tsuker, so an old-timer, a true hero of the state of Israel. But the rest of them, the more modern generals, not only are Hamas not deterred, but it became clear to me, we have been deterred by them. So am I surprised we're unready to topple Hamas? Sadly, no, I'm not. But that is why I'm doing the unpopular. I am calling out names and saying, we must strike the North now and we must get rid of these incompetent generals now. It's definitely a scary path forward that underlies just how much of a failure as Benjamin. We're gonna come back to you in a little bit, but first you want to address the other challenge facing Israel in this military confrontation. That is, of course, the hostage situation that Israel is under. The number of hostages now confirmed at least 220 coming as the terror group releases another two of them for the purpose of psychological warfare, an attempt to force Western powers to pressure Israel into delaying a ground operation into Gaza until it becomes no longer feasible. The two that we just released named as Yelchavit Lipschitz, age 85, and Nuri Cooper, age 79. The release coming after unconfirmed reports in Israeli media claim that efforts to secure the release of 50 hostages with foreign citizenship ended up breaking down. Yelchavit Lipschitz recently spoke about her ideal, but before we play that, it's necessary to understand, Hamas still holds her husband hostage. The testimony she is giving is happening in the context of a direct threat to the life of her family. I've been through hell. We never thought we'll reach such a state. They went, Berserk, in Archibalds, put me on a motorcycle on the side and drove through the fields. They blew up the fence, the electronic fence that was built for two and a half billion dollars. It did not, to no avail. Masses stormed our homes, hit people, they kidnapped many. They did not care about kidnapping elderly and children. It was extremely painful. They brought us to the entrance when I laid on the motorcycle. I was on the side and on the way they beat me. They didn't break my limbs, but it was extremely painful for me. They told us that they believe in the Quran and they will do us no harm and give us the same conditions that they have. We started walking through the tunnels with a wet ground with extreme humidity. We reached a big hole where some 25 kidnapped were concentrated. After two or three hours, they separated from my kibbutz, five people of New York. And they put them in a separate room. Their guards were next to us with a paramedic and a doctor. We laid there on mattresses. They took care of the sanitary situation. A doctor came every two or three days to check on us. We have been discussing most of the show, the how of how is there going to fight this war, but we do have to once again touch on the why, the horrible brutality that we saw at the border, those massacres, and it's best to hear it in the words of survivors themselves. Joining us now is Alamog Adirad, a survivor of the assault on the Nova Music Festival. Alamog, I'm glad you could be with us. I don't have words of consolation because there are none that apply to what you have seen. The best I can ask that you do is you tell your story as best that you're able to. Okay, thank you so much that you want to share my story and all of the people in the party. So at first, around six and a half in the morning after we hang out and party and dance, we start to hear the rockets and above us in the sky, and all of the skies start to get smoky and the alarms start. The party was shut down and all of the participants start to getting the stuff and try to exit. Me and my friend are waiting a little bit so we could don't get blocked on the way out because there was a lot of crowds that tried to exit. So we wait a bit, but then after one hour after that, they start to, we start to hear shooting and we understand that the situation is very bad so we start to go to the exit and try to drive with the cow but they blocked all the exits and all of the cow didn't move and we were stuck there. We start to hear the shooting getting very close to us and all around us, like the shooting coming from all around and we couldn't decided where to go so I exit the cow and start to escape and also my friends does and then they start to shooting on the cow and we saw a lot of people running to us and start to running and we understand that they get into the cow. We start to running in the nature and try to find somewhere to escape but there was all around and they come from all around. Well, we run a little bit but we understand that we have no chance and that's to hide so we enter a big bush that we saw so they are in some downward hole and we stay there without moving around eight hours when we were in the bush, we didn't move at all because all of the time there was like they were running next near to the bush and we heard all of the interaction outside so we didn't move and we wait, I'm just waiting and we heard a lot of, we just heard wall going outside and after eight hours there was some, we heard Hebrew and we understand that there was soldiers so we screamed to him like, help us and they come and rescue us and then they come back to keep fighting and we start to like walk on the, near to the cows and we saw a lot of people running to us we saw a lot of damage and chaos and then there was some person from the kibbutz nearby it's just come and pick some survivor and then we managed to escape. Amog, in the two and a half weeks since that nightmare who's been there for you to help you? Who do you turn to for strength at this time? And I'm here now with friends that have been with me in the bush and that's the friends that also I came with here with him to the party and we hang out a lot of, a lot of time in this since then and we help each other also my parents and other friends help me get through this area. Amog, after seeing all of this after enduring all of this do you have a message for the people of Israel as a whole who are in shock, in a horror, in fear right now? Who we are, what we do going forward? Sorry, I didn't understand the question. What's your message to the Israeli people right now after all of this? Stay strong. I'm proud for all the Israelis right now because when the situation was very tough there and after a few hours I saw a lot of Israeli people come and help and like give themselves and go fighting and go help each other and contribute like food for the, for us, for those of us who are hurt and just keep doing that because it's very hard. Amog, I'm glad you could share your story with us. Her message she was to stay strong as well. All of the people of Israel are united right now and we have your back in the days ahead. Amog, thank you. Thank you. We're going to return to the studio where Benjamin Anthony is still with us. One of the biggest challenges for many of the civilians here in Israel is seeing what happened completely unopposed with no military in the south and we're wondering how this could have happened. It's absolutely appalling. By the way, we can win this war. We need to get rid of those generals who are dead weight. We need to rely on what Amog was referring to, the strength of the Israeli people, the low level, the mid-career officers will see great heroism from there. In terms of what took place there on the south, look, when I was in the Israel Defense Forces, we would take responsibility for a given area. But that responsibility was then distilled down to the communities themselves. They always had a Kitat Konanout, a class of military redness, defensive redness, there on call at all times. There was also a Rabshat, an individual responsible for overseeing the security of the given areas and they would coordinate with the Israel Defense Forces. I remember in 2016 going down to Nakhaloz to have a presentation by Amir Tibon, who's been in the headlines recently because of the heroism of his father, Noam Tibon, someone that I brought to the United States to lecture as the former commander of the northern formation here in the Israel Defense Forces. In 2016, there were soldiers there inside Nakhaloz. Now, all of that has been reduced, too much emphasis placed on static defense. It doesn't work. We need to return security to the south, but first we have to destroy Hamas. And before we do that, in my opinion, hit Lebanon in the north, hit his father's capabilities, and reduce that down to its lowest form. Absolutely. And that's going to be major topics of discussion in the days and the months ahead. Thank you very much, Benjamin, for explaining all the different angles there. For everyone else, though, we're about to go on a short break. When we come back, we're going to be continuing our coverage of Israel at war and continuing our discussion of every possible aspect of the road ahead, particularly socially and so many others. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Israel is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't know what to do. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Thanks for staying with us. We're going to turn our eye now to the southern border where a correspondent, P.S. Deklbach, is standing by live to help us understand what the most recent developments on the southern front are. Right, L.A. Wells-Peratic, rocket fire coming out of Gaza this morning. I'm standing here in the city of Stegot that has been widely evacuating a city of 30,000 residents. Only about 10% of the inhabitants have remained so far, and this really has become a city for journalists. There are many people who are coming here to see what the situation looked like. Also one of the scenes of that Hini's massacre from two weeks ago, and also people coming from really all across the world to show their solidarity, such as one delegation, having arrived from the United States only yesterday, delegation of 27 leading American rabbis, talking to one of them here, David Eliezer, how are you describing this trip here? You only arrived yesterday, you know Israel well, you know Stegot well. What are your goals coming here? Our goals are simple. We're bringing a message from the Asperger jury that we're standing 1,000% behind Israel. Israel is facing a terrible crisis. The evil of Hamas, the chart of Hamas calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and the genocide of every Jew in the world. That includes the Jews of America. And we're here to say to Israel, we stand behind you unequivocally and we are going to be behind you 1,000%. You're here in Stegot right now, where are your locations? Did you have the chance to speak to people here on the ground? It's been a very deeply emotional experience. Yesterday we sat with all the families who are in mourning for the town of Qar'aza, which was at a very interesting moment because here we had for one of the most secular Kibbutzim in Israel and here a group of rabbis, Orthodox rabbis came from America and we sat and we cried together and we listened to their stories and the pain and we told them their pain was our pain. It was a sense of connection of one Jew in a moment of tragic history which tells all of us about how united we are really when it gets to the very essence of who we are as a people. It's interesting because I know that you told me before that you're currently staying in Jerusalem in a hotel that also hosts many of the evacuees from the border communities here. What are you hearing when you talk to them telling them that you've just come from visiting these communities, where they are from? Well, first thing, the rabbis are sitting around the tables and talking to them. We're going to organize rabbis here to speak Hebrew and understand how to work with youth and their biggest problem is the demoralization of the youth and we're going to do on the job right away we're going to go to work to try to raise the spirits of these young people and when they understand that people came from America because they share their pain and they're standing together with them I think that's going to give them encouragement and inspiration. What is the sentiment like among the American Jewish diaspora community? What do you hear from back home from the United States? What have people been telling you when you told them that you're coming here these days? First they were a little bit, are you crazy a little bit? But the fact is first thing, let me ask you a question in two parts. Number one, I'm saying a rare moment of unity from across the board, the most liberal end of the community to the most traditional they are standing side by side standing together for Israel. Number two, I think us coming here has a very powerful message to American Jewry if the rabbi of my community can come to Israel and be there at that time that means Israel is important, I need to support Israel. So as much as we're coming here to tell the Israelis that listen, we're standing behind you, we're telling American Jewry that guess what, you can be proud as a Jew and you can stand behind Israel. Thank you very much Rabbi David Eliezer. Thank you very much, you're going to stay in Israel for a couple of more days and that really is one of the examples here of what has been happening here specifically in the city of Sirot which is one of the best examples where you can see what kind of consequences this war is taking here, a city of 30,000 has become a ghost town as you can see many journalists behind me here becoming specifically here to look at the situation that is still unfolding here on the ground we had incoming rocket fire to other communities here close to the border this morning not in Sirot, in Sirot the last red alert was triggered yesterday night while the IDF has been continuously striking targets in the Gaza Strip also throughout the night, Ariel. Thank you very much Pia for understanding what's going on at the border and the resiliency we're seeing from the Jewish community around the world. And Israel's Shin Bet internal security service as well as the police have released footage from the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who were captured following their deadly rampage and massacre on October 7th the footage clearly shows how the Hamas operatives were given explicit instructions to kill and to kidnap civilians including the elderly along with women and children Middle East correspondent Ariel Osseron brings these horrific testimonies to light. After the IDF shared with hundreds of foreign journalists, body cam videos and pictures from Hamas's October 7th onslaught on Southern Israel the Shin Bet and Israeli police shared footage from interrogations of Hamas terrorists from Gaza who participated in a destruction and mass murder. In it they describe in detail how they were ordered to kill and kidnap women and children. One second. The detainees said in their investigations that they received orders to kidnap as many people as they could specifically women and children and to kill the rest. This is what happened in Gaza. What did the terrorist attack do? He killed. Who killed? The civilians. They entered the house. They stayed in the room and closed the door. There was a sound inside. They entered the house and there was a man on the door. There was blood on the door. Of course. There was a man inside. There was blood on the door. What did the family expect? They entered the first door and there was a woman inside. Hamza entered the door. Tell me, what did you see when you saw the woman? I saw her on the door but I couldn't see her. The dog went out in the street. They took her and me. What did they do? They took her to the police. And who took her? They took her and me. There were three dogs. What did they do? What did they do? They took her out. They closed the door. They closed the door and I lost my sight. They took her and me and they took her out. I went out and saw a dog. There was a man inside. He was locked. They opened the door and I was in a state of emergency. The man was hiding and the woman was here. They brought a box of gold, they put it in the box, opened it in small pieces, and they put it inside the box. Do they have any weapons? No, they don't. With many around the world denying the atrocities that were committed against innocent Israeli civilians, Israeli interrogators asked the detainees what Islam has to say about what they did. According to the Islamist religion, the Islamist religion says, come and kill me. No. No? Let me stop. These atrocities, you can't see, they don't add to the killing of civilians. This is forbidden. The Prophet said, don't kill a woman, don't kill a child, don't kill a woman, just like that. This is not about the exploitation, the execution, the... The arrested Hamas terrorists point a blaming finger at their leadership, who seeks refuge abroad while Gaza is laid to rubble. Why did you kill the innocent? We were laughing at them. We were laughing at them. Who was laughing at you? The two Hamas. They were sitting in the room and they saw us here. So that was your idea? Yes, that's what I'm thinking. They were in Qatar or Turkey, and they were talking in the name of the Muslims. They were eating and sending us here. They were eating and they were eating and they were eating. They were eating and they were eating. Why are they eating and eating? They were eating and they were eating. They were eating and they were eating. They were eating and they were eating. They were eating and they were eating. They were eating and they were eating. And with us now in studio is Ariel Osser and our Middle East correspondent. Help us to understand a little bit more about what we just saw. We saw the testimony. What exactly do we really make of it? What is the point that is really achieved by releasing this? So first of all, Ariel, it's important to clarify that this was just a taste of the interrogations. There were six interrogations in this video file that were shared and there are many others that have been released to the public. I think the goal is to fight the deniers, plain and simple. I mean, there's a movement abroad, outside of Israel, that is discrediting all the accounts that came from first responders, from survivors, from security forces who were there who saw it with their own eyes. And also forensic examiners that can give the same information after the fact. And despite all this evidence that we have also at I-24 News have been trying to bring the voices that have been closest to the heart of the atrocities on October 7th, there are still those who don't believe it. You hear from the horse's mouth, so to speak, exactly what their objectives were. And you see that the similar answers are repeated by these different terrorists that each of them say that their instructions were to kill women, children, elderly, to kidnap as many as possible. One of them even said that was the goal of this operation, to kidnap as many as possible, to tease as bargaining chips, to release as many of Hamas terror suspects and administrative detainees that are held in Israeli prisons. And so with this growing movement of atrocity deniers, I think that's what stands behind this decision by Shin Bet Police, also the idea for at least yesterday footage to try and prove, give more tangible evidence to those reporting on this, what exactly happened. Hamas live streamed their atrocities in HD. They were quite proud of what they were doing. It seemed strange that their supporters around the world would somehow try to deny this sort of insurmountable evidence in front of their own eyes. I'm not going to be the one who defends the deniers and tries to explain their perspective. The fact is that these things happened. They themselves recorded it. It was fed live streamed back into Gaza. And they themselves are admitting to it. So I think to continue to deny what happened, that just is the biggest disrespect you can show to the victims. And I think it's not a matter of trying to present any symmetry or proportionality, which is a term that is being brought up a lot. There was a lot of suffering, atrocities committed in October 7th in Israel. There's a lot of hardship going on in Gaza with continuous Israeli strikes. I do not think one needs to try and equate between the two. Both are happening. And that's, I think, how this should be presented. That there is a lot of suffering on both sides. And by trying to negate or ignore the suffering on the other side, that doesn't help anyone moving forward in this conflict. Arielle, something I noticed near the end of your report showing these testimonies is this statement by these Hamas murderers on the ground, this sort of wedge between them and their leadership that they're sent out there to die, to get captured, while their leadership is eating canapha over in Qatar somewhere. Is this something that was more or less added for the sake of the video, for some kind of PSYOP, or is this something that seems to be earnestly believed by many of the Hamas fighters, that there's a disconnect between their leaders and themselves? Look, the reality on the ground is they're right. They're right by the fact that they were sent into Israel to die. Those who survived are imprisoned. They're going to stay in Israel for the foreseeable future. Most of them, for the rest of their lives, are going to stay in Israeli prisons. All the while, Hamas leadership that is self-exiled are enjoying a comfortable life, whether it's in Doha and Qatar, whether it's in Turkey, whether it's in Lebanon, they're safe, and they're just sending others to do the dirty work for them. That's why when the IDF says Hamas doesn't care how many civilian casualties they have, I think they're right, because the more civilian casualties, the more hardship there is in Gaza, the more of a claim Hamas leadership has to present itself as the resistance, as the protector of Gaza, the protectors of Gaza, even though they put Gaza in this situation, as the detained terrorist said, we destroyed Gaza with our own hands, the leadership and us. And so the criticism is in place, whether it's genuine, I don't know. If they're talking like this, why didn't they think about it before they chose to go out? But life in a terror organization doesn't always give you freedom of decision. Regardless, the fact that they're saying it now could amount to lip service. I think it does serve Israel and its psychological warfare, trying to sow discord on the other side, but the fact of the matter is the facts that were presented of the disconnect of Hamas leadership from the population on the ground, that is true, that is evident, and even Hamas leaders can deny it. And before we continue, any discussion, I want to break in here to you mention that arid sirens have just gone off in the southern border community of Nahal Oz as Hamas fires rockets into the south once again. We're going to take a slightly different angle now as we are joined by Professor Muhammad Wattar, a senior researcher at the Institute for Israeli Thought and the Institute for National Security Studies. Thank you very much, Professor, for being with us. I want to bring in a new angle. I've been seeing since the beginning of this war calls from Hamas and other terror groups to tell much of the Arab-Israeli population inside Israel to rise up, to join the war, to create mobs like we saw back in 2021. Do you see this as a possibility? What would be the triggers for such an event? Well, thank you for this great question. First of all, these calls should be denounced and condemned from the very beginning when I was quite happy to see that all political leaders, Arab leaders in Israel, rejected these calls loudly, explicitly, without adding but or maybe or something like that. Hamas is a terrorist organization. He has committed a savage terrorist attack on Israeli national security, all the more so Israeli citizens. And by so far, you can see that the entire majority of the Arab citizens in Israel condemned this terrorist attack. They do not support the kidnap or the killing of innocent people. And to a great extent, Hamas so perceives itself so far as a national religious movement that is mandated to free the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip the way they see themselves. It has been proven now for everyone, including for the Arabs in the Arab countries, but in particular to the Arabs in Israel that it is not more than a terrorist organization, actually a savage terrorist organization. Some people try to make comparison between Hamas and ISIS. I'm sorry, I don't think that they are equal Hamas is way worse than ISIS. First, because it is used to be argued at least according to the way they put their arguments, a national religious movement. Or what we have seen from this savage attack is that they have nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with Islam. Actually, this testimony is that we just watched now is a great proof by these terrorist people that what they have committed has nothing to do. Actually, it's contrary to the basic principles of Islam. They have nothing to do with the Palestinian case. The outcome speaks of itself since they have taken control over the Gaza Strip if I correctly remember back in 2007. They have brought only a terrible life and disasters to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. They did not serve the Palestinian case. Whatsoever they are doing is just killing innocent people, terrifying innocent people in Israel and actually in the West Bank. And I shall remind the audience as well that they have been jeopardizing even the national security of the Egyptian from the other side of the border. And that's why the Egyptians did not take any chance when it comes to its national security and so Israel must not take any chance when it comes to its national security. What sort of statements have we seen from the rest of the region when it comes down to Israel's war against Hamas itself? And we've seen a lot of outflow of criticism against Israel because of the civilians in Gaza. But when it comes down to Hamas itself, as you've pointed out, they've caused problems for many other regional powers. You're right about your feeling. We have here a kind of soft condemnation of the terrorist attack. Most of them did not call it a terrorist attack. But I have to say that the Arab political leaders in Israel were way far courageous than the Arab leaders of the Arab countries because they condemned these events. Most of them called it a terrorist attack against civilians. They pick and choose between the words. They were so clear about their message. To the contrary, when it comes to Arab leaders of Arab countries or the more Islamic countries, they spoke about the need to reach a solution in the peace in the Middle East. And the Palestinians have a right to have a state of their own. And they are against the killing of innocent people. But that's not enough. I mean, you have to be a very clear cut about your position. There is here and there is there. And I'm not talking about now about the lay people in Palestine in the Gaza Strip. I'm talking about people who are doing evil and people who are doing justice. This attack is nothing but a terrorist organization, a terrorist attack. It's way more than a terrorist attack. I mean, we know that terrorism aims at innocent people. But with this kind of slavery, it is a kind of adoption of ISIS theory, enveloping it with some kind of nationalistic views, even with Sunni concept of Islam, which has nothing to do with Sunni, by the way, but more went into a hobby. And at the same time, their image is way bad. That's why nowadays they are trying to amend or to correct their image by releasing some kidnapped abductees for kind of some sort of a humanitarian reasons or releasing videos while they are feeding these abductees. Nothing will help. I mean, the world has seen, has watched this terrorist attack, this kind of surgery. In most cases, they filmed themselves, so no one needs to prove anything. Basically, they prove to the world who they are, what they are, and what they are aiming at. And so I agree with you that the Arab world, and the Arab leaders must be more explicit about their position, that history will judge them if they want to so. One of the things you just brought up there is the issue of Wahhabism in this conflict, because it's important to bring up because so many people in the West and in the region had the belief that Saudi Arabia could be a mediating force in the conflict. With Wahhabism seeming at the center of it, that seems to be out the window. What about the other Abrahams of coordination as well? Could they possibly moderate? Could they potentially bring the hostages back? What role do all of these people have to play? Well, it depends on what stage, but let me talk first about the hostages, about the abductees. I think that the Abrahamic Accords has to be leveraged at this stage of time. We did not sign these peace agreements only in order to visit each other as a matter of tourism. Of course, not only for economics, but also we share some common grounds of security, of understanding about our mutual interest in the Middle East, in the world, the connections of these Gulf countries with the Western world in which Israel is part, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And therefore they have to play an important role, particularly against Qatar. Now, we have to remember that although Qatar and the other Gulf countries which signed the peace agreements with Israel, they don't share the same concept about the Middle East and about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but they have their own mutual interests, economic interests, trivial interests, geographic interests, border interests, and therefore they can play this game and put pressure on Qatar in order for Qatar to put pressure on Hamas. And we have seen that it worked with the release of the first two abductees. Now, add to that Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, although originally it's a happy-based oriented, however, we know that Saudi Arabia has been transformed in the last recent years in 180% degree because it is willing to come close to the West. It's willing to come close to America. It's willing to come close to Israel and to other Western countries for its own self-interest. I mean, it feels that the jeopardy of the nuclear aspirations of Iran is not willing to be alone in this fight against Iran. So it's willing to have peace agreement with Israel. It has economic interest with Israel and with the West, and therefore we have to take advantage of the fact that there has been or there have been already steps towards Syria, substantial steps towards peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia in order to bring Saudi Arabia into play and so far I know, and to the best of my knowledge, Saudi Arabia is already in there. It plays behind the scenes an important role, particularly about the abductees, and I hope that this effort will end by releasing all the abductees, particularly the civilian ones, entirely with no conditions from the Hamas side. And I guess as many people in Israel are saying this is inevitable, that this will lead to a ground confrontation in Gaza. When that happens, we've already seen statements from many other regional players, including Abraham Accord Nations, that this is ultimately unacceptable. How is this going to change Israel's relations with these nations quickly?