 and 24, only on I-24 News. As Jews around the world make plans for Passover, the message out of Israel is clear. Let our people go. Today I receive a detailed report on the talks in Cairo. We are constantly working to achieve our goals. First and foremost, the release of all the hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas. With pressure mounting on both Israel and Hamas to agree on a deal for both a release of hostages and a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, a new proposal was laid out by the US with conflicting reports on the outcome. One of the main sticking points is the number and profile of hostages Hamas is willing or able to release. The deal would involve 40 Israelis who were either elderly, sick or female in return for 700 Palestinian prisoners, including around 100 who are convicted of serious terror offences. But Hamas reportedly claims that it does not have that number of captives. This may lead to Israel having to release more prisoners in return for more men under the age of 50 and male soldiers to be freed. And this is not all that Israel must compromise on. An agreement has reportedly been made to allow greater number of displaced gardens to return north, moving to refugee camps rather than back to their homes. But there is still some distance between the sides on the length of the ceasefire. Israel looking for a pause of a couple of months in the fighting, Hamas pushing for a full IDF withdrawal from the enclave. Sources in Gaza have told I-24 News that whilst the political wing of Hamas is pushing for a deal, its military wing on the ground in Gaza wants to keep fighting. Some low-ranking Hamas officials claim that the group has outright rejected the American proposal, but the U.S. and Qatar have both said that they are waiting for a response from both Israel and Hamas, with some signs of optimism after the slow progress in recent months. The Israeli security cabinet is convening on Tuesday, where it will decide if they can make a deal with the devil. Here in the studio with me are Major General Eitan Dangot and veteran journalist Amir Oren. Thank you very much for both of you. Help me out here. It's a lot of guesswork, but what do you think is the chance for a deal? Looks like last details. Well, I'm consistent. I failed every time I made this prediction, but I'm sticking to it. There will be a deal. Now, what is the Israeli position? It was never published. There has never been any official statement regarding the Israeli position. All we hear are media reports. And if you ask one of the people involved in the hostage deal, why don't you publish the outline of the Israeli proposal so that the public will know? And if Hamas is to blame, let us know it. And the answer was we want to keep some negotiating space for the mediators so that they will be able to tell Hamas that they squeezed more out of the Israeli proposal than was originally presented. So this is very nice at the Harvard Business School or some other roundtable. But here people are losing their lives, and we should know what are Israel's concessions, how far it is really willing to go. And one of the Hamas demands, at least, to let the displaced persons be resettled in northern Gaza, at least to outside observers, seems logical. Why insist on it unless someone in Israel wants to stall? Or maybe Israel is afraid of Hamas going back to northern Gaza. I think that when you're talking about the north part of Gaza is the main important condition that Israel has in this kind of tactic and operative details concerning the release of the hostages. Because the north part of Gaza is the main achievement that was done by the IDF. Empty zone, which was supposed to have there at general life 1.5 million people. Now it's 200,000. You completely control this area. And this was the mainstream of the capital of Gaza for Hamas. And I think the movement of the civilians back there should be very slow and under very clear conditions because we are talking now about the first shift. Remember, we are looking to get everybody. And they are looking to get their insurance to be covered by some thousands more till everything will be done. So I think that I'm not afraid from the fact that Israel is not publishing its conditions. I think it's right because you are in a very difficult situation compared to Hamas. Hamas is something very clear. We have something very, let's say, clear to achieve. But under the circumstances of the 7th of October, we are on a problem. And under such a thing, we have to do it under some conditions and not lose the opportunity when you fight. But if you ask me my estimation that we will come to a deal just because United States, it's so powerful in its, let's say, effort to achieve it. Amir, there are reports in Israeli media that according to Hamas, there are even less than 70 hostages alive. Does that make sense to you? Unfortunately, yes. Now, General Dangot knows more. He wouldn't share it with me. But, yes, sadly enough, this is probably right. And when they talk about 40 hostages in the next deal and you have to account for, let's say, 10 to 20 who are probably going to remain around Sinoir as his insurance, as his human shield, there are not many in between the 40 and those 20. And therefore, if you count Netanyahu's 64 fingers in the Knesset, they are probably more, or 72 with guns, more than the number of hostages still alive. Ait and Dangot, without getting into details you cannot go into. Does this sound reasonable to you? Under 70 alive? I think that there are, let's say, some information about how many to estimate that are alive. And I think that the work that is done by the Israeli intelligence and the group that responsible is very professional. And I think they are not surprised, but they will try to see that they will not be surprised. So, in my opinion, there are two main obstacles that are the many important in all this kind of deal. First of all, Hamas would like to achieve their victory as Israel stopped the war. Israel should demand all the people back because in my feelings, after the first shift, if it will be done, we will have much more difficulties than now to renew the second part. So this is the main issues for this kind, what you can call a deal or not a deal. And by the way, during the last 72 hours, you see hundreds of trucks, double container trucks, as we call it in our professional language, enter to Gaza, to the south, to the north. I would like to say there is no humanitarian break in Gaza from food and other things that are needed for the population. But, you know, when Kanyahu says that the two components of his wish list are the return of the hostages, now he says first and foremost, this is novel, and total victory over Hamas. What does Sinwar hear? Give us our hostages and then I'll kill you. It's contradictory. Yeah, well, I should remind all of us that there are like 133 missing people. If we were talking of 70 or under 70 alive, this is more than 60 dead. This is quite insane. It means that almost 50%. But Israel wants its debt to for burial. However, there's a delicate situation here because if Israel is willing to pay for a dead Israeli, as much as for an Israeli who is alive, there is no incentive for the captors to keep them alive. They may kill them because they know that they are going to get whatever they want for the body. That brings us to the hostage families and their supporters. Our 24 news, Baleris Ladin, is with them in Tel Aviv, Baler. Yes, so according to the latest Hamas official statement, they are saying that they are looking into the American proposal, but they are saying that apparently this proposal doesn't give answers to their demands. So the Wall Street Journal reported the aspects of this American proposal. We're talking about six weeks to truth with Israel and Hamas. That includes the release of 40 hostages in exchange for 900 Palestinian prisoners and also includes the return of the Gaza, the displaced Gaza, that went to Rafa to their homes in the north, about 150,000 of them. So the main points of disagreements here are concerning specifically the issue of the return of the Gaza to the north of Gaza. So Hamas doesn't want Israel to be involved in monitoring or ex-maining these Palestinians who are, who is armed and who's not. And they are also demanding that the Israeli soldiers retreat from the buffer zone between the north and the south of Gaza. And they are also demanding that these Palestinians back to their homes and not to some humanitarian zone where they will be living in tents. That's the main points of disagreements. But another issue is apparently going to be some of the main disagreements or main obstacles to this deal, the issue of the apparent picture that Hamas are saying that they have less than 70 hostages alive. So if we are looking into the first stage of this deal where these 40 hostages will be released, maybe Hamas doesn't even have 40 hostages that are in the category of the humanitarian category. So the elderly, the women, the children and the wounded. So maybe Hamas doesn't have enough of these hostages as the first category say. So they will be adding from other categories such as the Israeli soldiers. And if we talk about Israeli soldiers, then we won't be talking about only the release of tens of Palestinian prisoners. We might be talking about hundreds and even more of that. So we might be talking about a huge or a bigger deal than what we thought in the first stage. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners to be released for that specific stage. That's something, of course, the government, the Israeli government, and after Benjamin Netanyahu's vows that there wouldn't be a release of any thousands of Palestinian prisoners will deal with, of course, and we will see which developments are going to be happening in the coming days. Right. Boli Shuldin and Tel Aviv, thank you very much. So Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu keeps talking about the Rafah operation while most of Israeli soldiers pulled out of Gaza. Hi, 24 News. Robert Swift reports. A date for the invasion of Rafah is marked in Israel's calendar. The last major Gazan stronghold still standing. Israel says an operation in the southern city is required to destroy four remaining Hamas formations. We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. There is no force in the world that will stop us. There are many forces trying to stop us, but they will not help it because this enemy, after what it was done, will not do it again. It won't exist either. When the operation will launch is unclear. Prime Minister Netanyahu has previously announced his authorization for such a move on four other occasions in the last two months. Israel's allies, even the U.S., are publicly opposed to an invasion of Rafah, fearing intolerable numbers of civilian casualties if it takes place. Around a million displaced people have fled there, sheltering as Ramadan ends. Close to the Egyptian border, food is easier to come by in Rafah than in Gaza's north. Nowadays, there is no joy in Id al-Fitr because we've been displaced from our homes and we have family members martyred, including Hussein, Khaled, and my family remains in Gaza City. Like the civilians, Hamas' leadership and their hostages have likely been pushed into Rafah, Israel believes. Seizing them will achieve the nation's stated war aims. But Jerusalem made similar arguments prior to its entry into Canunis, Hamas' heartland. After a four-month operation there, Israeli troops withdrew, having one on the battlefield, but leaving behind a rubberized city and an active Hamas insurgency, and having not located any living hostages or senior Hamas commanders. If a Rafah operation takes place, will it be different, the end of the line for Hamas? Or will Israel find itself once again chasing after ghosts? Back to the studio. Amir, Secretary Blinken just said a minute ago that the United States has no idea about a date that Prime Minister Netanyahu was talking about. How much of this is it for internal consumption, really? Whose? Our so does. Well, there is a new application on the store. It's called BB Meter. Not different than Google Translate. You put into it what Benkvir threatened in the morning, and Smootrich warned in the afternoon, and you get what Netanyahu will say in the evening. Because the two ministers, the two right-wing ministers said that there will be no government if the Rafah operation is canceled. Netanyahu came up with this ridiculous remark that there is a set date. How can it be? Do we have much like Independence Day and Passover another day on the calendar? The Rafah Day, it's really impossible. Circumstances are changing. Hamas is changing its disposition. Maybe if there is a political decision, maybe an opportunity will arise, intelligence wise, operationally wise, to do it earlier or later. Yes, to your direct question. Yes, it's for internal, not only domestic, but internal government consumption. Eitan Dango, is Rafah really the key to destroying Hamas? Rafah is not the key to say we completely the mission and we achieve the goal. Rafah is a part of the program to destroy and to break the structure of Hamas as, let's say, organized organization, which has battalions and brigades, etc. This is the last brigade. It's a part of the program besides the fact that of course Rafah itself has a very importance by being near the Egypt, near the crossing point and while you control in this area, you are making a line to stop smuggling, etc. But I would like to add another thing. I agreed with Amir concerning the fact that any kind of saying about a statement by the prime minister is something interiorly. But pay attention to the fact that the United States is reacting in the last 48 hours twice to such a statement immediately, not less than one, two hours that it's come to tell him two things. First, you didn't give up any date. Secondly, your delegation that's supposed to come here to sit with us about the program on Rafah has not even packed their suitcases to go to the aircraft. It's pointless. Why should he say Rafah? Say, we are going to find Sinwar and the hostages. Why put a geographic title on it? As you said, it's internal consumption. Let me bring in I-24 news, Aril Osoran, standing by in southern Israel, Ariel. Yes, Jacob, with, as you described, only one division left operating inside the Gaza Strip. The ground operation is pretty much done. The forces are standing on the Netsarim corridor. That's the area in the central Gaza Strip that splits into north and south. But besides that, there aren't any maneuvering forces. And as this is taking place, there's negotiations in Cairo and the statements of Blinken that you just mentioned in studio. But at the end of the day, the fighting currently inside the Gaza Strip is pretty much at a standstill, despite the occasional artillery shelling or airstrike that we can hear or that the IDF releases statements about. But as far as the fighting, the ground war in the Gaza Strip, that's at a complete standstill at this point with anticipation for this operation in Rafah. Aril Osoran, thank you very much for that. And this, in a joint op-ed for the Washington Post, leaders of France, Egypt and Jordan are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a path to a two-state solution for Palestinians. We have Gerard Vespierre with us from Paris. Thank you very much for joining us. This is exactly what is being negotiated now. So what is the point of this op-ed? Can you explain? Well, I think that, first of all, Egypt is really playing a crucial role there as, first of all, as a three-fold, if you want. First of all is that Egypt is a border country to Israel and then has all the problems, the population, the supply. Secondly, they are active in the humanitarian support and certainly they are supporting the today negotiation between Israel, MS and Qatar. Egypt is really in the front role in that article, to my point of view. And France is accompanying that strategy with their presence in Lebanon, with their presence offshore. We have been using one of our aircraft carrier or helicopter carrier to support the people in Gaza. So there is that common goal to support the negotiations which are running today in Cairo. Well, this is a pretty much one-sided thing aimed at Israel. There's no plan for releasing the hostages there. And I'm wondering why would France side with Jordan and Egypt and not try to go into a more full solution here? Well, you know, those who have the solutions in their hands, they are Israel, the Amas and Qatar. So these are the three which are now around the table in Cairo. The other nations around the world, including the U.S., are a contributor to that situation. Those who are making the decision to free the hostage or to free people who are in jail in Israel, those are the Amas and Israel. So those are the countries right now around the negotiation table in Cairo. All right. Jean-Marie Vespierre, thank you very much for that. I'm glad that there's another statement by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who says there's no evidence for a genocide by Israel in Gaza. Why does he have to say that at all? Because he was probably asked or the pro-Palestinian, those who do not see the distinction between being for Palestinians and for Hamas, they have been attacking President Biden politically from the left, in Michigan and other places. And Austin, who is also quite favored by the Afro-American community, as is General Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he came out probably, he was asked by Biden's people to say it. And indeed, there has been no genocide by Israel. This is just one of the battle cries of the anti-Israelis. Meanwhile, humanitarian aid is flowing into Gaza like never before, but mostly into the wrong hands. I-24 News Nicole Serek is more. More aid than ever before is entering the Gaza Strip. The coordination of government activities in the territories, Kogat, says 419 trucks of aid entered on Monday. But the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it's still not enough. And when you put up statistics with numbers of trucks going in saying, look at all these hundreds of trucks going in, and you put it against, look how few trucks have actually moved around with the distribution, well, it's kind of an own goal, isn't it? Because half of the convoys that we were trying to send to the north with food were denied by the very same Israeli authorities. Israel says it's inspecting aid trucks faster than the UN can deliver them. But many aid organizations argue it's difficult to quickly and safely deliver aid throughout the Gaza Strip, pointing to the deadly incident where the Israeli army accidentally killed seven aid workers. We will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers. This incident was a grave mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza. Israel has since said it will open the Ashdod port in southern Israel to receive aid deliveries, as well as the northern Ares border crossing to allow trucks into Gaza, in addition to the Karam Shalom and Rafa crossing. But when exactly, it's still unclear. The announcement by the Israeli government to finally open Ares border crossing and Ashdod harbour to aid shipments must be implemented quickly now. These are important steps for which we stood up for months and it's good that they are being taken now. But, as already mentioned, there must be no more excuses. As international forces, pressure is real. To increase aid by land and sea, more aid is also flying in. The Jordanian army said it carried out the largest airdrop operation to date on Tuesday, with 14 separate drops. Still, the United Nations fears of famine if aid isn't smoothly delivered, even as the largest amount of aid enters Gaza since the start of the war. I'm going to go back to you, Eitan D'Angot. So that means Israel is back to supplying aid to Gaza. Israel opened some crossing to Gaza. The main is coming from Rafah Steel, but the checking done by Israel. Israel opened few places that were closed. I may say that from now, the south area of Gaza, Rafah, the United Nations is controlling steel by Hamas, but the north part is central by Israel. And we can't control it. And I think that the number of trucks has been multiplying more in the last 72 hours. That means that, in my opinion, we will not see any kind of problem for the future. And you have the mechanism by yourself how to do it in the coming days. All right. Thank you very much for that. We'll take a short break, and we'll be right back with more special coverage. Hena, I-24 News. Eitan D'Angot. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. This week on News 24, Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and the information of the events of the war on iron swords. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone. The reaction of Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only medium in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. Welcome back. For the first time, a ship-mounted version of the iron dome missile defense system intercepted a drone that entered Israeli airspace. I-24 News, Dixiel Irving, has more on that. For the first time, an unmanned aerial vehicle which was approaching Israel's southern city of Elat successfully downed by the Israeli Defense Forces over the Red Sea. The drone was intercepted by a new system, the Seadome, launched from the Israeli Navy, Sa'ar 6-class Corvette Missile Ship. The defense establishment continues all the time to upgrade the capabilities of the iron dome system on land and at sea in order to increase its effectiveness. In the current campaign, we successfully tested additional new capabilities for the system in its naval configuration with the Sa'ar 6 ship, along with other layers of the multi-layered defense system layer of the state of Israel. Elat has faced repeated ballistic missiles from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen as an act of solidarity with Hamas. Houthis have also launched a series of attacks targeting shipping in the Red Sea since the inception of Israel's operation in Gaza. Following the start of Israel's offensive in Gaza, Israel deployed missile boats in the Red Sea, one of which used the Seadome to intercept the drone. The Seadome uses the same interceptor as the land-based iron dome system, both engineered by the Israeli defense forces contractor Rafael. Using the same capabilities, linking the ship's systems to the systems on the land and the radar that was developed specifically for the task of protecting the economic waters, the system successfully identified the threats, rockets, UAVs and cruise missiles and launched towards them from the heart of the sea. Naval iron dome interceptors that destroyed them with perfect precision. The integration of the Seadome in tandem with the Aero, the aerial anti-missile system and the iron dome ensures Israel's comprehensive defense system across all domains, land, sea and air. So Major General Eitan Dangot here in the studio, that adds another dimension to Israeli defense. Yes, absolutely. It's explained the capacity and the preparations and the readiness of, as it was said here in the movie, on the ground, on the air from the sea. And also you can make it on the way, even before it comes to the Israel, like for the batteries that are deployed on the ground. What does it mean? You are going on the depths of the red sea. So you can achieve the target on the way while it's making is two-thirds on its way, et cetera. So what does it mean? The great operational achievements on making technology all over the platforms that we are needed in, and it makes the strongest, I think, situation of the Israel air defense system in these days in order to prevent any kind of attack that is coming from outside. Yeah, Seadome. I'm glad to welcome here Catherine Perez-Shaktan. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you. Here in person, not on a remote interview. And we're going to talk about Iran, mostly. Can the Iranian regime afford not to react after what happened in Damascus? This is not a question of whether or not they can afford to not retaliate. I think it's a matter of being able to win something. And I think that Khamenei's regime is so very terrified. They're sitting at the very age of a cliff. They can't afford to lose anything. They can't afford to make a mistake. They are hated within. They can't afford to lose any more ISGC, whether they are officers or soldiers on the ground. They can't afford to lose any more because they can't replace them. So there's a very difficult choice. And I think that they're starting to understand that they stepped outside, not the comfort zone, but they really drew outside the line when they, the way that they encouraged Hamas to attack Israel on October 7th, and they did not, I think, expect the level of retaliation and the way that the government and the Israeli and the diaspora, the Jewish diaspora in general, was going to react and how we united. Whether people agree on politics is beside the point, is that the Jewish people are one. And this terrified the regime in Iran. They understand that when we together, there's nothing that could actually touch us or harm us and that we will move as one. And they can't do this. So it's not a question of can they or should they, is that they technically cannot. And also, I don't think that Israel is the immediate target of the regime. I think that the regime is trying to lock Saudi Arabia out geographically, as well as Israel, and in order to do this, it needs to attack Jordan. And Jordan is very much the target, which I think we actually stopped by targeting the RGC commander in Syria. And I think that they understand that the message was very clear that we know exactly what they're up to, what they're doing, what they want to achieve, and that they're going to be stopped at every corner, every step of the way. So if anything, they are scared. Jordan is the Hashemite kingdom. So from a very sheer theological perspective, we have to fall in order for the RGC, the regime in Iran, to be able to geographically create this one corridor, to be able to link the entire region to lock Israel out and to lock Saudi out and to isolate the kingdom. You need to understand that this is a battle that has, it's a form of colonialism, a theological colonialism. They're trying to rebrand the region to their colors, and they have already rebranded Shia Islam. They're trying to do this with Sunni Islam. If you look at the way that things have happened, Arab blood has been spilled in the street. Not Iranian blood, not RGC blood, Arab blood. And the problem is, the Arab streets, the Arab capitals are now realizing that they actually are being colonized by the RGC. Syria was taken over, Yemen was taken over, Iraq was taken over, Lebanon was taken over. To a greater extent, Palestinians' identity was actually, they were branded by the RGC, and they're playing Hamas this game, dying for Hamas, for the RGC. If anything, I would say that the streets, you wake up and understand that Israel is not the enemy, the Jews are not the enemy. If anything, we are the solution. We already decolonize ourself. We reclaim our territory, we decolonize ourself mentally, psychologically. We own ourself and our identity and our history. They do not. And maybe it is time for them to wake up. We're coming to pass over. And I say, let my people go. And in that case, maybe they need to let their people go and understand that the real enemy is sitting in Tehran, not in Israel. The Tehran plan really goes into effect and happens. Saudi Arabia and normalization and all of that. Where would that leave Iran? Well, it would leave Iran somewhere, as long as the regime is out and gone and disappeared. The regime is this construct that is essentially an enactment of slavery. It owns people. It wants to brand people to a very particular ideology. Leaving no room for innovation, no room for freedom, no room for people to grow and move and change their mind. This is a dead regime. In the sense that it does not accept life. In the sense that you can't have innovation. People cannot thrive. They cannot grow. They cannot travel out of the country. They cannot even change their religion and change their mind. This is a very antiquated way of living. This is feudalism at its very worst. It's the negation of humanity. It's nihilism. It cannot stand. It will run out its course. We have seen in history, ideology fall and rise. This one will fall. Unfortunately, I think for the Iranian people, they're going to need to make it fall a lot faster because they're prolonging their enslavement. At some point, something has to give, but it needs to come from within. We can't help them. They have to help themselves and understand, and I would say the same thing for the entire region. They need to understand that while they're hating us, playing the game of the puppeteers in Tehran, not understanding, but hating us is the easy way because this is something that they know so well. But actually, while they're doing so, they're not hating the right people. They're not hating the right enemy. I want them to get angry. It's just not at us because we don't want anything from them. They need something from us because we've already done the work. My advice to them and my encouragement to them is just understand that the enemies in Tehran wake up and actually, if not for yourself, for your children. Because who are you as a parent? Who are you as a person? If you cannot actually want something better for your child, the notion of martyrdom is the negation of being a parent. If you're a mother or father, why would you want your child to suffer? For what? So you could achieve something? And who is there to verify it? Nobody. So I'd rather live a good life and actually stand for the truth. Alright, Catherine, thank you very much. You're welcome. And meanwhile, Turkey and Israel are threatening each other with trade boycotts that Turkish Foreign Minister started yesterday. iPhone Phone News, Ariel Levine Waldman reports. Turkey, one of Hamas' key allies and one of Israel's biggest trade partners, has just cut off most exports to Israel. Turkey says the embargo will cover 54 categories of goods, including concrete, steel and fuel, and says it's because Israel refused to let it carry out air drops into Gaza. There is no excuse for Israel to block our attempt to airlift aid to the starving people of Gaza. Faced with this situation, we decided to take a series of new measures against Israel. These measures, approved by our president, will be implemented step by step without delay. Relations between the two countries have withered since the war with Hamas began after the terrorist slaughter of Israeli border communities on October 7th. But until now, trade hadn't been touched. Turkey is Israel's fifth biggest trade partner, exporting more than $7 billion worth of goods to Israel annually. Raw materials such as iron, steel and plastics taking up the majority of the list. But the reasoning may be more political than diplomatic. Erdogan's party just lost a sweeping series of local elections because his traditional Islamist voter base didn't turn out. Many cited continued trade with Israel as the cause. Turkey maintains the embargo will continue as long as Israel fights in Gaza. But as many Israelis have abandoned Turkish products amidst souring relations, it's unlikely to ever recover. Now we have with us Dr. Hayat Anko and Yanochak. Thank you very much for coming and an expert on Turkey. Maybe you can understand what's the point of all of this. Look, this is a very complicated decision. You know, I was expecting to see such a drastic move maybe before the elections, but after the elections, many people can understand the rationale. After this decision, this is very controversial. But again, I would like to divert your attention to the Turkish politics once again. At the end of the elections, Erdogan was devastated. He saw that the Republican people's party, the secular party, did manage to penetrate into central Anatolian region. What made him really upset was the new welfare party. The new welfare party, this Islamist party, they brought a very important precondition to make an alliance for the elections with Mr. Erdogan. And that was stopping this putting an end to the bilateral trade relations with the State of Israel. Then Erdogan didn't answer in a positive manner. But now we understand that he basically surrendered. Two days ago, there was a very important demonstration in the city of Istanbul, Istanbul's Taksim Square. There, the pro-Palestinian demonstrators that were driven by the Felicity party, the future party, and the new welfare party, they confronted with the Turkish police and the Turkish police oppressed them. And the day after, the Turkish Islamist press attacked Erdogan in a very dramatic manner. And then we saw this, it's like an excuse. It's a façade, the statement that was carried out, that was delivered by the Turkish foreign minister. In my opinion, it's an excuse. And this is very much related with the Turkish domestic politics. As we know, there are no winners in trade wars, but who's going to lose more? According to the figures, the Turkish exports to Israel last year stood for $5.4 billion. And since the most important product from my understanding is the steel, and last year, if I'm not mistaken, more than a million tons of steel were dispatched from Turkey to Israel. So you do not have to become an economist to understand who will be the big loser of this decision. If we are speaking in the terminology of soccer, it's an own goal for the Turkish economy because in the life, unfortunately, everyone is replaceable. And the State of Israel will get necessary decisions to replace Turkey with another supplier. And let me make it very clear that these products are not ordinary products. These are strategic products that are very much related to the homeland security. We are talking about the construction sector. We are talking about cement. We are talking about aluminum and many others. So this is something very crucial. And once Israel will replace Turkey with another supplier, even if Turkey will change its mind, it would be very, very late because at the end, since we are suffering from this mistrust, it would be very hard to mend this bridge once again. And if you allow me, if we are talking about bridges, last week, the Turkish Airlines declared that they are not going to renew their flights between Tel Aviv and Istanbul. So if we do not have people-to-people relations. No people, no trade. What's next? Maybe cutting off relations? Unfortunately, I really do not wish that we would come to that. But unfortunately, the Turkish IHH, the organization that was declared by Israel as a terrorist organization, the organizers of the Mavi Marmara Flotilla, they announced that they bought three different ships that will sail to Gaza on 15th of April. So next week, we may see once again another unprecedented friction that may result in the end of the Israeli-Turkish relations unless an adult like the United States will intervene and will stop this escalating situation because we are not heading towards bright days, unfortunately. Yeah, it doesn't look good. Not at all. Thank you very much for your insight. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Now, a couple of moves by the Iraqi government, sending fuel to Gaza and building a pipeline to Turkey. So with us now is Intifat Kanbar, president and founder of Kurdish Protection Action Committee. Thank you very much for joining us again. What's behind these moves, decisions by the Iraqi government? It shows you how chaotic the politics of the Iraqi government now. It's worth underlining, Jacob, that today is 21 years since a brave U.S. soldier liberated Baghdad from the worst and heinous dictators in history, Saddam Hussein, and also a few days before the expected visit by the prime minister of Iraq. Last night, on this occasion, five attacks by cruise missiles were launched from Iraq to Israel. This is exactly what's the problem. In the meantime, the Iraqi government is cutting off funding for the Kurdish government, banning the Kurdish government from exporting oil while we're sending fuel products to Gaza where we have a humanitarian and huge crisis in Kurdistan for salaries and oil export, while at the same time we are attacking another country, which is a southern country in Israel, a member of the United Nations. At the same time, the United States inviting the prime minister who's either complicit or graciously covering up for this mess in Iraq. I'm just wondering, does Iraq have enough oil to spread around like this? Actually not. We're importing our oil products from abroad, and believe it or not, we have a massive new refinery in Karbala and another one in Beji, and the militias and the corruption in the government prohibiting these refineries from working and producing so they can import from Iran and benefit Iran. And then they hand it to Gaza while I'm completely not against any humanitarian help, but we have a humanitarian crisis inside Iraq that Kurdish people has been deprived of more than 75% of their resources, and as I said, they have prevented Kurdistan from exporting oil through Turkey, which they are shooting themselves on the foot because the Iraqi government itself is losing a billion dollars a year from the lack of export of Kurdistan oil, but they do it because of chauvinism and because of Iranian incitement. Antifat Kanbar, thank you very much. Back to the studio here with Amir Orin and Eitan Dango. The question of Iraq, that was kind of a wild card. I mean, we know Hamas and Hezbollah and whatnot, but suddenly you have planes coming in and missiles out of Iraq. That's a surprise, wasn't it? Yes, Iraq should have been a buffer state between Israel and its arch enemy Iran, but because Iraq has fallen under Iranian auspices, it's only a launching pad or a transit station or this particular region, Qaim el Qaim in Iraq or Bukamal on the Syrian-Iraqi border. These are the very places where SCAD missiles were launched from in 1991. And this is the same place the United States invaded and look where we are now. Yeah, so we are going to make a living of this problem for many years. Probably. I may tell you it's a kind of looking that Iran organized its regional terror against Israel, it's a part, but I think it's a minor item for looking at it as a major threat to Israel. What really bothers me, we have just started to talk about it with the lady that's been there. How Jordan, when you are looking, if I may say instead of Iranian and Hezbollah who organized this kind of circle around Israel, I think they identified that it's not enough for them and they will make a lot of efforts in order to create in Jordan a new base which will make from Roshanikah, Tileilat, one area against Israel and it means they also identify the weakness of Jordan, the type of population there while they are already working and entering to Jordan, smuggling arms and other kind of things and people will have to organize. I'm not talking about tomorrow, not about one year from now. I'm talking about the coming five years while we have to see how this region will take a part and without press steps in order to understand that Jordan is the goalkeeper for all this area of the Middle East. I think things has to be changed by Arab, modern countries, United States and Israel as well to support and to prevent because this will be a really great adventure. Jordan, is it at risk? Yes, it is. First of all, there is a Palestinian majority there. The majority of the population on the East Bank is Palestinian. It's a pro-Hamas, not only anti-Israel and the Israeli embassy in Amman doesn't really work. It's closed on weekdays. On Mondays, there is a convoy from Jerusalem with only the essential staffers coming back on Thursday night. It's a very cold piece. Now fortunately, the security organizations and the military are cooperating with their Israeli counterparts but on the political level, Netanyahu personally is held in suspicion by the Royal Court because of various events throughout the years. So we have to bless our Jordanian friends for helping secure our eastern border. Meanwhile, you have to say Ramadan is going by quite quietly as opposed to some very bad fears. That's true. Sometimes the pessimistic prophecies do not come true. And one, again, has to credit the Palestinian population on the West Bank because they have not responded to incitement. They have done their own calculus, decided that this is not the time, these are not the methods, and we can now have a sigh of relief. And this now, Bahrain's King has pardoned nearly 1,600 people facing criminal and riot charges. It's the largest such mass release in years. Bastian Bari is with us now from Dubai. Bastian, why now? Well, it's a sort of tradition at the end of Ramadan, but we have to say that a lot of these prisoners had actually been on the hunger strike for quite some time, refusing food and protests at their detention conditions. We're many talking about prisoners of conscience, many of them being dissidents detained during the 2011, sorry, crackdown on Shi'at-led protests, which were part of, as you know, the Arab Spring when pro-democracy protests against the ruling al-Khalifa family in Bahrain swept the country more than 10 years ago now. A few detainees had begun refusing food last summer and increasing numbers have joined since. And some former inmates have said it was one of the most powerful strikes that has ever happened inside the Bahraini prison system. It has even triggered rare street protests by relatives of inmates demanding their release. So Ramadan tradition, yes, but it's also a way of maintaining social peace in Bahrain. What do we know about conditions in prisoners in Bahrain? Well, as you know, Bahrain is a tiny country, but it has one of the highest incarceration rates per capita in the whole Middle East, around 4,000 people are behind bars, of which around 1,200 are prisoners of conscience who are detained because of their religious and political views or their sexual orientation. And these prisoners are housed in separate blocks and subjected to harsh treatment. And this is according to former inmates and some organizations like Human Rights Watch who continuously ask for their release based on the fact that political prisoner has to be pardoned at some point. So the government gives them anything else besides pardon? If we're talking about the ones who are still detained, their demands are for increased time outside their cells, currently limited to one hour a day. Prayers in congregation at the prison mosque also changes to constraints on family visits, improvements to education facilities and access to proper medical care. So the Ministry of Interior increased the duration of visitations and was looking to increase the time inmates are allowed outdoors. But Jacob, that's pretty much it. And there's this story of a 62-year-old Bahrainian human rights defender who has been imprisoned for 12 years. A few days after he joined the strike he was rushed to the intensive care unit of a hospital with serious cardiac problems. And according to some reports he remained for a long time in need of urgent medical care, which prison authorities were pretty much failing to provide. Okay, Bastien Bahrain-Dubai, thank you very much. Good evening. This is it for us here in the studio. Stay tuned for more news with Kalev Bendovi. Have a good night from Tel Aviv. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. This week on News 24 Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and information of the events of the war with iron swords. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone. The reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only medium in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only in I-24 News. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Kalev Bendovi. It is day 186 of Israel's war against Hamas. Now the security cabinet is convening this evening and they're conflicting reports of a progress in the Cairo talks towards a new hostage deal. Also on the agenda will be the timing of an IDF offensive in Tarafah. The last Hamas strongholding Gaza. This after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has circled the date on the calendar to begin that operation. Those two issues have now become intertwined. A point of contention within Netanyahu's coalition. Joe Brown has more in this report on the prospects for an agreement that would bring some of the hostages home and provide a break in the battle over Gaza. As Jews around the world make plans for Passover the message out of Israel is clear. Let our people go. Today I receive a detailed report on the talks in Cairo. We're constantly working to achieve our goals. First and foremost the release of all the hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas. With pressure mounting on both Israel and Hamas to agree on a deal for both a release of hostages and a ceasefire in the war in Gaza a new proposal was laid out by the US with conflicting reports on the outcome. One of the main sticking points is the number and profile of hostages Hamas is willing or able to release. The deal would involve 40 Israelis who are either elderly sick or female in return for 700 Palestinian prisoners including around 100 who are convicted of serious terror offences. But Hamas reportedly claims that it does not have that number of captives. This may lead to Israel having to release more prisoners in return for more men under the age of 50 and male soldiers to be freed. And this is not all that Israel must compromise on. An agreement has reportedly been made to allow greater number of displaced Gazans to return north moving to refugee camps rather than back to their homes. But there is still some distance between the sides on the length of the ceasefire. Israel looking for a pause of a couple of months in the fighting, Hamas pushing for a full IDF withdrawal from the enclave. Sources in Gaza have told I-24 news that whilst the political wing of Hamas is pushing for a deal its military wing on the ground in Gaza wants to keep fighting. Some low-ranking Hamas officials claim that the group has outright rejected the American proposal but the US and Qatar have both said that they are waiting for a response from both Israel and Hamas with some signs of optimism after the slow progress in recent months. The Israeli security cabinet is convening on Tuesday where it will decide if they can make a deal with the devil. From what let's go to our correspondent Balir Sladini is out in hostage square there in the Tel Aviv opposite IDF headquarters. It's going to be a tough day for the families of the hostages. Some of these reports coming out concern over those hostages which we call the humanitarian hostages, the women, children, elderly disturbing reports and of course the security cabinet meeting, dissension within the government over how to proceed. Yes, exactly. After a repeated request from Smotrich yesterday, the far-right politician in Netanyahu's coalition, the cabinet is now meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the latest about this deal and in front of the prime minister's residence there are tens of protesters including some of the families of the hostages that demand a deal as soon as possible. They are saying that we are reaching Passover, the holiday of freedom as it's our trade and we need to see our hostages freed from Gaza and back to their homes. So, of course, lots of tension especially because of this conflicting reports lately but we can talk about what we know maybe for sure. First of all, Anthony Blinken an hour ago is saying the secretary of the foreign secretary of the United States is saying that we proposed a serious proposal for Hamas and this and if Hamas cares about the Palestinian people in Gaza they need to accept this proposal. He is also rooting out any operation in Raqqa this week so until there are more talks about an operation in Raqqa with the Israelis next week there will be no operation in Raqqa just as Anthony Blinken is saying right now this is very important of course because as soon as we see an operation in Raqqa especially if it's before any deal reach between the two parties that means that maybe we can talk about deadlock in these talks after all so the Wall Street Journal is saying today that a truce of six weeks are in these talks right now 40 hostages but the main points of disagreements are again the return of the Palestinians from south of Gaza to the north of Gaza Hamas wants this to be unconditional they want no Israeli soldiers in the buffer zone no one examines who is armed and who's not armed that's something of course Israel to accept and they're also demanding that these people go back to their homes and not to any humanitarian zone and to any tents after all and the huge issue right now that we understand and also it have been stated in the reports that we're talking about a small number of hostages that are alive so less than 70 and maybe in this category the humanitarian category that we're talking about maybe less than 40 that are alive that means that more on the category of the Israeli male soldiers would be in the first stage and that means that we will see or at least Hamas will demand thousands of Palestinian prisoners to be released from the Israeli jails something that Netanyahu vowed over and over again before that it will not happen there will be no end of the war and there will be no release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners now we need to see whether this cabinet with Smotrish and Bekver in it can accept such terms from the U.S. All right, Balia Sledin there in the hostage square in Tel Aviv thank you for that and we have with us as guests retired IDF Colonel Dr. Jacques Nari he's the former deputy head of assessment for Israeli military intelligence was an advisor to the late Yitzhak Rabin and Ambassador Danny A. Alon former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister now chairman of Silver Road Capital Jacques first of all let's pick up what was made for Balia from a security standpoint could Israel agree to see hundreds of thousands of these Palestinian refugees who went down south go back in the north facing the danger of Hamas infiltrating infiltrating in the north retaking over that territory I think that we should not look at that possibilities as a very dangerous one after all Hamas has been beaten out of the 24 battalions 19 have been eliminated and if there's a presence there's a sporadic presence in the north and in the south but let us remember that we have created the buffer zone between Gaza and the Israeli localities around Gaza we have cut Gaza into two I think that we have made some accomplishment that right now Hamas would like to eliminate he wants to return to point zero from the very beginning eliminating all what we have accomplished during those six months and this is a situation that Israel cannot accept so after all I mean what sort of government would we have to in front of us if those accomplishments would be just eliminated and forgotten so this is one point and the most important one is that Israel cannot I mean this is the only card the fact that the return of the refugees or the displaced from the south to the north this is the only card that remains in the hands of Israel in order to some leverage on Hamas because otherwise there's no military campaign I mean the military campaign is at zero right now we are trampling on the spot we are doing nothing I mean we just withdrew from most of the Gaza Strip as the American had asked us we are in phase three of the operation but there are still some targeted killings taking place as we just saw but this is not a war we are not at war we are we are in a campaign we are operations this is command operation so the only leverage that the real leverage we have on Hamas is the population the Palestinian population and this is I mean this is the fact that Israel has accepted the return of two thousand per day and the Americans are asking for six thousand now and if we accept six thousand it means that it will take more than a year for all those to return and if this is the lapse of time so when are we going to take care of Rafa and reports of tens of thousands of tens being ordered and so they have to rewrite Danny Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this evening in a very difficult place on one hand as we heard internal opposition in his cabinet in his government both the terms of the of a hostage deal and the delay even accepting that would mean delaying the Rafa operation something that could lead to a break up of his coalition on the other hand these reports that we just talked about about the hostages being the numbers that may have darting per captivity is going to put even more pressure public pressure and say now is the time where there are still some alive ministers Netanyahu in no one situation here kind of no but I think one bright spot for him is that the Americans now have claimed publicly that it is Hamas now right answer for the deal so this is kind of alleviate some of the pressure on Israel and on the Israeli government right internationally internationally on the other hand he has this political pressure from Ben Greer and Smotridge on the deal itself nothing is as being you know no deal is done until everything is agreed upon and here I think he will have a lot of convincing to do with Ben Greer and Smotridge about the number of Palestinian terrorist prisoners released the identity of them and that could be a very very tough right because as Jacques said if now we're talking about releasing either soldiers or people who are serving the IDF or younger hostages they're going to demand high-ranking security prisoners right and also you know once you do it in stages the Hamas can can really still hold all the cards would have been much better to have one type of a deal where everyone for everyone but Hamas understands that this is the lifeline of Hamas to keep the hostages as long as possible in order to deflect any possibility of a rough operation in order to tire Israel up and so far it seems like they have all the time in the world time so far has been proven to work for Hamas in terms of the cards lost by Israel right it's certainly why should the baby under pressure well we've heard that we've heard sources in Gaza have told like 24 news the military wing President Gaza is the one delaying it they believe they have time this is a period when they have it's a tough certainly a tough period now now as we mentioned earlier Prime Minister Netanyahu did say that a date for the launch of an IDF operation into the southern Gaza city of Rafah is now said at least on his calendar that declaration comes amid heightened diplomatic pressure on Israel regarding its conduct of the war on the Gaza Strip and domestic political pushback on the premier personally as we just spoke about regarding his war strategy Robert Swift takes a closer look at date for the invasion of Rafah is marked in Israel's calendar the last major Gazan stronghold still standing Israel says an operation in the southern city is required to destroy four remaining Hamas formations we will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions including in Rafah there is no force in the world that will stop us there are many forces trying to stop us but they will not help it because this enemy after what it was done will not do it again it won't exist either when the operation will launch is unclear Prime Minister Netanyahu has previously announced his authorization for such a move on four other occasions in the last two months Israel's allies even the US are publicly opposed to an invasion of Rafah fearing intolerable numbers of civilian casualties if it takes place around a million displaced people have fled there sheltering as Ramadan ends close to the Egyptian border food is easier to come by in Rafah than in Gaza's north nowadays there is no joy in Id al-Fitr because we've been displaced from our homes and we have family members martyred including Hussein, Khaled and my family remains in Gaza city like the civilians Hamas's leadership and their hostages have likely been pushed into Rafah Israel believes seizing them will achieve the nation's stated war aims but Jerusalem made similar arguments prior to its entry into Canunis Hamas's heartland after a four month operation there Israeli troops withdrew having one on the battlefield but leaving behind a rubberized city and an active Hamas insurgency and having not located any living hostages or senior Hamas commanders if a Rafah operation takes place will it be different the end of the line for Hamas or will Israel find itself once again chasing after ghosts well for more let's go down now to Ariel also on our Middle East correspondent who's on the Israel Gaza border this evening looking towards a Rafah or at least they're talking about it but as we discussed in the studio we have a lot of questions remaining about when even such an operation would be ready to begin given all the factors involved look the Rafah operation can happen tomorrow it can happen in two months but the situation currently inside the Gaza Strip is that there are no maneuvering troops on the ground you do have a division and a brigade the central axis the Nitzarim axis that splits the Gaza Strip into two halves northern and south but other than that there are not any large scale military maneuvering going on and that indicates as to also the stalling nature of the war but throughout the day and night here we could hear continuous artillery shelling we could see airstrikes even an hour ago there was a rocket that was intercepted which is not too far from where we're standing right now so while the war inside the Gaza Strip is pretty much at a standstill with talks about Rafah with the border communities on the other side of the border in southern Israel starting to get back to normal it still happens with the sound of the booms you can even hear firefights in the streets rocket fire continues so I don't think we should focus only on the situation in Rafah but if this is what the day after the war in Gaza will look like I'm not sure that's exactly what Israel went up for with this war and if it indeed will be the complete annihilation of Hamas as is being promised alright well that's certainly the big question Ariel Osir on there on the Israel Gaza border thank you for that the conduct of the IDF operation Gaza has now become intertwined of course with the humanitarian aid issue now the largest number of aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip this week since the start of the war yet the UN says it is still not enough amid mounting international criticism of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza more countries are putting pressure on Israel to increase aid deliveries the cult said that has more on the latest developments on the humanitarian front more aid than ever before is entering the Gaza Strip the coordination of government activities in the territories Kogat says 419 trucks of aid entered on Monday but the United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs says it's still not enough and when you put up statistics with numbers of truck going in saying look at all these hundreds of trucks going in and you put it against look how few trucks have actually moved around with distribution well it's kind of an own goal isn't it because half of the convoys that we were trying to send to the north with food were denied by the very same Israeli authority Israel says it's inspecting aid trucks faster than the UN can deliver them but many aid organizations argue it's difficult to quickly and safely deliver aid throughout the Gaza Strip pointing to the deadly incident the Israeli army accidentally killed 7 aid workers we will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers this incident was a grave mistake Israel is at a war with Hamas not with the people of Gaza Israel has since said it will open the Ashdod port in southern Israel to receive aid deliveries and northern Eris border crossing to allow trucks into Gaza in addition to the Karim Shalom and Rafa crossing but when exactly is still unclear the announcement by the Israeli government to finally open Eris border crossing and Ashdod harbour to aid shipments must be implemented quickly now these are important steps for which we stood up for months and it's good that they are being taken now but as already mentioned there will be no more excuses as international forces pressure Israel to increase aid by land and sea more aid is also flying in the Jordanian army said it carried out the largest airdrop operation to date on Tuesday with 14 separate drops still the united nation fears of famine if aid isn't smoothly delivered even as the largest amount of aid enters Gaza the start of the war let's talk about for example steps like opening the Eris crossing which have been closed a lot of it was destroyed on October 7th how quickly can the IDF Kogat which must be the Israeli branch of the defense ministry that deals with civil issues must be very overstretched right now to very quickly meet up these demands I think that these demands can be met immediately it's imminent I mean there's no real problem in letting this humanitarian aid cross into Gaza because the first check is done at the port of Ashdod so security checks are done there so what is left is only logistics and logistics can be solved immediately there are security problems with Hamas the convoys and in fact till now in the northern part of Gaza provided by Israel now the moment it goes into Gaza and the moment it gets to the distribution Israel has lost control it's no more there and the one who controls are the international agencies or the agencies the United States and the other coalition and most probably the Hamas operatives are there because as Ariel said earlier there's no Israeli troops inside Gaza the only troops are on the axis that cuts Gaza into two otherwise we have left Gaza so this is why I'm saying what sort of campaign, what sort of war are we having today with Hamas we have no war with Hamas no war is being conducted and this is the situation and if so we should have understood from the very beginning that the humanitarian aid was the card that we should have played in order for us to continue the campaign to stop this stubborn and we just opposed every every measure that the Americans asked and we are still opposing the fact that we didn't offer a solution for the day after well we find ourselves out of Gaza and there's nobody to replace it but I just say Danny it's a political problem for Prime Minister Netanyahu but also among members of the public who have said, who have protested some members going in saying we should not be sending humanitarian aid in well are the hostage Israeli hostages are not getting as far as we don't know if they're getting any kind of aid well we have lost that argument all together by not really initiating not being ahead of the curve and at this point all we have left as a leverage over Hamas of course is the transportation or moving of this dislocated to the north of the refugees but the one thing that Israel has to deal with and if they do not think about it now we will find ourselves again in the same situation as we are being actually chased by the international community not really achieving our strategic objectives and that is as Jacques said the day after because if we do not plan if we do not install and think about the regime that will take care of Gaza not militarily Israel will have to take care of military for the foreseeable future but in terms of the humanitarian aid distribution in terms of all the social activities in terms of anything that you can think of in terms of governance and right now Netanyahu again has the problem of Ben Vier that do not want and he himself said he do not want to see Palestinian authority there is nobody else who can do it and unless and until Israel really thinks over who can effectively take over Gaza we will be in this limbo which does not serve Israel's interest alright well we'll see if some decisions come out of the security cabinet today meanwhile the IDF today concluded a large-scale military exercise in northern Israel amid the ongoing air attacks by Hisbala threats by Iran to launch a harsh retaliation for the strike that killed seven IRGC commanders in Damascus last week our reporter Shani Gdahlia filed this report from northern Israel a short time ago tensions are still high in northern Israel in the morning a rocket alert sounded in several localities in Galilee and later today alerts sounded again after a suspicion of drone infiltration it was in Kiryat Shmona so we see there are still many attacks from Hisbala to Israel on a daily basis and in the light of these attacks the IDF completed yesterday an exercise with the infantry the air force, the navy the police and search and rescue units the goal of this exercise was to increase readiness on the northern border so they simulated a number of potential attack scenarios on the other hand on the other part we know that Israel has been on high alert amid the Iranian threats and US intelligence sources told CNN that Iran is unlikely to attack Israel directly and will instead ask its proxies in the region to launch attacks on its behalf in the coming days but in case Iran decides to launch a direct attack Israel has signaled that it will attack targets in Iran like Iranian nuclear facilities and other key infrastructure Jacques last week there was heightened concern, some might say hysteria over a possible Iran attack panic, a few important part by us in the media at least to sort of not to relax but to at least be more calm about the prospect of a direct I think we should take the Iranian threats very seriously last time when this happened it was on the 2nd of January 2020 it took the Iranians 6 days, on the 8th of January they fired 100 missiles on the air base and there were lots of damages done there and the Americans had 300 soldiers mostly death soldiers because of the explosion so we have to take into consideration the fact that we are in the next 48 hours we will be 6 days after what happened in Damascus stay on guard, Jacques Narriere Ambassador Daniel, stay with us we're going out for a brief break but we'll be right back with more of the special broadcast of I-2040's Newsday 186 of Israel's war against Hamas I-24 News Channel broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondents throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries bringing Israel's story to the world I-24 News Channels now on Hot the sequel was held captive for 51 days welcome back to this special broadcast on I-24 News Israel's war against Hamas day 186 now because of that war relations between Israel and Turkey have drastically declined since October 7th and maybe reached or fell to a new level after Turkish President Rajeeb Tayyip Erdogan has just announced new restrictions on exports to Israel the first such economic sanctions imposed by Ankara the second such economic sanctions of the past Israel today told Erdogan that two nations can play at that game more in this report from Ariel Levin Waldman Turkey, one of Hamas's key allies and one of Israel's biggest trade partners has just cut off most exports to Israel Turkey says the embargo will cover 54 categories of goods including concrete, steel and fuel and says it's because Israel refused to let it carry out airdrops into Gaza there is no excuse for Israel to block our attempt to airlift aid to the starving people of Gaza faced with this situation we decided to take a series of new measures against Israel these measures approved by our president will be implemented step by step without delay relations between the two countries have withered since the war with Hamas began after the terrorists slaughter of Israeli border communities on October 7th but until now trade hadn't been touched Turkey is Israel's fifth biggest trade partner exporting more than 7 billion dollars worth of goods to Israel annually raw materials such as iron, steel and plastics taking up the majority of the list we are not talking about like very replaceable goods we are talking about strategic goods like steel like marble and cement these are all very much related to the construction sector and this is something related with the national security of the state of Israel but the reasoning may be more political than diplomatic Erdogan's party just lost a sweeping series of local elections because his traditional Islamist voter base didn't turn out many cited continued trade with Israel as the cause it is very much related to the Turkish politics during the whole election campaign Mr. Erdogan was attacked by the Turkish opposition especially by the Islamist new welfare party that this particular party asked Mr. Erdogan to put an end to all trade relations with Israel Turkey maintains the embargo will continue as long as Israel fights in Gaza but as many Israelis have abandoned Turkish products to miss souring relations it is unlikely to ever recover we are still with the studio Dr. Jacques Neri we want to go and speak with Ambassador Alon Leal the former head of the Israeli diplomatic mission to Turkey joining us this evening from the town of Herzliya Ambassador Leal thank you for joining us Alon I think in the past when we have talked about Israel's diplomatic differences with Turkey you've made the point that Erdogan always kept the economic connections going he separated out diplomacy from trade which is a step now of taking economic sanctions of Turkey against Israel it's certainly serious it's civilian goods that are under an agreement a trade agreement free trade agreement that we signed with Turkey in 1996 so it's against all regulations trade regulations so it has a bilateral meaning because the goods are very important especially to the construction business here that is a sensitive in a sensitive situation now but it has also a wider meaning because this can affect other countries as far as I know it's the first country that has diplomatic full diplomatic relations with Israel that is applying sanctions on civilian goods some spoke on weapons some spoke on sanctions on settlers and settlements but I think it's the only one it's the first one Turkey definitely hopes that there will be more following but bilaterally important and also globally now we know it was really maybe economic concerns that fueled Erdogan's reproshmah with Israel looking maybe to join with Israel and exploiting that natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean Israel now says it's going to apply sanctions back on Turkey in response is that the proper way you think to deal with this situation for Israel to strike back at Turkey with its own economic sanctions and one of the sad things here is that Erdogan did it because he feels that Israel is much weaker than it was on the 6th of October and its ability to respond also globally through the United States or through Europe or through international organizations is minimal the direct response is also not so meaningful because Erdogan still thinks that he can go ahead with and if we will revenge by limiting Israeli goods to go to Turkey he can still stop the oil the Azerbaijanian oil from coming to Israel because the pipeline is going through Turkey so I'm not sure an economic revenge from the Israeli side will be much felt in Turkey and I think it can trigger further moves by Turkey one last question briefly do you think internal politics in Turkey is a factor here as we said in our report yes yes definitely definitely during the municipal elections right before the opposition demanded stopping the trade with Israel and even was critical on Erdogan for not doing so he has the feeling somehow that one of the reasons for his defeat was that he didn't take such measures before the municipal elections so he is doing it now I think it is a factor but not as much as the feeling he has that Turkey does not suffer any reaction international reaction as might have been a year or two ago when Israel had a different international standing Alright Ambassador Alonli, thank you for joining us on I-24 News Danny you have your own history playing a role as deputy minister in previous diplomatic rose with Turkey I'll pick up on something you could add but I want to pick up on something Alonli said shutting down the oil pipeline from Azerbaijan would be a huge escalation you really think Erdogan would go that far? I think if he goes that far that would mean that he will forgo Israel's laying or allowing the natural gas from our European stocks to Europe through Turkey actually the rapprochement that started a few years ago was exactly because he covered very much to be involved with the gas and he knows that Israel has alternatives especially with Cyprus and Greece so if he takes such a strong measure it will not hurt Israel because today the free oil markets are pretty much robust and this is exchangeable but he will risk actually losing that proposition that I'm not sure that Israel should do it anyway but he was still hoping and if he does that for sure we will go the Greek route which will be I think a matter of hurting the Turkish economy and there's tens of billions of dollars huge amounts of money involved in that East Mediterranean gas now Israel today unveiled a new line of defense against the missile and drone attacks launched by Yemen's Iran-backed Tutti rebels against the Red Sea resort of Alat for the first time the Israeli Navy deployed its C-Dome defense system a ship based version of the Iron Dome to shoot down a drone headed for Alat it's the first known operational test that was successfully tested last year more on this report from Dikshita Arvind for the first time an unmanned aerial vehicle which was approaching Israel's southern city of Alat was successfully downed by the Israeli Defense Forces over the Red Sea the drone was intercepted by a new system the C-Dome launched from the Israeli Navy Sa'ar 6-class Corvette Missile Ship the defense establishment continues all the time to upgrade the capabilities of the Iron Dome system on land and at sea in order to increase its effectiveness in the current campaign we successfully tested additional new capabilities for the system in its naval configuration on board the Sa'ar 6-ship along with other layers of the multi-layered defense system layer of the state of Israel Alat has faced repeated ballistic missiles from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen as an act of solidarity with Hamas Houthis have also launched a series of attacks targeting shipping in the Red Sea since the inception of Israel's operation in Gaza following the start of Israel's offensive in Gaza Israel deployed missile boats in the Red Sea one of which used the C-Dome to intercept the drone the C-Dome uses the same interceptor as the land-based Iron Dome system both engineered by the Israeli Defense Forces contractor Rafael using the same capabilities linking the ship's systems to the systems on the land and the radar that was developed specifically for the task of protecting the economic waters the system successfully identified the threats rockets, UAVs and cruise missiles and launched towards them from the heart of the sea Naval Iron Dome interceptors that destroyed them with perfect precision the integration of the C-Dome in tandem with the Aero the aerial anti-missile system and the Iron Dome ensures Israel's comprehensive defense system across all domains land, sea and air Jacques the C-Dome proved its worth in the field today Israel has a defense against the Houthis and by the way we also see a decrease in their attacks on shipping through the European effort the speedies I think it's called is the Houthis threat diminishing The Houthis threat has proven to be a failure I mean except for one ship that has sunk all the rest have been hit those were hit were not sunk and I think that the coalition the European and American coalition is very successful in thwarting all the Houthis attacks and they are just right now targeting an aiming installation inside Yemen which seems to be very operational and very successful by the way the same SAR-6 was almost hit a week ago by the drone that was sent from Iraq and hit the naval base of Eilat and another thing is that the Iron Dome is put on other platform it's not the only platform that is being adapted to fight I mean in the sea we have others also I mean strategic ones that are being developed and they are being also operational and I think that this is a good thing because I mean installing such a system on the SAR-6 has saved billions of dollars of development and of course extends Israel's defense capability much further beyond beyond its borders so that's certainly as I said passing the test today let's go now to the U.S. where Israel's battle against Hamas seems to be steadily losing support among leading political figures in the Democratic Party as some Republicans including Donald Trump look to take advantage of that trend by using the Hamas war as a wedge issue in this campaign season for more let's go to our senior U.S. correspondent in New York and Mike some of those things I'm thinking of comments made by reportedly by Senator Elizabeth Warren I got it should be certainly re-raising some concerns and among Israel supporters there in the U.S. and I think here too Warren has generally taken I don't know if it's an anti-Israel bent all the time but certainly it's not been a staunch ally of Israel so her comments today in a Senate hearing where she said she believes it will play out that it will be proven that Israel is committed genocide in Gaza I think is of less concern than some of the more not only middle of the road but pro-Israel traditionally Democrats that have been making comments about possibly conditioning aid we heard today from Gregory Meeks the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee again just a staunch pro-Israel ally he represents a district in Queens not far from where we are here rarely has gone against Israel in any measure in any vote saying today that he's flying back to Washington to get more information in a special briefing about whether the United States should sell weaponry to Israel that the Biden administration has proposed including 50 F-15s fairly large weapons package so he said he wants to know whether it's going to be used for quote unquote more death humanitarian aid going into Gaza wants to see make sure that won't lead to a possible longer holding of the hostages there or impair a possible two-state solution this is Gregory Meeks again not one you would look at for possibly withholding weapons to Israel. Tim Cain who was Hillary Clinton's vice presidential candidate partner back in 2016 talked this weekend about potentially withholding aid Nancy Pelosi went on cable station earlier on today and blasted Benjamin Netanyahu who specifically said he's a tragedy and the way the war is being conducted right now is not doing any good for Israel more of a personal attack nevertheless to see Nancy Pelosi who quotes Henry Heret every other second going against Israel in this way is quite concerning so it's these traditional staunch Democratic allies of Israel that are more likely to be some right now than the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens of the world. Right and as I mentioned some Republicans including President Trump who said this before that American Jews that vote for Joe Biden are showing there the fact they have no concern for Israel are looking to see this as an issue maybe they think they'll pick up some Jewish votes in the US I don't think Donald Trump threatening anybody with a stern talking to support of Joe Biden and the Democrats is going to win anybody over I think the Jewish vote is kind of played out as it is right now in terms of who's in which camp and I think it's been that way for quite some time I think the longer term concern not only is the lack of a bipartisan agreement on Israel related issues which we're seeing play out more and more within the halls of Congress I think there's no coherent policy right now even on Trump in his four years of office whether you agree with his policies or not he was staunchly pro-Israel in his policies but everything with Trump plays out on a personal level what if he has a complication again with Benjamin Netanyahu what if Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz are in office who tend to sway more to the left in their relationships with Democrats how will that play out so there's no safe play right now for Jews on either side of the aisle I think when it comes to the presidential election all right as soon as it's developing that way Mike Wagenheim in New York thank you for that Danny Ernie Week I asked I told Michael Lauren there must be some times when you're happy you're no longer the ambassador in Washington this is a challenging time for Israel certainly close to the baby since I remember and the question is what should Israel be doing more to try to reverse some of the trends at least on a diplomatic front well first and foremost I think we should show the I would say the more pleasant side of Israel in terms of personal relationships between Israeli leaders and American leaders I think that will play a long I would say way in terms of getting some more support or sympathy but I'll tell you this has never been so bad because the aid the military aid of the United States has been sacrosanct until this war in Gaza the fact that we see more and more people from the mainstream not the progressive not the leftist not the anti Israel which I know which we know where declared ones like Warren and Sandy and Bernie Sanders but other mainstream the fact that they are bringing up the issue of the fans aid this is very dangerous because it is a slippery slope I don't think that we will see it coming imminently but once the genie is out of the battle it can be played about any time in the future we have spoken a couple of times this evening about the possibility or the concern over international opposition to Israel's war and Gaza leading at the very minimum now to public discussion of the likes we haven't heard before of limiting arms sales to Israel even in political circles in the United States and also in Germany these are the two leading foreign suppliers of defense products to Jerusalem the U.S. accounts for 69 percent of arms supplies to Israel and Germany to 30 percent a mandate set down in the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding promised a total of $676 billion I think we have some visuals on this of US military aid over 10 years Germany's arms sales to Israel totaled $326.5 million mainly for air defense systems and communications equipment now at the Hague in the Netherlands today German officials responded strongly to accusations made by Nicaragua's leftist government that charging Berlin with facilitating what it characterizes as Israel's campaign of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza here's what the legal adviser to Germans Foreign Ministry had to say after today's hearing at the IJC unlike Nicaragua we are striving to do justice to both parties to the conflict we are guided by respect for international law responsibility for the security of Israel respect for the suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza efforts to free the Israeli hostages as well as by the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination in the context of a two-state solution we have stated that will reject Nicaragua's unfounded accusations and there is no reason for the ICJ to adopt provisional measures from what let's go to Berlin and speak with journalist and political analyst James Jackson and James how is this being taken now in Germany the irony of course from our perspective in Israel to see Germany being accused of abetting genocide in helping Jews defend itself as opposed to committing genocide against the Jewish people well of course the genocide convention was set up after the Second World War by a Polish Jew Raphael Lemkin who wanted to see people on trial for committing genocide against the Jews so there is a certain historical irony about this case however I think that also makes it slightly painful or even just awkward for many Germans to see themselves effectively on trial for genocide again but this time for supporting the Jews or rather the state of Israel the Jewish state instead of for committing the Holocaust and I think that's why they made one of their arguments today which was one of their principal arguments was that the support for Israel came from Germany's responsibilities from its history however some would also say critics might argue that Germany should have learned a responsibility for all of humanity especially the Jews and not just for defending the Jewish state it's a big political discussion that has been taking place in Germany in the meantime the German public have changed their opinion and are backing a ceasefire by a large majority with 8 out of 10 now wanting Israel to stop 69% want an immediate ceasefire and 8 out of 10 want Germany to put pressure on Israel so we've seen a noted change in senior politicians previously these were activists on the street many of them Palestinian themselves or pro-Palestinian but I do think that the center of society has taken a more critical line towards Israel that of course does not mean that they support Nicaragua's accusation of genocide or that that will go through in the court in the preliminary measures or towards the final ruling of the ICJ or that it would translate into for example limiting arms sales at least not perhaps in the present government James Jackson thank you for that but Jack this is disturbing because as James has said we're seeing a shift in Germany it's something we saw I think a little earlier in France which started out very staunchly on Israel and Manuel Macron certainly growing public opposition and then the shift in fact Macron joining with two Arab leaders how in the Western Quadruses fight but of course Germany as a strategic partner much more important to Israel then for example then I'd say any other country in Europe well you know I'm not surprised I mean about France I mean I've served three years in France and I fought the French administration because of that that remnants of goalism inside the French establishment they still looked at Israel as the goal used to look at us I mean and this doesn't surprise me that Macron has turned back again to those very dark days of France concerning Israel as far as Germany Germany is very important for Israel I mean it just remember that the strategic arm of Israel the submarines are being built by Germans and they are being financed mostly by Germans and this is of utmost importance and I mean paramount importance and we have to safeguard all our relations with Germany and continue to nourish this special relationship otherwise I mean hurting and harming this venue of weapons from Germany could be very dangerous for Israel. Right and again I'm going to throw the question back to you on the diplomatic front Germany it's a different case than the US and the US you have a solid base of support among certainly the American Jewish community or the majority I would say of the American Jewish community and support is of Israel there other groups that are the evangelicals. Germany is a different case really it's really been more government to government there what can what should this government be doing diplomatically to make sure that that flow that security relationship for Germany so crucial as Jacques said that that relationship is maintained. Right well I think what Israel should do more is to explain that we are on the same team you know with the western countries including France and Germany for sure in the United States and the explanation should be that the war indeed is in Gaza but the battle is global and we see here actually two camps the American led camp with the western countries and the Russian China Iran camp and this is where I think Germans and French and other Europeans do feel in their heart of hearts that they should be with us because Israel is the stopgap against a deluge of Islamists over to the continent if you look at the map you know you see the vast Middle East and little Israel is like the little boy who stops the flood so their interest lies with us but what we see really here and Germany is quite capable to defend itself against allegations like from Nicaragua it's more of a symbolic thing it's symbolic and what we see here is that actually it's Iran who is behind everything it's a political war the Iranians understand that there were no achievements on the battleground from Hamas or Hezbollah or the Houthis and they're trying every dirty trick in the book to discomfort, to condemn Israel against others like South Africa they gave billions of dollars to South Africa to squash the ICJ and Nicaragua like Venezuela is a Latin American country that has links with Iran there are similarities all those leftist regimes in South Africa are against that between the governments there I want to thank Dr. Jacques Narriere Ambassador