 Israel is in a state of war, families completely done 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. Come to the special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage day 41 of the war here in Israel. Idea forces still engage in the surgical operations at the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, going room by room, finding their laptops, obtaining information, pictures and videos of some of the 239 hostages, and of course massive amounts of weapons and bombs and other terror infrastructure are all found there. Meanwhile, in a children's bedroom under baby beds, the children's beds rockets, rockets under a kid's bed and baby strollers, yeah not just that, baby strollers used to move around heavy weapons. Take a listen. With I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift sending by there on the Israel Gaza border with the I-24 News team, Robert sources tell I-24 News that alongside this operation at the Shifa Hospital that we will get to in a second that a number of relatives of Ismail Hania were arrested while attempting to flee the northern part of the strip to the south. Yeah, so this is the nephew and the son-in-law of Hania. It's understood that at least one of them was arrested at the hospital. Now they will be detained, it's likely, as a source of information. Now it's been reported so far that neither of them officially has direct involvement with Hamas' activities, but obviously as family relatives it's possible that they will have information that the Israeli military will find useful whether it's regarding Hania himself or the wider activity that's taking place inside Gaza. Hania obviously is not present in the Gaza strip and hasn't been for a number of years him living in exile overseas. Right, and Robert as we speak the operation at the Shifa Hospital, a huge compound, it's important to note, still ongoing audio spokesperson saying some computers and other relevant equipment containing videos and pictures of some of the hostages were found alongside a whole lot of ammunition of course. What do we know? Well I think that the most significant thing there is a statement that's come out just in the last few minutes from the IDF which is saying that they have found in their words evidence of significant infrastructure underneath the hospital. Now this is essentially the sort of the smoking gun that much of the world's outside observers we could say are waiting for. The IDF have been keen to demonstrate that the hospital is as they have been saying for some time being used by FAMAS for military purposes. And if they can find a direct link between the hospital and some sort of significant underground military headquarters this would be very much prove the argument that the IDF is making here. It's worth noting that as all this activity is taking place inside the Gaza City, inside the hospital, battle continues elsewhere in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Just halfway down the Gaza Strip about half an hour ago there was yet another launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli communities and also about 10 minutes ago there was another launch this time to the very far south close to the border with Gaza. Right, so rockets are still being launched from the Strip towards Israel. This is still ongoing as well. I-24 news correspondent Robert Swift on the Israel-Gaza border. Thank you very much from this and from south. We're heading north now to the deceiving quiet perhaps on the Israel-Lebanon border today. I-24 news senior Middle East correspondent Ariel Osir on joining us. Ariel, if I'm not mistaken, Hezbollah claiming responsibility for the 7th entire tank Missala attack today alone. We're seeing more of this back and forth, Ariel. Essentially, the terminology of course is important here, but no matter how you look at it, it's a low key war, a mini war. How would you call it? It's a war and a lower threshold of fighting. That's I think the best way to define what's going on here. I mean, from noon local time until before 4 PM, there were seven attacks combined also anti-tank guided missile attacks as well as mortar attacks and IDF border outposts as well as civilian communities. And I don't recall in these 41 days of fighting such a significant amount in such a small number, in such a short amount of time. That is indeed significant. On the Lebanese side, they're claiming that the IDF has been striking, conducting airstrikes on the western most part of the border in Nakhoura and also on the eastern most part as well across the Hermon mountain. This obviously in response to these attacks. So far, there is no reports of injuries on either side. And of course, this comes as 45 minutes ago. There were rocket alert sirens in the upper Galilee and the border community of Stula also from there. There is no indication of injuries or damage. But as you can see from noon in just five hours, significant escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border. So Ariel, before we let you go, would you say that Hezbollah, to an extent, is trying to push Israel to make the first step. The first step is in something more than what we're seeing at the moment. Look, it's very hard to put yourself in the mind of the leaders of a terror organization. But if we're trying to analyze their intent according to the steps on the ground, we're seeing two things. One, a consistent escalation in attacks and their intensity on Israeli military border outposts as well as border communities. But also we have to say that as these attacks are intensifying, also the methods and means that are being used are intensifying, as well as pinpoint attacks on the border fence itself. This has been going on for about two weeks now. There are still breaches along the border fence, multiple breaches. And that could be in preparation for a more significant attack, as we saw on the southern border that Hamas didn't just one day on October 7th just decide to breach the border to Israel, but they took some time in preparation. So those are the two options, either trying to maintain a low threshold war, trying to avert Israel's attention from the southern border, or indeed what they're doing is they're planning for something more significant. Nonetheless, Israeli forces are spread across the border here in large amounts of forces, as well as the adjacent communities to the border. Most of them have been completely evacuated. A low threshold war, if what we're seeing now on a daily basis on the northern front would have taken place at any other point in time, I assume we would have used a different type of terminology. The same thing regarding the West Bank, I'll say, as well. Absolutely. The same thing also regarding the West Bank. Absolutely, so I-24 News, the senior Middle East correspondent, Daria Loserana, the Israel Lebanon border. Thank you very much for this. And let's cross now to Colonel Miri Aizen, Director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Iraq Manila University. Colonel Aizen, considering everything, it's a pleasure to be speaking to you as per always. Well, the operation is still underway. We're not done, IDF, that is, Israel, not done at the Shefa Hospital whatsoever. We do know that Hamas said everything it can to clean up the surface as much as possible, and yet Colonel Aizen playing devil's advocate here. Is that the smoke and gun that the IDF thought it will, it finds there at the Shefa Hospital? Every once in a while, I always feel I need to describe things in a way that is visual, and this war has been so visual. So, first of all, Ellie, let's talk about words. And then we're going to talk about the Shefa Hospital and the smoking guns. We'll talk afterwards about Hezbollah, because I'm going to use the term here, war of attrition, what they're doing up north. But what is Hamas doing? Hamas is in a visual war. Hamas is a terror organization. They don't dress as soldiers. They don't participate as soldiers. They act as if they're a military, but they're a terror organization, so that they don't go by the same morals. They don't go by the same ethics. They are a terror organization. I have no doubt that Shefa Hospital is and was in enormous headquarters, but now I need you to visualize. I don't know how many of the viewers here have been to a hospital. We're talking about a hospital complex. Shefa Hospital is a major hospital in the Gaza Strip that underneath it, over a decade, Hamas built terror tunnels. But we've talked about the tunnels themselves. They're underneath the hospital. It isn't that the hospital is built and that it's the basement and on the elevator, minus one, minus two, minus three, minus four, that you get to the Hamas floors. It is built under the complex, but in a separate way, meaning it gets the protection of the hospital above. It wants the hospital not to be taken over, and they fired from within the hospital complex. Weapons were found all over the place in the hospital complex, but now you need to get into that subterranean, underground area that, again, was not built as floors, minus one, minus two, in a parking lot. To get into those, they have booby-trapped the entrance. They don't want us to get into it. This is something which is very challenging that you do so in a way that you're not, first and foremost, in that sense, endangering the soldiers, the civilians in the hospital. But you want to get into those tunnels. You don't want them to explode because you want to be able to show what's in there. And I'm giving you now a visual idea as you're showing next to me the visuals that we've tried to put out because Hamas don't want us to be in those tunnels. Hamas don't want us to show them. They want to play this visual game that they are civilians, that Israel is doing something wrong, and it's a very challenging media manipulation done at a very high level within a very long time of preparation, meaning that this isn't something that they started preparing on October 7th. Shefa Hospital in that underground complex is something that, really, for my whole time, I've always known that Hamas have built under it because that's a place they felt safest now. We did not enter into the Gaza Strip immediately. That gave them time to be in it at the beginning, to move out of it through that tunnel system. Again, I described it in that way. Yes, I think it's the smoking gun, but I also think that Hamas does not want us to reach it, that they're going to booby-trap it, that to be able to get to show what they have there, they are going to do their utmost to make sure that we cannot show it. Right, and then this is part of the challenge in this asymmetrical warfare, when one side is not bound or committed to any moral standards or legal standards, et cetera. Colonel Eisen, I do want us to shift focus to the hostage drill because we're hearing day in, day out, pending, potential, if, when being discussed. Bottom line, what we're seeing now as a general outline is this drip, drip type of a policy. 51st, not all at once. Not a ceasefire, but fire ceased for some time. Prisoners' release, which brings me to ask you this, not whether these are good terms or not. Colonel Eisen, the distinction between a price and a cost, and I think it's important for us to discuss it, because yes, the price of something might be higher or higher than you thought, but the cost is worth it. Here we are, we're Israelis, Ali. We live here. There's one thing that I understand to somebody who lives here is that there is no, it's like God, I'm making the worst kind of comparison, but I don't wanna, there's advertisements, priceless. It's priceless human life. How can we talk about it in any way whatsoever? We're talking about the basic morals of the state of the way that we need to protect our citizens and who we are. That's the double-edged sword of terrorism. They are using that priceless as a bargaining chip. And here at the end, I'm glad, Ali, that I don't have to make that decision, but I want all of us to understand that. So what's better, and it's priceless, right, okay? Do we wanna wait and make sure that all of the hostages come back? Because how can you only do it bit by bit? Or do you do the 50 that you can right now or the 100 that you can right now when you're paying also? There's a cost for that as well, but how can you even talk about that? When you're talking about something, that as I said, it's priceless. There are no easy answers. I think that the biggest challenge for every single one of us as human beings is that in our dilemmas, bring them all home right now and that is Hamas' biggest bargaining chip. The fact that we need them to all come home now so that for them, pay the price. Pay everything, it's priceless, right? Okay, we could give anything for that. But that also means that right now, we are giving not just Hamas, but any, not just terror organization in the world, like the blueprint of how you get anything you want out of the most horrific terror act. Do we wanna turn that into something that would be copycatted by anywhere around the world? That is the worst idea. But then you go, but how can you talk about the hostages about the babies and about the children and about the anybody? And here I say that is why terrorists do so. It is our weakness as a caring, humane society. Ellie, it's also our strength. It's not just our weakness. We care about people. We do not brutalize, we do not terrorize. We think about that and we're systematically going into a hospital trying not to hurt in that sense to be able to catch our hostages. Doctors, alongside soldiers, personally I've never heard about it anywhere else in the world. Colonel Eisen, before we let you go, I still want us to stay with a diplomatic dynamic for a second because reports earlier today suggest that Sinwar is not even respond, not even picking up the call when the Qataris are calling. Islamic Jihad saying it might not even take part in the steal, doesn't feel like it. Diplomacy for dummy's alert. The US, the Qataris, Egypt, can no one they're banged on the table and say, hey, excuse my French, cut the BS? Here I am sitting here now looking at you, looking at all the viewers and my heart is broken. Here we're understanding what a terror organization is, what an atrocious terror organization and what hardcore terrorism with a new modus operandi that if it succeeds is gonna be copied at it all over the world. No, they have so dehumanized us. They so look at us as not even being human that they don't look at our hostages as human. They are a bargaining chip and they feel that they hold all the cards. No, I do not know of the pressure that can be put on them right now. Right now for them, because the international community is looking through the view that Hamas tried to create that what Israel is doing is against Gaza and civilians when everything we're doing is against Hamas terrorism to get to our hostages. Because of that view quite right now, they feel very strong and that is how I breathe in deep. And I say, let's remain human beings. Let's remember and breathe in deep. They are priceless. That doesn't mean we'll do anything because at the end we want to exist tomorrow morning, both the state of Israel, the Jewish people and especially human beings. The earth should be shaking under every single global leader at this point in time understanding that this might be happening to us now but everyone's exposed to these tactics. Colonel Mary Eisen, Director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at DeRechman University. Thank you, Colonel Eisen for your time, for your insight, we appreciate it. Thank you. I like that we should all at this time really breathe in deep, hug the families and know this is not an easy situation. We're gonna stay human. Right, right. And this will be our victory and that we're protecting our morals and our hearts and our souls. And speaking to that point, exactly welcome to the new episode of Crazy Young Woke People because apparently Bin Laden is trending now. Yes, many strange things have happened and are still happening since October 7th but now the Al Qaeda, our terrorist is becoming a woke symbol and the last 24 hours TikTok have been flooded with videos related to his manifesto letter to America explaining quote, unquote, unquote, unquote why he himself of course orchestrated 9-11 among other things it says the growth of Israel is a serious crime and you the US that is are the leaders of these criminals and to this crime you must pay the price and pay a lot, end quote. Tiktokers are saying my eyes are now open. It's not terrorism, it's political resistance. I need everyone to stop with their debate right now and go read. It's literally two pages. Go read a letter to America and please come back here and just let me know what you think because I feel like I'm going through like an existential crisis right now and a lot of people are. So I just need someone else to be feeling this too. When I read this this morning only one thing crossed my mind what would DCK say? As in David Christopher Kaufman fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute. Mr. Kaufman, thank you very much for joining us. Well, sir with the lack of a better phrasing, what? Yeah, what is going on here? I mean, this would actually be funny if it wasn't so dangerous and really quite sad. I mean, it's sort of a testament to everything that's going wrong and has gone wrong in the United States over the last 20 or 30 years. We have a woman, a young 20-something-year-old woman out in Los Angeles, a lifestyle TikTok influencer who suddenly decided that she has the smoking gun of why everything is happening right now, why Israel is the bad guy, why Hamas is righteous, why we need to free Palestine from the river to the sea, why we're in the midst of a genocide. She understands it all because she found a 21-year-old treatise, a 20-year-old manifesto from none other than Osama bin Laden. But what she fails to forget is that Osama bin Laden was the architect for the most horrendous example of terroristic mass murder in the history of the Western world. And what she also forgets is that when she's touting the virtues of Islamic jihad, which is really what she's doing, she's basically saying, I believe and I promote Islamic jihad, she's forgetting that Islamic jihad would also apply to her. Islamic jihad is not about going to a candy store and saying, I'm gonna take a few pieces of the anti-Zionism, but I'm gonna leave the homophobia or the anti-feminism behind. When you promote Islamic jihad, you're promoting the whole bag, the whole basket. So it's a perfect example of everything that's wrong right now, very scary, very dangerous. And my only hope is that the new cycle will wash this through very fast. Well, those green shakes and matcha lattes are really doing something to people's brains. Well, obviously they're unable to hold a moral-based conversation. So maybe the game plan, Mr. Kaufman should be changed. As in, not to speak about who's right and who is wrong, even though, but rather say this. There's this and there's that. This type of a world and that type of a world. And what half of it would you want to live in, the Biden or the bin Laden? Yeah, I mean, I think that the reaction to this really has to be one of consistent, aggressive messaging. If you, Lynette Atkins, 24 year old lifestyle TikTok blogger, are support bin Laden, you support a world where you have no rights as a woman. You support a world where you are encouraging your LGBTQ queer friends to be murdered. You support a world where there is no sense of liberal justice or prosecution. Everything is based under Sharia law, under the Quran. This is the world you support. This is what you are saying. What's also most sort of concerning to me in her language is it's really all about her. If you listen to what this young woman is saying, it's really the most narcissistic, indulgent exercise in geopoliticking I've ever seen in my life. Number one, why are we listening to this woman? Is she on the degree from Oxford or for the School of Oriental and African Studies in London? Is she an expert talking about Palestinian and Middle Eastern history? Who is this person? How have we gotten to a place in our culture? This is what we need to really be asking ourselves. How have we gotten to a place in our culture where we are turning to bogus, ignorant, uneducated buffoons to teach our youth about the most important geopolitical issues of the day? Why are we listening to her? Why does she matter? Why do we care? And what can we do about that? And you know, more than that, David, it is happening to her. Something is happening to her. She's experiencing something. It's exactly that. Well, David Christopher Kaufman, fellow Tel Aviv Institute, hoping for better times. What can I say? But we'll speak beforehand, I assume. We should also be very concerned about the world of China here. I mean, TikTok is owned by China. This plays completely into their hands. We are being humiliated as a nation by these processes and they're winning. Right, right, right. I'm not sure what Bin Laden himself would have thought about his current as supporters. Anyways, David Christopher Kaufman, fellow Tel Aviv Institute, thank you very much for this, Mr. We'll touch base with you later on. Thank you. And we want to get back now to the field at 24 years' correspondent P.S. Tekelbacher with the families of the 239 hostages, day three of their march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Pia, walking with them. Right, Elie, we're on the highway here, on the way to the last leg for the day to Laton. You're really speaking about hundreds of people walking here on this highway. Dozens of families of the 239 hostages, and they do have demands. They're saying that they will not give up until the last hostage is released. They're saying that they're calling upon the government to stop neglecting them, to do their job, which means to get in touch with them. And they're also calling upon the Red Cross, as you can just now hear, Red Cross through your job, which is referring to the demand of the families to let the Red Cross access the hostages in Gaza and to attend to their medical needs. Now, as you mentioned, Elie, this is already day three of that march. These people started on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, and they're expected to arrive to Jerusalem on Saturday, where they will rally in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, residents to also voice their demands there and to specifically address the Prime Minister because we've heard also earlier that they feel like that the government is not putting the hostages on top of their priority list. Earlier, they marched towards Moudin. They made a stop there in Moudin, where the family of Norma Tziano lives. Norma Tziano is an Israeli soldier who was also kidnapped into Gaza on October the 7th, and it was announced two days ago that she was killed there. So we heard also the mother and the father of Noah, both of them eulogizing her, of course, saying what a wonderful and bright person she was, and the father emphasizing that what they are demanding is one hostage deal, which means that there should not be a deal that wouldn't include all the hostages there. Right, and this is the deal that is being negotiated from what we understand, those drips-drips of hostages to be released. The I-24 news correspondent, Piaz Takobach, with the families of the hostages, thank you very much for this. This is it from us. As the top of the hour, I-24 news continues, the special rolling coverage here. Thank you for watching. 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. For news as we continue our rolling coverage, day 41 of the war here in Israel. Idea forces still engage in the surgical operations at the Shifa Hospital in Degas, a strip going room by room, finding their laptops, obtaining information, pictures and videos of some of the 239 hostages, and of course, massive amounts of weapons and bombs and other terror infrastructure were all found there. Meanwhile, in a children's bedroom under baby beds, their children's beds, rockets, rockets under a kid's bed. And baby strollers, yeah, not just that, baby strollers used to move around heavy weapons. Take a listen. I-24 news correspondent, Robert Swift, standing by there on the Israel Gaza border with the I-24 news team. Robert sources tell I-24 news that alongside this operation at the Shifa Hospital that we will get to in a second, that a number of relatives of Ismail Hania were arrested while attempting to flee the northern part of the strip to the south. Yeah, so this is the nephew and the son-in-law of Hania. It's understood that at least one of them was arrested at the hospital. Now, they will be detained, it's likely, as a source of information. Now, it's been reported so far that neither of them officially has direct involvement with Hamas' activities. But obviously, as family relatives, it's possible that they will have information that the Israeli military will find useful, whether it's regarding Hania himself or the wider activity that's taking place inside Gaza. Hania, obviously, is not present in the Gaza strip and hasn't been, for a number of years, him living in exile overseas. Right, and Robert, as we speak, the operation at the Shifa Hospital, a huge compound, it's important to note. Still ongoing, audio spokesperson saying some computers and other relevant equipment containing videos and pictures of some of the hostages were found alongside a whole lot of ammunition, of course. What do we know? Well, I think that the most significant thing there is a statement that's come out just in the last few minutes from the IDF, which is saying that they have found, in their words, evidence of significant infrastructure underneath the hospital. Now, this is essentially the sort of the smoking gun that much of the world's outside observers, we could say, are waiting for. The IDF have been keen to demonstrate that the hospital is, as they have been saying for some time, being used by Hamas for military purposes. And if they can find a direct link between the hospital and some sort of significant underground military headquarters, this would be very much prove the argument that the IDF is making here. It's worth noting that as all this activity is taking place inside the Gaza City, inside the hospital, battle continues elsewhere in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Just halfway down the Gaza Strip, about half an hour ago, there was yet another launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli communities. And also about 10 minutes ago, there was another launch this time to the very far south, close to the border with Gaza. Right, so rockets are still being launched from the Strip towards Israel. This is still ongoing as well. I-24 News correspondent, Robert Swift on the Israel-Gaza border. Thank you very much from this and from south. We're heading north now to the deceiving quiet, perhaps, on the Israel-Ibernon border. Today, I-24 News, a senior Middle East correspondent, Ariel Asaron joining us. Ariel, if I'm not mistaken, Hezbollah claiming responsibility for the seventh entire tank missile attack today alone. We're seeing more of this back and forth, Ariel. Essentially, the terminology of course is important here, but no matter how you look at it, it's a low-key war, a mini war. How would you call it? It's a war and a lower threshold of fighting. That's, I think, the best way to define what's going on here. I mean, from noon local time until before 4 p.m., there were seven attacks combined. Also, anti-tank guided missile attacks as well as mortar attacks and IDF border outposts as well as civilian communities. And I don't recall in these 41 days of fighting such a significant amount in such a short amount of time. That is indeed significant. On the Lebanese side, they're claiming that the IDF has been striking, conducting airstrikes on the westernmost part of the border in Nakoura and also on the easternmost part as well across the Hermon Mountain. This obviously in response to these attacks. So far, there is no reports of injuries on either side. And of course, this comes as 45 minutes ago, there were rocket alert sirens in the Upper Galilee and the border community of Stula. Also from there, there is no indication of injuries or damage. But as you can see, from noon in just five hours, significant escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border. So, Ariel, before we let you go, would you say that Hezbollah, to an extent, is trying to push Israel to make the first step? The first step is in something more than what we're seeing at the moment? Look, it's very hard to put yourself in the mind of the leaders of a terror organization. But if we're trying to analyze their intent according to the steps on the ground, we're seeing two things. One, a consistent escalation in attacks and their intensity on Israeli military border outpost as well as border communities. But also we have to say that as these attacks are intensifying, also the methods and means that are being used are intensifying, as well as pinpoint attacks on the border fence itself. This has been going on for about two weeks now. There are still breaches along the border fence, multiple breaches, and that could be in preparation for a more significant attack, as we saw on the southern border that Hamas didn't just one day on October 7th just decide to breach the border to Israel, but they took some time in preparation. So those are the two options, either trying to maintain a low-threshold war, trying to avert Israel's attention from the southern border, or indeed what they're doing is they're planning for something more significant. Nonetheless, Israeli forces are spread across the border here in large amounts of forces, as well as the adjacent communities to the border. Most of them have been completely evacuated. A low-threshold war. If what we're seeing now on a daily basis on the northern front would have taken place at any other point in time, I assume we would have used a different type of terminology, but the time on this issue. The same thing regarding the West Bank, I'll say, as well. Absolutely. That's the same thing also regarding the West Bank. Absolutely. So I-24 News, the senior Middle East correspondent, Daria Loserana, the Israel Lebanon border. Thank you very much for this. And let's cross now to Colonel Amiri Aizen, director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Rakhman Nair University. Colonel Aizen, considering everything, pleasure to be speaking to you as per always. Well, the operation is still underway. We're not done, IDIDF, that is, Israel, not done at the Shefa Hospital whatsoever. We do know that Hamas did everything it can to clean up the surface as much as possible. And yet, Colonel Aizen, playing devil's advocate here. Is that the smoking gun that the IDF thought it will, it finds there at the Shefa Hospital? Every once in a while, I always feel I need to describe things in a way that is visual, and this war has been so visual. So first of all, Ellie, let's talk about words. And then we're gonna talk about the Shefa Hospital and the smoking guns. We'll talk afterwards about Hezbollah, because I'm gonna use the term here, war of attrition, what they're doing up north. But what is Hamas doing? Hamas is in a visual war. Hamas is a terror organization. They don't dress as soldiers. They don't participate as soldiers. They act as if they're a military, but they're a terror organization, so that they don't go by the same morals. They don't go by the same ethics. They are a terror organization. I have no doubt the Shefa Hospital is and was in enormous headquarters, but now I need you to visualize. I don't know how many of the viewers here have you been to a hospital? We're talking about a hospital complex. Shefa Hospital is a major hospital in the Gaza Strip that underneath it, over a decade, Hamas built terror tunnels. But we've talked about the tunnels themselves. They're underneath the hospital. It isn't that the hospital is built and that it's the basement and on the elevator, minus one, minus two, minus three, minus four, that you get to the Hamas floors. It is built under the complex, but in a separate way, meaning it gets the protection of the hospital above. It wants the hospital not to be taken over and they fired from within the hospital complex. Weapons were found all over the place in the hospital complex, but now you need to get into that subterranean underground area that again was not built as floors, minus one, minus two, in a parking lot. To get into those, they have booby-trapped the entrance. They don't want us to get into it. This is something which is very challenging that you do so in a way that you're not, first and foremost, in that sense, endangering the soldiers, the civilians in the hospital. But you want to get into those tunnels. You don't want them to explode because you want to be able to show what's in there. And I'm giving you now like a visual idea as you're showing next to me, the visuals that we've tried to put out because Hamas don't want us to be in those tunnels. Hamas don't want us to show them. They want to play this visual game that they are civilians, that Israel is doing something long and it's a very challenging media manipulation done at a very high level within a very long time of preparation. Meaning that this isn't something that they started preparing on October 7th. Shefa Hospital in that underground complex is something that really, for my whole time, I've always known that Hamas have built under it because that's a place they felt safest now. We have been, we did not enter into the Gaza Strip immediately. That gave them time to be in it at the beginning to move out of it through that tunnel system. And again, I described it in that way. Yes, I think it's the smoking gun, but I also think that Hamas does not want us to reach it, that they're going to booby trap it, but to be able to get to show what they have there, they are going to do their utmost to make sure that we cannot show it. Right, and then this is part of the challenge in this asymmetrical warfare when one side is not bound or committed to any moral standards or legal standards, et cetera. Colonel Eisen, I do want us to shift focus to the hostage jail because we're hearing day in, day out, pending potential if, when being discussed, bottom line, what we're seeing now as a general outline is this drip, drip type of a policy. 51st, not all at once, not a ceasefire, but fire ceased for some time, prisoners released, which brings me to ask you this, not whether these are good terms or not. Colonel Eisen, the distinction between a price and a cost, and I think it's important for us to discuss it, because yes, the price of something might be higher or higher than you thought, but the cost is worth it. Here we are, we're Israelis, Ali, we live here. There's one thing that I understand to somebody who lives here is that there is no, it's like God, I'm making the worst kind of comparison, but I don't wanna, there's advertisements, priceless. It's priceless human life. How can we talk about it in any way whatsoever? We're talking about the basic morals of the state of the way that we need to protect our citizens and who we are. That's the double-edged sword of terrorism. They are using that priceless as a bargaining chip. And here at the end, I'm glad, Ali, that I don't have to make that decision, but I want all of us to understand that. So what's better, and it's priceless, right, okay? Do we wanna wait and make sure that all of the hostages come back? Because how can you only do it bit by bit? Or do you do the 50 that you can right now or the 100 that you can right now when you're paying? Also, there's a cost for that as well, but how can you even talk about that? When you're talking about something, then as I said, it's priceless. There are no easy answers. I think that the biggest challenge for every single one of us as human beings is that in our dilemmas, bring them all home right now and that is Hamas' biggest bargaining chip. The fact that we need them to all come home now so that for that, pay the price. Pay everything, it's priceless, right? Okay, we could give anything for that, but that also means that right now, we are giving not just Hamas, but any, not just terror organization in the world, like the blueprint of how you get anything you want out of the most horrific terror act. Do we wanna turn that into something that would be copycatted by anywhere around the world? That is the worst idea. But then you go, how can you talk about the hostages about the babies and about the children, about anybody? And here I say that is why terrorists do so. It is our weakness as a caring, humane society. Ellie, it's also our strength. It's not just our weakness. We care about people. We do not brutalize, we do not terrorize. We think about that and we're systematically going into a hospital trying not to hurt in that sense, to be able to catch our hostages. Doctors alongside soldiers. Personally, I've never heard about it anywhere else in the world. Colonel Eisen, before we let you go, I still want us to stay with the diplomatic dynamic for a second because reports earlier today suggest that Sinwar is not even respond, not even picking up the call when the Qataris are calling. Islamic Jihad saying it might not even take part in the steal, doesn't feel like it. The Diplomacy for Dummies Alert, the US, the Qataris, Egypt, can no one there bang on the table and say, hey, excuse my French, cut the BS? Here I am sitting here now looking at you, looking at all the viewers and my heart is broken. Here we're understanding what terror organization is, what an atrocious terror organization and what hardcore terrorism with a new modus operandi that if it succeeds, is gonna be copycatted all over the world. No, they have so dehumanized us all. They so look at us as not even being human that they don't look at our hostages as human. They are a bargaining chip and they feel that they hold all the cards. No, I do not know of the pressure that can be put on them right now. Right now for them, because the international community is looking through the view that Hamas tried to create that what Israel is doing is against Gaza and civilians when everything we're doing is against Hamas terrorism to get to our hostages. Because of that viewpoint right now, they feel very strong and that is how I breathe in deep and I say, let's remain human beings. Let's remember and breathe in deep. They are priceless. That doesn't mean we'll do anything because at the end we want to exist tomorrow morning, both the state of Israel, the Jewish people and especially human beings. The Earth should be shaking under every single global leader at this point in time, understanding that this might be happening to us now, but everyone's exposed to these tactics. Colonel Mary Eisen, Director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Der Rackman University. Thank you, Colonel Eisen, for your time, for your insight. We appreciate it. Thank you. I like that we should all at this time really breathe in deep, hug the families and know this is not an easy situation. We're going to stay human. Right, right. And this will be our victory that we're protecting our morals and our hearts and our souls. And speaking to that point, exactly welcome to the new episode of Crazy Young Woke People because apparently Belladon is trending now. Yes, many, many strange things have happened and are still happening since October 7th, but now the Al Qaeda, our terrorist, is becoming a woke symbol. In the last 24 hours, TikTok have been flooded with videos related to his manifesto, letter to America, explaining, quote, unquote, unquote, unquote, why he himself, of course, orchestrated 9-11, among other things, it says the growth of Israel is a most serious crime in you think the U.S. that is, are the leaders of these criminals and to this crime you must pay the price and pay a lot, end quote. TikTokers are saying my eyes are now open. It's not terrorism, it's political resistance. I need everyone to stop with their debate right now and go read. It's literally two pages. Go read a letter to America. And please come back here and just let me know what you think because I feel like I'm going through an existential crisis right now and a lot of people are. So I just need someone else to be feeling this too. When I read this this morning, only one thing crossed my mind. What would DCK say? As in David Christopher Kaufman, fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute. Mr. Kaufman, thank you very much for joining us. Well, sir, with the lack of a better phrasing, what? Yeah, what is going on here? I mean, this would actually be funny if it wasn't so dangerous and really quite sad. I mean, it's sort of a testament to everything that's going wrong and has gone wrong in the United States over the last 20 or 30 years. We have a woman, a young 20-something-year-old woman out in Los Angeles, a lifestyle TikTok influencer who suddenly decided that she has the smoking gun of why everything is happening right now, why Israel is the bad guy, why Hamas is righteous, why we need to free Palestine from the river to the sea, why we're in the midst of a genocide. She understands it all because she found a 21-year-old treatise, 21-year-old manifesto from none other than Osama bin Laden. But what she fails to forget is that Osama bin Laden was the architect for the most horrendous example of terroristic mass murder in the history of the Western world. And what she also forgets is that when she's touting the virtues of Islamic jihad, which is really what she's doing. She's basically saying, I believe and I promote Islamic jihad. She's forgiving that Islamic jihad would also apply to her. Islamic jihad is not about going to a candy store and saying, I'm gonna take a few pieces of the anti-Zionism, but I'm gonna leave the homophobia or the anti-feminism behind. When you promote Islamic jihad, you're promoting the whole bag, the whole basket. So it's the perfect example of everything that's wrong right now, very scary, very dangerous. And my only hope is that the new cycle will wash this through very fast. Well, those green shakes and matcha lattes are really doing something to people's brains. Well, obviously, they're unable to hold a moral-based conversation. So maybe the game plan, Mr. Kaufman, should be changed, as in not to speak about who is right and who is wrong, even though, but rather, say this, there's this and there's that, this type of a world and that type of a world. And what half of it would you want to live in, the Biden or the Bin Laden? Yeah, I mean, I think the reaction to this really has to be one of consistent, aggressive messaging. If you, the Lynette Atkins, 24-year-old lifestyle TikTok blogger, are support Bin Laden, you support a world where you have no rights as a woman. You support a world where you are encouraging your LGBTQ queer friends to be murdered. You support a world where there is no sense of liberal justice or prosecution. Everything is based under Sharia law, under the Quran. This is the world you support. This is what you are saying. What's also most sort of concerning to me in her language is, it's really all about her. If you listen to what this young woman is saying, it's really the most narcissistic, indulgent exercise in geopoliticking I've ever seen in my life. Number one, why are we listening to this woman? Does she agree from Oxford or for the School of Oriental and African Studies in London? Is she an expert talking about Palestinian and Middle Eastern history? Who is this person? How have we gotten to a place in our culture? This is what we need to really be asking ourselves. How have we gotten to a place in our culture where we are turning to bogus, ignorant, uneducated buffoons to teach our youth about the most important geopolitical issues of the day? Why are we listening to her? Why does she matter? Why do we care? And what can we do about that? And you know, more than that, David, it is happening to her. Something is happening to her. She's experiencing something. It's exactly that. Well, David Christopher Kaufman, fellow at Tel Aviv Institute, hoping for better times. What can I say? But we'll speak beforehand, I assume. We should also want to be very concerned about the world of China here. I mean, TikTok is owned by China. This plays completely into their hands. We are being humiliated as a nation by these processes and they are winning. Right, right, right. I'm not sure what Bin Laden himself would have thought about his current supporters. Anyways, David Christopher Kaufman, fellow at Tel Aviv Institute. Thank you very much for this, sir. We'll touch base with you later on. Thank you. And we want to get back now to the field. I, 24 years, correspondent P.S. Tekelbacher with the families of the 239 Hossages, Hossages, day three of their march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Pia, walking with them. Bradley, we're on the highway here, on the way to the last leg for the day to Laton. You're really speaking about hundreds of people who are walking here on this highway. There are dozens of families of the 239 Hossages and they do have demands. They're saying that they will not give up until the last hostage is released. They're saying that they're calling upon the government to stop neglecting them to do their job, which means to get in touch with them. And they're also calling upon the Red Cross as you can just now hear Red Cross through your job, which is referring to the demand of the families to let the Red Cross access the hostages in Gaza and to attend to their medical needs. Now as you mentioned, Ellie, this is already day three of that march. These people started on Tuesday in Tel Aviv and they're expected to arrive to Jerusalem on Saturday, where they will rally in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence to also voice their demands there and to specifically address the Prime Minister because we've heard also earlier that they feel like that the government is not putting the hostages on top of their priority list. Earlier, they marched towards Moudine. They made a stop there, Moudine, where the family of Norma Tziano lives. Norma Tziano is an Israeli soldier who was also kidnapped into Gaza on October the 7th. And it was announced today's ago that she was killed there. So we heard also the mother and the father of Noah, both of them eulogizing her, of course, saying what a wonderful and bright person she was. And the father emphasizing that what they are demanding is one hostage deal, which means that there should not be a deal that wouldn't include all the hostages there. And this is the deal that is being negotiated from what we understand, those drips, drips of hostages to be released. The I-24 News correspondent, P.S. Takalbach, with the families of the hostages, thank you very much for this. This is it from us at the top of the hour. I-24 News continues the special rolling coverage here. Thank you for watching. Casting from Israel with dozens of correspondence throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. They have completely gunned down in their beds. From the border that separates Israel, the state of emergency, and war in Israel. Bringing Israel's story to the world, I-24 News channels now on Hot. 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 line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. We have our special coverage of the war here on I-24 News. Day 41 of fighting in Gaza and along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. No war done, hostage deal, and evidence of terrorist activities under the Shifa hospital in Gaza City. We'll start off with I-24 News, Robert Swift, live near the Gaza border. Robert? Yeah, so Israel's defense minister, Joav Galant has said that Israeli military operations in the west of Gaza City are coming towards completion. He's saying that now they are mopping up in the area and that the military will be looking to move on to the next phases of the operation. It isn't clear at this stage what that next phase will be, but the Palestinian Red Crescent has reported that another hospital, Ali Baptist Hospital, which is about three kilometers east of Al Shifa Hospital, a bit closer to the Israel-Gaza border, the Israeli tanks have positioned themselves around there, and also earlier in the day it was reported that the Israeli military was dropping pamphlets in the Canunis area, asking residents to evacuate the area. So it's possible that either of these two locations or elsewhere could be the next focus, but the Israeli military has not itself said where they will go next, as you would not expect them to. All right, Robert, thank you very much. We'll get back to you later. Here with me in the studio is Shuri Fine Grossman, former head of Regional Affairs, the Israel National Security Council. Thank you very much for coming. I'd like to start with the hostages issue, which is rocking Israel. And first, let's listen to Adim Marciano. Adim Marciano is the mother of Israeli soldier, Noah Marciano, who was kidnapped to Gaza and was later pronounced dead by the IVF. We'll have that in a moment. The question of hostages is really turning Israel apart. Yes, it is. They're playing a very vicious mind game of barbarism, of psychological warfare. And I think the answer to that is what Galant Defense Minister Galas just said that they're initiating the second part, the second stage of the war. And I think that shows a little bit of what's going on behind the scenes in the deal and their maybe despair, maybe lack of hope of anything else other than military operation working to free the hostages. Right, now the families are saying everybody, we want everybody back. Yeah, let's listen to Ms. Marciano talking about her daughter. It is important for me to make it clear to everyone the fight to bring Noah back home is not over. I have no grave. I sit the Shiva and I didn't even have a funeral for her. We are here to tell you, to the families of the hostages, to our new family, none of us chose to be in this family. But I am here to tell you that we are with you in our life's mission to bring everyone home. When I'll finish the Shiva, I will return to Tel Aviv to be with you. Soldiers of the IDF, I say that we pray for your safety and we are certain that you are doing everything to return Noah back to us. And your loved ones back to you. We will give you, dear soldiers, all the strength to continue this sacred mission. So no progress yet on the hostage deal and there are a few reports that things are going on but we have no idea, no confirmation. What can Israel do in order to keep pressuring Hamas now that Israel controls Northern Gaza and the southern part is full of civilians? My personal opinion is two-fold. One is continue the ground operation and we have to show Sinjar, who's a sadist, that we're very determined to continue with the operation and the only way for him to get anything is to free the hostages now and to negotiate that. Well, at the same time, I think we should let the Egyptians lead the negotiations and stop talking to Qatar and move and have leverages over Qatar. With the camp that says they're not our friends, they're not anyone's friends and we should do everything to counter what they're doing. Let me bring in Knesset member, Sherli Tal-Maron from Yashatid Party, which is the main opposition party. We'll talk politics in a moment but I wanna ask you about this very bad situation here, this dilemma of what to do with the hostages, how to proceed? Well, you know, I've just, I saw this video of the mother and first of all, my heart goes out to her and their family and she's such a brave woman for saying that she supports them and she's gonna join them after grieving, which is remarkable really. And you know, I've been wearing this for weeks because our hearts are in Gaza with the hostages. I meet them, I'll join them tomorrow for their march and they've been to the Knesset this week. Many of the families came, they joined the committees and it's heartbreaking to hear them, grandparents talking about their little grandchildren in Gaza, not knowing what their situation is. I think one of the most difficult thing is not knowing if they're okay, they're alive, they're eating, they're drinking, they're sleeping. We have no information and that's why we need the Red Cross and other organizations to step in and demand, stepping into the picture, going to visit each and every one of the hostages. And of course we want them all back immediately. That should be the first goal of the country of Israel is getting all the kidnapped people back home. But this is not on the table apparently. What's on the table is maybe 50, maybe less, maybe a little more. Well, I'm not doing the negotiations and nobody's jealous these days with the people who have to make the decisions because it's very, very difficult to make the decision. We said from the beginning that there's no coalition or opposition in regards to hostages and we will support any decision that's been made. Of course we want all the hostages to come back but when you think about the children, you just want to get them out of there. The 10 month old baby, it's inexplicable. You have to have them back home now and we need to be concerned about their safety and today I issued a letter to UN women about women's rights because we've seen such horrible silence from many women organizations around the world and it's horrible. So I issued this letter today saying, there have been war crimes done on October 7th and we have no idea what's going on there. We need to protect the women as well. We don't know if they're okay. Right. I think the ICRC, I don't know how much it has any potential ability to see the hostages but what it can do and what other UN organization can do is tell Hamas and tell the citizens of Gaza and tell all the supporters that using and exploiting the international law of our conflict and breaking every single rule in the book. They're fighting not in civilian uniform. There's no uniform. They're hiding in hospitals. They're using all their utilities in Gaza just for the war and not for the citizens. Everything they're doing what they should say is hurting the civilian and that will help us because if they continue to think they have the global support for their cynical way of exploiting the civilized world's rules and law of our conflict, that should be stopped. They should understand they're losing that game and then when they lose that game I think we'll have better leverage. Now as you know everything is political in Israel. To some extent the hostage issues also becoming political. I mean were you sitting now yesterday we had a right wing Knesset member from the religious Zionism party who was not clear cut about what should happen first releasing the hostages or taking over Gaza and the Hamas. We was not committing to any order in these two issues. Is this political? Getting to be political in Israel? I hope not because for me it's not a political issue. I think it was said that it was one of the main goals of this war. I think it should be the first goal returning all our people back home and bringing them back to their families. And then we need to of course focus on the war and achieving all of our other goals which is demolishing Hamas. Definitely we wanna eliminate this terror organization. And I just wanna say we've seen today in Shifa Hospital. The IDF is putting out a lot of footage that we can see that there were hostages within the hospital and so many weapons and ammunition that's within the hospital and computers that show some of our hostages that were on the computers. So now we know that there is a connection between this terror organization and the hospital. Okay, let's talk a little bit about politics, okay? Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is calling for the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Netanyahu and forming a new government still headed by the Likud party. Take listen. Netanyahu cannot continue to be the Israeli Prime Minister, a national reconstruction government. Yesh Atid will bring about a government like this which the Likud can lead. The Likud is the biggest party but we need to start the rehabilitation process. He needs to resign right now because we can't afford in terms of our security, socially, a Prime Minister that lost the public's trust. Yeah, so I'm reminding, we have Knesset member Shelly Talinar on here from Yesh Atid party, which is Lapid's party, the main opposition party here in Israel and the leader of your party. Now calling for the Prime Minister to resign but he offers to keep the Likud in power, how could that be? Well, we've said from the beginning of this war that we are supporting this government and I think for the past 40 days, we fully supported the government. I can tell you myself because I was very, very active with the work, with the coalition, with the ministers, with the government offices, we formed an operation room when we did a lot of work. We helped them out, do all the things that the government offices are supposed to do. 40 days later, we can still see that the government is not run the way it should be. We completely want to unify the people, right? We still want unity and we think we can form this kind of government with the biggest party in the Knesset, which is the Likud, they can choose another leader, we can do a government with Shas, with the Kharedis and we can form a unified government that will help rehabilitate the Israeli society. That's what we need right now. You know that most political analysts and actually most Israelis in the polls are saying that elections is the right thing. And maybe you try to avoid this because in the polls, you are being slaughtered in the public opinion. I can tell you that we don't deal with polls right now. Really, this is war time. We put aside all of these things. There will be a time to do polls right now. We need to win this war and we need to rehabilitate this society. And I'm telling you that we truly want to cooperate in order to do the right thing for the people of Israel. That is all that we're thinking about at this moment. I don't think that elections right now is right. You believe you have partners in the Likud, in the Knesset? Definitely. Yes? Yes. You know that. Well, I know that there have been talks and we've been hearing some of their Knesset members speaking out and saying that they think either we should go to elections or that they should choose a different leader. So if they say it for themselves, then you know. Yeah. Well, this is something we haven't seen before in Israeli politics and Israeli political life at all. Such an argument within and during a war, right? This is unprecedented. Yeah, it's very unusual. I mean, I'm not a political commentator. I do wish for us to unite. I really think that we need to unify our people. And that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to break us apart. That's what the enemy wants. So we should do everything in our power to reunite. So something like that will reunite or maybe cause the opposite to start political arguments during a war. Well, I'm not sure you can call it a political argument. I think that if you look at the best interest of the country of Israel, we need this kind of government. We need the second biggest party in the Knesset, which is yesterday to join the government. I think that we can join forces and do good for the people of Israel. And I do think we have a lot to contribute within the government. All right. Thank you for that. I would like to move to the Schifah hospital. In Gaza, IDF has published evidence of terrorist activities under the Schifah hospital. I-24 News, Defense Correspondent Jonathan Raghav has more. In any normal place, hospitals are where lives are saved and illnesses are cured. Gaza is anything but a normal place. If you follow me behind the MRI machine, I'll show you what our troops exposed just minutes ago. In military terms, this is a grab bag. Grab and go of a Hamas combatant. And if you zoom in and we get some light over here, what you will be able to see are his military equipment. There is an AK-47. There are cartridges, ammo. There are grenades in here, of course, uniform. And all of that, this was hidden very conveniently, secretly behind the MRI machine. The MRI machine is just one hiding place along with various others. And when our troops open this closet here, which is in the main part of the clinic, this is what they found. These weapons have absolutely no business being inside a hospital. The only reason they're here is because Hamas put them here because they use this place, like many other hospitals and ambulances and sensitive facilities inside the Gaza Strip for their illicit military purposes. So there's Kalashnikov rifles here, even ammunition. The War of Narratives is a difficult one. Even after these images, Israel understands very well there will be those who try and undermine this evidence. Inside the very same cabinet that houses medical equipment, you can see all kinds of standard military medical stuff, we found another go-to bag, this bag here. And again, we opened it up in order to make sure that it's safe to touch and show. So please don't give me any of that. You open it up and you place it there. This is the bag that we found and this is the stuff that was in it. This is what was found in the hospital building itself. The assumption is that there may be tunnels under Shifa Hospital used exclusively for terror purposes and much more such evidence could be found there. With us now is Natasha Hausdorf, an expert on international law. Thank you very much for joining us. When does a hospital stop being protected during the war? As a matter of customary international law, which is also reflected in additional protocol one to the Geneva Conventions, when it is being used, as we have seen in respect, as your report is indicated of Al Shifa, by the hostile forces as a command and control center. Also, of course, to keep munitions and to operate their military strategy from, then that hospital is no longer a protected building so long as a warning is given. And we've seen Israel do exactly that in relation to hospitals across the Gaza Strip, indicate their suspicions that they were being used for military purposes, issue warnings over matters of weeks now. At that point, it's right in international law and it's commonly accepted that a hospital being used for military purpose become a military target. Right, you've mentioned the warnings and so on, but it doesn't mean that you can freely bomb a hospital with patients inside, doesn't mean that patients inside can just walk out. So it's very complicated. What are the duties of Israel in this case in order to make sure this is not a violation of international law? But of course, there are a number of factors that you have to consider in applying the laws of armed conflict to any strike. The first is whether the target of the strike is a legitimate military target and on the basis that Hamas is using these hospitals for military purposes, it has become one. But one also has to consider the principle of proportionality, which requires the reasonable military commander to make an assessment weighing up the advantage that is sought by conducting a strike against a legitimate military target, against the expected collateral damage. And in the case of al-Shifa, of course, the proportionality assessment has been completely skewed by Hamas war crimes, by Hamas violations of international law, by the fact that they are using a hospital which is full of doctors, nurses, sick patients, injured, in order to hide behind them as human shields. That impacts Israel's performance analysis, and therefore we have seen that rather than striking this legitimate military target because of the civilian president, the IDF has instead bombing on the ground as we've had reports also with humanitarian personnel, medics and Arabic speakers. And all of that is a reflection, I think, and the way I see it, it must be a reflection of Israel's proportionality analysis with respect to the civilians present in these military targets. From past experiences, like ISIS and others, what are the changes of a serious war crimes prosecution against Hamas in the future? What's extraordinary when we consider the present situation as against past instances of, for example, ISIS, also using hospitals in order to hide behind civilians is that this was pulled out by the international community. And here we're in fact seeing the reverse. We're seeing even the international committee of the Red Cross suggest that Israel is in some way restrained from acting against terrorists that are hiding in a hospital and using it as a command center. So unfortunately prior practice and situations that don't involve Israel seem to have very little bearing on the application by many international bodies of international law to the situation in Gaza. These are the Israel. That to me is an application of lawfare. It is a misrepresentation and misapplication and an abuse of international law. And in those circumstances, I wouldn't be holding my breath for the violations, the real violations of international law here by Hamas to occasion commons. I have to stress that hospitals have an extremely protected high status in the laws of armed conflict. Even a military hospital is considered to be a protective building. And for Hamas to abuse international law to such an extent, in order to generate pressure on Israel and in order to render itself, it seems immune from legitimate lawful self-defense by the IDF is extraordinary. The fact that we're not seeing this being called out across the international community and across NGOs whose job it is to point out abuses of international law and war crimes is disappointing to say the least. To say the least. Natasha Astruf, I thank you very much, an expert on international law. Thank you very much. Back to you, Shuri, here in the studio. Yeah, Israel is confronting a lot of allegations and little proof from elsewhere that it conducts anything that is wrong under this hospital. Yeah, concerning your last question to Natasha, it's amazing people don't actually realize but that all the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, has agreed to join the International Criminal Court in 2015. So allegedly all the law, all its applicable about what all the things they did and just so it just shows how cynical it is. And I completely agree with everything Natasha said and it just, it hurts I think the civilians of Gaza, first of all, and without their essentially losing all protection of international law when they behave this way. The IDF has very, very credible reputation inside Israel, I think also outside Israel but not as inside Israel. Still you see news organizations and other governments doubt whatever IDF presents and shows and tells. That's an incredible important point, Yaakov, because what we're seeing from Hamas is across several years now is a systemic damage to IDF's credibility and they're just denying everything they did including the massacre of October 7th. They're just saying, yeah, of course it's justified if we did that but we didn't do that. They're just making it up or they did it themselves in order to occupy Gaza and make this attack. And I think it's so important that the IDF and other government agencies are really keep to the letter of the law. I know at first hand I've heard all kinds of suggestions that were rejected because they are not, according to the standards of international law. That is a very important point and I think it says a lot about us playing in the long term. It's a long term game and not just a short term. In the short term you might have some tactical advantages from not adhering to the law of conflict. Again, we always need to listen to our moral values as well. But the law of conflict has a higher standard here and in the long run it plays in our favor and we see it now. If we haven't, there's no way there wouldn't be already a Security Council resolution against us forcing us to stop the war. All right. And an independent strong judicial system is a very crucial part in this. Yes, very so. Well, we've been talking about this legal reform for I don't know how many months and it will show exactly how much it's needed and it's a very good point that lawyers raised in recent 10 months prior to the events. Yeah. Well, the flip side of this, there are Israelis who are saying you're being held up by the judicial system. You are not aggressive enough fighting terrorism. You're hesitant and so forth. That's the opposite side of things. Yeah, you hear a lot on the streets of Israel. You're not speaking Arabic. It's a desert jungle here. You have to go tribal and behave that way. But we have to understand we're kind of this mixture of a country where, yes, we are in the Middle East. Yes, it may be a jungle, but we wouldn't be able to survive without our Western allies, without the US, without the UK, without the EU, with their support, both on the international arena and international institutions and both materially with financing, with arms, etc. So we have to play both games. We have to speak Arabic and English and something we have to do. Right. For example, the humanitarian side. Many say, you know, here in Israel, why are you thinking about humanitarian for Gaza civilians and not the humanitarian aid for hostages and so on? So it's a big debate here. Shuri, thank you very much for that. And now we'll take a break and we'll be right back with more special coverage here on I-24 News. All right, back. Each of war families completely done 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. In the Jewish world, the Kotel, the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Israel. I-24 News. Our correspondent, Ariel Osirian, is near the Israeli level. What's the latest? Right, Jacob. So the latest is that it's a quiet tension here in the northern border as the last rocket sirens were heard about three hours ago. But this comes after a significant amount of strikes, of attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military outposts along the border, as well as border communities. We're talking about no fewer than eight attacks in four and a half hours between noon and 4.30 p.m. And Israel, obviously, responding, saying that it's responded with artillery to the origins of the strikes of the attacks, but also Lebanese media sharing images of Israeli airstrikes also in Nakula and the far west of the Israel-Lebanon border, all the way to the Shabbat farms on the eastmost part of the Israel-Lebanon border. Now, just in the past minute or so, Hezbollah announcing its 75th and 76th casualty in the fighting against Israel. This is after three days of no target, of no announcements of this sort. And just now, as I was speaking, I could just hear the western part of the border. I could hear artillery fire going in to Lebanon. And so this a very active front that was burning just a few hours ago now subdued. But with this artillery fire that I just heard as I was speaking with you could indicate that, indeed, Israeli strikes are continuing until this moment. All right. And all the time we should mention Israeli civilians are away from home, away from the border, and that has been going on for over a month now. To an extent, yeah, the four kilometer distance from the border has been evacuated. But obviously these strikes are endangering civilians past that threshold. Some have evacuated on their own accord. Others have been critical of the government for not expanding the depth into which the evacuation order is put in place. But as of the moment, the vast majority of the attacks over these past few weeks have indeed been on military border outposts as well as the communities adjacent to the border. All right. The real surround. Thank you very much up north. We'll get back to you later. Back to the studio here with me is Sherry Fine Grossman, former head of regional affairs of Israel National Security Council. To some extent Israel has been in denial about the northern part. I mean, we'll deal with this after Gaza, but it's not going to disappear. Yeah. I wouldn't say in denial. I mean, I would say a little bit reactive or mostly reactive. And you have to keep your prioritize. This is, and you have to keep fighting in many fronts, not just Gaza. We're fighting in the West Bank. We just saw a very serious attack today in the checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem. So in West Bank almost every night, there is some kind of military operation trying to take down or arrest or kill terrorists of Hamas. There have been, I think, more than 1,700 people that were held in prison right now. So we have that. We have, of course, we've seen things coming out from Yemen and that takes also some resources. So you have to prioritize. You have to find the right moment to strike. I think there have been serious, I would say strikes on the Lebanese side. There has been 75 of his fellow terrorists already killed. And that's a substantial number. It's not a lot, but of course, if we didn't have Gaza, we've already been in a full-front war in Lebanon. But that's not the case. And you have to prioritize. And the government said Gaza... Having said all that, this is still far away from the serious threat that has been lies to Israel. And many Israelis say we cannot live with this anymore, especially after what happened in Gaza. We cannot live next to the border anymore. So that will have to be addressed somehow. It will have to be addressed. But we have to say, I mean, if there's something that we've learned is how important the ground troops are. The tanks, the missiles on the ground, the special forces, I think we learned from everything that happened also from 2006 war. You can't win a war with just the air force. And right now, the air force is pretty available, the fighter war in Hezbollah. But it wouldn't be able to take the threat completely off the table. So you have to consider that. And right now, a lot of people are standing by on the border with Lebanon, a lot of reserves and others. And it's something that you have to live with until you find, again, the right moment. If we feel a lot of the ground invasion of Gaza is advancing and maybe the hostages are free, there's a lot of ifs, and the right timing should be done carefully. Right. But we should mention that we are talking about thousands and thousands of rockets aimed at Israel. Some of them are accurate. Yeah, GPS-guided missiles, thousands of them, very, very unsettling future. It's something that we have to address. At one point, after the sand, in Lebanon, it's different. There is a lot of American presence, France presence in Unifield. There are about 700 French soldiers. They have the tendency to disappear. They have the tendency to disappear. And that's why I think American embassy and Secretary of State Blinken is called for American citizens to evacuate from Lebanon. But still, there's a lot of pressure from a huge humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. And its effect on, like we see in Syria, civil war, a lot of refugees coming into Europe, through Greece and other places. So there's a lot of more pressure from our Western allies to contain that war. That's right. As you've mentioned, today, one Israeli soldier died and five people were wounded in a Jerusalem checkpoint as three Palestinians planned an attack on civilians. I-24, here's Jonathan Breger reports. They were well-equipped, well-trained, and ready to carry out a major attack. The terrorists were armed with M-16 rifles, pistols and axes, and a huge amount of ammunition, which indicate that there was intention to probably carry out an attack on a completely different scale somewhere else. And only vigilance of the policemen who were at the checkpoint resulted in the thwarting of such an attack. The three terrorists arrived this morning to the checkpoint known as the Tunnel Checkpoint, just south of Jerusalem, probably hoping to pass by and head into the city, but they were stopped. The car is the suspicion of the personnel in the checkpoint. As they were being questioned, they got out of the car and began shooting at our forces. In the gun battle, the three terrorists were killed. At least six Israelis were injured in the gun battle and were quickly treated by emergency services on the ground. We saw various people lying on the floor and began treating them. Our team treated four people. One of them is in severe condition, two in moderate condition, and one in a light condition. After the initial treatment, we transported them to hospitals in Jerusalem. The Israeli attention is obviously directed at Gaza and the northern border, but the West Bank arena is constantly active as well. The incident this morning at the Tunnel Checkpoint is just the latest reminder. Shiri, let's talk about the West Bank. How long can this be contained by Israel? And what's the status with Hamas in the West Bank? It's a very delicate and dangerous situation. There are a lot of, you know, the fear is that, well, I'll start differently. What Hamas wants is hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and other places around the world to go out to the streets, try to have terror attacks, and we're not seeing that. And I think that's very positive. Having said that, there are thousands of still of Hamas affiliates, terrorists and activists that are present in the West Bank. It can, you know, if the attack today was not contained as it was by the soldiers, including one soldier that died, this could have been a dramatic shift to what's going on in the West Bank and maybe a bigger operation. And that's, again, something that we have to worry about and thinking about the North border as well. You know, the proximity to Jerusalem and other settlements, of course, big ones. And the danger was there prior to the operation. We had dozens of Israeli murdered and stabbed and killed. So it's a great, it's a cause of great concern, I think. We haven't heard much about it, but the IDF has been working hard to root out Hamas strongholds in the West Bank recently, right? Yes, in Tulkarem and Jenin. We had a larger operation before this. As a matter of fact, I think this was part of the deception that Hamas has tried to do. He tried to put most of its effort on the West Bank, keeping all eyes on the West Bank, all the soldiers on the West Bank and keeping us forgetting about Gaza and then being able to, like, you know, putting us to sleep and having this deception and then have the attack of the October 7th. So I think this is not a coincidence, what we're seeing. All right. Let's move to Yemen now. Of all places, that came surprisingly into the game during this war. With us now is in Balnessim, Lufthun and expert on Yemen. Thank you very much for coming. Many Israelis, among others, are asking themselves, who are the Houthis and what do they want? Let's start with that. That's a good question. Well, the Houthis, it's a religious revival movement of the Zaidi sect of Shia Islam. It started to operate in the 90s in the highlands of Yemen, in the province of Sauda. And they are very much rooted within the Yemeni context. At first, they were protesting against marginalization and weakening by the central government in terms of not allocating enough resources economic weakening and not having enough political representation. And also they had the tribal component to it and the religious, of course, trying to say that the establishment is weakening the Zaidi religious establishment and not allowing the young generation to follow the elders. What's their religious affiliation and how does that connect to Iran? Well, that's a very good question because usually we see the alliance between Iran and Houthi, mainly on the grounds of religious similarities since they are both Shia. But these are very different sects of Shia. What we call in Iran is the 12 or 12er Shia and in Yemen it's the Zaidi Shia. It is very different in many terms. The Zaidi Shia is closer to some of the Sunni interpretations of Islam. So it is not as natural as we would like to think the alliance. It is mostly a pragmatical strategic. Their interests are aligned, financial. So they have common interests and this is mainly withholding that. Although we can see religious influences in the past few years from Iran towards the interpretation of Zaidi Shia by the Houthis, which is more radical than what we used to see before. At one point it looked like there was a ceasefire there and things were like getting in order. What happened? I assume you are talking about the civil war within Yemen we should probably say. It's been going on for more than eight years. In the past year and a half or so there has been a ceasefire for about six months under the UN and then it was continued not formally but still continued in Saudi Arabia and Houthis are holding conversations, peace talks for almost a year and a half now. So there is not much fighting going on inside Yemen but the situation is very fragile. And I think that some of what we see the intervention of Houthis in the war in Gaza is not only because of their alliance with Iran but also because of their pro-Palestinian sentiment and also perhaps a display of power to their neighbors in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates mainly to show them that even though we are having peace talks at the moment the situation can change very quickly and Yemen can show military capabilities that have not been seen yet in northern places in Saudi Arabia. Sherry to what extent was this a surprise in Israel that the Houthis jumped in? Not at all. Not at all. We've been seeing this threat coming. I've seen Israel is walking around saying Houthis, Yemenites, Yemen, what? The idea in this other security apparatus you may be sure that they have seen what's going on and we've seen the development throughout the years and we're seeing the larger context. The larger context is the Sunna, Shia, Raverly mainly manifested by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Yemen is, Iqbal, right? Yeah. Okay, Iqbal as told us, traditionally was on the Saudi camp and the civil war and the friction that started there was used and leveraged by Iran to support the Houthis and then undermine Saudi Arabia. We've seen rocket attacks for out the eight years on Saudi Arabia and on Abu Dhabi and UAE. There were rockets towards the airport in Abu Dhabi that's something that is a large concern to our allies in the Gulf. And by the way, all refineries in Saudi Arabia in 2019? Exactly. That is a very important point. And we have to remember, we had the discussion before that we have to speak Arab right, that we have to speak Arabic and be forceful. Saudi Arabia prevented, had a total siege on the Houthis and deprived of food and water and kids died of famine there, like thousands of kids. And the world, you heard about it, criticized it, but not as much as you hear about what's Israel doing. And the second point, it didn't work. It just didn't work. And that's a very important point to keep in mind. And we haven't mentioned the United States, which is a big enemy in their eyes. And Babel Mandir, which is a very important path for the West, how many Houthis are there for making so much trouble to so many people? Well, in general, figuring out numbers in the Yemeni War is quite difficult. But some estimated at around 2,000 soldiers for the Houthis, which is not all that many considering Yemen has a population of around 30 million, sorry, 33 million. But they also have tribal alliances and other forces that are helping them. So they managed to keep that war going on for more than eight years. And at least in some places, they have still the upper hand. And the level of weaponry, sophistication, military sophistication, do we know anything about that? There's a lot of UAVs and attack drones and long-range missiles. Everything is supplied by Iran. And there's been a lot of arms transferred to Iran to the Houthis in many different ways. And also, they took over all the ammunition and whatever the army left in Sana'a and in other places as soon as they took over in 2015. Is there any Jewish community there still? Maybe very few. We may talk. We've seen some in the last two years. Yes, in the past years. Just a few. Some of them converted to Islam during the war. But these are really the last, very last Jews in Yemen. Along the way, Israel will have to deal with that as well. I'm not sure. I'm not sure, really. It's not entirely our conflict. I think we should see it in a bigger context. And that's the normalization with Saudi Arabia. What the normalization with Saudi Arabia is really about is it's amping up the defense capabilities and military capabilities of Saudi Arabia. And that's what they're trying to do with the U.S. Yeah, but Israel is big on deterrence. And if you, you know, shoot missiles at Israel, long-range missiles. I would invite Saudi Arabia to help us defeat Hezbollah. Okay, that might be an idea. And well, thank you very much. Thank you. And now there's dozens of American firefighters volunteered to help Israel's Fire and Rescue Departments. 24 News Emily Francis caught up with one such volunteer at the Ashkelon Fire Department. Even during times of peace, the job of a firefighter is risky business. But Israel's fire and rescue men and women are prepared for everything. But the terror attack on October 7th caught everyone by surprise. I woke up, I live in the south to massive rocket barrages that hit the city that I live in. I responded to several of them. They seem to be direct hits, quite devastating in terms of both scale and quantity more than I've seen in any other conflict. I found myself shortly after that, treating people where I ended up seeing more blood than I've seen in my entire life. Firefighters here at the Ashkelon Fire Department and all around Israel have seen it all since the war started. But what's made this bittersweet job less bitter is the bravery and heroism of American volunteer firefighters. The simplicity of how this pump works is amazing. Like firefighter and EMT Derek Barksdale of St. George Fire Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who left his wife and four children to heed the call. What, why did you feel that call when you saw what happened on October 7th? Personally, I'm a Christian. I get tired of all the hate, you know. There's a lot of negativity in the United States towards the whole entire situation. And honestly, it's a little embarrassing. And I want to let the guys know that they're supported and we're here to help. Derek is one of over 60 American firefighters and 100 more on a waiting list who have come to volunteer in Israel since October 7th, as part of an NGO called the Emergency Volunteers Project, which has also sent dozens of American medical workers to help with emergency services in Israel. We don't just have international support in terms of words, but we have dozens and dozens of Americans willing to come here and get into the trenches with us in the sense and fight these fires. Every time I spend a day with our American firefighters here in these fire stations, I walk around with goosebumps the whole day because I feel like we're not alone. You have bulletproof vests because there are calls that we've experienced close to the Gaza border. Where Derek has himself been through many natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But he says this is like nothing he's ever experienced before. The difference is you're dealing with a local community. You're dealing with people from Louisiana. You don't have rocket attacks. You don't have to run to a bunker. Here it's just you're in a different country. You're helping people steal, but this is war. And the craziness about the whole thing is people here are used to it, and it shouldn't be that way. In addition, Derek is impressed at the efficiency of Israel's fire and rescue teams and also the warm embrace of brotherhood. Firefighters are a brotherhood no matter where you go, but this is a completely different level. I don't even really know how to explain it from the bottom of my heart, how welcoming, how they've taken care of us, and we're trying to reverse the situation, take care of them. Is it hard to process seeing something so awful that we didn't think would ever happen? My honest answer about processing what happened on October 7th and since then is ask me when the war is over, and I'll give you an answer. We're too busy right now. I just don't know. We don't have time to think about that between search and rescue, routine emergencies, rocket attacks. There's plenty to do here, plenty to keep us busy. Morale is high. Morale is even higher knowing that there are Americans here with us, and we'll cross that bridge after the war is over. In Ashkelon, Emily Francis, I-24 News. As we speak here, military action in Gaza is still going on. We can see flares above Gaza City. Apparently, IDF is still engaging in fighting there, possibly around the Shifa hospitals and elsewhere. Shiri, what's next, actually? What would be the next phase of this operation in Gaza? Yeah, so Hanyunas in the southern part of Gaza is what's next. It's a huge stronghold. It's the camp where Yechai Senewar came from and Mohamed Deft as well. And a lot of people are saying that Yechai Senewar will never leave Hanyunas. He won't run. He will stay there until he dies. It's a big stronghold of Hamas. And so the assessment ends that there's a lot of terrorists there. And we're seeing a determination from the IDF to proceed to that stage. It's a complicated stage. There are 2 million people there. And we had a lot of rain in Gaza as well. So it's muddy. It's going to be tough. But it's going to be tough. But it seems like the IDF is determined to proceed to this stage. Yet still, they managed to fire rockets out of there. They do. Less so than before, of course. Yeah, I explained this in the past. They're just underground shafts where the rockets are. They've been planted there before the war. And it's placed near hospitals. UN facilities, schools. And what the IDF hasn't been able, through the air, to destroy up till now. But it's just thousands and thousands of rockets. And in some parts, they just open up this shaft. Rockets shoot out. And then they close the shaft again. So it's going to continue. And some have timers. Some have timers, yeah. And we've seen in the last week, or maybe a couple of weeks, is that we have some days of quiet. We don't see any rockets come to the center of Tel Aviv. People kind of lose their edge and try to feel they're gone. They're doing the routine, go to the mall, go to the restaurant. And then, boom, a rocket sirens is heard. But luckily, people are very adherent to the instructions. And that works. And that way, we prevent loss of life. I'm sure you'll find Grossman. Thank you very much. We'll take a break now. And we'll be right back with more special coverage here on I-24 News. Stay tuned.