 24, Unicamente, in I-24 News. Welcome to I-24 News, I'm Sivana Viva and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas, a war which began with a horrific massacre of innocent Israeli civilians as at least 1200 women, men, children and elderly were brutally tortured and murdered on October 7th in southern Israel. There are currently 137 hostages held by Hamas in captivity following the release of 105 Israeli and foreign national hostages in an exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Ithani and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Ithani's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Carney fired in self-defense, shooting down three drones during the assault. According to SENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Tonight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza, east of Rafa. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Sgt. Major in Reserves, Nair Yashail, Sgt. First Class in Reserves, Ben Zussman, and Sgt. Benjamin Yoshua, Nidhan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages currently held in Gaza. With us now is our I-24 News correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler, down in Sderot in southern Israel. Pierre, we know the fighting deepened overnight in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about the latest developments? Well, first of all, the IDF has announced the death of three Israeli soldiers. One of them is a paratrooper reservist who is fighting in the central Gaza Strip. And in addition, it was confirmed that one of the people that were at the RAFE Party on October 7 was captured and his body is still in the hands of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. It was confirmed that he died. That's another hostage that his death has been confirmed. Now the operation, the ground offensive, which started on October 27, is expanding. Here behind me in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, the air is buzzing with explosions at the moment. After five weeks of ground offensive in the northern sector, let's hear what the Chief of Staff, Ljotenkerno Khecialevi, said yesterday evening. Yesterday and today, we killed battalion commanders, company commanders, many operatives, and yesterday morning we started the same move in the south of the Gaza Strip. It will be no less powerful, it will have no lesser results, and the commanders in Hamas will meet the IDF everywhere in a very, very strong manner. I know that part of it is the abilities, and a large part of it is the fighting spirits you bring, and the experience you bring as reservists. And we have the capabilities to do it in the most thorough way, just as we did strongly and thoroughly in the north of the Gaza Strip. We are also doing it now in the south of the Gaza Strip, and we will continue to deepen the achievement in the north of the Gaza Strip. Erci Alevi is referring to the liquidation of the head of a battalion in the Shatir Refugee Camp, which was taken over already two and a half weeks ago. But it shows that there are still pockets of resistance in the northern sector. There are heavy fighting in the Jebalia Refugee Camp, in the Zaitou neighborhood, and the Shejaiya neighborhood, which is east of Gaza City, close to Kibbutz Lachal Oz on the Israeli territory, which was the site of a horrific massacre on October 7. Shejaiya is encircled. But the ground offensive in the north has not been officially completed. In the southern and central sector, as Erci Alevi mentioned, the IDF has been progressing on the Salahadin axis, which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the lull in the fighting. And there's heavy fighting east of Hanyunas. The IDF spokes in Arabic has urged the residents of certain quarters of east of Hanyunas and of Bani Suheila, which is north of Hanyunas, to move west. This is the latest announcement by the IDF. They are urging the residents to use the interactive map that has been available for the Palestinian population, as now there are more than 1.8 million residents of the Gaza Strip inside the central and southern sectors of Gaza. Joining us now in Israel's northern border is our I-24 News Correspondents, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? Well yesterday was another very active day with multiple injuries. We're still waiting on the confirmation as to the extent of some of the injuries. But the injuries that occurred early in the day, we were told the IDF marked them as minor injuries from an ATGM, Anti-Tank Guided Missile Strike, on an Israeli base here in the north. But as many as 12 are apparently injured in strikes throughout the day, has blocked claiming responsibility for five of those strikes. And we are hearing that that includes civilian injuries as well. This also comes with regional instability, Syria launching a strike that apparently fell in an open area with no damage later in the night. And yesterday the United States says that they conducted a strike in Iraq that killed five militants there that were preparing apparently to fire on U.S. forces. This again, part of a larger fabric here of more regional players involving themselves in Yemen. Also, the Houthis claiming responsibility for firing on ships, merchant ships in the Red Sea. One ship apparently taking damage, the Houthis claiming that they were targeting Israeli ships. But this hour, still no confirmation that these ships flying under other flags were even Israeli. Now, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned Nasrallah not to get involved and put Lebanon at risk. And we do see Hezbollah is aligned with Hamas now that the ceasefire is over, right? That's right. And this continued action from Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon. Is that a similar scale as to what it was before the ceasefire? Of course, it's curious to note that Hezbollah was not party to the ceasefire or involved in the negotiations. And yet they said that they would abide by the ceasefire and join in with this ceasing of hostilities. And they largely did and then picked up with the fighting once the fighting resumed again in Gaza. They've once again resumed strikes. Of course, Nasrallah and his comments to rashing up of the rhetoric has for the large part made it to this scale of continuing to fire heavy rockets, these ATGMs on Israeli positions. But ground engagements has been one of the things lacking here. They have not engaged with ground forces or personnel, firing conventional arms at positions. These are, again, distant, somewhat distant strikes attempting to use some of these Iranian supplied equipment, the drones, the rockets to fire on Israeli positions, but do so from a distance, sometimes several miles inside southern Lebanon, so that they have the ability to retreat further inside the territory and attempt to avoid these retaliatory strikes. The IDF says that yesterday's points of origin from some of these launches were struck with artillery and IAF air strikes. Thank you, Zach, on Israel's northern border. Joining us now is retired colonel Miri Aizen, director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichmann University. Thank you for joining me. Now, Miri, the IDF is deepening its reach into southern Gaza. What can you tell us about this next stage of the war? So as we were listening to the descriptions from Pierre, from Zach, going around the borders, when I talk about the ground operation inside the Gaza Strip, we are expanding our activities on the ground against the different Hamas terror targets inside the Gaza Strip. Now, that basically means all of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas, as a terror organization who grew over the Gaza Strip. For 16 years, they've built their capabilities, the amassment of their weapons, the self-production sites, the positions themselves of anti-tank weapons, of the drones, of firing against the different Israeli positions throughout the Gaza Strip. So we're active in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are also doing the same kind of slow, systematic coverage in the central and south of the Gaza Strip. All of this, whilst we are trying as hard as we can to make sure that civilians are not in the line of fire, meaning we're telling civilians yet again to up and move. In this case, we've been very clear to Hamunists that has been the focus of these attacks both from the air and now from the ground. The Hamunist civilians move to the near the seashore in that sense, if you look at a map afterwards, you'll see that from where they are, they actually need to be going north-northwest, but they need to move. This is to save their lives. So the IDF itself is targeting these different places and trying to be active and in hand with all of the other challenges that you've heard both from Pierre, but especially from Zach, that are happening on all of our other borders. Now it's believed that the IDF will soon move forward into the area of Sajaya. What kind of Hamas opposition is to be expected there? So the Hamas itself has built themselves as this what I call a terror army, meaning they're built in a similar structure to the way you think of an army. It has battalions, it has companies, it has different types of teams, and they're armed with semi-conventional light weapons, but they do so in a way where they're built inside. Inside this is all in urban areas. This isn't military bases. It isn't far away in the mountains. It isn't tunneling that's far away from anything. It's at the heart of Sajaya as one of the neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip. And as we're looking at the photographs of what Israel has been attacking, meaning the IDF both from the air and from the ground, it is the different positions inside apartment buildings, inside the different structures. It can be a school, it can be a kindergarten, it can be a mosque and underneath that all. And we don't see that because we're not seeing up-to-date photos by Hamas of their underground subterranean arena. So you attack Sajaya both ground, you try to get to the opening of the shafts that go deep down into that underground subterranean arena, which may have hostages of them. And that's where you're going to find the Hamas terror fighters. That's also probably some of the houses of Israel, still in the northern Gaza Strip and the bulk of them probably in the center and in the south. So it's a systematic work inside these neighborhoods, urban area, you're going to see destruction. It's inside that urban area. That's why Hamas built it there in the first place, to try to stop Israel from going after their terror capabilities. And this time, Israel has said we're going after those capabilities, telling the civilians move out, move to the safe areas, we're coming in to destroy all of these capabilities that are in there. Now you're speaking of an urban area. How will the IDF deal with such a very populated civilian region? Is it even possible to maneuver in such a populated region? So first of all, of course it is. It's just a question of the different challenges and the different challenges in that sense and how you respond to them. The IDF in the first three weeks of the ground operation, preceding that for almost also three weeks, said systematically to the civilians move out. And once they moved out and moved south into safe areas, we're in a war, Sivan. It's not about nice areas, but it is safe. And that's a place where they will be saving their lives and taking care of at that humanitarian level. In these urban areas now, you have to go in, find the different positions, find the different terrorists and constantly try to avoid all of the different civilians that have stayed there. I'd say that, let's say 80% of the civilians left, then you're very aware of the fact that 20% stayed and you need to avoid, then you need to look for them. You need to try as hard as you can to make sure that they also leave in the sense that once you have, you give an upfront that you're going to attack to let more civilians out without allowing the Hamas terrorists to use those civilians as additional human cover. So it is definitely the most challenging type of warfare for any kind of military in the world. We are doing it slowly and systematically as much as possible to avoid that loss of civilian life. We're not going to stop at going against Hamas, but we're not allowing them to use the civilians in that way and in such a way so that we're not going after Hamas. We're telling the civilians to leave consistently, both in the northern Gaza Strip and right now in certain areas in the south. Now we know the IDF killed the Shatti battalion commander. How significant is that? So today it's the Shatti or really last night, the Shatti battalion commander. We talked about other battalion commanders over the last two, three days. They've killed an additional several battalion commanders, company commanders. Command and control, both in a terror army as in a regular army, are of significance. It's the ones who are the ones who know how to tell the different teams where to go, how to reorganize, what to regroup in. And when you are targeting the top echelon, you are making not just a statement, you are most definitely taking apart. That's what we call dismantling. You're taking apart the command, the control, the capabilities, the weapons, the caches, the self-production. All of these are part of the dismantling or destruction of Hamas terror military capabilities. So right now, Shatti, an area that we were in, you get to that one. It's called the systematic closing in on these commanders. For the Hamas themselves, by the way, the fact that they're commanders are the ones that are the ones who are not taking the blood to the fight because they are deep down underground in those subterranean tunnels just goes to show what a terror organization is. In Israel in that sense, our commanders, the company commanders, the Italian commanders are at the forefront of the fighters who are trying to go out and find those terror fighters. And in this case, we're targeting the top echelon from the beginning. I mean, for me, it's very clear, the Ypres-Simoir, Hamad-Def, Malani, these are the Troika, the three type, terror military commanders, and they're most likely in the south of the Gaza Strip hiding under a million people. That's what they do, they hide behind the civilians, they use them as human shields. Very important to take them out. Mary Eisen, thank you very much for your important input. The only children still being held by Hamas and Gaza are 10-month-old Kfir Bebas and his four-year-old brother, Ariel. The whole family was taken hostage. The video of their terrified mother, Shiri, holding her two children in her arms surrounded by cheering crowds in Gaza has become one of the searing images of the cruelty perpetrated by Hamas. The terrorist group declared Shiri and the children dead and released a video of the father yelling in tears, but their deaths have not been confirmed by the IDF and hope still remains. More in this report. Wow, this is crazy, that's a crazy week, ups and downs. Many ups and downs, it's an emotional roller coaster. This last week is a real wind of emotions, because every day we know not to hop too much so as not to be disappointed, but every day people return. And right now there are still lots here with us. Unfortunately, even today, even in the sixth exchange, the Bebas family was not included. These were shaky days for the whole country and certainly for the Bebas family. A week of hope and disappointments while the whole country holds its breath and waits for the list. When will the names of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri appear? No one will hurt her so that you know how human we are, you know she has children. Everything was said about this moment, which became the symbol of this war, evil versus purity, terror versus horror. Ariel is only four years old, Kfir is nine months old, I don't know how they spent the night there. It's hard to believe that more than 50 days have passed since then. The two red-haired brothers and their parents were kidnapped from Kibbutz near Oz, and Kfir received the dubious and terrible title of the youngest abductee. Last Friday when the kidnapped children started to come back, they were so hoping to see them, but it was not to be. I kept myself strong all the time to be strong, but this morning I cried because I couldn't hear one more time, they're not on the list. It killed me this morning, I just can't take it anymore, that's it, I can't take it anymore. So the family decided it was time to further increase the pressure in Israel, and especially in the world. Hamas claims that they are in the hands of another faction, but that does not change the message, they should return home. Are these your enemies? We will repeat this in both Hebrew and English. Are these the people threatening you? Like this, with the pictures of the babies? In terms of posters, things, do you need something for us to complete? Yes, I need their pictures now, I only have the sign. They're getting ready for the statement they're going to give at four o'clock in Hostages Square, and we need posters of the family members. Let's make another bag, which before the declaration we will distribute to the people there, to hold it during their declaration. In the logistics warehouse, in a horrifying order, according to the alphabet, the pictures are placed, coming to the B-Bus pictures, a stack with high demand. Not a day goes by that we don't get questioned. What about the redhead? The people with the balloons begin to gather in the abductees square. After midnight, the yellow changes to reddish-orange. All members of the extended family are already waiting in the family room. It's been everyone's effort for weeks. I know that our family, especially these two little ones, entered everyone's hearts deeply. And all of us together with the entire people of Israel, we're already expecting them to be here. We asked you here, everyone is holding orange balloons. We will blow them all into the sky, hoping that they will reach, I don't know, wherever possible. Let's offer prayers, let it reach Gaza for those who need it. The main thing is that they return. We want them home now. Now, now. Are we ready? You want a clap? All right. A lot of international media has arrived at the square, and the family enters the information battle. Anyone willing to listen? Anyone willing to interview? Why the orange balloons? Is it because of their orange hair? I feel like some kind of soldier in some kind of war that I don't understand. They tell me, go to the expedition. I go. They tell me, get an interview. I do the interview. These little redheads, these two young redheads really entered the hearts of everyone in Israel and also the whole world. Their photos appeared all over the world on newspaper covers. No one remained indifferent to these sweet faces. Isn't there some fear that precisely all these interviews and the exposure and the fact that everyone knows them increases their price because they are the strongest card? Did it cross our minds? Of course it did. Eventually, we have to make some kind of decision, who do we trust and what our intuition says, and go for it. And your intuition tells you to shout loudly. Bring them back? Yes, today. We had a conversation in the family about this, whether we were wrong or not wrong all along. But the picture of Shiri and the kids was much bigger than us, and it spread like wildfire. Even if we weren't interviewed even once, it just did its job. So I absolve myself of responsibility for this thing. What's going on? My thoughts are running about the night. About Los Angeles? The next morning they continued to the press. Yossi hesitates. He's supposed to leave tonight in a delegation to meet with politicians and celebrities in LA. In my opinion, your trip to Schwarzenegger is important. You will be able to use it to convey it in a meaningful way to the world. Let's give it a few minutes and figure out what we're doing here. The confusion becomes even more acute when a brutal push announced by Hamas arrives. Something's happening here. Let's give it a few minutes and figure out what we're doing here. At the moment there is a push on the Bebas family, on the two children, on Ariel and Kfir, and on their mother, Hamas announced that they were murdered. We're connecting them to the team now. The family does not know how to accept these news. It may be that these news have nothing to do with reality. Maybe this event... It is part of the psychological warfare. Khanna Katsir, it was announced that she died, and she returned on her own two legs in good health. I think everyone is holding onto it now. We take this message with limited liability at this stage, because we don't know. Hamas is playing a psychological game with us. Hamas didn't know where they were until a minute before this message. He did not know. He lifted every rug. As soon as they run out, before they run out of time, they suddenly find them. In my opinion, this is a poor excuse for continuing negotiations. It's not just the shaky manipulation from Hamas that you have to deal with. There's also the palpitations before the list is published. Actually, this is the last one before the end of the ceasefire. In the last few days, I kept hoping. I'm trying to convince myself it's just to abuse us a little more, but they will release them. They will release. But it's scary because, hey, we've reached the day before the last day of the ceasefire, the last day of release, as far as I know now, and they're not here yet. There's a problem here. The last day has arrived. Today is the day that if you are not freed, there is one more day left. We don't have time to wait. We don't have time to wait. We are very worried. We're really afraid of the thing. Trying to pass the time until the situation clears up does no other way. But despite the expectation, a sense of despair comes. Kv'ir, Ariel and Shiri are not listed. A chilling sign of life comes in the evening precisely from their father, Jordan, a video that does not bode well for the fate of his family. This is an act of psychological terror. Hamas' claims about the Bebas family are still unverified. I repeat, they are still unverified. On Friday morning, the fighting resumed and with it the concern of the Bebas family and all the families of the abductees that their return is getting further away. And again, they oscillate between hope and despair, between ignorance and immense longing, the laughter of Kv'ir, the nonsense of Ariel, the smile of Shiri, the hug of Jordan. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. I'm Siobhan Raviv. Thank you for watching. I'm Siobhan Raviv, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Netanyi and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Netanyi's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Carney fired a self-in-self defense shooting down three drones during the assault. According to SENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza, east of Rafah. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Sergeant Major in Reserves Nerea Shire, Sergeant First Class in Reserves Ben Zussman and Sergeant Benjamin Yoshua Midham. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyi was set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages as there are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. Joining us now on Israel's northern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? Well, we have an update on those 12 injuries yesterday. The IDF now says that all of them were minor, including the civilians that were injured in earlier strikes from Hezbollah yesterday who took credit for five separate strikes throughout the day. There was later in the evening another strike that fell in an open area with no damage that originated in Syria. These are heavy rocket launches that appear to be coming from the south of Lebanon as well as from southern Syria as well. But again, that update is the IDF now says the 12 injured, including civilians, soldiers and civilians, do all appear to be minor injuries. Now we are seeing that Hezbollah is pretty much aligned with Hamas after this ceasefire that was halted and the fighting resumed both in the south and the north. Yeah, that's right. This ceasefire that they were not party to, they still took part in. They were limited action along the southern border here. It was not a perfect cessation of hostilities, of course, throughout that seven-day ceasefire. But it was wholly uncharacteristic of what had happened before the ceasefire when we were averaging multiple launches a day from Hezbollah positions on the Israeli bases here in the north. This is, of course, a different dynamic because the terrain and the border itself is both mountainous and the border stretches great many miles across this whole area through the northern galley as well. And it can be challenging for the IDF in their positions here on the north to try and limit their exposure. These bases, these IDF bases, of course, many of them hold the high ground with the capability to be able to, as observation posts, see much deeper into Lebanon. That has exposed them in some ways as Hezbollah retreats several miles inland in southern Lebanon, fires from positions sometimes in populated areas with these heavy rocket launches and aims at these Israeli positions with very little time, reaction time, to be able to take cover. The red alerts here, unlike in some other parts of Israel, are mere seconds that you have to take cover. And that's why we've seen a good number of injuries over the hostilities here since October 7th. There have been a good number of casualties, including IDF soldiers killed, as well as civilians here. The casualty figures inside southern Lebanon for Hezbollah stretches over 80. Hezbollah fighters killed since these hostilities began. The Hezbollah mission here, or their operating memorandum, perhaps it does appear to be to continue to distract, to attempt to target the Israelis in an attempt to cause this headache here on the north to draw attention and resources away from the operation in Gaza. Now we know that many towns, villages in the north have been evacuated. Are we expecting to see more? There's certainly a call for evacuation that's been here since that early week of October 7th, and it continues here. But the residents are frustrated not knowing how long they have to, tens of thousands of people that have evacuated here in the north, how long that will last. There has been no clarity as to the timeline for when they can return. Okay, thank you very much, Zach in the northern border. With us now is our I-24 News correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler, down in Sderot in southern Israel. Pierre, we're hearing sirens down south, and we know the fighting deepened overnight in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about the latest developments? There was a rocket strike on Kibbutz facing the central sector of the Gaza Strip, where the ground offensive is expanding near the city of Hanyones. The army just published an announcement in which it said that overnight, 200 strikes targeted the terror infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip, including weapons caches inside a school. And also two tunnels, one of them was booby trapped in a school in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. And here, the air is full of explosion. You can sense the shock waves of the explosions that are going on in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. The operation, the ground offensive, as the chief of staff of the IDF, Lieutenant Colonel Ertzi Alevi, has said yesterday evening, has expanded into the south in Hanyones, in the Hanyones area. There are strikes in the refugee camps of the center of the Gaza Strip, Nusehrat El Burej, and also there are strikes in Rafah on the Egyptian-Gazan border. The Salahadin Axis, which was used as a humanitarian corridor prior to the lull in the fighting for the release of hostages last week, that axis now is used by the ground offensive to progress from the north towards Hanyones in the south. The IDF spokesperson in Arabic has re-actualized the interactive map that has been created in order for the population to know where the fighting is occurring. It's an interactive map of hundreds of small polygon blocks, and the population is supposed to know where they live and where they have to live toward which direction in order to save their lives from the battleground, and some of the populations in some of the quarters of East Hanyones are required to move west of Hanyones in order to find some safe haven. The humanitarian aid, which was increased during the lull in the fighting with 200 trucks carrying water, medicine, material to build tents for the displaced Palestinians as well as fuel and cooking gas, that humanitarian aid has been reduced drastically immediately after the end of the ceasefire. The first day after the end of the ceasefire, there was no humanitarian aid. Then 50 trucks came in, no cooking gas, only two trucks of fuel. And then yesterday, according to the Red Crescent Society, which is the equivalent of the Red Cross in the Muslim world, 100 trucks already crossed into the Gaza Strip, and the U.S. administration is pressing Israel to not only reach the level of humanitarian aid, that is, 200 trucks that was prior to the renewal of the fighting, but even to go beyond that with more humanitarian aid. But the Israelis have not said no. They're just trying to sort out the logistical problems of checking so many trucks in order that there won't be any smuggling of weapons, for instance, to Hamas because yesterday, according to Israeli reports, a drone was found in one of the trucks carrying water, medicine, food and material to build tents. Pierre, thank you very much for these updates and this important input down on Israel's southern border. With us now in studio is Gai Israel, our I-24 News senior editor and Daniel Sheik, former Israeli ambassador to France and director of diplomacy at the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. Thank you both for coming in. I'm going to start with you, Daniel. We're hearing now the announcement that Yonatan Samarro, who was held hostage in captivity by Hamas, was announced dead to his family. Yes, unfortunately, these announcements are becoming much too frequent, which creates additional concern and frustration and tension among the families of the hostages, obviously. Yonatan Samarro was, I mean, his family was very much involved in what we're doing at the forum. They were quite present and we actually tried to help, for example, in trying to obtain an additional citizenship for him, a foreign citizenship. So this is extremely frustrating when for nearly two months you try and make sure that a hostage will return safely and then, unfortunately, the announcement comes that he's no longer alive. And we've heard a few of these over the last few days. Fortunately, yes. You're right. Many of these Israelis that were kidnapped, there was no information about the whereabouts, about the well-being, both people taken from the kibbutzes and also from the nature party, the music festival. In many of the cases when it came to the members of the kibbutzes, some of the information was obtained from hostages, actually, who returned from captivity and were able to supply more information, more intelligence about those people who were missing. In some cases, they were able to speak about those who they saw, who lost their lives in Gaza, although the IDF stresses that they don't base their decisions purely on the testimonies of these hostages, but also on other operational information that is being obtained. Very sadly, these are the results, at least the answers that are given to the families that their loved ones are no longer with us. So many of them are dead and were murdered in captivity, were taken alive by those Hamas terrorists on October 7th, and were then murdered at the hands of Hamas while in captivity. Right, so murdered or mistreated didn't get the proper medical attention that they needed. Regardless of how it happened, they have been murdered as a result of a Hamas's activity, let's just be clear that to begin with capturing hostages, civilian hostages is a war crime to begin with. But once you've captured them, obviously the captors have a responsibility for their well-being. So this is definitely one of the things that should be of concern to the international community, and at least in the forum of families of hostages, the concern about the medical situation, about the health situation of many of the hostages has been a main concern. And unfortunately, till now we have been unable, I mean the State of Israel has been unable to obtain a reliable list of the hostages and their health situation. There are still many fragile people among the hostages, elderly children and as was mentioned here, people who were injured during the events of 7th of October and probably at least according to what we are hearing more and more from released hostages, they do not get proper medical care. To that point exactly, we're hearing today the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mariana Spolarich, is expected to arrive in Egypt and Gaza today for talks on that exact matter, the fact that the Red Cross has not been given access to all those Israeli hostages. We do not know anything about their whereabouts, about their well-being, all those people that need urgent medical care, need medicine, those who were injured. And there was a lot of criticism obviously here in Israel, justified criticism over the fact that the Red Cross has not done enough in order to obtain access to those Israeli hostages. Well finally, the President of the Red Cross is expected to arrive in both Egypt and Gaza today for talks on facilitating those visits, whether that indeed happens, only time will tell, nonetheless at least one concrete move of the Red Cross in the efforts to do so. Now that's happening two months after the massacre and after those hostages were taken into captivity, two months too late. Now, Danielle, we're hearing that Israel is set to enhance the humanitarian aid into Gaza. And there's a lot of criticism from the hostage families that humanitarian aid is being provided to Gazans while no visits by the Red Cross, for example, are being given or provided to the hostages that are there. Correct. I think that more than criticism about offering humanitarian aid, truth be told, in very small quantities right now, as opposed to when we had the pause in the fighting. But still, there is humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. It's not so much the fact that it's provided to the civilian population of Gaza. It's the fact that it's become a sort of given that when you talk about humanitarian aid and humanitarian intervention, it's a one-way street. And it's a one-sided affair. And that is if only Palestinians are in need of humanitarian aid. Whereas there is another facet to the notion of humanitarian aid precisely what we discussed a few minutes earlier, which is humanitarian access to hostages who were taken in breach of international law. And the minimum, the bare minimum of what to do immediately after hostage taking is to give the Red Cross access. It's true that the Red Cross may have not been insistent enough, but it has, in fairness, we have to say that it's not the fault of the Red Cross that they don't have access to the hostages. It's Hamas that is refusing that access. And we know for a fact that they are. Guy? Yes. So definitely Israel has been expecting this visit. She is also expected to visit Israel later this week, hopefully with some answers to the Israeli officials about what came out of these talks that she will be having today with the Egyptians on also from officials from Hamas in Gaza. Now, let me ask you, Guy, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronan Bar, said that Israel will go after Hamas wherever Hamas is. Very interesting recording published yesterday by the Israeli public broadcaster Khan of the head of the Shin Bet, Ronan Bar, saying we will go after the heads of Hamas wherever they are. And he specifies in Lebanon, in Turkey, in the West Bank, and in Qatar. It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it. And Ronan Bar says, this is our Munich is obviously referring to the massacre of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, after which Israel has vowed to take all the terrorists, all the Palestinian terrorists who were involved in that massacre. And he says, this is our Munich. We will hunt those Hamas operatives wherever they are. Obviously, it is interesting he mentions both Qatar and Turkey by their name. It's not to be taken for granted that Israel will do so in two countries, that it does hold some sort of diplomatic dialogue with when it comes to Qatar and some sort of diplomatic relations with Turkey, even if the relations have been downgraded recently. Plus, there were unconfirmed reports that one of the conditions that Qatar set for getting involved in brokering the ceasefire was an Israeli commitment not to commit killings of Hamas operatives on their soil. It wasn't confirmed by any official source in Israel, but it sounds like quite a reliable information. So this, in a sense, is contradicting something that was supposed to have been given as a commitment from Israel. And very interesting. Lee, we're hearing from a spokesman of the Hamas political bureau saying that these threats are a blunt violation of the sovereignty of the neighboring sister countries. It is quite rich of Hamas to speak about any sort of international violations. Now, speaking of hostages, we know that the hostage families met with the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. This is an unprecedented visit, and not an official visit by the Israeli government, but by the request of the hostage families. What can you tell me about that? Well, let me start by saying that the state of Israel as an official body has, how should I put it, politely an ambiguous position on the ICC. Israel does not wish really to give the ICC any kind of legitimacy in delving into affairs around this area. But the families, which obviously are not an official body, felt that the events of October 7th were so brutal, were so clearly in breach of international law, so clearly came under the remit of the International Criminal Court that the jurists on the Families Forum, and there are some of the best minds in the Israeli international judicial field, they felt that it would be a good idea to have him, invite him to come, to meet with people, to meet with the families, and most importantly to go visit some of the areas that were attacked on October 7th. He visited several of the Kibbutzim, and in a number of tweets that came from the ICC afterwards, there was clear mention of the shock in seeing what he saw, and I wouldn't say an official announcement, but a clear indication that he, as Chief Prosecutor, intended to continue the investigation and to turn it maybe into an official investigation of the ICC. But again, this was only possible because it is an unofficial civil society body. Official Israel would not have done that. Danielle Shek and Gai Azrael, thank you very much for joining. Kibbutzna Chaloz is one of the places which were most severely damaged on October 7th. Our correspondent Uri Shaper brings us the story of this fascinating community. Let's take a look. October 7th caught the entire country by surprise. In Kibbutzna Chaloz, one of the places closest to the Gaza border, the surprise was even bigger. We woke up around 6 a.m. My partner told me that there is a red alert. I wasn't very excited about it. I said, okay, we've experienced these situations. We'll walk it out, so we entered the safe room. The first message I got was from a friend who texted me that his wife was injured. Eventually, she died from her wounds. The door was closed, but I suppose that it wouldn't matter to them. I guess that they realized that we are old people. There is not much to do with us. So they went to other places. Yachiel Chelnov is one of the founders of Nakhal Oz. He is close to his 90s, but still very active. When we established the Kibbutz, we concentrated on agriculture, and indeed we had very good agriculture. We have one of the best dairy industries. At least it was until the war, but it is still working. It's the first time I'm living the Kibbutz. We had security issues when we evacuated young families with the kids or whoever wanted to go, but never like this. Kibbutz Nakhal Oz was the first Nakhal settlement, a collective community of veterans of the IDF's Nakhal Brigade who combined military service and building communities across the country. In the early days, the Kibbutz was considered one of the most famous in Israel, as leaders and officials visited it. One of the most famous incidents occurred in 1956, when a member of the Kibbutz, Roy Rothenburg, was brutally killed by Egyptian forces. The eulogy of Moshe Dayan, then chief of staff, became one of the most iconic speeches in the history of Israel. Early yesterday morning, Roy was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him at the edge of the furrow. Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt into our state. It is not among the Arabs in Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Roy's blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate and see in all its brutality the destiny of our generation? In 2014, another traumatic event happened when four-year-old Daniel Tragman died from a missile sent from Gaza. The Kibbutz was about to celebrate 70 years since its founding with a special ceremony. Ironically the main show was a play which shows two women spotters who were cut off from their cameras. We were supposed to have a big celebration marking 70 years of the Kibbutz. On Friday we had rehearsals for the show. The plot where the spotters are disconnected seems like a crazy story for me, but this is what happened eventually. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Raviv and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Ethani and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Ethani's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. In a significant escalation, a U.S. worshiped Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Carney fired a self-in-self defense shooting down three drones during the assault. According to CENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza, east of Rafah. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Sgt. Major in Reserves Neriyah Shire, Sgt. First Class in Reserves Ben Zussman and Sgt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages as there are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. Joining us now on Israel's northern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? Well, we have an update on those 12 injuries yesterday. The IDF now says that all of them were minor, including the civilians that were injured in earlier strikes from Hezbollah yesterday who took credit for five separate strikes throughout the day. There was later in the evening another strike that fell in an open area with no damage that originated in Syria. These are heavy rocket launches that appear to be coming from the south of Lebanon, as well as from southern Syria, as well. But again, that update is the IDF now says the 12 injured, including civilians, soldiers and civilians, do all appear to be minor injuries. Now, we are seeing that Hezbollah is pretty much aligned with Hamas after this ceasefire that was halted and the fighting resumed both in the south and the north. Yeah, that's right. This ceasefire that they were not party to, they still took part in. They were limited action along the southern border here. It was not a perfect cessation of hostilities, of course, throughout that seven-day ceasefire. But it was wholly uncharacteristic of what had happened before the ceasefire when we were averaging multiple launches a day from Hezbollah positions on the Israeli bases here in the north. This is, of course, a different dynamic because the terrain and the border itself is both mountainous and the border stretches great many miles across this whole area through the northern galley as well. And it can be challenging for the IDF in their positions here on the north to try and limit their exposure. These bases, these IDF bases, of course, hold, many of them hold the high ground with the capability to be able to, as observation posts, see much deeper into Lebanon. But that has exposed them in some ways as Hezbollah retreats several miles inland in southern Lebanon, fires from positions sometimes in populated areas with these heavy rocket launches, and aims at these Israeli positions with very little time, reaction time, to be able to take cover. The red alerts here, unlike in some other parts of Israel, are mere seconds that you have to take cover. And that's why we've seen a good number of injuries over the hostilities here since October 7th. There have been a good number of casualties, including IDF soldiers killed as well as civilians here. The casualty figures inside southern Lebanon for Hezbollah stretches over 80 Hezbollah fighters killed since these hostilities began. The Hezbollah mission here, or their operating memorandum, perhaps it does appear to be to continue to distract, to attempt to target the Israelis in an attempt to cause this headache here on the north to draw attention and resources away from the operation in Gaza. Now, we know that many towns, villages in the north have been evacuated. Are we expecting to see more? There's certainly a call for evacuation that's been here since that early week of October 7th, and it continues here. But the residents are frustrated not knowing how long they have to, tens of thousands of people that have evacuated here in the north, how long that will last. There has been no clarity as to the timeline for when they can return. Okay. Thank you very much, Zach, in the northern border. With us now is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler, down in Sderot in southern Israel. Pierre, we're hearing sirens down south, and we know the fighting deepened overnight in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about the latest developments? There was a rocket strike on Kibbutz, facing the central sector of the Gaza Strip, where the ground offensive is expanding near the city of Hanyones. The army just published an announcement in which it said that overnight, 200 strikes targeted the terror infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip, including weapons caches near inside a school. They found also two tunnels. One of them was booby trapped in a school in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. And here, the air is full of explosion. You can sense the shock waves of the explosions that are going on in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. The operation, the ground offensive, as the chief of staff of the IDF, Newton Colonel Ertzi Alevi, has said yesterday evening, has expanded into the south in Hanyones, in the Hanyones area. There are strikes in the refugee camps of the center of the Gaza Strip, Nusserat, El Burej, and also there are strikes in Rafah on the Egyptian Gaza border. The Salahadin Axis, which was used as a humanitarian corridor prior to the lull in the fighting for the release of hostages last week, that axis now is used by the ground offensive to progress from the north towards Hanyones in the south. The IDF spokesperson in Arabic has re-actualized the interactive map that has been created in order for the population to know where the fighting is occurring. It's an interactive map of hundreds of small polygon blocks, and the population is supposed to know where they live and where they have to live toward which direction in order to save their lives from the battleground. And some of the populations in some of the quarters of East Hanyones are required to move west of Hanyones in order to find some safe haven. The humanitarian aid, which was increased during the lull in the fighting with 200 trucks carrying water, medicine, material to build tents for the displaced Palestinians, as well as fuel and cooking gas, that humanitarian aid has been reduced drastically immediately after the end of the ceasefire. The first day after the end of the ceasefire, there was no humanitarian aid. Then 50 trucks came in, no cooking gas, only two trucks of fuel. And then yesterday, according to the Red Crescent Society, which is the equivalent of the Red Cross in the Muslim world, 100 trucks already crossed into the Gaza Strip. And the U.S. administration is pressing Israel to not only reach the level of humanitarian aid, that is 200 trucks that was prior to the renewal of the fighting, but even to go beyond that with more humanitarian aid. But the Israelis have not said no. They're just trying to sort out the logistical problems of checking so many trucks in order that there won't be any smuggling of weapons, for instance, to Hamas. Because yesterday, according to Israeli reports, a drone was found in one of the trucks carrying water, medicine, food and material to build tents. Pierre, thank you very much for these updates and this important input down on Israel's southern border. With us now in studio is Gai Israel, our I-24 News Senior Editor and Danielle Sheik, former Israeli Ambassador to France and Director of Diplomacy at the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. Thank you both for coming in. I'm going to start with you, Danielle. We're hearing now the announcement that Yonatan Samarro, who was held hostage in captivity by Hamas, was announced dead to his family. Yes. Unfortunately, these announcements are becoming much too frequent, which creates additional concern and frustration and tension among the families of the hostages, obviously. Yonatan Samarro was, I mean, his family was very much involved in what we're doing at the forum. They were quite present and we actually tried to help in, for example, in trying to obtain an additional citizenship for him, a foreign citizenship. So this is extremely frustrating when for nearly two months you try and make sure that a hostage will return safely and then, unfortunately, the announcement comes that he's no longer alive. And we've heard a few of these over the last three years. Fortunately, yes. You're right. Many of these Israelis that were kidnapped, there was no information about the whereabouts, about the well-being, both people taken from the Kibbutzes and also from the nature party, the music festival. In many of the cases when it came to the members of the Kibbutzes, some of the information was obtained from hostages, actually, who returned from captivity and were able to supply more information, more intelligence about those people who were missing. In some cases, they were able to speak about those who they saw, who lost their lives. In Gaza, although the IDF stresses that they don't base their decisions purely on the testimonies of these hostages, but also on other operational information that is being obtained, very sadly, these are the results, at least the answers that are given to the families that their loved ones are no longer with us. So many of them are dead and were murdered in captivity, were taken alive by those Hamas terrorists on October 7th and were then murdered at the hands of Hamas while in captivity. Right, so murdered or mistreated didn't get the proper medical attention that they needed. Regardless of how it happened, they have been murdered as a result of Hamas' activity, for let's just be clear that to begin with, capturing hostages, civilian hostages, is a war crime to begin with. But once you've captured them, obviously, the captors have a responsibility for their well-being. So this is definitely one of the things that should be of concern to the international community. And at least in the forum of families of hostages, the concern about the medical situation, about the health situation of many of the hostages, has been a main concern. And unfortunately, till now, we have been unable, I mean, the State of Israel has been unable to obtain a reliable list of the hostages and their health situation. There are still many fragile people among the hostages, elderly children and, as was mentioned here, people who were injured during the events of 7th of October and probably at least according to what we are hearing more and more from released hostages, they do not get proper medical care. To that point, exactly, we're hearing today, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mariana Spolarich, is expected to arrive in Egypt and Gaza today for talks on that exact matter, the fact that the Red Cross has not been given access to all those Israeli hostages. We do not know anything about their whereabouts, about their well-being, all those people that need urgent medical care, need medicine, those who were injured. And there was a lot of criticism, obviously, here in Israel, justified criticism over the fact that the Red Cross has not done enough in order to obtain access to those Israeli hostages. Well, finally, the President of the Red Cross is expected to arrive in both Egypt and Gaza today for talks on facilitating those visits, whether that indeed happens. Only time will tell. Nonetheless, at least one concrete move of the Red Cross in the effort to do so. Now, that's happening two months after the massacre and after those hostages were taken into captivity two months too late. Now, Danielle, we're hearing that Israel is set to enhance the humanitarian aid into Gaza. And there's a lot of criticism from the hostage families that humanitarian aid is being provided to Gazans, while no visits by the Red Cross, for example, are being given or provided to the hostages that are there. Correct. I think that more than criticism about offering humanitarian aid, truth be told, in very small quantities right now, as opposed to when we had the pause in the fighting. But still, there is humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. It's not so much the fact that it's provided to the civilian population of Gaza. It's the fact that it's become a sort of given that when you talk about humanitarian aid and humanitarian intervention, it's a one-way street and it's a one-sided affair. And that is if only Palestinians are in need of humanitarian aid. Whereas there is another facet to the notion of humanitarian aid precisely what we discussed a few minutes earlier, which is humanitarian access to hostages who were taken in breach of international law. And the minimum, the bare minimum of what to do immediately after a hostage taking is to give the Red Cross access. It's true that the Red Cross may have not been insistent enough, but it has in fairness. We have to say that it's not the fault of the Red Cross that they don't have access to the hostages. It's Hamas that is refusing that access and we know for a fact that they are. Guy? Yes. So definitely Israel has been expecting this visit. She is also expected to visit Israel later this week, hopefully with some answers to the Israeli officials about what came out of these talks that she will be having today with the Egyptians on also from officials from Hamas in Gaza. Now let me ask you, Guy, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronan Bar, said that Israel will go after Hamas wherever Hamas is. Very interesting recording published yesterday by the Israeli public broadcaster Khan of the head of the Shin Bet, Ronan Bar, saying we will go after the heads of Hamas wherever they are. And he specifies in Lebanon, in Turkey, in the West Bank, and in Qatar. It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it. And Ronan Bar says this is our Munich is obviously referring to the massacre of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games after which Israel has vowed to take all the terrorists, all the Palestinian terrorists who were involved in that massacre. And he says this is our Munich. We will hunt those Hamas operatives wherever they are. Obviously, it is interesting, he mentions both Qatar and Turkey by their name. It's not to be taken for granted that Israel will do so in two countries, that it does hold some sort of diplomatic dialogue when it comes to Qatar and some sort of diplomatic relations with Turkey, even if the relations have been downgraded recently. And plus, there were unconfirmed reports that one of the conditions that Qatar set for getting involved in brokering the ceasefire was an Israeli commitment not to commit killings of Hamas operatives on their soil. It wasn't confirmed by any official source in Israel, but it sounds like quite a reliable information. So this, in a sense, is contradicting something that was supposed to have been given as a commitment from Israel. And very interestingly, we're hearing from a spokesman of the Hamas's political bureau saying that these threats are a blunt violation of the sovereignty of the neighboring sister countries. It is quite rich of Hamas to speak about any sort of international violations. Now, speaking of hostages, we know that the hostage families met with the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. This is an unprecedented visit and not an official visit by the Israeli government, but by the request of the hostage families. What can you tell me about that? Well, let me start by saying that the state of Israel as an official body has, how should I put it, politely an ambiguous position on the ICC. Israel does not wish really to give the ICC any kind of legitimacy in delving into affairs around this area. But the families, which obviously are not an official body, felt that the events of October 7th were so brutal, were so clearly in breach of international law, so clearly came under the remit of the International Criminal Court that the jurists on the Families Forum, and there are some of the best minds in the Israeli international judicial field, they felt that it would be a good idea to have him, invite him to come to meet with people, to meet with the families, and most importantly to go visit some of the areas that were attacked on October 7th. He visited several of the Kibbutzim, and in a number of tweets that came from the ICC afterwards, there was clear mention of the shock in seeing what he saw. And I wouldn't say an official announcement, but a clear indication that he, as chief prosecutor, intended to continue the investigation and to turn it maybe into an official investigation of the ICC. But again, this was only possible because it is an unofficial civil society body. Official Israel would not have done that. Right. Danielle Shek and Gaia Israel, thank you very much for joining. Kibbutz-Nachal Oz is one of the places which were most severely damaged on October 7th. Our correspondent, Uri Shapira, brings us the story of this fascinating community. Let's take a look. October 7th caught the entire country by surprise. In Kibbutz-Nachal Oz, one of the places closest to the Gaza border, the surprise was even bigger. We woke up around 6 a.m. My partner told me that there is a red alert. I wasn't very excited about it. I said, okay, we've experienced these situations, we'll walk it out, so we entered the safe room. The first message I got was from a friend who texted me that his wife was injured. Eventually, she died from her wounds. The door was closed, but I suppose that it wouldn't matter to them. I guess that they realized that we are old people, there is not much to do with us. So they went to other places. Yechiel Chelnov is one of the founders of Nachal Oz. He is close to his 90s, but still very active. When we established the Kibbutz, we concentrated on agriculture. And indeed, we had very good agriculture. We have one of the best dairy industries. At least it was until the war, but it is still working. It's the first time I'm leaving the Kibbutz. We had security issues when you evacuated young families with the kids or whoever wanted to go, but never like this. Kibbutz-Nachal Oz was the first Nachal settlement, a collective community of veterans of the IDF's Nachal Brigade who combined military service and building communities across the country. In the early days, the Kibbutz was considered one of the most famous in Israel, as leaders and officials visited it. One of the most famous incidents occurred in 1956 when a member of the Kibbutz, Roy Rotenberg, was brutally killed by Egyptian forces. The eulogy of Moshe Dayan, then chief of staff, became one of the most iconic speeches in the history of Israel. Early yesterday morning, Roy was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him, and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him at the edge of the furrow. Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years, they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes, we have been transforming the land and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt into our state. It is not among the Arabs in Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Roy's blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate and see in all its brutality the destiny of our generation? In 2014, another traumatic event happened when four-year-old Daniel Tragman died from a missile sent from Gaza. The Kibbutz was about to celebrate 70 years since its founding with a special ceremony. Ironically, the main show was a play which shows two women spotters who were cut off from their cameras. We were supposed to have a big celebration marking 70 years of the Kibbutz. On Friday, we had rehearsals for the show. The plot where the spotters are disconnected. It seems like a crazy story for me, but this is what happened eventually. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I-24 News I-24 News, I'm Sivan Raveev and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammad Ithani, and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Ithani's commitment to peace in the region. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza, in east of Rafa. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas and the Gaza Strip yesterday. Sergeant Major in Reserves, Niriya Shire, Sergeant First Class in Reserves, Ben Zussman, and Sergeant Benjamin Yoshua Nitam. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages as they are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. With us now is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Klochendler, in southern Israel. Pierre, we heard sirens earlier in the south and we know the fighting deepened overnight. As we speak, there are more sirens in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about these latest developments? No, there was only one rocket strike over the community of Nirim, which is facing the central sector of the Gaza Strip, where the ground operation has been expanding since Saturday night, Sunday morning. The operation is expanding into the area of Hanyunas, where the leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Pierre Hissinois, and the head of the Isadin Al-Qassam, Hamas Terriburgates, Muhammad Def, are believed to be located. There is heavy bombing and fighting in that area east of Hanyunas. The army has crossed Israeli territory from east to west toward the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas. And at the same time, the army is going down from north to south on the Salah Adin axis, which was used before the lull in the fighting as a humanitarian corridor, but now is used by the ground offensive. There are also a lot of striking at targets. There was just a huge explosion now. There is a lot of strikes inside the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, Beth-Hanyun, Beth-Lahiyah, and heavy fighting occurring in the Jabalia refugee camp, which is a bit further south from where we are, as well as in the neighborhood of Zeytun in Gaza City. The community of Shejahiyah, which is on the southeast outskirts of Gaza City, is uncircled, and will be probably the next target of the ground offensive emanating from the north. What we know is 200 strikes have been performed by the IDF overnight. 200 strikes is not the biggest number we've heard. There were times where you had 400 strikes overnight. This time it's 200, but here there is heavy bombing in the northern sector as well. Okay, thank you very much, Pierre, on Israel's southern border. With us now is retired colonel Dr. Moshe Elad, the IDF's former coordinator to the Palestinian Authority on security issues, and a lecture at the Western Galilee Academic College. Moshe, thank you for joining us. We're hearing that the head of the Shin Bet is saying Israel will go after all Hamas operatives wherever they are. Now, is the IDF likely to expand its operations into the West Bank? We know Janine is known to be a hub of Hamas. I guess the team and the heads of Hamas outside the area. In Turkey, you have Salih Haube, sorry for my voice, and you have some others in Kuwait and in Qatar. And those people are definitely a target for killing. This was said from the very beginning on October 7th, so nothing is new here. But all new about it, you just emphasize it. Now, we're hearing of IDF activity in Calculia as well. What can you tell us about that? There's a lot of action accompanying the war in the West Bank. So what IDF has to do, by the way, together and with a nice, very nice communication and working together with the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Hamas activists. And so far we have arrested about maybe 20, no, 2,000 people. Most of them are Hamas people. Now, it never ends. You can release them and they will get back. But the fact that the West Bank is relatively quiet and not as simple as it is to explode, it's a big achievement of Israel. We have returned our deterrence in this area. So this is what actually prevent people in the West Bank from getting out. Dr. Moshe Eladz, please stay with us. We'll be back to you in a few moments. Joining us now on Israel's Northern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the North? Yeah, we're learning more about those injuries from yesterday's Hezbollah strikes. 11 men and one women ages range from 20 to 65 injured by these strikes throughout the day. They are minor injuries attributed to shrapnel damage from some of the launches. These are ATGM anti-tank guided missiles that are launched by personnel on the ground from not necessarily a long distance. These do have quite a range, but they are just far enough away to where they can fire on these positions and then attempt to escape deeper into southern Lebanon. The IDF says that they retaliated against the points of origin of this fire with artillery and air strikes to attempt to target these cells, the locations from where Hezbollah was firing on Israeli positions here in the North. Now many towns in the North were evacuated. Are we expected to see more such evacuation? And for those that have been evacuated, they're numbered into the thousands that have left this area, these communities and towns along the northern border. They have really no timeframe for return as it appears that Hezbollah's willingness to continue the fighting here is at least given Nasrallah's statements going to sustain or last as long as the operation in Gaza lasts, that this is an attempt to distract and pull forces away from the south and keep sizable IDF reserves here in the North to protect this border in this area. As far as the evacuations, many of the people that have left are left in this state of waiting with no clear timeline for when they can return to their homes, to their places of work and worship. This has, of course, been a consistent call for evacuation just about since right after October 7th. And many of those folks have remained in areas throughout central and southern Israel attempting to escape this danger here. As far as more evacuations, the communities that have been evacuated remain under that call to evacuation. The list has not grown considerably to include new communities or towns. This is basically an exclusion zone of about five miles or so from the start of the Lebanon border into northern Israel. Most of these communities that are under evacuation orders are within distance or very close to the border here. Thank you very much, Zach, on Israel's northern border. And back with us now is Dr. Moshe Elad. Moshe, the IDF, is deepening its reach into southern Gaza. What can you tell us about this next stage in the war? The next stage will be to come and crack down on as many as possible people from Hamas leadership, including Sinema, Mahwan Issa, Mohamed Dev. This trio is probably the highest expectation of Israel IDF to kill as a target of killing. Number two is to try and get hostages and put pressure, at least put pressure on the Hamas leadership. The more we pressure them, the more it's going to be an enormous pressure that they won't be able to withstand. The better we can do in either in a negotiation with Qatar and Egypt or in another deal that the final curtain will be that we'll be there. No Hamas leader will have to be there. Maybe there would be some others, you know, field commanders. Maybe we won't reach the last missile, but we'll have to get to the people, to the main leaders, and to say that we have reached 90% of our goals would be just if we conquer the area of Chalunis and Rafi'ah and there's no rocket shelling at all. This would be definitely victory. Now we're hearing for a while now that one of the main goals is to destroy Hamas. How feasible is it that Israel will actually dismantle and remove Hamas? You can dismantle the leaders, you can kill them, you won't be able to kill the idea, so they might be people outside the area that will still raise the torch of Hamas. But in terms of immediate danger to the people of the Qibbutzim inside Israel, those who were defeated, who were hit in October 7th, I guess that this would be a possible challenge. We'll be able to do that in order to find a way how to bring them back and see if we can take another look at the infrastructure and rebuild it. How will the IDF deal with this very populated civilian area that it's going into right now? You mean the population inside Gaza? Yes. Well we have been directed or suggested by the Americans not to do a couple of things, or at least try and be more humane to people. What is really something that is always in us, rooted in our legacy. First of all, help them get food, medication, see if you can help with other issues, and of course put a red line between innocent people, uninvolved people, and terrorists. This would be probably the main goal for any force in Gaza, especially in the southern area. Why? Because it's too dense there, and population is very, very big there, and you'll have to be very careful, like in a surgical operation. Every single shot, every single bomb will have to be measured and taken care of. Dr. Mosheila, thank you very much for joining. Thank you. The U.S. confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke class destroyer, USS Carney, fired in self-defense, shooting down three drones during the assault. According to SENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security, as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Joining us now is Catherine Perez-Shakdam, director at Forward Strategy and expert on Iran-Yemen and radical movements. Catherine, what can you tell us about this latest escalation by the Houthis? Well, I think what you've seen is actually it's been going on for quite a few weeks now, and there's been some messages coming out of the leadership in Yemen, the Houthis, warning that they would continue to escalate towards both the British, the Israeli interests, and, of course, America. And I think what we're seeing in witnesses is a desire by Iran, since the Houthis are a proxy of Iran, to escalate tensions in the Middle East, but not so much to target Israel in my mind, although obviously they did try to, you know, to send a missile that was stopped towards Elat. But I think there's a desire to posture, you know, in terms of the war two ways, in terms of the potential for disrupting the world or route and, of course, the Red Sea crossing. I think there is a desire also to force America and the British to withdraw and maybe potentially negotiate to give them a bigger standing on the international community. So, you know, you need to see this in two ways. So, on the one hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran is, again, acting very belligerent and demonstrating its ability to do us harm in terms of our Western interests and Israeli interests. And also for the Houthis to gain a bigger footing on the international community and to position themselves as valid actors on the international scene. Because whenever people are forced to negotiate with terrorists because the Houthis, even though they're not labeled as a terrorist organization or a terrorist organization because they act like it, have the ambition to position themselves and sell themselves as a legitimate state entity, as far as, for example, the United Nations are concerned, or Western capitals. And by forcing Western nations to negotiate with them, they would gain that status. And I think that what Hamas has done so far, forcing state officials to travel to Qatar and to meet with various leaders of Hamas, is telling you that it's actually working. So, they're taking their cues of what is happening with Hamas, a terrorist organization labeled as such by countless countries around the world, and trying to see if they could replicate the formula and say, well, we're small, nobody looks at us, we have very limited power. But if we try to project our strength by disrupting an Arctic-like pirates, essentially, and force Western nations to recognize us, and not only that, but give us a seat at the table. And that's what we're seeing happening. It is very dangerous. The Houthis are part of the axis of resistance. And now you can see that Iran, through its proxies, because of course it's hiding behind other people, because why wage war when others can do it for you, are exerting, well, tremendous power across the region by sea, by air, and of course by land. Now, the Houthis have fired towards Israel several times over the last couple of months. What are they trying to achieve? Is this an actual threat for Israel? I don't think it's a threat, because obviously those missiles can't be stopped. I think it's an attempt by the Islamic Republic of Iran to taste the waters in terms of the reaction. How far can they push the envelope by acting through its proxies? Because everyone knows that Tehran is sitting behind us. Everyone knows that Tehran is pulling the strings. They want to see if number one, Israel will attack Iran. How far can Tehran push in its aggression towards Israel and its rhetoric against Israel? It wants to see if countries such as Saudi Arabia and others in the region will intervene in favor or against Israel as Israel is becoming a target. It also wants to test the waters in terms of Western reactions, and so far the reaction has been none. So those threats have been, I would say, counteracted, in that they were eliminated, but there was no real retaliation in terms of military strength or even deployment or sanctions or anything like this. So it's the boiling of the frog, if you will, where the Islamic Republic of Iran is trying to push and push and push and see how far it can take it before there's a strong reaction, and then it would retreat. It has done so for the past decades. Unfortunately today, because everyone has its eyes on Gaza and trying to blame Israel for doing what the world should have done decades ago, which is to get rid of Hamas. No one is really looking at the Islamic Republic of Iran. No one is actually picking up on the fact that this war in Gaza, those actions against Israel are really just a distraction, a despicable distraction, but a distraction. Because now, room has been left with the Islamic Republic of Iran to do whatever it wants, and its proxies are picking up steam and doing great harm to the region, but no one is looking at it, because obviously everyone talks about Gaza. It's quite an interesting way of exploiting the situation, I would say. Yeah, so we are hearing that they marched and said they intend to arrive to Israel to fight alongside the Palestinians. What people are wondering is this an additional front for Israel and its allies? No, look, at best, because we need to be very careful. So the Housis are not the whole of Yemen. So when you look at Yemen, it has a population of about 26 million, but the Housis themselves, who are not a tribe, by the way, but literally just a movement that aims to redefine itself as a tribe, has about give or take 5,000 fighters, really. So everyone else has been brought into the movement, this ideology, because Yemen is starving, Yemen has no way out, and so it's a lot healthier for people to claim to support the regime and join the ranks of the regime, often against their will, by the way. Children have been involved into the Housi movement, but they don't have the capacity to expand or to send troops to Syria or wherever they would want to send them. It's impossible, technically, militarily on the ground, mass don't add up. That said, what they're trying to do is to position a certain rhetoric, and in my mind, because the Housis are considered as Arabs, what you're trying, what you're seeing is the Islamic Republic of Iran trying to reinvent its axis of resistance and build a bridge towards the Arab world, towards the Sunni world, trying to say, look, the Housis are willing to step up for the Palestinians and to support Hamas, what aren't you doing it? So in my mind, it's a psychological warfare type of situation where Iran is trying to galvanize the troops across the Arab world by sending the Housis forward in the hope that it would pick up steam and others would volunteer. You've seen this too in Iraq with the creation of the PMU on the back of a fatwa that Ayatollah Sistani issued, where people decided to go and defend their countries against ISIS, which at the time seemed and sounded quite a good idea. But you've seen that the PMU has since then been revamped into the Islamic Republic, I would say ideology, and it's not becoming a threat to not just only Iraqis but other countries in the region, including Israel. So I think the Housis are kind of going that way too. They're trying to position themselves as the great saviour of Islam. But also remember that in Shia mythology, there's a belief that the liberation of the worlds by the Islamic armies would come from Iran and would also come from Yemen. So I think they're trying to position themselves, you know, religiously speaking, in that space. Catherine Peres, Shaktan. Thank you very much for being with us. My pleasure. Gaza is an unexpected guest at COP28 in Dubai. Excessivating tensions between states, this conflict poses a real risk to the success of climate negotiations and may overshadow other important issues such as the environmental impact of war. I-24 News correspondent in Dubai, Bastian Bori, brings us an illustration at Israel's COP28 pavilion. If COP28 is to have any chance of success, the UAE has every interest in minimizing the impact of the war in Gaza. But despite an agreement reached on the first day of the conference on the creation of a large fund to help vulnerable countries, geopolitics quickly resurfaced. Witness the attire chosen for the Israeli pavilion. Israel suffered horrific terror attack just two months ago, less than two months ago. And we are here despite the world going home at home, despite the loss we suffered. We take the negotiation very seriously. We prepared for it in advance. Israel wants to contribute to the climate change goals. We are committed to, commitments we took already at COP27 and COP26. I'm glad to say that what's going on inside the negotiation rooms is very serious negotiation led by the UAE, who doesn't allow politics to come into the room. But politics doesn't need permission. It is interfering in COP28 on its own. For instance, by imposing a heath or two eluded subject, the environmental impact of war. On both the Palestinian and Israeli side, large urban, agricultural and forest areas have been bombed, burned, destroyed, contaminated by leaking chemicals. And the consequences are not only for the air and soil, but also for all the civilians who are exposed. The impacts of climate change are greater on the Middle East than on the average in other areas of the world. That means our challenge is more acute. And of course, the challenge is not just for Israel, but for all our neighbors, which is why it was so important for us to come today despite what's going on in Israel, in order to make it clear that Israel has solutions and wants to present them. And therefore, the sooner that our neighbors can understand that they can benefit from our expertise and knowledge, the more that we can involve, be involved in solving their problems and ours. Among these neighbors is Saudi Arabia, whose GDP is still almost 50 percent dependent on oil revenues, and who will need Israel to ensure its energy transition once the war in Gaza is over. Climate innovation can really be a lever for building relationships. Climate, as we know, doesn't discriminate against geographies. It doesn't know where there are geographical borders. And the pain points that we're feeling around the world are felt regardless of geopolitical conditions. And so when we're talking about clear issues around water security, food security, agricultural security, and we're looking for the technological tools that will help us build a resilient future, climate innovation becomes an apolitical conversation. But after seeing Isaac Herzog cancel his speech at the COP28 podium, Israel won't be sending Benjamin Dithniahu or Foreign Minister Eliko hen either. A thousand Israeli officials should have made the trip. In the end, there will only be 28. Other Middle Eastern countries such as Iran won't be taking part and others are walking on eggshells, all of which reduces the chances of success for these countries. Israeli actress Gal Gadot called out the loud silence for weeks over the sexual violence committed against Israeli women by Hamas, saying the world has failed the women of October 7th. This comes after UN women has condemned the October 7th Hamas massacre in a Friday statement nearly two months after the terrorist organization's brutal rampage of rape, murder, and kidnappings. The women's rights organization made a similar statement in late November condemning the Hamas attacks, but quickly deleted the post. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website, i-24news.tv, and across all our social media platforms. I'm Sivana Raviv. Thank you for watching. 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 line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. I-24 News. I'm Sivana Raviv, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed Ethani and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Ethani's commitment to peace in the region. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza in east of Rafa. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas and the Gaza Strip yesterday. Sergeant Major in Reserves, Niria Shire, Sergeant First Class in Reserves, Ben Zussman, and Sergeant Benjamin Yoshua Nitham. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages as they are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. With us now is our I-24 News correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, in southern Israel. Pierre, we heard sirens earlier in the south and we know the fighting deepened overnight. As we speak, there are more sirens in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about these latest developments? No, there was only one rocket strike over the community of Nirim, which is facing the central sector of the Gaza Strip, where the ground operation has been expanding since Saturday night, Sunday morning. The operation is expanding into the area of Hanyunas, where the leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Pierre Sinoir, and the head of the Isadin Al-Qasam, Hamas Territory Brigades, Mohamed Def, are believed to be located. There is heavy bombing and fighting in that area east of Hanyunas. The army has crossed Israeli territory from east to west toward the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas. And at the same time, the army is going down from north to south on the Salahadine axis, which was used before the lull in the fighting as a humanitarian corridor, but now is used by the ground offensive. There are also a lot of striking targets. There was just a huge explosion now, there is a lot of strikes inside the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, Betchanun, Betlahiyah, and heavy fighting occurring in the Jebaliyah refugee camp, which is a bit further south from where we are, as well as in the neighborhood of Zeytun in Gaza City. The community of Shejahiyah, which is on the southeast outskirts of Gaza City, is uncircled, and will be probably the next target of the ground offensive emanating from the north. What we know is 200 strikes have been performed by the IDF overnight. 200 strikes is not the biggest number we've heard. There were times where you had 400 strikes overnight. This time it's 200, but here there is heavy bombing in the northern sector as well. Okay, thank you very much, Pierre, on Israel's southern border. With us now is retired colonel Dr. Moshe Elad, the IDF's former coordinator to the Palestinian Authority on security issues, and a lecturer at the Western Galilee Academic College. Moshe, thank you for joining us. We're hearing that the head of the Shin Bet is saying Israel will go after all Hamas operatives wherever they are. Now, is the IDF likely to expand its operations into the West Bank? We know Janine is known to be a hub of Hamas. I guess the team and the heads of Hamas outside the area. In Turkey you are sorry for my voice and you have some others in Kuwait and in Qatar. And those people are definitely a target for killing. This was said from the very beginning on October 7th, so nothing is new here. But all new about it is just emphasizing. Now we're hearing of IDF activity in Kalkiliya as well. What can you tell us about that? There's a lot of action accompanying the war in the West Bank. So what IDF has to do, by the way, together and with a nice, very nice communication and working together with the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Hamas activists. And so far we have arrested about maybe 20, no, 2,000 people. Most of them are Hamas people. Now, you know, it never ends. You can release them and they will get back. But the fact that the West Bank is relatively quiet and not as somewhat wanted it to explode, it's a big achievement of Israel. We have returned our deterrence in this area. So this is what actually prevent people in the West Bank from getting out. Dr. Mosheiladz, please stay with us. We'll be back to you in a few moments. No problem. Joining us now on Israel's Northern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? Yeah, we're learning more about those injuries from yesterday's Hezbollah strikes. 11 men and one women ages range from 20 to 65 injured by these strikes throughout the day. They are minor injuries attributed to shrapnel damage from some of the launches. These are ATGM anti-tank guided missiles that are launched by personnel on the ground from a not necessarily a long distance. These do have quite a range, but they are just far enough away to where they can fire on these positions and then attempt to escape deeper into southern Lebanon. The IDF says that they retaliated against the points of origin of this fire with artillery and air strikes to attempt to target these cells, the locations from where Hezbollah was firing on Israeli positions here in the north. Now many towns in the north were evacuated. Are we expected to see more such evacuation? And for those that have been evacuated, they're numbered into the thousands that have left this area, these communities and towns along the northern border. They have really no timeframe for return as it appears that Hezbollah's willingness to continue the fighting here is at least given Nasrallah's statements going to sustain or last as long as the operation in Gaza lasts that this is an attempt to distract and pull forces away from the south and keep sizable IDF reserves here in the north to protect this border in this area. As far as the evacuations, many of the people that have left are left in this state of waiting with no clear timeline for when they can return to their homes, to their places of work and worship. This has of course been a consistent call for evacuation just about since right after October 7th. Many of those folks have remained in areas throughout central and southern Israel attempting to escape this danger here. As far as more evacuations, the communities that have been evacuated remain under that call to evacuation. The list has not grown considerably to include new communities or towns. This is basically an exclusion zone of about five miles or so from the start of the Lebanon border into northern Israel. Most of these communities that are under evacuation orders are within distance or very close to the border here. Thank you very much, Zach, on Israel's northern border. And back with us now is Dr. Moshe Elad. Moshe, the IDF is deepening its reach into southern Gaza. What can you tell us about this next stage in the war? The next stage will be to come and crack down on as many as possible people from Hamas leadership, including Sinema, Mahwan Issa, Mohamed Dev. This trio is probably the highest expectation of Israel IDF to kill as a target of killing. Number two is to try and get the hostages and put pressure, at least put pressure on the Hamas leadership. The more we pressure them, the more it's going to be an enormous pressure that they won't be able to withstand. The better we can do in either in a negotiation with Qatar and Egypt or in another deal that the final curtain will be that we'll be there. No Hamas leader will have to be there. Maybe there would be some others, you know, field commanders. Maybe we won't reach the last missile, but we'll have to get to the people, to the main leaders, and to say that we have reached 90 percent of our goals would be just if we conquer the area of Hanyunis and Rafiq and there's no rocket shelling at all. This would be definitely a victory. Now we're hearing for a while now that one of the main goals is to destroy Hamas. How feasible is it that Israel will actually dismantle and remove Hamas? You can dismantle the leaders. You can kill them. You won't be able to kill the idea. So they might be people outside the area that will still raise the torch of Hamas. But in terms of immediate danger to the people of the Kibbutzim inside Israel, those who were defeated, who were hit in October 7th, I guess that this would be a possible challenge. We'll be able to do that in order to find a way how to bring them back and see if we can take another look at the infrastructure and rebuild it. How will the IDF deal with this very populated civilian area that it's going into right now? You mean the population inside Gaza? Yes. Well, we have been directed or suggested by the Americans not to do a couple of things or at least try and be more humane to people. What is really something that is always in us rooted in our legacy? First of all, help them get food, medication, see if you can help with other issues, and of course put a red line between innocent people, uninvolved people, and terrorists. This would be probably the main goal for any force in Gaza, especially in the southern area. Why? Because it's too dense there, and population is very, very big there, and you'll have to be very careful, like in a surgical operation. Every single shot, every single bomb will have to be measured and taken care of. Dr. Mosheila, thank you very much for joining. Thank you. The U.S. confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Carney, fired in self-defense, shooting down three drones during the assault. According to CENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security, as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Joining us now is Catherine Perez-Shakdam, Director at Forward Strategy, an expert on Iran-Yemen and radical movements. Catherine, what can you tell us about this latest escalation by the Houthis? Well, I think what you've seen is actually, it's been going on for quite a few weeks now, and there's been some messages coming out of the leadership in Yemen, the Houthis, warning that they would continue to escalate towards both the British, the Israeli interests, and of course America. And I think what we're seeing in witnesses is a desire by Iran, since the Houthis are a proxy of Iran, to escalate tensions in the Middle East, but not so much to target Israel in my mind, although obviously they did try to, you know, to send a missile that was stopped towards Elat. But I think there's a desire posture, you know, in terms of the watchways, in terms of the potential for disrupting the world or route, and of course the Red Sea crossing. I think there's a desire also to force America and the British to withdraw and maybe potentially negotiate to give them a bigger standing on the international community. So, you know, you need to see this in two ways. So on the one hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran is again acting very belligerent and demonstrating its ability to do us harm in terms of our Western interests and Israeli interests, and also for the Houthis to gain a bigger footing on the international community and to position themselves as valid actors on the international scene. Because whenever people are forced to negotiate with terrorists because the Houthis, even though they're not labeled as a terrorist organization or a terrorist organization because they act like it, have the ambition to position themselves and sell themselves as a legitimate state entity, as far as, for example, the United Nations are concerned, or Western capitals. And by forcing Western nations to negotiate with them, they would gain that status. And I think that what Hamas has done so far, forcing state officials to travel to Qatar and to meet with various leaders of Hamas, is telling you that it's actually working. So they're taking their cues of what is happening with Hamas, a terrorist organization, labeled as such by countless countries around the world, and trying to see if they could replicate the formula and say, well, you know, we're small, nobody looks at us, we have very limited power. But if we try to project our strength by disrupting an Arctic like pirates, essentially, and force Western nations to recognize us, and not only that, but give us a seat at the table. And that's what we're seeing happening. It is very dangerous. The Houthis are part of the axis of resistance. And now you can see that Iran, through its proxies, because of course it's hiding behind other people, because why wage war when others can do it for you, are exerting what tremendous power across the region by sea, by air, and of course by land. Now the Houthis have fired towards Israel several times over the last couple of months. What are they trying to achieve? Is this an actual threat for Israel? I don't think it's a threat, because obviously those missiles can't be stopped. I think it's an attempt by the Islamic Republic of Iran to taste the waters in terms of the reaction. How far can they push the envelope by acting through its proxies? Because everyone knows that Tehran is sitting behind us. Everyone knows that Tehran is pulling the strings. They want to see if number one Israel will attack Iran. How far can Tehran push in its aggression towards Israel and its rhetoric against Israel? It wants to see if countries such as Saudi Arabia and others in the region will intervene in favor or against Israel as Israel is becoming a target. It also wants to test the waters in terms of Western reactions, and so far the reaction has been none. So those threats have been counteracted and that they were eliminated. But there will be no real retaliation in terms of military strength or even deployment or sanctions or anything like this. So it's the boiling of the frog, if you will, where the Islamic Republic of Iran is trying to push and push and push and see how far it can take it before there's a strong reaction, and then it would retreat. It has done so for the past decades. Unfortunately today, because everyone has its eyes on Gaza and trying to blame Israel for doing what the world should have done decades ago, which is to get rid of Hamas, no one is really looking at the Islamic Republic of Iran. No one is actually picking up on the fact that this war in Gaza, those actions against Israel, are really just a distraction, a despicable distraction, but a distraction. Because now, room has been left with the Islamic Republic of Iran to do whatever it wants, and its proxies are picking up steam and doing great harm to the region, but no one is looking at it because obviously everyone talks about Gaza. It's quite an interesting way of exploiting the situation, I would say. Yeah, so we are hearing that they marched and said they intend to arrive to Israel to fight alongside the Palestinians. What people are wondering is, is this an additional front for Israel and its allies? No, look at best because we need to be very careful. So the Housis are not the whole of Yemen. So when you look at Yemen, it has a population of about 26 million, but the Housis themselves, who are not a tribe, by the way, but literally just a movement that aims to redefine itself as a tribe, has about give or take 5,000 fighters really. So everyone else has been brought into the movement, this ideology, because Yemen is starving, Yemen has no way out, and so it's a lot healthier for people to claim to support the regime and join the ranks of the regime, often against their will, by the way. Children have been involved into the Housi movement, but they don't have the capacity to expand or to send troops to Syria or wherever they would want to send them. It's impossible. Technically, militarily on the ground, mass don't add up. That said, what they're trying to do is to position a certain rhetoric. And in my mind, because the Housis are considered as Arabs, what you're trying, what you're seeing is the Islamic Republic of Iran trying to reinvent its axis of resistance and build a bridge towards the Arab world, towards the Sunni world, trying to say, look, the Housis are willing to step up for the Palestinians and to support Hamas. Why aren't you doing it? So in my mind, it's a psychological warfare type of situation where Iran is trying to galvanize the troops across the Arab world by sending the Housis forward in the hope that it would pick up steam and others would volunteer. You've seen this too in Iraq, with the creation of the PMU on the back of a fatwa that Ayatollah Sistan had issued, where people decided to go and defend their countries against ISIS, which at the time seemed and sounded quite a good idea. But you've seen that the PMU has since then been revamped into the Islamic Republic, I would say, ideology. And it's not becoming a threat to not just only Iraqis but other countries in the region, including Israel. So I think the Housis are kind of going that way too. They're trying to position themselves as the great saviour of Islam. But also remember in Shia mythology, there's a belief that the liberation of the world by these Islamic armies would come from Iran and would also come from Yemen. So I think they're trying to position themselves, you know, religiously speaking, in that space. Catherine Perez, shekban. Thank you very much for being with us. My pleasure. Gaza is an unexpected guest at COP28 in Dubai. Exacervating tensions between states, this conflict poses a real risk to the success of climate negotiations and may overshadow other important issues such as the environmental impact of war. I-24 News correspondent in Dubai, Bastian Bori, brings us an illustration at Israel's COP28 pavilion. If COP28 is to have any chance of success, the UAE has every interest in minimizing the impact of the war in Gaza. But despite an agreement reached on the first day of the conference on the creation of a large fund to help vulnerable countries, geopolitics quickly resurfaced, witness the attire chosen for the Israeli pavilion. Israel suffered a horrific terror attack just two months ago, less than two months ago. And we are here despite the world going home at home, despite the loss we suffered. We take the negotiation very seriously. We prepared for it in advance. Israel wants to contribute to the climate change goals. We are committed to commitments we took already at COP27 and COP26. I'm glad to say that what's going on inside the negotiation rooms is very serious negotiation led by the UAE, who doesn't allow politics to come into the room. But politics doesn't need permission. It is interfering in COP28 on its own. For instance, by imposing a heath or two eluded subject, the environmental impact of war. On both the Palestinian and Israeli side, large urban agricultural and forest areas have been bombed, burned, destroyed, contaminated by leaking chemicals. And the consequences are not only for the air and soil, but also for all the civilians who are exposed. The impacts of climate change are greater on the Middle East than on the average in other areas of the world. That means our challenge is more acute. And of course, the challenge is not just for Israel, but for all our neighbors, which is why it was so important for us to come today despite what's going on in Israel in order to make it clear that Israel has solutions and wants to present them. And therefore the sooner that our neighbors can understand that they can benefit from our expertise and knowledge, the more that we can involve be involved in solving their problems and ours. Among these neighbors is Saudi Arabia, whose GDP is still almost 50 percent dependent on oil revenues and who will need Israel to ensure its energy transition once the war in Gaza is over. Climate innovation can really be a lever for building relationships. Climate, as we know, doesn't discriminate against geographies. It doesn't know where there are geographical borders. And the pain points that we're feeling around the world are felt regardless of geopolitical conditions. And so when we're talking about clear issues around water security, food security, agricultural security, and we're looking for the technological tools that will help us build a resilient future, climate innovation becomes an apolitical conversation. But after seeing Isaac Herzog cancel his speech at the COP28 podium, Israel won't be sending Benjamin Netanyahu or Foreign Minister Eliko hen either. A thousand Israeli officials should have made the trip. In the end, there will only be 28. Other Middle Eastern countries such as Iran won't be taking part, and others are walking on eggshells, all of which reduces the chances of success for these countries. Israeli actress Gal Gadot called out the loud silence for weeks over the sexual violence committed against Israeli women by Hamas, saying the world has failed the women of October 7th. This comes after UN women has condemned the October 7th Hamas massacre in a Friday statement nearly two months after the terrorist organization's brutal rampage of rape, murder, and kidnappings. The women's rights organization made a similar statement in late November condemning the Hamas attacks, but quickly deleted the post. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website i24news.tv and across all our social media platforms. I'm Sivana Reviv. Thank you for watching. A state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. I-24 News, I'm Sivana Reviv, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Adhani and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Adhani's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis in a significant escalation. A U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, U.S. S. Carney, fired in self-defense, shooting down three drones during the assault. According to CENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza, east of Rafa. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Sergeant Major in Reserves Naria Shail, Sergeant First Class in Reserves Ben Zosman, and Sergeant Benjamin Yoshua Nidham. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of hostages as there are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. Joining us now on Israel's northern border is our I-24 news correspondent Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? So far this morning it has been quiet. This is still a very tense situation, however, considering the number of strikes yesterday. As many as five, potentially as many as seven strikes, five of those attributed to Hezbollah's self-claiming responsibility for these strikes, seven recorded throughout the day. As many as 12 injured, many of these are soldiers, but several also civilians aging in range from 20 to 65 years old with both men and women injured by shrapnel from strikes that occurred throughout the day. These, again, clashes that are taking place right along the border here. Many of them targeting Israeli positions at bases and outposts throughout the north overlooking into southern Lebanon. Now, over there are many towns in the north which were evacuated. Are we expected to see more such evacuations? Are people going to be allowed to come home soon? Well, we've seen in the last week the frustration of the individuals that live here as they attempt to try and push the Netanyahu government to gain more clarity as to when exactly can they return and how long this evacuation call is going to remain in place. Thousands have been displaced here as they came under those initial evacuation orders when the hostilities began after October 7th and they have not been provided any sort of clear timeline. But if you are to extrapolate from Nasrallah's statements intentions, then it does appear that this will last for however long the operation in Gaza lasts because the intention of Hezbollah does appear to be to distract and pull resources away as much as possible from the south and keep them here on the north as limited engagements without Hezbollah involving themselves in a broader, more intense regional conflict. Thank you very much, Zach, on Israel's northern border. With us in studio now is Refael Yerushalmi, former senior intelligence officer at the IDF and Gai Israel, our I-24 News senior editor. Thank you both for joining. Refael, we're seeing some terrorist attacks around the world. We saw one in Paris. We're seeing the Philippines four dead. Some of these perpetrators, terrorists, are identifying themselves as ISIS. Is ISIS joining the war? Is this an elaboration of terrorist intentions around the world? Is it linked at all to what's going on here in the Middle East? I would say it's not only ISIS. It's all the people who do not condemn, rejoice or legitimize the terrorist attacks of the 7th of October are joining the terrorist fight. Some of them unarmed, just demonstrating in the streets, others with hatred being shouted out, very dangerous words being shouted around, propaganda, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda, and others with actual terrorist attacks. And what is happening and will happen for sure in the coming months is a shift of the terror towards the western world. What is happening here is we're destroying the last ever bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the last, Gaza is the last, you might call it, a state or territory under the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood. After that, there is no more food hold for them in the Middle East, because most Arabic countries, including the Saudis, do not want them around here. So they're going to have to shift their activity towards other theaters of operation, mostly western capitals, also of course the United States being the arch enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood. And we will see more and more terrorist attacks on the soil of sovereign countries like France, like England. And this is part of a whole shift of the attention of the terrorist groups when we say like we're going to dismantle the Hamas. So we're not going to destroy it. We're not going to kill them to the last man. Where will they be? They will be deployed in southern Lebanon. Some of them will redeploy in the West Bank. Others might stay in Sinai. But many will just go abroad and they will, apart from Qatar or Turkey, they will go towards other destinations like Canada or Australia. And it is for sure that we are chasing a lot of terrorists away from here and they're going to be in the western capitals. That is what is happening. And the big culprit here is whoever allows these demonstrations, these manifestations of anti-Semitism in universities or in the streets, because this hate propaganda is emboldening the terrorist factions. They get this support from a certain part of the population there, the local population, also even finance. People donate money and they do legitimize terrorist attacks. So that is the danger that the Western is facing now. And that is what I say. Many a time people think it's a provocation, but I really mean it. Right now, the French Army, the American Army, the British Army should be fighting with us in Gaza because Hamas is only the tip of the iceberg. It's only the beginning. Then it's Rezbala. Then it's Al-Shabaab. Then it's Boko Haram Al-Qaeda. You name it. They should be fighting with us, not asking us to restrain, not restrain. It's their war. We are actually the spearhead of the war against terrorism. And we should have allies fight, not just stand by and watch. Yeah. Now we're hearing also other countries, such as Denmark. They decided to protect the Israeli embassy and synagogues, as these kind of threats of terrorism go up. And it looks like there are, these threats do exist, and we should, might be expecting more attacks. Yes. And I would say that at first it might seem that Jewish places are targeted or Israeli interests are targeted. But in the end, it's everybody, right? We've had in France teachers, priests, non-Jews being murdered. This is not just a problem for the Jewish people. It's a problem for all democracies. And a lot of the victims, as I said, are not Jewish or not even pro-Israelis. They're just not Muslim. Please stay with us. We'll be back to discuss some more. But with us now is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Klauschendler in southern Israel. Pierre, we heard sirens just now and earlier down in the south. And we know the fighting deepened overnight in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about what's going on? Yes, that's the third salvo of a rocket fire or mortar fire emanating from the central sector of the Gaza Strip, where the ground operation is expanding the area of Hanyunas. And they tried to hit communities like Nireem and Enash Losha. Now, for these communities that are so close to the border with the Gaza Strip, you don't need to launch rockets. You simply launch mortar fire. And it's deadly in the sense that there is no possibility to intercept mortar fire, a 60-millimeter mortar fire with an iron dome anti-missile missile. So that's very deadly. But there's no casualties, no damage, as far as we know, from these communities that have been mostly evacuated from the civilian population after the October 7 massacres. The ground operation is expanding and deepening. Deepening in the northern sector, the ground operation started there on October 27. It's deepening inside the refugee camp of Jebalia in the neighborhood of Zaitoun in Gaza City. And east-south-east of Gaza City, Shejaia is completely uncircled and will probably be the next target of the ground offensive. In the center, the ground offensive is progressive alongside three axes, one from east to west to the eastern part, outskirts of Hanyunas, one from north to south on the Salahadin axis on the eastern side of Gaza City, which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the lull in the fighting last week. And the third axis is the Aruna Rashid road along the coast, the Mediterranean coast from north to south. That creates a scissors effect. And the population of the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas has been urged to relocate themself west of Hanyunas using the interactive map that the IDF has provided on the internet, but also with flyers that have been dropped by the Israeli Air Force with a QR code, which allows you to understand exactly in which of the hundred blocks, polygon blocks your family is located with arrows showing you the locations which are safe at the moment. And we've seen some footage from Gaza showing some people leaving their houses on the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas and moving west to safer places. Thank you very much, Pierre, on Israel's southern border. And still with us is Refael Yerushalmi and also Gai Israel. So we're hearing here some updates from the Gaza Strip from down south and we know that the IDF is deepening its reach into southern Gaza and we just heard about this interactive map. What is this about? Well, on the leaflets that people receive from the air, but sometimes even on text messages on their phone, people wherever they live in the Gaza Strip, they have their own address, their own street. And when they go into this program, when they scan this QR code, they will have a map and that map shows where they live. And from where they live, what is the shortest way to a safe place or safe that will be spared by the combats by the IDF? So if you live in one specific street, then they tell you that five minutes away from where you live, you can go with your wife and children to a school or a stadium or a mosque that will not be hit during the fighting. This is very good. Some people had the cynical humor to say that people don't have electricity, maybe the phones are not charged or there is no internet. So I will just remind you that each time hostages, Israeli hostages were liberated, all you could see is hundreds of Palestinians hanging their phones and filming the hostages and lighting the squares. So the phones are working and there is electricity and there is internet. So no worry about that. John Kirby from the American establishment in Washington praised the IDF saying not many armies in the world have ever done so much to avoid collateral damage. Unfortunately, we know that some people will not evacuate. I mean, if you're a normal person, you're the father of a family, you've got a wife and children, somebody tells you, I'm going to bomb your area. But if you go there, you will not be hit. The first thing you're going to do is just rush there. But some might not and won't. That is the problem. Maybe they'll have a death wish. I don't know. But it's their problem. It's their responsibility in the end. It will make the fighting much more difficult. We know, for instance, that in Sejaia, where the fighting is going to be very, very hard, it's now the 36th Division of IDF is going to tackle this huge problem of Sejaia because it's a stronghold of the elite forces of the Hamas. We know that civilians have stayed there. They're still around. Some of them might have been forced to stay there by the Hamas, others decided to stay there. And this is going to make the fighting even more difficult. As for the comment about the cell phones, well, we are approaching the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Maybe it's a reminder of the miracle of the cruise of oil. Yeah. Trucks full of oil. Yeah. And a lot of other kinds of aid. Now, in the past, we know that the IDF did lose many troops in Sejaia. And in previous operations, has anything changed in this region to make this more feasible this time, with not as many losses? Yes or no? No, because in Sejaia, they are really prepared. Actually, the Hamas, they thought that the main offensive of the IDF would come from the north. We came actually from the east into Gaza City, and now we're going back up north to clean up the northern part of the Gaza Strip. But they had massed their elite troops, their best fighters in Sejaia, and they were bracing themselves for a very strong attack. So they are very well prepared with booby traps, with snipers, with a lot of bad surprises for our soldiers. The other part of the side of the coin is that we have now today, as compared to our last operations, a lot more new technology. We have, for instance, short-range rockets. When I say short-range, it can be like 50 meters or 100 meters, rockets called Gail and Matador, that can destroy pinpoint targets and destroy just the target, which will help us to avoid collateral damage, because we're going to be able to actually shoot at one room in a building and kill the guys there. And if there is a family in the next flat, they won't be hit. So this is new technologies that we have, also technologies to find out explosives and booby traps, not just dogs. We have today robots and sensors that can find and take care of explosives. So there is a progress in that sense, but the danger is very high. It's going to be one of the harshest fights of this war. We know the harshest one is Hanyunis, but I would say Sejaia is a warm-up to Hanyunis in the difficulty of the fighting that's going to take place there. Now, Guy, I want to speak about the West Bank. We're hearing that there's some IDF activity in Calculia. Can you tell us about that? So much activity of the IDF overnight, not just in Calculia. We're talking about at least seven different spots where the IDF operated overnight, including Calculia, Genine, Jilazun. And as we speak, in broad daylight, IDF troops are operating in the town of Calandia near Jerusalem. Overnight, IDF troops are resting 29 terrorist suspects in the West Bank, including five of them were affiliated with Hamas. Over in Calculia, two terrorists were eliminated after attempting to fire at IDF troops several times. The IDF troops have also collected a lot of ammunition in various spots, including villages of Silhuwa, Jifna, Jilazun, as we mentioned, including drones, lasers, hunting rifles, just so much activity. And I think this is really important because what Hamas has at least attempted to do was to really flare up the West Bank in parallel to that onslaught of the massacre on the Gaza border. And that, to a large degree, has failed. And that is thanks to the very extensive operation of the IDF, the Shin Bet border police and other Israeli forces across the West Bank on a daily basis or nightly basis. Rather, most of the activity is overnight. We're seeing a daytime activity on our screens now. That was a very successful operation of the IDF in curbing that front so that these very troops can focus on the Gaza war right now. Thank you, Guy and Rafael. And just now, the families of the people taken hostage, making statements in a press conference. Let's take a listen. They're about to start, and we should be hearing them any moment now. But we're looking at more fighting. The pause ended. And now, as the fighting continues in Gaza, the families of the hostages are very concerned for the well-being and safety of their family members. Yes, so we're talking about over 130 Israelis that are still being held captive at the hands of Hamas. We've seen in the previous deal that was reached with Hamas, the release of many women and children. Of course, we're still awaiting the release of the children of the Bebas family, clear in Ariel, 10 months old and four years old, babies still being held by Hamas, still no concrete information about their well-being. But in addition to them, also so many men and women over the age of 19 that have not been released as part of this deal, the families do not want them to be forgotten. And we mentioned just earlier the expected visit of the chief of the ICRC in Gaza and Egypt player today. This is after Israel has been appealing for so long calling for the Red Cross to visit the hostages that have remained in Gaza, still no information about their well-being, only shreds of information that we're getting from the hostages that have returned about what they've seen in captivity. Many of them have met other hostages that were still there. In many cases, even family members that were separated, women that were released with their husbands still in Gaza. Obviously, many of them in need of very urgent medical care. The families are pleading the world to get the ICRC to at least visit them and of course to bring about to their release something that seems far from now. This is part of the efforts of the IDF as it expands its operation throughout Gaza, employing more pressure on Hamas so that we will see better deals for releasing of more hostages. Israel said it will negotiate, but under fire, this operation, this war against Hamas will continue until we see willingness of Hamas to release more Israeli prisoners. Hamas on its side said it will not negotiate under fire. Obviously, Israel will not be sitting and waiting for Hamas. His ultimate goal is to stop the operation in Gaza, something that Israel obviously will not be willing to do. The goal of Israel in this war is to eliminate Hamas's military capabilities across the Gaza Strip. And this is what it is doing right now. If Hamas wants to save some of its senior fighters, it is definitely welcome to do so. That is the tactic of the IDF. As long as it releases the Israeli hostages, of course, not just civilians, also Israeli soldiers, and obviously there's still a long way to go. And we're seeing the pictures of these hostages. Most of them are men, but still a lot of women still held in Gaza as we speak right now, buried in underground tunnels. And I think we're just about to start hearing them speak as part of their ongoing plea to the world. Let's take a listen. Okay, they're still waiting to start. I think Rafael can also address what we've been hearing from the families throughout these weeks. That's great concern here, because we have 137 hostages still in there. That is a huge number, including the two children, including some of the women, and a lot of men. And when I say men, these are fathers, these are grandfathers, these are sons of parents waiting for them here at home in Israel. What is very worrisome is the conditions of the detention, because you can be held hostage and be fed properly or treated properly, being under set life insurance of the Hamas leaders. You would expect those hostages to be treated reasonably well, and they are not. They are being tortured, they are being beaten up. We have now all the testimonies from those who are liberated, who speak of horrible, horrible things, even torture inflicted on little children. So they are held by atrocious people, ferocious people, and every minute that passes by is a danger to their lives. They might not survive. By now, we do not know a few things. You said 137. We do not know how many of these are alive. We do not know how many of these are actually in the hands of the Hamas, and that the Hamas can deliver. Would we reach some kind of a deal? We have no idea. So the first priority is to get a proper list, because the Hamas have been lying through their teeth since the beginning. We need at least a proper list of who is alive and who is at the hands of the Hamas, and would there be a new opportunity for an exchange or liberation to act upon it very quickly, and not to wait till the last minute, and then the Hamas say, ah, yeah, but these ones, they're not exactly here. We've got to go and fetch them somewhere else, and these ones are alive. They're not alive. This is a very big problem. And we've seen that, you know, they mentioned that one of the women, the hostages, was, had died or was killed, and then she showed up alive in the exchange. Exactly. That's the problem. And then with the Bebas family, they at first said that the Islamic Jihad had them, and it wasn't them that they don't know where they are. Then they claimed that they were killed. So they're not... But some will die, because elderly men, for instance, that are left now, there are guys who are like over 80 years of age, and some of them need medication, even daily medication. They can't survive forever in these conditions and without proper medication. So every minute that passes is an emergency. Unfortunately, right now, the only solution to this problem is military, is applying pressure on the high leaders of the Hamas. This pressure will be only felt when the ground troops of the IDF will reach Hanyunis, until the ground troops walk in the streets of Hanyunis. Mr. O'Sinwa will not feel threatened. He doesn't care how many battalions of the Hamas are going to be exterminated in the Sajjia or in Betchanun. That doesn't bother him. What bothers him is his own skin, and the skin of his friends, and the Banke Council, let's not forget, in Switzerland. So that's what bothers them. That's their only worry. So when they will feel a threat there, then they will be ready to negotiate. The question is, will they be able to negotiate? Do will they have alive and well hostages that can be freed? We have no idea, because these guys are so cruel, sadistic, that they might over torture somebody or beat somebody up too much, or starve people. And then we get corpses. But remember that we exchange also corpses. We want to free even our dead citizens. For us, it's also part of a deal. And we also have a score to settle with the two alive, first of all, Israeli citizens have been detained for years there, and two corpses of soldiers of a former war. Thank you very much, Rafael Ruchalmi and Gai Israel. That's all for this latest edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage, providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news. I'm Sivan Raveem. 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 line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I'm Sivan Raveem, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammad Al-Thani, and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal, and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Al-Thani's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, U.S. S. Carney, fired in self-defense, shooting down three drones during the assault. According to CENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security, as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza, east of Rafah. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops, killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Sergeant Major in Reserves, Naria Shail. Sergeant First Class in Reserves, Ben Zosman, and Sergeant Benjamin Yoshua Nidham. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of hostages, as they are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. Joining us now on Israel's northern border is our I-24 News correspondent, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? So far this morning it has been quiet. This is still a very tense situation, however, considering the number of strikes yesterday. As many as five, potentially as many as seven strikes, five of those attributed to Hezbollah's self-claiming responsibility for these strikes, seven recorded throughout the day. As many as 12 injured, many of these are soldiers, but several also civilians aging in range from 20 to 65 years old with both men and women injured by shrapnel from strikes that occurred throughout the day. These, again, clashes that are taking place right along the border here. Many of them targeting Israeli positions at bases and outposts throughout the north overlooking into southern Lebanon. Now, there are many towns in the north which were evacuated. Are we expected to see more such evacuations? Are people going to be allowed to come home soon? Well, we've seen in the last week the frustration of the individuals that live here as they attempt to try and push the Netanyahu government to gain more clarity as to when exactly can they return and how long this evacuation call is going to remain in place. Thousands have been displaced here as they came under those initial evacuation orders when the hostilities began after October 7th and they have not been provided any sort of clear timeline, but if you are to extrapolate from Nasrallah's statements and intentions, then it does appear that this will last for however long the operation in Gaza lasts because the intention of Hezbollah does appear to be to distract and pull resources away as much as possible from the south and keep them here on the north as limited engagements without Hezbollah involving themselves in a broader, more intense regional conflict. Thank you very much, Zach, on Israel's northern border. With us in studio now is Refael Yerushalmi, former senior intelligence officer at the IDF and Gai Israel, our I-24 news senior editor. Thank you both for joining. Refael, we're seeing some terrorist attacks around the world. We saw one in Paris. We're seeing the Philippines four dead. Some of these perpetrators, terrorists, are identifying themselves as ISIS. Is ISIS joining the war? Is this an elaboration of terrorist intentions around the world? Is it linked at all to what's going on here in the Middle East? I would say it's not only ISIS. It's all the people who do not condemn, rejoice or legitimize the terrorist attacks of the 7th of October are joining the terrorist fight. Some of them unarmed, just demonstrating in the streets, others with hatred being shouted out, very dangerous words being shouted around, propaganda, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda and others with actual terrorist attacks. And what is happening and will happen for sure in the coming months is a shift of the terror towards the western world. What is happening here is we're destroying the last ever bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the last, Gaza is the last, you might call it a state or territory under the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood. After that, there is no more foothold for them in the Middle East because most Arabic countries, including the Saudis, do not want them around here. So they're going to have to shift their activity towards other theaters of operation, mostly western capitals, also of course the United States being the arch enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood. And we will see more and more terrorist attacks on the soil of sovereign countries like France, like England. And this is part of a whole shift of the attention of the terrorist groups when we say like we're going to dismantle the Hamas. So we're not going to destroy it. We're not going to kill them to the last man. Where will they be? They will be deployed in southern Lebanon. Some of them will redeploy in the West Bank. Others might stay in Sinai. But many will just go abroad. And they will, apart from Qatar or Turkey, they will go towards other destinations like Canada or Australia. And it is for sure that we are chasing a lot of terrorists away from here. And they're going to be in the western capitals. That is what is happening. And the big culprit here is whoever allows these demonstrations, these manifestations of anti-Semitism in universities or in the street, because this hate propaganda is emboldening the terrorist factions. They get this support from a certain part of the population there, the local population, and also even finance. People donate money. And they do legitimize terrorist attacks. So that is the danger that the Western world is facing now. And that is what I say. Many a time, people think it's a provocation, but I really mean it. Right now, the French Army, the American Army, the British Army should be fighting with us in Gaza, because the Hamas is only the tip of the iceberg. It's only the beginning. Then it's Hezbollah. Then it's Al-Shabaab. Then it's Boko Haram Al-Qaeda. You name it. They should be fighting with us, not asking us to restrain, not restrain. It's their war. We are actually the spearhead of the war against terrorism. And we should have our allies fight, not just stand by and watch. Yeah. Now we're hearing also other countries, such as Denmark, they decided to protect the Israeli embassy and synagogues, as these kind of threats of terrorism go up. And it looks like there are, these threats do exist and we should might be expecting more attacks. Yes. And I would say that at first it might seem that Jewish places are targeted or Israeli interests are targeted. But in the end, it's everybody, right? We've had in France teachers, priests, non-Jews being murdered. This is not just a problem for the Jewish people. It's a problem for all democracies. And a lot of the victims, as I said, are not Jewish or not even pro-Israelis. They're just not Muslim. Please stay with us. We'll be back to discuss some more. But with us now is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Klosschendler in southern Israel. Pierre, we heard sirens just now and earlier down in the south. And we know the fighting deepened overnight in the Gaza Strip. What can you tell us about what's going on? Yes, that's the third salvo of a rocket fire or mortar fire emanating from the central sector of the Gaza Strip, where the ground operation is expanding, the area of Hanyunas. And they tried to hit communities like Nireem and Enash Losha. Now, for these communities that are so close to the border with the Gaza Strip, you don't need to launch rockets. You simply launch mortar fire. And it's deadly in the sense that there is no possibility to intercept mortar fire, a 60-millimeter mortar fire with an iron dome anti-missile missile. So that's very deadly. But there's no casualties, no damage, as far as we know, from these communities that have been mostly evacuated from the civilian population after the October 7 massacres. The ground operation is expanding and deepening. Deepening in the northern sector, the ground operation started there on October 27. It's deepening inside the refugee camp of Jebalia in the neighborhood of Zaitoun in Gaza City. And east-south-east of Gaza City, Shejaia is completely uncircled and will probably be the next target of the ground offensive. In the center, the ground offensive is progressive alongside three axes, one from east to west to the eastern part, outskirts of Hanyunas, one from north to south on the Salahadin axis on the eastern side of Gaza City, which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the lull in the fighting last week. And the third axis is the Aruna Rashid road along the coast, the Mediterranean coast from north to south. That creates a scissors effect. And the population of the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas has been urged to relocate themself west of Hanyunas using the interactive map that the IDF has provided on the Internet, but also with flyers that have been dropped by the Israeli Air Force with the QR code, which allows you to understand exactly in which of the hundred blocks, polingone blocks your family is located with arrows showing you the locations which are safe at the moment. And we've seen some footage from Gaza showing some people leaving their houses on the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas and moving west to safer places. Thank you very much, Pierre, on Israel's southern border. And still with us is Refael Yerushalmi and also Gai Israel. So we're hearing here some updates from the Gaza Strip from down south and we know that the IDF is deepening its reach into southern Gaza and we just heard about this interactive map. What is this about? Well, on the leaflets that people receive from the air, but sometimes even on text messages on their phone, people wherever they live in the Gaza Strip, they have their own address, their own street. And when they go into this program, when they scan this QR code, they will have a map and that map shows where they live and from where they live, what is the shortest way to a safe place or safe that will be spared by the combat by the IDF. So if you live in one specific street, then they tell you that five minutes away from where you live, you can go with your wife and children to a school or a stadium or a mosque that will not be hit during the fighting. This is very good. Some people had the cynical humor to say that but people don't have electricity, maybe their phones are not charged or there is no internet. So I will just remind you that each time hostages, Israeli hostages were liberated, all you could see is hundreds of Palestinians hanging their phones and filming the hostages and the lighting the squares. So the phones are working and there is electricity and there is internet. So no worry about that. John Kirby from the American establishment in Washington praised the IDF saying not many armies in the world have ever done so much to avoid collateral damage. Unfortunately, we know that some people will not evacuate. I mean, if you're a normal person, you're the father of a family, you've got a wife and children, somebody tells you, I'm going to bomb your area but if you go there, you will not be hit. The first thing you're going to do is just rush there but some might not and won't. That is the problem, maybe have a death wish, I don't know, but it's their problem, it's their responsibility in the end. It will make the fighting much more difficult. We know, for instance, that in Sejaia, where the fighting is going to be very, very hard, it's now the 36th division of IDF is going to tackle this huge problem of Sejaia because it's a stronghold of the elite forces of the Hamas. We know that civilians have stayed there, they're still around. Some of them might have been forced to stay there by the Hamas, others decided to stay there and this is going to make the fighting even more difficult. As for the comment about the cell phones, well, we are approaching the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Maybe it's a reminder of the miracle of the cruise of oil. Yeah, trucks full of oil. Yeah, and a lot of other kinds of aid. Now in the past, we know that the IDF did lose many troops in Sejaia in previous operations. Has anything changed in this region to make this more feasible this time, with not as many losses? Yes or no? No, because in Sejaia, they are really prepared. Actually, the Hamas, they thought that the main offensive of the IDF would come from the north. We came actually from the east into Gaza City and now we're going back up north to clean up the northern part of the Gaza Strip. They had massed their elite troops, their best fighters in Sejaia and they were bracing themselves for a very strong attack. So they are very well prepared with booby traps, with snipers, with a lot of bad surprises for our soldiers. The other part of the side of the coin is that we have now today, as compared to our last operations, a lot more new technology. We have, for instance, short-range rockets. When I say short-range, it can be like 50 meters or 100 meters, rockets called Gil and Matador, that can destroy pinpoints, a target, and destroy just that target, which will help us to avoid collateral damage, because we're going to be able to actually shoot at one room in a building and kill the guys there. And if there is a family, the next flat, they won't be hit. So this is new technologies that we have, also technologies to find out explosives and booby traps, not just dogs. We have today robots and sensors that can find and take care of explosives. So there is a progress in that sense, but the danger is very high. It's going to be one of the harshest fights of this war. We know the harshest one is Hanyunis, but I would say Sejaia is a warm-up to Hanyunis in the difficulty of the fighting that's going to take place there. Now, Guy, I want to speak about the West Bank. We're hearing that there's some IDF activity in Kalkylia. Can you tell us about that? So much activity of the IDF overnight, not just in Kalkylia. We're talking about at least seven different spots where the IDF operated overnight, including Kalkylia, Genine, Jilazun, and as we speak, in broad daylight, IDF troops are operating in the town of Calandia near Jerusalem. Overnight, IDF troops arresting 29 terrorist suspects in the West Bank, including five of them were affiliated with Hamas. Over in Kalkylia, two terrorists were eliminated after attempting to fire at IDF troops several times. The IDF troops have also collected a lot of ammunition in various spots, including villages of Siluwa, Jifuna, Jilazun, as we mentioned, including drones, lasers, hunting rifles, just so much activity. And I think this is really important because what Hamas has at least attempted to do was to really flare up the West Bank in parallel to that onslaught of the massacre on the Gaza border. And that, to a large degree, has failed. And that is thanks to the very extensive operation of the IDF, the Shin Bet border police and other Israeli forces across the West Bank on a daily basis, on a nightly basis. Rather, most of the activity is overnight. We're seeing a daytime activity on our screens now. That was a very successful operation of the IDF in curbing that front so that these very troops can focus on the Gaza war right now. Thank you, Guy and Rafael. And just now, the families of the people taken hostage, are making statements in a press conference. Let's take a listen. And they're about to start, and we should be hearing them any moment now. But we're looking at more fighting, the pause ended. And now, as the fighting continues in Gaza, the families of the hostages are very concerned for the well-being and safety of their family members. Yes, so we're talking about over 130 Israelis that are still being held captive at the hands of Hamas. We've seen in the previous deal that was reached with Hamas, the release of many women and children. Of course, we're still awaiting the release of the children of the Bebas family, queer in Ariel, 10 months old and four years old babies still being held by Hamas. Still no concrete information about their well-being. But in addition to them, also so many men and women over the age of 19 that have not been released as part of this deal, the families do not want them to be forgotten. And we mentioned just earlier the expected visit of the chief of the ICRC in Gaza and Egypt player today. This is after Israel has been appealing for so long, calling for the Red Cross to visit the hostages that have remained in Gaza. Still no information about their well-being, only shreds of information that we're getting from the hostages that have returned about what they've seen in captivity. Many of them have met other hostages that were still there. In many cases, even family members that were separated, women that were released with their husbands still in Gaza, obviously many of them in need of very urgent medical care. The families are pleading the world to get the ICRC, to at least visit them. And of course, to bring about to their release something that seems far from now. This is part of the efforts of the IDF as it expands its operation throughout Gaza, employing more pressure on Hamas so that we will see better deals for releasing of more hostages. Israel said it will negotiate, but under fire this operation, this war against Hamas will continue until we see willingness of Hamas to release more Israeli prisoners. It will take, yeah, Hamas on its side said it will not negotiate under fire. Obviously, Israel will not be sitting and waiting for Hamas. Hamas' ultimate goal is to stop the operation in Gaza, something that Israel obviously will not be willing to do. The goal of Israel in this war is to eliminate Hamas' military capabilities across the Gaza Strip. And this is what it is doing right now. If Hamas wants to save some of its senior fighters, it is definitely welcome to do so. That is the tactic of the IDF as long as it releases the Israeli hostages. Of course, not just civilians, also Israeli soldiers. And obviously, there's still a long way to go. And we're seeing the pictures of these hostages. Most of them are men, but still a lot of women still held in Gaza as we speak right now buried in underground tunnels. And I think we're just about to start hearing them speak as part of their ongoing plea to the world. Let's take a listen. Okay, they're still waiting to start. I think Rafael can also address what we've been hearing from the families. There's great concern here because we have 137 hostages still in there. That is a huge number, including the two children, including some of the women and a lot of men. And when I say men, these are fathers. These are grandfathers. These are sons of parents waiting for them here at home in Israel. What is very worrisome is the conditions of the detention because it can be held hostage and be fed properly or treated properly. Being an asset, life insurance of the Hamas leaders, you would expect those hostages to be treated reasonably well. And they are not. They are being tortured. They are being beaten up. We have now all the testimonies from those who are liberated, who speak of horrible, horrible things, even torture inflicted on little children. So they are held by atrocious people, ferocious people. And every minute that passes by is a danger to their lives. They might not survive. By now, we do not know a few things. You said 137. We do not know how many of these are alive. We don't know how many of these are actually in the hands of the Hamas and that the Hamas can deliver. Would we reach some kind of a deal? We have no idea. So the first priority is to get a proper list because the Hamas have been lying through their teeth since the beginning. We need at least a proper list of who is alive and who is at the hands of the Hamas. And would there be a new opportunity for an exchange or liberation to act upon it very quickly and not to wait till the last minute? And then the Hamas said, ah, yeah, but these ones, they're not exactly here. We've got to go and fetch them somewhere else. And these ones are alive. They're not alive. This is a very big problem. And we've seen that, you know, they mentioned that one of the women, the hostages, was, had died or was killed. And then she showed up alive in the exchange. Exactly. That's the problem. And then with the Bebas family, they at first said that the Islamic Jihad had them and it wasn't them, that they don't know where they are. Then they claimed that they were killed. So they're not. But some will die because elderly men, for instance, that are left now, and there are guys who are like over 80 years of age, and some of them need medication, even daily medication. They can't survive forever in these conditions and without proper medication. So every minute that passes is an emergency. Unfortunately, right now, the only solution to this problem is military, is applying pressure on the high leaders of the Hamas. This pressure will be only felt when the ground troops of the IDF will reach Hanyunis. Until the ground troops walk in the streets of Hanyunis, Mr. O'Shinoa will not feel threatened. He doesn't care how many battalions of the Hamas are going to be exterminated in the Sajjia or in Betchanun. That doesn't bother him. What bothers him is his own skin and the skin of his friends. And the Banke Council does not forget in Switzerland. So that's what bothers them. That's their only worry. So when they will feel a threat there, then they will be ready to negotiate. The question is, will they be able to negotiate? Will they have alive and well hostages that can be freed? We have no idea because these guys are so cruel, sadistic that they might over torture somebody or beat somebody up too much or starve people. And then we get corpses. But remember that we exchange also corpses. We want to free even our dead citizens. For us, it's also part of the deal. And we also have a score to settle with the two alive, first of all, Israeli citizens that have been detained for years there, and two corpses of soldiers of the former war. Okay. Thank you very much. That's all for this latest edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news. I'm Siobhan Raviv. 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 to be fought as well. Entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra. La reacción de los países hispano parlantes. I-24 News, I'm Siobhan Raviv, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed El-Thani and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and El-Thani's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship that Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Carney fired in self-defense shooting down three drones during the assault. According to CENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza east of Rafah. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Sergeant Major in Reserves Neriah Shire, Sergeant First Class in Reserves Ben Zussman and Sergeant Benjamin Yamin Yoshua Nidham. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages as there are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. Moments ago, the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, gave a statement about the military efforts to reduce civilian harm during the fighting. Let's take a listen. We have entered a new phase in our war against Hamas. Hamas broke the humanitarian pause when it violated the Hostage Release Agreement by refusing to release women, children and babies as agreed. Hamas also fired rockets at Israeli homes. It should be clear to everyone by now, Hamas chooses war. Hamas chose war when it broke the Hostage Release Agreement on December 1st. Hamas chose war when it massacred our people on October 7th. It has been eight weeks since October 7th and Hamas is still holding 137 of our people hostage babies, the elderly, women and men. Hamas does not value human life, Israeli or Palestinian. Hamas is willing to sacrifice its own people to advance its genocidal agenda. As we expand our operation in Gaza, we remain committed to our goals, secure the release of our hostages and dismantle Hamas. We will operate as we have done until now, according to international law. We will operate as we have done until now against Hamas' centers of gravity. We pursued them in northern Gaza. We're now pursuing Hamas in southern Gaza too. We will operate in maximum force against Hamas' terrorists and infrastructures while minimizing harm to the civilians that Hamas places around them as shields. Our forces used the seven-day pause before the Hamas violation to increase readiness, review intelligence and refine operational procedures. We are implementing lessons learned for the new phase of this war, improving the efficiency and the precision of our operations on the ground. We are pursuing Hamas wherever Hamas is hiding, in the north and in the south. Every rocket launcher, weapons, depot, command and control center, senior commander, underground infrastructure and any hideout where our hostages may be held. Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. Hamas deliberately embeds himself within civilian population centers so that the Gazans will bear the consequences of Hamas atrocities. Every civilian death is a tragedy. A tragedy that the IDF does not want and is taking extensive measures to avoid. While Hamas terrorists hide behind civilians, Israel does its best to distinguish between civilians and terrorists. We are giving precise instructions to Gazan residents near Hamas centers of gravity, urging them to temporarily move away from the danger that Hamas puts them in. We're dropping leaflets with QR codes that opens a map guiding Gazans to safer areas. The map is divided into neighborhood numbers indicating where civilians in a specific area should go to avoid being in the crossfire. We call on international organizations in Gaza to assist us with this effort. It can help save lives. We also call on international organizations to ensure that the Red Cross gains access to our hostages in Hamas captivity. 137 hostages are being held in inhumane and brutal conditions. And not one international organization has seen them. The more we hear about the cruel conditions in Hamas captivity, the more urgent our mission, our global mission to rescue our hostages becomes. That was the idea spokesperson Danielle Hagari. With us now is our i-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, down in southern Israel. Pierre, we heard sirens earlier in the south. What is the latest on the ground? There's been a lot in the rocket strike for about an hour. Last hour there were communities very close to the Gaza border like Enash Losha, who were there was an attempt to launch a demortifier, but we don't know of any casualties, no damage. And the forces are progressing on the ground along three axes. One on the coastal road, the Arun Arashid axis from north to south near the Mediterranean Sea. The other one is east of Gaza City, Salahadin axis, which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the lull in the fighting last week. And the third axis goes from east to west toward Hanunez and passes through the eastern outskirts of Gaza City, such as Shajair. And there's heavy fighting in Shajair, as well as in Zaitun in Gaza City, as well as in the Jabalia refugee camp, which is north of Gaza City and Sheikh Ladoan, which is northwest of Gaza City. There's intense fighting in the north and intense fighting in the center. There's been air strikes on the refugee camps in the central sector of Gaza, such as Direl Balach, Nusserat, El Borej, and the population of the eastern outskirts of Hanunez. Thanks to the interactive map that Daniel Agar spoke about and flyers that were dropped on the population centers with a QR code to connect to the interactive map, all these populations are urged to move from east of Hanunez to west of Hanunez in order to avoid the loss of lives because the east of Hanunez is turning very quickly into a battleground. Thank you very much, Pierre, on Israel's southern border. And now joining us on Israel's northern border are I-24 news correspondents, Zach Anders. Zach, what are the latest updates in the north? The IDF now says that a short time ago they detected multiple fires from southern Lebanon in towards Israeli positions. They have responded with outgoing artillery tarting these points of origin from where Hezbollah was firing on their positions. No reports of injuries. In fact, the IDF says that these launches fell in open areas. They also say that they intercepted a hostile aircraft. This is still a developing situation. It's unclear if this is a manned aircraft or a drone. If it's anything like in the past several weeks, these are often the Iranian supplied drones, these unmanned aerial vehicles that attempt to penetrate Israeli airspace. So we're still waiting for confirmation there and for these earlier strikes throughout the morning to see if there were any injuries in these events. Now, in addition to the fire between Israel and Lebanon over the weekend, there was an exchange of fire from Syria. What does this mean? And that fire from Syria again is important as this is involving multiple regional players. The launch itself is still undetermined if this is a drone or a rocket, but the IDF says that per their policy it was not intercepted. It did not appear to hit or land inside Israeli territory. That's awaiting independent confirmation. The IDF has not clarified where exactly this projectile ended up, but it's potentially that it fell inside Syria. We did see reports that the IDF was striking positions and targets inside Syria as well in response. This, of course, you extrapolate this into the big picture here and you've got multiple regional players involved in the different factions in southern Lebanon, of course, and then factions inside Syria. This comes in the same 24 hours that U.S. forces targeted a position in Iraq and apparently killed five men in their strike. What they say was preparing to strike on U.S. positions and that they were preemptively eliminating the threat also overnight. Yemen and the Houthis claiming responsibility for attacking U.S. and U.K. ships and blanketly claiming that they were Israeli vessels when there's no confirmation that there were any Israeli ties to these vessels. I see. Thank you very much, Zach, on Israel's northern border. There are 137 hostages still held in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Just moments ago, families of these hostages gave statements in a press conference ahead of their meeting with the security cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's take a listen. All those standing here are loving citizens of Israel. We are not anyone's burden. We raised our kids to love this land, to contribute, and they were neglected on October 7th, and our lives changed forever. We now rely on others. All the cabinet needs to do is to face us, look us in the eye, and tell us what they are planning to do. And with us now in studios, Rafael Hiroshalmi, former senior intelligence officer at the IDF, and also with us is Gaius Riehl, our I-24 News Senior Editor. Thank you both for joining. We're hearing families of hostages speak out at a press conference highly concerned for the safety and well-being of their loved ones who are still held in Gaza in Hamas captivity. How is Israel to assist, and what will be expected to be said to these families when they meet with the cabinet, with Prime Minister Netanyahu? What can reassure these families? First of all, it is not so important what is going to be said to them. It should be important to speak to them. It doesn't matter what you're going to say. You just have to hug them. These people do not feel hugged. They do not feel assisted. They feel abandoned. They feel like they're fighting this thing on their own. They have the support of the whole Israeli population. Thousands gather every night to visit the square where the families are in Tel Aviv, where they are sitting. But the government seems to be completely dysfunctional. So on the one hand, a lot has been achieved because the chief of the Mossad went to Qatar. We have managed to liberate hostages. The army put such pressure on the Hamas that we still liberated more than 80 hostages. Something has been achieved. So that is the real asymmetry on the one hand. Something is really being concretely done for the hostages on the ground. But on the other hand, the families, the people who are evacuated from the south and also for the north do not feel that the government is taking care of them. And this is a very bad thing. I mean, you just have to send one person to speak to them, even if it's just to hear what they have to say and try to give some kind of reassuring answer, even if you don't want to tell them exactly because it's top secret or you don't know yet how you're going to do it. You have to do it. You have a lot of dysfunctional disfunctionalments right now in this government, which are very worrisome. One of the main ones for me is all the reservists who have small businesses who are now indebted. They are fighting in Gaza against terrorists. And while they are fighting, falling into huge debts, their little businesses are going bankrupt. They're getting no help from the government. So something here has to give. Something I think these people are right. The government cannot come with a magical solution and say, look, we're going to free your families tomorrow morning because we found a way to do so. But at least be there. When you hear that the prime minister will meet these people on Wednesday, I mean, what's he so busy about? When he comes to the cabinet meetings in the Kyriac, it's 50 meters from where these people are sitting. So he could just come out of his helicopter or car and just cross the street, cross the street to come and give a hug. That would be enough. Why isn't it done? I don't know. And the families are actually now requesting to advance this meeting and to make it earlier than Wednesday. They do not have any more time to waste. I do have to differ a little bit because Israel has done has gone to great lengths to release the prisoner, the Israeli hostages that were released in this deal. It has managed to do so under conditions that Israel was able to accept an exchange ratio of one Israeli hostage for three Palestinian terrorists convicted of acts of terror. At the same time, when it comes to other prisoners, the demands of Hamas are very different. Some that Israel will not be able to accept. It is one thing to release prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. It is a completely different thing when Hamas would ask to stop this war completely and prevent Israel from eliminating Hamas in exchange for the Israeli hostages. The goals of this war, war to eliminate Hamas. And when we speak, also when we speak about the residents of the south, the only thing that we assure them and will allow them to return to their homes is if Hamas is eliminated. Obviously, this is a demand that the Israeli government, no Israeli government will be able to accept. And it is a price that is being paid with the fact that it is prolonging the return of more hostages. This is why this operation is ongoing to apply more pressure of Hamas, so that it would come with better deals for better conditions, rather for the next deal for the release of other Israeli hostages. As for meeting the families, obviously, that is a given that that should be happening on a regular basis. And this is not the first such meeting. Obviously, now the line for the release of hostages has changed because we did bring back almost all of the children with the exception of the two Bebas children. And now there's acceptance that there's wait for the release of other Israelis, including men and women over the age of 19, still a lot of elderly men that are being held in Gaza. And that is before we even start speaking about the Israeli soldiers, both male and females. The head of the Mossad MIA unit, Rami Igra, has said that these protesters the way that he sees it do increase the price that Hamas is demanding of Israel as Israel is a democracy in which there is free media, in which the families obviously have their right of expressing themselves and demanding, and rightfully so, demanding the return of their people, of their sons, of their loved ones. At the same time, we are fighting against a terror group like Hamas, a cynical, murderous, cruel terror group that would use any means to cause more suffering to the people of Israel. And to those families, the Israeli government, the Mossad have been involved in extensive negotiations with Hamas, through the Qataris and the US to bring about for a deal of additional hostages. Obviously, that is something that will take time. And now the effort is to apply more pressure, so we will see a better deal in the near future. So, Rafael, do you agree that this is the strategy to apply military force? And that's how more hostages will be ready? Of course. I wanted to stress also the fact that some of the families of the hostages do say, and that's very difficult to say, that they consider some of the demands of the Hamas unacceptable. Even though their own family members are detained by the Hamas, they said Israel cannot accept these conditions. There's like a kind of an argument going on between the families of hostages about that. Those who are so desperate, they would accept anything. Or those who say, no, even though it's my son or it's my brother, we cannot have these thousands of terrorists go roaming around free again, killing people, because we're going to save one person and I'm going to have, so it's very brave of them to say so. I think they're also grateful for what has been accomplished so far by the IDF and the Israeli government. I just stress again that there is a lack of human consideration of warmth. Somebody should be just there to speak to them, to be warm to them. There are people coming, yet again, individual initiatives. From the government, they feel they do not get enough presence, just presence. They don't even have to say anything to divulge the secret operations that might be prepared. They just have to come. That's what they're asking for anyway. And I think if they're asking for, then they should obtain satisfaction. They're asking for direct communication. To be hugged. Yes, to be hugged. By their government. Given the attention that they surely... But I do think they are also asking for answers. It's beyond the hug. Obviously, they want their loved ones back. It's more than just being hugged. They want to know what is being done to bring them back. Obviously, that is a very fair question. It is just not always up to Israel's hands to bring them back as quickly as Israel and the families want to. Now, Karim Khan, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, has wrapped up his first ever visit to Israel, invited here by the hostage's families in a statement closing his visit. Khan called the massacres of October 7th some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. Khan also said Israel's response to the attacks is subject to clear legal parameters that govern armed conflict. All of this raises the question of how Israel should respond to involvement by the ICC, given decades of bitter experience with international organizations. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman tells us the fuller story. The test for the court looks unavoidable, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is eventually heading here to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where the massacres of October 7th and the war that followed look set to cross the threshold, and someday come into the courtroom. If the International Criminal Court does not act against Hamas, no one will. Who will act against them? The Palestinian Authority who endorses them? The Hamas regime in Gaza? There's no one else besides Mr. Khan. Mr. Khan is Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor for the Court, seen here meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shteya in Ramallah on Saturday, on a trip that also took Khan to Baeri and Khwar Azza on the Gaza border, and the Central Event, a meeting at their invitation with hostages families. Israel has long been suspicious of international organizations, with decades of bitter experience of perceived bias. Broadly for that reason, Israel is not a state party to the emerging ICC. One cannot deliberately target civilians or civilian objects. One can't rape or kill or mutilate or dismember. Willful killing, hostage taking are great breaches of the Geneva Convention. Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court's jurisdiction. The message coming from Karim Khan is a careful one. He is under scrutiny from both sides. Given the magnitude, he cannot look away from October 7th, or the propel Palestinian side says look away from the war. But the young court's reputation will be at stake, and over time, a suspicious Israel will need to decide whether or not to take the risk of trusting the ICC and cooperating with it. And still with us here is Gai Israel and Rafael Yerushalmi. First, an update about the hostages families and the government. We know now that the war cabinet will meet those hostages families tonight as to the demand of the hostages families. But a very interesting story that comes out of researchers in the state study from the Columbia and New York University finds that some traders in Wall Street knew about that Hamas attack before October 7th. This is quite incredible. They made short trade on U.S. and Israeli stock exchange in anticipation of them going down. They had some prior knowledge about this attack, something that the Israeli public did not know. Obviously, the Israeli security establishment was not prepared for. Those traders received what is believed to be information from Hamas using that short trade on the Israeli stocks. Quite an incredible story shows you how much planning and knowledge was there in certain circles about that onslaught in advance. Taita Hamas, so we're hearing some people may have been in the know about this massacre ahead of its taking place. Thank you very much, Rafael Yerushalmi and Gai Israel. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. I'm Sivana Rave. Thank you for watching. 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 line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Contestants de la guerra, espadas de hierro. Entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra. La reacción de los países hispano parlantes. News 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. News 24, únicamente en I-24 News. Stories to the world. The I-24 News, I'm Sivana Rave, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 59 of Israel's war with Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani and thanked him for his involvement in the hostage release deal and in obtaining humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two discussed the resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Al-Thani's commitment to peace in the region. The U.S. also confirmed commercial ships were targeted on Sunday in a drone and missile attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis. In a significant escalation, a U.S. warship, the Arleigh Burke class destroyer, USS Carney, fired in self-defense, shooting down three drones during the assault. According to SENTCOM, these attacks are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security as it pointed its finger towards Iran. Overnight, the IDF deepened its reach and fired into southern Gaza east of Rafah. The IDF announced the deaths of another three troops killed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Sergeant Major in Reserves Niri Ashayr, Sergeant First Class in Reserves Ben Zussman and Sergeant Benjamin Yamin Yoshua Nidham. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to meet on Wednesday with the families of the hostages as there are currently 137 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. Moments ago, the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari gave a statement about the military efforts to reduce civilian harm during the fighting. Let's take a listen. We have entered a new phase in our war against Hamas. Hamas broke the humanitarian pause when it violated the Hostage Release Agreement by refusing to release women, children and babies as agreed. Hamas also fired rockets at Israeli homes. It should be clear to everyone by now Hamas chooses war. Hamas chose war when it broke the Hostage Release Agreement on December 1st. Hamas chose war when it massacred our people on October 7th. It has been eight weeks since October 7th and Hamas is still holding 137 of our people hostage babies, the elderly, women and men. Hamas does not value human life, Israeli or Palestinian. Hamas is willing to sacrifice its own people to advance its genocidal agenda. As we expand our operation in Gaza, we remain committed to our goals, secure the release of our hostages and dismantle Hamas. We will operate as we have done until now, according to international law. We will operate as we have done until now against Hamas centers of gravity. We pursued them in northern Gaza. We're now pursuing Hamas in southern Gaza too. We will operate in maximum force against Hamas terrorists and infrastructures while minimizing harm to the civilian that Hamas places around them as shields. Our forces used the seven day pause before the Hamas violation to increase readiness, review intelligence and refine operational procedures. We are implementing lessons learned for the new phase of this war, improving the efficiency and the precision of our operations on the ground. We are pursuing Hamas wherever Hamas is hiding in the north and in the south. Every rocket launcher, weapons, command and control center, senior commander, underground infrastructure and any hideout where our hostages may be held. Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. Hamas deliberately embeds himself within civilian population centers so that the Gazans will bear the consequences of Hamas atrocities. Every civilian death is a tragedy, a tragedy that the IDF does not want and is taking extensive measures to avoid. While Hamas terrorists hide behind civilians Israel does its best to distinguish between civilians and terrorists. We are giving precise instructions to Gazan residents near Hamas centers of gravity, urging them to temporarily move away from the danger that Hamas puts them in. We're dropping leaflets with QR codes that opens a map guiding Gazans to safer areas. The map is divided into neighborhood numbers indicating where civilians in a specific area should go to avoid being in the crossfire. We call on international organizations in Gaza to assist us with this effort. It can help save lives. We also call on international organizations to ensure that the Red Cross gains access to our hostages in Hamas captivity. 137 hostages are being held in inhumane and brutal conditions. And not one international organization has seen them. The more we hear about the cruel conditions in Hamas captivity, the more urgent our mission, our global mission to rescue our hostages becomes. That was the IDF spokesperson Danielle Hagari. With us now is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, down in southern Israel. Pierre, we heard sirens earlier in the south. What is the latest on the ground? There's been a lot in the rocket strike for about an hour. Last hour there were communities very close to the Gaza border like Enash Losha who were there was an attempt to launch a demortifier, but we don't know of any casualties, no damage. And the forces are progressing on the ground along three axes. One on the coastal road, the Arun Arashid axis from north to south near the Mediterranean Sea. The other one is east of Gaza City, Salahadin axis, which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the lull in the fighting last week. And the third axis goes from east to west toward Hanunez and passes through the eastern outskirts of Gaza City, such as Shajaiah. And there's heavy fighting in Shajaiah as well as in Zaitun in Gaza City, as well as in the Jebaliah refugee camp, which is north of Gaza City and Sheikh Ladoan, which is northwest of Gaza City. There's intense fighting in the north and intense fighting in the center. There's been air strikes on the refugee camps in the central sector of Gaza, such as Direl Balach, Nusehrat, El Borej, and the population of the eastern outskirts of Hanunez. Thanks to the interactive map that Daniel Agarri spoke about and flyers that were dropped on the population centers with a QR code to connect to the interactive map, all these populations are urged to move from east of Hanunez to west of Hanunez in order to avoid the loss of lives because the east of Hanunez is turning very quickly into a battleground. Thank you very much, Pierre, on Israel's southern border. And now joining us on Israel's northern border are I-24 news correspondents, Zak Anders. Zak, what are the latest updates in the north? The IDF now says that a short time ago they detected multiple fires from southern Lebanon in towards Israeli positions. They've responded with outgoing artillery, tarting these points of origin from where Hezbollah was firing on their positions. No reports of injuries. In fact, the IDF says that these launches fell in open areas. They also say that they intercepted a hostile aircraft. This is still a developing situation. It's unclear if this is a manned aircraft or a drone. If it's anything like in the past several weeks, these are often the Iranian supplied drones, these unmanned aerial vehicles that attempt to penetrate Israeli airspace. So we're still waiting for confirmation there and for these earlier strikes throughout the morning to see if there were any injuries in these events. Now, in addition to the fire between Israel and Lebanon over the weekend, there was an exchange of fire from Syria. What does this mean? And that fire from Syria again is important as this is involving multiple regional players. The launch itself is still undetermined if this is a drone or a rocket, but the IDF says that per their policy it was not intercepted. It did not appear to hit or land inside Israeli territory. That's awaiting independent confirmation. The IDF has not clarified where exactly this projectile ended up, but it's potentially that it fell inside Syria. We did see reports that the IDF was striking positions and targets inside Syria as well in response. This, of course, you extrapolate this into the big picture here and you've got multiple regional players involved in the different factions in southern Lebanon, of course, and then factions inside Syria. This comes in the same 24 hours that U.S. forces targeted a position in Iraq and apparently killed five men in their strike. What they say was preparing to strike on U.S. positions and that they were preemptively eliminating the threat. Also overnight, Yemen and the Houthis claiming responsibility for attacking U.S. and U.K. ships and blanketly claiming that they were Israeli vessels when there's no confirmation that there were any Israeli ties to these vessels. I see. Thank you very much, Zach, on Israel's northern border. There are 137 hostages still held in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Just moments ago, families of these hostages gave statements in a press conference ahead of their meeting with the security cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's take a listen. All those standing here are loving citizens of Israel. We are not anyone's burden. We raised our kids to love this land, to contribute, and they were neglected on October 7th. And our lives changed forever. We now rely on others. All the cabinet needs to do is to face us, look us in the eye, and tell us what they are planning to do. And with us now in studios, Rafael Hiroshalmi, former senior intelligence officer at the IDF, and also with us is Gaius Driel, our I-24 News senior editor. Thank you both for joining. We're hearing families of hostages speak out at a press conference highly concerned for the safety and well-being of their loved ones who are still held in Gaza in Hamas captivity. How is Israel to assist and what will be expected to be said to these families when they meet with the cabinet, with Prime Minister Netanyahu? What can reassure these families? First of all, it is not so important what is going to be said to them. It should be important to speak to them. It doesn't matter what you're going to say. You just have to hug them. These people do not feel hugged. They do not feel assisted. They feel abandoned. They feel like they're fighting this thing on their own. They have the support of the whole Israeli population. Thousands gather every night to visit the square where the families are in Tel Aviv, where they are sitting. But the government seems to be completely dysfunctional. So on the one hand, a lot has been achieved because the chief of the Mossad went to Qatar. We have managed to liberate hostages. The army put such pressure on the Hamas that we still liberated more than 80 hostages. Something has been achieved. So that is the real asymmetry on the one hand. Something is really being concretely done for the hostages on the ground. But on the other hand, the families, the people who were evacuated from the south and also for the north, do not feel that the government is taking care of them. And this is a very bad thing. I mean, you just have to send one person to speak to them, even if it's just to hear what they have to say and try to give some kind of reassuring answer, even if you don't want to tell them exactly, because it's top secret or you don't know yet how you're going to do it. You have to do it. You have a lot of these functionments right now in this government which are very worrisome. One of the main ones for me is all the reservists who have small businesses who are now indebted. They are fighting in Gaza against terrorists. And while they are fighting, they are falling into huge debts. Their little businesses are going bankrupt. They're getting no help from the government. So something here has to give. Something I think these people are right. The government cannot come with a magical solution and say, look, we're going to free your families tomorrow morning because we found a way to do so. But at least be there. When you hear that the prime minister will meet these people on Wednesday, I mean, what's he so busy about when he comes to the cabinet meetings in the Kyriac? It's 50 meters from where these people are sitting. So he could just come out of his helicopter or car and just cross the street, cross the street to come and give a hug. That would be enough. Why isn't it done? And the families are actually now requesting to advance this meeting and to make it earlier than Wednesday. They do not have any more time to waste. I do have to differ a little bit because Israel has done has gone to great lengths to release the prisoner. The Israeli hostages that were released in this deal. It has managed to do so under conditions that Israel was able to accept an exchange ratio of one Israeli hostage for three Palestinian terrorists convicted of acts of terror. At the same time, when it comes to other prisoners, the demands of Hamas are very different. Some that Israel will not be able to accept. It is one thing to release prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. It is a completely different thing when Hamas would ask to stop this war completely and prevent Israel from eliminating Hamas in exchange for the Israeli hostages. The goals of this war, war to eliminate Hamas. And when we speak also when we speak about the residents of the south, the only thing that we are sure of them and will allow them to return to their homes is if Hamas is eliminated. Obviously, this is a demand that the Israeli government know Israeli government will be able to accept. And it is a price that is being paid with the fact that it is prolonging the return of more hostages. This is why this operation is ongoing to apply more pressure of Hamas so that it would come with better deals for better conditions rather for the next deal for the release of other Israeli hostages. As for meeting the families, obviously, that is given that that should be happening on a regular basis. And it's this is not the first such meeting. Obviously, now the the line for the release of hostages has changed because we did bring back almost all of the children with the exception of the two Bebas children. And now there's acceptance that there's wait for the release of other Israelis, including men and women over the age of 19, still a lot of elderly men that are being held in Gaza. And that is before we even start speaking about the Israeli soldiers, both male and females. The head of the Mossad MIA unit, Rami Igra, has said that these protesters way the way that he sees it do increase the price that Hamas is demanding of Israel as Israel is a democracy in which there is free media in which the families obviously have their right of expressing themselves and demanding and rightfully so demanding the return of their people of their sons of their loved ones. At the same time, we are fighting against a terror group like Hamas, a cynical murderous cruel terror group that would use any means to cause more suffering to the people of Israel. And to those families, the Israeli government, the Mossad have been involved in extensive negotiations with Hamas through the Qataris and the US to bring about for a deal of additional hostages. Obviously, that is something that will take time. And now the effort is to apply more pressure. So we will see a better deal in the near future. So, Rafael, do you agree that this is the strategy to apply military force? And that's how more hostages will be rid of the intervention? Of course. I wanted to stress also the fact that some of the families of the hostages do say, and that's very difficult to say, that they consider some of the demands of the Hamas unacceptable. Even though their own family members are detained by the Hamas, they said Israel cannot accept these conditions. So there's like a kind of an argument going on between the families of hostages about that. Those who are so desperate, they would accept anything. Or those who say, no, even though it's my son or it's my brother, we cannot have these thousands of terrorists go roaming around free again, killing people because we're going to save one person and I'm going to have. So it's very brave of them to say so. I think they're also grateful for what has been accomplished so far by the IDF and the Israeli government. I just stress again that there is a lack of human consideration of warms. Somebody should be just there to speak to them, to be warm to them. There are people coming with these yet again individual initiatives. From the government, they feel they do not get enough presence, just presence. They don't even have to say anything to divulge the secret operations that might be prepared. They just have to come. That's what they're asking for anyway. And I think if they're asking for, then they should obtain satisfaction. They're asking for direct communication. To be hugged. Yes, to be hugged. By their government. Given the attention that they surely. But I do think they are also asking for answers. It's beyond the hug. Obviously, they want their loved ones back. It's more than just being hugged. They want to know what is being done to bring them back. Obviously, that is a very, obviously very thorough question. It is just not always up to Israel's hands to bring them back as quickly as Israel and the families want to. Now, Kareem Khan, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, has wrapped up his first ever visit to Israel, invited here by the hostage's families. In a statement closing his visit, Khan called the massacres of October 7th some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. Khan also said Israel's response to the attacks is subject to clear legal parameters that govern armed conflict. All of this raises the question of how Israel should respond to involvement by the ICC, given decades of bitter experience with international organizations. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman tells us the fuller story. The test for the court looks unavoidable and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is eventually heading here to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where the massacres of October 7th and the war that followed look set to cross the threshold and someday come into the courtroom. If the International Criminal Court does not act against Hamas, no one will. Who will act against them? The Palestinian Authority or endorses them? The Hamas regime in Gaza? There's no one else besides Mr. Khan. Mr. Khan is Kareem Khan, Chief Prosecutor for the Court. Seen here meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shteya in Ramallah on Saturday, on a trip that also took Khan to Baeri and Kfar Azar on the Gaza border. And the central event, a meeting at their invitation with hostages families. Israel has long been suspicious of international organizations with decades of bitter experience of perceived bias. Broadly for that reason, Israel is not a state party to the emerging ICC. One cannot deliberately target civilian civilians or civilian objects. One can't rape or kill or mutilate or dismember. Willful killing, hostage taking our great breaches of the Geneva Convention. Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court's jurisdiction. The message coming from Kareem Khan is a careful one. He is under scrutiny from both sides. Given the magnitude, he cannot look away from October 7th or the propel Palestinian side says look away from the war. But the young court's reputation will be at stake. And over time, a suspicious Israel will need to decide whether or not to take the risk of trusting the ICC and cooperating with it. And still with us here is Gai Israel and Rafael Hiroshalmi. First an update about the hostages families and the government. We know now that the war cabinet will meet those hostage families tonight as to the demand of the hostages families. But a very interesting story that comes out of researchers in the state study from the Columbia and New York University finds that some traders in Wall Street knew about that Hamas attack before October 7th. This is quite incredible. They made a short trade on U.S. and Israeli stock exchange in anticipation of them going down. They had some prior knowledge about this attack, something that the Israeli public did not know. Obviously the Israeli security establishment was not prepared for. Those traders received what is believed to be information from Hamas using that short trade on the Israeli stocks. Quite an incredible story shows you how much planning and knowledge was there in certain circles about that onslaught in advance. Taita Hamas, so we're hearing some people may have been in the know about this massacre ahead of its taking place. Thank you very much, Rafael Hiroshalmi and Gai Israel. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. I'm Sivan Raveev. Thank you for watching. There have been countless memorable moments broadcasting with I-24 News in the past six years but for me the one that stands out the most was the first time that I had ever personally heard a rocket siren sounding in Tel Aviv and at that moment we were live on air in studio. I will never forget the moment our senior producer said to me in my ear the sirens are sounding in Tel Aviv. The control room is going to the shelter. With me in studio at the time were Michael Herzog, a former Brigadier General. Today the Israeli ambassador to the United States and Arson Ostrowski an international human rights lawyer and their responses were completely different. Michael Herzog was calm and composed and on the other hand Arson Ostrowski was trying to phone his family and check in to make sure that his loved ones were okay. The camera that normally faces us was hoisted from above. There was an overhead shot of the three of us in the studio. You could see colleagues going to the shelter if you looked at the glass behind the studio and obviously we lost contact with our team on the ground, our reporters in Ashkelon and all the witnesses that we were speaking to during that time. When rockets are coming towards a residential area they don't distinguish