 ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. The war here in Israel. I'm Nicole Zadik, live in Tel Aviv. It's been 19 days since Hamas launched a full-scale attack on Israel. And Israel has yet to begin their highly anticipated ground incursion. Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip in preparation. More terrorists are still trying to enter Israel. A handful of Hamas terrorists attempted a seaborn attack near Zakeem Beach, but were killed by Israeli naval forces. Meanwhile, Syria fired rockets towards Israeli communities in the Golan Heights. The IDF struck several Syrian military targets in response, with fighter jets hitting mortar launch sites. Now this, as three terror group leaders held a meeting in Beirut, his law chief Hassan Nasrullah sits down with Hamas's political bureau deputy, head Salih al-Arouri and Ziyad Nakhala from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Nasrullah makes his first public statement since the war began. Now as Iranian-backed terror cells discuss how to proceed, the United States is preparing for this type of a regional escalation, sending a fighter squadron to the Middle East with F-16 fighter jets. All of this, as political leaders go head-to-head at the UN Security Council. After security general Antonio Guterres suggested Hamas's brutal attack on Israel was in response to Israel's continued control of Palestinian territories. Now as we speak, we're also waiting on a press conference from IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari to break down the latest developments on this 19th day of the war. Now before we get to that press conference, I wanna begin on Israel's northern border where our I-24 News correspondent, Robert Swift, is standing by. Robert, overnight, the IDF attacking several Syrian military posts in response to Syria firing rockets towards northern Israel. What can you tell us on the latest? So those were strikes by Israeli fighter jets that hit targets of the Syrian military. At this stage it's unclear who it was that launched the attacks from Syria, but as part of the protocol by which it always operates, Israel holds the Syrian military responsible for activity stemming from its territory and that's why it struck there. But I think the main thing that military commanders here will be looking at is the statements you just mentioned, the meeting of Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamist jihad and Hamas. Now for Israeli hawks, this will very much be seen as evidence of coordination between the three and we'll add weight to those that are concerned that when Israel enters the Gaza Strip, the front here in the north could be unleashed by Hezbollah as a response to this. However, one thing that's worth bearing in mind is not only did these three organization heads meet, but they then released photographs and statements about it, publicizing it. So it's worth bearing in mind that the message might also be as important as the actual coordination. Let's talk about that message, because as you said, it certainly shows that these terror cells, Hamas, Hezbollah, the PIJ, all showing a united front and preparing for this retaliation, so to speak, from Israel. That's certainly the image that they want to be projecting. At this stage, it's still unclear how far Hezbollah are willing to commit. Will they put themselves in harm's way in order to join the fight with Hamas? Now, it's not clear if they are willing to take the damage that they will sustain from the IDF if they cross a certain threshold. Obviously at the minute, they're conducting attacks almost every day, every day pretty much. And they're causing casualties to the Israeli side, as well as sustaining casualties of their own. At least 39 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since the start of the conflict. However, it's not clear if this represents genuine commitment and a willingness to take on Israel in the scale that was seen during the war in 2006. Now, the fact that this meeting took place between these three individuals, that in some ways adds weight to both sides of the argument. Some people will see it as evidence of further coordination between these two groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, and also the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But on the other hand, the fact that they've released the photographs and they're talking about it publicly, that could also add weight to those that are saying, well, really Hezbollah are just trying to demonstrate that they're involved in this fight. They're trying to add moral weight, so to speak, to Hamas without actually getting too heavily involved. At the minute, we still don't know which argument of those two is the correct one. Certainly seems to be a waiting game, as you said, Robert Swift, thank you for joining us from the Northern Israel border near the Lebanon border. Thank you. Now, I wanna bring in my guests in studio right now. I'm joined by senior editor, Guy Azriel, as well as Auri Sahar, head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Thank you both so much for being here. Or let's start with you as we were just talking to our correspondent, Robert, who's up near the Lebanon border. We see these new images, and he says that it really is more of a sign of solidarity, but there's also a major risk that Hezbollah, other Iranian proxies, Iran is going to get more of a hand in this war as well. Absolutely, now I think they're signaling Israel that they're ready to fight in a multi-front war. And I think that Israel should be cautious and vigilant. I don't think that Israel is preparing for a preemptive strike on Lebanon right now. And on the other hand, I don't know if Hezbollah would be interested in launching such war at this point in time. We have to remember that Hezbollah is Iran's possibly shield. And if the Hezbollah wildcard is taken off the table, basically, Iran is much more exposed and vulnerable to an Israeli or US strike on Iran itself. They want to keep this wildcard for the H hour. I don't know that Hezbollah wants to waste all of its armament right now. It has already wasted its initial opportunity on October 7th when not joining the fight. And now Israel is in full preparedness. But we do see the Jerusalem axis, as we call it, which is the Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestine Islamic Jihad joining forces under Iranian auspices. And that's something we need to track. And I think it's interesting to note also, 19 days since this initial attack. And we are just now hearing from Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of Hezbollah. What was the holdup? Why did he take so long to issue a public statement? Well, I think first he, Nasrallah has the scale of escalation. I don't think he likes to go from 0 to 100 in a single moment. And he didn't initiate this moment. So he likes to be in control. But right now, when it caught him by surprise, he sent Naim Qassem, he sent other activists, or he sent his deputy or a favorable journalist to express these feelings. But he did meet with the Iranian foreign minister just two weeks ago in the first week of the fighting. And I think he's trying to signal Israel that at this point in time, he's not interested probably in opening an all scale war. But he is playing under the threshold of an all out war. Yes, I'm not completely convinced that this caught him by surprise. As you mentioned, we've seen so many of these high level meetings between Nasrallah and the chiefs of these terror groups in Lebanon, including also meeting with many Iranian officials. The Israeli intelligence has, for some reason, turned a blind eye or didn't really see the potential of these meetings, these coordinations. It is very likely that Hezbollah was in the secret of things. And speaking about the intelligence, well, CNN tonight reveals new information about the secret operation of Hamas keeping their operation away from the Israeli intelligence, revealing some information about how they managed to keep it so quiet for two years. They've planned this operation. It's also important to note, whenever people speak about this attack in retaliation to the latest Israeli government or whatsoever, nothing to do with this. This was a well planned attack for two years, operated by a small group of Hamas commanders in those underground tunnels using phones that were not accessible to the Israeli intelligence. They did not use mobile phones. They did not use computers. Anything that the Israeli intelligence, the computer capabilities of the IDF will not be able to reach. And this is based on sources that are informed of the information that was transferred from Israel to the United States. That is not to let Israel off the hook in turning a blind eye both to these meetings and to this very public training of Hamas and Islamic jihad on Gaza's soil very close to the border for so many months. We've seen them. We've been reporting on them here on I-24 News. I'm not sure what the Israeli military, the Israeli defense establishment was thinking that they're planning to do. It certainly shows, or just a major glitch in the Israeli intelligence system and poses the major question from many Israeli citizens, many people looking out abroad. How is the Israeli intelligence going to continue to fight this war if there is such a gap? Well, as someone who came from the intelligence world, I can tell you this is certainly something to be looked at because we don't only rely on SIGINT as they sell signal intelligence by interpreting or listening to phones or interpreting all these signals. We also have human intelligence, active operatives on the ground infiltrating into their ranks. And to see that something like that was missed, these were not seven people planning in a spontaneous attack. This was well-crafted, probably a year or two of planning. And we saw so many people involved, almost 2,000 of them. But we do see that it doesn't really matter. And that would probably imply across the board. It doesn't really matter what you know. It matters how you interpret it. And if we see Hamas drilling only a few short weeks before the attack, drilling these, exactly the same scenario of hijacking civilians, hijacking soldiers, infiltrating into Israel under the auspices under the cover of rockets, all of these things we know. We know about the Nukhba force, as well as we know about the Redouan force in the north by Hezbollah. Hezbollah is also drilling these things. I want to get back to this, but as we're speaking right now, Daniel Higari is addressing the IDF headquarters here in Tel Aviv. Let's listen. We are at the start of the 19th day to the war. We continue. Wide strikes in Gaza. IDF troops with intelligence orders of the Shin Bats and the intelligence, I've taken down a Hamas terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip. He was the former commander of the naval force of Hamas that has led many attacks against the state of Israel. He was occupied with naval plans for strategic attacks against Israel. Now he is a senior commander in the Khan Yunis area. Tonight we struck, among others, infrastructures of Hamas that has placed roadblocks to Gaza residents who attempted to flee to the south. We call on all the population in the city of Gaza, the terror group and the leadership of Hamas are using you. They're using their homes, using your schools, your hospitals, underground, under your homes, next to the hospitals and the schools. They're hiding there. For your personal security, do not let them use you. Go south, go south of the Gaza River. There we have a humanitarian effort with Egypt and the U.S. were bringing food, medicine, water in order for that space to exist. As long as the war continues, the civilian population will then be able to come back. In addition to the aerial strikes, IDF troops are spread out in the fence in sea. As we saw yesterday in the taking down of the naval commando terrorists who attempted to enter Israel, both by sea and air, we will eliminate anyone who attempts to penetrate the Israeli territory. I want to address Iran. Iran has assisted Hamas before the war, directly with training, with supply of ammunition, funds, technological information. Also, at these days, the Iranian assistance continues with intelligence and with incitement, incitement all over the world against the state of Israel. In the Middle East, when the messengers, the proxies, operate from Iraq, from Yemen, and from Lebanon, the instructions come only from one place. That is Iran. Those who risk the Middle East for the Hamas dies, our ISIS operations should not hide. In Lebanon, we took down five terrorist squads who attempted to fire anti-tank missiles and rockets towards Israeli civilians. Yesterday, we identified two rockets that were sent from Syrian territory. They landed in open area and in response, IDF fighter jets struck military infrastructure of the Syrian military. As for the instructions of the Home Front Command, continue to follow the instructions on the website. It is the duty of all Israeli civilians to continue their routine. It can happen through listening to the instructions. We opened some educational institutions. We attempt to maintain routine in some areas in the country. Continue to follow the instructions. Iran, the Hamas group, is still able to fire rockets. We must not. We must be vigilant. So far, we have given notices to the families of 308 IDF fallen soldiers and 222 kidnaps. Our hearts are with the bereaved families. We feel their pain. We'll continue to be with them all the time. The national effort to bring back the kidnap continues to be a top priority. We collect every piece of information possible. We update the families, and we will do whatever is possible, civilian, operational, intelligence-wise, in order to bring them back home. Questions? You spoke about Iran, are you preparing for an attack on Iran? After what we follow was happening in the Middle East, not just by ourselves. The US President Biden has addressed this. The spreading of the forces of the US around the Middle East, including airplane carrier Eisenhower in the Gulf, the all signal to the fact that Iran destabilizes the Middle East through its messengers. And we need to, therefore, look at the entire area. We do so together with a strategic partner. We're focused in our fighting in Gaza. We need to focus on Hamas, ISIS, and the goss that we set for ourselves. And we look at all the borders of the state of Israel and the Middle East as a whole in order to protect the security interest of the state of Israel, wherever they are. Thank you very much. You were just listening to the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Higari, addressing a press yaggle at the IDF headquarters. Major, some of the major items that he touched on were just the meeting between some of these different Iranian proxies and how it poses a continued threat to the United States. You heard him at the end there just talking about how the United States is getting involved. They're prepared for that. But as of right now, Israel's main goal continues to be Hamas and the Gaza Strip. I want to come back to my guests in studio right now. I'm still with Guy Azrael and Auri Sahar. Now, one of the other things that we heard from Daniel Higari was stating that the IDF had recently attacked some Hamas infrastructures that were blocking off roads from innocent Palestinian civilians as they continue to urge them to leave the north because they are going to continue to attack the north. But Hamas is trying to put their own civilians at risk. Yeah, they're just simply criminal toward their own people, not only toward Israelis, but toward their own people. We've seen actually footages of convoys, of Gazans, attempting to flee urban areas. And Hamas would simply bombard these convoys of innocent Gazan civilians simply in order to prevent them from leaving because it knows that these civilians are its shield. And if it has no option to hide behind them, then it's totally exposed to IDF airstrikes. And this is cynical. We do hear about the casualty toll in Gaza. And we tell ourselves a story that it is all because of Israeli strikes. But who says all of the casualties is because of Israeli strikes? We've got Hamas executing his own people. We got over 550 rockets as per the IDF spokesperson stole from yesterday. 550 different rockets who were misfired and landing inside Gaza, much like previous operations, and undoubtedly killing Gaza. So we need to take that with a grain of salt. All of these reports about the death toll in Gaza, both in terms of quantity. We know that there is a heavy Hamas PR campaign to slander Israel and to sort of exaggerate the numbers. But also we can see these Hamas terrorists and the governors of the Gaza itself who are committing these crimes against their own population. It's also important to note that when we do look at that number, which is released from the Palestinian Health Ministry, it's a Hamas-run health ministry. And they do not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. So the number is often misleading in itself. Yeah, and Hamas obviously knew very well what would be the ramifications of this deadly, lethal, murderous attack on Israeli civilians, such a wide-scale attack. Hamas knew very well that Gaza will not look the same after this attack on Israel. And the Israeli response would be harsh. And there will be many casualties, unfortunately, to the people of Gaza. Because Israel obviously cannot remain silent to what has happened, although Israel does not target civilians, like as Hamas does. But now, when Israel is engaged in this war, Hamas is using these people as their human shields. Hamas does not care less about the well-being of the people of Gaza. Otherwise, they would not have invested billions of dollars all of its resources into its military capabilities. Hamas is taking the people of Gaza hostages as well. We've got to say that these things are not new, OK? Hamas has been abusing the people of Gaza for years. We have seen that. These are just the continuation of the same tactics. Hamas has been taking more than 90% of all humanitarian aid coming into Gaza over the past 10 years and taking it into itself. We've seen the European Union and the UNESCO investing millions in pipelines and sewage. And Hamas simply took them off the ground, pulled them off the ground, and constructed rockets and other military infrastructure to harm Israelis. At the end of the day, it's really the international community who has been willfully blind to all of these things, who is now beginning to wake up. And I think that right now reviewing all the humanitarian aid to Palestinians to make sure that nothing goes to terrorism is of the essence here. We've seen the Italian parliament and the German parliament deciding just that. And I'm expecting more and more of these to come forward and do the same thing in the coming days because we are seeing how all of the aid that we are very altruistically giving the Gaza civilians eventually end up in the hands of Hamas. I don't think there is another solution, but to allow dozens to leave in order to receive this humanitarian aid that desperately need on the other side of the border in Egypt. That's the main question, right? When will Egypt allow that to happen? Precisely. And I think Egypt has no interest to allow that to happen. There are leverages to blow over Egypt in order to do that. I don't think it's going to be easy. I don't know it's necessarily at hand. But we got to understand that any humanitarian aid, even in the last few days, we've seen Hamas taking these packages, these humanitarian aids, designated into Gaza that Israel agreed to pass to southern Gaza into their own hands. The international community needs to understand this. And that's the main concern also right now with more calls from some of the international community urging for fuel to be allowed into the Gaza Strip. However, we also saw the IDF publishing photos just yesterday actually claiming that there are plenty of fuel tanks. These are some of those images right now. Some of those fuel tanks that are in the Gaza Strip, however, they claim that Hamas is using these fuel tanks. So instead of going to the hospitals and the ambulances that desperately need this fuel to help their innocent civilians and those innocent civilian casualties, Hamas is using it instead to continue to target Israelis. So quite an issue there. Also when we're just looking about the international response, so we heard from the United Nations Security Council yesterday, the Security General Antonio Guterres, some major claims and attacks towards Israel stating that this whole massacre on October 7th happened in response to Israel's actions. Yes, well, Israeli officials have called on Antonio Guterres to resign from his office for saying that this attack did not happen in vacuum, thereby justifying what Hamas has done, slaughtering 1,400 Israelis, the vast majority of them innocent civilians in their very homes. And Israel says that it is incomprehensible for the UN chief to be justifying these horrors, especially when the UN was established in order to prevent such atrocities in the world. Well, and it's interesting, as we're talking about, just not just the emotional toll, the physical toll, but also it's important to note that there is also a economic toll, a financial toll, that is happening in the midst of all of this, although it might seem a little bit more minor. The SMB global ratings is now actually downgrading. It's Israeli rating forecast from stable to negative. The credit firm says this downgrade is due to the increased geopolitical and security risks faced by the war. Also predicting the Israeli economy will contract 5% in the last quarter of 2023 before returning to growth early next year. Now to talk more about all of the latest and the financial impact as well, I'm joined by Dr. Alex Komen, economy expert from Tel Aviv University. Thank you so much for joining us. I think this is such an important issue to talk about because this war is absolutely taking a major financial toll, as all wars do, but we're seeing this immediately. Absolutely, and this war is going to be much more expensive than previous ones because the threats are much more significant. Hamas, Hezbollah accumulated much more weapons than they had in the past. We are going to see much more damage to civilian infrastructure, which we've not seen in the past. And so if you think about just take, as an example, the high tech industry, you see thousands of people leaving the positions in the high tech and joining the military. And this, of course, is accountable for the decline in Israel's growth. Also, just the international perspective as well as investors stop investing in Israel because they're worried about the infrastructure and they're worried about how the geopolitical repercussions of this. That's correct. I think this is less significant. I think many companies, many countries do business with Israel, not because they love it so much, as much as because it has leadership, particularly in the high tech. I think that it is to be less significant. But then another problem that I think contributes to this down-rating and S&P hinted to that is the fact that Israel's minister of finance, Smotrich, is incompetent in the sense that he has little knowledge of economics. He's not aware of the severity of the situation. And actually, he made this outrageous statement that there's enough money for everything, which is completely untrue. Dr. Alex Komen, I think we bring up just the best point about not just the international response, but really the 300,000 plus reserve duty soldiers who are all leaving a saw statistic. That's about 15 to 20% in just the high tech industry alone. So seeing how this all impacts the economy here, although it might be a little bit more minor on the heads of Israelis right now, it's certainly going to take a toll. So thank you, Dr. Komen, for your expertise, as always. Thank you very much. Now, I also want to thank our guests in studio for joining me or Yisachar, head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Thank you as always for your insight as we continue to break down the latest developments as well as senior editor Guy Azrael. Certainly a lot to unpack here, day by day, minute by minute really, as we heard from the IDF spokesperson. It continues to evolve and we will continue to keep an eye on everything that's happening here in Israel, in the Gaza Strip, in the Northern as well as just the repercussions of the entire Middle East. Thank you for joining us on this breaking edition of the I-24 News Desk. Is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. 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 Arsene Ostrovsky, an international human rights lawyer, and their responses were completely different. Michael Herzog was calm and composed. And on the other hand, Arsene Ostrovsky was trying to phone his family and check in to make sure that his loved ones were OK. 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 between race, religion, political views, cultural views. They just intend to harm civilians. And that moment, being in studio, hearing those interceptions overhead was the most real coverage I've ever been involved in. The coverage of the war here in Israel. I'm going to call that a live in Tel Aviv. It's been 19 days since Hamas launched a full-scale attack on Israel. And Israel has yet to begin their highly anticipated ground incursion. As Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip in preparation, more terrorists are still trying to enter Israel. A handful of Hamas terrorists attempted a seaboard attack near Zakeem Beach, but were killed by Israeli naval forces. Meanwhile, Syria fired rockets towards Israeli communities in the Golan Heights. The IDF struck several Syrian military targets in response, with fighter jets hitting mortar launch sites. Now, this, as three terror group leaders held a meeting in Beirut. His block chief, Hassan Nasrullah, sits down with Hamas's political bureau deputy, head Salih al-Arouri and Ziyad Nakhala from Palestinian Islamic jihad. Nasrullah makes his first public statement since the war began. Now, as Iranian-backed terror cells discuss how to proceed, the United States is preparing for this type of a regional escalation, sending a fighter squadron to the Middle East with F-16 fighter jets. All of this, as political leaders go head-to-head at the UN Security Council. After security general Antonio Guterres suggested Hamas's brutal attack on Israel was in response to Israel's continued control of Palestinian territories. Now, as we speak, we're also waiting on a press conference from IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari to break down the latest developments on this 19th day of the war. Now, before we get to that press conference, I want to begin on Israel's northern border, where our I-24 News correspondent, Robert Swift, is standing by. Robert, overnight, the IDF attacking several Syrian military posts in response to Syria firing rockets towards northern Israel. What can you tell us on the latest? So those were strikes by Israeli fighter jets that hit targets of the Syrian military. At this stage, it's unclear who it was that launched the attacks from Syria, but as part of the protocol by which it always operates, Israel holds the Syrian military responsible for activity stemming from its territory, and that's why it struck there. But I think the main thing that military commanders here will be looking at is the statements you just mentioned, the meeting of Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic jihad, and Hamas. Now, for Israeli hawks, this will very much be seen as evidence of coordination between the three and will add weight to those that are concerned that when Israel enters the Gaza Strip, the front here in the north could be unleashed by Hezbollah as a response to this. However, one thing that's worth bearing in mind is not only did these three organization heads meet, but they then released photographs and statements about it, publicizing it. So it's worth bearing in mind that the message might also be as important as the actual coordination. Let's talk about that message, because as you said, it certainly shows that these terror cells, Hamas, Hezbollah, the PIJ, all showing a united front and preparing for this retaliation, so to speak, from Israel. That's certainly the image that they want to be projecting. At this stage, it's still unclear how far Hezbollah are willing to commit. Will they put themselves in harm's way in order to join the fight with Hamas? Now, it's not clear if they are willing to take the damage that they will sustain from the IDF if they cross a certain threshold. Obviously, at the minute, they are conducting attacks almost every day, every day, pretty much. And they're causing casualties to the Israeli side, as well as sustaining casualties of their own. At least 39 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since the start of the conflict. However, it's not clear if this represents genuine commitment and a willingness to take on Israel in the scale that was seen during the war in 2006. Now, the fact that this meeting took place between these three individuals, that in some ways adds weight to both sides of the argument. Some people will see it as evidence of further coordination between these two groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, and also the Palestinian Islamic jihad. But on the other hand, the fact that they've released the photographs and they're talking about it publicly, that could also add weight to those that are saying, well, really, Hezbollah are just trying to demonstrate that they're involved in this fight. They're trying to add moral weight, so to speak, to Hamas without actually getting too heavily involved. At the minute, we still don't know which argument of those two is the correct one. Certainly seems to be a waiting game, as you said, Robert Swift, thank you for joining us from the Northern Israel border near the Lebanon border. Thank you. Now I want to bring in my guests in studio right now. I'm joined by senior editor Guy Azriel, as well as Orye Sahar, head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Thank you both so much for being here. Or let's start with you as we were just talking to our correspondent, Robert, who's up near the Lebanon border, we see these new images. And he says that it really is more of a sign of solidarity, but there's also a major risk that Hezbollah, other Iranian proxies, Iran is going to get more of a hand in this war as well. Absolutely, now I think they're signaling Israel that they're ready to fight in a multi-front war. And I think that Israel should be cautious and vigilant. I don't think that Israel is preparing for a preemptive strike on Lebanon right now. And on the other hand, I don't know if Hezbollah would be interested in launching such war at this point in time. We have to remember that Hezbollah is Iran's possibly shield. And if the Hezbollah wildcard is taken off the table, basically Iran is much more exposed and vulnerable to an Israeli or a U.S. strike on Iran itself. They want to keep this wildcard for the age hour. I don't know that Hezbollah wants to waste all of its armament right now. It has already wasted its initial opportunity on October 7th when not joining the fight. And now Israel is in full preparedness. But we do see the Jerusalem axis, as we call it, which is the Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic jihad joining forces under Iranian auspices. And that's something we need to track. And I think it's interesting to note also, 19 days since this initial attack, and we are just now hearing from Hasan Nasrallah, the chief of Hezbollah, what was the holdup? Why did he take so long to issue a public statement? Well, I think first he, Nasrallah has the scale of escalation. I don't think he likes to go from 0 to 100 in a single moment. And he didn't initiate this moment. So he likes to be in control. But right now when it caught him by surprise, he sent Naim Qassem, he sent other activists, or he sent his deputy or favorable journalists to express these feelings. But he did meet with the Iranian foreign minister just two weeks ago in the first week of the fighting. And I think he's trying to signal Israel at this point in time, he's not interested probably in opening an all-scale war, but he is playing under the threshold of an all-out war. Yes, I'm not completely convinced that this caught him by surprise. As you mentioned, we've seen so many of these high-level meetings between Nasrallah and the chiefs of these terror groups in Lebanon, including also meeting with many Iranian officials. The Israeli intelligence has, for some reason, turned a blind eye, or didn't really see the potential of these meetings, these coordinations. It is very likely that Hezbollah was in the secret of things. And speaking about the intelligence, well, CNN tonight reveals new information about the secret operation of Hamas keeping their operation away from the Israeli intelligence, revealing some information about how they managed to keep it so quiet for two years. They've planned this operation. It's also important to note, whenever people speak about this attack in retaliation to the latest Israeli government or whatsoever, nothing to do with this, this was a well-planned attack for two years, operated by a small group of Hamas commanders in those underground tunnels using phones that were not accessible to the Israeli intelligence, they did not use mobile phones, they did not use computers. Anything that the Israeli intelligence, the computer capabilities of the IDF will not be able to reach. And this is based on sources that are informed of the information that was transferred from Israel to the United States. That is not to let Israel off the hook in turning a blind eye both to these meetings and to this very public training of Hamas and Islamic jihad on Gaza soil very close to the border for so many months. We've seen them, we've been reporting on them here on I-24 News, I'm not sure what these military, these very defense establishment was thinking that they're planning to do. It certainly shows or just a major glitch in the Israeli intelligence system and poses the major question from many Israeli citizens, many people looking a lot abroad, how is the Israeli intelligence going to continue to fight this war if there is such a gap? Well, as someone who came from the intelligence world, I can tell you this is certainly something to be looked at because we don't only rely on SIGINT as they sell signal intelligence by interpreting or listening to phones or interpreting all these signals. We also have human intelligence, active operatives on the ground infiltrating into their ranks. And to see that something like that was missed, these were not seven people planning in a spontaneous attack. This was well-crafted probably a year or two of planning and we saw so many people involved, almost 2,000 of them. But we do see that it doesn't really matter and that would probably imply across the board. Doesn't really matter what you know, it matters how you interpret it. And if we see Hamas drilling only a few short weeks before the attack, drilling these exactly the same scenario of hijacking civilians, hijacking soldiers, infiltrating into Israel under the auspices under the cover of rockets, all of these things we know. We know about the Nukhba force as well as we know about the Redouan force in the north by Hezbollah. Hezbollah is also drilling these things. I want to get back to this, but as we're speaking right now, Daniel Higari is addressing the idea of headquarters here in Tel Aviv. Let's listen. We are at the start of the 19th day to the war. We continue wide strikes in Gaza, idea of troops with intelligence orders of the Shin Bats and the intelligence, I've taken down a Hamas terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip. He was the former commander of the naval force of Hamas that has led many attacks against the state of Israel. He was occupied with naval plans for strategic attacks against Israel. Now he is a senior commander in the Khan Yunis area. Tonight, we struck, among others, infrastructures of Hamas that has placed roadblocks to Gaza residents who attempted to flee to the south. We call on all the population in the city of Gaza, the terror group, and the leadership of Hamas are using you. They're using their homes, using your schools, your hospitals underground, under your homes, next to the hospitals and the schools. They're hiding there. For your personal security, do not let them use you. Go south, go south of the Gaza River. There we have an humanitarian effort with Egypt and the US. We're bringing food, medicine, water in order for that space to exist. As long as the war continues, the civilian population will then be able to come back. In addition to the aerial strikes, IDF troops are spread out in the fence in sea, as we saw yesterday, in the taking down of the naval commando terrorists who attempted to enter Israel, both by sea and air. We will eliminate anyone who attempts to penetrate the Israeli territory. I want to address Iran. Iran has assisted Hamas before the war, directly with training, with supply of ammunition, funds, technological information. Also, at these days, the Iranian assistance continues with intelligence and with incitement, incitement all over the world against the state of Israel. In the Middle East, when the messengers, the proxies, operate from Iraq, from Yemen, and from Lebanon, the instructions come only from one place. That is Iran. Those who risk the Middle East for the Hamas dies, our ISIS operations should not hide. In Lebanon, we took down five terrorist squads who attempted to fire anti-tank missiles and rockets towards Israeli civilians. Yesterday, we identified two rockets that were sent from Syrian territory. They landed in open area and in response, IDF fighter jets struck military infrastructure of the Syrian military. As for the instructions of the Home Front Command, continue to follow the instructions on the website. It is the duty of all Israeli civilians to continue their routine. It can happen through listening to the instructions. We opened some educational institutions. We attempt to maintain routine in some areas in the country. Continue to follow the instructions. Iran, the Hamas group, is still able to fire rockets. We must be vigilant. So far, we have given notices to the families of 308 IDF fallen soldiers and 222 kidnaps. Our hearts are with the bereaved families. We feel their pain. We'll continue to be with them all the time. The national effort to bring back the kidnap continues to be a top priority. We collect every piece of information possible. We update the families, and we will do whatever is possible, civilian, operational, intelligence-wise, in order to bring them back home. Questions? You spoke about Iran, preparing for an attack on Iran. After what we follow, what's happening in the Middle East, not just by ourselves, the US President Biden has addressed this, the spreading of the forces of the US around the Middle East, including airplane carrier Eisenhower in the Gulf, the all signal to the fact that Iran destabilizes the Middle East through its messengers. And we need to, therefore, look at the entire area. We do so together with a strategic partner. We are focused in our fighting in Gaza. We need to focus on Hamas, ISIS, and the goals that we set for ourselves. And we look at all the borders of the state of Israel and the Middle East as a whole in order to protect the security interests of the state of Israel, wherever they are. Thank you very much. You were just listening to the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Higari, addressing a press yaggle at the IDF headquarters. Major, some of the major items that he touched on were just the meeting between some of these different Iranian proxies and how it poses a continued threat to the United States. You heard them at the end there just talking about how the United States is getting involved. They're prepared for that. But as of right now, Israel's main goal continues to be Hamas and the Gaza Strip. I want to come back to my guest in studio right now. I'm still with Gaya Azrael and Auri Sahar. Now, one of the other things that we heard from Daniel Higari was stating that the IDF had recently attacked some Hamas infrastructures that were blocking off roads from innocent Palestinian civilians as they continue to urge them to leave the north because they are going to continue to attack the north. But Hamas is trying to put their own civilians at risk. Yeah, they're just simply criminal toward their own people. Not only toward Israelis, but toward their own people. We've seen actually footages of convoys, of Gazans, attempting to flee urban areas. And Hamas would simply bombard these convoys of innocent Gazan civilians simply in order to prevent them from leaving because it knows that these civilians are its shield. And if it has no option to hide behind them, then it's totally exposed to IDF airstrikes. And this is cynical. We do hear about the casualty toll in Gaza. And we tell ourselves a story that it is all because of Israeli strikes. But who says all of the casualties is because of Israeli strikes? We've got Hamas executing his own people. We got over 550 rockets as per the IDF spokesperson's toll from yesterday. 550 different rockets who were misfire and landing inside Gaza, much like previous operations, and undoubtedly killing Gaza. So we need to take that with a grain of salt. All of these reports about the death toll in Gaza, both in terms of quantity. We know that there is a heavy Hamas PR campaign to slander Israel and to sort of exaggerate the numbers. But also, we can see these Hamas terrorists and the governors of the Gaza itself who are committing these crimes against their own population. It's also important to note that when we do look at that number, which is released from the Palestinian Health Ministry, it's a Hamas-run health ministry. And they do not distinguish between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. So the number is often misleading in itself. Yeah, Hamas obviously knew very well what would be the ramifications of this deadly, lethal, murderous attack on Israeli civilians, such a wide-scale attack. Hamas knew very well that Gaza will not look the same after this attack on Israel and that the Israeli response would be harsh. And there will be many casualties, unfortunately, to the people of Gaza because Israel obviously cannot remain silent to what has happened, although Israel does not target civilians like as Hamas does. But now, when Israel is engaged in this war, Hamas is using these people as their human shields. Hamas does not care less about the well-being of the people of Gaza. Otherwise, it would not have invested billions of dollars all of its resources into its military capabilities. Hamas is taking the people of Gaza hostages as well. We're going to say that these things are not new, okay? Hamas has been abusing the people of Gaza for years. We have seen that. These are just the continuation of the same tactics. Hamas has been taking more than 90% of all humanitarian aid coming into Gaza over the past 10 years and taking it into itself. We've seen the European Union and the UNESCO investing millions in pipelines and sewage. And Hamas simply took them off the ground, pulled them off the ground and constructed rockets and other military infrastructure to harm Israelis. At the end of the day, it's really the international community who has been willfully blind to all of these things, who is now beginning to wake up. And I think that right now reviewing all the humanitarian aid to Palestinians to make sure that nothing goes to terrorism is of the essence here. We've seen the Italian parliament and the German parliament deciding just that. And I'm expecting more and more of these to come forward and do the same thing in the coming days because we are seeing how all of the aid that we are very altruistically giving the Gaza civilians eventually end up in the hands of Hamas. I don't think there is another solution, but to allow dozens to leave in order to receive this humanitarian aid that desperately need on the other side of the border in Egypt. But that's the main question, right? When will Egypt allow that to happen? Precisely. And I think Egypt has no interest to allow that to happen. There are leverages to pull over Egypt in order to do that. I don't think it's going to be easy. I don't know it's necessarily at hand. But we got to understand that any humanitarian aid, even in the last few days, we've seen Hamas taking these packages, these humanitarian aids, designated into Gaza that Israel agreed to pass to Southern Gaza into their own hands. The international community needs to understand this. And that's the main concern also right now with more calls from some of the international community urging for fuel to be allowed into the Gaza Strip. However, we also saw the IDF publishing photos just yesterday actually claiming that there are plenty of fuel tanks. These are some of those images right now. Some of those fuel tanks that are in the Gaza Strip, however, they claim that Hamas is using these fuel tanks. So instead of going to the hospitals and the ambulances that desperately need this fuel to help their innocent civilians and those innocent civilian casualties, Hamas is using it instead to continue to target Israelis. So quite an issue there. Also, when we're just looking about the international response, so we heard from the United Nations Security Council yesterday, the Security General Antonio Guterres, some major claims and attacks towards Israel stating that this whole massacre on October 7th happened in response to Israel's actions. Yes, so all these Israeli officials have called on Antonio Guterres to resign from his office for saying that this attack did not happen in vacuum, thereby justifying what Hamas has done, slaughtering 1,400 Israelis, the vast majority of them innocent civilians in their very homes. And Israel says that it is incomprehensible for the UN chief to be justifying these horrors, especially when the UN was established in order to prevent such atrocities in the world. Well, and it's interesting as we're talking about just not just the emotional toll, the physical toll, but also it's important to note that there is also a economic toll, a financial toll that is happening in the midst of all of this, although it might seem a little bit more minor. The SMB global ratings is now actually downgrading. It's Israeli rating forecast from stable to negative. The credit firm says this downgrade is due to the increased geopolitical and security risks faced by the war. Also predicting the Israeli economy will contract 5% in the last quarter of 2023 before returning to growth early next year. Now to talk more about all of the latest and the financial impact as well, I'm joined by Dr. Alex Komen, an economy expert from Tel Aviv University. Thank you so much for joining us. I think this is such an important issue to talk about because this war is absolutely taking a major financial toll, as all wars do, but we're seeing this immediately. Absolutely, and this war is going to be much more expensive than previous ones because the threats are much more significant. Hamas, Hezbollah accumulated much more weapons than they had in the past. We are going to see much more damage to civilian infrastructure, which we've not seen in the past. And we're talking about 300,000 people who are going to be mobilized. So if you think about, just take, as an example, the high tech industry, you see thousands of people leaving the positions in the high tech and joining the military. And this of course is accountable for the decline in Israel's growth. Also just the international perspective as well as investors stop investing in Israel because they're worried about the infrastructure and they're worried about how the geopolitical repercussions of this. That's correct. I think this is less significant. I think many countries do business with Israel not because they love it so much, as much as because it has leadership, particularly in the high tech. It is to be less significant. Then another problem that I think contributes to this down-rating and S&P hinted to that is the fact that Israel's minister of finance, Smotrich, is incompetent in the sense that he has little knowledge of economics. He's not aware of the severity of the situation. And actually he made this outrageous statement that there's enough money for everything, which is completely untrue. Dr. Alex Komen, I think we bring up just the best point about not just the international response, but really the 300,000 plus reserve duty soldiers who are all leaving a saw statistic, that's about 15 to 20% in just the high tech industry alone. So seeing how this all impacts the economy here, although it might be a little bit more minor on the heads of Israelis right now, it's certainly going to take a toll. So thank you, Dr. Komen, for your expertise, as always. Thank you very much. Now I also wanna thank our guests in studio for joining me or Yisra, our head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Thank you as always for your insight as we continue to break down the latest developments, as well as senior editor, Guy Azrael. Certainly a lot to unpack here, day by day, minute by minute really, as we heard from the IDF spokesperson. It continues to evolve and we will continue to keep an eye on everything that's happening here in Israel, in the Gaza Strip, in Northern as well as just the repercussions of the entire Middle East. Thank you for joining us on this breaking edition of the I-24 News Desk. 1300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the South and North. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. And we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. A ruling coverage of the war here in Israel. A full static live in Tel Aviv. It's been 19 days since Hamas launched a full scale attack on Israel. Israel has yet to begin their highly anticipated ground incursion. Now three terror group leaders are preparing for Israel's attack, holding a meeting in Beirut. As the law chief Hassan Nasrullah sits down with Hamas's political bureau deputy, Salih al-Arouri and Ziyad Nakhla from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Nasrullah marks those first public statements since the war began. Now as the Iranian-backed terror cells discuss how to proceed, the United States is preparing for this type of a regional escalation, sending a fighter squadron to the Middle East with F-16 fighter jets. All of this as political leaders go head to head at the UN Security Council. After security general Antonio Guterres suggested Hamas's brutal attack on Israel was in response to Israel's continued control of Palestinian territories. Quite a lot to unpack, but we want to begin where Israel's main focus is right now, near the Gaza border. That's where our correspondent, Jonathan Rega, is right now in Israel's south, near the border. Jonathan, we see more sirens bellowing through the south. Rockets targeting some of those southern cities. What have you seen on the ground there, near the border? Yes, there have been quite a lot of sirens this morning, mostly in the Gaza border communities, the communities themselves that are right on the border itself. And a little bit further away, such as Ashkelon, for example, Hamas proving that it still has the ability to fire. There are still rockets. Last night we saw an attempted infiltration through the sea. So yes, Israel is pounding and pounding hard. It comes with success stories with Hamas infrastructure being destroyed and Hamas officials being killed. You want to eradicate Hamas. You want this problem to go away forever. It will not happen from the air. Well, Jonathan, as you said, the idea says it's continuing to attack some of those top Hamas commanders, including the commander of Hamas's North Conyunus Battalion. They said killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip. So Hamas continues to go after these lead commanders trying to dismantle the leadership. That's the main aim. The main aim is to try and basically every leader that pops up, try to eliminate him. But the main leadership, Mohamed Eff, Iche Sinwar, and so on, all the leadership, they're in the bunkers under the sea, under, and bunkers under the Gaza, of course, hiding behind civilian infrastructure, behind the Shifa Hospital, for example. And this is something that we're reporting this year, but I'm hoping that foreign media gets us as well because we're here with many foreign journalists. They're speaking mostly about what is happening in Gaza. As far as many of them are concerned, it seems as if someone woke up in Israel and decided to go after Gaza for no reason, many of them are not even expressing, reminding anything about the fact that there was a terrible massacre all along the Gaza border community as less than three weeks ago. That's the most important thing to remember, Jonathan, what sparked this in the first place. Now, as you're talking about how many people are focusing on the situation in Gaza, we see more aid trucks slowly being let in, about eight yesterday reports of, but only food, water, medicine, the IDF urging no fuel because that fuel will only fuel Hamas terrorists. That is correct. Hamas leadership, as we mentioned, is hiding in a tunnel using civilians as protective shield and to run those bunkers as far as electricity, as far as communication, everything to make it work. They need fuel, and Israel made it loud and clear. Fuel will not come in, a humanitarian corridor and so on is coming in, food, water, medicine, but Israel made it clear that fuel will not come in. We're hearing the journalists here speaking about humanitarian corridors and things coming into Gaza. I don't remember any of them mentioning any humanitarian corridors to all of the communities here which were butchered on that morning. Jonathan Regev reporting from Israel's Southern border. We're happy you're there alongside those international correspondents telling them exactly what's happening on the ground here in Israel. Thank you for your coverage. Now I wanna bring in my guest joining me in studio right now, I'm joined by Rafael Jarosalmi, former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and security analyst. Now Rafael, as we were just speaking to Jonathan down there, a big concern from the international media is these fuel trucks that they say need to be let in to the Gaza Strip to help aid with the hospital ambulances, et cetera. However, we also heard just yesterday from the IDF, they posted a picture of reported fuel tanks in the Gaza Strip that Hamas is controlling. They say this would be enough fuel for all of the civilians if Hamas wasn't using it. Of course, millions of gallons of fuel, millions of gallons of fuel at the hands of the Hamas, only for the Hamas military purposes in which case by international law and the rules of war Israel cannot allow more of that fuel reaching Gaza because there is no guarantee that it will reach the people, the civilians, but it will not fall. So you cannot. As you're speaking, just of the fuel tanks we're talking about. Exactly, that's the proof. In any case, we must remember that so far right now of course with time it's something else but so far there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There is food, there is water. The Israelis only control 10% of the water going into Gaza. 90%, 89% exactly of the water from Gaza comes from underground wells. So we do not, there is water and anyway by international law again, water has to be provided to the populations in the rules of war. You can have a blockade but that doesn't include water and food. It's really fuel and anything that could be used as weaponry that is in the blockade. So the humanitarian side is important but so far there is no humanitarian crisis. The hospitals have enough medicine and equipment to last. They have stocks. The problem is they're generators and the problem is in the hands of the Hamas. Well, and how do we know this? Cause we are seeing such conflicting reports, right? From what some of the dozen run, the Hamas run health ministry is saying we don't have enough medicine. We don't have enough food. People are drinking dirty water yet Israeli claims are different. The reason why people are drinking dirty water is because the Hamas has dismantled all the pipes of the water system to use those pipes to make explosives. It's an equipment that they can use and to make side bombs on roads and to booby trap everywhere to attract IDF soldiers if they come in into these booby trap areas. So most of the damage caused to the infrastructure of the water system was not caused by the bombings from the IDF, but by the Hamas itself dismantling all that. Anyway, this plays into their hands. They do want to have a humanitarian crisis. They really don't care about the destiny and fate of the civilians there. They use them cynically for mediatic purposes for photo shoots and as human shields. We all know that. Not one word can be trusted of what comes out from the spokesman of the Hamas. I mean, after all, it's a terrorist organization. Is some journalist out of lack of professionalism, let's put it in a minor way, or pure anti-Semitism, decide to take for granted any word that comes out of the spokesman of the Hamas? That's their choice, their professional choice and their ethical choice, sadly enough. This will not impact the war, whatever hatred they will incite the readers into will not impact on the results of the war. This might only be the case in Arabic countries where the uprising in favor of the Palestinians are very large and violent and disquieting for the leaders. They might have to listen to the street. But in Europe, it's a minor, it's a minority. Most people in Europe, so far, even though the press is not so objective, so far, are with Israel, they understand exactly what's the case. They haven't forgotten those pictures. Even if they haven't seen the real pictures, they know what happened. I think so far, we still have the sympathy of the public opinion and mostly, the most important, the sympathy of our main allies, the governments, that's very important to have the French, the British, the Americans understand where we stand and what we have to do. We continue to see those Western allies step up, especially as the threat from other Iranian proxies continues to escalate, possibly. That's where I actually wanna turn to now, where our correspondent, Robert Swift, is near the Northern border. That's where Hezbollah is based out of that Lebanon border right now. We saw recent pictures, even, of the Hezbollah chief meeting with Hamas and PIJ leaders. So we know communication is absolutely happening. But what exactly are you seeing on the ground there on Israel's Northern border? Well, in the most recent incident here up on the Northern border, the Israeli military said that it conducted an attack against Hezbollah anti-tank team, excuse me, that was operating around the Mount Dove region. That's to the far Eastern end of Israel's Northern border. That's some distance to the east of us. Now, this would be the fifth Hezbollah team that's been attacked in the last 24 hours by the Israeli military. And Hezbollah has been announcing casualty figures from what we've seen in social media from their announcements is at least 41 Hezbollah operatives that have been killed since the start of hostilities. But, you know, Hezbollah has a large mom power, so there's likely plenty more where that came from. If we now turn to the home front, just to give you an idea of how Israeli civilians are coping with these tensions here on the Northern border, a couple of hours ago, we spoke to you from Naharia and you saw there that Israelis were a little bit starting to go back to normal life. It was quite busy bustling streets. Unlike a week ago. But we're just a bit further north now, closer to the border. You'll be able to see the border wall behind me, and that gives you an idea of how close we are. And the population here in this village, which I'm not going to name for security reasons, the population here is much more thin on the ground. You have to wander about quite a bit to find anybody. There are still people here, despite us being within the five kilometer border zone where the Israeli authorities have asked people to leave, but there are still plenty of people here keeping their heads down. People are mostly in their homes. There we've seen one business which is open and mostly people are keeping to themselves. But just to give you an idea of how close we are. Now, the five kilometers is the distance that the Israeli military has asked people to be away from the border. But you can see the border just behind me. To the right of that zigzag shape that the wall is making, the right hand side of it, that is Lebanese territory. And to the left of that, and on the side of the hill facing us, that is all Israeli territory. So you can imagine how precarious that puts the population who are living here. And just to give you a bit of context, this is, there's damage from battle around me. This is damage that has not happened recently. This is from previous rounds of conflict. You'll see what my camera on Dean is showing you now. That is shrapnel damage in the wall there. There's shrapnel in that building and in the one on the opposite side of me. And that likely means that there's been an explosion at some point took place where we're standing. And now Dean is showing you that this isn't shrapnel damage in the building, which is immediately to my front. This is bullet holes that have been made in the wall in the windows of this building. And that gives you an idea of how close we are to the border and how close the population of this village are that they're within rifle range of Hezbollah fighters. Now, as I've said, this is not recent damage. This is previous damage, but this gives you an idea of the sort of the continuous bouts of violence that people living along the border here are having to deal with. And that's why the vast majority of the people in this village have left, although one or two stragglers still do remain. Those visuals certainly give us a good perspective on everything that has happened there and everything that could quickly erupt in that region as well. Our correspondent, Robert Swift, thank you so much for bringing us the latest near the Lebanon border. Now, while we are talking about the threat on the ground, it's also important to note that there's a threat online as well. Reports of Hamas sending malicious links to hack users' phones via WhatsApp or other messaging services. Now, to talk more about this cyber threat, I'm joined by Ram Levy, CEO and founder of Confidus. Now, Ram, thank you so much for joining us. This cyber threat of the war in general, let's talk about exactly how dangerous it is. Well, it's becoming quite dangerous. We've seen attacks coming from all over the world. Nation states, hackers, hacktivists are just attacking everything they can against Israeli infrastructure. That includes companies, critical infrastructure and, of course, civilians, flooding them with malicious links, spams, fishing, and, of course, a lot of fake news. I understand the purpose of them wanting to target different Israeli infrastructure companies, but why target civilians? What do they hope to gain from that? Well, usually they're hoped to gain two things. Either a lot of everything that has to do with influence on the population. For example, sending them fake links that tell them that things are happening and then change the narrative cause a lot of uprising. And the second thing is they want to get access to systems or they want to get access to money or information so they can leverage for their own purposes and operations. Well, meanwhile, your company has some technology to detect these malicious links and hopefully provide civilians with a little bit of safety. Can you tell us about it? Yeah, one of the big issues is that people get a lot of links for groups, forums, news channels, and they don't know if the links are okay or not. Some of them, they just come using SMS and they are trying to look like as if they're coming from the Israeli post or they're coming from banks. And what we did is we built a bot. We called an iron bot that you can send those malicious links to a WhatsApp number that we verified with Meta. And the bot goes to a huge database of malicious links. It has over 50 billion links. We check the link and within a couple of seconds they can get a result whether the link is malicious or not. We did it because we believe that we should give the population something that they can check in order to press links without knowing. We see there's a sheet, yeah. Well, I see that right now we're showing some images up of people using it via WhatsApp, but can it also work on any of these other messaging devices? And it's just as simple as taking the message and sending it to the number that you provide? Yeah, you just send the message to the number that we provide. We check that links against billions of malicious URLs. And if the system believes that the link is malicious, then you get like a red sign telling you it's malicious and all you have to do is not press it. The other advantage is once that people start reporting on checking those links, what those systems are doing is they're spreading the fact that it's malicious to any other security system. So it's basically a collective way of doing security. And that increases the resilience of the Israeli systems in general. So it's good for everyone. Well, I know there's this term cyber hygiene that people use when it comes to protecting yourself from some of these cyber threats. So what should people be doing, especially in the fog of war? Well, other than being aware that there is a lot of malicious links and you should check them, I believe that the basic things that people should do is apply two factor authentication to all the important accounts, like social accounts, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, all the important links. That will reduce the chance of phishing and stealing accounts by almost 99%. It's the safest way to protect yourself against phishing. The other thing is to install, there are a lot of free software that you can install that will protect your devices, your mobile phones or your computers, like Checkpoint has those free apps called Zone Alarm. And there are many other companies, I strongly suggest to install them from the official app stores by Google and Apple. And the last thing is to make sure that all the softwares on the computers and the mobile phones are updated to the latest versions. Software that is not updated will provide an open door to all those who want to attack you. So to sum up awareness, check whatever you can. That's where we build the bot. Apply two factor authentication to all the important accounts that you have, social and email and everything like that. Update your softwares to the latest versions and install official softwares, security softwares from the app stores or from official sites of the security vendors. And on our social media platforms on I24 News, we'll be sure to have a link to some of those different websites as well as the link that people should send their information to to make sure it's all clear of cyber hacks. Saram Lavey, CEO and founder of Confidus. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Now, the United States is well into preparations for a wider war in the Middle East. But the Washington Post reporting officials are drawing up doomsday plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Americans from Israel and Lebanon. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Olderman looks at another development attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria and how those fit into the bigger picture. The contest for America's role in the Middle East may be joined here on the border between Israel and Lebanon where each day brings the risk of wider war, a war that could bring in American fighter planes, a war that could lead to even more targeting of American troops. We are concerned about an increase in attacks by Iranian proxies in the region, whether they be targeting US interests or whether they be targeting other interests in the region. We hold Iran accountable for those attacks. Those attacks include attacks by Iranian allied militias on US troops in Iraq and Syria, a warning by Iran of what could happen should the United States enter a war, full scale. What we're seeing is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region. US interests in the Middle East, of course, go far beyond the militia attacks, as this war has taken on not only regional but global stakes of stopping radical Islam, of proving commitment to allies. And so these pictures from Norfolk, Virginia a few days ago, sailors setting out in their aircraft carrier strike group, fulfilling the mission given by US President Joe Biden in the opening days of the war. Two aircraft carrier strike groups will be positioned in the Eastern Mediterranean and Iran knows making clear the real balance of power. Now we see how the United States and other international allies are stepping up to help those in Israel, but also those in Israel are stepping up. Right now I'm joined in studio by Dalit Butbul, head of marketing and communications for Friends of Health Initiative. Thank you so much for joining us, Dalit. Let's talk a little bit about Friends of Health Initiative. What exactly is the organization? In regular days, day to day, we help over 7,000 people in Israel receive medicine for free. This is people who just have to choose between medicine and food, so we send them like a monthly or quarterly supply. But ever since the war broke out, besides these 7,000 people, we've been asked also to supply mostly up to now troops, reservists, soldiers on the North and South borders with medicine and a lot of medical equipment. So we've opened up the day after the 8th of October, we opened a logistic center in the center of the country where we receive a lot of equipment that has been donated and medicine, which we can send out within 24 hours. We send out boxes and boxes of equipment to people who need them. Recently, this like two, three days, we've been shifting our focus from the troops and from the reservists to the area of the residents, the displaced residents, I think they're 130,000 now, from the North, from the South. They need medicine, medicine that they left behind, they need a lot of equipment. We've been building as a country, I know. These are all these clinics that are being built where they are in hotels and all these areas, and they need a lot of medicine, a lot of equipment. And saying how you're able to transport from kind of the soldiers to now the Southern communities as well, does this indicate that the soldiers are more prepared, hopefully, than they were? Hopefully, we are still getting requests and we are fulfilling them as we speak, hundreds of requests, over a thousand since the day we opened. And these are long lists, we get lists of requests and we've been fulfilling them with a lot of donations of equipment that has been coming in, pouring in. Some from France, Almodome, from the US, from Switzerland, from Australia, from all over the world. Truly amazing people that really wanna help. Now we've moved, we've shifted, yes, a lot more is needed, I think, for civilians today. And that's what we're trying to help. I think it's been amazing seeing so many different organizations, NGOs like yourself, step up to help this need. But why is there this need, as in the government, not providing the same services that you are providing? We always have provided these services, so I guess there's a need every day. We're not political, we're not here to say, nothing has been working, so we are stepping in. A lot of volunteers have been helping us, a lot of people have been sending in whatever they can coming in to help our logistic center. I mean, there are dozens of people packing, dozens of people just driving up with their cars and saying, send me, and we do. Send me north, send me south. We take the boxes, they just go. How many volunteers? In the logistic center, we have a couple dozens. In our headquarters, we have over a thousand volunteers. They're not in there, but they're coming out. And I think hundreds of volunteers have showed up. Has this support, both internally and externally, from abroad, as you were saying, of different countries stepping up? Has it surprised you in any way? I think all of us shocked, that's the word. We're all shell-shocked, well-traumatized. We all want to help. We feel frustrated that we can't be a soldier. And yes, I think that there is a lot of surprise. It's been changed into, yes, we've got to start moving and doing more. Everybody wants to do more. So I'm not surprised that people want to help. I want to help. I'm doing everything. I'm working 15, 20-hour nights, days. Anything to help, the soldiers especially, and now civilians. And viewers can look right now on their screen. That's the website. If anyone does want to help, want to donate at all, just moving forward, especially as you are shifting your focus, what else do you need from anyone watching this? First of all, I want our foremost messages, medicines and equipment that you do not need bring to us. You can go to any super farm and donate and it'll reach to us. We need donations, of course. I know that one of the most, I think, tragic things that we're going through today is like 7,000 is a huge number to deal with every month. But now it's gone up, I don't know, 10,000, 20,000. It's crazy. So yes, we need donations for sure. We need to cover this. We need the logistics. And we need your help. And of course, we need your medicines. And of course, we need the equipment and volunteers. 7,000 to double that. How were you able to jump into action as an NGO so quickly? First of all, we called on everyone. A lot of people just joined us on their cells. And a lot of people have shifted from working to volunteering. And we work 20-hour days. We work a lot. I get calls from the states at 12 o'clock at night. I get calls at 6 o'clock in the morning, of course. Wanting to send stuff, wanting to help. As people are getting tired, in a sense. It's been 19 days, nearly three weeks. Do you expect any of this help to taper off? Yes, of course it will. People are tiring emotionally. I feel it's a roller coaster. Days roll up, days when we're down. All of us are emotional. I think we give time to people just to maybe break down for a while and then come back and they do. And it helps to volunteer. It really does. Helps to be together with other people. It's been amazing just seeing the internal support that we've seen across Israel right now. Dalit Butbo ahead of marketing and communications for Friends of Health Initiative. Thank you. Thank you for every one thing that your entire corporation is doing right now to help. Also, I've been joined in studio by Rafa Elger. Salmi, former Senior Intelligence Officer for the IDF and Security Analysis. As always, your insight as this is an ever-changing minute-by-minute developments, as we see from our correspondents on the field as well. So thank you for your perspective as always as we continue to break down the latest developments of the war here in Israel now in its 19th day. Thanks for joining us on the I-24 News Desk. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. Fulling coverage of the war here in Israel on the full-setting live in Tel Aviv. It's been 19 days since Hamas launched a full-scale attack on Israel. Israel has yet to begin their highly anticipated ground incursion. Now, three terror group leaders are preparing for Israel's attack. Holding a meeting in Beirut, as Vela Chief Hassan Nasrullah sits down with Hamas's political bureau deputy, Han Saleh Al-Arouri and Ziyad Nasrullah from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Nasrullah marks his first public statement since the war began. Now, as the Iranian-backed terror cells discuss how to proceed, the United States is preparing for this type of a regional escalation, sending a fighter squadron to the Middle East with F-16 fighter jets. All of this as political leaders go head-to-head at the UN Security Council. After security general Antonio Guterres suggested Hamas's brutal attack on Israel was in response to Israel's continued control of Palestinian territories. Quite a lot to unpack, but we want to begin where Israel's main focus is right now, near the Gaza border. That's where our correspondent Jonathan Regav is right now in Israel's south, near the border. Jonathan, we see more sirens bellowing through the south, the rockets targeting some of those southern cities. What have you seen on the ground there, near the border? Yes, there have been quite a lot of sirens this morning, mostly in the Gaza border communities, the communities themselves that are right on the border itself. And a little bit further away, such as Ashkelon, for example, Hamas proving that it still has the ability to fire. There are still rockets. Last night, we saw an attempted infiltration through the sea. So, yes, Israel is pounding and pounding hard. It comes with success stories with Hamas infrastructure being destroyed and Hamas officials being killed. You want to eradicate Hamas. You want this problem to go away forever. It will not happen from the air. Well, Jonathan, as you said, the idea says it's continuing to attack some of those top Hamas commanders, including the commander of Hamas's North Canyunus Battalion. They said killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip. So, Hamas continues to go after these lead commanders trying to dismantle the leadership. That's the main aim. The main aim is to try, and basically every leader that pops up try to eliminate him. But the main leadership, Mouham Adef, Iche Sinwar and so on, all the leadership, they're in the bunkers and bunkers under the Gaza, of course, hiding behind civilian infrastructure, behind the Shifa hospital, for example. And this is something that I'm, we're reporting this here, but I'm hoping that foreign media gets us as well because we're here with many foreign journalists. They're speaking mostly about what is happening in Gaza. As far as many of them are concerned, it seems as if someone woke up in Israel and decided to go after Gaza for no reason, many of them are not even expressing, reminding anything about the fact that there was a terrible massacre all along the Gaza border community as less than three weeks ago. That's the most important thing to remember, Jonathan, what sparked this in the first place. Now, as you're talking about how many people are focusing on the situation in Gaza, we see more aid trucks slowly being let in about eight yesterday reports of, but only food, water, medicine. The IDF urging no fuel, because that fuel will only fuel Hamas terrorists. That is correct. Hamas leadership, as we mentioned, is hiding in a tunnel and using civilians as protective shield and to run those bunkers as far as electricity, as far as communication, everything to make it work, they need fuel and Israel made it loud and clear. Fuel will not come in, a humanitarian corridor and so on is coming in, food, water, medicine, but Israel made it clear that fuel will not come in. We're hearing the journalists here speaking about humanitarian corridors and things coming into Gaza. I don't remember any of them mentioning any humanitarian corridors to all of the communities here which were butchered on that morning. Jonathan Regev reporting from Israel's Southern border. We're happy you're there alongside those international correspondents, telling them exactly what's happening on the ground here in Israel. Thank you for your coverage. Now I wanna bring in my guest joining me in studio. Right now I'm joined by Rafael Jarosalmi, former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and security analyst. Now Rafael, as we were just speaking to Jonathan down there, a big concern from the international media is these fuel trucks that they say need to be let in to the Gaza Strip to help aid with the hospital ambulances, et cetera. However, we also heard just yesterday from the IDF, they posted a picture of reported fuel tanks in the Gaza Strip that Hamas is controlling. They say this would be enough fuel for all of the civilians if Hamas wasn't using it. Of course, millions of gallons of fuel, millions of gallons of fuel at the hands of the Hamas, only for the Hamas military purposes, in which case by international law on the rules of war, Israel cannot allow more of that fuel reaching Gaza because there is no guarantee that it will reach the people, the civilians, but it will not fall. So you cannot... As you're speaking, just of the fuel tanks we're talking about. Exactly, that's the proof. In any case, we must remember that so far right now, of course, with time it's something else, but so far there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There is food, there is water. The Israelis only control 10% of the water going into Gaza. 90%, 89% exactly of the water from Gaza comes from underground wells. So we do not... There is water, and anyway, by international law again, water has to be provided to the populations. In the rules of war, you can have a blockade, but that doesn't include water and food. It's really fuel and anything that could be used as weaponry that is in the blockade. So the humanitarian side is important, but so far there is no humanitarian crisis. The hospitals have enough medicine and equipment to last. They have stocks. The problem is they're generators, and the problem is in the hands of the Hamas. Well, and how do we know this? Because we are seeing such conflicting reports, right? From what some of the Dawzin run, the Hamas run health ministry is saying, we don't have enough medicine. We don't have enough food. People are drinking dirty water, yet Israeli claims are different. The reason why people are drinking dirty water is because the Hamas has dismantled all the pipes of the water system to use those pipes to make explosives. It's equipment that they can use to make side bombs on roads and to booby trap everywhere to attract IDF soldiers if they come into these booby trap areas. So most of the damage caused to the infrastructure of the water system was not caused by the bombings from the IDF, but by the Hamas itself. Dismantling all that. Anyway, this plays into their hands. They do want to have a humanitarian crisis. They really don't care about the destiny and fate of the civilians there. They use them cynically for mediatic purposes, for photo shoots, and as human shields. We all know that. Not one word can be trusted of what comes out from the spokesman of the Hamas. I mean, after all, it's a terrorist organization. Is some journalist out of lack of professionalism? Let's put it in a minor way. Or pure anti-Semitism. Decide to take for granted any word that comes out of the spokesman of the Hamas. That's their choice. Their professional choice and their ethical choice, sadly enough. This will not impact the war. Whatever hatred they will incite their readers into, will not impact on the results of the war. This might only be the case in Arabic countries where the uprising in favor of the Palestinians are very large and violent and disquieting for the leaders. They might have to listen to the street. But in Europe, it's a minor. It's a minority. Most people in Europe, so far, even though the press is not so objective, so far, are with Israel. They understand exactly what's the case. They haven't forgotten those pictures. Even if they haven't seen the real pictures, they know what happened. I think so far, we still have the sympathy of the public opinion. And mostly, the most important, the sympathy of our main allies, the governments, that's very important to have the French, the British, the Americans understand where we stand and what we have to do. We continue to see those Western allies step up, especially as the threat from other Iranian proxies continues to escalate, possibly. That's where I actually want to turn to now, where our correspondent, Robert Swift, is near the northern border. That's where Hezbollah is based out of that Lebanon border. Right now, we saw recent pictures, even of the Hezbollah chief meeting with Hamas and PIJ leader. So we know communication is absolutely happening. But what exactly are you seeing on the ground there on Israel's northern border? Well, in the most recent incident here up on the northern border, the Israeli military said that it conducted an attack against a Hezbollah anti-tank team, excuse me, that was operating around the Mount Dov region. That's to the far eastern end of Israel's northern border. That's some distance to the east of us. Now, this would be the fifth Hezbollah team that's been attacked in the last 24 hours by the Israeli military. And Hezbollah has been announcing casualty figures. From what we've seen in social media from their announcements is at least 41 Hezbollah operatives have been killed since the start of hostilities. But Hezbollah has a large mom power, so there's likely plenty more where that came from. If we now turn to the home front, just to give you an idea of how Israeli civilians are coping with these tensions here on the northern border, a couple of hours ago, we spoke to you from Naharia, and you saw there that Israelis were a little bit starting to go back to normal life. It was quite busy bustling streets unlike a week ago. But we're just a bit further north now, closer to the border. You'll be able to see the border wall behind me, and that gives you an idea of how close we are. And the population here in this village, which I'm not going to name for security reasons, the population here is much more thin on the ground. You have to wander about quite a bit to find anybody. There are still people here, despite us being within the five kilometer border zone where the Israeli authorities have asked people to leave, but there are still plenty of people here, keeping their heads down. People are mostly in their homes. There we've seen one business which is open, and mostly people are keeping to themselves. But just to give you an idea of how close we are. Now, the five kilometers is the distance that the Israeli military has asked people to be away from the border. But you can see the border just behind me. To the right of that zigzag shape that the wall is making, the right-hand side of it, that is Lebanese territory. And to the left of that, and on the side of the hill facing us, that is all Israeli territory. So you can imagine how precarious that puts the population who are living here. And just to give you a bit of context, this is, there's damage from battle around me. This is damage that has not happened recently. This is from previous rounds of conflict. You'll see what my camera on Dean is showing you now. That is shrapnel damage in the wall there. The shrapnel in that building and in the one on the opposite side of me. And that likely means that there's been an explosion at some point took place where we're standing. And now Dean is showing you that this isn't shrapnel damage in the building, which immediately to my front, this is bullet holes that have been made in the wall in the windows of this building. And that gives you an idea of how close we are to the border. And how close the population of this village are that they're within rifle range of Hezbollah fighters. Now, as I've said, this is not recent damage. This is previous damage, but this gives you an idea of the sort of the continuous bouts of violence that people living along the border here are having to deal with. And that's why the vast majority of the people in this village have left, although one or two stragglers still do remain. Those visuals certainly give us a good perspective on everything that has happened there and everything that could quickly erupt in that region as well. Our correspondent, Robert Swift, thank you so much for bringing us the latest near the Leviton border. Now, while we are talking about the threat on the ground, it's also important to note that there's a threat online as well. Reports of Hamas sending malicious links to hack users' phones via WhatsApp or other messaging services. Now to talk more about this cyber threat, I'm joined by Ram Levy, CEO and founder of Confidus. Now, Ram, thank you so much for joining us. This cyber threat of the war in general, let's talk about exactly how dangerous it is. Well, it's becoming quite dangerous. We've seen attacks coming from all over the world. Nation-states, hackers, hacktivists are just attacking everything they can against Israeli infrastructure. That includes companies, critical infrastructure and of course, civilians, flooding them with malicious links, spams, phishing and of course, a lot of fake news. I understand the purpose of them wanting to target different Israeli infrastructure companies, but why target civilians? What do they hope to gain from that? Well, usually they're hoped to gain two things, either a lot of everything that has to do with influence on the population. For example, sending them fake links that tell them that things are happening and change the narrative cause a lot of uprising. And the second thing is they wanna get access to systems or they wanna get access to money or information so they can leverage for their own purposes and operations. Well, meanwhile, your company has some technology to detect these malicious links and hopefully provide civilians with a little bit of safety. Can you tell us about it? Yeah, one of the big issues is that people get a lot of links for groups, forums, news channels and they don't know if the links are okay or not. Some of them, you know, they just come using SMS and they are trying to, they're trying to look like as if they're coming from the Israeli post or they're coming from banks. And what we did is we built a bot, we called an iron bot that you can send those malicious links to a WhatsApp number that we verified with Meta. And the bot goes to a huge database of malicious links. It has over 50 billion links. We check the link and within a couple of seconds, they can get a result whether the link is malicious or not. We did it because we believe that we should give the population something that they can check in order to press links without knowing. And we see there's a, yeah. Well, I see that right now we're throwing some images up of people using it via WhatsApp but it can also work on any of these other messaging devices and it's just as simple as taking the message and sending it to the number that you provide. Yeah, you just send the message to the number that we provide. We check that links against billions of malicious URLs and if the system believes that the link is malicious then you get like a red sign telling you it's malicious and all you have to do is not press it. The other advantage is once that people start reporting on checking those links, what those systems are doing is they're spreading the fact that it's malicious to any other security system. So it's basically a collective way of doing security. And that increases the resilience of the Israeli systems in general. So it's good for everyone. Well, I know there's this term cyber hygiene that people use when it comes to protecting yourself from some of these cyber threats. So what should people be doing, especially in the fog of war? Well, other than being aware that there is a lot of malicious links and you should check them, I believe that the basic things that people should do is apply two factor authentication to all the important accounts, like social accounts like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, all the important links that will reduce the chance of phishing and stealing accounts to by almost 99%. It's the safest way to protect yourself against phishing. The other thing is just to install, there are a lot of free software that you can install that will protect your devices, your mobile phones or your computers like Checkpoint has those free apps called Zone Alarm. And there are many other companies I strongly suggest to install them from the official app stores by Google and Apple. And the last thing is to make sure that all the softwares on the computers and the mobile phones are updated to the latest versions. Software that is not updated will provide an open door to all those who want to attack you. So to sum up awareness, check whatever you can, that's where we build the bot. Apply two factor authentication to all the important accounts that you have, social and email and everything like that. Update your software to the latest versions and install official softwares, security softwares from the app stores or from official sites of the security vendors. And on our social media platforms on I24 News, we'll be sure to have a link to some of those different websites as well as the link that people should send their information to to make sure it's all clear of Cyberhacks, Ram Lavey, CEO and founder of Confidas. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Now, the United States is well into preparations for a wider war in the Middle East. But the Washington Post reporting officials are drawing up doomsday plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Americans from Israel and Lebanon. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Olderman looks at another development attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria and how those fit into the bigger picture. The contest for America's role in the Middle East may be joined here on the border between Israel and Lebanon where each day brings the risk of wider war, a war that could bring in American fighter planes, a war that could lead to even more targeting of American troops. We are concerned about an increase in attacks by Iranian proxies in the region, whether they be targeting US interests or whether they be targeting other interests in the region. We hold Iran accountable for those attacks. Those attacks include attacks by Iranian allied militias on US troops in Iraq and Syria, a warning by Iran of what could happen should the United States enter a war full scale. What we're seeing is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region. US interests in the Middle East, of course, go far beyond the militia attacks. As this war has taken on not only regional but global stakes of stopping radical Islam, of proving commitment to allies. And so these pictures from Norfolk, Virginia a few days ago, sailors setting out in their aircraft carrier strike group, fulfilling the mission given by US President Joe Biden in the opening days of the war. Two aircraft carrier strike groups will be positioned in the Eastern Mediterranean and Iran knows it, making clear the real balance of power. Now we see how the United States and other international allies are stepping up to help those in Israel but also those in Israel are stepping up. Right now I'm joined in studio by Dalit Butbul, head of marketing and communications for Friends of Health Initiative. Thank you so much for joining us, Dalit. Let's talk a little bit about Friends of Health Initiative. What exactly is the organization? In regular days, day to day we help over 7,000 people in Israel receive medicine for free. This is people who just have to choose between medicine and food. So we send them like a monthly or quarterly supply. But ever since the war broke out, besides these 7,000 people, we've been asked also to supply mostly up to now troops, reservists, soldiers on the North and South Borders with medicine and a lot of medical equipment. So we've opened up the day after the House of the Eighth of October we opened a logistic center in the center of the country where we receive a lot of equipment that has been donated and medicine, which we can send out within 24 hours. We send out boxes and boxes of equipment to people who need them. Recently, this like two, three days, we've been shifting our focus from the troops and from the reservists to the area of the residents, the displaced residents. I think there are 130,000 now from the North, from the South. They need medicine, medicine that they left behind. They need a lot of equipment. We've been building as a country, I know. These are all these clinics that are being built where they are in hotels and all these areas. And they need a lot of medicine, a lot of equipment. And seeing how you're able to transport from kind of the soldiers to now the Southern communities as well, does this indicate that the soldiers are more prepared, hopefully, than they were? Hopefully, we are still getting requests and we are fulfilling them as we speak. Hundreds of requests, over a thousand since the day we opened. And these are long lists. We get lists of requests. And we've been fulfilling them with a lot of donations of equipment that has been coming in, pouring in. Some from France, Palma Dome, from the US, from Switzerland, from Australia, from all over the world. Truly amazing people that really wanna help. Now we've moved, we've shifted, yes, a lot more is needed, I think, for civilians today. And that's what we're trying to help. I think it's been amazing seeing so many different organizations, NGOs like yourself, step up to help this need. But why is there this need, as in the government, not providing the same services that you are providing? We always have provided these services. So I guess there's a need every day. We're not political. We're not here to say it works. Nothing has been working. So we are stepping in. A lot of volunteers have been helping us. A lot of people have been sending in whatever they can coming in to help our logistics center. I mean, there are dozens of people packing, dozens of people just driving up with their cars and saying, send me, and we do. Send me north, send me south. We take the boxes, they just go. How many volunteers? In the logistics center, we have a couple dozens. In our headquarters, we have over 1,000 volunteers. They're not in there, but they come in and out. And I think hundreds of volunteers have showed up. Has this support both internally and externally from abroad, as you were saying, of different countries stepping up? Has it surprised you in any way? I think we're all of us shocked. That's the word. We're all shell-shocked, well-traumatized. We all want to help. We feel frustrated that we can't be a soldier. And yes, I think that there is a lot of surprise. It's been changed into, yes, we've got to start moving and doing more. Everybody wants to do more. So I'm not surprised that people want to help. I want to help. I'm doing everything. I'm working 15, 20-hour nights, days, anything to help. Soldiers especially, and now civilians. And viewers can look right now on their screen. That's the website. If anyone does want to help, want to donate at all, just moving forward, especially as you are shifting your focus, what else do you need from anyone watching this? First of all, our foremost message is medicines and equipment that you do not need bring to us. You can go to any super farm and donate. And it'll reach to us. We need donations, of course. I know that one of the most, I think, tragic things that we're going through today is like 7,000 is a huge number to deal with every month. But now it's gone up 10,000, 20,000. It's crazy. So yes, we need donations for sure. We need to cover this. We need the logistics. And we need your help. And of course, we need your medicines. And of course, we need the equipment. And volunteers. 7,000 to double that. How were you able to jump into action as an NGO so quickly? First of all, we called on everyone. A lot of people just joined us on their cells. And a lot of people have shifted from working to volunteering. And we work.