 This breaking news edition, I'm Bati Levenvall, coming to you live from Tel Aviv, thanks for joining me. It is day 24 of war here in Israel. Rocket Alert Sirens have been going off in the Gaza border communities as well as cities in the south of Israel this Monday morning. Overnight, Rocket Alert Sirens were also heard throughout Israel's northern communities as the IDF ramped up its attacks on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Israeli fighter jets also struck a number of sites in southern Syria in response to rocket fire on the Golan Heights late Sunday evening. In the West Bank, an exchange of fire broke out between the Israeli military and armed Palestinians in the Janine refugee camp in the north, killing four Palestinians. In Jerusalem, a police officer was seriously injured in a stabbing attack near the Jerusalem light rail. The terrorist was neutralized. All this as Israel still continues to count it's dead, thus far 823 civilian victims out of more than 1400 that number continues to rise have been identified, that's around 85%. Many burnt and abused so badly that identifying them has been near impossible. I'd like to now cross to Jerusalem where I'm joined by Rafael Park, the international media spokesperson for United Hadzale Emergency Services. Thank you so very much for taking the time this afternoon to join us. Can you please give us an update from the scene in Jerusalem at the stabbing attack? Our volunteer, Ali Abraham was one of the first on the scene. We treated the officer who was injured, stabilized his condition before he was transported to the hospital. It was very, very quick. Responders who lived in the area were the first on the scene to treat the officer and he had a stabbing injury in his upper torso, was able to stabilize and stop the bleeding when unfortunately he is in serious condition. So we're hoping that the hospital will be able to continue the treatment and hopefully stabilize him further. Jerusalem has been largely spared from a lot of the rocket attacks but also some of the violence that's been outpouring because of the conflict at the moment, at least between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. But just to explain to the viewers, we're talking about an area where this train station was that is a very central and normally very busy area and because there hasn't been so much targeted attacks toward Jerusalem, was it still busy this morning? Yes, Jerusalem is the place in the intersection of Shifty, Israel and then the Highway 1 right where the light rail goes by. It's frequented by obviously Muslims and Jews and Christians to very central location near the old city and a lot of people go on their day-to-day lives on their way to work by bus, by car, by train. It's a commuter thoroughfare and scenario where unfortunately it's seen a lot of violence in the past but there's also very heavy security presence which is why the incident was limited to what it was today and only one person was injured. And also thanks to the quick response from your team as well on the scene Rafael Pach, the International Media Spokesperson for United Hadzale Emergency Services. Thank you so very much for joining us from Jerusalem. With me here in studio is Dan Fefferman, the Director of Global Affairs for Sharake and a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. Good afternoon to you. I want to shift gears a little bit because we haven't focused on this specific subject throughout the morning being Israel has recently in the last couple of years signed numerous normalization accords part of the Abraham Accords with Bahrain with the United Arab Emirates with Morocco. Why do they feel that they are in a predicament at the moment with condemning Hamas but also standing with the Palestinian people? Because it almost appears as if they take on the same narrative of most of the pro-Palestinian supporters worldwide where they cannot differentiate between innocent Palestinian civilians versus the Hamas terror organization. Sure. So it's not, first of all, it's not clear to me that in a lot of these countries the full effect of the news and what actually happened here has really trickled through. A lot of this is not being reported in their media and the average person probably doesn't go out of their way to seek out international media sources. That's also being those who do and those who might read CNN or international sources or even Israeli news sources in English are at the same time receiving a lot of propaganda, pro-Hamas propaganda denials coming from around the Arab world from Hamas sympathizers. So as far as public opinion it's not really easy in those countries to get a clear picture of what's going on. And there's a lot of disbelief that quote unquote their people could do such a thing. On the level of government it seems that there is a reticence to fully side with Israel. The move that the UAE and Bahrain and Morocco did just three years ago was really a drastic move within the mindset of within the politics of the current Middle East and North Africa, something that I think we might take for granted a little bit here. And people are still highly, highly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. There was a lot of sympathy, outpouring of sympathy for Israel after the October 7th massacre and a lot of sympathy and a lot of outpouring for the hostages still held in Gaza. At the same time they are very concerned and their media is being completely washed over constantly by the human cost that civilians in Gaza are playing, which is only being amplified by Hamas propaganda. So now that's what they're seeing in the news and the governments do not side with Hamas, but they sense that it is a little risky as far as public opinion in their streets to fully side with Israel at the time when at this specific moment in time it's the Gazan civilians who are paying the heavier cost and the, sorry to say this, but maybe the Israeli part of the tragedy seems to be over. We are seeing that as a reality that people, and we've had to mention it numerous times in the broadcast, are in mind not just our viewers, but the world, that this began on October 7th with an unprovoked slaughter of Israeli civilians first and foremost. And then yes, this is unfortunately dragged us into a war that was not wanted on Israel's side. Something else that's been quite interesting has been the rhetoric coming out of Iran. Because on the one hand they consistently make this point of we have our quote on quote finger on the trigger and we are ready to get involved should this escalate. But on the other hand, just today, the Iranian Foreign Ministry coming out with a statement saying that we have told the United States explicitly, do not blame us or stop pointing the finger at us at what happened with Hamas, which is ironic considering the fact that Hamas may not be as big of a proxy like Hezbollah with regards to Iran, but it is still being funded and looked after by Iran. It's not just being funded and look after many, many of the terrorists received their training in Iran prior to this. We can we can only assume that all of the weaponry came via Iran. There's also Russian advanced Russian weaponry in there that the Hamas terrorists used in the October 7th invasion. Iran consistently plays a double game and I think if we look for intellectual honesty in the statements, we're not going to find it. They say what is convenient to advance their cause at any given point. And that's essentially how the radical access led by Iran with Hezbollah, with Hamas, with other proxy groups around the Middle East operate. Whatever messaging points serves their goal, whatever narrative point serves their goal at any given time is what you're going to hear on the news. And it's going to contradict itself from day to day and they have absolutely no problem saying that with a straight face in front of the cameras. Dan, stay with us. I do want to now go to our correspondent, Piaz Dekobach, who is standing by for us in northern Israel. Piaz, obviously we're talking about in studio throughout the morning, the concern of Hezbollah getting involved in this war that would take the attention away from what is largely being fought in the south toward the north. What has been the situation there on the ground this morning? Although quiet from rocket sirens, I believe there has been some action on the border. Right, but yeah, well, the situation in the north is very tense and very volatile here. Only a couple of minutes ago, there was smoke arising from the Lebanese border, from the Lebanese community of Ayatash Shab. We know that Israel is targeting Hezbollah targets that has been doing so throughout the night. After yesterday, throughout the evening, rocket barrages were launched to different areas in northern Israel, coming from Hezbollah, but also from Hamas's military wing, the Kataba Qassam in southern Lebanon. There are also rockets coming from Syria being fired into Golan Heights communities. Israel has also been retaliating that throughout the night. But the barrages that we have seen yesterday have reached possibly a new level because we've been seeing rockets fired as far as Rojpina, a city that is several kilometers away from the Lebanese border. Also, a rocket directly impacting a house in the city of Kiryat Shmona, that is about five kilometers away from the border, a city that has just been evacuated, as many communities have been evacuated that are located up to five kilometers away from the border. And then the last barrage that was fired towards the western Galilee region here, where we are at also now, a barrage that Hamas's military wing in southern Lebanon saying was consistent of 16 rockets, the Israeli military speaking about 10 rockets here, that might be a new level of escalation here. Now, Hezbollah announcing today that two more of its fighters were killed throughout the night, bringing that number up to 49. And also the Palestinian Islamic jihad saying that two more of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon here in what seemed to be a possible potential infiltration attempt that was prevented by Israeli forces also yesterday night as well. A drone being downed over the city of Aker here, a drone that infiltrated Israeli airspace. That comes amid the backdrop of Hassan Asrallah, the Hezbollah leader announcing that he will give his first public speech this Friday, keeping the tensions up high, announcing that several days before the actual speak is going to take place. We have been hearing all over from both Hezbollah and the Iranian regime that they might make their full entrance into this war dependent on Israeli actions in Gaza. Yesterday, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, publishing on ex formerly known as Twitter, that the Zionist regime, meaning Israel, has crossed red lines and is forcing everyone to act. Whatever that might mean, we do see that these escalations, these continuous skirmishes, still are somewhat contained. We're talking about action and retaliation from the Israeli side. But of course, the chance or the possibility is very real that this northern front might escalate, that this will also turn into a full-scale war. You really do see that the Israeli security forces are ready. Tens of thousands of the reservists are stationed to here as well. And several of the border communities have already been evacuated here. And also you can see here, it is very quiet here. Not a lot of people are on the streets in those communities that are also a bit further away from the border here. So it's a very volatile situation. And residents and civilians are very aware of that as well. Correspondent Piaz Dekalbach giving us an update on the northern front. Thank you very much for that. You are looking at live images of your screen of the Gaza border that does look, as we've been talking about, that the Israeli tanks have entered the Gaza Strip. And you can see that looking like artillery shells being fired from Israel toward Hamas targets in the Strip. And as we've also been talking about here throughout the morning and of course, throughout many of our broadcasts, while we continue to analyze the current situation and also debate what is coming next, we have to consistently remind the viewers and the world how this all began. And with that being said, Shani, look, a 22-year-old German-Israeli woman who was abducted from the Nova Music Festival in Raim in southern Israel into the Gaza Strip during Hamas' October 7th onslaught has unfortunately now been confirmed dead. You may remember these horrific images of Shani that you're seeing now. The video showed her, half-naked, lying, seemingly unconscious, faced down in the back of a pickup truck in Gaza, surrounded by terrorists who paraded her through the streets and celebrated her abduction. Shani's mother and sister broke the news today, being Monday, saying that they unfortunately received the news over the weekend that their daughter is no longer alive and that the Israeli Zaka Rescue Service told them that a bone from the base of her skull, without which a person cannot survive, had been recovered and identified. Though look has tragically been declared dead, her body, however, remains in captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I'd like to bring in another guest that we have here in Studio Iris Haim, the mother of kidnapped Yotam Haim. I don't even wanna begin to ask how you're feeling because I can only imagine the immense pain and numbness that accompanies the not knowing of your son's whereabouts. But I would like to ask you, if you can explain a little bit to us about your son, who he is and also how you found out that he was missing. Okay, so good afternoon. My son, our son, Yotam, he has a picture of him. He is 28 years old. He's a citizen in Kibbutz, Kfar-Aza. That morning, 7th of October, he had to go to perform. He is a musician and he planned to go in the morning to this festival, not the Nova Festival, another music festival in Tel Aviv. At around 6.20, he was bombed in his house and he started to inform us what's happens there in Kibbutz, Kfar-Aza. In the same time, we were in our shelter in Shafs Denitsan, where we live for the last 40 years. We live in Gaza surrounding and Yotam is a very, very special person. He is very big heart. He loves animals, he raised many cats. Very funny person in the one hand and the other hand, he's also dealing with some complicity with his mental issues but he's very strong. For four hours, he's texting us exactly. Very, very terrifying things, like burning my house, they are in my house, they are shooting on my door and at around 10.40, four, exactly, there was nothing from him. We didn't know nothing for one week, nothing at all. One week after, we got a little piece of information from the army that his telephone was located in Gaza at 12 o'clock in that morning. So it's calm us a little bit. Something to hold on, this little fact that it's not sure that he's alive but the telephone is there. That's what we are holding. What I saw now, of course, it's shocking what you just told about the young girl because we are in the same position, we don't know. We hope that this information will skip on us and that he's really there. For me as a mother, it's very strange to say that as a mother, I pray that he's there and not a body somewhere that, like you say, that didn't identify it. So I rather hope that he's there. And every day as we see, and we've been reporting here, the number of those kidnapped, that number appears to go up and no doubt you're sitting there waiting to find your son's name on that list to know that he is there and alive. How do you even begin to stay as strong as you presenting yourself right now in something like this? I don't think people fully understand. I know for myself personally, we never grow out of being someone's child, no matter how old we get. This is your baby. And to such an speak about, you don't really have much of a choice. Of course, you're going to be advocating for your son. But the physical and the mental toll that this mistake on you, that the emotional toll, how do you continue to advocate for him every day? I hope I can say that in English, it's not my mother language. So I think it's a complicated answer. It's not a simple answer. First of all, I made myself reasonably to hold on an agenda, on a narrative that is alive. He will come back. He is safe. That's what I'm telling to myself every moment. And when somebody tried to, you know, like, said something, no, I don't want to hear. I don't want to think. I'm not thinking of the thing. I don't think of what happens there. I don't think of what happened there. I just say very, very strong in the belief that he is alive and he will come back. And that's what holds me and my family. And also, the belief that as an Israeli citizen, I have now Israel to bring them and that Israel knows exactly what they are doing. Our intelligence and our army and our leaders, they know exactly where they are. I believe that. I believe that they know where they are and they will not come and take them. But as the operation is going on, they will not harm them. That's an amazing viewpoint that you bring out because I've been to a lot of these protests at the moment where a lot of the families of those missing or held hostage have been demanding that the government explain to them exactly how they are planning on targeting Hamas versus also making sure that they don't hit your children or their family or their relatives that are there. And obviously that's their concern, but you don't appear to be concerned by that. You have full trust in the military's capabilities, which also proves the fact that Israel has very precision and targeted strikes and intelligence. Because if they didn't, I don't think you'd feel that way. It's also, I think, a psychological thing that as an Israeli, I'm Israeli. I was born here in 1966. My father and mother were born here in 1942. My grandparents, mother and father, they were born in Auschwitz. For me, I don't have another country. And also I tell the world, there's nothing nowhere to go for us, for Jewish people. We need to stay here strong and believe that this is the only way to be here and to defend ourselves. And the armies, I believe in the army. And I believe in Israel, yes. So for me now, I'm not demonstrating. I'm not going to any demonstration. I give all my truth also for the kidnapped people there, because I think if now we will not be united, it will harm them. If we will start to shout on each other, what to do, what not to do, this is not a good way for our children and also for ourselves, of course. So I'm also, I think I made a narrative for myself that's keeping me strong. And when I'm strong, my son is strong. When I'm strong, the hope is going there. That's what I believe. I'm like a little bit spiritual person. So I'm using this power for holding. I think it's completely amazing. And I think for so many people that are watching this broadcast right now to see where your strength and your resilience is, it speaks to who we are as not only Jews but Israelis that we keep getting knocked down, but we will never fall down completely. And that's just amazing. We couldn't afford ourselves because if we will, like you say, we will not be. We don't have another place. Nobody will defend us. And if somebody didn't understand that until now, I think now everybody need to understand that Hamas is not just against Israel. Hamas is against the world. I want to thank you, Iris Haim, so very much for being here and for sharing the story about your dear son, your time. I wish that I could tell you that we had some kind of insider information as to his whereabouts, but all I can tell you is that we're thinking of you and your family and we're praying for his safe return. I want to say just another thing about something you tell before that people want to know exactly. Again, I believe that we get all the information that we need to know as families. And some other information maybe will harm us and harm them. So I have a complete believe, complete confidence on what we are getting also from the state, from Israel. Thank you again so very much. I really appreciate you taking the time to be here and to speak. Thank you that you're letting me tell about my son, about what we are experiencing, experience now. It's very not simple but important. Absolutely. Thank you again so much. In recent developments, Israeli tanks were spotted on the Salah al-Din junction which connects Gaza city in the north to Khan Yunus in the south as the IDF has been gradually expanding its ground operation in the Strip. This is the furthest inside the Strip that the Israeli forces have reportedly been seen thus far 24 days into the war. Still with me in studio is Dan Fefferman. Dan, I wanted to ask you about this because obviously this being the latest development we've seen Israeli tanks inside Gaza. I'm worried about how this is going to be portrayed overseas because again we have to keep reminding them how the started. This is not a war that Israel waged or wanted to get involved in but it's a war that Israel ultimately has to now battle. There's images of the soldiers just raising Israeli flags in certain areas and now on this main road is that narrative of Israel trying to root out terrorists going to be misconstrued overseas with the public viewing as well as the media of Israel occupying the Gaza Strip which is not its intention by any means. Right, I think it's important for Israel to consistently remind the world that what exactly are the intentions that is to root out Hamas and it is not to reoccupy Gaza certainly not in the long term to keep reminding the world of the events of October 7th to keep reminding the world that we have hundreds of hostages still being held in the Gaza tunnels. It's not going to make a lot of difference in certain parts of the world unfortunately and as we see with the protests and the riots and violence against Jewish communities around the world that is something we're going to have to deal with. What I would like to see more of in the coming weeks is more of a concerted regional and international effort to assist Israel to assist the IDF in rooting out Hamas' terrorist infrastructure in confiscating the masses of missiles, arms and mines that they have stored. How if no one has condemned them in particular part of our regional partners? How are we expected, I apologize for the tough question but how are we expecting them to assist us in this goal if they're refusing to even condemn Hamas' onslaught from the get-go? Some of the regional partners including those who signed on the Abraham Accords have condemned Hamas and again specifically focusing on the events of October 7, they have condemned those while at the same time calling on Israel to refrain from causing civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and I would venture to assess that that is the unofficial position of most of the region with the exception of Iran in the radical camp. However the Americans, the Europeans, the British have stood strong by Israel have understood the need, have seen the footage have seen the videos, President Biden President Macron Prime Minister Sunni have been on the ground and I think with enough international support to coalesce some kind of coalition of Americans Europeans and the moderate Arab states there is a way to forge some kind of regional answer to the challenge of Hamas while making sure that Israel doesn't catch the brunt of international criticism for this problem we're the ones who face it but at the end of the day the whole region is going to happen. Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped 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 News 24 This breaking news edition I'm Bati Eleventhal coming to you live from Tel Aviv thanks for joining me it is day 24 of war here in Israel rocket alert sirens have been going off in the Gaza border communities as well as cities in the south of Israel this Monday morning overnight rocket alert sirens were also heard throughout Israel's northern communities as the IDF ramped up its attacks on mass targets in the Gaza Strip Israeli fighter jets also struck a number of sites in southern Syria in response to rocket fire on the Golan Heights late Sunday evening in the West Bank an exchange of fire broke out between the Israeli military and armed Palestinians in the Janine refugee camp in the north killing four Palestinians in Jerusalem a police officer was seriously injured in a stabbing attack near the Jerusalem light rail that was neutralized all this as Israel still continues to count its dead thus far 823 civilian victims out of more than 1400 that number continues to rise have been identified that's around 85% many burnt and abused so badly that identifying them has been near impossible I'd like to now cross to Jerusalem where I'm joined by Rafael Park the international media that had Salih emergency services thank you so very much for taking the time this afternoon to join us can you please give us an update from the scene in Jerusalem at the stabbing attack was one of the first on the scene we treated the officer who was injured and stabilized this condition before he was transported to the hospital it was very very quick responders who lived in the area were the first on the scene to treat the officer and he had a stab in stabbing injury in his upper torso was able to stabilize and stop the bleeding when unfortunately he is in serious condition we're hoping that the hospital will be able to continue the treatment and hopefully stabilize him further Jerusalem has been largely spared from a lot of the rocket attacks but also some of the violence that's been outpouring because of the conflicts at the moment at least between Israel and Hamas in Gaza but just to explain to the viewers we're talking about an area where this train station was that is a very central and normally very busy area and because there hasn't been so much targeted attacks toward Jerusalem was it still busy this morning yes Jerusalem is the place on the intersection of Shifty Israel and then the highway one right where the light rail goes by it's frequented by obviously Muslims and Jews and Christians it's a very central location near the old city and a lot of people go on their day-to-day lives on their way to work by bus, by car, by train it's a commuter thoroughfare it's an area where unfortunately it's seen a lot of violence in the past but there's also very heavy security presence which is why the incident was limited to what it was today and only one person was injured. And also thanks to the quick response from your team as well on the scene Rafael Park the International Media Spokesperson for United Hadzale Emergency Services thank you so very much for joining us from Jerusalem. With me here in studio is Dan Fefferman the Director of Global Affairs for Sharake and a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute good afternoon to you I want to shift gears a little bit because we haven't focused on this project throughout the morning being Israel has recently in the last couple of years signed numerous normalization accords part of the Abraham Accords with Bahrain with the United Arab Emirates with Morocco why do they feel that they are in a predicament at the moment with condemning Hamas but also standing with the Palestinian people because it almost appears as if they take on the same narrative of most of the pro-Palestinian world wide where they cannot differentiate between innocent Palestinians civilians versus the Hamas terror organization sure so it's not first of all it's not clear to me that in a lot of these countries the full effect of the news and what actually happened here has really trickled through a lot of this is not being reported in their media and the average person probably doesn't go out of their way to seek out international media sources that's also being those who do and those who might read CNN or international sources or even Israeli news sources in English are at the same time receiving a lot of propaganda pro-Hamas propaganda denials coming from around the Arab world from Hamas sympathizers so as far as public opinion it's not really easy in those countries to get a clear picture of what's going on and there's a lot of disbelief that quote-unquote their people could do such a thing on the level of government it seems that there is a lot of resistance to a fully side with Israel the move that the UAE in Bahrain and Morocco did just three years ago was really a drastic move within the mindset of the politics of the current Middle Eastern North Africa something that I think we might take for granted a little bit here and people are still highly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause there was a lot of sympathy outpouring of sympathy for Israel after the October 7th massacre and a lot of sympathy and a lot of outpouring for the hostages still held in Gaza at the same time they are very concerned and their media is being completely washed over constantly by the the human cost that civilians in Gaza are playing which is only being amplified by Hamas propaganda so now that's what they're seeing in their news and the governments do not side with Hamas but they sense that it is a little risky as far as public opinion in their streets to fully side with Israel at the time when at this specific moment in time it's the Gaza civilians who are paying the heavier cost and the sorry to say this but maybe the Israeli part of the tragedy seems to be over absolutely and we are seeing that as a reality that people and we've had to mention at numerous times in the broadcast to remind not just our viewers but the world that this began on October 7th with an unprovoked slaughter of Israeli civilians first and foremost and then yes this is unfortunately dragged us into a war that was not wanted on Israel's side something else that's been quite interesting has been the rhetoric coming out of Iran because on the one hand they consistently make this point of we have our quote on quote finger on the trigger and we are ready to get involved should this escalate but on the other hand just today the Iranian foreign ministry coming out with a statement saying that we have told the United States explicitly do not blame us or stop pointing the finger at us at what happened with Hamas which is ironic considering the fact that Hamas may not be as big of a proxy like Hezbollah with regards to Iran but it is still being funded and looked after by Iran. It's not just being funded and look after many many of the terrorists received their training in Iran prior to this we can we can only assume that all of the weaponry came via Iran there's also Russian advanced Russian weaponry in there that the Hamas terrorists used in the October 7th invasion Iran consistently plays a double game and I think if we look for intellectual honesty in the statements we're not going to find it they say what is convenient to advance their cause at any given point and that's essentially how the radical access led by Iran with Hezbollah with Hamas with other proxy groups around the Middle East operate whatever messaging point serves their goal whatever narrative point serves their goal at any given time is what you're going to hear on the news and it's going to contradict itself from day to day and they have absolutely no problem saying that with a straight face in front of the cameras. Dan stay with us I do want to now go to our correspondent Pierre Steckelbach who is standing by for us in northern Israel. Pierre Steckelbach obviously we're talking about in studio throughout the morning the concern of Hezbollah getting involved in this war that would take the attention away from what is largely being fought in the south toward the north. What has been the situation there on the ground this morning although quiet from rocket sirens I believe there has been some action on the border. Right but yeah well the situation here in the north is very tense and very volatile here only a couple of minutes ago there was smoke arising from the Lebanese border from the Lebanese community at the shop we know that Israel is targeting Hezbollah targets it has been doing so throughout the night after yesterday throughout the evening rocket barrages were launched so different areas in northern Israel coming from Hezbollah but also from Hamas's military wing the Kataiba Qassam in southern Lebanon there also rockets coming from Syria being fired into Golan Heights communities Israel has also been retaliating that throughout the night but the barrages that we have seen yesterday have reached possibly a new level because we have been seeing rockets fired as far as Rojpina a city that is several kilometers away from the Lebanese border also a rocket directly impacting a house in the city of Kiryat Shmona that is about 5 kilometers away from the border a city that has just been evacuated as many communities have been evacuated that are located up to 5 kilometers away from the border and then the last barrage that was fired towards the western Galilee region here where we are at also now a barrage that Hamas's military wing on saying was consistent of 16 rockets the Israeli military speaking about 10 rockets here that might be a new level of escalation here now Hezbollah announcing today that two more of its fighters will kill throughout the night bringing the number up to 49 and also the Palestinian Islamic jihad saying that two more of its fighters were killed in the southern Lebanon here in what seemed to be a possible potential infiltration attempt that was prevented by Israeli forces also yesterday night as well a drone being downed over the city of Aker here a drone that infiltrated Israeli airspace that comes amid the backdrop of Hassan Asrallah the Hezbollah leader announcing that he will give his first public speech this Friday keeping the tensions up high announcing that several days before the actual speak is going to take place we have been hearing all over from both Hezbollah and the Iranian regime that they might make their full entrance into this war dependent on Israeli actions in Gaza yesterday Iranian president Ibrahim Raisi publishing an ex formerly known as Twitter that the Zionist regime meaning Israel has crossed red lines and is forcing everyone to act whatever that might mean we do see that these escalations these continuous skirmishes still are somewhat contained we're talking about action and retaliation from the Israeli side but of course the chance or the possibility the possibility is very real that this northern front might escalate that this will also turn into a full scale one you really do see that the Israeli security forces already several tens of thousands of the reservists are stationed to here as well and several of the border communities have already been evacuated here and also you can see here it is very quiet here not a lot of people are on the streets in those communities that are also a bit further away from the border here so it's a very volatile situation and residents and civilians are very aware of that as well. Corresponding P.S. Dekalbach giving us an update on the northern front thank you very much for that you are looking at live images of your screen of the Gaza border that does look as we've been talking about that the Israeli tanks have entered the Gaza Strip and you can see that looking like artillery shells being fired from Israel toward Hamas targets in the Strip and as we've also been talking about here throughout the morning and of course throughout many of our broadcasts while we continue to analyze the current situation and also debate what is coming next we have to consistently remind the viewers and the world how this all began and with that being said Shani look a 22 year old German Israeli woman who was abducted from the Nova Music Festival in Reim in southern Israel into the Gaza Strip during Hamas's October 7th onslaught has unfortunately now been confirmed dead you may remember these horrific images of Shani that you're seeing now the video showed her half naked lying seemingly unconscious face down in the back of a pickup truck in Gaza surrounded by terrorists who paraded her through the streets and celebrated her abduction Shani's mother and sister broke the news today being Monday saying that they unfortunately received the news over the weekend that their daughter is no longer alive and that the Israeli Zaka rescue service told them that a bone from the base of her skull without which a person cannot survive had been recovered and identified though look has tragically been declared dead her body however remains in captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip I'd like to bring in another guest that we have here in studio Iris Haim the mother of kidnapped Yotam Haim I don't even want to begin to ask how you're feeling because I can only imagine the immense pain and numbness that accompanies the not knowing of your son's whereabouts but I would like to ask you if you can explain a little bit to us about your son who he is and also how you found out that he was missing okay so good afternoon my son our son Yotam I'll take a picture of him he's 28 years old he's a citizen in Kibbutz Kfar Azza in that morning 7th of October he had to go to perform he's a musician and he planned to go in the morning to to this festival not the Nova Festival another music festival in Tel Aviv at around 6.20 he was bombed in his house and he started to inform us what's happens there in Kibbutz Kfar Azza in the same time we were in our shelter in Shaps Denitsan where we live for the last 40 years surrounding and Yotam is a very very special person he's very big heart he loves animals he raised many cats very funny person in the one hand and the other hand he's also dealing with some complicity with his mental issues but he's very strong for 4 hours he texts us exactly very very terrifying things like burning my house they are in my house shooting on my door and at around 10.40 exactly there was nothing for him we didn't know nothing for one week nothing at all and just one week after we got a little piece of information from the army that his telephone was located in Gaza at 12 o'clock in that morning so it's calm us a little bit something to to hold on this little fact that it's not sure that he is alive but the telephone is there that's what we are holding what I saw now of course it's shocking what you just told about the young girl because we are in the same position we don't know we hope that this information will and that he is really there for me as a mother it's it's very strange to say that as a mother I pray that he is there and not a body somewhere that like you say that didn't identify it so I I rather hope that he is there and every day as we see and we've been reporting here to the kidnap that number appears to go up and no doubt you're sitting there waiting to find your son's name on that list to know that he is there and alive how do you how do you even begin to stay as strong as you as you presenting yourself right now in something like this I don't think people fully understand I know from myself personally we never grow out of being someone's child no matter how old we get and to such an speak about you don't really have much of a choice of course you're going to be advocating for your son but the physical and the mental toll that this mistake on you that the emotional toll how do you continue to advocate for him every day I hope I can say that in English it's not my mother language so I think it's a complicated answer it's not a simple answer first of all I made myself reasonably to hold on agenda on a narrative that he is alive he will come back he is safe that's what I'm telling to myself every moment and when I somebody try to you know like no I don't want to hear don't want to think I'm not thinking of I'm not thinking of the thing I don't think of what happens there I don't think of what happened there I just say very very strong in the belief that he is alive and he will come back and that's what holds me and my family and also the belief that as an Israeli I have now Israel to bring them and that Israel knows exactly what they are doing our intelligence and our army and our leaders they know exactly where they are I believe that, I believe that they know where they are and they will not come and take them but as the operation is going on they will not harm them That's an amazing viewpoint that you bring out because I've been to a lot of these protests at the moment where a lot of the families of those missing or held hostage have been demanding that the government explain to them exactly how they are planning on targeting Hamas versus also making sure that they don't hit your children or their family or their relatives that are there and obviously that's their concern but you don't appear to be concerned by that full trust in the military's capabilities which also proves the fact that Israel has very precision and targeted strikes and intelligence because if they didn't I don't think you'd feel that way it's also I think a psychological thing that as an Israeli I live, I was born here 1966 and my father and mother born here in 1942 my grandparents mother and father they were born in Auschwitz for me I don't have another country and also I tell the world there's nothing nowhere to go for us, for Jewish people we need to stay here strong and believe that this is the only way to be here and to defend ourselves and the armies I believe in the army and I believe in Israel, yes so for me now to I'm not demonstrating I'm not going, I'm not going to any demonstration I give all my truth also for the kidnapped people there because I think if now we will not be united it will harm them if we will start to shout on each other what to do, what not to do this is not a good way for our children and also for ourselves of course so I'm also I think I made a narrative for myself that's keeping me strong and when I'm strong my son is strong when I'm strong the hope is going there that's what I believe I'm like a little bit spiritual person so I'm using this power for holding I think it's completely amazing and I think for so many people that are watching this broadcast right now to see where your strength and your resilience is it speaks to who we are as not only Jews but Israelis that we keep getting knocked down but we will never fall down completely and that's just amazing we couldn't afford ourselves because if we will we will not be we don't have another place nobody will defend us and if somebody didn't understand that until now I think now everybody needs to understand that Hamas is not just against Israel Hamas is against the world I want to thank you Iris Haim so very much for being here and for sharing the story about your dear son I wish that I could tell you that we had some kind of insider information about his whereabouts but all I can tell you is that we're thinking of you and your family and we're praying for his safe return I want to say just another thing about something you tell before that people want to know exactly again I believe that we get all the information that we need to know as families and some other informations maybe will harm us and harm them so I have a complete believe complete confidence on what we are getting also from the state, from Israel thank you again so very much, I really appreciate you taking the time to be here and to speak to you thank you that you're letting me tell about my son about what we are experiencing experience now it's very not simple but important absolutely thank you in recent developments Israeli tanks were spotted on the Salah al-Din junction which connects Gaza city in the north to Khan Yunus in the south as the IDF has been gradually expanding its ground operation in the strip this is the furthest inside the strip that the Israeli forces have reported been seen thus far 24 days into the war still with me in studio is Dan Fefferman Dan I wanted to ask you about this because obviously this being the latest development we've seen Israeli tanks inside Gaza I'm worried about how this is going to be portrayed overseas because again we have to keep reminding them how this started this is not a war that Israel waged or wanted to get involved in but it's a war that Israel ultimately has to now battle those images of the soldiers raising Israeli flags in certain areas and now on this main road is that narrative of Israel trying to root out terrorists going to be misconstrued overseas with the public viewing as well as the media of Israel occupying the Gaza strip which is not its intention by any means I think it's important for Israel to consistently remind the world that what exactly are the intentions that is to root out Hamas and it is not to re-occupy Gaza certainly not in the long term to keep reminding the world of the events of October 7 to keep reminding the world of hundreds of hostages still being held in the Gaza tunnels it's not going to make a lot of difference in certain parts of the world unfortunately and as we see with the protests and the riots and violence against Jewish communities around the world that is something we're going to have to deal with what I would like to see more of in the coming weeks is more of a concerted regional and international effort to assist Israel to assist the IDF to bring out Hamas' terrorist infrastructure in confiscating the masses of missiles, arms and mines that they have stored How if no one has condemned them in particular part of our regional partners how are we expected I apologize for the tough question but how are we expecting them to assist us in this goal if they're refusing to even condemn Hamas' onslaught from the get-go So some of the regional partners including those who signed on the Abraham Accords have condemned Hamas and again specifically focusing on the events of October 7, they have condemned those while at the same time calling on Israel to refrain from causing civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and I would venture to assess that that is the unofficial position of most of the region with the exception of Iran in the radical camp However the Americans, the Europeans the British have stood strong by Israel, have understood the need have seen the footage, have seen the videos President Biden, President Macron, Prime Minister Sunni have been on the ground and I think with enough international support to coalesce some kind of coalition of Americans, Europeans and the moderate Arab states there is a way to forge some kind of regional answer to the challenge of Hamas while making sure that Israel doesn't catch the brunt of international criticism for this problem, we're the ones who face it at the end of the day, the whole region is Over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 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 Israel's story to the world The latest edition of zoom in, continuing our coverage of the war here in Israel I'm Nicole Zettick live in Tel Aviv Israel Defense Forces expand their ground operation in the Gaza Strip with reports Israeli tanks are now deep in Gaza on one of the main streets in Gaza City This news follows increased overnight activity where dozens of Hamas terrorists were killed and more than 600 Hamas targets destroyed including weapons warehouses hide-outs and anti-tank positions The IDF also operating in the West Bank City of Geneva, killing at least three Palestinian gunmen using bulldozers to tear up streets in the city Meanwhile in Jerusalem, a police officer was stabbed in a terror attack at a light rail station that was shot dead and the officer is in stable condition All of this as Israel's northern border is also heating up, with Israel reportedly targeting rocket launch sites in Syria as well as Hezbollah military positions in Lebanon As tensions increase on Israel's northern border Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrullah is expected to make his first public statement since the start of the war this Friday And as the war rages on Israel, the repercussions are felt abroad Hundreds of riders stormed the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region looking to attack Jews and Israelis arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv This is just the latest and most aggressive anti-semitism scene abroad Quite a lot to unpack now in this 24th day of the war here in Israel but I want to bring in my guest in studio to talk about it all Benjamin Anthony, CEO of the Miriam Institute Benjamin, thank you so much for joining us I want to start with putting our focus on the West Bank right now When we speak about this war that's happening we're mainly focused on the two fronts whether that being the south and the north but it's important to notice that there's still quite a lot of activity happening in the West Bank as well, in fact, since October 7th since this war began, the idea of conducting nightly arrest raids, arresting more than 1,000 terrorists of them affiliated with Hamas A couple of points about our operations inside Judea and Samaria, the West Bank First of all, the absolute need to continue to eliminate growing Hamas cells over in that area This is an ongoing project that's lasted for several years. A lot of the people who observe what's taking place in Israel right now say repeatedly that Hamas holds the civilians of the Gaza Strip beneath its jack boot and therefore those civilians have no agency to support it. Hamas are not responsible for the acts of Hamas Not correct. This is simply not true Some are and some are not. I remind everybody that Hamas came to power by way of a democratic election and they are representatives of a plurality of the people there inside the Gaza Strip Now what confirms that is the fact that the popularity of Hamas is growing and has been growing in Judea and Samaria and in the West Bank, despite the fact that Hamas does not rule that area That's very very telling. So you're seeing the need to counter these terror cells over there This is in an ongoing fashion as I mentioned but you're also seeing the cunning of the Israel defense was in a positive way That aspect of misdirection The eyes of the world are affixed upon the Gaza Strip and what we're doing there That is a perfect opportunity to go and do that which we need to do beneath a less intensive gaze over there in the West Bank and doing so It's interesting also because what we've seen happening and what we saw happen on October 7th people didn't realize this was happening right under our noses the threat of Hamas then destroying massacring those communities in the south yet in the West Bank it's an even more difficult situation as we have many Israeli settlements living side by side with these Palestinians which has become a source of tension between many Israeli settlers and Palestinians we've seen many many clashes that unlike these southern communities which many of them were not armed many of the Israeli settlers in the West Bank were armed and so that poses an extra threat It does pose an extra threat I think it's inevitable that tensions will rise under the current circumstances and I think what's important to notice it doesn't serve anybody's purposes it does not serve the benefit of what the Israel defense forces and our security forces are trying to undertake right now if there is vigilantism we're not saying that there is or there isn't but if we see an uptick in vigilantism among the Jewish residents and citizens of our communities over there in Judea and Samaria I don't think that's going to assist in lowering the flames and the tensions that we're facing here in the states of Israel I will say also one of the areas that we were expecting to explode and has not yet done so and we're very hopeful that it won't is here in the home front within Israel proper if I can term it like that and attitudes towards them and attitudes from them that's actually been on quite a low flame and that's encouraging and positive to see I want to talk a little bit more about that because yes we speak about a lot about the tensions between what we're saying between the residents the Palestinian residents Israelis but tensions also we can see just take it back to a you know a few decades ago just the tensions between Israelis Arab Israelis Jewish Arab Israelis but we're not seeing that so far when it comes to this war and I think there are a couple of reasons for it first and foremost Hamas's atrocities that which they dealt against the Israeli civilians and our population and our elderly our infirm our men women and children those are activities that are depraved and beyond the kind of most people to understand nobody nobody of right mind can possibly sympathize with a terrorist organization that would stoop to such atrocities and that is a phenomenon that can be overlaid on to Israeli society as a whole with that having been said you've also got the Israeli security forces resolved to watching all of our various France simultaneously so certainly the Gaza Strip certainly our border with Lebanon with Syria as well as you mentioned during your opening but also Judea and Samaria and of course in the home front the Israeli national police and the Shin Bet are working very very closely indeed to make sure that any rise intentions is quickly dampened and I think that those two elements seeing the atrocities wrought by Hamas coupled with an absolute readiness by our security forces I think those have combined to bring about relative quiet it's not silent but it's relative quiet and it's not the attic that we anticipated based on what we saw during our recent operations last year I do want to bring up just one incident that we did have today as I mentioned earlier there was a stabbing attack in Jerusalem someone stabbed a police officer we're still getting information exactly about the suspect but this does turn to signs that there could be more suspected terror attacks within Israel itself you're absolutely right to raise that and that goes hand in hand with what I was saying so we've seen this isolated incident this stabbing of a police officer inside Jerusalem that's a consequence of the successful campaign of Hamas to incite violence here on the home front and in the home front but look how limited it is right now I believe it's because Hamas does not enjoy popular support from among the vast majority here for the simple fact that what it undertook is beyond any human justification meanwhile as we're focusing on everything that is happening within Israel I think it's important to focus also where the main war is happening right now in southern Israel near the Gaza border that's where our senior defense correspondent Jonathan is right now in southern Israel Jonathan earlier today we see that now Israeli tanks are deep in Gaza near one of the main roads in Gaza city so this certainly indicates that they are moving forward with their operation Yes it's Salah Hadin road it's the continuation of Israeli road number four it currently ends on the Israeli side at the areas crossing and goes deep into Gaza all the way from north to north in the area where the forces were spotted this is about three kilometers into the Gaza Strip showing that Israeli forces have made their way through I think we're constantly waiting for a massive ground operation and maybe what we're seeing is another mode of operation instead of forces coming in with massive amounts from various directions an incursion here an incursion there a little bit here a little bit there and we're seeing constantly a slow yet determined move inside this is what we're seeing so far and it seems that that perhaps the first sign also of a Palestinian acknowledgement that there is an Israeli movement inside was from those images we saw today because up until now we only saw images distributed by the IDF now we saw a Palestinian acknowledgement that Israeli forces are deep inside the Strip and I have to also think that this is a big symbol for any Palestinians who have not so far heeded the IDF's warning three weeks now three weeks of warning to move out of the north evacuate south now with these tanks quite literally in Gaza City this has to be a big symbol to definitely take those advice and evacuate yes absolutely and these really advices for anyone living in the northern part of the Gaza Strip move to the south will they all do it probably not and let's remember Hamas is also preventing people from doing it strange that it is Israel which worries about the Palestinian population and tells them to move south and is careful about the Palestinian population as far as Hamas they don't care if 10,000 or 20,000 or 100,000 Palestinians are killed they don't care about that those people are the human shields for Hamas and this is how they operate meanwhile in southern Israel where you are right now I do see daily life happening some people walking back and forth this comes even after all morning there were rockets continuing to fly from Gaza torquing southern Israel so what can you tell us about what's happening in the south right now that is right we have to make the distinction between the city of Ashkelon where we currently are and other communities which are very close to the border and the Gaza border communities Ashkelon took the most rockets of any Israeli city so far more than 1,000 rockets fired at Ashkelon and yet the city is alive you can see not as normal not as normal but still you can see that there are plenty of people around businesses are open shops are open so Ashkelon is alive despite the constant rocket threat a different story in Sterot which is a practical ghost town of course in the Gaza border communities themselves which are practically deserted our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Raghav thank you for bringing us the latest from Israel's southern border now since the start of the war there's unfortunately been an uptick in anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism around the world on Sunday just yesterday hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region to try and attack Jewish and Israeli passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv now in these videos you can see protesters waving the Palestinian flag breaking through doors and barriers some even running on to the runway forcing passengers to hide in the plane for safety these images I know they look like a pogrom from the 1800s or World War 2 but this is 2023 and unfortunately it is not the only shocking act of anti-Semitism seen around the world right now a pogrom attempt in the 21st century over 100 men gathered outside a hotel in Russia's majority Muslim region of Dagestan demanding to know whether Israeli refugees were staying in the building the anti-Semitic riots were spurred by a video making rounds on social media claiming to show an Israeli strolling outside the Flamingo hotel in the southern city of Khasavyut the mob demanded all the guests look out the windows so they could make sure they weren't Jewish when the demand wasn't met the men started throwing rocks to chance of ala Huakba clamoring to be let in to the hotel to check the sellers the police came and allowed a couple of writers to go into the hotel in search of Jews luckily they couldn't find anyone since then the hotel reportedly put up a sign saying that Israelis and Jews are forbidden from entering the premises the conflict rally also gathered outside a government building in another city in North Caucasus at first the citizens of Chokesk demanded officials guarantee no Israeli refugees will be let into the republic but the demands grew under Jewish center under construction in a neighbouring town fire and death to Jews were scrawled on the walls officials and religious leaders have been scrambling to quell the wave of anti-Semitism in the region forbidding pro-Palestinian rallies but so far it seems that there is no end to the hatred now to talk more about these latest scenes of anti-Semitism we really are seeing around the world I want to bring in my guest Natan Sharansky chair of combat anti-Semitism movement advisory board a political prisoner in the Soviet Union Natan, thank you so much for joining us I mean after seeing these scenes specifically out of that Russian airport I'm curious to hear your opinion especially after someone who has experienced these types of anti-Semitic acts in the Soviet Union himself there was never lack of anti-Semites in the Soviet Union and today in Russia but when it comes to Russia there cannot be pogrom not controlled by the authorities this once Putin personally told me when he was still the head of FSB KGB Russian KGB he said I will never permit a station that people can sing that they can take law in their hands so don't be afraid there will be no pogroms it was 20 years ago what it means today that Russian authorities gave to understand that today it's okay to shout to demonstrate against Jews and Israel in the moment these people understand that it's permitted today that you will not be arrested for this they express their feelings really on the other hand probably authorities permit them to demonstrate to do all these first steps of pogrom but not to go too far so when we see these attempts of pogroms in Russia we have to understand that is the message which Russian government wants to send well I'm curious going off of that really it seems like the Russian government right now is creating this attitude of leniency towards anti-Semitism truly creating an atmosphere where it seems Jews are clearly not welcome and it's all okayed by the Russian government yeah I don't think that Russian government sees it as their message to Russian Jews there are many other ways where they can show to Jews that you can continue your Jewish life that is a message which they want to send first of all to Hamas and to those Arab countries which they view now the Allies and it's very important for Russia to view the Allies in the world they understand that Iran, Syria and Hamas are their close allies and then the message with the sending to them you see we are together with you that's also a kind of message to Israel that's what we can easily do if you will not behave well I'm curious after you look at these images truly frightening seeing these there's even force back on to their plane for their own safety after seeing that it sounds like you are not surprised that something like this is happening in Russia but we're also seeing it around the world other signs in Turkey even on American campuses per se so while this might be one of the most violent attacks or the most aggressive it is happening in other non Russian more Western allies as well I would say that for me it's much more alarming and frightening what's happening in American universities because after all Russia was never a free country anti-Semitism is something very natural existing there for a thousand years and when authorities decide that they need to use this gun they can easily use this gun America is the bastion of liberty, human rights very positive attitude to Jews as the fact that today in American universities there can be crowds of students greeting pogrom in the south of Israel declaring that all these awful touches and killings and raping is part of the process of decolonization that's something frightening that's something very serious and I think Jews of America have to take it very, very seriously Natan Sharanski thank you so much for sharing your insight as we continue to see some of these horrific images around the world thank you for joining us thank you I want to come back to Benjamin Benjamin as we were just hearing from Natan seeing these images of these anti-Semitic upticks really around the world I think he brings up an interesting point while we see some of these aggressive attacks happening in Russia might not come as shocking to some people as what's happening in these western countries the United States people in their college campus is having to lock inside out of fear of Palestinian protesters let's separate these two phenomenons out for a moment so with regard to what's taking place in Dagestan the reality of the matter in my opinion is that that's Vladimir Putin playing a very, very cynical game of vengeance against the State of Israel firing a shot across the bow if you like to Natan Sharanski's point letting Prime Minister Netanyahu know that he holds under his purview this is Vladimir Putin I'm referring to a considerable Jewish presence in Jewish community that if he unleashes the hounds against harm will befall and I believe that that's vengeance for the fact that the previous Prime Minister of the State of Israel Yahya Lapid acting Prime Minister of the State of Israel stood up and condemned the atrocities that Russia was perpetrating against Ukraine in my opinion rightly so incidentally but Vladimir Putin former KGB officer an individual who would very much enjoy serving revenge as a dish served cold as one would say that's what you're seeing over there now the State of Israel has called upon Russia to ensure the safety of all Jews on their soil I hope that that will be heeded by the soldiers that we just saw very alarming to turn to the United States campuses I'm sorry to say it I am not surprised I began my work on the University campuses in 2007 in the United States of America after having served here in the second Lebanon war as a combat soldier and I told people in the key communities in the United States that they had a problem of rising Jew hatred within their campuses I was dismissed in many many corners people would say this is not the United Kingdom where I come this is not the campus atmosphere of Europe from where I come this is the United States of America such things cannot happen here they were wrong unfortunately they were wrong they were slow to recognize the Jew hatred and the so what needs to be done about this the first thing is I think that anti-Semitism and Jew hatred needs to be named described and then condemned rather than people saying well this is free speech it's not free speech this is hateful incitement of violence nothing less than that of people who support the one and only Jewish state the state of Israel secondly they need to take the inversion of their reality and implement it in Europe we recognized anti-Semitism very quickly had very little that we could do about it in America it's the exact opposite they're slow to recognize anti-Semitism but if they can do that there's much they can do they can pull on the levers of their elected officials in the Congress up on the hill even reach the presidential administration which is a pro-Jewish pro-Israel administration and is showing itself to be I know there are people who would prefer to hear other than that I don't view this as a political issue President Biden's been very supportive of the state of Israel and the other thing is they must fortify all Jewish facilities forthwith synagogues need to be protected by armed guards and in addition to that community members from the area who can recognize who should come in and who should not come in must stand shoulder to shoulder with those guards and stop them in the event that they seek to penetrate Jewish facilities it's vital and it's very very important I want to bring up just some live images that we're seeing while you're speaking right now just some live images out of Gaza you can see the smoke coming through the air so all of this continuing to happen right here in Israel and the repercussions felt abroad and so while there is a war happening right in front of our eyes right here people are using this as a way to now attack Jews abroad and it's bringing up the very horrible instance where many people are now choosing to not use their Israeli passport to hide their Star of David necklace to hide their Judaism when they're going abroad because they don't feel safe anymore this is stories that you heard in the 1800's and 1900's how is this uptake happening now 2023? Well the uptick is happening now in 2023 because it's been a long time coming as I mentioned we have received in my organization emails from students since at least 2007 expressing that they're not able to wear their Maghenda with their Star of David outwardly on the university quad we have received messages from students and we've campaigned on the university campuses for many years to the effect that professors teach falsehoods about the Jewish state falsehoods about Zionism falsehoods that make Jewish students feel unwelcome in their own university atmosphere and environments this has been a long time coming it's a confluence an odd confluence of massive money coming from the Saudis and the Qataris into American universities with an agenda attached to that funding and the odd and holy alliance between Muslim fundamentalists and too many of the radical left many of whom are professors on university campuses some of whom most notably are members of the Jewish community as well which is the most alarming aspect of what takes place you mentioned just how the government right now the American government is pro-Israel is pro-Jewish and they do say they're standing with Israel but are they doing enough clearly the public opinion I don't want to say maybe it's the vocal minority but the public opinion is out there it's against Jews it's against Israel so even though you have these western leaders standing with Israel how is it helping change the public opinion I think that much more needs to be done I think there needs to be funding assigned increased funding there has been some funding already but funding assigned directly and immediately to the fortification of Jewish facilities I think there needs to be increased manpower put there not just by security forces from the private sector but also by the local police forces and the municipalities the NYPD for example needs to step up in these areas not just communities and community members and obviously the statements of condemnation towards acts of Jew hatred must contain that type of language that this is Jew hatred this is anti-Semitism and it will not be tolerated in the United States of America that's not being said with sufficient vigor it needs to be and it needs to be now before something awful happens in the United States I think what's making this also much more complicated also especially when we take a look at just what happened on October 7th this is a war Israel against Hamas but people are confusing it with the war Israel against Palestinians that doesn't seem to be the case but when we're seeing these pro-Palestinian put Palestinian rallies around the world they're also waving the Hamas flag they're clearly standing with Hamas terrorists they're absolutely standing with Hamas terrorists because the fact of the matter is that they see it as legitimate for the spilling and letting of Jewish blood that is the truth of the matter and were these people armed we would see them deploying their arms I dare say against Jews and against Jewish facilities that is why it's so very important that Jewish people fortify their centers their apparatus their communities do that do it of your own volition do it now don't do it afterwards because it's ultimately down to us to protect ourselves yes the government has a responsibility to protect Jewish citizens wherever they may be but as we say in Israel we defend ourselves by ourselves so too must the attitude now unfortunately be of Jewish communities in the United States of America it's so horrible seeing these images taking place around the world but I think you bring up some great points but what remains to be seen is exactly what is going to be done Benjamin Anthony CEO we're going out for a quick break but you'll be staying with us as we continue to unpack all the latest developments of the war here in Israel now when it's 24th day not just the fighting that's happening here on the ground but we're seeing just the repercussions felt around the world everyone eyes on Israel right now as Israel continues to fight for the state of its country we're going to continue breaking down all the latest developments after we come back from a quick break here on zoom in 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 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 i24 news this week on news 24 Israel under attack news 24 in spanish brings the analysis and information of the events of the war iron swords exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries news 24 the only medium in spanish that keeps you informed and connected for news made for me a unique concept in Israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome back to zoom in as we continue our coverage of the war here in Israel i want to turn our attention to israel's northern border where our correspondent pia stekelback is standing by pia overnight we've seen quite a bit of action i'm curious what exactly is happening on the ground there we can see just the border there right behind you right nicole well the northern border remains to be very tense the situation remains to be very volatile yesterday evening there were several barrages of rockets fired towards different areas here in northern israel it began with the late afternoon a barrage of rockets fired towards the area of rosh pina which is quite far away from the lebanese border we're talking about maybe 30 kilometers so not part of the usual confrontation line one rocket being intercepted one falling into open area there then only shortly after another barrage of rockets was fired towards the area of kiray shmon in the eastern part of the israel lebanon border kiray shmon is one of those cities that was only now evacuated city that is about 5 kilometers away from the border people were leaving that area and yesterday's incident really showed you why because one rocket fell directly into a house setting this house on fire but its residents had already evacuated there and then after another barrage of rockets was fired towards the western area the western garyli area here at the other side of the israel lebanon border triggering sirens in cities like narea and communities further towards the border there Hamas's military wing and southern lebanon claiming responsibility for the barrage of rockets saying that they fired 16 rockets into israel territory the israel army saying that they counted 10 rockets but this seems to be a new level of the amount of rockets that have been fired the barrage on to kiray shmon it was claimed by his balla so again we're talking about different military factions then southern lebanon his balla announcing that another one of its operatives has been killed during the night raising the number to 49 also the islamic jihad in southern lebanon claiming that two of its members have been killed throughout the night in what seems to be an infiltration attempt that was pre-handed by the israel army now also last night we had rocket fire coming from syria towards golan heitz communities there once rocket fire also motor shelling happens the israeli military as per protocol fires back towards the origin of these launches there now also another incident in the city of aker last night a drone entered israeli airspace and was downed above that city so no damage or no casualties reported there but nicole the mere amount of those incidents and also rocket fire now coming from southern lebanon really shows you how high the tensions here are that also coming as hasan asralla the leader of his balla is announcing that he will hold his first public speech this friday announcing that yesterday keeping the tensions high until then also yesterday the iranian president ibrahim raiisi posting on x formerly known as twitter that designers regime israel is crossing red lines they're forcing everyone to act and this is what both iran and his balla have been saying since the beginning of the war that they're closely watching israeli actions in gaza and make their entry or their full-scale entry into this war depended on what is happening in gaza they're also here where we're at right now we constantly do here israeli artillery firing towards southern lebanon there early on we had smoke arising there from the lebanese border and this is a very common scene that here and there smoke arising either from motor shells being fired onto israeli army bases falling down on the other side of the mountain range causing fires there or indeed israeli airstrikes in lebanese territory also causing massive amounts of smoke there in the sky piya as we're expected to hear from hezbollah chief hasan nasralla on friday it's going to be his first public statement since the war began at that point it'll have been nearly four weeks as you mentioned iran continuing to threaten to get involved but as activity in the gaza strip continues to heat up is it surprising that hezbollah has yet to have a stronger stance and get more involved you're right nicole we did not yet see that full-scale escalation here on the northern front but we do see just looking at how tense the situation is that we already have a northern frontier that has opened up now as the same way the ground invasion was not announced was not did not begin at a certain time but rather gradually we might see the same thing developing here on the northern border these skirmishes increasing the amount of rocket fire increasing and then seeing from day to day how the situation will evolve also now the fact that hasan nasralla announced his speech yesterday several days before the actual date of the speech really shows you how possibly uncertain hezbollah itself are in terms of how far they want to enter but also shows you how volatile the situation is and how hezbollah is also playing with those tensions here you are talking about thousands of residents here in northern israel that were evacuated already and those residents who remain in communities that are a bit farther away from the communities are also very very worried so also hezbollah is already profiting from the high tensions that have been prevailing here for the past three weeks residents being on very high alert here lots of reservist stations here at the border so the situation the northern front is has already developed there but you are not seeing any reaction and not a full scale wall yet but that might change at any minute it will certainly be keeping our eye up on the northern border ps2 go back thank you so much for your coverage now more than three weeks since the war began and it is important to remember exactly why israel is fighting not only for the situation here in the country for israel's right to exist but also all this meanwhile nearly three weeks since and nearly 240 kidnapped people remain in the hands of Hamas terrorists I'm joined now by joining me in studio who sibling guy one of the kidnapped by Hamas thank you so much for joining us it's been more than three weeks 24 days since your brother was kidnapped exactly how have you been doing for these past four weeks or three weeks this is kind of hard question because we have a lot of up and downs how we call right now we are trying to spread the word about him as much as we can in any platform that will have us so thank you for having me and yes it's really it's been really hard on us the last three weeks I mean in the first week we were shocked we didn't speak we didn't eat we didn't it was just terrible but then we understand that my brother needs our help and we need to do anything that we can that people will hear his story and our story and know exactly what happened what happened and what needs to be done right now take me back to that first week exactly what did happen how did you find out that your brother was one of the ones that was kidnapped well my brother he was kidnapped from a spiritual festival and from the nova festival and I actually went with him I was there with him I wasn't supposed to go to this festival at the beginning because I had other plans but he asked me to join him and I wanted to watch over him because it was his first festival it's the first time he went to this kind of festivals and I always go there and you know for me how much fun I have so he wanted to also have the experience and I wanted him to have the greatest experience he can have so I went there I arrived there at 5.30 in the morning which was one hour before the first alarm and he went there with his three best friends one childhood friend and another couple a boy and a girl their name is Ron Saffati and Yidana Ramati they both died they were murdered his second his childhood friend was kidnapped with him from the festival now as soon as I arrived there my brother jumped at me he took a selfie sent it to our mom he's the kind of guy that always informed our mother okay keep her updated because she gets worried and he sent the selfie at 6.30 at 6.15 sorry at 6.30 the first alarm started so I haven't even had time to go to the dance floor with him or do anything with him and he was so joyful and happy when he saw me he and his three friends they were just so happy you need to understand these kind of people that go to this spiritual festival I wouldn't say hippie type people but they are all about the peace and love half of the profile picture has this slogan you know Arab and Jews are refusing to be enemies since they are really all about the peace once the first alarm started we knew that we should all either take covers as we usually do in Israel because we don't come in missile attack usually but this time we figured that we don't have anywhere really good to hide or to take cover from missiles so we should just get to our car and get out of there as soon as we can my brother and his friends they arrived in a separate car than me because I arrived much later so our car didn't park like next to each other and everyone was trying to get on the same time so we had a couple of minutes that I was stuck in the middle of the traffic my brother was stuck way in the back now the traffic was stuck because the roads were closed police closed the exit but we only after realized it wasn't really police it was terrorists who stole the police car and they closed the exit until everyone was stuck and then started spraying on them so once they started spraying we heard the first round of shooting massive round of shootings and me and my friend I went there with a good friend of mine he was with me in the car and me and him we left to the valley next to our car to find cover and as soon as I found the place to hide I called my brother this was the last time I spoke with him he told me that they are also okay but they had to leave the car also they were in utter cover with our police force four cops and I told him to stay as close as he can to our cops but stay hidden and that was the last conversation because people were fleeing told me while we were speaking some of them were covered with blood they told us that we should keep moving because terrorists are just above us you could hear the bullets but we didn't know from where the bullets came and we didn't saw the terrorists yet so we should go further into the valley find a better place to hide and on my second hideout I called my brother again and he didn't answer anymore neither he or his friends I only left the party this place seven and a half hours after it started a force of police were able to find us and rescue us from there and I mean most of the people were there just were frightened they feared so much my fear has changed in wars because when my brother stopped answered me I just wanted to see what happened with him but I couldn't get to him because he was too far and they were shooting all around us so all I could do is try to reach him and hope he will be fine which he would he did it because on the way out we saw so many dead bodies some were corrupted burned in wars conditions and that they took us to a police station and as I reached there as soon as I reached there I called my father I told him that I was able to get out of there but if you know anything about my brother he should tell me because he sounded broken he sounded like something is wrong and he told me that my brother was kidnapped and there is a hostage video of him already in Gaza you can see the video right now that's my brother you can see how frightened he and his friends are there now you can see this is his childhood friend that was kidnapped with him my brother is really guys that were at the party that's the last piece of information we have about my brother we didn't receive any word about him any new lead what about from the Israeli government Israeli officials have they been in contact with you? only two days after the incident they came to our house and they officially let us know but we already knew it we saw the video they posted the video at 11.30 which was two and a half hours before I was able to get out of there so my parents already knew that my brother was kidnapped while I was there they just didn't tell me they only told me once I got out of there ever since we are trying to get as much information as we can and to speak with as many people as we can so people will know and help us to raise their awareness because right now Hamas they won't even let the Red Cross get in and see what's the condition of the hostages they don't even give us a signal that he's alive and that he was taken alive and well you can see in the video that he's already in Gaza and that they were able to kidnap him without really harming them which is it's hard to say that gives us hope but it is what gives us hope right now after hearing your own story of survival that in itself is so difficult to even hear you bring up just such a strong emotion that you weren't scared for your own life you were scared for your brother no as I told you I only went there to watch over him to make sure he's having a great experience me and my brother are the best friends we also have a little sister and three of us has the greatest relationship I have a soul between siblings I love him more than myself I love him more than anything in the world we share the same interests and hobbies and same music and the same movies and everything he's truly my best friend I adore him more than anything in the world and we miss him so much it's so hard come back without him a lot of people came back from there and felt like they got the life back they life was safe I don't feel this way I feel like the best thing in my life was taken there is no comfort in coming back without him Gal, thank you so much for sharing the story of you and your brother Guy we will continue to put his picture out there to talk about him in hopes that he and the 240 other hostages get home, get back safely and as soon as possible thank you very much now as I said nearly 240 hostages remain in the hands of Hamas terrorists right now and Qatar has emerged as a key player in mediation efforts to release those kidnapped now for years Qatar has hosted Hamas leaders in Doha while also hosting the United States largest military in the region so how did a small oil rich country like Qatar find itself in such a lucrative and powerful position our Middle East correspondent Aril Oseron explains our target is to release all of the civilian hostages that's what we're working on and that's what we want to achieve three weeks after Hamas's deadly rampage in Israel which included the capture of 230 hostages Qatar has quickly emerged as the main mediator between Israel and Hamas if there is a continuing bombing if there is a continuing escalation in the situation Hamas is getting more difficult the mediators need a period of calm needs a situation where we can speak easily to both parts and try to be more creative in bringing more initiatives that can get those civilians out since October 7th Qatar has been the address of various countries for help in releasing their citizens from Hamas captivity it has also been hosting the Hamas leadership prior to the war and since it began providing safe haven from Israeli reprisals however recent reports indicate this might end soon we will release them and the Al-Qasim Brigades announced that as well but now they are distributed in different locations let them stop this aggression and you will find the mediators like Qatar and some Arab countries like Egypt and others they will find the way to have them released and we will send them to their families so how did a small country in the Persian Gulf become the one that decides what happens in Gaza in recent years as Arab countries have been embattled with internal conflicts Qatar fashioned itself as the main financial supporter of the Gaza Strip we are here to assure the Palestinian people that were with you with the reconstruction in Gaza and with fulfilling the commitments made by the state of Qatar in previous international conferences thousands of millions of dollars entered Gaza each month with Israeli consent to fund humanitarian projects and to improve the economic situation in Gaza but much of that money found its way into the hands of Hamas that's no surprise given its closest regional allies are Iran and Turkey Qatar is playing here a double game on one hand its role in putting out fires in the region awarded with points from the Middle East and Washington who considers Doha as a major non-nado ally on the other hand it uses its influential Al Jazeera TV network to incite against Israel and Jews and to promote Hamas propaganda for the Qataris it's all about regional influence and it is currently positioned at the heart of hostage negotiation efforts whether that engagement is in good faith remains to be seen the hostage situation and negotiation efforts remain one of the most complicated goals when it comes to the war here in Israel I want to come back to my guest in studio Benjamin Anthony as we were just hearing from our correspondent R.L. Osiron about the role that Qatar is playing in this negotiation efforts it's interesting in itself because shouldn't Israel even be allowing them to have a hand in exactly what's happening here look the Qatar is when you hear the representatives of Qatar saying that the conflict as it's being ratcheted up the retaliation if you like the operation, the military incursion by the State of Israel into the Gaza Strip is making their negotiations more difficult and more of a challenge that is arguably the most cynical words that anybody could hear right now the fact of the matter is that the Qataris are the funders and the donors and the benefactors of Hamas Hamas is the terror organization that has perpetrated these horrific horrific crimes, murders, rapes against the people of Israel and to add to that are now holding our people hostage this is all down to the evil of Hamas that is partially funded by the Qataris the reality is however unfortunately the State of Israel has made its decision, its decision is to let the Qataris be the interlocutors with Hamas in order to seek to bring about the release of some of the hostages one very very negative aspect all of that other than the obvious what this has effectively done is it has removed Israel's agency in the negotiations and that's very problematic you have Egypt there you have the Qataris there, you have the Americans there but the State of Israel has not actually played that active a role in the release of the four hostages that we've seen brought home thus far I hope that that will change and one final point it's a very very clear decision that has been made atop the government here inside the war cabinet that ratcheting at the pressure by way of a ground incursion is currently judged to be Israel's greatest opportunity to bring back the hostages not the other way around so that continued pressure absolutely by Israel and that's why you're going to see the ground incursion increase and increase in range and intensity we'll continue to keep an eye on Benjamin Anthony thank you so much for your insight into everything that's happening here we do continue to hear stories of survival from the October 7th massacre some stories have been spanning decades since the holocaust in this adaptation from Israel's channel 12 news we hear a holocaust survivor recount his experience from nearly 80 years ago and how now his family has their own story of surviving against the odds every holocaust day they say never again there will never be a second holocaust like there had been but the fact that my family would have to sit in a secure room two-and-a-half year old Neto with his parents shivering for 20 hours never occurred to me my name is Naftali in two months I will be 91 years old from 1942 to 1945 I was in concentration camps where this photo was taken I'm here on the third bunk this photo was taken four days after the liberation I thought I was free but I was very sad as if I was left alone in the world we came to the conclusion that Jews have a certain place in this world it's here in the land of Israel we thought that here we would build a strong and secure state for all the Jews of the world on Saturday morning I heard there were alarms in the south so I immediately called my daughter Roni and I asked her what was happening with my granddaughter in Kfar Azar and she said that at the moment she had no contact and she hoped everything was fine we didn't hear anything we didn't know we were terribly anxious and they started showing how a tractor dismantled the fence there and they walked in as if on a strong and just here's the big thing I believed in the government I believed in the army and they came and Mika my granddaughter with her husband Sethi and my two and a half year old great grandson were inside the safe room they were shaking and afraid they were left without electricity without a telephone, without food Sethi tied the handle of the safe room with a telephone wire so they wouldn't get in they both stood with knives in their hand maybe that would save them they heard shouting and gunshots the good friends burned down she didn't know if they would come or not only at two in the morning I think did the IDF finally arrive at their house and release them and all three are in good condition healthy so at the moment a weight was lifted from my heart we all relaxed that's the house that's the house that's right that's the house Nader's grandparents grandmother Tami and her partner Zviik were murdered in Kfar Aza brutally murdered as far as we know they say they are Nazis it's hard for me to compare them to Nazis they used the method of the Nazis they came to murder Israeli Jews they have intentions of destroying the entire Jewish people it's similar it's scary but it's not the same it's not a holocaust it's a mini holocaust the number on my forearm shows that I was in the holocaust and passed through Auschwitz I know that some Kibbutz survivors from the Gaza Strip tattooed the date on their forearms they have a right to do that because that's how they feel so if it makes them feel better shouldn't they do it in the holocaust a bit of luck was not enough to survive I must have survived because I had a lot of luck and what happened on October 7th is another huge bit of luck that my granddaughter and her husband and my sweet great grandson were saved from the inferno that happened to all the discouraged people I can say that time has an effect it's impossible to remain in internal trauma and it's human nature to recover and move on man is looking to the future this is just one story of survival out of the countless but it's important to remember there's also the countless of those who didn't survive 24 days into the war and we continue to tell their stories and remember why Israel is fighting this war against Hamas in the first place following the October 7th massacre across Israel's southern communities Israel now fighting for its right to exist for the state of Israel and we continue to see the repercussions felt around the world upticks in anti-Semitism anti-Zionism all of this happening abroad with all eyes here on Israel we'll continue to break down the latest developments of the war how it's impacting both Israel the Middle East and everywhere abroad going out for a quick break here on zoom in but stay with us 200 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 officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity there are phrases that you know from where they come see here and in the package and load that you already know where they are going on international loads your people in rd access our website load.altis.com.b select loads and type the number you want to place the load they also receive the double balance in load of 8 dollars or more Altis the global network of the I-24 news as we continue our coverage of the war here in Israel I'm Nicole Zadik live in Tel Aviv Israel's defense forces expand their ground operation in the Gaza Strip with reports Israeli tanks are now deep in Gaza on one of the main streets in Gaza City this news follows increased overnight activity where dozens of Hamas terrorists were killed and more than 600 Hamas targets destroyed including weapons warehouses hideouts and anti-tank positions the IDF also operating in the West Bank City of Janine killing at least three Palestinian gunmen using bulldozers to tear up streets in the city meanwhile in Jerusalem a police officer was stabbed in a terror attack at a light rail station the suspect was shot dead and the officer is in stable condition all of this as Israel's northern border is heating up with Israel reportedly targeting rocket launch in Syria as well as Hezbollah military positions in Lebanon as tensions increase on Israel's northern border Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrullah is expected to make his first public statement since the start of the war this Friday and as the war rages on in Israel repercussions are felt abroad hundreds of riders stormed the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region looking to attack Jews and Israelis arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv this is just the latest and most aggressive active anti-Semitism seen abroad quite a lot of latest developments but we want to begin where the war is happening itself in southern Israel that's where our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Oregov is standing by right now Jonathan overnight we continue to see increased activity in the Gaza Strip the IDF targeting 600 Hamas sites now we're also seeing increasing their range of where their tanks are now in Gaza City on one of the main roads yes true Nicole but before that you said a lot of developments one from the last two minutes read a lot of sirens sounding in the city of Beersheva another major city in Israel's south so that is happening just in the past two minutes regarding the range of the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip yes we saw Israeli tanks reaching almost as far as what is known in Gaza as the Salah Hadin Road which is the main road going all the way through the Gaza Strip from north to south and in the specific area where the Israeli tanks were spotted we're talking about some three kilometers two miles three kilometers into the Gaza Strip that is that is how far the Israeli tanks have gone into the Gaza Strip at the moment and I think we're constantly waiting for a major ground incursion maybe we'll not see a major ground incursion all at once but the Israeli tanks more and more coming in little by little taking more land here more land there and let's remember the Gaza Strip is quite a small place you do not need to gain a lot of ground to get into Gaza City itself meanwhile Jonathan also reports that cell networks and communication networks in the Gaza Strip have now been restored possibly following reports that United States pressure urging Israel to allow this cell connectivity so I'm curious how with the communication networks back up how does that impact the IDF's goals in the Gaza Strip I would say it does impact because there's a it is important to keep Hamas in the cloud and the fog in the dark as much as possible one of the ways to do it perhaps the best way to do it is to keep communications down the Americans are reportedly putting pressure on Israel not to take all communications in Gaza down I'm sure that if Israel Israel would love to see all communications off putting Hamas in the dark and not allowing their forces to know exactly where they would go but we already understand that Israel is not playing here by itself meanwhile as you're speaking Jonathan look at some images from the Gaza borders just massive plumes of smoke so Israel continuing to strike hard and heavy in the Gaza Strip so as we're talking about their activity on the ground it's important to note that the activity in the air as well we've heard from the IDF spokesman it's air, land, and sea these are all of the methods they're using Jonathan Regev correspondent in southern Israel thank you for bringing us the latest developments as we continue to see quite a lot of activity down there near Israel's Gaza border now I want to bring in my guest joining me in studio right now I'm joined by Sherri Fine Grossman member of Form Dvorah woman in foreign policy and national security as well as the former head of the foreign policy branch for Israel's national security council and an expert on Abraham Accords herself Sherri thank you so much for joining us right now as we were just speaking to our correspondent Jonathan Regev down in the south we see that the IDF is increasing our activity in the military or in the Gaza border however this isn't necessarily the massive ground operation that many people had expected this is little by little gaining a whole rather than all forces in at once is it surprising at all well I think you know all plans are meant for change and we're seeing adaption adapting into relevant circumstances we're actually seeing from what you reported previously that there are multiple fronts that we're dealing with both in Jenin in the north border with Hezbollah there are fighting going on there could be rockets from Syria we're seeing from Yemen we're surrounded by by Iran proxies shooting at us but we're trying what the Israeli IDF is trying to do most like is to keep most of the fighting in Gaza in order for us to achieve the goals the government has laid out which is total annihilation of Hamas after the October 7 horrific events you mentioned just the whole region how this is possibly responding we even heard just from the United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan who said that it is expected to expand throughout the Middle East just this regional repercussions and so we continue to see the United States stepping up both with different military actions to help protect Israel but all signs do you think point to expanded activity throughout the Middle East? we don't know we're trying to prevent that there's a lot of back and forth between Americans us and regional partners of course they are very concerned that the region will go into the same war that we've seen post the Iraq war of 2003 when you see the rise of ISIS and also I saw Chris Como with a great monologue yesterday about how we had the second Intifada start here in 2000 and then 9-11 happened right after that so there's a tendency for terrorists to copycat each other to inspire one another so the whole region is scared from this outcome and the fact that this will progress to a regional war and perhaps a global war we're seeing Russia standing on the side of Hamas and China encouraging it and Iran is of course helping Russia on the Ukrainian front with its drones attack drones so there's a bigger picture here we're trying to keep and I think everybody's trying to do the smartest thing they can do and I think we realize and I hope they realize it's not the wisest thing to go on full throttle with all our force right now we have hostages on the ground we have to consider and their humanitarian situation we have to consider and I think right now the IDF is doing the smart thing doing it slowly protecting our troops and gradually moving in more and seeing more activity in the Gaza you mentioned how this is a multi-front war and Israel is keeping their eye on all of their different borders I actually want to go live now to our correspondent Pia Stechelback who's standing by on the northern border in Israel Pia what exactly are you seeing I know very intense period up there near the north near Lebanon but what's happening on the ground right a very volatile situation as it has been in the past three weeks we have been seeing some smokes arising here behind us the Lebanese border only a few kilometers here behind us earlier we have been seeing some smoke on the Lebanese side of the border in the Ayatashab this is an area that has been targeted by the Israeli air force before now we're seeing that also some smoke arises in Israeli territory as the skirmishes between Hezbollah and other factions southern Lebanon and the Israeli artillery here from where we are at right now and also in other areas here alongside the border when you drive along the border you do see smoke arising here and there because the factions in southern Lebanon seem to target the Israeli army bases that are located on top of those of the mountain range separating southern Lebanon from Israel so whenever those bases are targeted fire mortar missiles and also rockets fall down on the other side of that mountain range causing fires here in the forest area here but of course Nicole the situation is also very volatile because we're not only talking about the danger of mortar shots and rockets but also infiltration attempts that we've been seeing over the course of the three weeks they could have been prevented every time by the Israeli security forces but this is also a real danger here that the population is very aware of our correspondent P.S. to go back on the northern border thank you so much for your coverage up there as we continue to keep an eye on Iran and their proxies and how they might get involved I want to come back to you Shiri because as we just heard from our correspondent P.S. to go back about the threat and how Hezbollah and Iran continues to threaten to get involved in fact on Friday we're expected to hear from the chief Hassan Nasrullah even as we're speaking right now I just want to remind people we're continuing to get these live images out of Gaza the war continuing in the south but will it advance to the north I guess that's the main question right now and so we're expected to hear from Hassan Nasrullah his first public statement since the war began it will have been nearly four weeks at that point Yes we did see that he was beating with the Palestinian organization in Beirut and his first public statement there's been a lot of criticism in some parts about Hezbollah and about him attacking just antenna poles and not really the IDF he's caught up between you know voices inside Lebanon trying to tell him keep away from the war I mean Lebanon is hardly standing as a country we really don't have the energy to deal with another catastrophe war like we had in 2006 on the other hand forces tell him hey stand with Hamas and you know this is time to strike Israel so he's kind of in the middle and will he more on the Lebanese side is he more Lebanese or is he more influenced by Iran so it's a dilemma for Nasrullah and it's kind of a game that we're both playing to test our patience and I'm sure and the fact that the US has put its forces here has an enormous effect there was an article that came out in the Lebanese Al-Manar newspaper last week about their assessment and they assessed that the US won't stand with Israel like it did and so the sand that President Biden has taken to be in favor of Israel and saying it stands with us and will give us everything we need has really had a huge impact and I think it's one of the main things that we need to know seeing how the United States is responding is certainly an interesting aspect of unfolding here in Israel in fact the United States striking Iranian targets in Syria after being fired on by Iranian militias at least the 30th similar incident since the war with Gaza erupted and our I-24 news reporter Ariel Levin-Walman takes a look at America's role in the war in the center of an expanding regional conflict US bases in Iraq and Syria increasingly becoming the target for Iranian backed forces and now the US launching direct strikes against Iran's revolutionary guard in Syria President has been very straight forward on this if American troops are attacked by Iran and its proxies we will respond we did respond if attacks continue we will respond and I think the Iranians understand our message because we know the United States is directly threatening Iran's IRGC forces instead of blaming generic proxies this after 24 US servicemen have been injured and one contractor killed in weeks worth of attacks now the US is deploying more soldiers in the region as the situation heats up approximately 900 troops have subsequently deployed or are in the process of deploying to the US central command area of responsibility the US has been involved sending two carrier groups to the Mediterranean with a clear message to Iran and there has been a proxy in the north stay out this has been backed up with the delivery of war materials Israel has the right and I would add responsibility to respond to the slaughter of their people and we will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these terrorists that's a guarantee the US has also found itself an integral part of Israel's missile defense it's shooting down ballistic missiles from Yemen on Sunday night another barrage was intercepted by the US fleet October 19th and the Americans have deployed more air defense systems to the region US generals have also been helping Israel plan the counter offensive into Gaza showing greater American integration into the conflict than ever before in the long days ahead that coordination will be welcome as the United States continues to show their support pretty significantly I think this is something that some people initially were surprised about and the fact that the United States not only initially shows their support they continue to send support they continue to have a very strong stance oraging Iran not to get involved because if they do the United States is much stronger Yes, I think first of all from the reasons I mentioned earlier about reasonable fear this will lead to a regional war and global jihad and global terror rising its head so that's number one. Number two it's not the first time we've seen these exchanges of fire and rockets between Iraqi militias, Iranian militias and proxies throughout Abu Kamal and the rest of Syria-Iraq border people may remember the targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani a few years ago and that was in response of an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, in Baghdad a few months before that and probably the planning of additional targeting of U.S. forces. Iran and its proxies and a little bit of the context between Russia and the U.S. again are trying to drive away U.S. forces from the Middle East something that we've been in Israel and in the region very worried about there was a general trend over the last few years of the U.S. moving out of the Middle East and focusing more of its attention on China and east of the Middle East and now I think everyone's realizing that that can't be done you have to keep your focus on the Middle East or it will drag you back in unfortunately and I think it's a play that either Russia planned or at least enjoys that we're seeing such massive energy going to our region instead of the Ukraine war and giving it kind of being siloed aside so we have to look out for the bigger picture and I think the Americans are doing that and they understand this could have consequences and of course a moral stand that they're seeing I mean the anyone who's seen the videos of the horrific events that took place the genocide the crime against humanity that took place by Hamas can't sit still and President Biden's position on this is super important and rightfully so and another world leaders by the way we've seen Macron visit here we've seen UK Prime Minister as well so we're having a lot of support from our allies and hopefully that will continue absolutely continue to see a strong show of support from our western allies but I think what's also different about this war is now we also have regional allies as well this is one of the largest wars that we'll have had since the signing of the Abraham Accords so how does that play into it as well since we have hopefully some support from some of our Arab neighbors well as they say it's complicated there's so much they can say out loud and there are things that are saying quietly to colleagues it's obvious I mean if just to take a step back and to tell you a little bit about the threats for UAE for instance and others in the region number one threat is actually the Muslim Brotherhood and the stability of their country that's the number one threat and Saudi traditionally it was Iran and its proxies but also Muslim Brotherhood of course and they're fighting against that right now relationships are keeping still we even I mean we were on the verge of a normalization with Saudi Arabia and many are saying that one of the main goals of the attack was to prevent that normalization taking place I don't know I'm not sure I don't have the intelligence it makes sense I mean Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke in the UN General Assembly just weeks before about the normalization with Saudi Arabia about it being the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict and about that many especially Iran will try to prevent that but this attack was two years in the making so it was probably tactical reasons with the holiday with 50 years to the 73 war so there's a lot of it's a lot of hindsight but in hindsight there's a lot of reasons why the attack occurred when it did and it's important to remember the attack itself that sparked exactly what happened here I want to remember exactly why this happened in fact in the heart hit southern more than 100 people were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists and this report adapted from Israel's Channel 12 news we hear one of the horror stories where parents were murdered in front of their twin 10-month-old babies now the visuals may not be graphic but I have to warn you the story is quite emotional they will immediately fall asleep pram sunshine after food hope is scorched this is a very difficult very difficult situation along with the difficulty and the grief and the trauma this is really the most precious gift we have left they don't know anything how lucky on the one hand that they are babies and they will not remember this terrible day but on the other hand they won't remember their parents either and guide the toddlers will not remember anything from the last day before they became orphans when they grow up they won't remember how their father and mother heard all the gunshots outside their house in kfar aza and then inside it as well they will not remember how mother went to prepare bottles for them to be in the security room how the terrorists broke in how the floor became filled with blood they can never explain why only they were not touched no one can explain it either two ten-month-old twins when they are adults what will remain from the 13 hours they lay on the bed until the soldiers broke in we gather all the strength we don't have we have no choice we play with them, smile, laugh we really try to keep a stable routine for them as much as we can we don't have a choice we don't have a choice me, with the help of the family the Rosenfeld family are full partners as well trying to do everything together for their sake many people want to adopt them but they are not for adoption they have a big and loving family they eat, drink, sleep their mood is quite good and you? I have difficulty digesting what's happened the door, she lit up every place she entered radiant, amazing, beautiful gave us peace calm, she really is the best she entered our family itai came into our family so naturally with his smile, we all melted he entered our hearts in seconds he loved Hadar very much and she loved him they were an amazing couple itai and Hadar had been together since the age of 20 just one month ago they celebrated their 30th birthday their first birthday as parents when they found out about the pregnancy and found out that it was twins it was a complete surprise they lived this pregnancy and they enjoyed every step and every moment of it Hadar gave me the privilege of being there in the delivery room, which is not a given she was a hero she gave birth to them naturally how they wanted more twins Hadar is one of a family of six brothers they set up the family home in Kfar Aza got to know the missile alert warnings they became almost routine and in the first minutes of October 7th they thought it was just more of the same it started at 6.30 the barrages and we started messaging the family group so we asked what these volleys were what was this? Hadar wrote to us at 6.54 the official message was to be stuck with two diapers of poop in the safe room there is no way that with me the officer in the Golanig Brigade the reserve sergeant major does not answer, does not interpret for us does not reassure does not explain they started shooting from the kitchen window and apparently neighbors heard Hadar shouting it's important that Itai heard the screams the safe room because the door of the room was also open. According to the signs in the field, then he tried to reach the children. We all sent messages to everyone we could. I asked the neighbor, did you see anything? He wrote to me, Ophira, I'm sorry, the door was open. At that point in time, I had a hint that they were hurt. I wanted to hope and believe that they were only wounded and that they would make it. If they had enough time to reach them, maybe, maybe, maybe they could save them. I asked him at this point, did you hear anything? He wrote to me, yes, I can hear the baby screaming. I remember calling my father under pressure and saying to him, listen, Guy and Roy in the safe room are screaming, we need to save them. He said to me, yes, Hadar and Itai are not answering. I said to him, dad, and told him simply, I told him, dad, Hadar is not with me. We have to save the twins. How many hours were they there alone in total? 13, 14. A force of the 13th battalion from the Golan-e Brigade in Kfar-Azza went house to house. Then an officer received information that one of the neighbours heard babies crying from one of the houses. Getting out from the APC, entering the house, seeing the parents lifeless, seeing two cute small babies lying there quietly, looking at us with such surprised and innocent eyes. We're going out for a quick break, but stay with us and we continue to unpack the latest developments of the war here in Israel. Is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. 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 i24 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 Ostrowski an international human rights lawyer and their responses were completely different. Michael Herzog was calm and composed and on the other hand Arsene Ostrowski was trying to phone his family and check in to make sure that his loved ones were okay. The camera that normally faces us was hoisted from above. There was an overhead shot of the three of us in the studio. You could see colleagues going to the shelter if you looked at the glass behind the studio and obviously we lost contact with our team on the ground, our reporters in Ashkelon and all the witnesses that we were speaking to during that time. When rockets are coming towards a residential area they don't distinguish 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. Welcome back to this breaking news edition of the I-24 News Desk. Now since the start of the war there's been an uptick in antisemitism and anti-Zionism around the world. On Sunday just yesterday hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region to try and attack Jewish and Israeli passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. In these videos you can see protesters waving the Palestinian flag breaking through doors and barriers, some even running onto the runway forcing passengers to hide inside the plane for safety. Now I know these images look like a pogrom from the 1800s or even World War II. This is 2023 and unfortunately it is not the only shocking act of antisemitism seen around the world right now. Pogrom attempts in the 21st century over 100 men gathered outside a hotel in Russia's majority Muslim region of Dagestan demanding to know whether Israeli refugees were staying in the building. The antisemitic riots were spurred by a video making rounds on social media claiming to show an Israeli strolling outside the Flamingo Hotel in the southern city of Khasa Vyut. The mob demanded all the guests look out the windows so they could make sure they weren't Jewish. When the demand wasn't met the men started throwing rocks to chance of Al-Aqbah clamouring to be let into the hotel to check the sellers. The police came and allowed a couple of writers to go into the hotel in search of Jews. Luckily they couldn't find anyone. Since then the hotel reportedly put up a sign saying that Israelis and Jews are forbidden from entering the premises. An antisemitic rally also gathered outside a government building in another city in North Caucasus. At first the citizens of Chokesk demanded officials guarantee no Israeli refugees will be let into the republic but the demands grew. And a Jewish center under construction in a neighboring republic was set on fire and death to Jews was scrawled on the walls. Officials and religious leaders have been scrambling to quell the wave of antisemitism in the region forbidding pro-Palestinian rallies but so far it seems like there was no end to the hatred. In the past few minutes now Red Alert sirens continue to blare throughout Israel with rockets targeting central Israel and Jerusalem as well so you can see just a live image over over looking Jerusalem right now as we continue to see some of those red alerts this unfortunately continuing to happen in central Israel 24 days into the war now. I'm joined in studio right now by Arsene Ostrovsky attorney and CEO for the international legal forum. Arsene as we're sitting here Red Alert sirens continuing to blare throughout Israel however when we look at these scenes happening abroad we're hearing from many Jewish people it almost feels safer to be in Israel in an active war zone than it does to feel to be abroad. I think where we're seeing this war now being fought on two fronts here in Israel and Gaza that's being waged directly against the Hamas terrorists and when I was seeing it being waged also on campuses in America on the streets of Europe and as you saw also on the streets of Russia as well where the Hamas supporters enablers are out there not on it they're not merely protesting but they're actually calling for blood what we saw in Russia can only be described as an attempted state-sponsored pogrom what we're seeing on the campuses whether it's Colombia or Harvard we're seeing students including support from faculty showing support for Hamas calling for resistance calling for another intifada this is Atta Juhaytra this is Insightment of Islands and it is putting Jewish students and faculty and members of the community really at grave risk. When we talk about mainly the two main instances that are really taking the news headlines right now you have one in Russia and then you have what's happening in America but as you said Russia it's almost like a state-sponsored pogrom versus the United States it's supposed to be a safe haven it's supposed to be tolerant of for minority groups a place where everyone should feel safe yet the Jewish people do not feel safe. The Jewish students do not feel safe they feel hounded they feel like they have to hide their very identity who they are as Jews as Zionists and this is taking also some really perverted interpretation of free speech where in America supposedly anything goes including racial hatred and including incitement but that is not the case the universities cannot just use the First Amendment get out a jail card they have a responsibility they have obligations under federal law including under civil rights act to ensure that students are not Jewish students specifically as well are not faced with such hostile environments that speech discriminating and targeting members of the Jewish community is not used on campus and that the university leadership must act they cannot just say well this is free speech and anything goes they have to show leadership they have to show unequivocal condemnation of the attacks on their Jewish students and they have to take action against the perpetrators that are calling and expressing these acts of violence in some and both within other Jewish sorry both within other student groups but also importantly within faculty that is giving them this kind of really unacceptable support as well. How is this still happening right now you talk about the difference between free speech and hate speech how are these protesters now turning violent protesters we're seeing some handful of people arrested here and there but for the main part they're allowed to keep going on. Partly because I think universities have really turned a blind eye to anti-Semitism specifically under the guise of anti-Zionism for universities and we've seen that for the last number of years where they say look maybe we don't like it but it's free speech or when they say for example in cases like UC Berkeley well look this is only again merely against Zionism and Zionism is just merely a political expression of speech not something that is inherent to the spent integral to our core Jewish identity so for many years university leadership and administrators have really turned a blind eye and worse yet have excused and some cases try to justify this law in the name of free speech and we've now seen what happens when you turn a blind eye to this kind of hatred, masquerading, anti-Zionism it comes to the boil it comes before and you're seeing full really unhinged calls for violence and incitement on the streets on the campuses of the top universities in America. And it seems like there's a disconnect almost between the top university leaders and the actual United States leaders because US President Joe Biden has been one of the very vocal supporters of Israel right now very vocally speaking out against anti-Semitism standing with Israel in their main goal of eliminated Hamas right now but that same rhetoric does not seem to be trickling down to some of these college campuses or the public opinion in general. Okay right and I think it's important to really reiterate that through the American political echelon really on a bipartisan level from the president and to buy parties there's been almost universal unequivocal condemnation of what is happening on campus and really quite I suppose borne in terms of that this is happening in American 2023 we've also seen legislation that has now been proposed to take funding away from these universities that actually foment and support and refuse to take action against anti-Semitism on their campus we've seen also you know the application civil rights act something that our organization international legal forum has been involved in in trying to apply that to universities on campus to ensure that students are supported that they know that they are they do have legal rights and the universities cannot just wash their hands away and say well this is free speech it doesn't work that way it's not merely free speech but it's basic discrimination and it's putting Jewish students campus officials and Jewish staff community really under incredible assault and we have to tell university leadership enough is enough what are some of the legal rights of students right now if you find yourself a student on a college campus what can you do and how should you proceed if some of these attacks are taking place look I think first and foremost you do need to go to the university leadership because they must act even if this does fall within the realm of free speech and there are some obviously very extreme boundaries the university still has an obligation to condemn what is happening um to express this important solidarity with the Jewish students to give them the tools and the support that they need I think that's that's critical those students do have rights under this under civil rights act which does say that if you are a recipient of federal funding as just about every university in the United States is to varying levels then you cannot discriminate on the basis of race national origin or shared ancestry we also have to remember the universities are also um have a tax exempt status as well now they're allowed to fundraise in some cases billions upon billions of dollars and if these universities are engaging in this kind of blatant politics which might also be in breach of their um legal obligations to refrain from doing so um under their tax exempt status including supporting boycotts including uh calling for interfera and violence and so on then that uh tax status can also potentially be revoked so we're trying to look at um all those different um I suppose facets and more but students need to understand that they are not alone and the universities must act to stamp out this hatred we'll continue to keep an eye on it as hopefully some of these scenes uh people do continue to speak out against it arson astrosky thank you so much for joining us and giving your insight into what's happening in the united states right now now it's been more than three weeks since the october 7th attack and at least 239 hostages including roughly 30 children remain in the hands of famas terrorists now two of the kidnapped are gabriella laneberg and our teenage daughter mia gabriella is a manager of an ecological autism center at shekel a publicly funded organization promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities and the adults and their families from the center produced a short film about gabriella to raise awareness of her tragic fate the impact felt here in israel is is certainly strong on all different fronts people know someone who has been killed someone who has been kidnapped people who have been called up for reserve duty as well it really is taking a toll on the entire israeli public right now now i'm joined now by rabbi dr kenneth brander president of roche yeshiva of or torres stone rabbi thank you so much for joining us right now i understand that some of your students in fact have been called up on reserve duty they are fighting on the front lines of this war right now yes um first of all thank you for having me and uh actually we just experienced a a siren in jewsland and yes we have several thousand students and faculty who are serving in the front lines both in the north and the south we're approximately 700 students around the 150 faculty and a little bit more than 3 000 um alumni uh who are now in active duty as well as 15 emissaries who were doing their service to the jewish people by serving as emissaries in countries around the world to promote jewish identity who made the decision to come back leave their families uh in the various countries that they're in their children their wives uh and come back to serve that's uh amazing seeing everyone truly come together right now and jump into action to protect the state of israel even as you said it's difficult rockets continuing to fly targeting central israel jerusalem a red alert siren right there uh how is just from an educational standpoint i know that's on the pack burner right now but how do schools students go forward with this great question you know when you have 32 institutions it's definitely not on the back burner um and we're thank god most of our schools are really up fully um we're dealing with the fact that we have north of 100 faculty we're serving in the idf so we're doing different things you know we're having some of the teachers who are here uh they're teaching more than the classes they were supposed to teach so they were teaching one math class they're now teaching three math classes and then in some places for example the town with teachers um so instead of them having just teaching their ninth grade they're teaching ninth and tenth grade and they're doing all the different things that they need to do and plus our students as well as our faculty are involved with i think a very important thing and that is education um and chesed and being engaged in many different ways to inspire and to help those around them when it comes to education also just letting students come back to class being together retaining some sort of a a routine throughout all of this that in itself is also important as well yes you're you're so correct i think that you're dealing with both students and faculty we're dealing with two things number one is we all know somebody who's serving in the idf most mostly every student as a a member of their immediate family that's serving whether it's a brother or sister whether it's a father or mother or with faculty a husband children grandchildren we all have members of our family serving and at the same time especially in some of our schools in the gushet's young region they're also dealing with the overlay of terrorism that some many of them have suffered losses of friends in the past six months to a year due to acts of terror for example the d young ladies that were murdered over Passover they're students of ours so now you have these students who had to deal with that enormous tragedy um and faculty that had to deal with that enormous tragedy and now they're dealing with the second layer of tragedy um and unfortunately some of us especially within the art tori stone family we've lost uh alumni uh we've lost four alumni in the war and one young lady who was murdered uh in the the Gaza strip so that affects thousands of students and hundreds of faculty and we're doing our best to deal with that and to make sure that we can do all the things to inspire ourselves and to engage with others the the toll that it's taken on just all of the communities is truly truly felt everywhere one of the inspiring things that you are doing throughout some of your campuses is hosting though some of these displaced families from the south correct correct as of this morning we have served 3 000 meals to 70 people from the southern communities of both Ophar Kim and Niti vote they're staying in the community in the city of Efrat um we're housing them and we have a a bait arracha it's the guest house we're housing them there we're feeding them lunch and dinner um and then residents of Efrat especially many of our high school students they are doing amazing work with them they're running some types of uh summer camps or schools to help the kids and to enable the parents to get done the various things they need to do in order to start putting their lives together we're here to help them we're here to make sure whatever needs they have we'll take care of and I would also like to acknowledge the fact that we've had some people helping us fund this um and that really makes the difference the Jewish federations of North America and others have been amazingly helpful in allowing this uh acts of chesed these acts of loving kindness to be able to happen in a very beautiful way all of the acts that you and and your universe and your students are doing it's it's truly impressive Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander thank you so much for sharing with us thank you now I want to turn our attention quickly back to southern Israel where our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev is right now Jonathan within the past 20 minutes now we continue to see red alert sirening throughout central Israel uh specifically also targeting Jerusalem some major cities we're talking about yes Jerusalem we're speaking of rockets that were fired there about 20 minutes ago we're hearing of one rocket which landed actually in in the area of the west bank Jerusalem surrounded by west bank from three directions one a rocket we're hearing making landfall just south of Jerusalem in an open area and just in the last five minutes also a rocket in the Gaza border area about five to seven minutes to the south of where we are in the city of Ashkelon and we we spoke about it earlier we said that it wouldn't be surprising to see a rockets fired further afield not only to the southern communities and we saw rockets to Bersheva rockets to Jerusalem don't be surprised if we'll see rockets even further away throughout the day these long range rockets that we continue to be fired 24 days now into the war many people are surprised that they continue to have these long range rockets but it's important to note something we've talked about is just how difficult it is for the IDF to strike these these rocket launch sites they open up and they close under an underground tunnel within minutes exactly it's not as if the the the rockets are waiting on the ground to be fired they're under the ground with the the people firing them and they pop to the ground for about a minute fired and gone away that is why they're very difficult to detect and Hamas they may have sent a large number so far but they're also keeping larger numbers to to continue and harass Israel throughout the ground operation and it may also be useful for them at least a shorter range rockets perhaps to be fired on the the forces working on the ground Hamas realizing also this is not a war that will end tomorrow it will take quite quite some time and therefore it is it has kept quite a large arsenal for the days to come and we're taking a look at just some of these live images from Gaza right now Israel continuing to strike back you see just these large plumes of smoke over Gaza Jonathan I think as you were just stating how how Hamas terrorists they've been planning for this they've been prepared for this so they have a large arsenal of rockets artillery they're in they know that this is going to last for weeks months they've been prepared absolutely yes this is what we just mentioned and then the rockets are are difficult to detect the civilian population in Gaza is not only serving as a human shield for the for the Hamas leadership but also for the Hamas ammunition which is kept under the ground under the Shifa hospital in houses used by civilians in schools and mosques Hamas understands that it would be difficult for Israel to attack those sites due to the humanitarian crisis it will create but they have no problem putting their their own population in danger in order to keep themselves and their ammunition meanwhile Jonathan as we continue to see troops on the ground going in further we saw images of tanks earlier in the broadcast entering deep into Gaza near one of the main roads in Gaza city will that deter any of these any of these attacks towards central Israel as we do continue to see Israeli military go into the source of those targets themselves the only thing that will eventually deter and stop these attacks is if Israel gets to the centers where the things are are concentrated and where the Hamas leadership is concentrated and stopping this all together that of course is a difficult mission because as we just mentioned all of the Hamas leadership is hiding under the ground in order to get them you have to first get through Shifa hospital other hospitals in in Gaza and create the humanitarian crisis and the global outcry that such an operation will will create Hamas knows that very well and it keeps firing you don't need more than two or three rockets to create sirens in Jerusalem sirens in Tel Aviv sirens in Ashdod in Bersheva in other major cities and and and I think that this is something that we will see Hamas using for days to come until Israel goes into all of these bunkers all of these tunnels exposing them all together which is a difficult task which will take time well and as you said just for the continuing to uproot the daily life here just with one or two rockets and that is one of the main goals of terrorist activity to uproot daily life our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Rager reporting from its southern Israel thank you for your updates on everything happening on the ground now as we continue to unpack the latest developments of the war here in Israel we continue to hear so many stories of survival so many stories of tragedy it is very very heavy everything that is happening here 24 days but you have to remember that Israel is fighting for its right to exist Israel is fighting the terrorist enemy and all of our soldiers on the frontline are doing their best to remain hopeful during this very very difficult times if 300,000 more have been called from reserve duty jumping into action on the front lines and they're remaining hopeful during this time and we continue to see these small images of bright light in this very very dark time from Israel let's take a listen to some of these soldiers