 Two IDF soldiers were moderately wounded and four others lightly hurt following a Hezbollah drone attack on a base in the Western Galilee. The IDF said that two of the drones were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system for the very latest. We can go to the north of Israel. Our correspondent, Zach Anders joins us now. Zach, what happened? Well, Hezbollah says it launched suicide drones at this position and that Hezbollah claims they had a direct hit. The IDF says it was shot down. These drones were intercepted. However, there is some space to meet in the middle because it does appear there's damage and that several of their soldiers, the IDF, was wounded. Two of them, in moderate condition, were hearing that were taken to area medical centers and are receiving treatment. We were also told that some of the injuries included shrapnel damage and smoke inhalation. So it does not appear to be anything major, but still a significant moment here that resulted in a series of very strong, forceful, retaliatory strikes in southern Lebanon. Would you say we're seeing an escalation in the last few days, Zach? You know, it's so hard to tell because this is a tit for tat that's gone on for weeks now. In some of these bigger moments, these explosions that you see in independent media reports in southern Lebanon appear to be massive strikes, but we've seen these before. These are targeting sometimes even what appears to be ammunition depots. And so some of the larger strikes that hit buildings, then you see secondary explosions, which military experts think that that is characteristic of stores, storehouses for some of these rockets, potentially ammunition that's exploding after the fact. So it does appear spectacular in some of the images that have been seen, but it is really limited in scope. If you put this against the context of what is happening throughout the area, of course, Gaza in comparison, these are strikes that are taking place in very limited actions. They're hitting these points of origin, they say where Hezbollah launched rockets or artillery. And then basically it goes quiet until Hezbollah launches again and this happens three, four times a day, sometimes. Yeah, we're all getting used to it, aren't we? Zach, thank you very much indeed. Zach Anders, he's up there in the north of Israel where clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah continue. Well, with me in the studio, Danny Ayalon is the former Israeli ambassador to the United States and the former deputy foreign minister as well. Good to see you, Danny. Thank you for joining us. So, I mean, the national security advisor, Tzaki Henegbi, he pretty much said last night, look, we took too long to deal with Hamas. We are going to have to deal with Hezbollah at some stage. Of course, no country would ever tolerate or accept this formidable terrorist organization with thousands of terrorists well armed on their borders, smack them against communities. Our northern border communities, just like our southern border communities, we know what happens when they are not defended and there's no buffer. By the way, in Gaza, they're also talking about a new security regime after the war is over that we will need some buffer in Gaza. So certainly we need the buffer in Lebanon, especially as the buffer has already been decreed by a United Nations Security Council resolution from 2006 at the end of... It's never been enforced. Never been enforced, never been enforced. Now here, I think there is maybe a way out. I know that the Americans are very much involved. Mr. Hochstein, which is the special advisor of the present Biden to Lebanon, has been there. And the French are also trying to move in as well. And maybe there is a little leeway or a wiggle room in the sense that there is still some dispute, according to the Lebanese, on the border in the Dov Mountain area. There is a place called Chavot Shaba, or the Shaba Farm, where the Lebanese, they say that it's not exactly where the line should be. So it could be that this is also a matter of negotiations again. And for Israel agreeing maybe to some... Because the two countries are still technically at war. Hezbollah aside, Israel and Lebanon are still at war. Right, right. Of course Hezbollah is a terror organization. Israel deals only with the Lebanese government. The problem, of course, is the Lebanese government is so weak. And Hezbollah is like a state within a state, a terror state, which is being supported, of course, by Iran. Hezbollah is serving the Iranians' interests, not the Lebanese. However, maybe that will be kind of a save, face-saving thing that Israel would agree to negotiate on these border points, the flash points. And of course, but the immediate result would be that Hezbollah will be pushed north of the Littani river, which will give us enough buffer. Okay, all right. Thank you, Danny. Well, let me bring in now, Bethan Ben-Taliblu. He's a senior fellow at the FTD. Thank you very much for being with us, Ben-Him. So we were just talking about the comments made by Israel's national security advisor that Israel will have to go to war with Hezbollah. Eventually, it can't have this terrorist group sitting on its northern border. Just wondering, how do you think those comments will be, the most bullish comments I think we've heard on Hezbollah? How do you think that will be interpreted in Beirut by Hezbollah and also by Iran? Listen, every day, and it's a pleasure to be with you both, every day there's a new normal between Israel and Hezbollah based on the nature of the weapons, the quantity of the weapons, the quality of the weapons being fired from Lebanese Hezbollah at Israel. There's been internal displacement. It's really a matter of when and not if Israel is gonna have to more fully address that northern front. The question is, is it gonna look like a potential third Lebanon war scenario while a repeat or intensification of the 2006 conflict or will Iran bring more of its proxy network called the Axis of Resistance Online? So far, this new normal negotiated every day between Israel and Hezbollah is still leading to deaths. There are irams, drones, anti-tank weapons and rockets being fired over the border. But if Israel can somehow manage to make itself the political and military enforcer of UN resolution 1701, then of course the Iranians and Hezbollah are gonna try to find a way to push back on that. Right, because there is talk now about pushing Hezbollah back, not necessarily destroying it as we're seeing Hamas being destroyed in Gaza, but pushing Hezbollah back geographically north of the Littani River. I mean, would the group ever accept that? Well, it's not just a matter of the group ever accepting that. The question is how beneficial will this be for Israeli national security as well as for US national security interests? The ranges of some of Hezbollah's munitions now far outpace the ranges that Hezbollah had when that resolution was passed at the UNSC. So while it was significantly devalued, for instance, some of the anti-tank weapons or the IRAMs, rockets and PGMs would still be able to be operated from further north or further afield in Lebanon. So in my view, it's necessary but not sufficient to dealing with a terror threat like Hezbollah that happens to still sit on Israel's northern border not by accident, but by design from the Islamic Republic of Iran. All right, and how is this all being viewed by Tehran? We've got the Houthis stepping up their attacks. We've got the war in Gaza is severely degrading Hamas's capabilities. Presumably Tehran does not wanna see that kind of damage inflicted on Hezbollah as well. Indeed, which is why Hezbollah has taken a line similar to Tehran. In fact, there is a great similarity between what Nasrallah said in Lebanon and what Khamenei said in Iran about trying to praise the move on October 7th but distance themselves from any responsibility, open source reporting, particularly from the Wall Street Journal, Payne said qualitatively different picture, but nonetheless, Iran doesn't wanna have to sacrifice Hezbollah to save Hamas. But what it is trying to do with the Houthis in Yemen, first with direct strikes against Israel, unfortunately, all of which are intercepted but now against shipping link to Israel and anything in the Red Sea, as well as with attacks on America and Iraq and Syria is to force the potential of an escalation spiral to get America to intervene, to restrain Israel and thus to save Hamas in this fashion. Ben and thank you very much indeed. Great to talk to you, Ben and Ben Tallahblee at the FDD there. Thank you. Well, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been defending a decision by the Biden administration to use an emergency authority to bypass Congress and push through military aid to Israel. The sale of tank shells to Israel have been held up by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Our Robert Swift has the detail. The United States is doubling down on its support for Israel. Following the use of its veto in the UN Security Council, it is sending an ammunition resupply to bolster Israeli tanks. By passing Congress, the Biden administration is using emergency powers to send $106 million worth of shells as concerns over the cost of US arms supplies to allies and pressure over civilian casualties in Gaza rise. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken determined that it was in the US's interests to send the 14,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel. The IDF has in the past and continues today to place a high importance on the deployment of tanks, even in urban combat. And the US State Department hopes the weapons shipment will boost Israeli deterrence. But Washington is also signaling to Jerusalem its concerns over the number of non-combatants being killed in ongoing fighting. It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection. And there does remain a gap between the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground. In the coming weeks, we'll see if this additional fire power gets Israel the victory it's searching for. Well, Danny Ayalon is the former Israeli ambassador to the United States. So we had that move from Biden, just right after the veto that they used at the Security Council. You now got Anthony Blinken saying it is Israel that will decide how long the war in Gaza lasts, not the United States. Sure, because Israel is on the ground and the Americans fully share Israel's interest here to do away with Hamas, because this is the key to any future vision that the U.S. might have for the Middle East, stability in the Middle East, deterrence against Hezbollah and the Houthis or any other of the Iranian proxies. Because I'm just thinking of a comment that Blinken himself made at a joint press conference, I think it was with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Netanyahu said, you know, it could take months and Blinken jumped in and said, you might not have credit for that. Right, well, you know, it's kind of, once they understand the full scope of what we find out in Gaza. And I can tell you Israel was also taken by surprise because nobody really thought that the Hamas would turn Gaza into such a formidable military post, of course, on the expense of the poor population over there. And this is why you just reported now Laura that the U.S. in a bypass in Congress are going to ship Israel $106 million worth of tank shells. This is also showing that the targets, the terrorist targets are so many that we have not even dreamt about. Israel will also, after this war is over, you know, we have talked before about this collapse of the concept, you know, the intelligence failure, deployment failure, but also you see that Israel was not fully prepared to such a scope of targets by running out of munitions. I mean, this is like ABC of running a war is to have enough munitions. So I think that will also mean a new concept altogether, new deployment of Israel. So we will have to produce those shells here in Israel. We have the capabilities and the technology, of course, to do that. There will be a lot of shifts and a lot of new, I would say, arrangements in the military establishment here after the war. Let's take a listen to Secretary Stapling can speaking a short while ago. We are in almost constant discussions with the Israelis about to ensure that they understand what their obligations are to make sure that we understand how they are using whatever arms we're providing to them, as well as more broadly. I can't evaluate a specific instance in the moment, but I can tell you we're looking at everything. So yeah, as you say, shoulder to shoulder the United States and Israel at this stage. Because if we stop short and not destroy Hamas, then all these efforts, all the victims have been in vain. And that means that at some point into the future, we will have, we will find ourselves in the same situation again. And this is the last thing the US needs or wants. I wanted to talk a bit about another debate that's raging here in Israel. This is whether or not to allow Palestinian workers from the West Bank to come back to their jobs in Israel. Because before October 7th, many West Bank Palestinians were working on building sites and in other industries here in Israel. The finance minister, Smotoich, is strongly against it. And he says that there should be a permanent ban. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I think that it has to be looked at in a much more careful way. And not just to, a blanket ban is the easiest way to do it. But this is not a smart way. Leadership is about making decisions. Now, I'm not saying that we should take all of them in, but you have profiling. I know that in the US, they are against profiling. But for security reasons, profiling may be the only way to defend and protect lives. And you know, and we know that there are special sectors or segments in the Palestinian society that are not prone for terror activities. Let's say if you take people who are 45 years and older or 50 years and older, we know that among them, there are no, let's say the inclination for terror is very small. Now, this has to be checked. I'm not saying that we need to look at it very lightly, given the fact that it was in Gaza that we were stung. We were bitten so bitterly by those employees, these Gaza workers who came in, they collected intelligence. They are the ones, some of them were the ones guiding the Hamas terrorists. And we do see a lot of support for Hamas in the West Bank. Absolutely. So there is a merit in doing that, but we have to do it and decide who can come, who cannot come when they can come, when they cannot come. And at the end of the day, Laura, and this is something that I think the Americans are expecting a vision, you know, what to do in Gaza. At the end of the day, you cannot just say, we block workers from Gaza, you know, the other way, put a siege on Gaza. So I think we may have to change the paradigm. Until now, we put a siege on Gaza, which failed, because we saw what they smuggled in. And we opened the border to Israel. I think it has to be the other way around. Block any context between the Gaza people in Israel and open Gaza into the world, of course, with the right. If Egypt is on board. And, well, some good mechanisms. But this is the same thing is at the end of the day, at the Judea and Samaria, the West Bank. You cannot say, well, I am against a two-state solution, even as a far out, you know, it's not something that will happen anytime soon. And at the same time, lock them in and not allow workers to come in. If you don't want the workers to come in, and I fully support that, you have to open them to Jordan and you have to give them employment in the Palestinian territories. And for that, you need to have more than just what they have now. And negative vision. Exactly. All right, Danny, thank you. Well, back to the United States, because the president of one of America's most prestigious Ivy League schools has resigned after outcry over anti-Semitism on university campuses. Liz McGill was heavily criticized over her performance at a congressional hearing last week. She was asked if calls to commit genocide against Jews violated the school's policy on bullying and harassment. McGill replied that that would be a context-based decision. Our Owen Artiman has this report. If only Liz McGill had followed Benjamin Franklin's advice, better slip with foot than tongue. And so the University of Pennsylvania president has now resigned. After testimony in Congress last week that pitted donors and even the state's governor against her. Specifically calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment? If it is directed and severe or pervasive, it is harassment. So the answer is yes. It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman. McGill's resignation Saturday followed that testimony on Capitol Hill, which generated an avalanche of criticism that gained speed. McGill tried to backtrack in the aftermath. It's evil, plain and simple. I wanna be clear, a call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening. The walk-back was too little, too late. And McGill's wavering before Congress and afterward led many to believe she could not lead through what's seen as a crisis. 36 hours ago, I, along with most of campus sought refuge in our rooms. As classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews while igniting smoke bombs and defacing school property. And in fact, hence president did choose silence. McGill's resignation will boost scrutiny of anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses. Jewish students continue to charge that rules on free speech have been applied unevenly, protecting other minority groups while not protecting Jews. There are two fixes. Universities could clamp down on pro-Palestinian speech seen as anti-Semitic, or could relax speech codes across the board, allowing speech targeting a variety of minorities. It's a crossroads and a reckoning. Well, two Iranians have been detained in Cyprus, suspected of planning to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens living on the island. Senior editor Gai Azrael is running in the studio with details. Gai, what happened? Well, the Mossad today confirming those reports are part of Cyprus, saying that in cooperation with the Mossad, the Cypriot authorities ever thwarted an Iranian terror infrastructure meant to execute terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli destinations in Cyprus, saying that thanks to the thwarting activity and the arrest by the Cypriot security forces, a lot of information was obtained exposing the perpetrators, the methods of action, and the goals of the terror attack. The Mossad is adding that since October 7th, the Iranian regime has expanded its efforts to promote terror activity around the world. And we're talking about one of many attempts in Cyprus and around the world. And this particular infrastructure was one that was ready for the Iranians for a long time ago. Information was obtained that about a month ago, the Iranians have started to reuse that infrastructure that authorities knew about. And thanks to that prior knowledge, they were able to get hold of the perpetrators, to arrest them, and to investigate and get more information. Again, Iran and its proxies are the ones behind the ongoing terror activity, not just against Israeli, but also against Jewish targets. Thank you, guys. So, Danny Ayalon, I mean, it's becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews on university campuses in the United States as it is for Israelis in Cyprus. There is a global threat right now, isn't there? Yeah, just to add to what Guy has just said, it's not the first, probably not the last. They have been, their attempts have been thwarted for the last few years, a number of times, in Cyprus, in Turkey, in other places, in Kazakhstan. They are trying everywhere they can in a cowardly way. See, the Iranians, again, they are, I would say, the most despicable type of enemy, because they're using their proxies, whether it's the Palestinians, or the Houthis, or the Hezbollah. And the same thing goes with these terror activities. They will not take Israel on directly, because they know what would be the ramification for them. But they're trying everything in a very, very cowardly way to do it. And I must tell you that they're very vulnerable. I don't know if you have heard, but I just saw a report, I don't know if it's confirmed or not, that a refinery in southern Iran, a refinery blew up. All of a sudden, nobody, of course, knows what it is. But that just shows you the vulnerability of Iran. So there is a way to stop the Houthis, or to let the Iranians put the screws on the Houthis, because they are very vulnerable. And if somehow their oil industry is being damaged, that's the life, the bloodline of their economy. So they will stand to lose. And I think maybe it's time to show the Iranians some muscles here, including our best friends, the Americans, to show them that. Well, do you think the United States is ready to do that, because we've had dozens of attacks on US troops? I think at some point it will have to come, maybe not directly, but indirectly. Sometimes you have to use all kinds of sub-trophugies and not claiming responsibilities, but to give the message. But I think the message has not been yet driven into the Iranians, but maybe now it will. Obviously, the Houthis are a big problem in the region. It was a problem for the Saudis and for the UAE for a long time. Houthis do not have too much to lose. And both these countries have seen how difficult it is to fight against the Houthis. Obviously, Israel has the means of reaching there with some of its fighter jets, of course. But Israel will also be using other methods, like some sort of international corporations. We know US, British, and French Navy boats are in the Red Sea. Israel is trying to send the message that this is not just Israel's problem. It's a global problem. And it is expecting of its Western allies, rather, to assist in this. Obviously, other countries will be hurt by the Houthi threats. The prime one is Egypt, who's so relied, obviously, on these naval carriers in the Red Sea. And on American aid, indeed. I mean, Danny, do you think the Americans have been misguided in trying to contain this conflict and kind of refusing to accept that it is already a regional conflict? Well, no, I can understand that. And they don't want to do it prematurely. I mean, it may just, you know, it may develop naturally to that point. But I think right now, they want Israel, certainly, to focus on Hamas, because the entire region is looking at Gaza. And of course, nothing short of a decisive result in Gaza is what is expected. And this is why you see the United States is fully on that. That may be a signal to Khris Bala. Sorry to interrupt, but they were not behind the Saudis of their other allies in the region when they were trying to defeat the Houthis in Yemen. And that's why the Houthis are still going. Victor, this is right, too. This is right, too. But with the Houthis, it was localized Saudi Arabia against Yemen. Here, because of the Iranian involvement, Gaza is not going to just be limited to Gaza. Like the Houthis were limited in the beginning to Yemen. They are also spreading into Lebanon, Hizballah, to the militias, the Shia militias in Iraq and Syria. And the Houthis are acting up. So you see, this is a much more complex issue. This is why I think they believe that if Hamas will be done with, then maybe the Houthis and the Hizballah will quiet down. And if not, then there's always the second option. Just to find a word, another country, surprisingly, that is severely hurt by the Houthi threats is China, who needs that naval route. China has a lot of impact, a lot of effect on Iran. Let's see how much impact will that have. Yeah, the Houthis are causing a lot of misery for a lot of people. And already the cost, the shipment cost, premiums, the insurance cost, this is hurting China the most. Yeah, absolutely. It all has an awkward effect. Danny Guy, thank you very much. We're going to take a very short break. Stay with us. We'll have Morfi right after this. Is in a state of war, families completely gone down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception, it's something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Nishin Basikalone. Back you're watching I-24 News coming to you live from Tel Aviv. And fierce fighting continues this Sunday across the Gaza Strip. The IDF says battles are underway in the north in Jabalia, in Shijaiya, and in Betchanun, and in Hanyunes in the south. The IDF says it has eliminated around 7,000 Hamas terrorists since the beginning of the war and struck more than 22,000 targets. Qatar's Prime Minister has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and says there is no other way to release the 137 hostages still being held in the Strip. Sheikh Haftani says that it is involved in mediation. And Hamas has said this Sunday that none of the hostages will be released unless Israel caves in to its demands. Well, 137 people are still being held in Gaza. 19-year-old Ron Sherman was kidnapped by terrorists on October 7. Ron was sleeping. He was unarmed. He was on duty at the Erez crossing, where his job with Kogat was to oversee the transfer of goods into Gaza. He's been held now for 65 days. Well, his mother, Mayan Sherman, joins us now. Mayan, thank you very much for being with us. And you know, I'm terribly sorry, horrible what you're going through. I can't imagine. Can you just take us back over what exactly happened on that day? Well, at about 6.30 in the morning that Saturday, we woke up to a text from Ron on WhatsApp. He said that there is a missile attack on his base. And he was very frightened. He said it sounded different from the usual. He went to the shelter. And with his friends, he was sleeping during the time it started. And then he recorded us. And it really sounded different from what we were used to. Afterwards, they wrote us a mom. They said that there are terrorists inside the base. I was sure it was his imagination. I didn't believe him first. But because we didn't see anything on TV at that point. But after a while, it's about seven and 10 minutes. He told us, Mom, I can hear Arabic language outside. I love you all. It's over. And these were his last words. Since then, we know it's a little bit. You haven't heard anything? After five hours, we received a video from the Hamas, which Ron is seen clearly uninjured, being kidnapped and taken into Gaza Strip with his two friends. So we know that he was uninjured. But since then, we haven't heard anything. And we are very worried because Ron is asthmatic. Yeah, I understand. He has severe bronchial asthma, right? And he doesn't have his inhaler with him. Well, you don't know if he has his inhaler. No, he doesn't have his inhaler. But we don't know if they provided him his inhaler. We don't know anything since then. And of course, the Red Cross hasn't managed to see him and tell you anything. No, they haven't reached him. We know that they haven't reached him. And I'm sure you must be thinking every day, you know, how are you going to get your son back? How are you going to get him out of there? I mean, what are you feeling when you see the way the troops are killing Hamas terrorists every day? We've only had one person successfully rescued. What do you want the government to do? We just want them to stop. We want to have some kind of solution for this situation. You cannot kill all the terrorists in such a short time. And when you have 130, about 110 living civilians with the hands of the terrorists, we want this nightmare to end for us. We don't know if he's alive. He's dead or alive right now. But we have to believe that he's still alive. And we just want him back. We want him alive. We don't want him as, you know, we don't want him dead. We want him alive. And we think that if this war will go on like this, we won't get him back home alive. And, you know, it's something that I cannot even imagine. That he is in there, and I cannot help him. And our government doesn't help him. Just stop this war and do some kind of ceasefire and bring our hostages back and then do whatever you want with the Hamas, but not on our son's head. I understand. Tell me a bit about Ron. What is he like? Ron is very smart. He is very friendly. He wants to be a lawyer when he finishes his military service. He loves animals. He's such a kind person. I'm sure that he helps the others there. And I trust his personality to deal with this situation because I know that he can deal with it. I don't, you know, it's the worst place to be on earth right now, I think, the Gaza Strip. But I know, I trust him. I know that he will be OK when he comes back. We will, you know, if he's not injured, if he's not killed, he can go through it and be OK. He needs to be back with you. He needs to be back with his family where he belongs. All right, Mayan, thank you so much for talking to us. I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Thank you, Mayan. Mayan Sherman there. Her son, Ron, is being held by terrorists in Gaza. Well, at least 360 people were murdered by terrorists at the Nova Music Festival near Reyim on October 7th. Some, though, did manage to escape with their lives. Among them, Arad Frugta. And he's also the co-founder and CEO of a company called Saigo.co.il. And he's with us now. Thank you for being with us. So tell us your story. What happened to you on October 7th? So for me, on October 7th, we were at the Festival with 14 friends. And we were partying, having a great time. And 6.30 came. The alarms went off. The DJ stopped the music and started shouting, Ceva Dom, Ceva Dom. I was a front line in front of him dancing with one of my good friends. And immediately, we said, OK, we have to find the rest of our friend group and think of what's our next plan is to do from here on. We walked. He dragged me to our friends. I was very ecstatic. I had no idea what was going on. We found our entire friend group. And basically, one friend told us, listen, we have to run away. This is before we knew any terrorists were there. We had to run away and get into the car and drive away. We got into the car and we started driving. We toured the road. And we passed seven minutes. We encountered around six terrorists pointing at us and shooting us at the zero range. We all ducked. We were all able to survive. We continued driving. A few minutes later, we get to another gun point. Two terrorists on the side of the road pointing and shooting at us. That's when they shot the engine of the car. And one of my friends was starting to scream, I got shot, I got shot. We stopped on the side of the road. And we all went directly out of the car. We held him while he was bleeding out of his leg because the car stopped moving. And we hid in these bushes. There, we saw this civilian who came to, from God to help us somehow. He saw us and he said, listen, I know this area. We have to go deep into this banana field that's nearby and hide there. And basically we went down and we, while we were holding up our friend and when he's bleeding at us, and we're just, we hid for four hours until someone came to rescue us. Wow. From there, we were able to manage this. So you had to hide for many hours. How do you feel? I mean, it was two months ago now and you must go over it in your head again and again. I mean, what are your feelings about that day and how you were so lucky to escape with your life? It could have been very different. It's so weird because we were there with 14 close friends. We're saying God, they all were okay. And one of the people I know that was there, that wasn't with our friend group. I met him, I danced with him and I just started working with him. A few days ago, he was found dead and it's just crazy because every time you think of, I'm so lucky to be alive, that then you think the other day is why I'm alive and someone else isn't. Like why am I here and someone else has died or was kidnapped? And if you're so close to that encounter, it could have been me and like every, like an inch here and inch there a minute before, a minute later, it could have been me and it's just like it's so, it's just crazy and telling the story and I can't believe it, it actually happened to me. It feels like a scene from a movie or I can't imagine it actually happened to a human being. And what is Zygo? Tell us what you've set up and how that is helping people. So Zygo is my startup. I found me and my good friend, we founded it around a year ago. We were developers, we worked on it to be created from scratch up and basically it's an event planner to help people organize their events. Our first encounter was parties to help people create parties, find them all the suppliers and all the people they would need for their event. And after the October 7th that happened, we wanted to do something different. My, me and my dad, we were supposed, when I was supposed to have a New Year's party and it was supposed to have like this crazy event that's supposed to all go through my platform and it was like a father and son kind of like working together. It was like a really wholesome thing. And after, after I was there and after everyone's happening in the country, we knew he had to change it, got to change it. So today we changed our event platform from just being around setting tickets, finding the suppliers and helping you create an event. We're helping you also create another level of event, a fundraiser. Me and my dad, my dad was working very hard, working very hard with also the ICF to create this amazing event to show hope of a better tomorrow and being able to raise a good enough capital so we're able to help the children that were hardly injured and the children that one of their parents has passed away. It's, there are so many stories that I can't bear to hear and these kids have nowhere to go now. Well, it's great that you've been able to take that horrible day and channel it into something positive and now you're helping others. And goodness me, you must go over that in your head a lot what happened that day. But thank goodness you escaped with your life, Arad. Thank you very much for talking to us. Arad Fookta, he's the CEO of Zygote, which is helping survivors of the October 7 attacks. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Well, the Israeli cities of Starrot in the South and Kiryat Shmona in the North have been practically emptied of all of their civilians because they are right in the middle of war zone. Well, a bit of a treat for the children who have had to leave their homes because they will be playing a special football match tonight up in Al-Taliya. They'll be playing what's known here in Israel as the artist's team, writers, painters, actors. They all play on a football team here and one of the team's members, actor, Oshry Cohen, is with us now, Oshry. I see that the game is just getting underway over there. Oh, yeah, we just finished playing and it was 10-10. It was a tie. The kids played really good and we tried our best, but they were really good and we made it to 10-10. 10 goals each. That's a lot of goals. Yeah, yeah. We're regivers, you know, it's all about giving. Fantastic. Did the kids appear to be enjoying themselves? Yeah, it feels like they're very happy right now. We have the privilege to bring smiles into their faces, beautiful young kids that, you know, get out of their homes and their life in a way is now stuck and if we can do that to them and if we can help in any way, we are more than happy to do that and it felt really good. And of course, you're a very well-known actor here in Israel and I'm sure a lot of them are very excited to see you. Yeah, and I was very happy about that. For me to come here, I feel like I have some kind of a gift that I can bring to someone and in these days, it's very important to do that and we can see, I think the biggest thing that I feel in this war is that the people of Israel come together in so many ways and for me, when they asked me to come here and play, I didn't even think twice, I was just, yeah, of course, let's do it. In my neighborhood, I live in Tel Aviv, in the center of Tel Aviv and I see so many people from the north and from the south and I meet them and I talk to them and I try to help as much as I can and from here, I want to hug them and tell them that hopefully it will be all right and we are here for them and we are artists because of them. Who is an artist? What are you as an artist if you don't have an audience? And I hug them, I love them and I'm happy for what we did here today. Oh, that's really nice to hear. I'm wondering though, when is the penalty shootout going to happen? Can't leave it at a draw. Oh, wow. Yeah, so we said that next time and next game and for the kids, it was amazing because now they know that there's gonna be another game. So they were so happy. So, yeah, we're gonna make another match only for that. That's great to see and I'm sure you made a lot of those kids who've had to leave their homes for more than two months now, very happy. So thank you very much. What's your comment? Great to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, on October 7th, three members of one family, the Calderon family were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Father Orfex, daughter Sa and son Erez. Although Sa and Erez are thankfully back home now with their mom, but their father remains in Hamas captivity. In this report, Sa tells her older sister Gaya about what happened and about the conditions she was held in captivity and the few, of course, she and her brother have fought their father still a hostage. Welcome to Gaya's vlog, take one. I was with Sahar and Erez this whole time. And I've been away from them for a day now. So let's see what they're doing. Erez, you're famous now. Can I take a picture with you? I pushed it in my mouth. Cutie. Want to make a plane? Is it recording? Yes. Gaya, Gaya, come on. What, are you serious? Yes. Heck, what am I? Three years old? Patent and captivity. I'm back to the age of six. Come on. That's how it feels. Do you want to talk? What will I tell them? Let's maybe tell what happened in the Kibbutz. Because, you know, there are a lot of stories. True. The fear you experienced there. Yes. Do you understand the fear of death? You know that mom came to the Kibbutz and then she found your and dad's shirt behind the safe room where you escaped from the window. Not behind. No. In the bush. In the bush, yes. And she found the shirt and I was freaking out. Then when she was free, she came back and told me what had happened. They just got out and dad told her, take off your shirt because it was white. They were both wearing a white shirt. Dad and her, he told her, take off your shirt because it stands out. Because there were a lot of holes in the bush, it was badly hit. I don't know how they didn't catch us for two hours. Yes. And we saw the whole thing. We were in the first neighborhood. The first row in the Kibbutz that they entered. They entered in a crazy rush as if they were drunk from... It said some of them took drugs. Makes sense. Hard drugs. Yes. That's what made it possible to be so. Crazed. Animals. Without thinking about it. They didn't have to think. It was like living in a movie to them. You understand? It was like I was in a movie. The bush they were hiding in was in front of the fence. Where all the terrorists entered from. They saw all of them. From this side there was a road that everyone passing by could see us. So we went right into the bush and crouched down and we were quiet and I couldn't move. I was uncomfortable. I lost sensation in my legs. When did you split up from Dad? Because you said he told you to run to another place and you didn't notice. Dad told us when we actually got to the bush. He said if someone catches us or grabs us we run over there. He showed where we set a place. Eris and Dad ran there as we agreed and I couldn't move because of my legs so... Oh you tried to move and couldn't? Yes I couldn't move and my feet were showing so someone was actually standing in front of me and I also only saw his feet. And I saw that he had a weapon and he shot right in my direction. He shot near your feet? Yes he shot and then I got out of that bush. Then I saw that they were taking Eris. Oh really? I saw that. You didn't tell me that? Didn't I tell you? Oh you actually saw Eris being taken. I saw a boy with a black shirt because he was wearing a black shirt and one or two people just took him and he went. These the children put them down and leave them here without arming them. Those ones without hurting them don't hurt them. Eris before they took him he tried to climb. It was like a space between two walls and he just climbed with his legs and hands. He tried to climb to the roof. He almost reached the roof. But some terrorist came in and said to him, get down. No. No? He said that a terrorist came to him with a gun like that. Pointed at the gun and told him come. Oh okay. As if to climb down. Wow. What a smart boy he was. Yes. I just remember him shouting. I don't know if he shouted but he said enough, enough, enough. The guys are careful with these ones. And dad, you haven't seen him? I didn't see dad at all. Even when I ran away. I don't know, I didn't see him. I guess he was running fast so I didn't see where he went. Eris saw dad being beaten badly. Yes, he saw them dragging dad on the floor. Oh he saw him being dragged on the floor? I think that's what he told me. I saw my father's Jeep on fire. Then within 15 minutes the whole neighborhood was filled with all the citizens of Gaza. They opened the gate there. It's like I was inside Gaza. That's how it felt. Only in your house, in the yard of your house. Yes, yes, in my safe place. I heard lots of gunshots and screams from all around. I was stressed out. How stressed? I thought they were going to kill me. I said well, I'm going to die. Then suddenly I ran to the other side because I didn't know what to do. And I thought that I would be able to escape from there. Then I came there and 10 men, terrorists, just looked at me and then they approached me and I sat down on the floor. To show them that, do what you want, I'm with you. No, I was just scared. Then two terrorists just picked me up and took me and put me on a motorcycle. At half past nine, were you still at the kibbutz? At ten they took me. Now that Sahar is back, we know exactly what's happening there and we know that it's impossible to survive something like this for so long. We were terribly worried about him, terribly. Especially since the only thing we know is that he was beaten like crazy and probably injured. I can't believe they settled for letting him bleed a little. I don't know, the situation there is not good. Physically, the food, the water, the conditions. Dad is in danger because hostages do not receive even the basic needs to survive. We really worry about our father and we want him to come back. He deserves to see his family. All the people still there, they deserve to come home. It's not just our father, it's the fathers of many families. Yes, Eris saw that he was in a bad condition. I also know from Sahar and Eris that the idea is constantly bombing. It's right next to them. It doesn't matter where they are. It's really incessant and scary bombings. I'm going to bug Eris a bit. What are you filming? Make a pretty face. Eating donuts for Hanukkah. Handsome. If you didn't know, Sahar, when she came out of captivity, she looked like a model. Absolutely not. As if she'd come off the catwalk. Absolutely not. Wow, God. When Sahar and Eris came back, I think it was a crazy moment. Sahar looks at me and says, I love you. I love you. I grabbed her head and told her everything is fine. I'm here. And finally, I could calm her down and take care of her properly. You see that these are the same children, the same siblings that you really waited for. Just with added fears, not feeling comfortable, not feeling safe anywhere. It's the fear of going out. It's the fear of sleeping alone in the dark. It's not trusting anyone. It's a great trauma they experienced. In my opinion, we'll never go away. And everyone will find their own way of coping. One family, partially reunited. Stay with us tonight. 24 News, Caleb Bendervidt is here next. In a state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Special broadcast on I-24 News, I'm Caleb Bendervidt. It is day 65 of Israel's war against Hamas. And after over two months of fighting, the IDF campaign is showing some real progress in its battle to destroy the terror movements hold over Gaza. Israel's military saying today they struck over 22,000 targets in Gaza since the start of its offensive and killed some 7,000 Hamas fighters. As Israel secures its control of the northern part of the Gaza and extends its reach now into the southern half, reports that dozens of Hamas fighters have surrendered to IDF forces. But that does come at a price. With Israeli combat fatalities in Gaza rising now to 98 and at least 559 wounded. Hamas also still retains the ability to fire rockets at southern and central Israel. With the IDF saying the terror group is exploiting its designated safe zones in Gaza as launching sites. In northern Israel, as Bullah also continues to fire rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles across the Lebanese border. Six Israeli soldiers suffered light to moderate wounds today from his Bullah drone attack on a base in the western Galilee. With the IDF responding with airstrikes at targets in southern Lebanon linked to the Iran backed of militia. Now here's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a clip released just this evening on the latest developments in Gaza and also a message for the foot soldiers of Hamas. In recent days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces. They lay down their weapons. They surrender themselves to our heroic soldiers. It will take more time. The war is ongoing. But this is the beginning of the end for Hamas. And I say to the Hamas terrorists, it's over. Don't die for Sinwar. Surrender now. And joining us in studio, we have Shaul Yanai. He's an expert in Middle East policy and a senior researcher at the Forum for Regional Thinking. And Guy Azrael, our I-24 News senior editor. And Guy, we heard the Prime Minister himself just saying that Israel, the IDF, making advances into Gaza is significant. And talking about this footage that we're seeing, dramatic footage of Hamas fighters, terrorists seeming to surrender in mass in some cases, in some areas. What do we know about the situation, the developing situation in Gaza now? Right. So as you mentioned, the IDF is operating in various fronts across the Gaza Strip. If we can show you the map very quickly here. Well, first, we would like to see the entire Gaza Strip. But focused now is on the city of Gaza and the main focal point for the IDF right now. Still in the north. Right. Still in the north. This is Gaza City. And one of the main symbols of Hamas in this city is the Palestine Square, a major hub of governance of Hamas in the heart of Gaza City. This is, by the way, not in the neighborhood of Sajaya, but rather more to the west. In recent days, the IDF, taking over that square completely last night, even lighting Halakha candles for the Jewish holiday. And we also have some drone images of how the IDF has completely managed to retake this square. A lot of damage there. And this is a symbol, just like those terrorists that you mentioned, handcuffed in their underwear. This is one of the many messages that the IDF is trying to send to the people of Gaza, mainly to the senior Hamas operatives. We've got your major strongholds. And the major fighting is taking place right now in Hanyunis, that is the second largest city in the Gaza Strip. Right. And of course, as we said, Prime Minister Netanyahu, actually telling the Hamas fighters, the lower ranks, give yourselves up rather than face likely death. Well, we also mentioned that there was fighting again or a rocket fire across the border, a drone fire in the north. Let's go to our Zach Anders, who was in northern Israel just by the Lebanese border. And Zach, again, we see his baller continuing to step up its attacks using a drone now to inflict some damage in Israel. And of course, Israel responding. Hi, Clev. They did respond to this earlier attack today with some forceful retaliatory strikes at Hezbollah positions dotted along the northern border, this in southern Lebanon. The drone itself, once more information is released, will be pertinent to understand the type of equipment used. Hezbollah calling this a suicide drone. It's likely, like in previous strikes, that this is an Iranian supplied piece of equipment that's laced with it, laden with explosives as it tries to remotely hit targets inside the Israeli airspace. Hezbollah says they incurred a direct hit. The IDF says no, it was shot down. But the damage does still appear to have inflicted damage nonetheless, with two troops moderately injured and several others wounded with shrapnel impacts and smoke inhalation injuries. All right, Zach Gander's there in northern Israel. And as you said, maybe still some information forthcoming on that drone attack that was today. Let's go now south to our Pia Stekobah, who is on the Israel Gaza border in the town of Asteroat. And Pia, Prime Minister Netanyahu sounding quite confident this evening, just in the past hour about progress being made in Gaza as the battle there. As the IDF seems to be making some progress in its advance. Right, Kalef. Well, we have seen that fighting is taking place really all throughout the Gaza Strip. What we've seen here throughout the afternoon and the evening are heavy fighting in the northern part of the Gaza Strip in Bed Hanon and Bed Lahia. We also do know that fighting is taking place in Chajai in Gaza City. And also, and this seems to be the focus of the new stage of the operation in Khan Yunus. Khan Yunus is the second largest city of the Gaza Strip. The largest city in the south. And this is where Israeli troops are pushing forward because this is where they expect significant Hamas functionaries and leaders to still be located and possibly also the 137 hostages that might be in those tunnel systems there that the Israeli army in the last consequence plans to destroy. Now, this is day 65 of this war, but Hamas is still showing, showcasing that it is still able to fire rockets onto Israel. What we've seen here is about six rocket alerts in the south here throughout the day, which is significantly less than what we've seen in recent weeks and also in recent days. There was a low of about 20 hours from yesterday until these rockets resumed at noon today. They were targeting Israeli communities alongside the border and also here the city of Sterot. But there were no reports of any injuries or casualties here. Meanwhile, the situation in Gaza, the humanitarian situation for the civilians, is deteriorating. The UN's World Food Program says that it is not able to do its job anymore because it's simply not sufficient aid that is coming in to the Gaza Strip. Israel still holds up its accusation to Hamas. That Hamas is in fact taking away humanitarian aid to use for its own infrastructure. However, civilians, the sentiment among civilians is that there is simply also no safe place to go anymore. As I said, the Israeli troops, the ground offensive is pushing further down south now in Khan Yunus. It is an active place of fighting there and people just simply have a hard time finding a safe place to go to. Israel still provides safe corridors. This is what is announced on an almost daily basis by the Israeli spokesperson and Arabic for the army. Safe routes and also lulls in fighting in Gaza today was from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Announced at least that the Israeli army would stop fighting, stop its actions in certain parts of the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid to enter and to allow civilians to go to a safe zone that is considered to be an area in the south where it is considered relatively safe. However, the sentiment on the ground in Gaza is different. It is that people have the feeling that there is simply no safe area anymore as fighting is really continuing all across the Gaza Strip. Alright, we have seen though the idea of saying that Hamas is utilizing these safe zones to shoot those rockets. You talked about such as those today. I'm making it very difficult of course for the civilians there. P.S. Dakobach still wrote, thank you for that. Shul, I want to go back to that report from northern Israel. As Arzak Andes said, mentioned that drone obviously most likely an Iranian made drone. Hezbollah has no capability to make a weapon such as that. Let's talk about the strategy of Hezbollah, but maybe more really the strategy of Iran because that is the driving force between what's going on in the north and also with the Houthi rebels which we'll get to a little bit further in the broadcast. Well, before the war there was a secret meeting in Tehran in Beirut. And the decision that made in this meeting was that the military operation in Gaza will be back up with the Ring of Fire organization, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and if necessary the Iraqi militia in Iraq. All of them had tens of thousands of rockets aiming to Israel. Right, we should mention those forces in Iraq have been firing but at US for US linked forces. For now they are firing in the US bases and the Americans will leave the area. Now the Ring of Fire as they promised to Hamas will save Hamas from destruction by Israel after the October 7th operation. They promised them. And actually they almost fulfilled this promise because we can see from all these area missiles are firing at Israel even from Hezbollah is using its secret weapon. It's not the drones, it's a missile that's called Burkan. They develop it mainly against the Iron Dome because it's a short range missile with half a ton of explosive material. The Iron Dome cannot shoot it because it's in low, they shoot it almost like anti-tank missiles and with a lot of damages. The only way that Israel can stop it by detaining it from the air and destroying it before they fire this rocket. Now Hezbollah is conducting a limited warfare against Israel because they think, they still think that Israel is deterred by their might. Of course they have tens of thousands of rockets, some said even 200,000 of them. I'm not sure about it, but Hezbollah is playing a very dangerous game according to Iranian wishes, not Lebanese wishes because in Lebanon they are afraid from what will happen if Israel will turn its attention on its intention to all of them. Because clearly Hezbollah, in a way, it's been a distraction. It's forced the IDF to send forces in the north, forced Israel to deal with the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians from northern Israel. But that hasn't deterred Israel's real offensive in Gaza. We are coming corner that looks like more and more to the make or break moment for that offensive against Hamas. My question is, when it comes down to maybe the final showdown with the Hamas leadership in Gaza, will Hezbollah step up its attacks, use some of those bigger weapons you talked about, fire beyond the border area at targets which they have in the past, such as Haifa during the Second Lebanon War? Well, tell me something, as an expert for Middle Eastern policies, mainly in Iranian policy, I'm not sure that Hezbollah will circuit for itself for Hamas' sake. Of course, they are showing that they are supporting Hamas, shooting, firing at the northern border. Maybe some of Israeli forces are divert to the north, but just part of the IDF forces are divert most of it in Gaza Strip and doing well. And at the right moment, at the moment of truth, that's what we said, I'm not sure that Hezbollah will bet on everything that he have against Israel because they can sacrifice Hamas. It's not a problem for them. Because Hamas is Sunni and Hamas failed them during the Civil War in Syria, so it's okay if Hamas is sacrificed for the greater good. It's always Iranian good because Hezbollah knows that if it will be a total war, it will be a destruction for many of his strongholds and finally, let's not forget. Hezbollah just finished or just ended his involvement in the Civil War in Syria. He lost there 3,000 young people and more than 10,000 wounded. It's about 45% of his fighting force. And every family, every Shia family in Lebanon lost their sons and husbands in Syria. I'm not sure that they can suffer that casualty. Just to that point exactly, we're hearing from IDF Chief of Staff, Herzli Alevi just moments ago, well, he visited the troops on the northern border this evening and he says, we need to return to a different situation both in the north and in the south, both for security and a sense of security, obviously something that the residents, they care a lot about should they be forced or want to eventually go back to their homes. He says, there is a military way of doing so. The beginning of that is what you're doing there, what the troops are doing in the north right now, killing Hezbollah operatives. He says, this needs to end with a very clear change in the situation, obviously, still very far from that. And we heard Defense Minister Yav Galant saying that Hezbollah needs to go back to northern parts of Lebanon We will see what sort of pressure can the Israeli government apply on Lebanon for Hezbollah to do so. For now, Hezbollah is well on Israel's borders. Right, to bring this back to Gaza, a show makes the point that it looks like Hezbollah won't go all the way. Iran, its patron is willing to sacrifice Hamas for, I guess, the good of the greater struggle, the great of Jihad. Let's bring that back to the morale of the foot soldiers of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, because we are seeing some surrenders there, especially in northern Israel, where apparently they've been cut off maybe from the main command in Gaza, in northern Gaza. If they feel, if those men in the tunnels there feel that Hezbollah is not going to come to their rescue at the end of the day, is that going to be one more factor breaking the morale of those Hamas fighters, those foot soldiers in Gaza? This is one of many factors. The IDF is showing off its achievements. One of them is those handcuffed, almost naked Hamas terrorists. By the way, not all of those that we saw in those pictures are Hamas terrorists, according to the information that we're getting from the Israeli intelligence, between 50 to 70% of those arrested were not Hamas operatives. That still leave 52, 30% of them. I think we should mention that they're stripping up their shirts so that to make sure they're not all on the carrying suicide belt. Yes, and actually the National Security Advisor, Tzachia Negbi, was addressing this in a radio interview this evening, saying we will not see these images anymore because they do not serve anyone. I'm not sure that is correct because it certainly serves the Israeli target of showing that Hamas is losing its control. And these are part of the methods that the Israeli is using. Also, the taking over of these major strongholds of Hamas, also major symbolic parts of areas in Gaza. Governance structures, we saw courts, we saw government buildings, et cetera, et cetera. That is part of the Israeli goal. Breaking the spirit, breaking the morale. Breaking down both the spirit and any chance for Hamas to control the operatives in Gaza. And we heard some of them in the north, indeed, were saying the reason we gave up was the fact that we lost control with our commanders in the south. You studied some of these terror movements outside of Israel. And there's no question, when you look at those senior figures, Yixi Sinwar, Mohamed Def, their willingness to die for their cause. That's really not a question, unlike the leadership maybe in Qatar. These people have that mentality of Daesh, but how much is that permeated among the lower ranks of Hamas, where we do see at least some of those people in the north saying we are going to surrender rather than fight to the death, rather than be martyrs? We forget that Hamas is not a monolithic organization. It's based on Hamula and families, extended families in certain areas in Gaza Strip. And even the battalion of Sojaia or Jibalia are based on the cities or the inhabitants of this area. And when you strip them from their main hood, Rajeal in Arabic, taking the clothes, it's not killing them. It's to send two messages. First of all, if you're surrounded, you can be alive. If not, you will be dead. The second one, you are not a man anymore. It's a strong symbol in Arabic language, in Arabic metaphors. Now, they are not fighting anymore for Sinwar or Mohamed Def, because those who fought for them, the Nohba, most of them were killed. Right, the elite forces. Certainly in northern Gaza. And now we are speaking about the second and third ranks, and they don't have any appetite to fight against much better and greater force is the idea. Now we have Daniel Hogar, the idea of spokesperson, giving his briefing. Good evening. We continue to fight in the southern part of the Gaza Strip at the end of a cooperated attack of the armored corps. And the Navy commando, we have taken over the Palestine Square in Gaza. This is where the Ichi Sinwar Bureau is, government offices, assets of Hamas officials. And this is where a terror network of tunnels is. Our forces, based on intelligence, have located the terror tunnels and the strategic importance that they have from the northern part of the Gaza city to the Shifa hospital and to the main headquarters of Hamas where officials war on October 7th. And after our war have moved to other areas in the Gaza Strip, we continue to expose that terror tunnel network and recognize a major infrastructure. Hamas have invested a lot of efforts in an area where there is a college and humanitarian areas. And it invested a fortune to build the underground Gaza. We will expose and fight the terrorists. They come out of the shafts. We will kill them and destroy the terror infrastructure. Our forces are fighting bravely at a number of areas in Sajai and Jabalia, in Hanyounis area. These are main strongholds of Hamas. Heavy and difficult fights, terrorists coming out of shafts, placing explosives and firing RPGs. We have one goal of killing the terrorists. There are also fatalities and wounded for our forces to whom I regret we will continue to clear these areas. I wish to address two footages in recent days on the social media. IDF forces operate according to the values of the IDF and the spirit of the IDF. Forces on the battlefield are required to be professional and with morality will not compromise on that. In any event that doesn't stand to those values, operational and other methods will be used against those troops. In the north, fighter jets together with tanks and artillery have struck in Lebanon. We struck terror infrastructure. All of these belong to the Hezbollah terror group. If troops also struck a terror squad that attempted to fire anti-tank missiles towards Israel, we will continue to strike against any terror activity of Hezbollah. We also recognize several launches towards Israel and UAVs. The aerial defense fighters have thwarted most of these threats. The chief of staff was in the north. He met the reservists, the members of the security units. He said that the return to the communities will be in security and sense of security together with the local leadership while strengthening the security units. In the home front, we call on the public to continue and update with the guidelines of the home front command these save lives. Also this evening, remember that we have the moral duty of returning all of our hostages back home. We will continue to do everything in order to return them home. Questions? We saw in several days the images of the surrenders in Gaza, how many of them are Hamas terrorists. Anagbi says that you will not see these images anymore. Do you agree? I wish to address this. The images that you saw are in two main areas in Jabalia and Sajaya. This is where significant battles and these are our strongholds of Hamas. They're still fighting there. The fighting is not over there. There's a lot of terrorists. Hard shells there. We continue to work. As we continue to do so, there is a surrender. As they come out, a lot of people, some of them are militants that are giving away their weapons. A lot of them are other men that are just in the area. We take their clothes off because we fear explosives. This is something that we're doing through many years. And we've had instances where people detonated themselves on the forces. In this investigation that we're holding, we're also finding Hamas operatives. They're not all Hamas terrorists. And therefore what we do at the end of the investigation is supply them with clothes. We will change that if needed. And we arrest those who are members of Hamas. Some of the investigations are in the field and some of those who are not members but just civilians are being released self to where Gazan civilians are. The images that were released were not by the idea of spokesmen. We are at war and we will decide what to show out. We arrested dozens who are terrorists. I will not say how many of them, in what percentages, many of them are terrorists and this is very significant because these are terrorists in major strongholds and this is very important. This evening we published a team to deal with the day after the war. Is the IDF part of it? We hold a strategic process in the IDF, some of the things that the IDF is doing is looking at the end of the war and recommendations for the political levels as we manage the war and see towards where we want to go to. The role of the IDF is to explore the possibilities and it's the job of the political field to make the decisions. The IDF is not where it wanted to be when it comes to eliminating senior Hamas officials. We, and I separate between the ground commanders and the leadership, the senior leadership like Sinwar and Muhammad Def and Isa, the very senior leadership, those three we need to get to them. This is our job. It's clear that those three that I mentioned are significant. We need to get to them as long as it may take. We will get to them. On the field level there's a major success. We will continue to locate the senior commanders. Regarding the northern border, as the IDF increased its attacks on Hezbollah, we attack in Lebanon in such a manner that reflects what we saw in recent days. Both anti-tank launches, rockets and UAVs, we want to reach a situation where we thwart the threat before it is even directed at us to kill the squads before they fire towards Israel. And therefore we also strike from the same headquarters where those imminent from our priority is to eliminate. And he's right on the border very close to the communities. That's what we do in recent months. We clean up the Hezbollah threats along the border. And sometimes we also attack additional headquarters from which those terror activities come from. Is it an idea when will Gazans be able to return to the northern part of the Gaza Strip? How will the IDF control the southern part while the residents are still there? These are long questions. In many arenas, I will answer them briefly. As for the Khoutis in Yemen, what happens in this area of the straits of Babel Manda is very serious. The Khoutis attacked international boats that have nothing to do with the State of Israel. They're hurting the freedom of those vessels. And therefore the CENTCOM has established a special working system in order to enable free movement. This is a global problem. This is something that we agree about with our partners. And those behind this is Iran. Iran is behind these actions. Iran sponsors the Khoutis and directs them together with intelligence as well. And therefore we need to understand this is not just a problem in Babel Manda. This is a problem of the negative form with which the Iranians operate in the Middle East. We need to ensure that the interests of this State of Israel are being preserved. We will make sure to do so. Other questions about Gaza. This fighting is being operated in stages. We are now in the stage of hurting the Hamas strongholds, hurting senior Hamas officials and ground officers exposing the tunnels and another one reaching a situation where we can return the hostages back home. These are the goals of the war. All these components together are those of this stage. When this stage is over and we decide that we concluded it, we will move to the other stages that need to bring a security arena that would allow security for the residents in the south and in the north. There are other stages to this war. It relates to the decisions of who will control Gaza at the end of this war. And this is up to the political level to decide on. Thank you very much. And that was the idea of Spokesperson. We are now Daniel Hogari with his nightly briefing covering a number of issues. I'll note he discussed these reports coming out of Israeli media this evening that a team has been set up by the government to start discussions on what one calls the day after in the Gaza Strip. What kind of arrangements will be made for the administration, certainly on the civil side, which Israel does not want to be responsible for there and whether the idea for input. Much of this briefing had to deal with the discussion we had in the studio. These photographs that have emerged of Hamas fighters being stripped at least to the waist. Those that have surrendered, Hogari did point out that this is a policy of the IDF due to make sure that surrendered terrorists or suspected terrorists are not wearing explosives underneath their clothes, which has been a tactic. But noting the international negative reaction that these photographs have drawn and perhaps indicating that these kind of mass gatherings of these suspects won't be put out on photograph together in the coming. He also spoke about the situation with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, noting that they are firing mainly now on international vessels that have actually no connection with Israel despite their claims otherwise. In fact, the French Navy says that one of its warships in the Red Sea has just shot down two drones coming quote straight toward it from a Yemeni port city that is hold by Houthi rebels. As the Houthis vow to target what they claim are all Israel bound ships in the Red Sea, marking the latest escalation from this Iranian-backed militia. Now, what made the least correspond in Ariel also and has more on how the Israel-Hamas conflict has now spread both to the heart of Yemen and also those key waterways surrounding its coastline. A dangerous escalation in the Red Sea threatening one of the world's most important trade routes. The Yemeni armed forces hereby announced the prohibition of the passage of ships heading to the Zionist entity of any nationality if the Gaza Strip does not receive the food and medicine it needs. These ships will become legitimate targets for our armed forces. In our effort to ensure the safety of maritime navigation, we warn all ships and companies against dealing with Israeli ports. Within hours, that threat came true. The French Navy said one of its warships in the Red Sea downed two drones launched in its direction from Houthi control territory in Yemen. Meanwhile, Washington has reportedly urged Jerusalem not to respond to recent attacks by the Houthis. But Israeli National Security Council Chairman Zachary Eneghbi said in an interview on Saturday night that if the international community does not deal with a threat posed by the Houthis, Israel will be forced to act. This is essentially a naval blockade. Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with President Biden, the German Chancellor and other world leaders and informed them. Israel is giving the world time to prepare to prevent this because this is a global issue. If they don't act, then we will. Up until now there have been no casualties as a result of multiple Houthi drone and missile attacks on Israeli territory or on international ships operating in the Red Sea. The Houthis' goal is believed to be forcing the international community to pressure Israel in stopping its war against Hamas by jeopardizing trade routes in the region. So far, only more nations have joined in the effort to thwart Houthi attacks as the escalation at sea continues. So the Houthis now representing something new for Israel, a new threat, the southernmost, perhaps, tier of that Iranian-directed ring of fire you mentioned earlier. So far, Israel and the international community has handled these rockets only as a defensive measure, not taking offensive measures, not deterring the Houthis, just basically defending against their attacks. You heard Sakhi at Nekb, Israel's national, well the head of Israel's National Security Council say if the international community doesn't at some point take some, I guess deterrent action, Israel is going to have to act here. Is that realistic? We're talking about a country thousands of miles away from Israel. Well, it's realistic, everything is realistic in the global world, but there was one offensive when Houthi missile Arsenal was hit by missiles that nobody... Right, there was some reports claiming it could have been an Israeli attack on Yemeni soil, which has never happened unprecedented, but it's not clear if that is the case. The Houthis just ended a bloody war and a civil war in the last decade. Yemen is destroyed or ruined and thousands of people are dying from cholera, starving and they don't have healthcare and almost anything. But there is something very interesting. Last month, Saudi Arabia stopped paying the Houthis the salary of the government of Yemen. According to the ceasefire agreement... Well, I just want to clarify for our viewers, Reverend Farley, that was part of the arrangement. The Saudis entered to end that civil war between the Houthis and the government. The Houthis is talking about one of the most important sea routes in the world, oil, gas, and almost everything goes to the Red Sea and they are also affecting the economy of Egypt to stopping the ships arriving to the Suez Canal. So it's much more a problem of the other countries than Israel and actually they put a lot of pressure on Saudi Arabia to continue financing them or at least give them part of the revenue from the Yemeni oil field that they are controlled by the opposition to the Houthis. I think Israel is just part of the reason they are doing that. And the Saudis ask Israel in the United States not to open a war or do another front. They will handle it because they want the ceasefire on the end of the war between them and the Houthis will continue because, well, they lost the war to the Houthis. They don't want a continuation of war. They want to build Saudi Arabia and not to fight against the Houthis. Alright, well, let's stay focused on the Gulf but move from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to another very key country in this conflict there in the Gulf and that is Qatar. Which of course has been the main mediator of efforts to free the Hossages, successful in one case and some of the Hossages of course we should say while enacting that temporary ceasefire or humanitarian pause, whatever word wants to use. Now the Prime Minister of Qatar did speak today. He said that efforts to mediate another ceasefire and a deal to free more Hossages are continuing but also warning that the window opportunity is closing. And of course continuing Qatar's policy of primarily criticizing Israel for the current situation. Here is Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Tani, the Qatari Prime Premier speaking today at the Doha Forum. Those have been released through negotiations. They were not released because of the military campaign. Right now declaring the objective to release for this military campaign as for releasing the Hossages has proven its failure. For more than 60 days, no single hostage being released. There was just one case that's been released safely and the last rescue mission that the Israeli claim led to the killing of the hostage. For the way forward, we are going to continue. We are committed to have all the hostages being released, but also we are committed to stop this war and to stop the bombardment of the innocent Palestinians. It always takes two parties to be willing to such an engagement. Unfortunately, we are not seeing the same willingness that we had seen in the weeks before. Of course, no acknowledgement from the Qatari Premier there show that it was Hamas that broke the last ceasefire and also started this conflict that led to it. But Israel is in a difficult position here. On one hand, Qatar has been a main supporter of Hamas, continues to host Hamas leadership there within his borders. Leadership that some Israeli officials have said could become targeted in the future. On the other hand, Israel needs some kind of mediator with Qatar if it wants, for example, to free more hostages in a deal. So going forward, hearing comments like that from the Qatari Premier, how should Israel be relating to those? Well, for meanwhile, Israel has to use Qatar as mediator to bring the Gitna pair back home. But in the long run, everybody knows that Qatar is the main problem in the Middle East. Not just Israel, you see it. Even the Jifrin said and the Arab and the other. I'm going to qualify. Let's say Iran is the main problem. Qatar is a part of that equation. The Arab Middle East. Well, Qatar maintained a very good relationship with its organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, and with Iran, while they have a very good relationship with the United States and the Western countries as well. But as the Gulf States, most of the Gulf States, see, also see Qatar, Qatar cannot be part of the solution in the Gaza conflict. Right. Because it's the problem. It's part of the problem. It's not just a part of the problem. It's a central part of the problem, as some of them said, because of its relationship with Hamas, they are the economic patron of Hamas. And in the last 20 years, it's the center of Hamas Brotherhood, I'm sorry, Muslim Brotherhood in the entire region. Now, Mohammed bin Salman, the heir of Saudi Arabia, asked the Amir of Qatar to stop financing Hamas and stop supporting Hamas. But he was rejected. It was in the Riyadh summit two or three weeks ago. And he was rejected because Qatar sees itself as, well, one of the superpower of the Middle East, not because of its size. They are using soft power for that. Because it's actually a defense shield for Qatar against their rivals, like Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. So they want to be in the focus on the middle of everything, also with the Israeli Arab conflict and Palestinian Arab conflict. And because they are afraid that without that, they will lose their relevance and their power. Well, certainly, they remain in the thick of things right now, mainly because of the issue of the hostages. You can open that line. And of course, we did see this release of these hostages in that largely Qatar-mediated deal two weeks ago. Now, some two weeks after their release, some of those hostages who were freed from Gaza in that deal are starting to speak out about what they suffered at the hands of their Hamas captains. During their time in Gaza. Now, we have some of that testimony in this report, which is adapted from Israel's Channel 12 News. Let's take a listen. My name is Ophelia Roitman. I'm 77 years old. I grew up in Neroz. From there, I was admitted to the tractor. I was in the tractor in the tractor's trailer. At home, they did me a lot. I had a lot of problems. My name is Margalit Moses. I was admitted to Neroz in Shabbat on October 7th. I was sent to Minhara. I used the tractor at night. And I took it with me, so that I could go to bed. And he was the other one who had the time-lapse and took the tractor with him. Do you know what happened to me? I wrote with a small brother and one of my best friends. I was in the tractor. I was in the tractor for 54 days. The women who work as a tractor. The women are very difficult. But I'm talking about whether it's the tractor, whether it's the family, whether it's the mentality. It's difficult. The women are difficult. Every day, he comes to sleep. It's not normal for him. 0 years at night. The women are angry and the tractor is angry. He's just happy. When I was in the tractor, he went to bed. We came to eat rice and bread. I was very hungry. For the first few weeks, I thought that I was hungry. Because I was hungry, I was almost full. I was almost full of food. Food was very important to me. Whether I have a problem or a problem. I remember the story of Shoa. I eat healthy food, especially food that I eat. I didn't do it for 49 days. There were physical problems. And every day that passes, it becomes more and more difficult. But the situation of having problems in buildings or where they are not found, it's a very difficult situation. And if it's difficult, it's not difficult. I ask, I know that there are a lot of workers on this line. But there are other people who are very willing to live outside. I ask that you do a lot, a lot of effort in order for everyone to come out. The days are very difficult. One day it will be like the last week. And Anna, you know, first of all, I ask everyone to come back home. And after that, if there are no jobs, I ask them to come over there. I ask them to go there. I ask them to come back home. How many more? And there you know, I hear it again. We cannot forget the message of bring the hostages home now. Guy, I want to talk to kind of an interesting update that relates to a lot of what we've been talking about. Some of the issues, the situation in Gaza, also the West Bank, the day after and how Israel is going to start maybe looking forward, not just to what the current situation, the combat situation in Gaza. Right, so since October 7th, this is very important to stress to our viewers all the Palestinian workers from the West Bank have been banned from being able to cross into Israel with the exception of a few hundreds considered for very vital works in Israel. And today the social economic cabinet has voted on whether to bring them into Israel or not while the vote was unanimous against the decision to do so. That is a recommendation to the security cabinet who will make the ultimate decision later. The considerations here are various. The first one is the fact that on October 7th much of the intelligence that was used was obtained by Gazans who were allowed to enter Israel. Every day through the errors crossing I saw them in Ashkelon on a daily basis, thousands of them that came for work. Most of them perhaps did come to be able to provide for their families, but many of them have used that goodwill of Israel and of the Israelis who let them into their homes to collect very detailed information to be used for this Hamas slaughter. In some cases very detailed maps of which homes have dogs, how many residents in each house, sometimes who has weapons, they had such detailed information and that was very useful for those Hamas terrorists. There is obviously a fear that similar information will be obtained in the West Bank as well. We know that many thousands of West Bank residents go into Israel for work every day. This is obviously very important for the Israeli economy as well as for the well-being of those West Bank residents. We know that Hamas is extremely popular in the West Bank. Recent surveys show Hamas was even more popular in the West Bank than it was in Gaza when it comes to the support for this massacre, regardless of the devastating results following this onslaught and what they have done to the people of Gaza. Nonetheless, so many in the West Bank support Hamas and you can imagine that there is certainly a fear that those workers who enter Israel on a daily basis and not to mention we have seen such a surge in terror activity in the West Bank in recent months. That would encourage more of them to operate against Israel to enter Israeli homes and supply information. Shall there are other considerations here, including U.S. pressure on Israel to alleviate any humanitarian situation either in Gaza or in the West Bank too and to try to keep a lid on that situation? Yes, it's together with Arab countries that have peace treaty in Israel and Saudi Arabia has already plans for the day after. And this includes two-state solution and they think that they can force it now after what happened in Gaza. After Hamas is removed from the equation, they think Hamas was the problem. As Israel said all the time, Hamas is the problem. Well, some Israelis, of course. Some Israelis say that. And in the West Bank, there is a lot of pressure because people are not working. They don't have anything to provide to their families and they don't have enough jobs inside the West Bank also because the fish, the Palestinian Authority officials didn't build enough jobs or industries for them. They took the money for their pockets as we know that. Or to pay for terrorists. Or to pay for people. Or to pay for terrorists. But the problem is that more than 200,000 people from the West Bank are working in Israel. And the Israeli economy is dependent on them. As the West Bank economy depends on Israel, we have to find a solution for that. And to maintain the security of Israel because 7th October teaches bitter listening. And to build back the trust that obviously is gone completely for so many Israelis who don't want to employ Palestinians in their homes. Right, of course. And that's understandable, but of course, it's a complicated equation that has to start including thinking about the day after and how Israel is going to get back to its life and it's back to its life as a nation and as a growing economy as well. Much greater questions for sure. And work security, concerns over security somehow in there is going to be very difficult for any government in Israel to handle that. But that will be part of this job show. Well, again, I thank you for joining us here on I-24 News. Guy Azriel, thank you for being with us.