 We are here in Sterot, the Israeli town closest to the Gaza border, just a few kilometers here to the west. One month ago, on October 7th at 6.30 a.m., the air raid sirens here rang out. Residents took to their fortified rooms to bomb shelters, assuming that this was just another of the many rocket attacks that have been a feature of life for people here for over 20 years but this morning was different. Just minutes later, two white pickup trucks came along this road, stopped in front of the police station of Sterot inside with some 10 Hamas terrorists armed with guns, with machine guns, one of them mounted on one of the trucks with RPG shoulder rocket launches. The terrorists began indiscriminately shooting at all civilians in the area and then they also fired here where the Sterot police station stood. In the ensuing battle, seven police officers here at the station and those who rushed towards the fence were killed. Some 23 civilians in the area also lost their lives. The officers were outgunned and outmatched at the beginning and the Hamas terrorists were able to break through the station's defenses and enter into the station taking control of it. All this, well of course, thousands of Hamas terrorists began to penetrate during the entire Gaza border area, eventually killing 1,400 people and taking 240 at least into Gaza as hostages. But the siege at the police station here in Sterot extended beyond October 7th. When Israeli security forces finally were able to secure even the surrounding area, they were not certain if there were life hostages within the police station. So this siege stretched on into another day the following Sunday, October 8th while the Israeli forces tried to determine if there were any hostages here. Finally, by the end of Sunday they came to the collusion, there was no one left alive in the police station and thus they began to open fire in full force killing all 10 of the Hamas terrorists inside. In that battle, the station was so badly damaged it was determined it was beyond repair and in these subsequent days Israeli authorities leveled the entire building. As you can see, this wreckage here stands as a monument to that battle. In the center of it stands one lone Israeli flag. The battle of the Sterot police station was over but Israel's war against Hamas had just begun. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News, I'm Kaleb bin David. It is one month since the start of Israel's war against Hamas and we are here this evening in the town of Sterot just a few kilometers from the Gaza border, just over that border intense fighting going on just this very evening. We're going to bring you this special program this evening from Sterot, we'll speak with our correspondents and also people who have dealt with the situation on the ground here in this city. Just to update you just in the past couple of minutes there was rocket fire from the Gaza Strip to the center of the country to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Sitting here we were able to see the interceptor rockets launched from the Iron Dome system. We're sitting here we're hearing booms from the Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip from artillery strikes in the Gaza Strip and we'll update you in the course of the program as that news comes in. Sitting with me we have Colonel Olivia Raffowicz, the IDF spokesman in the reserves for international media, of course our Middle East correspondent Ariel Osiron, our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev. Olivier we're sitting here we're hearing I don't know if the viewers can hear it we're hearing the booms of the artillery the Israeli artillery the airstrikes we just saw fire where are we now one month since the start of this war where are where is Israel where is the IDF now in its battle against Hamas? Good evening Kaleb after one month now the Israeli army is in Gaza Strip surrounding right now the city of Gaza with many troops infantry artillery and also from the sea from the sky and from the ground we are now getting into the city itself inside where the Hamas operatives on the control and command centers of Hamas are in and we are going to destroy them it will be right now the second step at the military I would say military action after the mostly aerial part but it will be the most important thing right now we cut actually the Gaza Strip in two parts the northern part and the southern part and we ask around one million people to leave from the north to the south in order to be outside the combat the problem is that Hamas is still keeping them as hostages but nevertheless we'll continue to do what we have to do I mean to kill the operatives that we did today and yesterday and to to find the the missile places and to destroy Hamas within the Gaza city and what are their major objective and if Prime Minister Netanyahu did speak to the Israeli public just in the past hour freeing the hostages there in the Gaza Strip how does that factor in there is actually two missions the same time together one it is the ground operation very important very deep ground operation on the same time and I cannot elaborate about it the thing the the operations the missions to release all the hostages I say all of them back home it is a very very sensitive issue instead of Israel I have by myself this morning met families of kidnapped people from far as a inch fine it is a terrible situation you cannot imagine the the sorrows the pain the distress but they know and the state of Israel should know that the army the Israeli army is doing everything everything and the soldiers of the underground know it in order to release these hostages on to destroy Hamas on to kill I say I'm to I'm to kill the leaders of Hamas the operatives and at the end of the day if he is in war himself all right now we are sitting here in front of the behind me you could see an empty lot there a wreckage of a building that is the police station the former police station which I just described a few minutes ago and the battle that went on there Ariel that was the beginning of course of this this very trying difficult month let's look at how we got from there to where we are today right Kalev the entire state of Israel was surprised on October 7th besides the disastrous military failure the horrific massacre the entire families wiped out slaughtered in their homes and hundreds of families still living the nightmares their loved ones remain hostages in the Gaza Strip but as you mentioned that was only the beginning since then we're witnessing a rapidly changing and evolving war I mean the fast the first two days of the war the goal was still to free Israeli border communities from terrorists and to clear them out but already on Monday October 9th two days after the war started Hezbollah joins the war by firing rocket mortar fire and also a terror infiltration in the northern border Tuesday the third day of the war pro-Iranian militias in Syria launch mortars at the Golan Heights moving forward as the the situation progressed October 27th Israel begins sending in ground forces into Gaza that's Friday before last later that night Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen launch a combined strike against Israel ballistic missiles cruise missiles drones by the way some of those missiles were intercepted by Saudi Arabia and yesterday pro-Iranian militias in Iraq launching a cruise missile at Israel that was intercepted by Jordan today the 40th attack on U.S. installations in Iraq and Syria by pro-Iranian forces so in total Israel has been targeted by five different countries and territories six if you add the West Bank three countries other than Israel have intercepted missiles and drones launched at it the U.S. Saudi Arabia and Jordan that is a key piece of information that we need to remember moving forward and obviously there's the past month in numbers 1400 civilians soldiers police and emergency service members killed in Hamas surprise attack 5500 injured 319 remain in hospitals today 50 of them 55 of them are in critical condition 30 soldiers killed in the fighting in Gaza since it began and of course 240 people kidnapped in Gaza 30 of them babies and children minors dozens of four nationals four of the Israeli hostages have been released as well as one Israeli soldier who has been rescued in an operation inside Gaza and more than 120,000 Israelis displaced internally across the southern and northern for right a multi-front war and also a regional conflict in many ways multi-country war in a sense we can say Jonathan you've covered a lot of the previous Israeli operations in in Gaza against Hamas the other terror groups there you've been down here for most of this month on this front tell us about the experience how maybe this has been different from those previous operations it's a different thing it's it's it's not even in the same we cannot even describe it in the same words first for the first time since 2014 we're seeing a ground operation but even then the ground operation was not even close to what we're seeing now back then we're speaking of an incursion into Gaza of a kilometer and a half perhaps two kilometers to find the opening of the openings of tunnels inside the Gaza Strip which then led to Israel now we're speaking of a full-on invasion Israel already cutting the Gaza Strip into two Israeli forces on the Mediterranean coast south of Gaza of Gaza city where the Nitzarim used to be up until the disengagement in 2005 the Israeli forces coming all in of course what led to this war is nothing similar to anything we've seen I think if the Israeli public was in the Israeli leadership for years and years was worried about the the the big number of casualties which is happening in Gaza we have the tens of soldiers killed so far but but there is an understanding that this is a price that Israel has to pay in order to put this threat away because this threat has to disappear period no there's there's no judgment here this threat has to go away forever and Olivier let's fill in on some of that yeah I would address to to add that in this situation for many years the state of Israel and the army will not stop will not stop until Hamas is totally dismantled and totally disappear you know for many years for many for many a war the public opinion Israel wanted to to to go forward but all the time every time the government stopped at some point this time this time the governor of Israel has given the the approval to the army to go until the end I mean destruction total destruction and total to dismantle a Hamas organization and to kill the leaders of Hamas it will be a long war it will be a long a long a long a long war with a high price but we must do it in order to change radically the paradigm around it and situation you know when you see just behind you what happened in Zderot one of the main cities in the south now it's like a ghost city and they want us to be you know without cities without villages they want just to to push the Israeli population from the south to the center from the north to the center it's like another way of Israel destruction process with other means because they want the total and full destruction of the state of Israel this war is an existential war and that's the first time since Israel exists that we are facing such a war all right Yom Kippur war I would say also in Yom Kippur war it's different because in Yom Kippur war in spite of the terrible beginning it was between armies this time this time for the first time they attacked and they killed on purpose citizens civilians right and the goal was to yeah but the goal was to to make a huge wave of reasons right well joining us now is someone who saw first hand and almost fell victim to that brutal attack here in Zderot on October 7th of your tour a medic for McGindavid Adam the emergency medical rescue service you were here you work in Zderot you were here that morning tell us about what you experienced well I was on my way to a regular volunteering shift at seven o'clock Saturday morning Zderot while I was driving speeding a bit a bit in front of me there was a white car driving along everything was absolutely normal the streets were pretty you know empty because it's seven o'clock in Saturday morning and what happened then was that they started the bombings so the procedure is the drill is to get out of the car and lay flat on the road as I was doing there that I put the car I I hold it in front of the in front of the roundabout there was a roundabout there and the white car in front of me continued into the roundabout and I heard gunshots now that's weird you don't hear gunshots you can hear explosions but not gunshots so I was observing looking you can see that I was trying to figure out what's going on all of a sudden I see a barrel of a gun pointing at me and started shooting at me so I had no alternative but you know to make a strategic withdrawal because you're going to be dead right and this video of you running away I mean literally seconds from seconds being taken being caught by those terrorists being shot by them yeah so as I was turning away running which was shameful in my mind being an officer in the Israeli troop as X retired I mean running away from a situation is not something I'm used to that's so I just somehow I we have this procedure where we you know when you shot that and you you you crushed to the ground and you get up again so so you kind of dodged the bullets in so to speak because he was shooting a whole magazine at me okay so as I was running away I kind of flattened out on you can see it on the street and then I got up again clumsily somewhat and I kind of was very surrealistic you know it's it's kind of you know I didn't have my cup of coffee yet you know here I was shot at you know you're not awake fully awake so I'm running and I'm kind of looking for the closest wall so I can break the line of fire and then I saw on the corner of my eye I saw another vehicle coming up towards the shooting range I kind of waved to him so he turned it made the u-turn and went back right and then I continue I saw another car coming on so I went back waved to the apparently there was a woman there a young young girl with a with a brother or something and she kind of received a few shots into her vehicle but she was okay and I took her to the other side of the building and you're being almost a bit modest because anyone who sees the video of that knows you putting yourself your own self in the line of fire to save the lives of those other people and you did save the lives of those other people but let's carry it a little further because as a work for again David Adam you've also involved in saving the lives what was it like first of all were you cut when did you first realize the magnitude of what was happening and then deal with that in your job as a as a modern medic well that's a very good question I haven't been asked that yet the issue well you don't realize that the first few seconds minutes you don't realize the magnitude of the of the of the event I thought it was an isolated event right and so I just went looking for from my cell phone to call the to call the cavalry but I had no cell phone I left in the car so as I was kind of thinking that I should go back to get to grab my cell phone which I did by the way they continued on and massacre during the whole street I mean it was carnage right complete carnage and so I saw the dead bodies in the car that I didn't see dozens of killed yeah and then I went and so I decided I should you know just walk through the through buildings and and you know the trying not to be seen as much as I could be and then I went to the through the bus station and there were bodies lying there just bodies of 11 11 elderly people just one on top of the other carnage just pure murder now at this point I want to say being an officer in the army okay we're taught to shoot to protect to shoot to defend to shoot if somebody's shooting at you if you're not shot at you don't shoot to shoot a civilian or to shoot an armed armed person you need to be a psycho you need to have some kind I cannot shoot at somebody who's not armed and I'm a trained officer X retired right okay and I've been into battles I've been shot at me before I've shot but never at somebody who is armless who has no capability to answer back and this message should go through people need to understand I can't even shoot at at an animal right okay well I love animals but anyway the thing is there's something here that is different and people need to understand that all right stay with us we've discussed that this is a multi-front war we're down here on the southern front let's go to the northern front to Israel's border with Lebanon and our Mary McCullough and Mary again today exchanges a fire there but over the Israel Lebanon border that's right we continue to see Israel and Hezbollah trading fire across this border primarily using Israeli tanks but all we've also seen drone strikes happening throughout today the IDF says it's responding to a number of attacks that have come from within southern Lebanese territory these include both anti-tank attacks into Israeli communities but also a number of rockets there were some 20 rockets that were fired into northern Israel earlier today all of those were intercepted or at least fell in open areas we have no reports of damages or injuries from that rocket but we do know the IDF responded forcefully to the source of that fire and shelling along this border for a significant amount of time today it's been a bit quieter here in recent hours but still absolutely ongoing but the major escalation that we have seen is the rocket fires now for three days in a row double-digit rockets being fired into northern Israeli communities most of the communities on this northern border have been evacuated but some of the rockets are spreading far yesterday we saw them go as far south as Haifa today those rockets in the Galilee and the Golan Heights area but again just want to reiterate that we do not have any confirmations of any injuries reported from that right and Mary just a word north of that border in Beirut some signs of the U.S. trying to perhaps negotiate or advance negotiations for a hostage release yes absolutely well we saw so U.S. envoy Amos Khashen he's a senior advisor in the Biden administration he's been here on the ground inside Beirut he was meeting with both the prime minister and the president of Lebanon today and it comes as we've seen of particularly deadly week for civilian casualties here in this northern front we had an Israeli civilian was killed in Yiftah a couple days ago and then also of course we have this issue with an Israeli airstrike that killed three children and a grandmother the mother remains in hospital the IDF says it is investigating that launched a strike after it saw a suspicious vehicle but again it is investigating now after obviously that strike was extremely deadly for that family but so that's the main priority of the envoy who's on the ground now their main priority is trying to prevent further de-escalation in the region to try and prevent this war from spiraling out of control and trying to make this northern front from really turning into a war front that's the main priority but of course we do know the U.S. officials U.S. administration has been very actively involved in trying to release the hostages as we've seen Antony Blinken U.S. Secretary of State actively here in Israel and throughout the Middle East in recent weeks all right Mary McCall of there on the Israel Lebanon border thank you for that and just an update as we said just at at the beginning of our broadcast right before we came on there were rock there was rock fire towards the center of the country there are reports of rockets making impact we don't have any further information on any possible injuries we'll bring you any information that we have on that and Olivia maybe you could pick up on some of the things Ophir was saying about the challenge of course there are civilian casualties in Gaza in this kind of conflict there are the Palestinians are saying he's past 10 000 but again once again and we heard a personal plea from Prime Minister Netanyahu tonight saying telling the residents of northern Gaza to make their way to the southern half of the strap yes the operation is not over it will take time and we are going to to to go very deep deep in the Gaza city to kill the Hamas leaders and operatives it's not a simple issue for the Israeli army but we'll do it and all what happened till now all these sorrows all the instructions all the massacre all the is the reason why the Israeli army and every soldier now are doing what they are doing according to the orders according to ethics there is no other option for the state of Israel to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to make revive all these cities and keyboards around us it is a must for Israel and for the Jewish people all right then Ophir this is the last word from you about your work now with Mada seeing the having to deal with what you've had a dealt with after those events that happened to you personally well as I received as I got to the headquarters of Mada the local headquarters of Zdelot we started to get information in and and the bodies like of people are spread everywhere so we began to understand that it's not just something local next to us it's just everywhere and we started bringing the bodies we had at some point about 60 bodies on the asphalt by by where we keep the ambulances and they were just we had nothing to do with it we couldn't that's it you know you can't take them you can't leave the city you can't do anything and they wounded and they would have started and we did some on-site operations just there and there and I believe we saved some you know bullets mainly injuries of bullet wounds chest wound wounds and and some unfortunately we could not save unfortunately yes and there's but it's all we were there until very active until sunday noon time right that's where finally I think we could leave and I could go home all right well I want to thank of it to Mada from joining us of corny thank you Colonel Olivia Raffowitz from the IDF spokesperson's office but stay with us we are going out for brief break but we are going to continue our live broadcast one month into Israel the Israel's war against Hamas and we're reporting live from still out right near the front lines near the Gaza border stay with us on my 24 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 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 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 24 news marking one month of Israel's war against Hamas and we are broadcasting live from the town of sterot just a couple of kilometers from the Gaza border fierce fighting going on across that border we've been sitting here listening to the booming sounds of Israeli artillery and airstrikes and just about a half hour ago also the launching of rockets from Gaza into central Israel we saw the interception rockets of the iron dome system take to the air no reports on any injuries from the that latest round of rockets rejoining us our senior defense correspondent Jonathan reggae have still with us Middle East correspondent Ariel Osiron and joining us now is master sergeant Dean Elsdan international spokesperson for the Israel police Dean thank you so much right behind us what's left of the ruins of the sterile police station at the top of the program I discussed about the battle that went on there the loss of seven policemen in that battle this was an unprecedented event for the Israeli police something almost more like a war situation for them how talk about what kind of blow that is for the police and how they've been dealing with it and recovering and dealing with the situation here well I can tell you that it absolutely was a blow and it was absolutely a war that took place this was a Saturday morning this was a holiday weekend you know a lot of people were at home a lot of people were enjoying just what they thought was going to be a routine weekend festive in fact and on Saturday morning we saw an infiltration of terrorists they came in and rained hell on the southern communities they knew exactly what they were doing they knew exactly where they were going they came and overtook this they wrote police station and then we saw one of the harshest battles that this this area saw and it's with a really heavy heart that we mentioned that seven of the police officers fell in the line of duty and two more later fell afterwards at the hospital and you know we we talk about how does the police feel about the blow how does the police feel about the battles that took place and when I speak with them and you know I feel the same way as them we're not thinking about that stuff right now we're thinking about the mission that we have we're thinking about the families that are at home and the families that were at home when we just ran into the line of fire grabbing as many civilians as possible to safety and coming back because we knew that on October 7th we were the front line of defense we were the bulletproof vests of the country we were the first responders to arrive and police officers came from their houses many of them who lived in this area off duty they just heard the gunfire they understood what was taking place and they ran in sandals and shorts with their handgun and they battled terrorists who came armed to the teeth with rpgs with grenades and they fought like hell because they knew that we were defending not just our country but our families there was no other choice that day right and then you mentioned the police being on that day the the first line of defense because the battle coming into israel into civilians now the idea has taken the lead in taking the offense into gaza but the israel police and border police still on a front line on other fronts as well in the north of israel of course where these are tax cross-border attacks attacking civilians also in judei and samaria the west bank east drusam unfortunately a border police woman elisheva lubin getting killed yesterday talk about how the police are dealing with this ongoing challenge really stretching its resources across multiple fronts yeah the israel police is working side by side with the idf the israel security agency on any other day maybe we can say we're various agencies today during this war we're one agency because we have one goal and that's to defend israel we're against a terrorist regime a terrorist organization with an extremist ideology right i just one second and i just they were also uh red alerts going off uh rocket fire uh i believe it is directed towards the televieve area yeah hamas just said that they launched a significant barrage of rockets towards televieve okay i do want to tell viewers that if the sirens go off here in sterot we will have to interrupt the broadcast and we will take shelter though i will try we're hearing the booms now the booms of the iron dome system shooting up interception rockets we're hearing them several of them multiple if there is a red alert during this broadcast we will take shelter i will try to at least speak during the during that from within the shelter dean i'm sorry no this is a good illustration because one of the jobs of the israeli police is going to have to respond also to this rocket fire see where it lands and see if it's if it's affecting civilians yeah if we're talking about you know the spread of police forces one of the job is to respond to all the rocket impact sites to collect the shrapnel to secure the perimeter so first responders can get into the houses where some people might be injured or some of the debris might still cause harm to people who come to the sites out of curiosity or you know they start touching the the hazardous material and then we have another issue so we definitely want to take this opportunity to tell the public do not get close to rocket impact sites you have nothing to find there let the police work clear the site do the things that they need to do and you know that's one front israel police is on many fronts we're working in the different communities around israel we're still here on the front lines ins derot along the roads inside of the gaza border communities we're working in the cyber fields in order to tackle the funding and fundraising of the khamas organization that's trying to raise the funds we're not going to stop we're going to keep defending our home our family our people all right i want to go now to jerusalem and our own ottoman is there and i went in jerusalem today some very special memorial ceremonies you could say for mocking this one month anniversary of visuals war against khamas yeah you recall earlier on in the day we were at saffar square in central jerusalem near the municipality building people going lighting candles to remember the fall and to remember the victims and also of course to pay tribute to the hostages and there were of course the posters of the hostages that have become such a fixture over the past month here in israel and beyond and then at eight o'clock local time just less than two hours ago here at the hotel at the western wall an incredibly emotional ceremony organized by the families of the hostages you may be seeing on screen footage from that ceremony from the most emotional moment the singing by the crowds many many of people just linking arms of a provocative and plaintive jewish song speaking about those jews from the house of israel's it said who are in trouble who are in captivity and beseeching god to come and to save them to bring them to redemption to bring them to welfare those jews who are between the land in the sea a reference to the parting of the red sea right the sea in front of the the the the children of israel where they could have drowned and the soldiers of pharaoh at their back coming to to to slaughter them and yet they were saved again evoking that memory in in beseeching god to save those who are in captivity kalev often in the jewish tradition we sing these songs and the tisha abe have fast day in the summer in order to try to understand what suffering is to try to understand what suffering is of our ancestors to try to feel it ourselves but here kalev the suffering is present the suffering is here and so the song was all the more evocative and all the more powerful because you don't have to make that mental and psychological leap it's right here with us right right and of course most importantly is to remember the hostages and keep them in mind and bring them back home and now and jonathan picking up on what both dean and olivia said earlier one difference in this war and he mentioned a difference between the yam kippu war is the burden this is placing on the civilian population of israel we're seeing the biggest displacement of israel i think in its history hundreds of thousands of israelis both in the south and in the north being displaced and of course this massive call up that's all the time while so many israelis have been personally affected by in some way knowing either the 1400 people killed the hostages or the many wounded this is such a test of the home front exactly first let's speak of the people displaced we're speaking we're here is derot this is a city of 30 000 people there's no one here right no one supposedly there's something between one and two thousand residents who have decided to remain but a vast majority a vast majority uh all of the other border communities are empty the city of ashkelon it's a city of 160 000 people so many are still there but many have left now look at the northern communities kiria kimono also a city of roughly 30 000 people very very little people staying there that means businesses that means schools that means everything normal life that's one aspect the other aspect is hundreds of thousands of people who are on on reserve duty meaning again that they're not working they're they're not studying in the universities the businesses are closed all the farmers universities are closed we should make for the time they are closed the classes the classes so all of the the communities here which are which are a lot of them rely on agriculture for example all that is not happening so this this also has a very big economic effect of course it is a marginal it is secondary to to to the security threat but it's there it's also something that has to be addressed is the government properly addressing that the many people think that that the answers no but but this is something that has to be addressed because because once this war is over this this is something that will be present it is already present right deem before earlier i was mentioning uh this board of policemen uh elie sheva lubin who was killed stay up to death uh in drusen the truth is had this one not be broken out or have this it would not be seeing what we're seeing in gaza or lebanon we would be talking about what's happening in judae and samari in the west bank and the concerns on that front maybe just address the challenge also for the police there in dealing with that situation keeping a lid on that uh in a sense as israel is fighting on these other fronts i can tell you unfortunately terror attacks are not new inside of israel and the border police together with israel police we're working year-round in order to defend our civilians what we saw take place yesterday morning was a heinous attack on someone who was just trying to protect people they weren't trying to protect just jews they weren't trying to protect just christians they were also trying to protect muslims right they were protecting the freedom of movement inside of the old city of jerusalem inside of the capital of israel and they were killed for that they were murdered for that and what i can tell you i don't want to get too much into detail about her because you know her family is still on the way she was actually a lone soldier from the united states from the united states from atlanta years ago yes from atlanta she came because she had a love for israel that's why she came and she was actually from sadh which is not too far from here right and she's a hero that that's what i can say about her right now and that's how i want to leave it and on thursday if if all your viewers want to come to our funeral to show the support to our family to show her family who the israeli nations are it will be in jerusalem at har herzel will give you the the time information and let's show their family the israeli nation right right yeah i'm sorry dean stopped short not giving uh full explanation but in kibbutz she was part of the uh the the the kibbutz's emergency team and she was part of the of the of the group critical group of armed a few armed people who managed to to stop the infiltration and to prevent the situation from getting so much worse she was a hero on october 7th and also uh died in the line of duty actually i want to do ask you about that dean because there is a lot of israelis or feel after what happened on october 7th the sense of personal safety that a lot of israelis have uh i'm not talking about even just in terms of uh being uh being subjected to rocket attacks but just being subject to the kind of unimaginable terror attack within their homes and not just here but within all over israel that's the feeling that a lot of israelis have right and it's understandable and they should know that the police is working 24-7 around the clock on different fronts with different missions but all together it all comes down to the same one to defend them and we're going to do everything possible to defend them we've called up 10 battalions of the border police and just last week i believe it was the border police that was able to neutralize the terrorists who stabbed an officer at a gas station the reserve duty the reserve officers got there fast we're going to be there for our nation we know it's tough we know that we went through a really difficult time on october 7th but we're going to do everything possible just like that day when the police officers the men in blue the border police officers ran from all over the country to southern israel to defend the civilians that's what we're going to continue doing all right well of course uh these incidents are taking a heavy toll on the population certainly here in sterot joining us now is Ayelet Shmuel she's the director of the international resilience center of sterot dealing with social work mental health of of it let's talk about it let's talk about the impact you're someone who worked who's worked in sterot listen let's be honest sterot is a city that's had a rough couple of decades so there was already plenty of work here dealing with a whole generation that grew up having to race to shelters bomb shelters and protected rooms and now of course it was terrorists coming into those those protected rooms those bomb shelters became death traps for people let's talk about the impact then that's had on they just on the well-being of these people so i want to say a few things one um you know when we have two decades right of fire and sirens and rockets uh the flip side of trauma is resilience so these people are also very resilient okay so it's not to say that the people in sterot are all traumatized it's also to say that some of the people here um know how to handle things and know what to do in face of trauma so there's that right now dealing with this kind of a trauma it's a national trauma it touched everybody in different circles and different um i guess there's it didn't skip anybody is what i'm trying to say and what we're seeing right now is very different than the stuff that we've seen before because it feels like there's no safe space and getting people to come back here is going to be a challenge right that's what i also communities sterot people uh uh as we said uh not just maybe between one two thousand out of the thirty thousand people have been evacuated these uh kibbutzim the uh moshevin the agricultural community and dev decimated uh is it going to be possible for people to come back and live in those communities yes the answer is yes because because we're not led by by despair we led by hope we're not living in this country because we're not resilient we're living here because we actually know how to do this israel is not an easy place to live it's not for everybody but for the people in the communities that have been here we know how to come back bouncing back is what resilience is all about and i'm not saying that the incidents are the atrocities that happened here on october 7th were small but i am saying that we know a thing or two about trauma and we know a thing or two of how to come out of it and we will be better because what's holding us together is the fact that we are united right now and the fact that there's a meaning to this and because we know we know that the the only way out of this thing is to do what we've done after the holocaust is to unite is to have a meaning is to stay here is to stand up and to stand tall and i'm sorry that it sounds like i'm talking in cliches but i'm not i honestly believe it and i think we're going to have a really hard time recovery here recovery here is going to be difficult but it is possible not everyone is going to have PTSD all right if i may sure both you and i we spoke to a resident she lives about 50 yards from the police station she and her four kids two of them under 10 saw everything but she stays here she's still here so what what support do those 2000 that have stayed here and this is a ghost city without i mean it's not operating it's not functioning properly so what support are the ones who did choose to stay that's a great question so there's a ton of support and i'll explain the municipality first we have a few people here that stayed in there here since october 7th they did not leave what they do here is we're operating on personnel from the municipality and volunteers we make sure that these people are fed that they get groceries daily okay we bring it to them so they don't have to leave their homes we also have mental health professionals here in town that are that are helping we have social workers in town so the city is not completely empty people that decided to stay actually have the municipality or the personnel here taking care of them now saying that we have about 28 thousand people that are not here and in order to deal with them the the mayor decided to really create five new small municipalities in those five centers so one in elat one in atania the dead sea Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and there you can have all of the services of the through the city of sterot so we're taking care of our people it's very challenging to run a city when you're not when they're not here when your residents are not here right right so there was a diaspora stirrote now which brings me to my next point because it is the international center right i know you work with a lot of groups abroad especially jewish groups in the and receive funding from the american jewish community house well i just want to say we're healing very loud booms now right and that's one of the things that people here are going to have to especially those staying have to cope with talk about that connection especially with the jewish diaspora which we have to say is having its own rough time now right you look at what happened in los angeles just now with a 65 year old jewish man who was apparently killed waving an israeli flag on the streets of los angeles by a pro-palestinian demonstrator right so i have to say that i think if we're talking if we're comparing october 7 to the holocaust this is exactly what we're talking about it it has to do with every jew everywhere right now so it's not just a diaspora in israel it's everyone together the jewish nation and it's time to stand up and it's time to fight back and for me by saying that i don't take that lightly and i understand the dangers and i have to tell you i think i feel safer here in israel than i will do uh you know right now in la or in new york however this is the time to stand up this is the time to say no more this is a time to ask the silent majority to stop being silent and choose a side because if you're still silent you chose a side and if people don't understand that they do not get what this is about so as far as i'm concerned as a jewish israeli woman it is time it is time for the me too movement to join in it is time for the progressive movement to movement to join in to the side of good and not the side of evil it is time for people to wake up and actually look at facts and not just feelings it is time for america you know in general to wake up and when it comes to the jewish community it is time to do things that promote resilience which means you stay together you have a meaning in this you knock on people's doors and you invite the people that are outside of your jewish community to join you do not stand alone in this actually take your hand and say join us and i know the evangelistic movement will and they do already but there are a lot of other people that just need a little tap to say hey we need you make sure that people are with you do not stay alone in this and the sense of togetherness the sense of a meaning it is what starts and promotes resilience do not lower your heads this is the time for the jewish people to say never again and never again means never again all right well amen to that i want to ask you because we're if we're broadening this out we talked about the us and the support that the us is giving to israel in this conflict and the way this has brought it out in a much broader we talked about in the in the north and the situation in the northern border and the way the us is stepping in there but really unprecedented what we're seeing for example the firing of rockets from as far as way is as yemen as far as way as far away as iraq coming into israel this is by no means a local conflict even in the sense of israel's being threatened it's not only a local conflict and also israel is receiving assistance from countries that it doesn't have official relations with i mean the fact that saudi arabia downed five missiles that were launched from yemen to israel even though israel doesn't have official relations with it i think that signals that there is uh there are actors in the region there are countries in the region that are aligned with similar interests it also could explain that one of the goals of this october 7th massacre was to uh derail the talks between us and saudi arabia Hamas was explicit about that indeed Hamas was explicit about that but as the i mean you also have to add into the military equation also the hostage situation and the us is also kind of taking point on that trying to facilitate a deal on behalf of israel with the other mediator who is facilitating it on the other on behalf of the other side that's katar it is not quite clear given katar's track record if they're operating in good faith obviously we all hope to do so hope that they are but that explains why there's the diplomatic avenue of trying to get the hostages out but also the military avenue as olivier talked about earlier and both are continuing in full speed right dean we began the program back there talking about the police station the lone israeli flag planted in the middle that's that empty lot is now a symbol of the need for israel is going to have to rebuild itself after that including here in that police station that's going to become a memorial for it as a struggle both of yes both of the tragedy of those that lost their lives but also of those that put up the fight on october 7th including the israel police absolutely and that's what i really want to focus on because i don't think i spoke enough about the heroes you know we say about the stories of the officers but really it's it's so broad since the beginning since october 7th in the morning officer he got zinger who was working off duty at the music festival directing the traffic there and he took over 500 people to safety and not just that once he took them to safety he directed them through a dirt road that he found on google maps he went to the local police station he grabbed a long gun and he went back to rescue more people until he was critically injured and officers had to pull him out of there they brought him by armored vehicle to hospital and when i met him and i sat with him with his wife sitting right next to him he told me the only thing that he regrets not that he would have left three boys without a father or his wife without a husband that he couldn't go back and save more people and there's more than that there's officer portal who was battling in zakeem heavily armed terrorist when his daughter who hadn't spoken to in six years called him and she said they're they're coming after me they're coming after me and she was inside of kfar asa and she she didn't know what to do her world flipped upside down there were terrorists shooting rpgs at houses throwing hand grenades inside of bomb shelters and she and her boyfriend were running to safety he managed to grab some of his officers with him they went down to kfar asa and he managed to save her and when he saved her her boyfriend was huddling over her because she had been critically injured by gunshot wounds to her legs he pulled her out of there to safety and he kept going for more and that's the story and these stories don't end just earlier today i was with officer zimmerman that was at the front of zderot and he told me about how he lost two of his commanders that day on october 7 when he arrived he arrived from a call from his home they said just get there that's what they said just get there and he came and he got into a small hunt day that wasn't bulletproof and he kept going from place to place battling heavily armed terrorists these are officers not just the ones battling but the ones that are inside of shula which are identifying the victims they've identified over 830 victims you understand what kind of number that is astronomical and they have to open up the body bags and they have to look at these people who have been mutilated not just israelis when we say stand together with israel and that this was an act against humanity there were foreign nationals in these bags right people who had no involvement right i want to thank dean elzdan of the israel police for joining us of course ariel osaron and aya elzmuel thank you so much for your strong words we're coming to a close of this broadcast here where it started here we're all started and still wrote and as we sit here and we're hearing the booms coming from gaza and the battle being fought there the lives unfortunately being lost there and of course being sacrificed to bring security both to communities like this here in southern israel but also most important we should remember to bring the hostages back home thank you for joining us on i24 news 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 a hundred 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