 This is I-24 News coming to you live from Tel Aviv and it is exactly two months since Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel and raped, murdered and tortured hundreds of civilians and took dozens of others hostage. The death toll stands at more than 1200 while 138 hostages remain in Gaza, including 10-month-old baby Kveer Bebas and his four-year-old brother Ariel. The Red Cross has not checked on the condition of any of the hostages or the IDF has released these pictures today showing dozens of suspected Hamas terrorists who surrendered in Jabalia in northern Gaza. A stronghold of Hamas fighting is also underway in the southern city of Ghaniulis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the home of the Hamas leader, Sinwar, has been surrounded. Well, 88 IDF troops have been killed in the fighting, including the son of the war cabinet member Gaddy Eisencott. Eisencott was also the former IDF chief of staff. His youngest son, Gal, was killed after a bomb exploded in a tunnel. And a second soldier has also been killed at Jonathan David Deitch, 34 years old, from Harish. He was killed in a firefight in the south of Gaza. So the son of the former IDF chief of staff, Gaddy Eisencott, has been killed along with another soldier, Sergeant Major Jonathan David Deitch. So 88 IDF soldiers have now been killed in the fighting. Well, with me in the studio this hour, Danny Ayalon is the former Israeli ambassador to the United States and Israel's former deputy foreign minister as well. Danny, thank you for being with us. Thank you. A grim anniversary, two months today. This is the worst terrorist attack in this country's history. Some, but not all, of course, of the hostages at home. We've seen pictures out of Gaza, which appear to show dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendering, yet the group as a whole hasn't yet surrendered. How would you rate the response by Israel so far? Well, I would say, well, we are winning the war, certainly. We know with really great costs, you know, all the fallen soldiers, you know, each one of them is the whole world, and it's, you know, and we're all very saddened by that. But this is the price we have to pay for independence, for sovereignty, for a future, basically. And after this horrendous attack, Laura, that you mentioned on the 7th of October, I think it is astonishing that the Hamas has built a formidable, actually, bunkers and underground tunnels, a maze that I think is probably the biggest in the world ever for fighting. So here, there is a kind of unchartered territory for fighting, and I think the idea of doing it very professionally, and a lot of lessons learned. And basically, it's hard to say, but 88 fallen in such a very, very complex urban warfare and underground, the number could have been triple, and even four times than that. I can tell you that from different estimation that the IDF had for a ground operation in Gaza, a generic ground operation in Gaza, talked about 400 fallen in order to take over Gaza. So we're still in the middle. But it seems like the back of Hamas is near breaking, not yet, but it is near breaking. The fact is that they built this very elaborate underground tunnel. They had 17 years to do it, didn't they? And hundreds of millions of dollars of aid. That would allow them, Laura, to keep the command and control alive. But it's encroaching and encroaching, and I think once they take the center of gravity in Chanyunis, south of Gaza, which is the home of the leaders of Hamas, then I think we will be kind of a real dissolution, collapse of the Hamas infrastructure. You're the full-ware ambassador to the United States. That is always an element when Israel fights wars. It's always got the kind of pressure from Washington. We have had a kind of a list of instructions from the United States on how to conduct this war. What do you think that they'll be making of it in Washington as the war progresses? Well, I think, Laura, that the support of the United States is just almost unprecedented in the sense, in the scope. You know, this really, you know, the political umbrella in the UN and everywhere else. They have not called for ceasefire even once. Not a permanent ceasefire, but they have calls for pauses in fighting. Right. And when that ceasefire or this pause broke immediately, from Biden down, they blamed Hamas for doing that. And yes, you're right that there are some stipulations in the sense of trying to minimize casualty of civilians, which, you know, we don't need to be told, you know, we're doing it anyway. A humanitarian coming in to Gaza as well. But I think at the end of the day, it's a vital interest of the United States to eliminate Hamas as a viable organization because for their vision, now there may be a divergence here between Biden's visions and Netanyahu's vision about the day after in Gaza. But whatever is the vision, whether it's Biden's or Netanyahu's, one thing is necessary condition is to do away with Hamas. So for that, I think the Americans are still with us and they'll continue to be with us. All right, let's pick up on that in just a second. But first, let's go to Southern Israel. Our Jonathan Regev is standing by with the latest on the fighting in Gaza. Two more IDF soldiers have fallen. Jonathan, including the son of the former IDF Chief of Staff, Gali Eisencourt. Yes. And it shows you exactly what you've been speaking about in the studio. The army is progressing. The army is succeeding, but it comes with a cost. This underground warfare is unchartered territory. This is something new above the ground. The IDF is in full control wherever it enters. But under the ground, it's a different story. This is not something that, for example, the heavy vehicles can come in. And this is a territory that the IDF is unknown for the IDF. And a lot of the advantages that the Israeli army has go away once you go underground. This is the home turf of the other side of Hamas. And they are able to execute their plans under the ground. But above the ground, as the pressure mounts and mounts, we're seeing more and more of those terrorists eventually coming out of those tunnels. This could explain the images that we saw this morning in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Dozens of dozens of terrorists are rendering. And we shall see more as the operation progresses also in the area of Chanyunas. But once again, it comes to the price. Quite, Jonathan. And in encouraging scenes, as you say, coming out of northern Gaza today, this is these pictures released by the IDF from Jabalia, I believe dozens of Hamas terrorists giving themselves up. They will provide valuable intelligence to Israel. Exactly. Many of them could provide intelligence regarding the tunnel network, for example, where exactly are the shafts? What is inside? Perhaps if still Israeli hostages could be found there. So a lot of intelligence could be extracted from these terrorists. It is very important that they're caught first, as far as intelligence, and second, as far as morale, when Hamas terrorists, those still fighting, see they're their comrades that call it this way, surrendering. It also affects their morale. They're encouraged to keep on fighting and keep on fighting. But they see their friends surrendering. Jonathan, thank you very much. Indeed, Jonathan Regev there with the latest on the fighting in Gaza, Danny Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the United States is with me in the studio. It is two months today since that attack, and we are seeing more and more reports about the intelligence failures that led to that report in the Washington Post today about the Jericho Wall dossier that was presented to Security Chief Haliva in 2022. He ignored it. We're also hearing about how Hamas pretended to be collaborating with Israel by giving it some limited information about rival terrorist groups Islamic Jihad. I mean, how can Israelis ever recover their confidence in the security services when you hear something like that? Well, Laura, I think my answer is that they'll never recover from that failure, which means that from now on they will always have to be on their toes. And they will always doubt intelligence assessments because it was a failure of the assessment. As you mentioned, Laura, they had all the details in front of their eyes. It wasn't right down to the border posts. The 19 year old women soldiers who were watching Hamas daily, they weren't listening to nobody was listening to all the details were there. They just didn't connect the dots. And this was a failure of this concept. I think in a way it was some hubris here. They did not think Hamas can pull this off. And on the other hand, they thought Hamas is deterred. And Hamas was, you know, in a very, very, you know, wily way, made it look like it was deterred. In the last few operations, it was not shooting, letting actually the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to be in the front. And everyone here, and now we understand it was all part of a scheme. And this is again, telling the intelligence that intentions, you know, can never be weighed in the right way. You always have to be prepared. Now this intelligence, I would say complacency led to a deficiency of the deployment. And again, and believing that the technology can stop them, you know, on the wall and with all the detections and others, it was a total collapse, which means we'll have to have a different type. Do you think there's a risk we're going to see the military trying to blame intelligence, intelligence trying to blame the government and kind of a, you know, everybody trying to protect their own interests? Well, here, the intelligence chief, Mr. Khalifa, that you mentioned, he took responsibility. And basically, he said in so many words that he is going to resign after the war. But right now he has to be there to fight the war. And the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Alevi, also said he's taking responsibility. The OC, Southern Command, Major General Yaron Finkelman, also took responsibility. All of them took responsibility. By that, they showed that they understand. And this is how they also keep their integrity and the trust of all the soldiers. A notable absence on that list of... Right, right. And probably, yes. Many others will also... Well, we haven't had the Prime Minister... And exactly. And the pressure is on the Prime Minister because he must take responsibility as the overall, you know, chief and let alone the concept of strengthening Hamas vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority. And it is Netanyahu who allowed 30 million shekels a month, cash, to be brought into the Hamas hens every month from Qatar with some kind of a labor rights scheme that he thought that this would counterweight the... Protection money. And yes, but it was a total failure. They thought they're buying time and they're buying some ceasefire. And that failed. And yes, at some point, the Prime Minister will have to acknowledge that it's his responsibility. And if he doesn't, then I'm sure others will show him. And Prime Minister Netanyahu says that he is the only one that can prevent the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas from taking over Gaza. And obviously that has annoyed the Americans because they see Abbas as the moderate, they want him to take over in some kind of role. What do you make of that? It's a joke. I'm afraid to say it's a joke, but I have to say it because if Netanyahu has the temerity after all his failures to say he is the one and to start politicking during a war, I think it's despicable. I say it very, very strongly. But he has caused it on himself. He is the one who said he would prevent Iran from becoming nuclear. Iran is closer to becoming nuclear than ever before because of his failure. He said that he would deter Hamas. Only he's the strongest Hamas. These are all his campaigns. And we show this colossal failure. So for him now to say that he is the one that prevent anything, it's just politicking during time of war. I think his time has run out. I think he has outlived his usefulness for the Jewish people. We have to thank him for what he did. He did some good things. But younger generation have to come over. And if he believes he's the only one, that's dangerous because this is kind of almost leading to dictatorship thinking. Daddy, I love that. Thank you very much. While Israel's fighting in the south and in the north, it's also under threat from the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis have fired missiles at Israel's Red Sea city of Elat and have also vowed to capture any ship with any kind of links to Israel. The group even attacked the U.S. warship, the USS Karni earlier this week. But it did manage to capture the Galaxy leader commercial ship. It then turned it into a tourist attraction for Yemenis who are flocking on board to see the ship, which is anchored in the Red Sea port of Asalif. Take a look. It's the Houthi version of a theme park and excitement is in the air. What up until recently was a commercial ship is now a tourist grabbing attraction. For just a small fee, visitors may take a walk on the ship's deck, where they get to stomp on U.S. and Israeli flags. Today, we are on board the Galaxy leader. An Israeli ship turned into an attraction. Instead of being a shipping vessel for the Israelis, it was turned into an attraction for Yemenis from all provinces. A big number of Yemeni people are touring it every day. Instead of going to parks and beaches, they are now visiting the Galaxy leader ship. But below deck, it's a different story. 25 Galaxy leader crew members have been held hostage since the ship was seized by Houthi forces last month. The crew, made up of nationals from Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Philippines, Mexico, and Romania, have been allowed some contact with their families while various countries push for their release. The United States has blamed the Houthis for a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since war broke out between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas on October 7th. Well, for more on that, we're joined now by Jason Brodsky. He's the Policy Director at the Group United Against a Nuclear Iran. Thanks for being with us, Jason. Quite bizarre to see that the Houthis are now openly using a captured ship as a kind of a theme park, it seems. I mean, where are we in terms of a response to this terrorist group? It's great to see you, Laura. Yes, I do think that the Houthis are trying to showcase not only to Western audiences, but also to the axis of resistance that is spearheaded by the IRGC, that it is a worthy and powerful and productive member of Iran's regional militia network. This type of video that's being circulated and amplified helps in that regard. I would say that specifically with the United States, there has been no response apart from today, a few piecemeal sanctions on Houthi financing targets, but there has not been a kinetic response by the United States because the Biden administration appears paralyzed by a fear of escalation, and that is actually inviting more escalation by the IRGC and its militia network. Well, is it a fear of escalation? Because there is a report, Jason, that Saudi Arabia is actually calling on Washington to refrain from any attacks in the Red Sea. Do you have any information on that? Yeah, I've seen those reports as well, but I think what the Houthis have shown is that they're a threat to much more than Saudi Arabia. They're a threat to major choke points, and they're a threat to freedom of navigation, not to mention Israel. So it is turning into a regional threat, and the Houthis have opened up a front in a new way that had not been seen in previous Gaza conflicts. So this is turning into a significantly stabilizing element, and the United States and its allies need to restore deterrence. So I think we need to widen the aperture of the threat landscape here and view it as a regional threat, not just one to Saudi Arabia. And Jason, Iran's President Raisi, meanwhile, is in Moscow. What does this tell us about the growing ties between Iran and Russia? Well, I think Russia and Iran have expanded their relations. I will be very interested to see whether the deal for the SU-35 fighter jets that has been long awaited will come to fruition as a result of this trip, and I'm sure the U.S. will be eyeing very closely whether there is any deal for the Islamic Republic to supply our Russia with missiles for use against Ukraine. Because let's not forget that the Islamic Republic has increased its leverage over Russia in recent months, and that is something to concern all of us as we look at this trip. Jason, thank you very much. Great to talk to you, as always. Jason Froske there. Thank you. Well, Danny Eilon is with me in the studio. And Danny, you know, we were talking a moment ago about the kind of the policy in Israel to contain Hamas and how that failed catastrophically. Do you think the United States is doing a similar thing, but on a bigger scale with Iran? Well, the U.S. from day one tried to actually prevent original war, hence the deterrence that they have showed with this gunboat diplomacy, you know, sending two strike groups, you know, aircraft carriers. But there have been dozens of attacks by Iranian proxies on U.S. troops. And it seems to maybe they have contained the Iranians. But I don't think this is really a big deal because the Iranians, I don't think that they would dare taking on the United States. I mean, it's a no match whatsoever. Also, the Iranians are very, you know, very cleverly. They are actually fighting till the last man of their proxies, whether it's the Palestinians or whether it's Lebanese or whether it's Houthis in Yemen. But they are not engaging themselves. However, if they will miscalculate and the Houthis will get out of control, they wouldn't do it without a nod from Iran. Then I think the Iranians risk their own assets because I think the United States is kind of getting to the end of the rope in terms of their patience. And there have been also a lot of criticism within the administration, within the Pentagon, within the U.S. military, against the White House decision not to retaliate more massively. And I think we are now at a crossing point. And if the Houthis continue with their attacks, I think there will be some consequences and severe ones. All right, Denny, for now. Thank you. Well, just in time for the first Hanukkah candle, three-year-old twins Emma and Yuli Kunio and their mother Sharon Aloni Kunio are back home. They were released as hostages last week. And are all back home after being discharged from hospital. We've got this report now on another family who were also released last week. Han and the children are back, the grandchildren. Wow, it was hard. Everything mixed with everything. The sadness and the joy. They returned from a black place. They returned to no home. They returned to no father. They returned to no sister. But they returned alive. Ten days after Hen Goldstein Amok and her three children, Agam 17, Tal 11 and Gal 9, were released from Hamas captivity. They're trying to cope with life after the nightmare in Gaza. First of all, they are very afraid of every movement, of every peep that happens around them. From every peep they heard, they went straight with the Kalashnikov. He even laughed that one of them once went with the Kalashnikov upside down. I've been sleeping next to them for the past few nights. The whole family sleeps together now. This is the first time they've asked to sleep with you, probably since they were little, right? Yes. There was a friend here with two small dogs, and they played with them here. They ran around. And right down here, they took down the cushions of the sofas, and they built a tunnel for them, for the dogs. A few minutes earlier, Gal's teacher was here, and she asked him, were you in the tunnel? So he told her, yes. He told her, it's like an Arab house. And he did that with it. And you could stand? Did you have to crawl? No, no, I didn't crawl. I stood. They're talking about the army's bombs, which scared the children terribly. The children less, but it finished them. The bombings? Yeah, it destroys our soul. How were they treated? Kept us bargaining chips. In the end, they came back, and they are healthy, and everything is fine. On the morning of the abduction from Kfar Azar, Chen, her husband, Nadav, and their four children entered the safe room. Chen said that the terrorists felt at home in the kibbutz. Everything was completely quiet. Slowly, they chose a car, drove, crossed the border, opened the trunk, loaded the bodies they saw. The terrorists continued to drive. Agam said to the boys, look forward, just not back. Seven minutes, and you're inside Gaza. When the army arrived in the evening, they discovered that Nadav, the father, and Yam, the eldest daughter, had been murdered. One of the things that preoccupied us during the 51 days that they were gone is whether they even knew that there is no longer a father and eldest daughter. They knew Nadav was badly injured, and as for Yam, Chen saw that she was not alive. The way they finally found out in Gaza that Nadav and Yam were murdered is unimaginable. From time to time, they let them listen to a transistor for a limited period, so they heard Giora say that Yam and Nadav were no longer alive. Every morning I come here to the pictures in the room which were given to us to Sitchiva, and I shed my tears in front of Nadav and Yam. They heard in Gaza their grandfather in Gaza, yes. On the last day in captivity, when they were finally on their way back from Gaza to Israel, they went through some very difficult hours. Agam said she was more afraid with the Red Cross than in captivity, because the Red Cross is like, you know, there are no weapons, there's nothing, they travel in a car because of the crowd around them, and no one was watching over them. When Chen came to the hospital, she said, how long did it take you? They also had a phase where they thought they were being sacrificed for the war. Chen, Agam, Tal, and Gao returned home and discovered that they had no home, and Kibbutz-Kfar-Aza was almost completely destroyed. The injustices and the pain will be with us as long as there is a soul in us, and it will not be forgotten. If we know how to direct our lives between embracing and helping and between finding the moment for ourselves to process our grief, yes, then we will have, I think, reasonable good lives. But first, this. The return of all the abductees. All of the abductees. Until the last one. Until the last one. Good to see them all back home. All right, we're taking a short break. Do stay with us much more still to come here on I-24 News. Don't go away. It's marking two months since the worst terrorist attack in this country's history. On October 7th, thousands of our terrorists breached the southern border, invading communities and murdering men, women, and children, and taking over 240 people hostage at the Nova Rave Party near Reim over 350, mainly young people, were slaughtered. For my next guest, managed to escape the Nova Party with his life. He is with me in the studio. Now, Yoni Dilla, welcome. What a story. Tell us what happened on October 7th. It's not as simple to say it really quick. I'm sure it takes you time. We have time. Look, what I usually say is, you know, I was just in the right place in the right time, and I'm just lucky to be alive and I'm here. But I would say that there are a few incidents in the whole Nova event that basically saved my life and the partner that was with me in Adav and a few decisions saved her life. And I started with seeing an injured girl coming from direction of Reim south. She came from the exit where we were supposed to go out. Well, initially we wanted to go north, where most of the people went out. But they were shot because they countered the terrorist and they shot him like in a duck range. So we went south to find alternative ways before knowing that terrorists are invading us. We just saw there was a lot of traffic. Again, 3,000 people trying to get out. There was a lot of honking. And so we see this girl coming from the south and coming with a car, all her cars full of bullets. And she tried to get out. We tried to help her. She was shot on her left knee, on top of her left knee. Her name was Shani Gaby. And actually this last week, I've heard that they found her body in not too long ago, they found her body. And she's dead. I was sure she was kidnapped and there's some hope. So I would say that seeing Shani coming from the south shot and we tried to help her give her water and do everything we could at that moment. Kind of saved our life because we understood that there's danger coming from the south area as well. Because what happened was the terrorists tried to do a 360 and they tried to come from the north from the south. To surround you. Exactly. Now I wouldn't understand that without seeing Shani coming from the south and then later on hearing gunfire coming from the north. So all these incidents kind of triggered and my intuition said, you know, just leave the car here, leave everything here, just go to the valley next by. We were hiding there for quite a few times. And then we walked for like more than four hours to a safe place, to a village called Patisha Moshev. It was a group of us, another dozen, a few dozens of people. So we were walking for a long time until we found help. So, yeah, look, I'm sure there are people that have horrific stories hiding under bodies, their friend's body, seeing people killed in front of their eyes. I've seen things that, again, I don't wish anyone to see. But, you know, the more I share the story, I believe the stronger I get and the more confidence I get. And I think people deserve to know the truth. So I'm just representing the people who can say these things, you know, representing the families. And so, yeah. So many people didn't live to tell the tale. Of course, more than 350 were murdered. And there is, outrageously, a lot of misinformation around people trying to downplay or outright deny what happened on that day. So I understand that you've taken it upon yourself to go and talk about your experiences and to tell the truth about what happened that day on university campuses. Correct. Look, it all started with a short time after October 7th. I was invited to be part of this special delegation going to the U.S., meeting with the politicians from the Congress, just telling what really happened, not making a political delegation, telling you what happened. And later on, independently, I was invited to one of the campuses. It started with NYU. I know it started with Columbia, then I went to NYU. And later on, I was invited to other campuses such as Yale and Princeton, Harvard, MIT. So I took the train from New York and I started going from places just telling my story and giving the students a feeling of hope and self-confidence, which many don't have in these times, unfortunately. Yeah, well, of course, we've heard Jewish students saying they don't feel safe on campus. And we've seen all the, you know, scenes of anti-Semitic crowds chanting, globalize the intervader and gas the Jews and all the rest of it. I mean, was that your experience? Did you experience any hostility like that? Look, I've, most of the lectures I've done were in front of the majority were Jews, some Israelis, but there was also people that were necessarily on our side. And I would say that my advantage over another advocacy ambassador, I would call it, is just me telling the story and not trying to preach people and talk about politics or history. I'm not here to give any history lessons or giving a talking about politics, which I can very easily, but it's not the point. The point is, talking about what happened on October 7th, the facts, as well show him also the videos that I've taken in the event. Just make people understand that, you know, they could, if I survived it, and I could tell the story, anyone can really just comprehend what really happened. And it's pretty, I would say, frustrating to see that even in nowadays, in 2023, people refuse and deny the fact that like the Nova massacre happened, which is disgrace. And you can see also what happened right now with all the Ivy League presidents that basically said, depends on the context, antisemitism is somehow acceptable. I'm quite sure that's more or less how they phrased it, but it's just really disgusting. So, you know, there's not much I can do about it. The best thing I can do is just go to these campers and talk with the energy that I have and speak up and just give the people a sense of this confidence and hope. And I would say that I have got quite a lot of feedbacks, positive feedbacks, that made them feel good. Do you think you changed people's minds about Israel? They saw you as human, they saw you as your knee rather than- Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people told me like, wow, I didn't know this happened. Because, you know, it's a TikTok generation. Okay, and people, and there's so much, I don't know, I want to say fake news, but a lot of false accusations, a lot of false things happening in the media. And, you know, we like this, you know, our generation, the millennials, we like shortcuts. And TikTok is a good way to have these shortcuts. And a lot of these publications are just fake. And unfortunately, most of them are not in favor of Israel. So our mission, I think we should just spread the truth as much as we can. So I went through something and I would like to share it as much as I can. And I could. And that's the best thing I could do. Parallel to that, I also, I'm raising money for IDF soldiers in combat. If they need any tactical equipment, any medical care, at the end of the day, they have enough equipment. Okay, I guess the idea of has enough budget to take care of everyone. But there are still stuff they're missing, whether it's stuff for the winter, to make them warm, whether it's tactical stuff that, you know, there's not enough budgeting for them. So I'm raising right now funds for them. How can people donate? Yeah, I've donated a how can they how can they donate if they want to get in touch? Well, it's called it's called the Hamala Merkazi Hamala Merkazi. You can Google it on Facebook. We work with charity. Maybe if there's a way to somehow upload the link, maybe later on charity with D, right? Yeah, it's called Hamala Merkazi in Hebrew. Or you can just you can just follow me if you want, Yoni Diller and I would send you the link. And if you have any questions, if you want to understand where really the money is going, you can see pictures here and see what we're doing. We're having great efforts to help the soldiers to get whatever they want, the brave soldiers and they really deserve it. They deserve it all. Pictures of your charity there. So Yoni Diller, you can, if you'd like to donate to Yoni's charity to help the soldiers out, look him up, get in touch and you can donate. Yoni, great to meet you. Thank you so much for coming in and telling us your story. Hamala Merkazi in Hebrew means central war room. Central war room. There we are. My translator, Ambassador Daniei, are on there. Thank you. People are working 24-7 there just to take care of these soldiers, you know, whether it's food or food. Lots of viewers in the United States. So if you want to help out, you can get in. Say it again for me, Danie. Central war room. Central war room. There we are. Central war room. All right, Yoni, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Well, as the idea continues to advance in Gaza, it does remain engaged in a tit-for-tat exchange on its northern border with the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. A 60-year-old Israeli civilian was killed today by an anti-tank missile that was fired from the direction of Lebanon towards the western Galilee. Let's take a listen now to one of the first responders. The wounded man was transferred to us by an IDF medical unit suffering from a severe upper body injury and no signs of life. After medical examination in the field, unfortunately, we announced his death. Let's go to Israel's northern border. Ariel Otaran joins us now. Ariel, tell us a bit more about what happened today. Right, Laura. So just at about 2.15 pm local time, Hezbollah fired an anti-tank guided missile in the open fields near the border community of Matat as a result of that attack. 54-year-old Eyal Ozan, a farmer in the area, he died as a result of this attack. He was driving through his apple orchards. He has fields there as he was hit by a Hezbollah missile. Now, Ozan lives in, he lived in Gesher Hazif. That's a community located five kilometers from the border. They were not evacuated given that the order was issued only to communities up to four kilometers from the border. However, he and his family did evacuate to Haifa, but recently they returned given that the sector of agriculture is suffering a lot given that along the borders in the southern border near Gaza and in the northern border here near Lebanon is a substantial amount of Israel's agriculture concentration. And so many of these farmers are concerned for their crop. So many of them are coming here anyway and fortunately with a tragic outcome for Mr. Ozan. Now this comes as the IDF announcing just a short while ago that they have responded to this deadly attack with widespread airstrikes and artillery fire against Hezbollah terror infrastructure along the border with southern Lebanon and indeed on the Lebanese side claiming that Israel has been striking all the way from Yarin to the east of the middle sector to Yaron, the other part of the central sector. So a large part of the border seeing cross border fire this evening. This also came. This attack came at the same time as Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Garant and Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi were touring up north in bases. They held a situation assessment there and during a visit in one of the artillery batteries in the upper galley, Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a warning to Hezbollah to refrain to avoid from turning the situation into a full scale war. Let's take a listen to what he said earlier. If Hezbollah decides to start an all out war, they will turn with their own hands Beirut and southern Lebanon, which is not located very far from here into Gaza and Hanyounis. We are determined to bring victory. All right, Ariel, thanks very much. Ariel Osirant there in northern Israel. Danny Ayalon is the former Israeli ambassador to the United States. He's with me in the studio now and Danny, you know, the whole country understandably very much focused on what's going on in Gaza. But we have to remember there is this ongoing conflict in the north as well. Tens of thousands of civilians can't return to their homes. We saw what happened today with that poor farmer who went back to check on his crops and was killed by a missile. I mean, how long can this go on with Israelis having to live, you know, away from their homes? But frankly, Lauren, not very long. Right now, of course, the effort is in the south. And some of the thinking is that once you have a decisive collapse of Hamas, that should be a signal also for Hezbollah and deterrence. But I can tell you after October 7th, deterrence is not something that, you know, is something which is certain. The Israeli policy overall is right now is to contain Hezbollah in the north, and of course, finish the job in the south. Also, this is what the Americans expect. They do not want to widen the war. However, as you mentioned, Laura, with a situation as is when it's a tit for tat in the north, the Israeli border, the northern border Israeli towns, the people there will not go back, you know, given the horrible experience of October 7th. So they will not go back when just across their fields, they have the Hezbollah. So here, right now, the policy is to try to take Hezbollah and push it up north, northern of the Litani River. So that's a healthy buffer zone, which I think would satisfy the security needs of Israel and the population. However, how do you do that? Will Hezbollah voluntarily, you know, go back retreat? There is an instrument to do that, which is United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which was actually mandated in 2006 at the end of Lebanon War. And according to this resolution, Hezbollah should not be on the border, should be really in a wide distance away. And this is right now what the Americans are trying to do. They sent Amos Hochstein, which is a special envoy, yes, in order to actually bring about this understanding that Lebanon, actually, the Lebanese sovereign, it's not the Hezbollah, which is a sovereign, that Lebanon will actually comply with 1701 resolution, which means Hezbollah will have to go up north. All right, Danny, thank you very much, Danny Ailond, there. Another British official is set to visit Israel this week. The Defence Secretary Grant Shaps will be pushing for faster humanitarian aid into Gaza. Let's go to London. Our correspondent, Jonathan Sashadotti joins us now. Good to see Jonathan. So we've had the current and former Prime Ministers, two foreign secretaries, even the Speaker of Parliament. Now, Grant Shaps, the Defence Secretary, is also set to visit. There has been a constant flow of quite senior British politicians going to Israel to show their support. There's been the last Prime Minister, the current Prime Minister, also, not the last, sorry, the last but one, I forget, Liz Truss, and also foreign secretaries, the Speaker, as you say. And now Grant Shaps, the Defence Secretary, is going to be travelling to what they call Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in British government parlance. Shaps is Jewish, in fact. So if anything, one might assume that he has a good sympathy for Israel. He, even in his use, was president of the Jewish Youth Organization, BBYO, the Benebrous Youth Organization. But that's not necessarily colouring his actions as Defence Secretary. He says that he's going to the region because Palestinians are experiencing a growing humanitarian crisis. And so he's going to be addressing options for providing Gaza with more medical and humanitarian aid, including potential routes via land, air and sea. And also he mentioned that there have been four RAF flights carrying over 74 tonnes of aid, which have landed in Egypt, it's in a bound for Palestinians. I suspect this might be, if this is what it says it is, an attempt to entrench routes for this humanitarian aid to get in in case that war is going to carry on much longer. And that might mean that there need to be more formalised and more reliable routes for the aid to get in. Jonathan, early on the UK was a very strong supporter of Israel in the wake of those attacks by Hamas. Would you say there's been a slight shift in policy under the new Foreign Secretary, David Cameron? Lord Cameron, of course, a former Prime Minister himself was a surprise appointment to be the new Foreign Secretary. I don't think anything has changed particularly in regards to the UK's policy on Israel as a result. He was interviewed yesterday and really was very firm in supporting Israel. In fact, he was saying that Hamas wants as many civilian casualties as possible. Also that there is a fundamental difference between Israel and Hamas. Israel, he said, uses its defences to try and defend its people whereas Hamas, he said, uses people to defend its rockets. So while he did go on to say that Israel has to abide by international humanitarian law, and that's a point they keep making to Israel, that's a consistent line from the UK government. And of course, there's no suggestion that they're saying that Israel isn't abiding by international law. And in fact, since the war started, we've seen the deployment of a Royal Navy task group to the Eastern Mediterranean, including RAF Lyme Bay and RAF August. Three Merlin helicopters, Company of Royal Marines, various different things like that. Nothing that's going to make a massive difference, but it is definitely a gesture on the part of Britain to show that there is support. And also it's been flying unmanned drones over, sorry, unarmed drones over the Mediterranean, and even over Israel and Gaza, they say to help look for hostages, because of course, there are British citizens who are still being kept hostage by Hamas in Gaza. So Britain is maintaining its support level, I would say, under David Cameron as foreign secretary. And I don't think that that has been slipping. The government is holding firm in that respect, though, of course, like governments around the world saying that Israel does still have a responsibility to make sure the innocent civilians of Gaza are not too badly affected by the legitimate military actions that it's taking. And we have seen those very large anti-Israel pro-Palestinian protests in British cities, haven't we, in recent weeks. But what do the Poles tell us about the levels of support for Israel among the public? Polling is interesting, because of course, those protests don't necessarily represent mainstream opinion in the UK. They are very big protests, but they are a very big minority, very vocal minority, who feel as passionately as that. Obviously, it's a very big country, and even hundreds of thousands of people on the street doesn't necessarily represent the mainstream opinion. There is quite a division of opinion. Many people have sympathy on both sides of this, which is understandable. But there is a fairly firm support for Israel's right to defend itself and even the need to get rid of Hamas. But of course, there is an awful lot of sympathy when people see the pictures coming out of Gaza of the suffering that's going on there, either through their displacement within the Gaza Strip or indeed through death as casualties in the war. That said, I think the more important than the precise numbers is the demographics. There is a definite split between younger people 18 to 24s and older people on what they think is going on, more sympathy perhaps from that younger group for the Palestinians and their plight than there is for Israel. But as people get older in that polling, they seem to show firmer support for Israel, in fact. And I think that there is perhaps an improved understanding during this war compared to other ones of the conflict and what Israel is facing, because of course of the horrific nature of how the massacre of the 7th of October started the whole thing. Jonathan, thank you very much. Jonathan, Satya Dotty there in London. Danny, I along this with me in the studio. And Danny, are you concerned about that, the fact that lots of polls in the US and Europe show that although older people do support Israel, the younger generation tend to be more sympathetic towards the Palestinians and much less sympathetic towards Israel? Well, yes, Laura, it is of great concern because this younger generation will grow up to be the next generation of leaders. And certainly they need much more education and much more preparedness right now. Unfortunately, they really fall prey into the incitement of the Palestinians. By the way, this incitement did not start on the 7th of October, but actually decades ago. And what we see now is we reap this sour grapes of continuous poisoning of the hearts and minds of younger generations, especially in the campuses, campuses in Europe, but mostly in the United States. And the reason is because most of the money that comes to the, not most, but a big chunk comes from Qatar and Muslim countries. So they dictate who the faculty is. And this faculty is very much anti Israel. And Israel, unfortunately, did not really rise up to this challenge. Maybe now it's going to be a wake-up call because there is no doubt that our cause is just that when you compare Israel contact to the Palestinian contact, I mean, it's so clear where evil is and where goodness is. It's just a matter of taking it out to the public in a cogent way that will bring it home, especially to the younger generation. Yeah, it's very alarming to see young people sympathizing not only with Hamas, but also with Osama bin Laden. It is crazy. It is just as this... It's right. With age comes wisdom, let's hope. Exactly. I just wanted to ask you about something else because the Jewish Agency has reported a huge jump in the number of people who want to make aliyah, Jewish people who want to come and live in Israel from Canada, the United States, and France. You have experience of working with Olim or people who come to live in Israel. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I would say that when you try to break down, who are this new Olim, the new immigrants who are coming? Olim means ascending to Israel, to the Holy Land. I would say that if I roughly divide them, I would say at least 50% is out of Zionism, that they want to actually materialize their history-long yearning for being back home, and this is home. And others also understand maybe that Israel is the safest place today for Jews. Which seems quite an extraordinary thing to say, two months after the worst terrorist attack. Absolutely. The biggest number of Jews killed since the Holocaust. Absolutely. But still here, we can defend ourselves. And it is of our own doing or not doing that we put ourselves at peril. But if you are a Jew today, abroad, and I will not specify specific country, you really are like a leaf in the wind. You're more vulnerable. That is very vulnerable. And right. And the anti-semitism is growing. And if there is peril all over, better to be here safe at home with the least, I would say, amount of peril. And part of that, I would just add, is making peace with other countries in the region. We were on the verge of peace with the Saudi Arabia. That's very important in terms of Israel's stability. Sure. Yes. And the vision still is. And the Saudis, you see, and all those Abraham Accord countries, the Arab countries that we have peace with, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, they do not break ties. And this is to the chagrin of Iran. Because part of this big war that we have when Hamas is only the proxy. But Iran would love to go back into the Israeli isolation. But most of the people here understand, Muslims, countries understand, that Israel is the solution, not the problem. The problem is Iran. Iran brings death. We bring life with technology, food security, water, and also security against the Iranians' threats. So you see this as a blip in Israel's long story? Oh, absolutely. I am with, you know, with all this trouble we've had, I am very optimistic. Danny Ayalon. Thank you very much indeed. We'll leave it there for Ambassador Danny Ayalon there. And that's it for me. Do stay with us. Our live coverage continues after the break. Don't go away. You're watching I-20 with you. Hello and welcome to the special broadcast here on I-24 News. Two months of war here in Israel. Two months since October 7. And the clock that will determine when this war of Islamic fundamentalism on the Jewish people ends is the Christian one, or more accurately, Christmastime. In the north today, the prime minister, defense minister, and the chief of staff holding a situation assessment after an Israeli former was killed by Hezbollah anti-tank fire in the south, idea forces holding fierce battles in Hamas terror, strongholds in the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendering. But does it mean Hamas leadership will follow suit? On the second hour of this broadcast, we will be taking you live to our field studio in the southern city of Fakim. But before we do that, we want to cross there live to I-24 News. Defense correspondent, senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev joining us from there. Jonathan, very intense day of fighting. And yet before we dive into that, the idea of releasing for publication two additional names of soldiers who were killed in combat. One of them, the son of a war cabinet member and former chief of staff, Gadi Aizenkot. Yes, and that shows you that in Israel, there's no privilege. The people are not privileged. If you're the chief of staff, that does not mean that your family is privileged. Your son, his son, Gadi Aizenkot's son, was a combat soldier who was now on reserve duty and went to battle and was killed in battle. You know what, let's make the comparison today. Also, the economic details became clear regarding the situation, the economic situation in the Gaza Strip. And it was revealed, for example, that the money that the son of Ismail Hania spent for the past year on jewelry is what a Gazan man makes in two years. That's the Hamas leaders, the Israeli leaders, the Israeli former chief of staff, and a prominent member in the war cabinet is sending his own son to be a combat soldier, a reserve combat soldier, and he's killed in action. You want to speak about the difference between Israel and Hamas about the Israeli leaders and Hamas leaders about one chief of staff on one side and one leader on the other side. Here you got it. Chilling, chilling comparison, Jonathan, and perhaps best demonstrates the current state of affairs. Let's do go back to what's been happening today in the Gaza Strip, heavy fighting in the south and in the northern part of the of the Strip. Map it up for us. Yes, obviously, since the war in the northern Gaza Strip began earlier, it has more advanced. And today we saw quite very impressive images of dozens and dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendering. We're told by their leaders time and time again that they will fight until the end all the way. But here today dozens of them, dozens of them surrendering. Hamas leaders were quick to say that they were all innocent civilians. They were all caught in a school. And this shows the cruelty of the Israeli public and the Israeli administration. But surprisingly enough, everybody, all of those people who were caught there were young men, no women, no children, no elderly. These were terrorists, not innocent civilians. No. Terrorists that are surrendering and we will be discussing what it means when it comes to Hamas leadership survivability later on in the program. I-24 News senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev, thank you very much for this. And Jonathan, of course, will be part of our field studio in the south later on in the evening. But now we want to welcome here in the studio Mr. Avi Paznell, former Israeli Ambassador to France in Italy. And our dear guest, Ambassador Paznell, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Two months later, Ambassador Paznell. And I'm going to ask a difficult question. Are we in a better position that we were two months ago in terms of the threats that Israel is facing? We are in a more realistic position early. We know, now we know what kind of threat we are facing. You know, we lived in ignorance. We lived in a dreamland. Oblivious. And now, yeah, we had a wake-up call, a very, very terrible, hard wake-up call with a lot of blood. But I think that Israel, from this point of view, is in a much better position, knowing what it has to face. Not only, I'm not speaking only about Gaza. Same with Hezbollah. And again, somebody was killed today in the North. And we, you know, we were so immersed in dealing with our own internal problem. And we had internal problems. And we still do. They do not disappear. Yeah. But still, they are a little bit pushed aside. But then, you know, Ellie, you are here like me. During nine months, we only thought about this judicial reform or revolution, or whatever you can call it. And we ignored. But we are living in a dangerous neighborhood. And we were reminded. You know, this is the first night of Hanukkah. And if we're looking throughout the Jewish history, more or less the same story, the internal division taking center stage, and then the, unfortunately, so many, too many enemies from the outside are reminding us what we're all about. And to the point you just made exactly, Ambassador Poznel, we do want to head to the northern front at 24 News, the Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osiron, sending by there with the 24 News team on the ground. Ariel, just those past few moments, another round of red siren alerts in northern communities. And another day of war on the border with Lebanon and Israeli civilian killed from Hezbollah fire. Indeed, Ellie, another day of war here on the Israel-Lebanon border. As you mentioned, just a short while ago, in a span of five minutes, two sets of rocket alert sirens sounded. One in Bukhata in the northern Golan Heights, and another one in Zar'it that's in the Upper Galilee. Now, one can assume that the sirens in the northern Golan were a result of firing from Syria, as opposed to the sirens in the Upper Galilee expected to be from Lebanon. But again, there is no official confirmation yet that anything was launched into Israel. This is based on the automatic sirens that we all are connected to. I think everyone living in Israel has the siren app on their phone. But this comes as Hezbollah fires 10 separate attacks along the border. Rockets or anti-tank missiles, one of them earlier this afternoon, took the life of a 54-year-old Eyal Uzan, a farmer from Geshe-Raziv, a community located five kilometers from the border, which was not evacuated. He was killed while tending his apple orchard in Matat, which is along the border. Indeed, this is something that farmers, given the strain of this war on two main sectors in Israel, construction and agriculture. So many farmers are concerned for the well-being of their crops. So despite alerts and warnings from the IDF and even an evacuation order, some of them do make it to the area. Obviously, this is very dangerous, but an unfortunate and tragic result for this farmer. As I mentioned earlier, 10 different claims of responsibility by Hezbollah. The IDF saying that it has been responding in recent hours with airstrikes targeting Hezbollah tear infrastructure along the border and also on the Lebanese side, they're reporting of Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. And Ariel, do you stay with us because we want to take a quick listen now to what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to say while touring northern Israel today alongside the Israeli Defense Minister and Chief of Staff. Let's take a listen. I'm impressed by the great spirit that sleeps here. You expressed it, and I want you to know that it obliges us. The people are proud of you. I also suggest to our enemies that they pay attention to the spirit. Because if Hezbollah chooses to start an out-of-war, then it will single-handedly turn Beirut and south Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Yunus. We are determined to bring victory, and we will do it with your help. Yes, Ariel, also around there, it seems that despite the harsher rhetoric, the main route of action at the moment is not militarily, but rather diplomatic one. We do see this diplomatic push behind the scenes, low-key perhaps, beginning to gain momentum. Well, if we're talking about the situation on the northern border, so obviously Israel has said that they want to make it gradual, meaning they don't want to involve more than one front at one time after. And also last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated this in a press conference saying that there's an order to things. First, they'll deal with the south. He didn't say then we'll deal with the north, but obviously given the demands by the residents of those border communities in the four kilometer distance from the border who have been evacuated, they're saying that they're not going to return until the threat of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is taken care of. That is not the policy that Israel's carrying out right now. Right now, they're carrying out a policy of responding to attacks, but indeed for the residents to move back, there's going to need to be a more full-scale or wide-scale dealing with Hezbollah. Yes indeed, to a large extent it seems the situation on the northern front resembles more October 6th than October 8th. And until that transition is made, obviously Israeli citizens will not be able to go back there. Thank you very much, I-24 News, Senior Middle East Correspondent's area loss run for this back here in studio with Ambassador Avi Pazner and Ambassador Pazner. We do know that again this diplomatic push coming out from the White House is orchestrated or led at this point in time by Amos Hoxin, who we know as the coordinator, the architect of another agreement we've seen not so long ago between Israel and Lebanon on the maritime border. And yet, Israel and Lebanon, not Hezbollah, what kind of reassurances that Hezbollah will play ball with diplomatic resolutions? Look, it is imperative for us, if we want the northern residents of Israel to go back to their home, we want them to go back to their home. We have to push the Hezbollah beyond north of the Litani River, about 25, 30 kilometers from the border. How do you do that? There is a UN resolution from 2006, 1701, that specifies that there should be no Hezbollah forces south of the Litani. So we have to push them back. And this is what Amos Hoxin is trying to do. But in order to do that, you need two things. First of all, you need a clear victory of Israel over the Hamas. This has not yet been achieved. A clear victory. It may take some weeks, may take some months. But first of all, you need a clear victory. And then you need a credible military threat against Hezbollah in order for Lebanon to re-accept 1701 for the Hezbollah to withdraw beyond the Litani and for our people to have a sense of security that they will be able to come back. This is not an easy diplomatic feat. I don't envy Amos Hoxin. It's difficult. But it's doable. Duable indeed. Question remains, Abbas al-Paznah, question that perhaps neither one of us is able to answer at this point in time. When push comes to shove, will Hezbollah follow the orders of the close to non-existent Lebanese government or the orders coming out of Tehran? But we will put a stop right here because obviously when we're talking about the continuation of the war, we always need to look at what's happening in Washington. And over the course of the war, Israelis have kept, again, a nervous eye on the trends in U.S. politics and with a Democratic president in the White House. They've kept a particular eye on how Democrats are seeing the war and how they're seeing Israel. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultriman updates us on the latest polling from across the ocean. It's a healthy obsession, the tendency in Israel and among American Jews to take a microscope to American polling on Israel. And so a new poll is getting some attention since it shows U.S. President Joe Biden winning over more Democrats to his policies on the war in Gaza. I've encouraged the prime minister to focus on trying to reduce the number of casualties while he is attempting to eliminate Hamas. A month ago, polling from the AP in Nork showed a 50% approval rating among Democrats for Biden's stance on the war. That number has now ticked up to 59%. The question is why? One answer. Polling was done just after the week-long pause in the war with memories of freed hostages fresh and the fighting itself only starting to return. Another answer that the Biden administration's policies themselves drove the change, the growing emphasis on protecting Gaza's civilians and in moving humanitarian aid. We're still talking about trying to find a way forward on hostages. We're talking about sustaining and expanding the humanitarian assistance making it into Gaza. In the big picture of U.S. politics, the movement in these polls does not matter much. Election Day is almost a year away, and the campaign will be fought on other issues. For Israel, the impact is a bit bigger. Israel standing among U.S. Democrats has become an issue of huge strategic importance. With the war, those voters are now paying attention and forming opinions on Israel for the long term. So any shard of information will get looked at. Again, it's a healthy obsession. Ambassador Avi Pazner, for better or worse, this war far exceeds its geographical borders all the way to the U.S. And we do see it challenging the American long-standing notions and most notably perhaps just this week with this unforgettable, this is perhaps the best way to put it, a congressional hearing of university, elite university chiefs refusing to condemn the calls for the genocide of Jews. And to that point, Ambassador Pazner, those liberal Democrats all of a sudden find themselves perhaps aligning with Republican congressmen and women. And the other way around, so there is some sort of shift, whether we like it or not, when it comes to the American public opinion. Yeah, but let me explain a little bit and give you maybe a figure that was not mentioned by Owen, that in the latest general poll of the American public, more than 70% support Israel in the general American public. Democrats, Republican, independent, young, old, everybody together, more than 70%. This is a very high percent. I was as shocked as you were when I saw yesterday or the day before yesterday the three so-called intellectual president of Plato turning in his grave. It was incredible that they were unable to say that genocide against Jews is reprehensible and should be condemned. They didn't. The three of them, three women who are president of the most important American university, were unable to condemn anti-Semitism. But luckily enough, the other people in America, not everybody is a president of a university. And all in all, all in all, we are doing okay. But if we can expand a minute on Biden and his party, he has a problem with the left wing of his party, the progressive wing. With them, he has a problem. And there is no way that he's going to convince them about his policy on Israel, whatever he does. Right, right. The question is, again, as we are entering an election year, how does it all play out politically in the US? And yet when it comes to the more immediate future, let's put it that way, Ambassador Paznell, when it comes to the American support of Israel and only earlier tonight, yet another phone call between American President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when it comes to the action leeway that we keep on talking about and rightfully so, it seems that there is an acknowledgement at the very least in Washington that Israel is trying to follow the American, let's say, instructions when it comes to the conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip. I wouldn't call them instructions. Advice. Yes. And this is why I think the cabinet yesterday approved that fuel should be left to enter Gaza, because we have to understand one thing. You saw the poll before. Biden went up from 50% to 60% approval amongst Democrats. Why is that? Because of his insistence on humanitarian aid getting to Gaza. And this is well understood by the Israeli government. We are also interested. We are not interested in seeing people die, civilians die in Gaza of hunger or disease. It's also in our interest, but it serves a wider interest. And the more we help Biden on this question of humanitarian aid, the more we let in, the more Biden strengthen, the more we get support from the administration for what is very important for us. And this is our military action. And we get a lot of appraisal and appraisal from the administration on the way we conduct now this operation in Gaza. And let's not forget, this is our main aim. In order to get our main aim, we have to work together with the administration. And this is what we are doing. And it's better for now while Washington and Jerusalem are doing whatever they can to preserve exactly that objective of protecting civilian lives as the humanitarian pressure is rising inside this trip, most notably in the southern part of this trip. Hamas is utilizing this situation for the exact opposite, which brings me to ask you whether the next move on behalf of Hamas will be to try and push the population in the south, further south as in to the border with Egypt. And Egypt marked a clear red line, no movement into Egyptian territory. You're absolutely right, they are trying, the Hamas is trying to push the Gaza population into Egypt in order to create a rapture between us and Egypt. They know the Egyptian sensitivity. And you know that the Egyptian yesterday and the day before yesterday started to build an obstacle. Yeah, they're barricading the border in order not to let the Palestinians enter Egyptian territory. So we think that those Palestinians who have to leave Hanunas should go west towards the sea, towards the sea. There is place for them. And this is also a region where humanitarian aid gets there. So it is also in our interest to prevent any pressure on Egypt. Egypt is very useful. You have seen with the hostages how useful Egypt can be. So we want to avoid the clash with Egypt and Hamas wants to bring about the clash between Israel and Egypt. Yes, lots of different components in this extremely complex equation. But as a representative, we do want to put aside for a moment all the strategies and tactics and maneuvers because two months into the war, the haunting tales of Hamas' captivity persist day in, day out, unveiling the unimaginable struggles faced by Hengolstein Almog and her three children, Agam, Gal and Tal, all were captive hostages by Hamas. Recently freed on November 26 as part of this temporary ceasefire, their family is now sharing a chilling account that intertwines the anguish of captivity itself, with the heartbreaking loss suffered in the Hamas attack on October 7. Take a look. Heng and the children are back, the grandchildren. Wow, it was hard. Everything mixed with everything. The sadness and the joy. They returned from a black place. They returned to no home. They returned to no father. They returned to no sister. But they returned alive. Ten days after Hengolstein Almog and her three children, Agam 17, Tal 11 and Gal 9, were released from Hamas' captivity. They're trying to cope with life after the nightmare in Gaza. First of all, they are very afraid of every movement, of every peep that happens around them. From every peep they heard, they went straight with the Kalashnikov. He even laughed that one of them once went with the Kalashnikov upside down. I've been sleeping next to them for the past few nights. The whole family sleeps together now. This is the first time they've asked to sleep with you, probably since they were little, right? Yes. There was a friend here with two small dogs and they played with them here. They ran around and right down here they took down the cushions of the sofas and they built a tunnel for them, for the dogs. A few minutes earlier, Gal's teacher was here and she asked him, were you in the tunnel? So he told her, yes, he told her it's like an Arab house and he did that with it. And you could stand? Did you have to crawl? No, no, I didn't crawl. And we want to tune in now into the evening briefing of IDS spokesperson Daniel Nagari. Days of hanukkah are a symbol of bravery and victory of our people. The days past are shedding more light on the bravery and courage of our civilians, our soldiers, our policemen and women, and our security establishment personnel. All of the people of Israel, every single one of them are heroes on their own. Those who fought the terrorists, who sought to kidnap them, civilians and soldiers who fought terrorists in order to save lives. Reservists who left everything behind, family, work, studies, left everything and headed to the field to protect the homeland. Our soldiers who are now fighting with great courage and bravery with their commanders at the helm, we lost in this war the best of our people. Every single one of them is a national hero. They paid in their lives for the sake of our survivability. A bit of their light is eliminating much of the darkness. Even in this hour, IDF forces are solidifying their grip in the north and southern parts of the Gaza Strip. We're persistent fighting across this trip. We are eliminating terrorists, among them chief commanders who are hiding underground in tunnels and also eliminating terror infrastructure. IDF forces and combatant of the terror security agencies have interrogated and arrested dozens of terrorists, information that is being used by us for the rest of the fighting. The road is still long. Today I was in Khan Yunus. We went to the ground together. He briefed one of the commanders and I saw determined reservists. I saw them fighting. I saw them clearing, neutralizing the ground. Eliminating terrorists and terror infrastructures. The terrorists are being decowered themselves that are hiding underground in tunnels and also, of course, our forces are doing everything they can in order to locate hostages that are kept in the Gaza Strip. In the north, we targeted several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. It was in response of an anti-tank missile fired from southern Lebanon to Israel, as a result of which a Israeli civilian was killed. We, of course, share our condolences with the family. We will respond forcefully to any breach of Israeli security. Our hearts and minds are first and foremost with the 138 remaining hostages still in the Gaza Strip being held captive alongside them on the fallen soldiers and civilians who are lighting us the way of the fight that we're conducting to retain and maintain the security of Israel. Tonight, we announced two other, two additional soldiers who were killed in combat. Yonatan was killed in Hanyunis in Gal, in the northern part of the Strip. We sent our condolences to the families. They're all national heroes. A personal note, I do want to mention Gal, Izan Kot, may his memory rest in peace. One of my previous positions, I was working with the Fomar IDF Chief of Staff, Gadi Izan Kot's father. I knew Gal personally was out of the earth. He was an impressive young man. He pursued studies and volunteered to be in reserve's duty, and he was determined to be with his comrades on the ground. May he rest in peace. Gal, the soul of the earth. Every fallen soldier is a full world, and we're hugging all of them, and I'm sending my personal condolences from here to the Izan Kot family. The IDF identifying a decrease in demotivation of Hamas serious on the ground, and in Zajia and Jabalia, these are main strongholds of Hamas. We are fighting them. They're hiding underground and cutting out, and then we're fighting with them, part of this fighting. Whoever stays in this turf in the territory is coming out above ground, some from the tunnels, others from houses there. We are investigating who is connected to Hamas, who is not, who will continue to dismantle all those terror strongholds in Jabalia and Zajia, and any other location will continue in the same fashion. We're sitting, we're seeing another uptake in the fire from Lebanon, from Hezbollah. It's important for the Israeli citizens to know we are hitting targets in Lebanon in an extremely harsh manner. Every such terror attack of Hezbollah, in return, hit targets, and terrorists are being killed, we will continue to operate against any threat or danger to Israel. Of course, in the north, every such action of Hezbollah will be forced, will be answered forcefully. Yes, that was the IDF chief, IDF spokesperson, rather, Daniel Agari in his daily, nightly briefing. And we now want to go back to the studio, Ambassador Avi Paznell, still here with us, and also joining us, the four-machine bed agent, the internal security agency, Ms. Elgunan Ben-Itrak. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us. Mr. Ben-Itrak, I do want to begin with you, because we do see fierce fighting on the ground that included the surrender of many Hamas terrorists today. And the IDF spokesperson himself mentioned it, that part of the significance of their surrender is the intelligence gathering. What is it that Israel can learn from these terrorists? The rest is very important, because it's very hard during the fighting to get good intelligence about what's going on. It's hard to talk with the assets, sometimes hiding, sometimes they just can't talk to you, and to bring human intelligence from people that were arrested. People just a few minutes before their arrest took part in fighting. Some of them maybe are high-ranked commanders in the Nukhba or other forces of Hamas. Some of them maybe are not even terrorists, but they so, and they can give you information about where Hamas put bombs. Maybe they know something about the hostages. So this intelligence is super, super or viable. And I guess that now most of the effort is to target them and bring the intelligence. And briefly, Mr. Ben Israq, you mentioned the hostages indeed in recent days. We are hearing renewed talk about the possibility of releasing hostages not through diplomatic means, but rather through rescue operations. We've seen one such incident in the earlier days of the war, and yet there seems to be renewed, again, discussion over it. I think it's very hard. Of course, I have no clue about what are the plans, but I think that in this situation for now, as much as I see it, is pressuring Hamas militarily by pushing them towards Hanunas and other parts to threat their lives in order for them to go back into negotiation. I find it hard to believe that a big number of hostages will be freed by military operations. All right. And we want to go back to another extremely challenging battlefront. Not that anyone needed more proof that there's something severely awful with the moral compass of the UN. Now comes this. Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez invoked a rarely used provision of the UN Charter to urge the Security Council to take action on Gaza, saying it threatens the maintenance of international peace and security, not Hamas. Israel, this is what the UN spokesperson had to say about that. Given the scale of the loss of human life in Gaza and in Israel in such a short amount of time, the Secretary General has today delivered a letter to the President of the Security Council invoking Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations. This is the first time that Antonio Gutierrez has done this since he became Secretary General in 2017. Article 99 states, and I quote that the Secretary General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter in his opinion that may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security. And we're heading now live to New York. I-24 News, senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim is joining us from there. Mike, so what is Article 99? And more than that, what does it mean really? So it's pretty simple what it actually is. There's a Charter within the United Nations founding documents saying that at any point if the Secretary General feels that there is a particular issue going on in the world that threatens international security, he can bring it to the attention of the Security Council. There's no requirement that they act on it. There's no enforcement provision or anything like that. It's simply his opinion that this is something that they need to take a look at as if they've been blissfully ignorant of the Israel Hamas War. They've met about it every other day, it seems. But this is his way of saying, listen, you're not doing enough. Now the Security Council has floated five different resolutions on the Israel Hamas War so far. Four of them either failed to pass with enough votes or were vetoed. Only one pass that was a multi-led resolution, which was mainly for the protection of women and children involved in the Israel Hamas conflict. Gutierrez, this is his way of saying it's not enough. We need a permanent ceasefire. It's his way of saying it. Now it simply goes back to the Security Council again so they can discuss it some more, which they will do. It was announced a little while ago. They'll meet again tomorrow, likely because of this invocation of Article 99 by Gutierrez. But the top two diplomats for the United States at the UN, the envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield and her deputy Robert Wood, have each said today that, look, we note that he advocated Article 99. We respect his right to do so. However, we're still going to go about this our own way. We rely on quiet diplomacy. We're going to take our normal channels and try to work through this issue. The hostages released worked toward an extended humanitarian pause, get aid flowing. The same U.S. position they've taken for quite some time now. Measure by Gutierrez really doesn't have much practical effect on them. Yeah, the American envoy essentially is saying thanks but no thanks. But Mike, it is obviously, as you mentioned, not happening in a void far from it. It comes right after this inconceivable late response by UN women on sexual warfare against Israeli women altogether. The UN functioning and this conflict is, again, nothing new perhaps that we did not know. And yet it hits. It's overwhelming. Listen, there's been tension building. It hasn't been since October 7th. You want to talk about nothing happening in a vacuum. There's been tension brewing for a long time between Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, and the Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez. It stretched back to comments Gutierrez made about a separate Israeli military operation in Genine over the summer in which Gutierrez said that Israel quote unquote obviously used excessive force in that operation. Ironically, it was to weed out Hamas terrorists back during the summer there in Genine. And there are other comments that other UN officials have made. There's also been no movement whatsoever, despite promises by Gutierrez that the UN would come up with some sort of plan to fight anti-semitism within the body. It's gone absolutely nowhere. So these issues have been brewing for a long time. October 7th obviously changed a lot of things, but what it did in terms of the relationship between Israel and the United Nations, it just made it 50 times worse. And it doesn't look like there's much turning back at this point. Yeah, so tomorrow the UN Security Council, it's another session. But let's put that aside for a second, Mike, because tonight you had another phone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And we've opened this broadcast by noting that tonight is the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. But the perhaps more crucial timetable here is the holiday of Christmas, Christmas clock, if you will, when it comes to the time Israel has to wrap up its operations in this intensity in the Gaza Strip. There's still been no quote unquote hard stop that the US has said, listen, we've got to wrap it up by this point in time. And it's a contradiction really for the United States to say, listen, we need you guys to be more accurate. We need you to be more selective in your targeting to make sure that civilians are protected. Man, by the way, this needs to be done in a week or two to take al-Khamad. Those two things don't really correlate. And so there's been bouncing back and forth. A State Department official said that Secretary of State Tony Blinken had a conversation today with the Minister of Strategic Affairs for Israel, Ron Dürmer, in which Blinken emphasized the need for Israel to continue and to do more, actually, to limit civilian casualties in Gaza and to do more to open up humanitarian aid corridors through Gaza as well. So the United States continues to push here. But the question is, when does it turn to a matter of, hey, the time's up? I don't think we've reached that point yet. All right. We will wait. And hopefully a lot can be achieved. Until then, I-24 News, the senior U.S. correspondent, Mike Wagenheim. Thank you very much for this back here in studio with Ambassador Avi Pazner and Mr. Ergunin Benitrakh, gentlemen. Ambassador Pazner, I will paraphrase on Louis Carroll here. The Middle East is no wonderland, that's for certain. But when you don't know where you want to go, it really doesn't matter which path you take, right? And in this respect, the day after is closer than it was yesterday. This is for sure we can stress. And yet when it comes to the Israeli vision of what the day after is going to look like, we're not learning much with everyday passing. We do hear what will not be acceptable, not what will be acceptable. And you, a veteran diplomat in Diplo Lingo, yes, diplomacy is fundamentally different than the no diplomacy. Yes. There are a few elements here. First of all, we don't know when the day after will come. It can be a month, three months, a year. We don't know. Secondly, we don't know how the war will end. We hope it will end with a clear victory of Israel on the Hamas, which would make things much clearer. But hope so still don't know. And then you have the political difficulties within the government. You have ministers who don't want to deal with the day after, because it is a contentious issue, a political issue, even an ideological issue. We have to explain to the world that it is a security issue for Israel. And I think this is the aim of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense and Mr. Gantz when they say that they want to see that the day after there is no more terrorist or military threat for Israel coming from Gaza. And this means there has to be a certain control, military control, not an occupation or military possibility to act in Gaza, a security control of Israel. I think that the more we will go towards a real ceasefire, a day, a real day after, we'll have to crystallize our thoughts. We cannot let it open like that. For the time being, I will not surprise you early. There is very little pressure on Israel to tell us exactly what will be the day after. It's true. The question was put on the table, of course, but there is no pressure on that. There are pressure on other things, like not hurting too many civilians, for example. But it's not necessarily the external pressure that is worrying, but perhaps the lack of coherent vision internally. Let's put aside, theoretically speaking, the entire international community. What would Israel want to see in the Gaza Strip? It depends on whom you ask. And this depends on the political issue. So we can continue to use Lewis Carroll's words. It depends who is the master. Exactly, exactly. Mr. Ben-Itrak, the only things we do here, for example, is the need for solidified, fortified buffer zone. But on the philosophical level, if you need such a fortified fence, it means that the threat on the other side is not eliminated. I must agree with Ambassador Pesner and say that if we want a solution, and it doesn't matter what is your political view regarding the solution, the only solution can grow out of a very solid security situation that will be in the Gaza Strip, which must be completely different than what we have today. The Israeli public is not going to accept anything. The people that used to live there are not going to come back and live there if there is no real security solution. I have my own view about what is the solution. We hear that the United States are talking about the PA taking over Gaza Strip, Netanyahu that says it will never happen as long as I'm in a position. And again, it doesn't matter if the American solution is the right solution or Netanyahu's solution if he has any solution. But it must grow out of a security change in the Gaza Strip. And I agree with you that when we talk about a buffer zone, that means that we didn't reach the solution. And I don't think that this is the kind of a solution that we will restore the sense of security. Exactly. And we accept we want to see some different reality in Gaza Strip. And I'm afraid that if this is not going to happen, everybody will feel that we didn't fulfill the goals of this war. Yes. Ambassador Pesne, as we speak, reports that this President Joe Biden, after speaking earlier this evening with Israeli Premier Netanyahu, is also talking to the King of Jordan on Abdullah, of course, King Abdullah on the recent developments in the Gaza Strip. Jordan, a key player in maintaining regional stability here. And we were discussing earlier in the broadcast the issue of the Egyptian involvement and also the Egyptian red lines. What can we say at this point in time? Again, two months on about the potential international more accurately local regional involvement in this solution. Simply put, Ambassador Pesne, how much is every single player willing to to give to chip in? Exactly. And I think it's no coincidence early that Biden is speaking to King Abdullah after he spoke to Netanyahu, because there is, to my great regret, a serious tension between Israel and Jordan. Let's not forget the two thirds of Jordanians are Palestinians. I mean, it's not a question of the king. He might be okay. But there is internal pressure. And we have, therefore, we have to encourage Jordan to keep on to the road of peace they have taken with us. Just like I told you before about Egypt, we have to try and avoid any clash with the Egyptian, same with the Jordanian. And same, by the way, with those countries that we have the Abraham Accord, the Emirates and Bahrain and Morocco, we have to try to keep all those Arab countries in line with the peace process. Because, you know, the war is going to end one day or another. It's going to end. And there will be a new day. And they hope it will be a day that we can continue a peace process with Saudi Arabia, for example, other countries. So it is important for the time being to keep all those countries, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, on the path of peace and not to let the situation degrade also with countries with whom we have peace agreements. Well, for better or worse, we begin this broadcast, Mr. Paznell, by talking about the knowing that we have now two months later. And yet it becomes clear that war is not necessarily the opposite of peace and vice versa. We want to head back to the southern part of Israel at 24 News Senior Defense Correspondent, Jonathan Regev, standing by there. Jonathan, we have alluded to that in the studio earlier today. And yet the issue of fuel is taking center stage again. Gradually and yet increasing, more fuel getting into the Gaza Strip to several objectives to appease the Americans, to try and tie it up with, for the first time, by the way, with the access of the Red Cross to hostages. But there are also humanitarian worries, clear the clutter on the fuel, on the fuel issue. Yes, and those humanitarian issues can also affect the Israeli side of the border. Let's remember we speak of Gaza as something distant. It's just across the border. And if there's humanitarian issues, if there are humanitarian issues and diseases and so on, it can easily spread to our side, to the Israeli side of the border. And therefore, Israel does not have an interest in seeing perhaps diseases and so on. Fuel is something that is needed to provide electricity and run, for example, some companies and things that could eventually provide food, provide electricity, provide many things which could perhaps stop or at least slow down the spread of diseases. So this is something that could be beneficial for Israel. Of course, there's always a concern and we know this is something in Gaza that the fuel will eventually not end in the hands of those who really needed the population, but in the hands of Hamas to run the power in their extensive network of tunnels. How exactly can Israel be sure that whatever is driven into Gaza makes it to the right hands? That is perhaps an issue that the U.S., the U.N. and other powers should provide an answer. I'm not sure they do. And Jonathan, briefly in a few minutes, you and the rest of the I-24 news that in their underground is going to bring us a special broadcast live from the field two months after October 7th. And there's no other way to put it. Still dozens of thousands of Israelis refugees in their own country, the prospects of Israel's southern residents to go back to their homes, still not really getting clear. What are you sensing there underground? I'll also ask which homes because for some residents, especially in the communities right on the border fence, there are no homes. There are homes that people cannot live in. We're speaking of tens of them, possibly even hundreds of them, all over the communities, not just a few. So yes, this is a problem on the southern border and the northern border as well. I-24 news, senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev. Thank you very much for this. And in a few minutes, you can catch Jonathan Regev with our field studio live from the southern city of Afakim, a gentleman here in the city, before we wrap it up. Mr. Ben-Itschak, let's cross the border to what is happening in the Gaza Strip because we do see mounting anger on behalf of Gaza residents about the division or lack thereof when it comes to the humanitarian aid that is entering the strip, mounting anger that is directed towards Hamas, the question being, does Yehiss Noir care at all? It's hard to say. First of all, we must emphasize that this is maybe the first time since Hamas took over Gaza that we see people talk, give interviews, live interviews and- From the Gaza Strip. From the Gaza Strip. And they criticize Hamas, they curse Hamas live. I don't remember that since Hamas took over, something like this happened. I think that Yehiss Noir, it's hard to say how much is connected to what's going on above the tunnels because probably he's hiding inside. But having said that he's in some contact with what's going on outside, I think this should worry him because this looks like something that is really- Could be a game changer. This is a sign that Hamas is starting to lose the power in Gaza. And for him, for us it's a very good sign. For him, it's a red alert. And I hope that we'll see more and more people talking against Hamas and criticizing him. This is part of destroying the infrastructure of Hamas and Gaza Strip. Pushing an already unhinged man further to the border remains to be seen.