 Come to I-24 News, I'm Steve Anraviv and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Israel's war with Hamas is now a day 45, a war which began with a brutal massacre of innocent Israelis as at least 1200 women, men, children and elderly were brutally tortured and murdered on October 7th in southern Israel. Additionally, Hamas is currently holding on to 236 hostages in captivity, their fate unknown. Throughout this morning, ongoing live fire on both the southern and northern borders in Israel, mortar shells were fired at an IDF post out of Lebanon as rockets were launched by Hamas terrorists at Israeli communities near the Gaza border. All of this after Israel denied reports on Arab media that a pause in the fighting will come into effect this morning as part of a deal to release Israeli hostages. Israel's war cabinet however did convene last night to discuss a document from Qatar in which Hamas for the first time demonstrated a readiness to engage in a substantial deal. Here is Israel's ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog on the efforts to release the Israeli hostages. We're talking about a pause in the fighting for a few days so we can get the hostages out. But all sides. It's not a ceasefire because we will continue to push against Hamas to dismantle their military infrastructure and their terror infrastructure. We're not going to stop that. But we are willing to go for a pause for a significant number of hostages if we have a deal. Live from Israel's northern border is our I-24 news correspondent Pia Stekelbach. Pia, it's been a busy morning in the north. There are multiple cases of mortar fire on Israel's border. What can you tell us about this? Right, Sivana, very busy morning and the shelling continues. We do speak about both anti-tank missiles and mortar shells. We're just hearing about reports about an impact, a direct impact in the area of Kiryat Shmona next to the city there that's just located in the upper east in Galilee and another impact on an intersection. We do hear that several roads in this area are closed off. This comes after mortar shells targeted several communities also in the central part of the Israel-Lebanon border, the army outpost of Biranit and also the community of Arab al-Aramsh and Baram. This is where sirens were triggered about two hours ago. This is really a continuation of what we've been seeing also yesterday especially and this morning also throughout the night there were reports about both mortar shelling and anti-tank missiles. Isballah claiming responsibility over several of those attacks. And the IDF is currently striking back in southern Lebanon and in several areas in southern Lebanon, both Nakura in the west, but also areas in the central party and not far away from where we are. And we do sometimes occasionally hear the Israeli utterly going out towards southern Lebanon as per protocol. The IDF is striking back towards the origin of those launches. Now also yesterday was a very, very busy day. Isballah really stepped up the pace of those attacks. Both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles were launched towards several communities along the Israel-Lebanon border. Yesterday also a number of foreign aircrafts entered Israeli airspace. They were downed by the Israeli military here. But that just gives you a picture of how full of tension this frontier is and also how volatile here. We do speak about many communities that have been targeted yesterday and today that have already been widely evacuated. This is the case with communities such as those that are close to five kilometers to the border because of the constant threat of both anti-tank missiles and mortar shells. But also in these communities, you do always have civilians that remain in these areas and therefore they are in great danger. What about other communities which are still currently there have not been evacuated? Are they under threat at the moment? Well, we do know that Hezbollah has the capability of also launching rockets that has happened in the past as well. So as a protocol, those communities that are in proximity of five kilometers to the Lebanese border have been called to evacuate. Other communities here, as I said, the tensions are high. You do in many regions here, the outgoing Israeli artillery fire. Not many people are outside, but it is very difficult, of course, to facilitate the evacuation of many communities. So, so far we do speak about those communities that are widely emptied that are very, very close to the Lebanese border are and have been under constant threat of those mortar and anti-tank missile fire. Thank you, Pia, on Israel's northern border. And down south here with the latest developments on Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pia Kloshendler. Pia, there are sirens in the south early this morning. What is happening down there now? You know, we were talking about a potential ceasefire at 11 AM local time after a flurry of Arab media reports. But after 11, there was a rocket strike or an attempt at striking a community further up north in Netiva Asara on the border with the northern sector with the Gaza Strip. And at the same time, the artillery is pounding the area of the Indonesia Hospital, which we can see behind us in the locality of Bet Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. The pounding was so intense just 15 minutes ago that there was a fog, but not the fog of war, the fog of gunpowder. And at the same time, a whiff of gunpowder and of dust came to us because the explosion was so intense. So the fighting is going on. There is no pause at all in the fighting and absolutely no news regarding the potential release of women and children on Children's Day from the hands of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad. Right now, the operation, the ground operation goes on in Bet Hanun around the Indonesia Hospital. Tanks are rolling around it according to video that we've seen on the Al-Jazeera Qatari media. Fighting is still going on for a third day in the Jibalia refugee camp and in the Zaitun neighborhood in Gaza City. And bombing, pounding is still going on in the sector of Hanune south of Gaza City. Now, there is a humanitarian pause in West Rafa, according to the coordinator of activity from the Ministry of Defense Vizavi the Palestinians, and at the same time the humanitarian corridor is open again. And since the 5th of October, we know already that over 360,000 Palestinians who lived in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip have moved south. Thanks to that corridor. Thank you, Pierre, for these updates in Israel's southern border. With us now is Major General and Reserves Uzi Dayan, former National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Sharon and Barak, Deputy Chief of Staff of the IDF. And also with us is retired Major General Gadi Shamni, a former commander in a Gaza division. Thank you both for joining us. Uzi, everyone is talking about a potential hostage exchange deal, a release deal, if you will. If you were part of the cabinet today, how would you play this out? Would you embrace these negotiations with Hamas? If I was a prime minister, I first of all demand what we demand all the time, and this is sign of life. We don't know exactly how many kidnappers are in the hand of the Hamas. We don't know whether they're alive or not. And I think that the red cross and all the nations is to demand first of all sign of life. Above the negotiation, if I were the prime minister, I hold my cards very close, not only to my chest, but in my head, because you can go from one side, and we can say everything, but not leave Gaza strict. On the other side, we can say nothing that we put in danger to the other hostages, for example, to release some of them, et cetera. So this is a very tough negotiation with the people who are actually Nazis. And it has to be done very carefully. It's one of the goals of this war. We want all the people who are kidnapped return home, not only the babies and the children and the elder, et cetera, but each one of them, and in the same time, we have to bring down the Hamas as an organization or rule Gaza. So we don't release a lot of information. We don't have a lot of information. And above all, it's not something that it has to be shared with the media, et cetera. Gadi, what's your take on this? What would you do? Would you negotiate with Hamas on this? Well, I think that we don't have any other choice but to negotiate. But I really said negotiation is tough. And I believe that the military pressure is supporting our negotiators. That's why what I would do is keep pushing Hamas, keep pressing Hamas, keep destroying their capabilities, and try and do my best in order to bring hostages back. There is a question about those opposes, whether it's the right thing to do or not. No doubt that a pause of two or three or five days, as they allegedly demand is a dangerous thing for the IDF, and might create a lot of problems. But still, since bringing back the hostages is actually a big goal of this campaign, it's a risk that, I guess, materialize the IDF will take. Well, let's talk about those military repercussions. What are the repercussions involved if Israel, indeed, agrees to a three to five day pause in the fighting? Gadi. Gadi. Okay. So, you know, right now Hamas is under pressure. The IDF is destroying Hamas infrastructure, killing their activists, killing their leadership, their whole hiding in the underground, or behind the civilians, the believers, human shields. They don't have the actual picture. They don't really know. They don't really know what's happening on the ground. And he doesn't care about anything. You know, he thinks of himself as a shade. He understands that he will be probably killed during this campaign. And he doesn't care even, you know, even if two million people would stay homeless and then many civilians would get killed. They prevent people from going south of the safe area just to use them as human shields. So if you have a pause like this, people can go out to the surface. They can see the locations of the IDF. They can prepare. I remind you that Gouldin was kidnapped in 2014. He was kidnapped by Hamas during a ceasefire. So a ceasefire is very dangerous. I guess that even if we'll have a pause, it will not be completely quiet. I'm sure that there will be clashes here and there. I'm sure that the IDF will take the precautions in order not to allow people to come too close to the IDF location because it is risky. And as I said, I guess that the IDF will take those risks in order to bring hostages back. What do you think are the disadvantages to the army and to its soldiers if they do engage in such a negotiation with Hamas? Well, first of all, we have a very bad experience with the terror organizations, especially with the Hamas. If we agree to a ceasefire, usually we cease and they continue to fire. So we will make any arrangement in order to promote the release of our hostages. In the same time, we are still in Gaza, and we can take advantage of this time, for example, to collect more intelligence, to continue to arrest Hamas people, Hamas terrorists in the Judah and Samaria, in the Jordan Valley, and don't forget that we have another front in the northern part of the country against the Hezbollah and the Hamas. On all those fronts, we have to continue because a putting a very important lesson is to continue to put the pressure on the terror organizations and especially the Hamas. The more there is military operational pressure, the best is by the end of the day to release those to just do. Now, Uzi, you've been a deputy chief of staff. How would you react to the Hezbollah fire? Is Israel doing enough on that front? We can do more. We can continue with this policy, which is actually we return fire to everything that they do. It's not a large-scale war, especially, I think, because Hamas, excuse me, the Iranians or the producer of those issues, I think that Iran doesn't want a full-scale war because they have three outposts against Israel, the Hamas in Gaza, the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Serbia and the Houthis in Yemen. And I think that they already understand that Hamas is out of the game, that we are going to erase Hamas. And they are very careful about using the Hezbollah. But as a military man, I would recommend very highly right now to establish a kind of a death zone between the Lytani River and our international border with Lebanon, because if we do so, we can continue to chase and to hunt the Hezbollah terrorists. And in the same times, the range, the distance between the Lytani River and the international border is longer than the range of the anti-tank missiles. So I think that first of all, we should do that and later decide according to what's going on on the other fronts. Now, gentlemen, let's take a listen. I want you both to hear what a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, how he spoke and praised Yemen's Houthi rebels for their rocket fire on Israel and for the seizing of a cargo vessel in the Red Sea yesterday. Let's listen. This is a considerable step by the Yemeni army. And I believe that the magnitude of the Zionist crime committee in Gaza motivates every sincere and eager individual to defend the Palestinian people and support them in any way they can. Hence, my salute to them. So we see here that Yemen's Houthi rebels have hijacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea, took 25 crew members hostage. They're claiming to do so due to the ship's links to Israel. To what extent does this raise regional tensions even more, Gadi? Well, first, no doubt that the regenerator behind all this is Iran. And this is something that Israel has to deal with. But Israel should not deal with it alone. You know, it's a war problem. And that's something that I think the US administration understands after the failure to achieve an agreement with Iran. Now we all understand why Iranians will not go for any agreement, because they have their own plans. They have Iranian militias that are spread all over the Middle East. And it's on the way to Europe. It's only a matter of time. So Israel will have to deal with Gaza first and with Lebanon second. And by the way, just to your previous question to Uzi, I see it a little bit different. I think that Hezbollah is not only an exchange of fire that Hezbollah is paying his price for supporting Hamas. That's not the case. I think that Nasrallah is trying to establish a new reality in the northern border, which means that even after the end of hostilities in Gaza, they will continue with an attrition war with Israel. You have to understand that there is already an Iranian militia that is located in the southern Lebanon. An Iranian militia that was more from Syria to south Lebanon. And this will probably not solve by words, by talking, by agreement. I think that the IDF will have to deal with it forcefully. Now, with all the rest in the Middle East, it's a matter of time. I think that there is a full dissemination to confront those Hamas and Iranian proxies all over the Middle East. So we have Hamas in Lebanon, in the West Bank, of course. We do it too late, but we do it now in Lebanon and all over the Middle East, including Yemen. But as I said, I think that that should be a Western world challenge. It's not only an Israeli challenge, because Israel is in the front of this problem right now. But it's on the way to Europe. It's on the way to the other parts of the world. Uzzi, what do you make of this connection between Hamas and the Houthis? First of all, I agree with what God has said, establishing this zone from the Litany to the Israeli-Lebanese border. I said that it has to be done as a first move, the first stage. Later on, we'll have to deal with Hezbollah. The Houthis are not that important. Of course, they are enemy. Of course, they are fueled by Iran. But we can deal with it. From our point of view, the Houthis are pretty far away, almost 2,000 kilometers. And they have a limited force. Of course, when you establish a rocket terrorism, like they do with different technological means, it's something that you have to deal with it. But right now, the most important move is in Gaza. The more we succeed in beating the Hamas, it puts us in a better position in the northern arena. I mean Lebanon and Syria against the Hezbollah. And we have another arena that was mentioned here. And this is the Judeo-Semaria and the Jordan backer. So first of all, we have to bring down the Hamas. Let's make me a comparison to the Nazis regime. We have to establish in Gaza a kind of a regime that was in Germany in 1945, which means that we have override security, every responsibility everywhere. And we deal with the sentencing, put to sentence all the Hamas and Jihad and their helpers in all those places, the rest of the people who are Hamas members in the Judeo-Semaria and not let under the Hezbollah that a new Hamas regime will grow up there. There is a much better position. Some people told me, how can you just erase the Hamas? This is an idea. This is something you can't erase. And what I'm saying is the same about Nazism. Nazism is also an idea. But if they don't have a regime, if they don't have army, if they don't rule, if they don't have territorial place where the people here, this is the first step to erase them. Indeed. Thank you very much to the both of you, Uzi Dayan and Gadi Shamni, for the important insight. Thank you. Thank you. When news of the October 7th Hamas massacre in Israel reached the world, an unlikely group of Americans were the first ones to lace up their boots and come to Israel. That's right. Dozens of cowboys from all over the heartland are in Israel on a mission to literally till the land and keep agriculture flourishing during wartime. I-24s Emily Francis joined them near the border of Gaza as they picked cherry tomatoes and cleaned up the vineyards. Let's take a look. It's not every day that you see cowboys tilling the land of Israel. But these passionate men and women are here with a purpose much bigger than themselves. Up until October 7th, the job was just straightforward. We were helping the farms. And then when October 7th had the atrocities happen, our job just went to a new level because the foreign workers were leaving. The men and women that were called up into the reserve duty had to leave, which pulled the farms. Basically, empty. So, yeah, today is taking the old tomatoes out and tying up these so they can come in and get the new crops in. Joshua Waller and his big family are Christian farmers from Tennessee who moved to Israel 14 years ago with a big mission called Hayyovell, or in English, serveisrael.com. It's looking good. Every time I go all the way through. There you go. Oh, it's good. It can all stay up there anyway. I wasn't born with a green thumb, I'm sorry, Joshua. No, it looks good. My thumb is brown. We'll wrap it up now. I can remember back on the farm in Tennessee, there was an Israeli flag with a menorah right in our living room on top of our piano. We were raised with the understanding, Christian Zionist understanding, that if Israel ever needed help, we'd be the first to be here. We'll harvest up to 400 tons of grapes in a year, hand-picked. We'll plant just this year before the war. We planted 20,000 vines and trees together. After October 7th, Joshua and his family brought dozens of volunteers from all over the United States to help keep the agriculture alive and flourishing during the war. But these are perfectly edible. You can just take them off and eat them for lunch right now or eat them for a snack. But yeah, the color is amazing. And Josiah Hilton of Virginia Beach is already a veteran of four years. The story here, and it's a huge part of the nation as well, is I think that's something we kind of lose around the world is the agriculture and getting back to farming and growing your own food and that kind of stuff. And it's how the world goes around, because you can't live without the farmers. So here, especially in Israel, even though there's a big war and there are so many people fighting for their lives in Gaza, you still have to keep the farms going. And there's not a famine during wartime. So we're privileged and we're blessed to be here to be able to help the farmers and do what we can. I can't go into Gaza and fight, so I'm going to help here on the farms. These men and women are proud to call themselves Christian Zionists, because they are a faith-based community who live by the word of God. Right. That's all for this latest edition of I-24 News. Be sure to follow us on our website, I-24News.tv, and across our social media platforms. I'm Siobhan Raveave. Thank you so much for watching. Is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. 24 Israel Bajo Ataque. News 24 en Español trae el análisis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra, espadas de hierro. Entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra, la reacción de los países hispanoparlantes. News 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. Unicamente en I-24 News. Welcome to I-24 News. I'm Siobhan Raveave. And these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Israel's war with Hamas is now at day 45, a war which began with a brutal massacre of innocent Israelis, as at least 1,200 women, men, children, and elderly were brutally tortured and murdered on October 7th in southern Israel. Additionally, Hamas is currently holding on to 236 hostages in captivity, their fate unknown. Throughout this morning, ongoing live fire on both the southern and northern borders in Israel. Mortar shells were fired at an IDF post out of Lebanon as rockets were launched by Hamas terrorists at Israeli communities near the Gaza border. All of this after Israel denied reports on Arab media that a pause in the fighting will come into effect this morning as part of a deal to release Israeli hostages. Israel's war cabinet, however, did convene last night to discuss a document from Qatar in which Hamas, for the first time, demonstrated a readiness to engage in a substantial deal. Here's Israel's ambassador to the US, Mike Herzog, on the efforts to release the Israeli hostages. We're talking about a pause in the fighting for a few days so we can get the hostages out. But all sides. It's not a ceasefire because we will continue to push against Hamas to dismantle their military infrastructure and their terror infrastructure. We're not going to stop that. But we are willing to go for a pause for a significant number of hostages if we have a deal. Live from Israel's northern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pia Stekelbach. Pia, it's been a busy morning in the north. There are multiple cases of mortar fire on Israel's border. What can you tell us about this? Right, Sivan, a very busy morning. And the shelling continues. We do speak about both anti-tank missiles and mortar shells. We're just hearing reports about an impact, a direct impact in the area of Kiryat Shmona next to the city there that's just located in the upper eastern Galilee. And another impact on an intersection. We do hear that several roads in this area are closed off. This comes after mortar shells targeted several communities also in the central part of the Israel-Lebanon border, the army outpost of Biranit and also the community of Arab Al-Aramsh. And Baram, this is where sirens were triggered about two hours ago. And this is really a continuation of what we've been seeing also yesterday, especially and this morning also throughout the night that we're reports about both mortar shelling and anti-tank missiles. As Ba'la claiming responsibility over several of those attacks and the idea is currently striking back in southern Lebanon and in several areas in southern Lebanon, both Nakura in the west, but also areas in the central part and not far away from where we are. And we do sometimes occasionally hear the Israeli utterly going out towards southern Lebanon as per protocol, the idea of striking back towards the origin of those launches. Now also yesterday was a very, very busy day. As Ba'la really stepped up the pace of those attacks, both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles were launched towards several communities along the Israel-Lebanon border. Yesterday also a number of foreign aircraft entered Israeli airspace. They were downed by the Israeli military here, but that just gives you a picture of how full of tension this frontier is and also how volatile here we do speak about many communities that have been targeted yesterday and today that have already been widely evacuated. This is the case with communities such as that are close to five kilometers to the border because of the constant threat of both anti-tank missiles and mortar shells, but also in these communities you do always have civilians that remain in these areas and therefore they are in great danger. What about other communities which are still currently there have not been evacuated? Are they under threat at the moment? Well, we do know that Hezbollah has the capability of also launching rockets that has happened in the past as well. So as per protocol, those communities that are in proximity of five kilometers to the Lebanese border have been called to evacuate. Other communities here, as I said, the tensions are high. You do in many regions here, the outgoing Israeli artillery fire. Not many people are outside, but it is very difficult of course to facilitate the evacuation of many communities. So, so far we do speak about those communities that are widely emptied, that are very, very close to the Lebanese border and have been under constant threat of those mortar and anti-tank missile fire. Thank you, Pia, on Israel's northern border. And down south here with the latest developments on Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pia Kloshendler. Pia, there are sirens in the south early this morning. What is happening down there now? You know, we were talking about a potential ceasefire at 11 a.m. local time after a flurry of Arab media reports. But after 11, there was a rocket strike or an attempt at striking a community further up north in Netiva-A-Sara on the border with the northern sector, with the Gaza Strip. And at the same time, the artillery is pounding the area of the Indonesia hospital, which we can see behind us in the locality of Bet Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. The pounding was so intense just 15 minutes ago that there was a fog, but not the fog of war, the fog of gunpowder. And at the same time, a whiff of gunpowder and of dust came to us because the explosion was so intense. So the fighting is going on. There is no pause at all in the fighting and absolutely no news regarding the potential release of women and children on Children's Day from the hands of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad. Right now, the operation, the ground operation goes on in Bet Hanun around the Indonesia hospital. Tanks are rolling around it according to video that we've seen on the Al-Jazeera Qatari media. Fighting is still going on for a third day in the Jabalia refugee camp and in the Zaitun neighborhood in Gaza City. And bombing pounding is still going on in the sector of Hanun, south of Gaza City. Now, there is a humanitarian pause in West Rafar, according to the coordinator of activity from the Ministry of Defense vis-à-vis the Palestinians. And at the same time, the humanitarian corridor is open again. And since the 5th of October, we know already that over 360,000 Palestinians who lived in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip have moved south thanks to that corridor. Thank you, Pierre, for these updates in Israel's southern border. With us now is Major General and Reserves Uzi Dayan, former National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Sharon and Barak, Deputy Chief of Staff of the IDF. And also with us is Retired Major General Gadi Shamni, a former Commander in the Gaza Division. Thank you both for joining us. Uzi, everyone is talking about a potential hostage exchange deal, a release deal, if you will. If you were part of the cabinet today, how would you play this out? Would you embrace these negotiations with Hamas? If I was a Prime Minister, I first of all demand what we demand all the time, and this is sign of life. We don't know exactly how many keyneps are in the hand of the Hamas. We don't know whether they're alive or not. And I think that the Red Cross and all the nations is to demand first of all sign of life. About the negotiation, if I were the Prime Minister, I hold my cards very close, not only to my chest but in my head, because you can go from one side, and we can say everything, but not leave Gaza strict. On the other side, we can say nothing that we put in danger the other hostages. For example, to release some of them, etc. So this is a very tough negotiation. With the people who are actually Nazis. And it has to be done very carefully. It's one of the goals of this war. We want all the people who are kidnapped, no, not only the babies and the children and the elder, etc., but each one of them. And at the same time, we have to bring down the Hamas as an organization or rule Gaza. So we don't release a lot of information. We don't have a lot of information. And above all, it's not something that it has to be shared with the media, etc. Gadi, what's your take on this? What would you do? Would you negotiate with Hamas on this? Well, I think that we don't have any other choice but to negotiate. But I really said negotiation is tough. And I believe that the military pressure is supporting our negotiators. That's why what I would do is keep pushing Hamas, keep pressing Hamas, keep destroying their capability and try and do my best in order to bring hostages back. There is a question about those opposers, whether it's the right thing to do or not, no doubt that a pause of two or three or five days as they allegedly demand is a dangerous thing for the IDF and might create a lot of problems but still, since bringing back the hostages is actually the big arm of this campaign. It's a risk that I guess it materialize the IDF will take. Well, let's talk about those military repercussions. What are the repercussions involved if Israel indeed agrees to a three to five day pause in the fighting? Gadi. You are kidding me? Gadi. Okay. So, you know, right now Hamas is under pressure. The IDF is destroying Hamas infrastructure, killing their activists, killing their leadership, their whole hiding in the underground or behind the civilians. They use as human shields. They don't have the actual picture. They don't really know. Sima doesn't really know what's happening on the ground and he doesn't care about anything. You know, he thinks of himself as a shade. He understands that he will be probably killed during this campaign and he doesn't care. Even, you know, even if two million people would stay homeless and then many civilians would get killed, they prevent people from going south to the safe area just to use them as human shields. So, if you have a pause like this, people can go out to the surface. They can see the locations of the IDF. They can prepare. I remind you that Goldin was kidnapped in 2014. He was kidnapped by Hamas during a ceasefire. A ceasefire is very dangerous. I guess that even if we'll have a pause, it will not be completely quiet. I'm sure that there will be clashes here and there. I'm sure that the IDF will take the precautions in order not to allow people to come too close to the IDF location because it is risky. And as I said, I guess that the IDF will take those rings in order to bring hostages back. Uzi, what do you think are the disadvantages to the army and to its soldiers if they do engage in such a negotiation with Hamas? Well, first of all, we have a very bad experience with terror organizations, especially with the Hamas. If we agree to a ceasefire, we usually cease and they continue to fire. So we will make any arrangement in order to promote the release of our hostages. At the same time, we are still in Gaza and we can take advantage of this time, for example, to collect more intelligence, to continue to arrest Hamas people, Hamas terrorists in the Judah and Samaria, in the Jordan Valley. And don't forget that we have another front in the northern part of the country against the Hezbollah and the Hamas. On all those fronts, we have to continue because a very important lesson is to continue to put the pressure on the terror organizations, and especially the Hamas. The more there is military operational pressure, the best is by the end of the day to release the hostages too. Now, Uzi, you've been a deputy chief of staff. How would you react to the Hezbollah fire? Is Israel doing enough on that front? We can do more. We can continue this policy, which is actually we return fire to everything that they do. It's not a large-scale war, especially I think because Hamas, excuse me, the Iranians or the producers of those issues, I think that Iran doesn't want a full-scale war because they have free outposts against Israel, the Hamas in Gaza, the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen. And I think that they already understand that Hamas is out of the game, that we are going to erase Hamas, and they are very careful about using the Hezbollah. But as a military man, I would recommend very highly right now to establish a kind of a death zone between the Lytani River and our international border with Lebanon. Because if we do so, we can continue to chase and to hunt Hezbollah terrorists. And in the same time, the range, the distance between the Lytani River and the international border is longer than the range of the anti-tank missiles. So I think that first of all, we should do that and later decide according to what's going on on the other fronts. Now gentlemen, let's take a listen. I want you both to hear what a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, how he spoke and praised Yemen's Houthi rebels for their rocket fire on Israel and for the seizing of a cargo vessel in the Red Sea yesterday. Let's listen. This is a considerable step by the Yemeni army. And I believe that the magnitude of the Zionist crime committed in Gaza motivates every sincere and eager individual to defend the Palestinian people and support them in any way they can. Hence my salute to them. So we see here that Yemen's Houthi rebels have hijacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea, took 25 crew members hostage. They're claiming to do so due to the ship's links to Israel. To what extent does this raise regional tensions even more, Gadi? Well, first of all, no doubt that the very generator behind all this is something that Israel has to deal with, but Israel should not deal with it alone. You know, it's a world problem. And that's something that I think that in the U.S. that the administration understands after the failure to achieve an agreement with Iran. Now we all understand why the Iranians will not go for an agreement because they have their own plans. They have Iranian militias that are spread all over the Middle East. And it's on the way to Europe. It's only a matter of time. So Israel will have to deal with Gaza first and with Lebanon second. And by the way, just to your previous question to Uzi, I see it a little bit different. I think that Hezbollah is, you know, it's not only an exchange of fire that Hezbollah is paying his price for supporting Hamas. That's not the case. I think that Hezbollah is trying to establish a new reality in the northern border, which means that even after the end of hostilities in Gaza, they will continue with a nutrition war with Israel. You have to understand that there is already an Iranian militia that is located in the southern Lebanon, an Iranian militia that was moved from Syria to south Lebanon. And this will probably not solve by words, by talking, by agreement. I think that the IDF will have to deal with it forcefully. Now with all the rest in the Middle East, it's a matter of time. I think that there is a full determination to confront those Hamas and Iranian proxies all over the Middle East. So we have Hamas in Lebanon, in the West Bank, of course. We do it too late, but we do it now in Lebanon and all over the Middle East, including Yemen. I think that that should be a challenge, a Western world challenge. It's not only an Israeli challenge, because Israel is in the front of this problem right now. But it's on the way to Europe, it's on the way to the other part of the world. Uzzi, what do you make of this connection between Hamas and the Houthis? First of all, I agree with what God has said. Establishing a death zone from the Litanian to the Israeli-Lebanese border, I said that it has to be done as a first move, the first stage. Later on, we'll have to deal with Hezbollah. The Houthis are not that important. They are caused by Iran, but we can deal with it. From our point of view, the Houthis are pretty far away, almost 2,000 kilometers, and they have limited force. Of course, when you establish a rocket terrorism, like they do with different technological means, it's something that you have to deal with it. But right now, the most important move is in Gaza. The more we succeed in beating Hamas, it puts us in a better position in the northern arena, I mean Lebanon and Syria against the Hezbollah. And we have another arena that was mentioned here, and this is the Judeo-Semaria and the Jordan Baka. So first of all, we have to bring down the Hamas. Let's make a comparison to the Nazis regime. We have to establish in Gaza a kind of a regime that was in Germany in 1945, which means that we have overriding security, every responsibility everywhere, and we deal with the sentencing, put to sentence all the Hamas and Jihad and their helpers in all those places, arrest all the people who are Hamas, who are Hamas members in the Judeo-Semaria and not let under the Hezbollah that a new Hamas regime will grow up there. There is a much better position. Some people, you know, told me, how can you just erase the Hamas? This is an idea. This is something you can't erase. What I'm saying is the same about Nazism. Nazism is also an idea, but if they don't have a regime, if they don't have armies, if they don't rule, if they don't have territorial place where they rule, the people here, this is the first step to erase them. Indeed. Thank you very much to the both of you, Uzi Dayan and Gadi Shamni for the important insight. Thank you. When news of the October 7th Hamas massacre in Israel reached the world, an unlikely group of Americans were the first ones to lace up their boots and come to Israel. That's right, dozens of cowboys from all over the heartland are in Israel on a mission to literally till the land and keep agriculture flourishing during wartime. I-24's Emily Francis joined them near the border of Gaza as they picked cherry tomatoes and cleaned up the vineyards. Let's take a look. It's not every day that you see cowboys tilling the land of Israel. But these passionate men and women are here with a purpose much bigger than themselves. Up until October 7th, the job was just straightforward. We were helping the farms, and then when October 7th, the atrocities happened, our job just went to a new level because the foreign workers were leaving, the men and women that were called up into the reserve duty had to leave, which pulled the farms basically empty. So yeah, today is taking the old tomatoes out and tying up these so they can come in and get the new crops in. Joshua Waller and his big family are Christian farmers from Tennessee who moved to Israel 14 years ago with a big mission called Hayyovell, or in English, serveisrael.com. It's looking good. There you go. Oh, it's good. It can all stay up there anyway. I wasn't born with a green thumb, I'm sorry, Joshua. My thumb is brown. Wrap it up now. I can remember back on the farm in Tennessee there was an Israeli flag with a menorah right in our living room on top of our piano. We were raised with the understanding, Christian Zionist understanding, that if Israel ever needed help, we would be the first to be here. We'll harvest up to 400 tons of grapes in a year, hand-picked. We'll plant just this year before the war. We planted 20,000 vines and trees together. After October 7th, Joshua and his family brought dozens of volunteers from all over the United States to help keep the agriculture alive and flourishing during the war. But these are perfectly edible. You can just take them off and eat them for lunch right now or eat them for a snack. But, yeah, the color is amazing. And Josiah Hilton of Virginia Beach is already a veteran of four years. The story here, and it's a huge part of the nation of Israel, and I think that's something we kind of lose around the world, is the agriculture and getting back to farming and growing your own food and that kind of stuff. It's how the world goes around, because you can't live without the farmers. So here, especially in Israel, even though there's a big war and so many people fighting for their lives in Gaza, you still have to keep the farms going. And there's not a famine during wartime. So we're privileged and we're blessed to be here to be able to help the farmers and do what we can. I can't go into Gaza and fight, so I'm going to help here on the farms. The women are proud to call themselves Christian Zionists because they are a faith-based community who live by the word of God. That's all for this latest edition of I-24 News. Be sure to follow us on our website, I-24 News.tv and across our social media platforms. I'm Siobhan Raveve. Thank you so much for watching. In a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Israel's story to the world. I-24 News channels. Come to the special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage on day 45 of the war here in Israel. A maybe hostage deal, emphasis on the maybe. Israel managing a system of self-checks and balances, if you will, pressing the gas pedal in order to exert military pressure on Hamas, on the ground in Gaza Strip, but also pushing the brakes to allow the diplomatic efforts to bear fruit. Hamas, of course, still playing games cynically using the hostages to buy time for its survival. In a few hours, the Israeli war cabinet will be meeting the families of the 236 hostages with the brutal dilemma lingering. Say yes to the release of some and risk the others, push through militarily for diplomatic leverage and more profoundly perhaps how can you possibly negotiate with the devil. And we want to begin this broadcast by heading to the ground, to the Israel-Gaza border. I-24 News correspondent Pierre-Claude Schendler standing by the I-24 News team. Pierre, thank you for joining us. Well, a busy morning. There ongoing rocket fire and Israel also hitting some Hamas commanders. What can you tell us? Right. You know, there was a report on the Al-Rad Jordanian TV that there would be a ceasefire or a break in the fighting in exchange for the release of a first batch of women and children held hostage by Hamas at 11 a.m. local time. That's two hours ago, and I can assure you that the fighting is going on behind me, focusing on the Indonesia hospital. We know that tanks are rolling nearby the hospital complex. We've seen pictures aired by El Jazeera, the Qatari network. But also fighting in the Jebaliah refugee camp, fighting in the Zaitun neighborhood of Gaza City. Three tactical hits for the IDF. Three company commanders of Hamas were eliminated, but we also have heard that three Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting. There was a communique by the IDF spokesman unit this morning and later on again this morning of two Israeli soldiers dead. Now, at the same time, there is still the same humanitarian efforts done by the IDF. The Salahatin corridor is open. We know that from the 5th of November, over 360,000 Palestinians displaced themselves from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip. There is a tactical pause in the fighting west of Rafah. Rafah is being bombed occasionally and as well as the southern refugee camps of Direl Balach, Nusairat, Nihanyunas in the central sector of the Gaza Strip. There is also an urging by the IDF for the residents of neighborhoods in the center of Gaza City, but also east of Gaza City, Al-Darash, Tufah, Jebaliah, Shejaia, to leave their home and join the humanitarian corridor and move south. And there's also a humanitarian effort in coordination with Israel. The Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom is sending 40 trucks that are crossing the Rafah terminal in coordination with Israel to establish a field hospital. We know that earlier on during the fighting, the Jordanian Air Force dropped humanitarian aid, medical supply for their field hospital in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip that was established before Hamas waged that war on Israel on October 7th. Yes, I-24 News correspondent Pierre Glushendler on the Israel-Gaza border. Thank you very much for this, much more from Pierre later on in the broadcast. But now to get a clear understanding our I-24 News senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev is mapping out the current IDF campaign on the ground. Fighting is raging on the streets of Gaza in day number 45 of the war. After the IDF encircled the entire northern half of the Gaza Strip, its units are now clearing the neighborhoods from Hamas terrorists. The operation now is focusing on the eastern parts of the city, places which have become notorious for terrorism such as Jabalia and Sajaya, which are now the focal point of the ground operation. In the western part of the city, right next to the Mediterranean coast, lies the Shifa Hospital. On the ground, it is used to treat illnesses and injuries, but below it, more and more evidence is being unearthed to show what Israel has been claiming for years. Hamas was building terror tunnels underneath Shifa Hospital. By now, the truth is clear. Hamas wages war from hospital, wages terror from hospitals. In any normal place, the ground next to the main hospital building is used as a parking lot, maybe laboratories, but not in Gaza. This is what happens here. A tunnel shaft leading deep underground and into a 55-meter-long tunnel ending in a blast-proof door with a firing hole, and the role of terrorism in Shifa does not end there. Here you can see Hamas taking a hostage inside the vicinity. He doesn't look even, he even doesn't look, need a treatment, but they're taking him inside the hospital. At least two hostages were brought to Shifa Hospital alive. At least two other hostages' bodies were found just outside the hospital and probably arrived here alive as well. A place meant to save lives is actually serving as the headquarter to bring everything they can to take lives. And joining now us here in studio for this broadcast, Mr. Yakovalapin, Military and Strategic Affairs, and also the Jewish New Syndicate and the Miriam Institutes and our Senior Defense Correspondent, Jonathan. Here, Jonathan, so where exactly are the IDF operating, the IDF forces operating now? Let's understand what exactly the ground forces entered Gaza from three different directions. The north from the east and from the south here, thus encircling the Gaza Strip from three different directions. The fourth direction being this one, the Mediterranean Sea, where the Israeli navy operates. Everything in green are areas taken over by the Israeli army, but there are still enclaves here of Hamas control. Neighborhoods notorious for terrorism. And this is now where the fighting takes place. Israeli forces closing in on these neighborhoods exactly. This is probably the place where rockets were fired towards central Israel over the weekend and the rocket fire, which has decreased dramatically towards central Israel, will probably decrease even more once these areas are taken over. That's as far as the neighborhoods are controlled, but let's remember there are hospitals, Shifa Hospital on the western part of the Gaza City closer to the Mediterranean and here, not so much fighting, but a lot of Israeli activity to disclose exactly what is under the ground. Under the Shifa hospital, the tunnels, the security cameras and all of the terror infrastructure under the Shifa hospital to the north, to the area of Beth-Khanun, where the Indonesian hospital is as well. Israel is hoping to uncover the underground activity there. Probably tunnels, probably terror infrastructure, as we've seen the hospitals in Gaza, the Indonesian hospital, the Shifa hospital, and many, many others are not only there to save lives or also headquarters for those who want to take lives. It seems that this is the modus operandi throughout this trip and all the hospitals that are spread there, hospital above ground, underground terror terror headquarters. Mr. Alapin Ahira with us in studio. The main challenge or the main next challenge of the IDF would be to head south, but unlike the north it is packed with civilians who lived there before and who arrived there from the northern part of the trip for recent weeks. With that said, the presence of Hamas terrorists there we cannot underestimate the importance of it. How do you navigate those two conflicting components? The IDF has all of the capabilities it needs to direct precise firepower at Hamas targets, even in southern parts of the Gaza Strip where as you accurately note we have hundreds of thousands of evacuees. What you need in order to do that is precise intelligence, a digital command network that allows you to know where to fire, where not to fire. The IDF has all of those things and therefore it can adjust its operations as it head south into Gaza. Yes, many challenges are still ahead but from south we want to head now to the north because it is yet another area where the IDF has all of those things and therefore it can adjust its operations as it head south into Gaza. Yes, many challenges are still ahead but from south we want now to the north because it is yet another tense morning on the Israel-Iberan border, our 24 news correspondent Pia Stankov, joining us from there, Pia. What's the latest? Right, Elie, a very eventful morning and basically a continuation of what we have already seen yesterday, a number of mortar shells and anti-tank missiles being launched towards several different localities here in northern Israel including an army outpost, the outpost is massive, there were no casualties but the infrastructure is completely damaged by those mortar shells now in addition to that there are reports about direct impacts in the area of Kirat Shmona and the very eastern part of the Gelili area and also an intersection a bit further down south, there are several roads close to the Israel-Iberan border around these direct impacts close and that comes in addition to also other communities really in different regions alongside the border that have both by anti-tank missiles and mortar shells now as a response so that the Israeli army is retaliating in southern Lebanon also they're targeting different locations alongside the border both in the center region and the western area as well we could even hear the Israeli artillery outgoing towards southern Lebanon really throughout the morning here we're about 10 to 12 kilometers away from the border and you can really hear that this is a very active run that comes after yesterday has also been a very active and eventful day the same basically mortar shells and anti-tank missiles being launched towards several different communities here alongside the Israel-Iberan border yesterday in addition to that also several suspicious aerial targets entering Israeli airspace they were all intercept and shut down by the Israeli military yesterday again there was a report that there was an infiltration attempt in the community of Stula in the west that turned out to be false but there really again displays and really showcases that we're dealing with a number of different threats both of course and the pace has really intensified the mortar and anti-tank missile attacks Isballah has claimed responsibility for several of those but also of course drones and foreign aircrafts infiltrating and of course the visit very physical infiltration attempts via the ground that we have seen also in earlier stages of this war and you can really see how these scum nurses are continuing and intensifying and they're expected to continue also in the next days and possibly the next days. Yes, and it remains tense there with Iran to an extent keeping its gun on the table on the northern table in disrespect I-24 News correspondent thank you very much for this back here in studio with Mr. Yakub Lapin and I-24 News senior defense correspondent Regev Mr. Lapin I do want to begin with a proxy of Iran of course Isballah but what we're seeing from the from Tehran itself today the Iranian Revolutionary Guards showing their new missile hypersonic missile that can reach a range of 1400 kilometers sending a very clear message to Israel to the US to anyone who's watching essentially. Absolutely I think it's easy to forget that Iran is in and of itself also an arena that we have to be vigilant about because Iran has the Middle East's largest missile arsenal thousands of missiles ballistic missiles cruise missiles hypersonics that they've been developing and many of those can reach Israel and what they're saying is that they are making the threat they're putting the threat on the table we know that the Iranians prefer proxy warfare that's why they set up Isballah that's why they armed and funded Hamas and the Houthis and the Shiite militias all over the Middle East they prefer to fight until the last Palestinian and if need be until the last Lebanese but they also have the ability to activate themselves and the thing that is currently in place to deter that is the American military presence in the region we'll see if that holds up. For the time being at least they don't want to waste Isballah at this stage but Jonathan is there a way and or a need to move from this state of mind, Israel's state of mind of aggressive defense so to speak to more than that without risking a full war. If the situation in the north remains like this even if the war in the south is won and Hamas is eradicated and the residents of the south will be able to go back home without the threat of Hamas anymore the residents of the north in this case will not be able to go back home knowing that there's no threat because the threat is there yes Israel is taking away Isballah capabilities anti-tank missiles are anti-tank squads are being hit some of the RAD-1 forces are being hit infrastructures being hit all that is very good but Isballah is still there on the border fence for the residents of the north to go back there needs to be one of two options one is relive give birth again to UN resolution 1701 drafted after the second war in 2006 which means Isballah is beyond the Litany River and by Isballah I also mean those environmental watchers that everybody knows they're not really watching the environment they should be all of them should be beyond the Litany River south of the Litany River only the Lebanese army and the UNIFIL forces is effective or unaffected as they may be they can be the only ones there that's one option option number two is by force by force comes with repercussions I don't think you can expect the residents of northern Israel to go back home to the same reality as it was before because we saw in the south what it can lead to the question should not be the intent of the enemy but rather its abilities simply put let's do a circle back to what's happening in the south because there is this and we'll dive in further into the dynamics of the negotiations further later on there is this dilemma of whether to push the military campaign forward in the Gaza Strip and by that risk of diplomatic efforts to bring about the release of some of the hostages or the other way around that not pushing forward militarily will mean more diplomatic leeway for the psychopath in the Gaza Strip so the logic until now has been to push on the accelerator of the military program the offensive and then to convert the pressure that creates on Hamas into future potential deals that would result in the freeing of as many Israeli civilians in Hamas custody as possible and now we're seeing a kind of slowing down there is a kind of slowing down we're seeing what's essentially becoming mopping up operations in Gaza city and in northern Gaza as the map the Jonathan displayed showed so clearly and the idea could have gone further south by now it could have and it hasn't so it's received the order I think to wait but I think that that order at least as far as I can tell is very temporary and I think what Israel is saying basically is if there isn't a deal now then we're going to move south I think that's basically the message that's on the table and even if there is a deal just to make it clear after a certain amount of days of ceasefire Israel will move south it's not like a deal will end the war we're talking about a very very temporary truce which is very dear to Hamas for tactical reasons but strategically it will change nothing as far as Israel is concerned it's going to continue with its mission of dismantling Hamas so that creates its own dynamic and you know we're going to have to see where things go but I think the next 24 hours 48 hours are going to be key in understanding how fast the rest of this offensive is going to proceed and in this respect once the go order is given to head south what is the next quote-unquote exit point or shopping point I don't know if there is some if you listen to the Israeli leaders and there's no such thing as stopping point we proceed but if you listen to the Israeli leaders and I'm saying leaders not one but many of them then fuel should not come in and it did humanitarian poses should not have been put in but they are a humanitarian assistance fuel of course so the fact that they're saying there's no stopping point that does not mean that this is really the case as far as Israel is concerned if the IDF head south then it's all out we go in but then of course the other side and we have to respect that they have the very big card of the hostages they're playing with it understanding the sensitivity of this issue for the Israeli public and the Israeli society and we're seeing it over the past week these reports that you're mentioning about a possible ceasefire a possible exchange deal a prisoner deal hostages being released we've been hearing it for about a week it's been said 50, 60, 70 Israel will do this Israel will do that what is really happening I do not know I do know that whoever has to make the decision needs to make it and it's a very very difficult decision well we don't know many things what we do know is that as we speak red siren alerts are being heard once again today in the up in the north in northern Israeli communities the Lebanon border and further into Israeli territory the city up north of Kiryat Shmona again as Jonathan said earlier Mr. Lapin the current set of affairs is not enabling residents to go back home on the northern front which means if we're trying to get some sort of an indication to a time frame of this campaign these campaigns plural how long are we talking about is there one action if we're talking about the diplomatic route of reinstating the UN resolution we're not talking about something immediate if we're talking about the military campaign we're not talking about something immediate so how long how long in regards to the northern front I think that there are like in every situation here factors that are slowing things down and factors that are acting as accelerators so right now what's slowing down the northern escalation is a the presence of the United States and the pressure I think that the United States is applying on Israel to stop this right now from developing into a full-scale regional war that's one very important factor another is the very legitimate strategic goal of focusing prioritizing on the mission in the Gaza Strip which will require a very large amount of military resources, intelligence resources, firepower the ground forces are many many of them are in there so of course Israel would rather get most of that done before it starts thinking about what it can do on the northern front but at the end of the day Hezbollah's assigned role in this war as far as Iran is concerned is to keep us distracted I think we should expect Hezbollah to escalate further because that fits into the logic of distracting us and making Israel unable to completely focus on the mission in the south and I think everything that has been said until now is very accurate the 7th of October was a black swan event it was a reality changing event we're not going back in time the 60,000 or so northern Israelis cannot go back to a reality in which death squads, Hezbollah death squads which are better trained, better armed than their Hamas counterparts the red one are more formidable force than Hamas's Nukhba elite terror commandos that have to be a buffer zone how will we implement it? we will find out meanwhile as we speak there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in their own countries Israelis who left both the northern and the southern border and the I-24 news correspondent Shafira paid a visit to Kibbutz where a quarter of the community either killed or abducted incomprehensible to the war some of their residents came back just for a moment to get a sense of what is left of their homes let's take a look this is the cup collection of my parents they brought it from different places a month and a half after the Hamas onslaught residents of southern Israel are picking up the pieces this house in Kibbutz near Oz belongs to the Rubin family who managed to escape a horrific attack and survived here four people of our family were hiding they hid here for two hours my mother was born during the holocaust her family hid she got here when she was a child it all comes back several residents of near Oz came back to the Kibbutz to collect their belonging among them was Avi Zichri whose wife and nine year old son were kidnapped to Gaza Ohad, Karen, Grandma and Grandpa all of them were here in the safe room the terrorists came here and took them without any fight the grandfather is very weak and can barely see they didn't have a choice at 9 a.m. we got a message from the grandfather we can't speak that was it 38 members of the Kibbutz were murdered on October 7 and 75 are abducted around quarter of the population of this small community in the dining room a tribute to the hostages and fallen was laid the empty mailboxes have stickers red for those who were murdered black for those who were abducted a few blue ones for the hostages who were released we met the son of one of them you have it leaf sheets was one of the few hostages set free his father or dad is still being held in Gaza it's very hard to return here it's my childhood home every house tells a story here we can see three houses of abducted people here here we see the house of someone I've known for my entire life a classmate his father was murdered Kibbutz near Oz was established in 1955 and was a collective community until recent years in the center of the Kibbutz we can find the beautiful ecosystem garden this garden called the green point contains rare trees which were brought from Australia and designed to grow in desert conditions designer of this place called the green spot is Ron Pauker who lost his brother in the massacre during the winter the garden will survive also without special care and I hope that till the spring we will reclaim all this the garden I am not worried about the garden though some residents say they are willing to return to the Kibbutz Adar who left the Kibbutz 27 years ago says that she doesn't think all the residents will come back but she is fully committed to her home I think that this harsh event that we all went through proved to all of us how much we all belong to the same place we speak the same language we are a community even if we don't live here anymore in the last month I became really proud to be a part of this place it is such a beautiful place we are not tired from the long road we are paving the way this slogan is written on the huge flag outside of the dining room but only time will tell what the future of Kibbutz near Oz will be and we are taking a very quick break now but when we get back we dive in further into the status of what we know about the context to bring about the release of the 236 hostages still being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for 45 days now a quick break and we'll be back is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well morose thanks for staying with us a day in the life of a kid like a whole lifetime new acquaintance, every stroll in the park is a journey, every balloon, it's a miracle, every laugh, every smile, the essence of living. But for the first 45 days, 38 Israeli children are being held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, the youngest, now 10 months old. A baby was born in captivity. Some of the children are orphans as Hamas murdered their parents for 45 days, they're there. When was the last time they smiled or laughed or saw a bird? No one knows. It's International Children's Day today and the only thing, the only thing that needs to be on the mind of every one of us, every human walking this planet is this. Take a look at this clip created by filmmaker Gili Torev, incomprehensible. And we want to turn now to Gili Roman, brother of Yerden, who's being held captive still as we speak for the 45th day now in the Gaza Strip. Gili, thank you very much for speaking with us. Like us, you're following all those reports of an if, maybe yes, no deal. It must be agonizing. Yeah, it's illustrating. We are really dealing with a lot of stress over this presumed deal. We believe it is possible. It's in hands reach. And you just saw the video with me. I think it's unbearable that these kids are still held captive in Gaza. And also the mothers, the women that are there, I have a three years old niece here at home that is separated from her mother because she managed to escape with her father. It's unbelievable. And of course, we are very, these are very tense days for us. And you've mentioned it and you're not a decision maker. Neither one of us would want to sit around this table facing those brutal inhumane dilemmas. But the current outline of this deal is talking about women and children. And there is this notion that releasing some would risk the release of the others. What are the sentiments among the families? I cannot speak in behalf of all the families. I can speak on behalf of my family. We believe that we have to start. We have to start this dynamic of releasing dozens of human beings, hostages. And of course, if we start from the most vulnerable ones, which are the children. And also, we're talking here about the mothers and the women, injured, elderly people. We need to start. And if we can release dozens, maybe many dozens of the most vulnerable people held hostage, I think it's time it happened. If it can happen today, it should happen today. If it can happen tomorrow, it should happen tomorrow. And then we'll start a dynamic of humanitarian pauses and release of hostages. And we can really change the course of what we have seen so far. Yeah. And all throughout their conversation, we're, of course, seeing images of your beautiful sister Yerden, and it's gut-turning, really. Heated parliamentary debate today in Jerusalem, Gili, on death penalty for the terrorists, many terrorists that were captured during and after the horrific October 7th massacre. Representatives of the families are not taking a standard. They're simply baguette lawmakers, essentially. Not to talk about it now. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a pretty simple dilemma because the professional advice is not to talk about it right now. So if that's the case, so it's a purely political discussion at the moment, regardless of what should happen in general, and I'll get into that. But if it's merely a political discussion, it should absolutely not happen at the moment. And I think that we should not adhere to any idea or any act that might endanger our civilians or our soldiers that are held in Gaza. I think this debate is a pretty simple debate in that notion. Yes. And later on today, long overdue perhaps the war cabinet will meet representatives of the families, the war cabinet as in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Joff Garland, working member Benny Guns and others. What are you expecting to hear tonight? So I will be attending the meeting with the war cabinet, and I believe that we are expecting to hear the firm stand about accepting the proposed deal. I think it's pretty clear that there is a deal on the table, and we want to understand their perspective on that. A lot, as you mentioned, there is some debate whether a partial release is beneficial or harming I think that they need to put their official professional opinion about that and to explain how the press see it because it can be a matter of hours before decision. So I think that they should be clear. I don't think that they will take us into the little details of the deal, and it's reasonable, but we need to understand their basic approach towards it. Gili Roman, we are waiting with you for the return of your sister Yerden and all the others, and we will stay with you until all of them are back home. Good luck tonight, and thank you very much for speaking with us. Thank you. And what used to be the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Plaza is now the hostage square for seven weeks now, but local artists are using the weapons in their toolbox too, creating this is us, a project aimed at increasing support and awareness to the hostages. Erica Jackson has more on the power of art. With paintbrushes in their hands, these artists in Israel are raising awareness for hostages that Hamas kidnapped in Israel on October 7th. They're doing it through creating portraits of them. When everything started, I felt kind of like I can't help with anything, and I was at home pregnant. Ayelet has previously painted Daphna Eliakim, an Israeli kidnapped by Hamas who's 15 years old. Today, she's painting another hostage, Gali Tarshansky. She's only 13. My connection to a girl, like a small young girl that is, needs her mother, needs her parents, needs her family has made me, my heart went out to her. The opportunity to create these artworks is all thanks to a project called This Is Us. And whether it's through acrylic, charcoal or watercolor, the mission is the same, allowing artists to use the skills they know best to give back. The fresh paint, art and design fair along with the non-profit Yotsrim Sviva, which provides a platform for female artists in the Orthodox Jewish community, is behind the initiative. It's meant to raise awareness for those held hostage in Gaza by Hamas. We've just made contact with the artists that we were in regular connections with, and we invited them to do collaborative shifts here at the Square of Tel Aviv Museum of Art. As a painter, when I found out about this, I wanted straight ahead to participate. It wasn't even a question. When I started to do this, it was like I could breathe again. For artists like Stella Lamichov, at times the process of creation isn't easy. When I heard about this project, I knew that it would be quite hard for me to look at someone who I know is over the border. Usually I paint from life and the thought of someone not being alive just killed me. Today Stella is painting Daniella Loni, who was kidnapped in Kibbutz near Oz. When I saw the videos in the 7th of October of Daniella and her daughter, her sister, her nieces in a truck led to Gaza, I saw the little girls in their pink dresses clinging to their moms with their little hands. The first thought as a mom was that could have been me, that could have been my daughter. I have family in Zderat. We could have been visiting. Here the stories of those taken captive are told through art with the hope that one day these paintings will be delivered into their hands. I'm full of hope that she will see the drawing, she will receive it and hopefully we will meet in better circumstances. I believe that I'll paint him and he will return. I hope he will put it in his room, his room here. Reporting from Tel Aviv, Erika Jackson, I-24 News. And we're heading back to the northern front because since we last spoke with our P.S. two rounds of our red siren alerts being heard in the northern communities all in all until this hour, Pia, since morning hours, the sixth time has been taking responsibility over rocket fire towards Israel. Right. Elie, well, recently in the last hour, the red alert sirens going off twice in the communities of Kiryat Shmona, Margaliot and Manara, which are three communities located in the very eastern upper part of the Galilee region. The first red alert came off about 20 minutes ago, the second one about 10 minutes ago. There are reports about explosions being heard in that area, and there are reports about mortar shells having been fired from southern Lebanon. The Israeli army is currently striking back with artillery towards the origin of these launches as per protocol. It is currently striking back in the area of Markaba and Belin, which is located right on the Lebanese side of the border in that area. And this is really one of many, many incidents that we have seen today earlier this morning, right a lot in the area of Witane, which is where the Israeli army outpost is located. This is where mortar fire has caused major destruction down that Israeli military post. No casualties were reported, however, but that really shows you how much of a danger these mortar shells pose. If we do hear the red alert sirens go off, that doesn't necessarily mean we're dealing with rockets. They also do get triggered if we're talking about mortar shells or anti-tank missiles, both of which we've seen yesterday throughout the day and also throughout the night. And this morning, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for a number of exactly these attacks, and we speak about attacks really alongside the Israel-Lebanon border. However, this eastern part Madara, Margaliot Kiryat Shmone, this is where we had the alarm going off now, has been majorly targeted since really the beginning of the war because these communities are very, very close to the Israel-Lebanon border. Kiryat Shmone, a major city in that region, a city of about 20,000 residents that has also been widely evacuated. The city is about five kilometers away from the Israel-Lebanon border. Not many civilians remain there, but there are civilians who do remain there who decide to stay there because, again, you don't know if you leave your home close to the Lebanese border. You don't know when it will, in fact, be safe to come back. So civilians remain also in these areas. But, again, they are remaining there in great danger because this motor shell fire and also anti-tank missile fire is set the net we've seen really throughout recent weeks. And it's not expected to stop anytime soon because this is the usual procedure. Hezbollah is firing those motor shells or anti-tank missiles. The Israeli army is retaliating. And this is kind of the ping-pong that we've seen really throughout the last weeks. Yes, Pia. And as we speak, because of the security situation in the north, the IDF is closing off some main roads there, even though, as you've just illustrated, more or less a full-on military zone there already. Thank you very much, Pia Stekelbach, for these updates. We'll be back with you at the top of the hour for the updates until then. Back here in studio with Mr. Yakov Lapina, 9.24 News, our senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev. Well, at the beginning of this broadcast, we were talking about the fact that the situation is not sustainable, but it's not just not sustainable. It's getting worse. Yes. And I think Hezbollah is perhaps making sort of a calculated risk that as long as the operation stays on the border, on the border fence itself or close to the border fence, then Israel will perhaps retaliate, have a stronger retaliation, but not go further into Lebanon, Beirut or anything of the kind. All of these places, which Pia mentioned, Manara, Margoliot, Kiryat Shimonad, they're on the border itself. They're actually on the border. So Hezbollah can claim we're leaving this escalation on the border itself, not further than that of Haifa, for example. And then Israel has a dilemma. As it seemed up until now, Israel is not taking this further on for two reasons. One, the campaign in Gaza, second, the international pressure. I think that for the moment, and at least until the mission in Gaza is over, Israel will not initiate, I think Israel will not initiate a stronger campaign by itself with the very existential question that this raises for citizens of the northern communities. Do we go home or not? And if we're trying once again to do the impossible and get into Hassan Asrallah's mind here, it seems that it's not just a calculation of whether to risk the military capability of his organization as much as he perhaps would like everyone to think that he couldn't care less about domestic politics in Lebanon. He does. And in this respect, in Asrallah, somewhat needs Israel to make the first step if he actually wants to engage in a full on war. Yes, I think the only public opinion in Lebanon that Hassan Asrallah cares about is the Shiite base, the Shiite Lebanese population that he is dependent upon. I personally think he doesn't care at all about anybody else in Lebanon, not the Sunnis, not the Christians, not the Lebanese government. It's all background noise to him. He needs the Shiite base. He's established basically a shadow state in Lebanon for them anyway. He's not dependent on the Lebanese state. And yes, if a war does break out, he will want to frame it as if Israel is the one that started it. Clearly he's willing to risk war. I think we have to put that on the table. That doesn't mean that he wants one now or that he's pushing one, but he's willing to take the risk. And I think all along, we need to keep in mind some of the lessons we learned on October 7th, the assumptions that we like to make. We don't know where this is going. I don't think we can go back in time and accept this security reality, as we've said. And sooner or later, I think there will be some sort of showdown on the Northern border. It seems inevitable at this stage. How that will play out, the scope of it is unclear. And we were talking earlier also about mortars. It's also important to note, I think, because Bala has an estimated 145,000 mortars. It's actually the biggest component of its arsenal. So it can keep firing these mortars for a very long time. What's the cost? So let's say, it has 80 casualties so far. I don't think that that makes Nasrallah lose that much sleep at night. He's willing to pay that price. And they can keep doing this for a long, long time. And that's not sustainable, as you've said. Yeah. This mini-war of attrition on the Northern front already underway. Jonathan, I'll give a before we thank you for joining us today. What are we to expect in the coming day when it comes to the fighting in the South? Pretty much more of what we've seen over the past 24 hours as we're closing in on those Eastern neighborhoods of Gaza, which we saw earlier in the show. Jibalia, Sajayi, Sheikh Zaitoun, these are the Eastern neighborhoods of the city of Gaza. Forces coming in from both directions to these neighborhoods from the east, the forces that are located right on the border fence, and from the west, the forces that already came in to the Gaza Strip. These are areas where they're very densely populated. The whole Gaza Strip is not a very big place, very densely populated. Israel needs to secure these places so that it can secure the entire, basically cleanse the entire Northern Gaza Strip. The IDF is doing it, but it comes with casualties. There's no such thing as war, no casualties. I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev and Ms. Ria Koblappin, Security and Strategic Affairs Analysts. Thank you very much for joining us, gentlemen, on this broadcast. Now who said there are no American boots on the ground? There are cowboy boots. Take a look at this report by Emily Francis. It's not every day that you see cowboys tilling the land of Israel. But these passionate men and women are here with a purpose much bigger than themselves. Up until October 7th, you know, the job was just straightforward. We were helping the farms. And then when October 7th happened, the atrocities happened, we, our job just went to a new level because the foreign workers were leaving, the men and women that were called up into the reserve duty had to leave, which pulled the farms basically empty. So yeah, today is taking the old tomatoes out and tying up these so they can come in and get the new crops in. Joshua Waller and his big family are Christian farmers from Tennessee who moved to Israel 14 years ago with a big mission called Hayyovell, or in English, SerbIsrael.com. It's looking good. It's going all the way through. There you go. Oh, it's good. It can all stay up there anyway. I wasn't born with a green thumb, I'm sorry, Joshua. No, it looks good. My thumb is brown. We'll just wrap it up now. I can remember back on the farm in Tennessee, there was a Israeli flag with a menorah right in our living room on top of our piano. We were raised with the understanding, Christian Zionist understanding, that if Israel ever needed help, we'd be the first to be here. You know, we'll harvest up to 400 tons of grapes in a year, handpicked. We'll plant just this year before the war. We planted 20,000 vines and trees together. After October 7th, Joshua and his family brought dozens of volunteers from all over the United States to help keep the agriculture alive and flourishing during the war. But these are perfectly edible. You could just take them off and eat them for lunch right now or eat them for a snack. But yeah, the color is amazing. And Josiah Hilton of Virginia Beach is already a veteran of four years. The story here, and it's a huge part of the nation of Israel is, and I think that's something we kind of lose around the world is the agriculture and getting back to farming and growing your own food and that kind of stuff. And it's how the world goes around because you can't live without the farmers. So here, especially in Israel, even though there's a big war and there's so many people fighting for their lives in Gaza, you still have to keep the farms going. And there's not a famine during wartime. So we're privileged and we're blessed to be here to be able to help the farmers and do what we can. I can't go into Gaza and fight, so I'm going to help here on the farms. These men and women are proud to call themselves Christian Zionists because they are a faith-based community who live by the word of God. Right now, there's a movement around the world of people who are saying, you know, Zionists are evil and Zionists are whatever, the colonizers. And there's all this really, it's just nonsense. But Zionism is based on a biblical concept. Zionism is based on the fact that the Jewish people belong in the land of Israel. And so we created this shirt. It's hashtag proud Zionists. We're not afraid to be called Zionists. I'm not ashamed of the term Zionists. Somebody calls me a Zionist. That makes me proud. God doesn't change his mind when he makes a promise. That's just it. It's solid. It stands that way forever. And so when he chose the Jewish people, that was it. And we don't argue with God. We say, okay, that's great. You made a choice and we're going to back that up. We're not arguing with God. And to be here to be a part of it has been a huge honor. Who was Itai? Second Samuel chapter 15 tells a remarkable story. Itai was a man from Gath who brought his 600-man army to Jerusalem to join King David. Joshua and his family also host a popular podcast called the Israel Guys. And since October 7th, they've managed to raise millions for Operation Itai to help first responders keep safe. And then the second part is, is actually bringing those supplies in. So we've airlifted the first million dollars of equipment has arrived. And slowly, we're bringing the rest of it in. We've got about two and a half million now. Joshua cites a famous quote by author Mark Twain when I asked him what their message is to the millions of people around the world spewing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel vitriol. Mark Twain said, tell us. What the lies travel around the world 10 times while the truth is still getting its boots on. That's the truth. And TikTok. Not to lace the boots yet. Right. Yeah, still sitting. He's just trying to get the boots on, right? So unfortunately, that's the news. And TikTok and Instagram and all these these entity, you know, with Twitter and all this stuff X, like all these things are horrible. They accentuate the fact that lies travel so quickly. And that is an issue with this next generation. They're seeing the bad before they get any chance to even understand the good. In the Gaza envelope, Emily Francis, I-24 News. For the third time in the past half an hour or so, red siren alerts being heard along the Israel Lebanon border on the Israeli side. Of course, Hezbollah fire continues this morning in full swing.