 watching I-24 News, we're coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is November 7th and it's a month since thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated into southern Israel, raping, torturing and murdering some 1,400 people. At least 240 were taken hostage, including of course many children and even babies. Their families endured agony for the past 32 days not knowing what has happened to their loved ones. Well, across the country, Israelis held a moment of silence today to remember the victims. Well, the IDF says at least 34 soldiers have been killed in combat since October 7th. IDF troops continue to push further into Gaza and took control of a major Hamas military outpost overnight. There have been ongoing skirmishes in the north as well between IDF forces and fighters from the Iranian backed terrorist group Hezbollah. Residents were asked to stay in their safe room or shelter earlier after an unspecified security warning and there have been large rocket barrages fired from Lebanon towards Israel in the past 48 hours. But let's go to southern Israel to find out the latest on the situation in Gaza now. Our correspondent, Pia Stechelback joins us now. So Pia, 32 days of this offensive, here we are. Hamas continues to fire rockets from the strip. Right, Laura, we have seen a few Red Alerts throughout the day, mostly here in the communities very close to the Gaza strip. And also one Red Alert was triggered in the city of Ashkelon, the city that has been the most affected one in this war so far. A war, a month since Hamas was a massacre here, but also a month into the war in Gaza. The UN Agency for the Palestinian Refugees has described it as a colossal tragedy and its proportions there. Now the IDF has opened again today that humanitarian corridor allowing Palestinians, Palestinian civilians to move from the northern part of the Gaza strip to the south. This is now, as they say, for the fourth consecutive day. They had a corridor open from about 10 to 2 p.m. This morning then we've seen a video really showing dozens of Palestinians making their way on foot from the north to the south. A few of them also waving white flags there. Now these people have been called upon to leave the northern part of the Gaza strip. That is also where the ground offensive is focusing on right now for several days now actually for a bit more than two weeks I believe now. But we do know that not everyone is ready to make that way. We do know that for several different reasons people are not willing to go to the south. Many people that's what suggests reports from the grounds do suggest do not feel safe in the southern part as well. And many have also made their way back to the north in time because that's where they had their houses. So it is really questionable if all the Palestinian civilians will use that humanitarian corridor or make their way south indeed. Meanwhile the Israeli military is delivering more evidence that the Hamas group is using hospitals as for the infrastructure and are stealing fuel. Hamas is saying that obviously this is not true and has invited the UN to inspect those hospitals. That is very unrealistic to happen. We also have to mention that at this point 240 hostages both Israelis and foreigners are still in the Gaza strip one month into this war and ceasefire seems relatively unrealistic although a pause of fighting this is at least what Benjamin Netanyahu's interview with ABC News yesterday suggested might be on the horizon there. But as of now the fighting continues and as you mentioned the Israeli military says it has taken control of a military stronghold there of Hamas yesterday night in the northern part of the Gaza strip and also the Israeli ground offensive is focusing now getting closer to Gaza City there and the Israeli military said that it separated the northern part from the south now still calling upon civilians to make their way to the southern part there. Pia, thank you very much. Pia Steckel back there in the south of Israel. Well joining me in the studio is Rafael Jarosalmi. He's a former senior intelligence officer for the IDF. Thank you very much for being with us. So as the IDF forces advance into Gaza City not only are they killing terrorists destroying tunnels they're also picking up important military intelligence about the group as well aren't they? Especially when they attack 45 posts of the Hamas with a lot of equipment there some mapping of the tunnels even there might be some indication as where the hostages might be held a lot about the forces deployed in the tunnels and outside. So yes the intel that they're gathering is very very useful it might actually change a little the plans of operation because there's a general plan of course which is to divide the north now that is isolated in the north of Gaza and Gaza City into different perimeters. Each perimeter is to be dealt with separately. First of all because of the urban or geographic aspect of this perimeter it could be a residential area a very urban populated area or in the industrial zone so each time you have to apply of course a different tactics. Also this is aimed at isolating one brigade from another of the Hamas so that each brigade will have to face the IDF alone to rupture the chain of command the chain of communication and mainly because so far things are going pretty well for the IDF we're advancing faster than we saw and then it's back to the main objective meaning the hostages and here the strategy is to put pressure like a cooker pressure really to pressure such pressure that the political branch because they don't feel that threatened yet the military branch of Hamas has suffered heavy losses but the political branch is in this luxurious bunker and their hospital is not feeling threatened enough yet to bend the knee and ask for a ceasefire or stopping something in the exchange of the hostages this pressure this even violence that we have to apply on the Hamas it's because right now one must admit that the diplomatic efforts haven't brought anything new. No proof of life nothing from the hostages. All right okay thank you Raphael what we're going to move to northern Israel now our Mary McAuliffe is there where we have had ongoing skirmishes between IDF forces and fighters from Hezbollah and Mary we understand the US envoy to the region Hamas-Hochstein has just jetted into Lebanon. That's right we're seeing reports from inside Lebanon we don't have official confirmation from the United States but Hamas-Hochstein we might remember this name he was very heavily involved in the maritime deals between Israel and Lebanon so this US unofficial envoy serving to try and deal with this situation here today he was meeting with both the prime minister and the president of Lebanon in Beirut as part of efforts by the US to try and help and keep this area from breaking out into further escalation we don't have any statements yet coming out from that meeting but it is something we're watching we know of course the US has been heavily involved in the ground not just here in Israel but also throughout the Middle East trying to create the situation or trying to prevent it from spiraling out of control so in addition to sending a number of different diplomats of course we've also seen the different also military expenditures and defense that's been moved into this area so all part of the US and European outlets who are trying again to try and keep Hezbollah from really joining this fight in truth as we have continued to see escalations here along the border throughout the day and throughout the recent weeks and with regard to that escalation Mary what happened earlier Israel says it intercepted suspicious aerial targets yes so we don't have exactly more information about what that target was just saying it was a suspicious aerial target possibly a drone or possibly something else that was just sent into the atmosphere above this Lebanon border Israel responded one by taking down that object but then also firing into positions where they believe the source of the fire came from so where they believe this launch has came from it's one of many incidents that we've seen across the border today as we continue to see these attacks back and forth Hezbollah for its part says that it has once again targeted a number of different IDF observation posts that are overlooking southern Lebanon and some of these areas so in urine one of these observation posts and then a couple hours later we again saw the IDF striking the source of those launches and that's what the IDF says it will continue to act to all threats that's coming from inside southern Lebanon in this area remains to be on very high alert as we continue to see these skirmishes most of the residents have been told to evacuate especially those living within four kilometers of the border because there's not just the danger of rockets here there's also the danger of these anti-tank missiles which have been routinely sent across the border mostly at IDF observation posts but also some of them targeting some of these civilian areas that are again are supposed to be evacuated all right Mary thanks very much indeed Mary McCall if they're at the northern border all right well Rafael Rafael Salmi is still with me in the studio so Rafael I mean some in Israel Avidor Lieberman the politician springs to mind are calling for Israel to respond more harshly to Hezbollah they say that you know it's being allowed to dictate the timing it's kind of dictating what is going on right now what is your view on it I absolutely agree and I would say even more than that we should have a strong preemptive strike on Hezbollah we cannot have the same mistake being made in the north as was made in the south it's exactly the same situation the Hezbollah with many more weapons with much more equipment is sitting on the fence near to villages Israeli villages it's holding the whole north of Israel hostage it's actually holding the whole of Israel hostage because it has a missile that can reach very far with long range missile that can reach everywhere in Israel so it's absolutely out of the question that the situation should remain as it is thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes we cannot expect them to return if the Hezbollah is still sitting there it's hitting the economy everything and we have a window of opportunity that we will not have in the future we have a massive american presence in the Mediterranean we have more or less the sympathy of the western world we have hundreds and thousands of reservists that have been called and are ready to fight and have been trained because in the north in the northern comment they are prepared they have been training for all kinds of scenarios so the IDF can fight those two fronts absolutely absolutely and the air force said the chief of the air force just yesterday said we have no problem the air force to attack both fronts so the army is ready the capacity is there we need the political will we know there is some pressure from the biden administration we are very thankful for the american help and support this being said it's our security we cannot have a day after of the war where we've dismantled the Hamas fine let's say we succeeded this objective and then we have the Hezbollah threatening us exactly the same as the Hamas did before the 7th of October this is out of the question at least the Hezbollah should go further up north into Lebanon and then there should be a zone buffer zone and no man's land zone run by the unifil by the blue helmets of the UN what do you think about the fact that the the american envoy Amos hoxstein has arrived in Lebanon today do you think that's something he might be discussing yes i wish him good luck i don't think he will have many people to speak to because there's not really a government to speak of in lebanon it's some kind of intermediary temporary government without any power the Lebanese army is helpless in front of the power of the Hezbollah so i don't really see who is going to speak to and even if he manages to get some okays from the Lebanese they're only worse what they are on paper right because let's remind you is what we're dealing with here when it comes to Hezbollah i mean the missiles that they have you know in in their armory will make the rockets that Hamas has have been firing at at Israel look like children's toys isn't it yes but we are ready for it and as i said we have the american presence there which at least doubles if not more our capacity of air defense because the destroyers of the fleet the american fleet in the Mediterranean are equipped with the very famous aegis system which is very powerful for a defense including missiles above the atmosphere that can be intercepted so that's what i'm saying now is the time remember that the Hezbollah today is estimated to have 150 000 missiles of all kinds a few years ago they only had 120 and if you call substantial damage yes of course you know even small ones can call substantial damage only if it falls on a bus or a school it's a huge damage but i'm saying just that they had like 10 years ago the Hezbollah had 70 000 missiles then they had 80 000 now they had 150 if we're gonna wait they're gonna have 250 so when are we gonna stop the Hezbollah and and the more we wait the more powerful they get and the Iranians are keeping them in store for a larger conflict they might not use them right now they want to keep them in store in case we attack Iran or the nuclear bases then they will use the Hezbollah as this main threat on our border it's absolutely impossible to leave them there as they are now we have to act now we have to strike now all right okay Raphael hold that thought because today the country is very much in mourning marking a month since the october 7 massacre when the country was caught by surprise israel has been holding a moment's silence in towns and cities around the country to mourn the victims there were memorials held to reflect on the past month on the lives lost and of course the lives still missing with 240 people still remaining captive in Gaza all right i think we've got a report for you now on the latest military developments inside Gaza a month into israel's war with Hamas as israeli's wonder will it finally be the last the stakes are higher than ever in the aftermath of Hamas's october 7th invasion and crimes against humanity and the promise from israel's leaders is loftier than in previous conflicts yesterday evening more of our ground forces entered into Gaza the stronghold of evil this is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the return of our hostages home but the war in Gaza marks the fourth major military operation that israel has waged since unilaterally leaving the strip in 2005 none of the previous ones have broken the Hamas terror organization's stranglehold on Gaza basically i think aside from one of the operations i joined i took part in all the operations that the the israeli army did around Gaza i think it is the sixth or the seventh time i am deploying my guns here firing on Gaza and i hope it will be the last time the first big one december 2008 operation cast led a 22 day effort to stop rocket fire aimed at israel's self and to preemptively prevent Hamas from infiltrating the border and taking hostages a ceasefire was eventually declared by both sides with little to show the next big one july 2014 operation protective edge a response to Hamas breaching the border to kidnap and kill three israelis seven weeks later an open-ended ceasefire goes into effect but Hamas and the islamic jihad remain nearly 70 israeli soldiers fell in battle in israel becomes reluctant to do another ground operation and again may 2021 an operation from the air to avoid exposing ground forces to the enemy operation guardian of the walls is launched after Hamas fires rockets on Jerusalem 11 days later a ceasefire with israel claiming the terrorist had been deterred they weren't october 7th was the deadliest attack in israel's history a declaration of war in the most sadistic of terms i think this time we are going all the way i think that the goal that was set for this war as you can as was published is to bring down the Hamas i think it's a it's a good goal i think it's it's the moral thing to do israel's public now possesses an unprecedented resolve but international pressure is mounting on the government to reach a ceasefire will all the dying once more be in vain all right well rafael is still with me former senior intelligence officer in the idf and let's talk about the the conversation that is being had now about uh post hamas gaza uh prime minister netanyahu and his defense minister you have gallant have said that israel must have security controller over gaza indefinitely the opposition leader uh yeh el-apid on the other hand says the palestinian authority macho debas should control gaza uh what are your thoughts i think there is no contradiction between the two opinions the first opinion says we have no choice at first uh after the war the day after really d day after uh we will not have anybody able to control this the gaza strip so we have to ensure the security first of all the security of the palestinian citizens who will want to come back home and rebuild so they have to be secure secure from terrorists from the hamas if there is any left or any other faction then yeh el-apid is not wrong either in the end further uh up in time we can think of giving authority over gaza to the palestinian authority to the regime of ramallah which was the case before the hamas took power in gaza gaza was part of the palestinian autonomy and the rule of ramallah according to your slow agreement so we could do that but then that would take a hell of a long time because how that turned out as well there was a violent overthrow and and right now it's not realistic because there are not enough people and they're not enough if equipped and trained to ensure security i'm speaking of the palestinian security forces we'd have to build them up and train them and equip them to have do such a job what is uh made me clear about benjamin netanyahu is that he rejects from the start any international force that would come in together that put forward by the french president immanuel macron exactly so he rejects that he rejects any blue helmets from the un we see how inefficient they are in south lebanon along the syrian border und of unifil the mfo inside knife and the american observer force completely inefficient they have mandates that tie their hands they can just observe and not do anything so he rejects that it is and we'll have to i mean there were reports that the americans were talking about possibly putting american soldiers on the ground would israel be more open to a more robust force perhaps the americans the egyptians the sound not if the mandate is similar to the mandate of the mfo inside knife that the american truth sitting there for for more than 20 years and they have a mandate of observers so that that cannot ensure security if you can just report and actually the mfo reports to the egyptian army and the israeli army when there is an incident and these these armies that actually take action so you have to remember one thing nobody nobody wants gaza the egyptians don't want it the international community don't want it they're just giving charity checks but nobody wants to really take care of gaza the only hope for the gazon people is israel the only hope is to be live in peace with us to rebuild with us to have their workers come and work in israel to have a commercial exchange with the israeli market and the economy this is the only way they will have a better life ever so that's why we have to free them and us from the hamas to build that future because nobody else is interested look at all the millions and trillions at the hands of the arabic countries what have they done for the palestinian people and the saudis seem to to want to take a forward roll yes so they can invest in the projects that we'll have together with the palestinian they are welcome to to put their money all right i want to ask you about another kind of key element of the infrastructure inside gaza and that's anra the u n agency and we've i didn't interview earlier today with an organization which says you know so many anra employees are hamas members or supporters you've got one anra official today saying that any civilian who flees northern gaza should be shot and treated as a as a traitor i mean they are responsible for the for the bulk of care given to people in gaza what do you see is their future unrah is a terrorist organization unrah is teaching in these schools little children to kill jews and become themselves martyrs from age five their school books are full of hatred and anti-semitism their warehouses are full of explosives and weapons hamas is unrah and writes hamas and it's another shame added to all the shames and that are on the united nation starting from the secretary general himself who is a downright anti-semit down to the last worker in gaza it is it should be annihilated just as much as the armed forces of the hamas it's a tyranny a recentization it's not a true NGO okay thank you raffaello salami okay well the united states has been a solid ally to israel in its war on the hamas it's sent significance a military aid including another 320 million dollars worth of precision bombs that have gone to jewish them our correspondent robert swift has more smart precise impact cost effective bombs or spice for short the biden administration is reportedly planning on sending a 320 million dollar package of these precision weapons to israel israeli designed the systems will be transferred from raffaello usa to its israeli parent company the wall street journal reported the spice family essentially an upgrade kit the weapons boost the targeting and gliding capabilities of unguided bombs with these smart systems it's hoped israel can more accurately strike hamas weapons and infrastructure hidden among the gazon population the shipment comes as diplomatic pressure mounts on both israel and the us over the number of gassans being killed in israeli strikes more than 10 000 people with two-thirds of them women children and elderly according to the hamas run gazon and the palestinian authority health ministries with more accurate weapons it's hoped israel can better distinguish between its enemies and the civilians crowding the gazon battlefield but smart bombs are only as precise as the intelligence directing them and as the conflict continues to rage the fog of war only thickens and that's the challenge for israel isn't it targeting hamas terrorist without hurting civilians or sparing as many civilian lives as possible yes and the the spice as the advantage that raffaello industries in israel have developed a guiding system to make it even more precise so we would allow us to strike very surgically a building just like this throwing one floor today there are some buildings that when we want to hit hamas terrorists and they're sitting in one or two floors and there might be some innocent people in the building we strike the whole building remember that according to protocol one of the jeniva convention there is a rule of proportion as how many color how much collateral damage you can have if the target you're targeting can create much more damage if you leave it around so sometimes we have no choice but of course very hard choice to make it's a terrible choice to make for the officer in charge on the other hand this kind of weapon will give more confidence to just strike the target itself and avoid the collateral damage but even though it's very difficult i would just stress a point of a grammar or a vocabulary when you say civilians it's one thing when you say innocent civilians it's not exactly the same thing not all civilians in Gaza are innocent tens of thousands of Gazan people are working for the Hamas are supporting the Hamas many are Hamas employees Hamas civil servants so there are civilians they have to be spared according to jeniva convention not all civilians are innocent but of course there are many many innocent people of course of course and even if it's one child you are sure that it's worth saving that child even we hope we have to live a life 10 horrible people that's for sure yeah it's a it's a very difficult choice that they have to make as they go to Gaza and as you know the Israeli officials keep pointing out Israel did not start this war this war this particular war started on October 7th didn't it okay Raphael thank you very much indeed Raphael Joe is telling me there we're going to take a short break when we come back we'll have all the latest from the south from the north and the latest political developments as well and while I have you don't forget to tune in at nine o'clock tonight Israel time we'll have a very special edition of i24 news on this 7th of November a month since the worst terrorist attacks in Israel's history our kind of Bender Veeds will be live from the southern city of Stairholz so do tune in for that you can also watch it on our website i24news.tv and I'll be back in shortly with another update Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israel bonds.com and invest now and digitize the number you want to place the charge in addition they receive the double balance in charges of eight dollars or more the global network of the dominicans passed since october 7th the day israel was brutally attacked by Hamas a month since the black Sabbath when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1400 Israelis wounded thousands of others and took 240 people captive a month since the IDF entered a war against the vicious terrorist organization a month later i24news returns to the place where it all began join us on november 7 only on i24news and connected with the latin community in israel news 24 only in i24news this week in news 24 israel under attack news 24 in spanish brings the analysis and the information of the events of the war iron swords exclusive interviews reports from the war zone the reaction of the spanish-speaking countries news 24 the only medium in spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the latin community in israel news 24 only in i24news between i24news we're coming to you live from televiv today is november 7th and it's a month since thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated into southern israel raping torturing and murdering some 1400 people at least 240 were taken hostage including of course many children and even babies their families enduring agony for the past 32 days not knowing what has happened to their loved ones where across the country israelis held a moment of silence today to remember the victims well the IDF says at least 34 soldiers have been killed in combat since october 7th IDF troops continue to push further into gaza and took control of a major Hamas military outpost overnight there have been ongoing skirmishes in the north as well between IDF forces and fighters from the iranian backed terrorist group hezbollah residents were asked to stay near a safe room or shelter earlier after an unspecified security warning and there have been large rocket barrages fired from lebanon towards israel in the past 48 hours but let's go to southern israel to find out the latest on the situation in gaza now our correspondent pia stechleback joins us now so pia 32 days of this offensive here we are how mass continues to fire rockets from the strip right laura we have seen a few red alerts throughout the day mostly here in the community is very close to the gaza strip and also one red alert was triggered in the city of ashkelon the city that has been the most affected one in this war so far a war a month since hamas was a massacre here but also a month into the war in gaza the un agency for the palestinian refugees has described it as a colossal tragedy and its proportions there now the adf has opened again today that humanitarian corridor allowing palestinians palestinian civilians to move from the northern part of the gaza strip to the south this is now as they say for the fourth consecutive day we they had a corridor open from about 10 to 2 p.m. this morning then we've seen a video really showing dozens of palestinians making their way on foot from the north to the south a few of them also waving white flags there now these people have been called upon to leave the northern part of the gaza strip is that is also where the ground offensive is focusing on right now for for several days now actually for a bit more than two weeks i believe now but we do know that not everyone is ready to make that way we do know that for several different reasons people are not willing to go to the south many people that's what suggests reports from the grounds do suggest do not feel safe in the southern part as well and many have also made their way back to the north in time because that's where they had their houses so it is really questionable if all the palestinian civilians will use that humanitarian corridor and make their way south indeed meanwhile the israeli military is delivering more evidence that the hamas group is using hospitals as for the infrastructure and are stealing a few hamas is saying that obviously this is not true and has invited the un to inspect those hospitals that is very unrealistic to happen we also have to mention that at this point 240 hostages both israelis and foreigners are still in the gaza strip one month into this war and ceasefire seems relatively unrealistic although a pause of fighting this is at least what benjamin netanyahu's interview with abc news yesterday suggested might be on the horizon there but as of now the fighting continues and as you mentioned the israeli military says it has taken control of a military stronghold there of hamas yesterday night in the northern part of the gaza strip and also the israeli ground offensive is focusing now getting closer to gaza gaza city there and the israeli military said that it uh separated the northern part from the south now still calling upon civilians to make their way to the southern part there here thank you very much please tackle back there in the south of israel well joining me in the studio is rafael jurus salami he's a former senior intelligence officer for the idea thank you very much for being with us um so as the idf forces advance into gaza city not only are they killing terrorists destroying tunnels they're also picking up important military intelligence about the group as well aren't they especially when they attack 45 the posts of the ramas with a lot of equipment there some mapping of the tunnels even there might be some indication as where the hostages might be held a lot about the forces deployed in the tunnels and outside so yes the intel that they are gathering is very very useful it might actually change a little the plans of operation because there is a general plan of course which is to divide the north now that is isolated in the north of gaza and gaza city into different perimeters each perimeter is to be dealt with separately first of all because of the urban or geographic aspect of this perimeter it could be a residential area a very urban populated area or in the industrial zone so each time you have to apply of course a different tactics also this is aimed at isolating one brigade from another of the ramas so that each brigade will have to face the idf alone to rupture the chain of command the chain of communication and mainly because so far things are going pretty well for the idf we're advancing faster than we thought and then it's back to the main objective meaning the hostages and here the strategy is to put pressure like a cooker pressure really to pressure such pressure that's the political branch because they don't feel that threatened yet the military branch of ramas has suffered heavy losses but the political branch is in this luxurious bunker and their hospital is not feeling threatened enough yet to bend the knee and ask for a ceasefire or stopping something something in the exchange of the hostages this pressure this even violence that we have to apply on the ramas it's because right now one must admit that the diplomatic efforts haven't brought anything new nothing all right okay thank you rafael what we're going to move to northern israel now our mary mccauliffe is there where we have had ongoing skirmishes between idf forces and fighters from hezbollah and mary we understand the us envoy to the region almas hoxstein has just jetted into lebanon that's right we're seeing reports from inside lebanon we don't have official confirmation from the united states but almost hoxstein we might remember this name he was very heavily involved in the maritime deals between israel and lebanon so this us unofficial envoy serving to try and deal with the situation here today he was meeting with both the prime minister and the president of lebanon in beirut as part of efforts by the us to try and help and keep this area from breaking out into further escalation we don't have any statements yet coming out from that meeting but it is something we're watching we know of course the us has been heavily involved in the ground not just here in israel but also throughout the middle east trying to create the situation or trying to prevent it from spiraling out of control so in addition to sending a number of different diplomats of course we've also seen the different also military expenditures and defense that's been moved into this area so all part of the us and european outlets who are trying again to try and keep hezbo from really joining this fight in truth as we have continued to see escalations here along the border throughout the day and throughout the recent weeks and with regard to that escalation mary what happened earlier israel says it intercepted suspicious aerial targets yes so we don't have exactly more information about what that target was just saying it was a suspicious aerial target possibly a drone or possibly something else that was just sent into the atmosphere above this lebanon border israel responded one by taking down that object but then also firing into positions where they believe the source of the fire came from so where they believe this launch has came from it's one of many incidents that we've seen across the border today as we continue to see these attacks back and forth hezbo for its part says that it has once again targeted a number of different idf observation posts that are overlooking southern lebanon in some of these areas so in yoreen one of these observation posts and then a couple hours later we again saw the idf striking the source of those launches and that's what the idf says it will continue to act to all threats that's coming from inside southern lebanon in this area remains to be on very high alert as we continue to see these skirmishes most of the residents have been told to evacuate especially those living within four kilometers of the border because there's not just the danger of rockets here there's also the danger of these anti-tank missiles which have been routinely sent across the border mostly at idf observation posts but also some of them targeting some of these civilian areas that are again are supposed to be evacuated all right mary thanks very much indeed mary mccall if they're at the northern border all right well rafael is still with me in the studio so rafael i mean some in israel avid or leverman the politician springs to mind are calling for israel to respond more harshly to hezbollah they say that you know it's being allowed to dictate the timing it's kind of dictating what is going on right now what is your view on it i absolutely agree and i would say even more than that we should have a strong pre-emptive strike on his bala we cannot have the same mistake being made in the north as was made in the south it's exactly the same situation the his bala with many more weapons with much more equipment is sitting on the fence near to villages israeli villages it's holding the whole in the north of israel hostage it's actually holding the whole of israel hostage because it has a missile that can reach very far with long range missile that can reach everywhere in israel so it's absolutely out of the question that the situation should remain as it is thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes we cannot expect them to return if the his bala is still sitting there right now it's going to hit the economy pretty hard isn't it it's hitting the economy everything and we have a window of opportunity that we will not have in the future we have a massive american presence in the mediterranean we have more or less the sympathy of the western world we have hundreds and thousands of reservists that have been called and are ready to fight and have been trained because in the north in the northern comment they are prepared they have been training for all kinds of scenarios so the idf can fight those two fronts absolutely absolutely and the air force said the chief of the air force just yesterday said we have no problem the air force to attack both fronts so the army is ready the capacity is there we need the political will we know there is some pressure from the biden administration and we are very thankful for the american so help and support this being said it's our security we cannot have a day after the war where we've dismantled the the khamas fine let's say we'll succeed in this objective and then we have the his bala threatening us exactly the same as the khamas did before the 7th of october this is out of the question at least the his bala should go further up north into lebanon and then there should be a zone buffer zone and no man's land zone run by the unifil by the blue helmets of the u n what do you think about the fact that the u n the american envoy amos hoxton has arrived in lebanon today do you think that's on something he might be discussing yes i wish him good luck i don't think he will have many people to speak to because there's not really a government to speak of in lebanon it's some kind of a intermediary temporary government without any power the lebanese army is helpless in front of the power of the his bala so i don't really see who is going to speak to and even if he manages to get some okays from the lebanese the only worse what they are on paper right because let's remind viewers what we're dealing with here when it comes to his bala i mean the missiles that they have you know in in their armory will make the rockets that khamas has have been firing at at israel look like children's toys isn't it yes but we are ready for it and as i said we have the american presence there which at least doubles if not more our capacity of air defense because the the destroyers of the fleets american fleet in the military and are equipped with the very famous agus system which is very powerful for an air defense including missiles above the atmosphere that can be intercepted so that's what i'm saying now is the time remember that the his bala today is estimated to have a hundred and fifty thousand missiles of all kinds a few years ago they only had a hundred and twenty and if you call substantial damage yes of course you know even small ones can cut substantial damage only if it falls on a bus or a school it's a huge damage but i'm saying just that they had like ten years ago the his bala had 70 000 missiles then they had 80 000 now they have 150 if we're gonna wait they're gonna have 200 250 so when are we gonna stop the his bala and the more we wait the more powerful they get and the Iranians are keeping them in store for a larger conflict they might not use them right now they want to keep them in store in case we attack Iran or the nuclear bases then they will use their his bala as this main threat on our border is absolutely impossible to leave them there as they are now we have to act now we have to strike now all right okay Rafael hold that thought because today the country is very much in mourning marking a month since the october 7 massacre uh when the country was caught by surprise israel has been holding a moment's silence in towns and cities around the country to mourn the victims there were memorials held to reflect on the past month on the lives lost and of course the lives still missing with 240 people still remaining captive in Gaza all right i think we've got a report for you now on the latest military developments inside Gaza a month into israel's war with Hamas as israeli's wonder will it finally be the last the stakes are higher than ever in the aftermath of Hamas's october 7th invasion and crimes against humanity and the promise from israel's leaders is loftier than in previous conflicts yesterday evening more of our ground forces entered into Gaza the stronghold of evil this is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the return of our hostages home but the war in Gaza marks the fourth major military operation that israel has waged since unilaterally leaving the strip in 2005 none of the previous ones have broken the Hamas terror organization's stranglehold on gaza basically i think aside from one of the operations i joined i i took part in all the operations that the the israeli army did around gaza i think it is the sixth or the seventh time i am deploying my guns here firing on gaza and i i hope it will be the last time the first big one december 2008 operation cast led a 22 day effort to stop rocket fire aimed at israel south and to preemptively prevent Hamas from infiltrating the border and taking hostages a ceasefire was eventually declared by both sides with little to show the next big one july 2014 operation protective edge a response to Hamas breaching the border to kidnap and kill three israelis seven weeks later an open-ended ceasefire goes into effect but Hamas and the islamic jihad remain nearly 70 israeli soldiers fell in battle in israel becomes reluctant to do another ground operation and again may 2021 an operation from the air to avoid exposing ground forces to the enemy operation guardian of the walls is launched after hamas fires rockets on jerusalem 11 days later a ceasefire with israel claiming the terrorists had been deterred they weren't october 7 was the deadliest attack in israel's history a declaration of war in the most sadistic of terms i think this time we are going all the way i think that the goal that was set for this war as you can as was published is to bring down the hamas i think it's a it's a good goal i think it's it's the moral thing to do israel's public now possesses an unprecedented resolve but international pressure is mounting on the government to reach a ceasefire will all the dying once more be in vain all right well rafael is still with me uh former senior intelligence officer in the idf and let's talk about the the conversation that is being had now about uh post hamas gaza uh prime minister netanyahu and his defense minister you have gallant have said that israel must have security controller over gaza indefinitely uh the opposition leader uh yale appead on the other hand says the palestinian authority macho and the bus should control gaza uh what are your thoughts i think there is no contradiction between the two opinions the first opinion says we have no choice at first uh after the war the day after really d day after uh we will not have anybody able uh to control this the gaza strip so we have to ensure the security first of all the security of the palestinian citizens who will want to come back home and rebuild so they they have to be secure secure from terrorists from the hamas if there is any left or any other faction then yale appead is not wrong either in the end further uh uh up in time we can think of giving authority over gaza to the palestinian authority to the regime of ramallah which was the case before the hamas took power in gaza gaza was part of the palestinian autonomy and the the rule of ramallah according to your slow agreement so we could do that but then that would take a hell of a long time because how that turned out as well there was a violent overthrow and and right now it's not realistic because there are not enough people and they're not enough if equipped and trained to ensure security i'm speaking of the palestinian security forces we'd have to build them up and train them and equip them to have do such a job what is uh made me clear by benjamin netanyahu is that he rejects from the start any international force that would come in together that put forward by the french president immanuel mackerel exactly so he rejects that he rejects any blue helmets from the un we see how inefficient they are in south lebanon along the syrian border undefined the mfo inside knife and the american observer force uh completely inefficient they have mandates uh that tie their hands they can just observe uh and not do anything so he rejects that it is and uh we'll have to i mean there were reports that um the americans were talking about possibly putting american soldiers on the ground would israel be more open to a more robust force perhaps the americans the egyptians the south with that makes sense not if the mandate is similar to the mandate of the mfo inside knife that the american truth sitting there for for more than 20 years and they have a mandate of observers so that that cannot ensure security if you can just report uh and actually the mfo reports to the egyptian army and the israeli army when there is an incident and these these armies that actually take action so you have to remember one thing nobody nobody wants gaza the egyptians don't want it the international community don't want it they're just giving charity checks but nobody wants to really take care of gaza the only hope for the gazan people is israel the only hope is to be live in peace with us to rebuild with us to have their workers come and work in israel to have a commercial exchange with the israeli market and the economy this is the only way they will have a better life ever so that's why we have to free them and us from the chamas to build that future because nobody else is interested look at all the millions and trillions at the hands of the arabic countries what have they done for the palestinian people and the saudis seem to to want to take a a forward roll yes so they can invest in the projects that we'll have together with the palestinian they are welcome to to put their money all right i want to ask you about another kind of key element of the infrastructure inside gaza and that's anra the u n agency and we've i i didn't interview earlier today with an organization which says you know so many anra employees are hamas members or supporters you've got one anra official today saying that any civilian who flees northern gaza should be shot and treated as a as a traitor i mean they are responsible for the for the bulk of care given to people in gaza what do you see is their future anra is a terrorist organization anra is teaching in these schools little children to kill jews and become themselves martyrs from age five their school books are full of hatred and anti-semitism their warehouses are full of explosives and weapons hamas is anra and rise hamas and it's another shame added to all the shames that are on the united nations starting from the secretary general himself who is a downright anti-semit down to the last worker in gaza it is it should be annihilated just as much as the armed forces of the hamas it's a tyranny a recentization it's not a true NGO okay thank you rafael the usami okay well the united states has been a solid ally to israel in its war on hamas it's sent significant military aid including another 320 million dollars worth of precision bombs that have gone to javish them our correspondent robert swift has more smart precise impact cost effective bombs or spice for short the biden administration is reportedly planning on sending a 320 million dollar package of these precision weapons to israel israeli designed the systems will be transferred from rafael usa to its israeli parent company the wall street journal reported the spice family essentially an upgrade kit the weapons boost the targeting and gliding capabilities of unguided bombs with these smart systems it's hoped israel can more accurately strike hamas weapons and infrastructure hidden among the gazon population the shipment comes as diplomatic pressure mounts on both israel and the u.s over the number of gassans being killed in israeli strikes more than 10 000 people with two-thirds of them women children and elderly according to the hamas run gazon and the palestinian authority health ministries with more accurate weapons it's hoped israel can better distinguish between its enemies and the civilians crowding the gazon battlefield but smart bombs are only as precise as the intelligence directing them and as the conflict continues to rage the fog of war only thickens and that's the challenge for israel isn't it targeting hamas terrorist without hurting civilians or sparing as many civilian lives as possible yes and the the spice as the advantage that rafael industries in israel have developed a guiding system to make it even more precise so we would allow us to strike very surgically a building just like this throwing one floor today there are some buildings that when we want to hit hamas terrorists and they're sitting in one or two floors and there might be some innocent people in the building we strike the whole building remember that according to protocol one of the jennifer convention there is a rule of proportion as how many color how much collateral damage you can have if the target you're targeting can create much more damage if you leave it around so sometimes we have no choice but of course very hard choice to make it's a terrible choice to make for the officer in charge on the other hand this kind of weapon will give more confidence to just strike the target itself and avoid the collateral damage but even though it's very difficult i would just stress a point of a grammar or vocabulary when you say civilians it's one thing when you say innocent civilians it's not exactly the same thing not all civilians in Gaza are innocent tens of thousands of garrison people are working for the hamas are supporting the hamas many are hamas employees hamas civil servants so they are civilians they have to be spared according to jennifer convention not all civilians are innocent but of course there are many many innocent people including many children in Gaza and even if it's one child you are sure that it's worth saving that child even we hope we have to live alive 10 horrible people that's for sure yeah it's a very difficult choice that they have to make as they go into Gaza and as you know the Israeli officials keep pointing out Israel did not start this war this war this particular war started on october 7th didn't it okay rafael thank you very much indeed rafael Joe is telling me there we're gonna take a short break when we come back we'll have all the latest from the south from the north and the latest uh political developments as well and uh while i have you don't forget to tune in at nine o'clock tonight israel time we'll have a very special edition of i24 news on this 7th of november a month since the worst terrorist attacks in israel's history our kind of benda vids will be live from the southern city of stehrholz so do tune in for that you can also watch it on our website i24news.tv and i'll be back with you shortly with another update good night it's past since october 7th the day israel was brutally attacked by hamas a month since the black Sabbath when hamas terrorists murdered over 1400 israelis wounded thousands of others and took 240 people captive a month since the idf entered a war against the vicious terrorist organization a month later i24news returns to the place where it all began join us on november 7th only on i24news so you're watching i24news we're coming to you live from televivo today is of course november 7th it is exactly a month since thousands of hamas terrorists infiltrated southern israel raping torturing and murdering men women and children at least 1400 people were killed and 240 taken hostage their families enduring agony for 32 days now not knowing what has happened to their loved ones well across the country israelis held a moment of silence today to remember the victims the idf says at least 34 soldiers have been killed in combat since october 7th idf troops continue to push further into gaza taking control of a major hamas outpost overnight and there have been ongoing skirmishes in the north as well between idf forces and fighters from the iranian-backed terrorist group hezbollah residents were asked to stay near a safe room earlier amid an unspecified security threat and there have been large barrages of rockets fired from lebanon towards israel over the past 28 hours 48 hours i should say sorry let's go to northern israel now to get the very latest on the situation there our correspondent mary mccullough is with us mary first of all uh the usm boy almas hoxton has arrived in beirut is that right that's absolutely right so reports from inside lebanon that almas hoxton has just arrived in the area he's due to meet in beirut with both the prime minister of lebanon and also the president it's all part of the us efforts to try and deescalate the situation in the middle east we know the us has been working around the clock to try and make sure that this does not spiral into a situation out of control in the meantime in the background of all the diplomatic efforts they're also taking a number of different military and defensive steps to also position forces in the region but they're hoping this doesn't become necessary so we see almas hoxton and he's been on the ground numerous times over the past few years as a biden special envoy really for israel lebanon crisis he was heavily involved in the maritime border talks and that dispute between israel and lebanon so him being here on the ground is just yet another sign that the us is heavily trying to work to make sure that this does not spiral into a situation that's out of control and sees the need to bring in the us military presence that has been on the ground here so they will be involved in talks in lebanon today and in terms of the ongoing clashes the ongoing skirmishes if you like between hezbollah and the and the idf israel intercepted a suspicious aerial target earlier today what happened that's why we don't have many details on what that suspicious aerial target was normally they would just say an unmanned aerial aircraft which obviously would mean a drone we know that hezbollah has been launching drones across the border this has happened a few times since october 8th when hezbollah first got involved in this fighting the idf said that it responded not just to take down that suspicious object but also attacking the source of where they said this launch came from just within recent minutes we once again had rocket sirens here in the north this is now the third day in a row that there have been double digit rockets fired into northern israeli communities we don't have any reports of injuries from that but the idf said that there were 20 rockets were seen crossing over from inside southern lebanon into israeli territories of course we should remember that most of the communities here within four kilometers of the border they have all been evacuated for weeks now as israel continues to fear attacks coming from inside southern lebanon not just at their observation posts in their military infrastructure which is the majority of the tax that we've seen in recent weeks but in recent days stepping up those attacks and we've seen even more rockets fired at israeli communities one israeli has died over the past course of this past week so certainly in terms of the threats on civilian casualties it is certainly still idf still warning there is a threat telling all residents to evacuate if your community has been told evacuate to please go to safer parts of the country for many residents that's difficult as we continue to see rockets everywhere throughout the country but here on this border the fear is also from these anti-tank missiles which have a range of up to five kilometers and we have repeatedly seen hezbollah throwing these missiles across the border again not just at israeli military but also at civilian areas where residents and families are also living all right mary thank you very much mary mccall if there is in the north of israel with the very latest on the skirmishes there let me introduce to you my guest this hour retired colonel richard kemp is the former commander of the british forces in afghanistan thank you very much for being with us richard let's talk first of all then about the situation in the north i've been speaking to to various analysts about whether or not israel should react more strongly to what's coming at it from lebanon because of course we're israeli is embroiled in the conflict in the south right now but can it really tolerate these ongoing clashes over its northern border well of course israeli is responding when attacks take place from the north and clearly there's a judgment being made about how strong that response needs to be in the current situation i think israel has the capability of responding much more strongly if it needs to but perhaps the the judgment is that they want to maintain the military focus in gaza at the moment and holding ground in in the north i i believe that ultimately there's whatever whatever his balar ends up doing in terms of a more significant form of aggression i think israel is going to have to deal with that situation in in southern lebanon at some point whether it's while the war's going on in gaza or whether it once that's finished it has to take decisive action against southern lebanon israel does have a a little bit of pressure on it from the united states they have said they don't want an escalation yeah they they have and and and of course you know this the nature of things israel's not obliged to do what the u.s says but it does have to take into account it has to listen to what america says and i think it's really what's really important is that israel maintains the support of the u.s in its operations in gaza and doesn't attract any u.s pressure to either to to maybe to either cease operations or to reduce its scale of operations in gaza i think that's most important and if the trade-off for that is to to conduct a holding action in gaza then that's probably the right thing to do i beg your pardon in lebanon that's the right thing to do let's talk about what's what's happening in gaza then because the idf you know night by night has been moving steadily into gaza city it circled the city we're now hearing reports of a gun battles tunnels being destroyed and and most importantly of all intelligence being seized intelligence about their weapons capabilities and also where the hostages might be just in terms of your experience what do you make of that yeah i mean the idf clearly made a plan for its operations based on some pretty good intelligence before they went in but that plan will change according to a few things one of which is the development on the ground the level of resistance there the the dispositions of hamas on the ground and the other terrorists but also intelligence they gain during the course of operations which might direct them in another in other towards doing other activities so i think it's you know it's a military campaign on the ground in particular is not a kind of fixed plan which has to be maintained it can be and should be deviated from when necessary but i think they're going to have to at some point very clearly they're going to have to carry out attacks against the hospitals in gaza which are um known to be hamas commander control points or location of key commands as they're going to have to be taken on at some point there will be international criticism of course of that but it's something israel has no choice in doing in my view and why they're pushing so hard for for civilians to leave well let's take a listen to uh this is major general yaron finkleman he's the uh commander in chief of the idf southern commander take a listen for the first time in decades the idf is fighting in the heart of gaza city in the heart of terror it is a complex and difficult war and unfortunately it also has taken a toll we're continuing with all our might with the goal of defeating the despicable hamas group we're getting our fighting spirit from the strength of the nation of israel we won't rest we won't stop until we fulfill our mission until victory all right so then we see just how intense the situation is getting into in gaza city and this is completely different to what we've seen in previous years when israel and hamas have fought a kind of almost sterile war wasn't it with precision strikes on commanders apartments and things like that but this is completely different cattle fish isn't it yeah this is all out intensive conflict last time i think 2014 the idf went in to a certain degree into gaza with the specific intent of destroying the attack tunnels that were running under the border into israel this time it's it's pretty much everything and focus obviously in the north hand to hand fighting in the most difficult environment it's possible to fight in which is urban environment plus of course the tunnels well the hostages make it the hostages are obviously a very very key objective for the idf and they make it that much more difficult i think if the idf were doing this without those hostages they probably would not need to enter very many of the tunnels they could destroy them using explosive devices from the ground and from the air but this time i think they're going to have to probably enter the tunnels and gaining intelligence on the locations of the hostages as they go along is critical to that so it's going to it is going to be a tough fight and once once the heart of hamas has been destroyed in gaza city then they're going to have to start looking south as well so the operations not over once they've destroyed hamas inside gaza city itself and what about the objective to destroy hamas completely of course you were involved in the campaign in afghanistan the taliban still exists today it still rules over afghanistan i mean it can't be any different can can you ever completely destroy an organization like that i think it's a very different situation and for a couple of reasons one because gaza is a tiny area and the the terrorists are not not absolutely stuck inside gaza but there's not that many places for them to go so they can be pinned down and they can be destroyed in in their entirety obviously it's not necessarily going to be it's going to be very difficult but in the in the case of afghanistan it was a huge expanse of terrain and also they had places to go to escape to like pakistan and iran and then fight live to fight another day that doesn't really apply so much in in gaza and i guess the troops going into afghanistan didn't know the terrain like the israeli forces know the terrain here not just the you're right the terrain but also the terrorists they know a great deal of much more about the terrorists in gaza than we ever knew about the terrorists you don't have the same level of intelligence for example nothing like i mean israel you know despite the intelligence failures of the 7th october israel still has probably the best intelligence on the terrorists in gaza of any military organization that's ever fought any conflict okay all right well um let's remember why israel is fighting this war because it was attacked on october 7 some of the victims of that attack will never be identified because their remains were destroyed beyond recognition israeli archaeologists are trying their best to identify remains a small comfort for their families erica jackson reports in israel archaeologists who normally investigate the remains of ancient burnt sites are on a much more difficult and personal mission they're now using their skills to join the search for the missing in burnt homes and cars after hamas terrorists infiltrated israel from gaza massacring over 1400 people who are mostly civilians on october 7th in their villages and at a music festival in the desert in the southern part of the country near the gaza border we used the tools that we had at our disposal tools that we've developed in our daily work as archaeologists so we took them inherited out to help as much as we can this is the cell phone of the person that we are evidently searching for he has his driver's license he has his credit card according to the archaeologists while it's one thing to expose remains that are thousands of years old it's another to search for evidence of fellow citizens here we probably have a burnt skeleton the remains of many bones these are difficult images we're used to seeing things from hundreds and thousands of years ago and now we're dealing with modern atrocities their work has been described as an emotional challenge but the labor is for a greater purpose archaeologists have so far identified at least 10 people who were previously believed to have been missing and some have already been buried we've managed to retrieve dozens of remains of individuals numerous of which have already been identified and that have helped provide closure for some of these families who uh hardly lost their loved ones I think it's the least we can do uh and the fact that we have the ability as archaeologists to apply our professional expertise to this specific case is something of a of a special calling a special calling to provide answers for as many families as possible regarding the fate of their loved ones so they can see archaeologists have been called in to try and identify the remains of some of the victims they were so badly destroyed and Richard Kent you you were telling me you yourself visited Kfar Azar one of the worst hit communities I think a quarter of the population there was either murdered or kidnapped yeah it was a very nasty experience I have to say I mean I watched also the IDF movie they put together showing some of the worst atrocities that were shown only to limited audience and I wouldn't wish anyone to see them but it actually in some ways it brings it home even more visiting Kfar Azar and and you can smell death in the air and you can see destruction and you can see the reality of what Hamas did it's uh it's it that there's been nothing like it I don't think probably since the holocaust in in in this sort of context it's a it was a terrible experience and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to do that unless they really had to but it showed and I think one of the things that struck me not not by visiting Kfar Azar but watching the the movie was how much joy and pleasure was in the face of the people that were wreaking destruction on these communities in Israel it was it was a really chilling sight to see right they had no mercy at all did they none whatsoever children babies anything it was it was uh I mean international law experts have said that is the very essence of of genocide or genocidal intent just to murder everyone inside not to just not to spare anyone absolutely and murdering unborn babies murdering old people kidnapping kids children babies as well that there was there was absolutely no mercy from these people and it it I think just shows the the the challenge that Israel faces and not just inside Gaza itself but also from other people around Israel including perhaps in the West Bank who have been so badly indoctrinated to hate not Israel but Jews as well yeah it's very worrying indeed all right well the the families of the hostages 240 of them of course have been kept in a situation of absolute agony over the past month and some of the families are gathering in Jerusalem tonight they're also holding a memorial service for some of the victims our own ultimate is there and join us now right Laura we're here actually in software square in Jerusalem you can see behind me the candles that have been lit over the course of the day on the ground and of course over my right shoulder to the left of my head on screen you can see the posters of the hostages that have becomes to fixture here in Israel and around the world at six o'clock local time and less than an hour from now at the top of the hour we're expecting Israelis to come out in cities around the country they've been called on to do so to come out into light candles in memory of the victims of the October 7th massacres and as you mentioned Laura just a short distance from here at the western wall at eight o'clock local time just under three hours from now the families of the hostages will be convening a prayer service at the western wall of course to pray for the safe return of their loved ones but of course Laura also to continue to raise awareness of the plight of their loved ones and the plight of the hostages for the word to go forth from Zion as it's said all around the world for there to be advocacy done on behalf of the hostages and not only prayers but from their perspective action as well to get the hostages brought home all right Owen thank you very much Owen Ottoman there is in Jerusalem where a memorial is being held for the victims and an event to draw attention to the plight of the families of the hostages they've now 32 days they have waited here any news at all about their loved ones well among them are more than 30 our children including sisters 15-year-old Daphna and 8-year-old Ella Eliakim they saw their father murdered in front of their eyes the murderers then kidnapped the girls and took them to Gaza a month later this is the impassioned plea from their mother Mayan Zinn a message she posted on to social media take a listen have a not chilly Daphna Vela my girls Daphna and Ella 15 and 18 years old held captive by Hamas in Gaza two girls alone after they had to see their dad brutally murdered 30 days have passed since they were kidnapped since they were taken from me I'm calling on the president of the United States Joe Biden and prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu if you can't bring my girls back now I'm asking you begging you take me to them now put me in Gaza I will be the kidnapped number 243 if only I could hold them and tell them everything would be all right hug them and tell them that mom is here no matter what mom is here unimaginable pain that mother Mayan that must be going through all she wants to do is hold her girls and she says she's willing to go into Gaza and be another hostage if that means she can be back with her children well joining us now Mayan's cousin Gilles Zimmerman he joins us from Austin Texas thank you very much indeed for being with this girl we're very sorry for what has happened to your family and what you are going through and have you been in have you been in touch with Mayan how was she getting through it you know she's been holding up as well as anyone could under these circumstances it's incredibly difficult everyone's just doing what they can to keep their heads up and stay hopeful and encourage people around the world to recognize that Hamas needs to return the hostages immediately and I mean and it's a reminder you know there are a lot of people around the world demanding assistance for Palestinians inside Gaza but people like your cousin people like Mayan have not seen a proof of life of their family members for the past 32 days yeah that's right uh the last information we have is just the week afterwards where we saw the horrendous uh livestream to facebook of the abduction we saw the images of them this is somehow celebratorial images posted to telegram of the girl's captive in some room somewhere in Gaza and then unfortunately the recovery of the bodies of their father Nam his partner and her son so the girls will have seen their father murdered in front of them yeah so these girls have spent the last month under the captivity of some of the most heinous people in the world um they've been held at gunpoint and they've already born witnessed to more the most terrible things more terrible than anyone could possibly bear it's it's unbelievably hard I mean I mean the two girls tell us a bit about them um Daphner is 15 and there is eight are they their cars right so yeah I think they're close and you know I just can't believe that a little over a month ago I was getting text messages from Ella about why it's daylight here in the United States and you know the afternoon there in Israel and we're talking about time zones are a little before that I was sitting with Daphna to learn the finer points of posting to tiktok you know just wonderful normal innocent girls and it's unimaginable to me that they've been used as political pawns for the last 30 days you know our western values dictate that we don't punish the innocent we don't incite violence onto people who haven't done something to deserve it and yet here we are and so I think it's our responsibility one month later to apply pressure on our leadership whether it's Joe Biden Netanyahu world leaders to act with courage to do the right thing and to implore Hamas to send the hostages back immediately it's been long enough well I shouldn't be at school they should be with her mother they shouldn't be in tunnels in Gaza being led around at gunpoint absolutely I mean it's it's absolutely heartbreaking I mean do you think that the world leaders are doing enough do do you think that the the message is getting through to them I think that the world leaders are doing enough as far as supporting Israel in it's right to defend itself and it's right to bring back the hostages on the one hand on the other hand I think that other world leaders could always do more to apply pressure whether it's through directly or through back channels it doesn't really matter at this point the objective is to return the hostages immediately and make sure that this never happens again I mean on top of that we've seen such horrible scenes in cities around the world of people I mean I call them people tearing down posters of people like Ella and Daphna tearing them down with hate you know not wanting to believe for whatever reason how do you feel when you see that yeah it's very discouraging to say the least you a part of you hopes that it's naivety that they in the face of all this information face of all this reporting that they somehow don't believe that it's real because it's unbelievable that it's real on the other hand it makes you question how they value human life and what they think of the lives of Jewish people and in the face of that it's very important to share these stories and put a human face on it and encourage them to see that these are real lives and real people and really innocent girls who are being held captive by terrorists it's there's no two ways about it yeah listen girl thank you for taking the time to talk to us please pass our love on to Mayan and we hope and we pray that Ella and Daphna will be back in her arms one of these days thank you thank you thank you so much girls in Britain all right Richard Kent still with me in the studio with that I mean it's just heartbreaking isn't it and then as I mentioned there when you see the lack of sympathy from people around the world when you see these marches in London and Paris I mean you're from the UK just your own experience of what's been happening in London like people tearing down posters yeah and and I'm ashamed to say that we've even seen police taking down posters in the United Kingdom in order to let's say to avoid intercommunal friction which of course is is a disgrace but but we've seen and we've seen these massive marches in London we're about to see another massive protest I think at the coming weekend and the chilling thing about this is that these are not just these are not protesters who are who are sympathetic to the civilian population in Gaza which I think everybody is many of the organiser these protesters have protesters have direct links to Hamas that's that that was documented in a recent article in the Daily Telegraph for example their leaders directly linked to Hamas and much of the motivation of the protest is is not pro-Palestinian civilians it's anti-Israel and it's supporting Hamas I don't say everybody is doing that but there's a lot in there who are and you hear cries like jihad and from the river to the sea which both of which mean inciting violence against Jews and against Israel and annihilating the state of Israel is shocking it's remember it's Sunday coming up and the British government is concerned there will be clashes we've already seen we've already seen poppy sellers which is the symbol of remembrance that we use around remembrance Sunday for fallen British soldiers we've already seen poppy sellers attacked by pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel protesters we've seen we've seen photographs of other poppy sellers being intimidated by anti-Israel protesters and there's a real fear in London that if there's a massive demonstration on the 11th November which is our Mr's day when we have a number of ceremonies in in in the UK across the UK there could be clashes between the two and that would be not only would it be extremely unpleasant but it would also be a direct insult to those people who've given their lives fighting for our country and our democracy all right okay well the Home Secretary's called them hate marches I don't have to see what she's talking about this weekend Richard Ken thank you always a pleasure thanks my pleasure thank you we're taking a short break uh do stay with us in another reminder do tune in at nine o'clock tonight Caleb Bendervidt will have a special program for you live once they're hot on this one month since the october 7th in Moscow Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israel bonds.com and invest now past since october 7th the day Israel was brutally attacked by Hamas a month since the black Sabbath when Hamas terrorists murdered over 1400 Israelis wounded thousands of others and took 240 people captive a month since the IDF entered a war against the vicious terrorist organization a month later i24 news returns to the place where it all began join us on november 7th only on i24 news drill story to the world i24 news channels watching i24 news we're coming to you live from Tel Aviv well today is of course november 7th it is exactly a month since thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel raping torturing and murdering men women and children at least 1400 people were killed and 240 taken hostage their families enduring agony for 32 days now not knowing what has happened to their loved ones well across the country Israelis held a moment of silence today to remember the victims the IDF says at least 34 soldiers have been killed in combat since october 7th IDF troops continue to push further into Gaza taking control of a major Hamas outpost overnight and there have been ongoing skirmishes in the north as well between IDF forces and fighters from the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah residents were asked to stay near safe room earlier amid an unspecified security threat and there have been large barrages of rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel over the past 28 hours 48 hours i should say sorry let's go to northern Israel now to get the very latest on the situation there our correspondent Mary McCauliffe is with us Mary first of all the US envoy Hamas Hoxstein has arrived in Beirut is that right that's absolutely right so reports from inside Lebanon that Hamas Hoxstein has just arrived in the area he's due to meet in Beirut with both the prime minister of Lebanon and also the president it's all part of the US efforts to try and de-escalate the situation in the Middle East we know the US has been working around the clock to try and make sure that this does not spiral into a situation out of control in the meantime in the background of all the diplomatic efforts they're also taking a number of different military and defensive steps also position forces in the region but they're hoping this doesn't become necessary so we see Hamas Hoxstein and he's been on the ground numerous times over the past few years as a Biden special envoy really for Israel-Lebanon crisis he was heavily involved in the maritime border talks and that dispute between Israel and Lebanon so him being here on the ground is just yet another sign that the US is heavily trying to work to make sure that this does not spiral into a situation that's out of control and sees the need to bring in the US military presence that has been on the ground here so they will be involved in talks in Lebanon today and in terms of the ongoing clashes the ongoing skirmishes if you like between Hezbollah and the IDF Israel intercepted a suspicious aerial target earlier today what happened that's why we don't have many details on what that suspicious aerial target was normally they would just say an unmanned aerial aircraft which obviously would mean a drone we know that Hezbollah has been launching drones across the border this has happened a few times since October 8th when Hezbollah first got involved in this fighting the IDF said that it responded not just to take down that suspicious object but also attacking the source of where they said this launch came from just within recent minutes we once again had rocket sirens here in the north this is now the third day in a row that there have been double digit rockets fired into northern Israeli communities we don't have any reports of injuries from that but the IDF said that there were 20 rockets were seen crossing over from inside southern Lebanon into Israeli territories of course we should remember that most of the communities here within four kilometers of the border they have all been evacuated for weeks now as Israel continues to fear attacks coming from inside southern Lebanon not just at their observation post in their military infrastructure which is the majority of the tax that we've seen in recent weeks but in recent days stepping up those attacks and we've seen even more rockets fired at Israeli communities one Israeli has died over the past course of this past week so certainly in terms of the threats on civilian casualties it is certainly still IDF still warning there is a threat telling all residents to evacuate if your community has been told evacuate to please go to safer parts of the country for many residents as difficult as we continue to see rockets everywhere throughout the country but here on this border the fear is also from these anti-tank missiles which have a range of up to five kilometers and we have repeatedly seen Hezbollah throwing these missiles across the border again not just at Israeli military but also at civilian areas where residents and families are also living all right Mary thank you very much Mary McCall if there is in the north of Israel with the very latest on the skirmishes there let me introduce to you my guest this hour retired Colonel Richard Kemp is the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan thank you very much for being with us Richard let's talk first of all then about the situation in the north I've been speaking to various analysts about whether or not Israel should react more strongly to what's coming at it from Lebanon because of course we're Israel is embroiled in the conflict in the south right now but can it really tolerate these ongoing clashes over its northern border well of course Israeli is responding when attacks take place from the north and clearly there's a judgment being made about how strong that response needs to be in the current situation I think Israel has the capability of responding much more strongly if it needs to but perhaps the judgment is that they want to maintain the military focus in Gaza at the moment and holding ground in in the north I believe that ultimately there's get whatever whatever Hezbollah ends up doing in terms of a more significant form of aggression I think Israel is going to have to deal with that situation in in southern Lebanon at some point whether it's while the war's going on in Gaza or whether it once that's finished it has to take decisive action against southern Lebanon Israel does have a little bit of pressure on it from the United States they have said they don't want an escalation yeah they have and and of course you know this the nature of things Israel's not obliged to do what the US says but it does have to take into account it has to listen to what America says and I think it's really what's really important is that Israel maintains the support of the US in its operations in Gaza and doesn't attract any US pressure to either to to maybe to either cease operations or to reduce its scale of operations in Gaza I think that's most important and if the trade-off for that is to to conduct a holding action in Gaza then that's probably the right thing to do I beg your pardon in Lebanon that's the right let's talk about what's what's happening in Gaza then because the IDF you know night by night has been moving steadily into Gaza city it circled the city we're now hearing reports of gun battles tunnels being destroyed and most importantly of all intelligence being seized intelligence about their weapons capabilities and also where the hostages might be just in terms of your experience what what do you make of that yeah I mean the IDF clearly made a plan for its operations based on some pretty good intelligence before they went in but that plan will change according to a few things one of which is the development on the ground the level of resistance there the the dispositions of Hamas on the ground and the other terrorists but also intelligence they gain during the course of operations which might direct them in another in other towards doing other activities so I think it's you know it's a military campaign on the ground in particular is not a kind of fixed plan which has to be maintained it can be and should be deviated from when necessary but I think they're going to have to at some point very clearly they're going to have to carry out attacks against the hospitals in Gaza which are known to be Hamas command and control points a location of key commands as they're going to have to be taken on at some point there will be international criticism of course of that but it's something Israel has no choice in doing in my view and why they're pushing so hard for civilians to leave well let's take a listen to this is Major General Yaron Finkelman he's the commander-in-chief of the IDF southern command let's take a listen for the first time in decades the IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza city in the heart of terror it is a complex and difficult war and unfortunately it also has taken a toll we're continuing with all our might with the goal of defeating the despicable Hamas group we're getting our fighting spirit from the strength of the nation of Israel we won't rest we won't stop until we fulfill our mission until victory all right so then we see just how intense the situation is getting into in Gaza city and this is completely different to what we've seen in previous years when Israel and Hamas have fought a kind of almost sterile war wasn't it with precision strikes on commanders and partners and things like that but this is completely different cattle fish isn't it yeah this is all out intensive conflict last time I think 2014 the IDF went in to a certain degree into Gaza with the specific intent of destroying the attack tunnels that were running under the border into Israel this time it's it's pretty much everything and focus obviously in the north hand-to-hand fighting in the most difficult environment it's possible to fight in which is urban environment plus of course the tunnels well the hostages make it the hostages obviously a very very key objective for the IDF and they make it that much more difficult I think if if the IDF were doing this without those hostages they probably would not need to enter very many of the tunnels they could destroy them using explosive devices from the ground and from the air but this time I think they're going to have to probably enter the tunnels and gaining intelligence on the locations of the hostages as they go along is critical to that so it's going to it is going to be a tough fight and once once the heart of Hamas has been destroyed in Gaza city then they're going to have to start looking south as well so the operation's not over once they've destroyed Hamas inside Gaza city itself what about the objective to destroy Hamas completely of course you were involved in the campaign in Afghanistan the Taliban still exists today it still rules over Afghanistan I mean it can it be any different can can you ever completely destroy an organization like that I think it's a very different situation and for a couple of reasons one because Gaza is a tiny area and the the the terrorists are not not absolutely stuck inside Gaza but there's not that many places for them to go so they can be pinned down and they can be destroyed in in their entirety obviously it's not necessarily going to be it's it's going to be very difficult but in the in the case of Afghanistan it was a huge expanse of terrain and also they had places to go to escape to like Pakistan and Iran and then fight live to fight another day that doesn't really apply so much in in Gaza I guess the troops going into Afghanistan didn't know the terrain like the Israeli forces know the terrain here not just the you're right the terrain but also the terrorists they know a great deal of much more about the terrorists in Gaza than we ever knew about the terrorist level of intelligence for example nothing like I mean Israel you know despite the intelligence failures of the 7th October Israel still has probably the best the best intelligence on the terrorists in Gaza of any military organization that's ever fought any conflict okay all right well um let's remember why Israel is fighting this war because it was attacked on October 7th some of the victims of that attack will never be identified because their remains were destroyed beyond recognition Israeli archaeologists are trying their best to identify remains a small comfort for their families Erica Jackson reports in Israel archaeologists who normally investigate the remains of ancient burn sites are on a much more difficult and personal mission they're now using their skills to join this search for the missing in burnt homes and cars after Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel from Gaza massacring over 1400 people who are mostly civilians on October 7th in their villages and at a music festival in the desert in the southern part of the country near the Gaza border we use the tools that we had at our disposal tools that we've developed in our daily work as archaeologists so we took them and headed out to help as much as we can this is the cell phone of the person that we are evidently searching for he has his driver's license he has his credit card according to the archaeologists while it's one thing to expose remains that are thousands of years old it's another to search for evidence of fellow citizens here we probably have a burnt skeleton the remains of many bones these are difficult images we're used to seeing things from hundreds and thousands of years ago and now we're dealing with modern atrocities their work has been described as an emotional challenge but the labor is for a greater purpose archaeologists have so far identified at least 10 people who were previously believed to have been missing and some have already been buried we've managed to retrieve dozens of remains of individuals numerous of which have already been identified and then have helped provide closure for some of these families who uh hardly lost their loved ones i think it's the least we can do and the fact that we have the ability as archaeologists to apply our professional expertise to this specific case is something of a of a special calling a special calling to provide answers for as many families as possible regarding the fate of their loved ones so they can see archaeologists have been called in to try and identify the remains of some of the victims they were so badly destroyed and Richard Kent you were telling me you yourself visited Kfar Azar one of the worst-hit communities i think a quarter of the population there was either murdered or kidnapped yeah it was a very nasty experience i have to say i mean i watched also the IDF movie they put together showing some of the worst atrocities that were shown only to limited audience and i wouldn't wish anyone to see them but it actually in some ways it brings it home even more visiting Kfar Azar and and you can smell death in the air and you can see destruction and you can see the reality of what Hamas did it's a it's it that there's been nothing like it i don't think um probably since the holocaust in in in this sort of context it's a it's it was a terrible experience and i wouldn't want anyone else to have to do that unless they really had to but it showed and i think one of the things that struck me not not by visiting Kfar Azar watching the the movie was how much joy and pleasure was in the face of the people that were wreaking destruction on these communities in israel it was it was a really chilling sight to see right they had no mercy at all did they none whatsoever children babies anything it was it was uh i mean international law experts have said that is the very essence of genocide or genocidal intent just to murder everyone inside not to just not to spare anyone absolutely and murdering unborn babies murdering old people kidnapping kid children babies as well that there was there was absolutely no mercy from these people and it it i think just shows the the the challenge that israel faces not just inside gaza itself but also from other people around israel including perhaps in the west bank who have been so badly indoctrinated to hate not israel but jews as well yeah it's very worrying indeed all right well the the families of the hostages 240 of them of course have been kept in a situation of absolute agony over the past month and some of the families are gathering in jerusalem tonight they're also holding a memorial service for some of the victims our owin ultiman is there and joins us now right laura we're here actually in software square in jerusalem you can see behind me the candles that have been lit over the course of the day on the ground and of course over my right shoulder to the left of my head on screen you can see the posters of the hostages that have become to fixture here in israel and around the world at six o'clock local time in less than an hour from now at the top of the hour we're expecting israelis to come out in cities around the country they've been called on to do so to come out into light candles in memory of the victims of the october seventh massacres and as you mentioned laura just a short distance from here at the western wall at eight o'clock local time just under three hours from now the families of the hostages will be convening a prayer service at the western wall of course to pray for the safe return of their loved ones but of course laura also to continue to raise awareness of the plight of their loved ones and the plight of the hostages for the word to go forth from zion as it said all around the world for there to be advocacy done on behalf of the hostages and not only prayers but from their perspective action as well to get the hostages brought home all right oh and thank you very much oh in ottoman there is in jerusalem where a memorial is being held for the victims and an event to draw attention to the plight of the families of the hostages they've now 32 days they have waited here any news at all about their loved ones well among them more than 30 are children including sisters 15-year-old dafna and eight-year-old elah elia kim they saw their father murdered in front of their eyes the murderers then kidnapped the girls and took them to gaza a month later this is the impassioned plea from their mother myan zinn a message you've posted on to social media take a listen my girls dafna and elah 15 and 18 years old held captive by hamas in gaza two girls alone after they had to see their dad brutally murdered 30 days have passed since they were kidnapped since they were taken from me i'm calling on the president of the united states joe biden and prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu if you can't bring my girls back now i'm asking you begging you take me to them now put me in gaza i will be the kidnapped number 243 if only i could hold them and tell them everything would be all right hug them and tell them that mom is here no matter what mom is here unimaginable pain that mother mayan must be going through all she wants to do is hold her girls and she says she's willing to go into gaza and be another hostage if that means she can be back with her children well joining us now uh mayan's cousin uh gill zimmerman he joins us uh from austin texas thank you very much indeed for being with this girl we're very sorry for what has happened to your family and what you are going through have you been in have you been in touch with mayan how how is she getting through it you know if she's been holding up as well as anyone could under these circumstances it's incredibly difficult um everyone's just doing what they can to keep their heads up and stay hopeful and uh encourage uh people around the world to recognize that hamas needs to return the hostages immediately and i mean and and it's a reminder you know there are a lot of people around the world demanding assistance for for palestinians inside gaza but people like your cousin people like mayan have not seen a proof of life of their family members for the past 32 days yeah that's right uh the last information we have is just the week afterwards where we saw the horrendous uh livestream to facebook of the abduction uh we saw the images of them somehow celebratory images posted to telegram of the girl's captive in some room somewhere in gaza and uh then unfortunately uh the recovery of the bodies of their father uh nom his partner and her son so the girls will have seen their father murdered in front of them yeah so these girls have spent the last month under the captivity of some of the most heinous people in the world um they've been held at gunpoint and they've already borne witness to more the most terrible things more terrible than anyone could possibly bear it's it's unbelievably hard i mean i mean the two girls tell us a bit about them um dafner is 15 lr is eight are they they're close yeah that's right so yeah i think they're close and you know i i just can't believe that a little over a month ago uh i was getting text messages from alla about why it's daylight here in the united states and you know the afternoon there in israel and we're talking about time zones are a little before that i was sitting with dafna to learn the finer points of posting to tiktok you know just wonderful normal innocent girls and it's unimaginable to me that they've been used as political pawns for the last 30 days you know our western values dictate that we don't punish the innocent we don't incite violence onto people who haven't done something to deserve it and yet here we are and so i think it's our responsibility one month later to apply pressure on our leadership whether it's joe biden netanyahu world leaders to act with courage to do the right thing and to implore hamas to send the hostages back immediately it's been long enough well i mean it shouldn't be at school they should be with her mother they shouldn't be in tunnels in gaza being led around at gunpoint absolutely i mean it's it's absolutely heartbreaking i mean do you think that the world leaders are doing enough do you think that the the message is getting through to them i think that the world leaders are doing enough as far as supporting israel in um it's right to defend itself and it's right to uh bring back the hostages on the one hand on the other hand i think that that other world leaders could always do more to apply pressure whether it's through directly or through back channels it doesn't really matter at this point the objective is to return the hostages immediately and make sure that this never happens again i mean on on top of that we've seen such horrible scenes in cities around the world of people i mean i call them people tearing down posters of people like ella and dafna tearing them down with with hate you know not wanting to believe for whatever reason how do you feel when you see that yeah it's very discouraging um to say the least you a part of you hopes that it's naivety that they in the face of all this information face of all this reporting that they somehow don't believe that it's real because it's unbelievable that it's real on the other hand it makes you question how they value human life and what they think of the lives of jewish people and in the face of that it's very important to share these stories and put a human face on it and encourage them to see that these are real lives and real people and really innocent girls who are being held captive by terrorists it's there's no two ways about it yeah listen girl thank you for taking the time to talk to us please pass our love on to mayan and we hope and we pray that ella and dafna will be back in her arms one of these days thank you very normal we can do thank you thank you so much girls and women all right risha kev still with me in the studio is that i mean it's just heartbreaking isn't it and then as i mentioned there when you see the lack of sympathy from people around the world when you see these marches in london and paris i mean you're from the uk just your own experience of what's been happening in london like people tearing down posters yeah and and i'm ashamed to say that we've even seen police taking down posters in the united kingdom in order to let's say to avoid inter communal friction which of course is is a disgrace but but we've seen and we've seen these massive marches in london we're about to see another massive protest i think the coming weekend and and the the chilling thing about this is that these are not just these are not protesters who us who are sympathetic to the civilian population in garza which i think everybody is many of the organized these protesters protesters have direct links to her mass that's that that was documented in a recent article in the daily telegraph for example their leaders directly linked to her mass and much of the motivation of the protest is is not pro-palestinian civilians it's anti-israel and it's supporting her mass i don't say everybody is doing that but there's a lot in there who are and you hear cries like jihad and from the river to the sea which both of which mean inciting violence against jews and against israel and annihilating the state of israel is shocking it's remembrance sunday coming up and there the british government is is concerned there will be clashes we've already seen um we've already seen poppy sellers which is the symbol of remembrance that we use around remembrance sunday for fallen british soldiers we've already seen poppy sellers attacked by pro-palestinian or anti-israel protesters we've seen we've seen photographs of other poppy sellers being intimidated by anti-israel protesters and there's a real fear in london that if there's a massive demonstration on the 11th november which is our mr's day when we have a number of ceremonies in in in the uk across the uk that there could be clashes between the two and that would be not only would it be extremely unpleasant but it would also be a direct insult to those people who've given their lives fighting for our country and our democracy all right okay well the home secretary's called them hate marches we'll have to see what she talked about this weekend richard ken thank you always a pleasure thanks my pleasure thank you we're taking a short break uh do stay with us in another reminder do tune in at nine o'clock tonight kelev benderford we'll have a special program for you live once they're hot on this one month since the october 7th raska a month has passed since october 7th the day isreal was brutally attacked by hamas a month since the black Sabbath when hamas terrorists murdered over 1400 israelis wounded thousands of others and took 240 people captive a month since the idf entered a war against the vicious terrorist organization a month later i-24 news returns to the place where it all began join us on november 7th only on i-24 news back to our special coverage of the war on israel i'm gonna call that a coming to you live from televiv today is november 7th one month since the october 7th massacre where thousands of hamas terrorists infiltrated into southern israel raping beating and butchering innocent civilians in kibbutz communities and outdoor festivals will kidnapping at least 240 others now 32 days later those babies children grandparents they all remain captive in gaza israelis held a day of mourning today to remember the more than 1400 lives lost on just one day now meanwhile the fighting continues deep in gaza with the head of the southern command stating for the first time in decades the idf is in the heart of gaza city this says the idf is on high alert in the north as well with red alerts blingering through israel's northern golan heights as rockets are fired from lebanon i want to bring in my guest now in studio i'm joined by rafael your salmi former senior intelligence officer for the idf and a security analysis uh rafael we continue to see the idf going deeper and deeper the the spokesperson for the southern command stating they're in the heart of gaza city this is the first time in decades what significance does this show is as the idf is ramping up their operations in northern gaza well first of all it means that the operation is going faster than planned we are advancing into gaza city itself which we thought would take much longer because of all the obstacles on the way explosive devices snipers and so on and so forth so it seems that the advance has been quite fast we've managed to encircle and close the whole of the north of the gaza strip including gaza city they are now besieged so we can operate freely as we wish neighborhood by neighborhood and we are now isolating uh perimeters one by one in which we can operate freely and according to the perimeter itself meaning we adapt the combat to the place if it's a residential area with houses and gardens it's an easier fight than in the more urban small streets bark alleys area very populated it can also be a residential sorry an industrial zone so each perimeter has a different way of being attacked and dealt with and of course this also enables us to separate the brigades of the ramas one from the other so they cannot coordinate and they have to fight on their own they they cannot just so we've ruptured more or less the chain of command we and that's why some of the commanders have to come out of the tunnels to give their orders and regroup redeploy and that's where we can pick them and eliminate them we also destroyed most of the chains of communication which also forces people to move around to pass on messages so all this is giving us a much stronger grip on the the terrain there's still a lot a lot to do but we've achieved a lot and the most important thing concerning the hostages the fact that we can now after 10 days put so much pressure on the political branch because right until yesterday we were really hitting very hard in the military part of the ramas now we are putting the pressure on the leaders that are hidden in their bunkers and feel that pressure they feel the ground trembling around them they feel that there are attacks around the hospital we were not going to shoot that hospital of course but we can create some kind of pressure and movement that's very disturbing for the leaders and if we frighten them enough they might beg us to stop fire or to stop advancing in exchange for our hostages right now there is no other solution would there be some kind of breakthrough on the diplomatic side of things then we would give it a chance but so far Qatar Egypt you name it nothing has been achieved and it seems quite hopeless when you see that countries like Russia and Thailand who have Thai and Russian citizens do not get their guys back I mean Russia for you know they are the allies of the Hamas so even the Russians haven't been liberated Thailand these these guys were foreign workers and then they're not you know Jewish or Israelis they're not involved really directly in the conflict so this means we have only got the military option right now to liberate our hostages by putting a lot of pressure but as we advance we gather a lot of intel and this intel will help us to spot where the hostages are held some of them might already have been evacuated more towards the south where it's a little quieter but we're also now preparing because of this huge advance in the north we're now preparing the same for the south with some incursions opening of roads towards the south and the south is next it continues to be it's just an ever-changing situation and as you mentioned the hostage situation remains one of the most complicated aspects of this ongoing war in Gaza I want to bring in another guest we're also joined by Ruth Wasserman Lande the former member of the Knesset as well as a former co-chair for the Abraham Accords parliamentary caucus and a former Israeli diplomatic envoy to Egypt Ruth thanks so much for joining us as we were just talking to Rafael about the humanitarian or sorry about the hostage situation that's happening 240 still held captive in Gaza 32 days later now we're hearing a lot of calls from Israeli stating that there should be no more humanitarian aid into Gaza until at least medics can go and check on the hostages themselves I'm curious what we're hearing from the United Nations and just these calls for the humanitarian pause so to say so that more humanitarian necessities can go to these hostages unfortunately the United Nations has proved that it is less of a relevant organization if we have Iran heading the human rights committee I don't think that any more um elaboration is needed to explain how irrelevant that committee indeed is nonetheless there is a call to have the Red Cross see which is a very basic elementary thing the actual hostages prior to anything else this has not happened but we know that we are not in any kind of contact with a partner or a kind of a counterpart that is at all on any level relevant to humanity to humanism and so on when we speak of the Hamas and therefore the Israelis understood that the only way to pressure the Hamas to give up the hostages was to pressure them in the military way they saw they had intelligence they had the know how to comprehend that all of the information coming from the Hamas via different entities thus far has been psychological warfare which the Hamas is very good at and practices I must say you mainly while the families are you know standing and waiting for a word about their dear ones this has not happened and thus we have come to the realization of Israel has come to the realization that the force will enable us one to get intelligence about the hostages and two to be able to have the Hamas operatives give up slowly it will take time but in a manner that will lead the IDF to the hostages please god Ruth while we're talking about the actions that are happening on the ground right now many people are also focused on the day after even though you mentioned it's going to be a long war that we're currently in but still what happens to Gaza I mean we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel will have overall security responsibility in Gaza for an indefinite period following this war I'm curious what exactly that entails so perhaps the statement wasn't very clear in my humble opinion the need to stay in Gaza for a while is unquestionable only because it needs to be stabilized and nobody is interested in doing this Israel simply has no choice Egypt is not interested other entities are not interested certainly the West Bank headed by Abu Mazen not only is it not capable and too weak to take over not to mention perhaps not the right entity at this moment but Abu Mazen himself had said clearly and publicly that he's not interested in other words the only entity that in the first period after the let's say the cleaning of the main embryo of Hamas will be militarily Israel but this will not be for a long time because we have no interest in remaining in Gaza we have no interest in taking over that piece of land we have no interest in governing the Palestinians we have no interest we just want to make sure that the Israeli citizens never again will face what they had faced the atrocities that they had faced on October 7 in my humble opinion what needs to be done on the day after this needs thinking and planning is the takeover again temporarily for a number of years of rebuilding much like in the Marshall plan international entities not the UN not the European Union some countries in NATO that will take certain parts of Gaza each country a different part not to make it too big of a weight and rebuild it with sustainable sources of income re-education because the education is so full of incitement and indoctrination at the moment that even if Gaza is clean of the last Hamas operative they cannot ever be any peace or prosperity because of the incitement we need to look at the education and recalculate the entire existence in terms of infrastructure employment education etc in Gaza and I think you bring up a great point that just even once Hamas is eliminated the threat of other terror cells popping up remains there as well Rafael I'm curious because we continue to hear calls even now in Israel from from the opposition leader Yair Lapid saying that maybe the Palestinian Authority should take control of Gaza following this however we they're currently in control of the West Bank we continue to see these terror cells popping up how do you think they might have more success in in Gaza and preventing something like this well ideally that would be nice realistically speaking the Palestinian autonomy doesn't have the means to ensure security in Gaza right now for this it will take years to reinforce the security services of the Palestinian autonomy the police the army to give them more personnel more equipment more budget training this will take a long long time so it's not realistic I don't think it's a good idea or realistic also to have international interference like blue helmets peacekeepers we've seen how inefficient UNIFIL is in south Lebanon how inefficient UNDOF is in Syria how inefficient the MFO American troops deployed in Sinai are they're just observers they have mandates that tie their hands they can only observe and report they have no influence on the terrorists on the country in south Lebanon for instance terrorists hide behind the outposts of the blue helmets so obviously we don't need that so that's why then the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that for now the only force that's able to ensure security while Gaza will be rebuilt is the is the idea if it's not an occupation we don't want to sit there we just want like we do with the Judea and Samaria we ensure security we do not really occupy as such we don't need to be present all the time but we have to make sure terrorism doesn't come back of course this is because nobody else wants to do the job right the Egyptians who fear the muslim brotherhood much more than us because they also operate inside Sinai in Egypt they're not doing anything towards the rebuilding of Gaza and the security of Gaza they don't even want to open their border for innocent civilians to take refuge at least during the time of the combats so most Arabic countries are making very nice charity checks to Gaza but none of them are really getting involved the European Union after a protective border in 2014 promised billions of euros for reconstruction of Gaza not even half a billion reached the Gaza after that so in the end the last very hope that the Gazan people may have for a better future it's Israel the only country that can rebuild Gaza and make it a safe place it's Israel so we have just to liberate the Palestinian people and the Israeli people from terrorism and then open the road and like was rightfully said just before me a huge job of education of rebuilding of rebuilding confidence has to be achieved because unfortunately organizations such as UNRWA and so on and so forth have educated generations of Palestinian children in believing that Israelis were monsters devils that they have to be killed they have planted hatred in them and told them that the best thing to do in life is not to become an engineer or a lawyer but to become a martyr for the jihad it continues to be a difficult question as to exactly what happens the day after this more but let's focus on the ongoing war that is happening on the ground one month into the war as well as yet to accomplish its stated goals in Gaza all right 24 news reporter r11 wall min takes a look at the last 15 years of war in Gaza what might be different this time a month into Israel's war with Hamas as Israelis wonder will it finally be the last the stakes are higher than ever in the aftermath of Hamas's October 7th invasion and crimes against humanity and the promise from Israel's leaders is loftier than in previous conflicts well yesterday evening more of our ground forces entered into Gaza the stronghold of evil this is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the return of our hostages home but the war in Gaza marks the fourth major military operation that Israel has waged since unilaterally leaving the strip in 2005 none of the previous ones have broken the Hamas terror organization's stranglehold on Gaza basically I think aside from one of the operations I joined I took part in all the operations that the the Israeli army did around Gaza I think it is the sixth or the seventh time I am deploying my guns here firing on Gaza and I hope it will be the last time the first big one December 2008 operation cast led a 22 day effort to stop rocket fire aimed at Israel's south and to preemptively prevent Hamas from infiltrating the border and taking hostages a ceasefire was eventually declared by both sides with little to show the next big one July 2014 operation protective edge a response to Hamas breaching the border to kidnap and kill three Israelis seven weeks later an open-ended ceasefire goes into effect but Hamas and the Islamic jihad remain nearly 70 Israeli soldiers fell in battle and Israel becomes reluctant to do another ground operation and again May 2021 an operation from the air to avoid exposing ground forces to the enemy operation guardian of the walls is launched after Hamas fires rockets on Jerusalem 11 days later a ceasefire with Israel claiming the terrorists had been deterred they weren't October 7th was the deadliest attack in Israel's history a declaration of war in the most sadistic of terms I think this time we are going all the way I think that the goal that was set for this war as you can as was published is to bring down the Hamas I think it's a it's a good goal I think it's it's the moral thing to do Israel's public now possesses an unprecedented resolve but international pressure is mounting on the government to reach a ceasefire will all the dying once more be in vain the IDF currently pushing forward with its stated goal of completely destroying Hamas and that's where troops are in Gaza city deep in Gaza city Rafael as the IDF is really closing in on chief a hospital where we know underground that's where some of their main headquarters are in these underground tunnels in these next few weeks few months what what difficulties do we expect to come well mostly the time that it will take to finish the job because the tunnels are hundreds of kilometers long so that the tourists can move around from north to south and probably even further into Egypt to escape we don't mind them escaping because the less of them the better here we are we're not dreaming we're not going to suppress the Hamas to the last man the Hamas will still exist in south Lebanon they're the present there in Judea and Samaria they're present there they're in Qatar for the richer ones and they will also be in London and Paris and the Hamas will continue we would just don't want it to have a state like we didn't want ISIS to have an Islamic state Gaza has become the Islamic state of the Hamas so we don't want them to come back into power so short of sorry apart from dismantling the military branch and winning a military victory of the Hamas we have to make sure we dismantle all the infrastructure inside Gaza that enable them to rule when you speak of the Hamas you speak of maybe 20 to between 20 and 40 thousand armed terrorists but the Hamas itself is like 300 000 people you have all the civil servants all the bureaucrats all those who support the Hamas politically and otherwise inside the Gaza Strip these are might be civilians but they're not the innocent civilians we speak about in the refugee camps in the south these are people who are white color terrorists if you will and these will be more complicated to find out and to neutralize that's why we have to hit high up the real achievement will be to catch the the leaders it will start from the top and that's when we can really hope things will change and all of this fighting continuing the goal stated all of this one month since the initial October 7th massacre was still seeing all of the repercussions 1400 people killed in one day 240 still held captive in Gaza on across live to our i-24 news senior correspondent Owen Alterman who's in Jerusalem right now uh on uh marking this one month one month since this horrific massacre Owen what are you hearing from some of these families some of these family friends just in their time of grief yeah well listen Nicole we expect to hear later more from the hostage families in just about an hour and a half from now eight o'clock local time will be at the western wall where the hostage families are organizing a prayer service obviously to pray for the safer turn of their loved ones and obviously to continue to increase awareness of the hostages plight here in software square in central Jerusalem in Israel's capital near the municipality you can see the scene people coming here to light candles behind them those posters of the hostages that have become such a fixture up and down Israel and of course all around the world we there's been a national day of mourning call today for the one month anniversary of the start of the war and of the October 7th massacres and at six o'clock local time just about a half an hour ago people were asked to come out the central squares around the country and to light candles in memory of those who died and those who were murdered and those who fell but the reality Nicole's people have been coming here over the course of the day over the course of the afternoon to light the candles and to come and to pay their respects for those who have been killed and to look at those posters of the hostages you can see people doing that as well to try to remember those hostages trapped inside Gaza possibly in Hamas's tunnels underneath Gaza city and to increase awareness for their plight just across the square there's also by the way a piano playing somber music and with candles lit on top of it so again Nicole just a way for people in Jerusalem to come out and to pay their respects and to be part of this national experience and trying to come to terms as we all continue to try to come to terms with what happened on October 7th even as the country continues to show resolve in search of a victory in Gaza and beyond certainly a powerful scene where you are right now our senior correspondent Owen Alterman thank you I want to come back to to Ruth because Ruth as we're hearing from Owen about these family members continuing to advocate for their loved ones the 240 at least that remain captive in Gaza kidnapped by Hamas a lot of these talks about negotiations from from outside sources whether it be Qatar whether it be the United States but as the idea of continues to go forward with their ground operation it's making these negotiations a little bit more difficult well again it depends on what essence that these negotiations comprise there is a role played by Qatar there is a role a good role played by Egypt and there are negotiations taking place but Israel has assessed that a lot of the information coming out of the Hamas from Gaza and from abroad given two different mediators by the Hamas is psychological warfare and is not based on let's say prominent and tangible information and attempts and they felt the decision makers in Israel that it would be more correct and that the Hamas would react better to force being played out within Gaza and I dare say that it will work we are all hopeful and we all praying Israel is um enveloping the families of course there is a very significant decision both by decision makers in the government and I mean goes without saying the whole nation basically um has their hearts together with the family members with your permission I'd like to perhaps emphasize something that was before and elaborate please when I speak for international bodies taking over Gaza Strip in the day after I do not speak of course of any UN bodies and any kind of observers having not the right mandate to carry out any forceful action if needed I'm talking about a model that is more reminiscent of past world war two Germany when it was actually rebuilt re-economized rethought almost from the beginning completely you know in a different status given Germany is a state and the Hamas is not but this is a land which is adjacent to Israel has repercussions on Israeli citizens and civilians we wanted to prosper we are not naive about the possibilities and potentials of what it may be we've lived it we've seen it we've seen the horrors that can come out of it and therefore we need significant responsible countries to take specific parts of Gaza and rebuild it in a manner which includes the civilian and the military of course with Israel having a say in terms of the overall military issue and the protective issue because of the situation Ruth Wasserman Launday as always we appreciate your insight breaking down just these ever-changing developments and how it's impacting Israel but also as you mentioned really the entire Middle East region thank you thank you now here on i-24 news we're going to continue to break down the latest developments day 32 of the war exactly one month since that initial October 7th massacre the repercussions still felt all throughout the country as the war also continues and Israeli citizens are still being impacted and same with those in Gaza as well trying to to grapple with just these ongoing war efforts as the idea of continues to strike hard we're going out for a quick break but when we come back we'll continue to discuss the ongoing war efforts stay with us is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity for me it's it's like a second Holocaust I cannot I cannot find any other words to describe what we see in the back I assume some of these items belongs to people that are no longer with us Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israel bonds.com and invest now made for me a unique concept in Israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i24 news please and gentlemen coverage of the war here in Israel now in the 32nd day now as the main war continues in the southern Israel near the Gaza Strip the IDF is also on high alert in the north as well on the border with Lebanon that's where we find our i24 news correspondent Mary McAuliffe who is in northern Israel right now Mary not long ago we saw rockets fired from Lebanon towards the Golan Heights what can you tell us about the latest that's right Nicole so this makes it now the third day in a row that double digit rockets have been fired into northern israeli communities marking an escalation in terms of the amount of fire that's targeting these civilian communities in northern Israel most of these areas have been evacuated already we don't have any reports of injuries coming from that we know a number were intercepted by the iron dome and others possibly fell in open areas there are reports of some fires in the Golan area but we don't have any reports of any injuries or damage to civilian areas there but we do know is here it's obviously ongoing the IDF said it was striking where it said the source of the fires we've seen artillery launches into southern Lebanon we can hear them from the area that we are in but on many different points throughout the border the IDF has been responding using artillery and mortar also there have been reports from inside southern Lebanon about a drone raid happening on some of the targets inside Lebanon so obviously this is ongoing as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire across the border and all of the statements coming up from both sides saying one that they launched an attack in response to the other previous attack that has just happened so it's very much a tit for tat escalation here in on the Lebanon border Mary as you said it seems nightly for the past few days now we do continue to see this large barrage of rockets fired towards northern Israel what's the feeling on the ground from some of these residents I know many of them have evacuated but some of them have been choosing to stay in their communities absolutely right many have chosen to stay it's been maybe I think of two weeks now that all the residents within four kilometers of the border have been told to evacuate and some of them have stayed it's a very small percentage of the population but especially in Kiryat Shmona which is where in israeli was killed this week by rockets that were fired into that israeli town of some 20,000 people I believe maybe there's some 3,000 who were staying in most of the areas that we're visiting it's mostly part of a security of the kaboots or the mashab that are just staying to try and guard their area but many of them they've been urged to continue to go to safer parts of the country this is a message that continues to come out from the israeli government to listen to the home front command that if you are ordered to evacuate please listen to that or at least to stay in shelters we saw yesterday residents in many areas throughout the border area who are very close to the border were told to remain in their homes due to these fears of rocket attacks but also anti-tank missiles we know hezbollah has been routinely firing anti-tank missiles across the borders and these have a range of up to five kilometers now seeing the u.s actively on the ground in beirut and involved in active discussions with them to try and prevent further de-escalation in the region and to try and prevent this northern border from from turning into a true war versus the escalation that we've seen here 32 days since the since the october 7th massacre and we're absolutely keeping our eye on the northern border as things seem to be heating up mayor mccall if thank you for the latest i want to bring in my studio guest once again i'm still joined by rafael you saw me former senior intelligence officer for the idf and a security analyst uh rafael as we were just speaking with mary she mentioned how dozens of these northern communities have been evacuated so far they're still being urged to not not be in their homes at some point they need to return at some point they need to come back how are they expected to feel safe if the threat from hezbollah is still there how have we not crossed the threshold for israel to have a stronger response and attack hezbollah harder exactly either we managed to have the international community and the blue helmets and the un in south lebanon to demand of the hezbollah that it retreats higher up inside lebanon to have like some distance between the presence of the hezbollah and the border with israel like a kind of no man's land or buffer zone or we just strike the hezbollah which is more a realistic solution we cannot expect from people especially with little children to come back to their houses after they've been evacuated because of the threats that is posed by the hezbollah on the fence next to their homes so then we're going to tell them okay everything is back to square one please go home this is not serious you're talking about more than 70 000 people and most probably soon 100 000 displaced people being threatened by this nearness closeness of the hezbollah to a the israeli border which is very regrettable because right now we have an opportunity that we might not represent itself in the near future to strike and strike harder hezbollah this opportunity is created by the fact that we have a massive military presence american military presence in the mediterranean and the americans are there with a lot of anti aircraft systems air defense solutions to help us cope with the threat of the hezbollah we have hundreds of thousands of reservists that have been called up to fight and in the north as differently from the south in the north the northern command and these reservists have been trained to fight hezbollah they have had maneuvers actually joint maneuvers with the american forces and other forces for many scenarios involving hezbollah we have now an economy in israeli economy that is in the emergency war mode this kind of mode that cannot be kept for very long before the whole economy crashes so now is this time to strike the hezbollah and i don't think that anybody will interfere and maybe not even the iranians considering this determination they can feel from the americans and i think the one they brought in a nuclear capable submarine into the area that was a signal that was in the atira so i really do not understand why we are not striking i can assure you that militarily speaking it was confirmed by the commander of the israeli air force yesterday the idea can strike the north even though it's busy in the south the air force can strike on both fronts but also the ground commands with the military capacity is there the will of the people the israeli people the population not only the north the whole of israel is there because the missiles of the hezbollah they don't only take us hostage in the north they take the whole of israel hostage they have very long range missiles so what is now lacking is that the political will and the political will we might understand its influence but the pressure from the biden administration not to escalate not to have the conflict extend to the rest of the region but believe me our security comes first and we will escalate and if the region is destabilized so it will be destabilized and the americans they'll have to join in they can't just sit by and watch because if they do that they will make the mistake they've made so far in other areas of the world and that will be in the advantage of the russians and the chinese that will be only so happy so i don't see what we are waiting for i do hope we're waiting for something in just the surprise will come surprise attack on the hezbollah i don't see how we cannot attack the hezbollah the northern front and the question of when or if israel will get more involved remains to be one that people around the world continue to ask i want to bring in our another guest dr brog buks senior research fellow at the europea institute and a lecturer at the political studies in school of communication at bar ilan university he's joining us via zoom from itania thank you so much for being here as we spoke to our correspondent mary mcgalliff earlier and we're continuing to talk about just the united states pressure and support for israel but pressure for iran and some of these other proxies to not get involved in this war uh we saw the biden envoy amos hockstein he landed in beirut so talking about decreasing these tensions between hezbollah and and israel amos hockstein the special envoy of the u.s president biden was in beirut at the end of august in a different atmosphere promoting the gas rig agreement and this project did not cease meaning that only a few weeks ago there was a bad publishment of uh total the firm that uh dug the gas from a block nine and this publication was that there isn't enough gas but it's a part of an interim and ongoing project of digging some gas rigs so there are projects that are also staying promotes on behalf of the american presidency that are ongoing and will benefit the eleventh is economy i want to add another thing equivalently nabir berid the head of amal the secular shiite part amal movement met with the minister of economy in beirut a few days ago and discussed the bad repercussions of a possible widening of the war with israel there are many many voices in lebanon that object entering a full-scale war with israel no and and as you mentioned hockstein in in it's but beirut and everything that he continues to advocate for and some of these projects we actually heard from him as he was in beirut earlier let's take a listen to what he had to say especially during these difficult times his concerns and i reach him on what the united states is doing to address them the united states does not want to see conflict in gaza escalating and expanding into lebanon restoring calm along the southern border is of utmost importance to the united states and it should be the highest priority for both lebanon and israel that is what un security council resolution 17 for one let's all use it and fully implement hockstein's visit to beirut and and helps to preventing this regional escalation also comes after we heard from u.s secretary of state antony blink and also hoping to de-escalate regional tensions he had his own regional tour visiting israel jordan turkey so the united states certainly is is at least showing their that they're trying to really de-escalate tensions as best they can but how much can words and these diplomatic visits truly do first of all they aren't just words we can see a stick and carried policy that behind the nice words and the projects and the positive incentives there are two playing carriers and the american army is here and the eyes in lebanon see all of the deployment of the american army and the cooperation with israel and supplying israel with arms and the special budgets to complete the war in gaza so one may say that both of these strategies may come in handy in influencing the lebanese politics and government and one thing about hassan asala he held a speech on friday and he's due to make a second spot b on saturday and he sees any senses the feelings in the lebanese people not the leaders even the people they do not want and they're saying and i'm quoting this is not our war do not take us as even hostages in a war which is not ours that remains to be a interesting point as we continue to look at the repercussions of this and and what exactly is happening in lebanon we're also hearing from a lebanese media reports that european officials requesting open communication with hezbollah to really try and deter the terror group from expanding this war in lebanon so it's not just the united states it's european leaders as well that are pushing for this not to escalate it yes and in addition i want to say another thing the lebanese army there's a lebanese government and the lebanese army the lebanese army proclaimed in october 7 at the beginning that the army does patrols in order to maintain order and there was a tweet in the web page of the lebanese army spokesperson a week ago that the army patrols and scrutinizes and signs the rocket launchers etc now the army has to implement what was mentioned here the decision 1701 of the un following the second lebanese war that hezbollah is not to be found at all south of the litany river now and this is a part of the lebanese country and the lebanese army should implement meanwhile rafael as we're talking about the continued united states support that we see really with military advancements also but their nuclear submarines with their war planes all in this region how long can we expect to continue to have this type of support it seems like there might be a ticking clock for many of these military troops to be out here in this region yes we're used in israel to have support in the first days of our conflicts with our enemies and then that supports the wizards quickly and even sometimes becomes a non-support so how long do we have that's why we're actually acting fast in our operation in gaza but concerning the american support it's a bit more complicated because it's also depending on internal things that we have no impact upon meaning for extend the election year coming up and mr biden's position as a candidate and the fact that not everybody likes the fact that he supports israel so strongly so steadfastly so we don't know what his party or himself might decide as towards that externally speaking it's for sure on the american interest the american came to supporters were grateful but they also came for their own interest it's very important for america to show its strengths in the middle east to make sure the middle east is stable and under western influence would the middle east fall into the influence of the russian and the chinese like it has in syria it would be very bad for the middle east itself but very bad for the western world and very bad for american interests so they're really there for that as well so those who criticize the rojo biden they should think of only the american interest and then see that he's actually defending the united states of america's position in that region of the world has an impact on the american economy at home so we also have the european union who is known to be very frightened of taking a position they have a huge muslim population in most of the countries like france england belgium they take into account also this electoral power that is in the hands of these big muslim populations they don't want them to be discontented by the attitude of the leaders and if there are two pro-israelis so all this of course is playing against israel the thing that will play for us is that if we start showing results we start winning and that's what we're going now then people will follow it's always said like in europe people have compassion for the weak whereas in the middle east people have admiration for the strong believe me everybody has admiration for the strong meaning if we prevail and if we show that we are obtaining justice for our victims and we're going through through what we want to do go through to about for our security for our national interest we will gain respect we will gain dignity and people might like it not like it but they will have at least to consider us as people who do what they have to do no matter what they have to understand that then they can choose what they want to do with for their own countries their own interests being weak for sure that's maybe the game that the Palestinians are playing and they're not weak they're just playing weak that's to gain the compassion of some media some people in the street but they will not get any compassion from the actual world if we can show that we have liberated them the Palestinians from the Hamas we've liberated them from tyranny from and we're going to offer them a better future so all this has to be taken account the world was never fair politics is not fair and the Jews they know very well what's fair and unfair unfortunately throughout their history thank god we have an army today we have a country today and we shall fight for our rights we shall fight for justice and if the world wants to follow they're welcome they don't want to follow bye bye you can go back into the darkness you came from and I have to know it's obviously not just the united states and european leaders sending a message to Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah to not get involved it's also here in israel our leaders also sending a clear message we heard from defense minister Yoav Galant sending a clear message to Nasrallah threatening do not get involved in this war Yahya Sinwar made a mistake in Gaza and sealed the fate of Hamas and the fate of Gaza if Nasrallah makes a mistake he'll seal the fate of Lebanon very simple I'm curious Barak as we continued it to hear about just the threat of Hezbollah and how it plays into exactly what we're seeing on on the the southern border as well we also see Hamas leaders they arrived in Turkey for a meeting with Erdogan as well and so we continue to see the regional implications of this also this war clearly stating how we might have thought we had some close ties with Turkey that does not seem to be the case anymore I think this is real politic these photo ops are some sort of a facade to create a clear front following a disappointment from last friday's Hassan Nasrallah speech on which he was criticized highly not opening the front and not supporting the Palestinians so they needed that in order to improve the let's say photo ops but I want to say one thing and we just saw the proclamation of the defense minister garland Lebanese media in arabica quoting each and every proclamation of ours israeli politicians israeli army sportspersons foreign ministries representatives are being quoted on a daily basis in Lebanese media culminating with Hezbollah's media like al mana formal channel or al mayadeen which is affiliated with Hezbollah and on this event i want to congratulate the closure the decision to close al mayadeen in israel i was surprised to see that for a whole month and al mayadeen was covering the war culminating with a clip i saw of a reporter of this channel al mayadeen from ashkelon a few days ago the decision to close this channel is very positive and it was quoted and reported in al mayadeen itself i think that's what's uh difficult as we look at the fog of war just the conflicting media reports as well quickly barak i'm curious just how people are able to differentiate into safer the the truth the news uh i guess the truth from some of these false news we all know the term fake news and there are organizations and people that are this is their business so i i want to congratulate and answer you by congratulating the israeli media attempts there are i'm talking about the arabic foreign ministry page and the idf page and another page is in arabic and also the civil society that are operating in arabic and i can bring an example of a page of the terrorist group the phj palestinian islamic jihad uh they uh tweeted something and then two israelis responded now we see israelis responding to all of these fake news pages even terrorist groups pages like khamas if it operates or the palestinian islamic jihad and other prople mentions and we do operate we can see that israelis are waking up both formal and informally from the civil society and private persons and we do fight this we have a beginning of a problem in general that we are a minority and there are many many arab countries and they have money and they have influence but we're fighting that we can see results dr barak buch says always thank you for your insight into exactly what's happening really around the region right now thank you so much meanwhile as we look at what is happening around the region and the regional actors that continue to step up the united arab operating a field hospital now in gaza i'm curious the significance of that rafael yes it's mainly symbolic home but still it's a nice gesture and we're very happy about it and on the country i think with all the might and the wells and that these arabic countries have they could do so much more i mean just the private yachts and jets of all the oligarchs of the arabic world could take dozens and dozens of little palestinian children away from the combat zone so i'm of course a little exaggerating there but there is enough money and means in the arabic world to come to the humanitarian help of the gaza people it's just regretful that nobody's making enough pressure on egypt to open its borders and to have a normal refugee camp temporary refugee camp inside i or far away from the combat zones the same way it was done in turkey for the refugees of the syrian civil war this could be achieved with some international pressure i think the arabic countries could help in in that i think the arabic countries could do much more in the negotiation for liberating our hostages but we have to welcome any gesture that is made i think that it shows also that the normalization is not that the hamas wanted amongst other things to destroy any chances of normalizing especially with Saudi Arabia and we see that the normalization is is frozen it's it's it's on hold but the process will continue it's not dead far from it and we will hear all kinds of declarations from the Saudis and condemning israel and supporting the Palestinian people but only know the fact that there is this help coming and that we they have to coordinate with us to help this is a good sign exactly and we'll continue to just see exactly how the regional partners step up throughout this ongoing war rafael you saw me thank you for your insight as always as we continue to unpack the latest developments one month into the war now meanwhile as they sift through debris Israeli archaeologists are using their unique skills for a heart-wrenching mission identifying their fellow citizens our erica jackson has more on how their hard work is providing solace to families who lost their loved ones more than 1400 people following the october 7 massacre in israel archaeologists who normally investigate the remains of ancient burn sites are on a much more difficult and personal mission they're now using their skills to join the search for the missing in burnt homes and cars after hamas terrorists infiltrated israel from gaza massacring over 1400 people who are mostly civilians on october 7 in their villages and at a music festival in the desert in the southern part of the country near the gaza border we use the tools that we had at our disposal tools that we've developed in our daily work as archaeologists so we took them and headed out to help as much as we can this is the cell phone of the person that we are evidently searching for he has his driver's license he has his credit card according to the archaeologists while it's one thing to expose remains that are thousands of years old it's another to search for evidence of fellow citizens here we probably have a burnt skeleton the remains of many bones these are difficult images we're used to seeing things from hundreds and thousands of years ago and now we're dealing with modern atrocities their work has been described as an emotional challenge but the labor is for a greater purpose archaeologists have so far identified at least 10 people who were previously believed to have been missing and some have already been buried we've managed to retrieve dozens of remains of individuals numerous of which have already been identified and then have helped provide closure for some of these families who hardly lost their loved ones i think it's the least we can do and the fact that we have the ability as archaeologists to apply our professional expertise to this specific case is something of a special calling a special calling to provide answers for as many families as possible regarding the fate of their loved ones we're going out for a quick break but stay with us here on i24 news a month has passed since october 7th the day israel was brutally attacked by hamas a month since the black Sabbath when hamas terrorists murdered over 1400 israelis wounded thousands of others and took 240 people captive a month since the idf entered a war against the vicious terrorist organization a month later i24 news returns to the place where it all began join us on november 7th only on i24 news but we came to dance people came to dance like i got arab muslim friends that got more than there and i'm starting to understand that i won't find my answers i'm glad need concept in israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen from back to our special coverage of the war on israel i'm gonna close that it coming to you live from televieve today is november 7th one month since the october 7th massacre where thousands of hamas terrorists infiltrated into southern israel raping eating and butchering innocent civilians in kibbutz communities and outdoor festivals all will kidnapping at least 240 others now 32 days later those babies children grandparents they all mean captive in gaza this is the fighting in gaza continues to ramp up with israeli troops deep in gaza city that's where we want to begin our coverage this evening where our i24 news correspondent ps tackle back is in the southern city of starot p.m curious what you're seeing or hearing i know you're not far from the gaza border there what's the latest on the ground well the latest on the ground is that starot really is a ghost town most of the 30 000 residents have evacuated a long time ago we're only a few kilometers away from the gaza border where also today there were rockets fired onto israel although we do see that this evening is relatively calm also in terms of israeli strikes we've been closer to the border earlier on and as you you see these city here in as well that accounts for all the communities that are that close to the border many people have left and many people just would not feel safe here anymore what we do see is that the municipality of starot is cleaning up the city because this was one of the most heavily affected areas from the massacre of one month ago you would see burned cars you would see cars with bullet holes you would see also just bus stations that have shattered windows but we do see now that the municipality has been cleaning up most of those cars that also the blood is being cleaned from the floor here but life hasn't returned to that city of course we've just spoken to one resident here living right in the neighborhood she decided not to leave and she said well what is the most scary part to me is the silence as you see as you're here right now because usually you do hear israeli artillery you do hear the booms and she says that this is what is giving her peace because she knows that gaza is being destroyed right now that is her directly quoting her but this is a sentiment that you find among many of especially here the southern residents who now see the the the opportunity to actually as also the israeli army declared as its goal to demolish hamas completely and she said she does not plan to leave because she wouldn't feel safe anywhere anymore and we're sending you also right in front of the police station the police station where hamas and the israeli police had a very lengthy battle there and the police station that was destroyed as a result of that now i don't know if you can see it but in the middle of all the demolition there people have put a one israeli flag that is here sanity waving in the wind nicole in starot that is still a ghost town truly difficult images down there as you continue to see it all from the ground our correspondent piaz deco back thanks for the latest update i want to bring in my studio guests now i'm joined by sherry fine grossman member of form devora women in foreign policy and national security so as the former head of the regional affairs for israel national security council and i'm also joined by danie i alone former israeli ambassador to the united states former israeli deputy foreign minister and the chairman for silver road capital thank you both so much for being here sherry as we continue to see the the activity in the gaza strip ramp up we know that the idf just saying now they are deep in gaza city for the first time in decades all of this also as the united states continues to send some backup also sending some precision bombs to help reduce those civilian casualties because that remains one of the most difficult parts as hamas is hiding under their civilian infrastructure yes so what's the question the question is especially with these precision bombs coming in to to reduce these civilian civilian casualties how are they exactly expected to help because if they're targeting these underground tunnels these underground tunnels once they're targeted they also destroy all of the above infrastructure it's a tough question basically hamas what i did they're not just hiding behind the civilian population there are also booby trapped every centimeter of every inch of the gaza strip in gaza city so we have to advance really slowly and we're the idea is taking every precaution is possible and this is just it's not the first phase i think we're deep inside and we've made a lot of progress but there's still 40 000 30 000 terrorists of hamas waiting and there's a this is just one of the stages and the next stage we'll have to go to the south and and make sure the whole of gaza is cleared of the gaza strip is is cleared from hamas so to go into that stage we will need those weapons of precision and to minimize casualties as possible especially as so many gaza's from the north have evacuated south even today we saw another humanitarian corridor opening up we can send you to see gaza's waving the white flag as says they're evacuating from the north to the south just now taking the opportunity to do so 32 days into this war danie this also comes amidst so much international pressure to continue to reduce the amount of civilian casualties right and time is of the essence and we need the time and i think this is what the american administration understood so well less so the un and and other bodies in the international community who have no clue of what is happening and the real danger of of hamas it takes time you know this hamas they had decades or three decades to build gaza into a huge bunker a fortified bunker which is probably one of a kind you know they have the entire underground city and it takes time and especially if you want to minimize civilian casualties this is why we need the time so all those who are trying to say no stop now or some kind of ceasefires they don't understand that it's going to aggravate the situation because we don't want the the idea to go too quickly because if they go too quickly they will have to be more aggressive than they are today and less precise so i think what the the idea has been doing is a real very very good operation judicious responsible and also very effective and as you mentioned nicole we see those civilians finally lining up to leave gaza that means that the strategy did work it's just a matter of finding the breaking point for them to leave and actually to overpower the the hamas resistance i believe that in a few days we will see also a breakdown of the entire command and control structure of hamas and then it could be easier and then we can think of ceasefires and then you can think of maybe some mop up operations which would be of you know specific areas and not so much bombardments or using the air force and i think that could maybe allay the concerns of those in the international community about civilian casualties i know most of the fighting is happening in the gaza strip right now on israel southern border but the idea also on hyalur in the north as well that's where we find our i-24 news of correspondent mary mcalliff standing by in northern israel mary i'm curious just the latest that you've seen as we know israel continuing to attack some of those hezbollah cells earlier today lebanon also firing rockets towards northern israel what are you seeing that's right nicole we had about 20 rockets fired from inside lebanese territory into its rarely communities along this northern border we don't have any reports or injuries we know a number were intercepted and we've seen reports of possibly one falling in the golan area and causing a fire there but we don't have any major injuries reported from this in the areas that we've seen the rockets irons most of these areas have been evacuated already so we're seeing these attacks on areas but then also the idf said that is responding to the source of the fire of both these rocket launches as well as a number of different attacks have come from within southern lebanese territory into Israeli communities along this northern border hezbollah for its part also says that it fired a number of different attacks on israeli artillery positions here along the border from our area in the past hours we've heard artillery operating in the area as well so we can certainly hear that this is an ongoing situation but for most it seems to be retaliatory attacks both sides launching attacks into the other across the border and then saying it's because of a previous attack but we have seen a marked escalation in the number of rockets that have been fired in these communities over the past three days ever since an israeli airstrike killed four people three children and a grandmother their mother remains in hospital and then in response from rockets an israeli civilian was killed in yiftah this is a community very near the border so the situation here is very tense it has been here for weeks but hezbollah for its part has always said that if it's going to escalate the situation and that this is going to turn into a full-force war with israel it will be due to civilian casualties the idf for its part says that it is investigating the incidents in which the the children and the grandmother were killed but they said that they had targeted what appeared to be a suspicious vehicle we're waiting to hear more from them but since then we haven't heard many more statements on this incident but efforts are ongoing including from the us who has officials on the ground to try and mitigate the situation and try to prevent it from spiraling out of control almost hoax the inside u.s. envoy who's in beirut now says it's of the utmost importance to the u.s. that this border does not turn into an escalatory situation and that things do not get more serious than they already have here our correspondent mary mcgallif reporting from the northern border lebanon certainly a tense time up there and we'll continue to keep an eye on it thank you for your coverage i want to come back to my guests in studio shiri as we were just hearing from from our correspondent mary talking about that on the united states envoy who is currently in beirut talking about trying to really de-escalate this this regional conflict that is on the the brink of boiling over i'm curious what exactly the united states they continue to show their support they continue not only with their words but showing all this military support coming to the region as well is that really what's going to be the deciding factor right now having their huge amount of forces hopefully so that has blow iran does not get more involved yeah it's a major major issue and a major element in deterring if you could say deterrence in this case uh his bala from entering a full-scale war there are other concerns from his bala he's setting some sort of an equation between us uh there there has been a gradual escalation as your correspondent noted and i think we will see that gradually escalating and trying to push boundaries as much as possible uh with you know some say will it get to the threshold of an outhold war or not it's it's sometimes you can control those situations and sometimes and that's the the scenario i think most people fear analysts is of a miscalculation like we see the incident of hurting civilians idf does not target deliberately on civilian targets but those kind of incidents can can get to an escalation that we did not want to have the idf and the government has been very clear he wants to keep the war mainly on the Gaza front and to eliminate Hamas which has started the war uh with Israel and and i think as we um like i said before there's still 10 of thousands of Hamas terrorists and i think there might be a stage when his bala is and that's one of the messages they say well the Palestinians are still you know withholding their effort and they're still um uh holding on so when we see a major fear from his bala about Hamas's ability to continue to exist we might see a major escalation but we're still not sure and of course the u.s involvement is is a huge factor here the u.s involvement absolutely a huge factor and they continue to really back Israel in its war against Hamas you know in the latest round of arm shipment from the u.s to israel the white house informed congress it intends to transfer 320 million dollars worth of precision bombs right into jerusalem's hands of correspondent robert swift has the report smart precise impact cost-effective bombs or spice for short the biden administration is reportedly planning on sending a 320 million dollar package of these precision weapons to israel israeli designed the systems will be transferred from rafael usa to its israeli parent company the wall street journal reported the spice family essentially an upgrade kit the weapons boost the targeting and gliding capabilities of unguided bombs with these smart systems it's hoped israel can more accurately strike hamas weapons and infrastructure hidden among the gazon population the shipment comes as diplomatic pressure mounts on both israel and the u.s over the number of gazans being killed in israeli strikes with more accurate weapons it's hoped israel can better distinguish between its enemies and the civilians crowding the gazon battlefield but smart bombs are only as precise as the intelligence directing them and as the conflict continues to rage the fog of war only thickens and we continue to see the united states stepping up giving israel a lot of the military assistance that it needs but the united states isn't the only one really with a hand in everything that's happening we also saw that now the ua e opening up a a field hospital in the gaza strip this is also a pretty significant advancement because it not only shows how the ua e one of our abraham corps partners is is stepping up in coordination with israel it also indicates that this is going to be a long war that they need a field hospital in the first place what is your take on them stepping up well there's there's mounting pressure in the society and public opinions in the and moderate arbor at arab countries and uh and then they there is growing criticism of arab countries standing aside and not reaching out and helping the palestinians in gaza so um and from a humanitarian perspective of course they they they always send the aid we saw that and in covid back then uh that was actually the first flight i think of the ua e landing in israel is actually uh assistance to the palestinian authority so it's it's not surprising we saw jordan parachuting aid to a field hospital there and of course there is need for for uh medication and assistance so um and i think it's pretty much coordinated with israel as well so um there's really no resistance from from the israeli side on on this matter danny as far as the coordination efforts that we are seeing with israel not only for some of this humanitarian aid but also the humanitarian aid being led in through the through the rafa border crossing this is also something that we continue to hear calls for i believe today 93 trucks are really close to that 100 truck threshold it's uh something that israel has has allowed in uh because of this outside pressure and because because we are seeing a need for it as well and so to work with their international partners is this kind of a give-and-take situation sure for for israel it's a no-brainer to bring in humanitarian aid absolutely to those who are not involved we do not fight the population it's hamas who is putting them in the harm's way um the only issue for israel was to to monitor and check to make sure that with this uh humanitarian aid there won't be any munitions and equipment you know military equipment for hamas and they have been using every trick in the book to try actually to cheat and to try to really bring in you know they use ambulances and and you know you know how we use hospitals and they also do use un organizations like onra in many many ways and once we have a monitoring you know system going in in a in a large scale and in an effective way i think we can even bring the number of trucks to a higher number this is the goal of israel to um be sure the easiest way to have you know to take care of this would have been moving them into egypt on the other side but the egyptians are so adamant against it that you know we just leave it alone and this is why you need a much more um i would say cumbersome operation of logistics to bring in field hospitals and to parachute all kinds of military equipments and maybe now they're talking about bringing in um floating field hospitals maybe from italy from france so it will be possible to actually take all those patients in the hospitals today like in shifa and move them out so then we can confront the hamas face to face i'm curious because we continue to see israeli letting in this aid however now some israelis are pushing the israeli government to halt that aid being let into the gaza strip until medical assistance can be provided to the 240 hostages that remain in the hands of hamas terrorists held captive so is there any way that the israeli government might concede to that well it's a very fair demand i i think it's it's really outrageous that the red cross have not seen them yet the the the hostages let alone you know taking care of their release and and moving out here but unfortunately we are dealing here with a terror organization which is the cruelest in the on the face of the earth and from the terrorists but i would say right now what israel should do and it's doing pretty well is thinking very very instrumentally that means of course we should demand the release of all the hostages they are not prisoners of war by the way they are hostages to be unconditionally released but in the absence of any interlocutor on the other side including the katara government which is not very effective on putting the pressure on hamas yet then we have to do what is best for us and sometimes if humanitarian aid that we bring in gives us more legitimacy to continue the operations so be it and and as you said the red cross has yet to even see these hostages or even nicole get a list they do not even have a full list this is my next question when it comes to just the security or the the intelligence that we know about these hostages it still seems to be changing daily what the idf is is instigating and it's because it's such a difficult task to know exactly where all these hostages are hiding but without the red cross having an exact list we are relying on it it's really intelligence i mean as they're going deeper i'm assuming they're gathering more intelligence about these hostages but sherry how difficult is is the intelligence aspect of this hostage situation extremely difficult i think it's an unprecedented event in in in world world phenomena i don't think we ever any nation in the world has ever confronting this challenge where we have hostages civilian babies that some call prisoners in and that is just unfavorable taking by an enemy who is clearly taking any advantage the international rule of law has to offer and hiding behind facilities masks schools uner facilities un facilities etc and it's an extremely difficult situation what what we've been trying to do is get incentives we we offered the financial awards and and you know shelter and and citizenship in in other countries to anyone who has any information about the hostages this is one way of doing it and of course dealing with other intelligence groups there was an incident where i think the leader of thailand said that he saw his hostages some of them alive i think there are like eight Thai citizens and somehow they got information about them so i there is every effort being made both across the international intelligence intelligence bodies and diplomatic and any any other it remains one of the most difficult aspects of this ongoing war here but i also want to note that it's not just what's happening here we're also keeping our eye on how Iran has a whole hand in this and they're using their proxies when it comes to the war that's happening here in Israel i want to begin another guest i'm joined by Daria Safai an Iranian born Belgian politician Daria thank you so much for joining us right now i'm really curious on your perspective on Iran's involvement right now i know a few Iranians are currently speaking out in support of Israel because they know firsthand just the danger of Iran yes right the Iranian people are maybe the only people in the whole world that they didn't even go to the streets of Tehran against for supporting Hamas what unfortunately even in Europe we have seen a lot of them because as you say they know they are the victims of the Islamic regime the revolutionary guard of Islamic Republic of Iran is the source of every problem every war in the whole region and as you know Islamic Republic of Iran has an ideology Daria i'm so sorry to cut you off we're going live to a press conference right now defense minister you have gone on speaking let's take a listen soldiers fought people from the security establishment assaulted we stopped the enemy but the price we paid was very heavy and i'd like to send from here my condolences to the family members who have lost their loved ones this is a very difficult event for each and every one of you personally for all of us as a country it's been exactly a month and we are determined to carry out our missions we the IDF forces are already in the heart of the city of Gaza they came from the south and the north they stormed in absolute coordination between the ground forces and the air and maritime forces they rely on a precise intelligence they maneuver on foot in apcs and tanks with engineering forces from all directions and they have one target the Hamas terrorists in Gaza their infrastructure their commanders their bunkers the comms rooms they are circling in closing in on the city of gaza ihya sinwar that terrible terrorists that lowlife who a month ago made that murderous decision to attack israeli civilians women children that same person is now hiding in his bunker he has lost contact with his environment with his surroundings his chain of command is constantly being eroded the IDF forces are storming when the commanders are marching ahead the chain of command is very firm and strong the commanders are leading the forces the battalion commanders the brigade commanders and of course the various company commanders the chain of command from the chief of general staff to the very last troop is very firm and strong and confident it aspires to achieve its mission all of our troops remember very well what had happened on october 7th and today on november 7th they are carrying out their mission to dismantle Hamas to take away and eradicate all of its capabilities to reach the very last terrorist the entire chain of command and to bring about a different situation in the gaza strip we are going to fight until we achieve our goals until victory until we bring back the hostages home gaza is the largest terror base built by mankind ever the entire city is one big terror base beneath the ground there are kilometers of tunnels they are hiding beneath schools and hospitals they are interconnected you have warehouses for means of warfare and ammunition and calm centers and headquarters all of that aim to serve as a terror basis with the purpose of targeting and hitting Israeli civilians and IDF troops and we are knowing knowing away at this capability our forces are making progress both from north and from south towards the city of gaza they are engaged in urban terrain warfare today we've seen a thousand Afghans leaving the city of gaza as a result of the pressure of the war moving south towards hanyunist and rafa i call upon all the people the residents of gaza go towards the sea and move south move to a more safer place go to the safe place near the muassi go south towards the gaza strip so that you won't be harmed we are going to completely demolish Hamas but of course we have no interest in harming civilians recently we have been hearing the words humanitarian pause more and more and i would like to say to you that for me a humanitarian pause is first and foremost our hostages first and foremost the women children are women children and elderly that's humanitarian for me a humanitarian pause means first and foremost the people who are in gaza held by these savages children like three-year-old abigail who have lost her parents and is there on her own that's humanitarian there will not be a humanitarian pause without bringing back hostages idea forces are deployed not just in the gaza strip we are also we of course are fighting gaza but idea forces are also conducting very firm defensive measures in the north of israel with respect to lebanon the air force is prepared in its basis with all its force in order to be ready for whatever is needed of it in every region especially with his bala in jadan samaria thousands of troops both a reserve duties and conscripts are conducting activities in which they are harming the terrorists and guaranteeing the well-being and safety of civilians in the different communities and along the roads the idea works like a whale oil well oiled machine the entire security establishment is supporting it and we are acting on your behalf people of israel our troops our combatants are in every region of combat they are continuing with their activity and they know that they have a goal they are going there towards victory the pressures on us are ever-increasing i know that we will need to demonstrate some very difficult leadership decisions i think that we cannot stop this fighting until we reach achievements in this war that was forced upon us there is no going back there is no pausing only going forward until we reach victory over hamas and until we bring the hostages home just like all of you israelis i am proud of our troops i strengthen them i trust them and i am telling you all we have whom to trust the idf troops let's move on to questions please moria asra from channel 13 news just a while ago there was the statement by minister gants and as soon we will hear the statement of anita nyao how come these statements of the leaders of the war are not held together and what does that indicate regarding the way the war is conducted now what another question do does israel intend to act in the shifa hospital in gaza in view of the statements made i think that we have acted and we've already also spoken together we'll do so in the future as well the war cabinet is working very strongly in coordination and i think that we can see the results in the field in the coordination between the idf and the political echelon as for future activities i usually prefer to talk about them after these happen not before lia bramovich from channel 12 news you just said that we're just listening to defense minister yaw galant to address the press on this 32nd day of the war marking the one month anniversary since the october 7th massacre continuing the ongoing war efforts in ensuing following that massacre i want to bring in my guests quickly uh just to talk about exactly what what everything that he talked about but but before we discuss exactly i know we were with our guest earlier in the show direcify before we break down what happened with galant let's go back to you as as we continue to see just speaking about iran and the the threat that we are seeing abroad you were mentioning the protests that we continue to see in some of these these european countries now we're hearing from from belgium a move to criminalize islamophobia what is your take on that yeah unfortunately this is also a very big discussion here going on about every critic every criticizing islamic ideology and the islamist like hamas and can be much more difficult because they want to criminalize it under the name of under the guise of islamophobia which is like a sort of racism but this is not acceptable look how important it is nowadays to talk about the islamist islamist ideology of hamas and telling the world that these terrorist groups are the islamists and they are not fighting for the freedom of palestinian they don't even care who young children and women and men of palestin will they use them like human shields and if you are talking about the criticizing their ideology as islamists then you should have a big challenge here in europe nowadays and i don't think that this is the future that we want to plan for europe and for the whole world because as you mentioned before the islamic regime of iran and the revolutionary guard of islamic regime in iran is behind all of those terrorist group and paramilitary groups like hamas has full of some of them they are created by this monstrous regime and nowadays we should just know if you want a future for middle east if you want a better future safer world and also peace for israel and palestinian the only way that we can achieve this is just letting the people of iran the freedom lovers of iran do their work supporting them from the whole world and also let israel finish the work with hamas because hamas until hamas wants to to keep the power in gaza there will be it's impossible to have a discussion you don't have any partner to talk about because as you know as we all know hamas wants only one thing and this is eliminating israel like islamic republic of iran and their ideology with those kind of people you cannot have a negotiation you can only fight because they have invited israel they have killed innocent citizens how is this possible to to leave them further work because it's already several years that they are doing those terrorist acts on the citizens because they don't want israel to exist they want to take back their holy home in iris alam that's what they are wanting they continue to go to to reach the goal and this is what the world should hear and here in belgium as a parliament as a member of a parliament i try to open the eyes of the world and the fact that in the region israel won't be safe and the middle east won't be safe if the regime of iran continues to doing what you're doing they saw that so the arabia and israel are getting closer and closer and that was the moment that kamenei the leader of islamic republic decided to come between them to to show the world the arab world i mean that israel is not we cannot normalize the relationship with israel and that's how the hamas has the terrorist of hamas has invaded israel and killed and raped and burned the citizens in israel this is what the world should know and i am here in europe to talk about those problems because there is only one future for the middle east and this will be the future of peace if the iranian people and the israelian people can do what they should do darya safai you have such an interesting perspective we appreciate you sharing your voice with us here on i-24 news thank you now we were just listening also to defense minister yaw abgalanta address the press on this 32nd day of war one of the things that he stated gaza is the largest terror base built by mankind sherry that's a pretty strong statement for the defense minister to state and does it kind of give an idea as to exactly what the idf is encountering right now as they are deep in the field in his words the largest terror base in the world i think and i think each of us can't really comprehend what's going on at field until we're there until we see it with our own eyes you you see rocket launches everywhere you go tunnels everywhere you go it's really entrenched in every single inch of gaza and we've seen what unfortunately remains from the main streets of gaza north gaza right now and the only reason is for it we had intelligence of what's going on in the streets of how they're booby trapping all the streets all the roads every every street and and unfortunately this is the work we have to take and like abbas alone said before that we're moving slowly to protect civilian lives and and we're seeing these methods in the west bank as well as we see the idf operating and has to go in and clear roads and and and turn them over and that's unfortunately what hamas is doing throughout every territory he has his hands on and of course with the direction of iran is daria said such important points here and it's just it's it's just emotional to see how iranian expats from all over the world are now are the only ones standing up for israel and that should be louder than anyone anything we say uh and we just want the world to hear it and something else that uh galant said was how the troops right now as they're continuing with their fighting they know why they're fighting they're remembering october 7th and the tragedy that israel has continued to face really just the entire country shocked by grief here in israel we remember it i'm curious dany as the time goes on and israel continues to fight is the rest of the world remembering why israel is fighting and and that date october 7th no they will not and unfortunately there is a barrage of relentless palestinian incitement and propaganda and and we see it all over i mean it's it's a no-brainer who is the aggressor who are the savages and who are the victims but yet they rewrite history as they have been doing for the last hundred and so years so israel will have to keep fighting for the truth even though we are outnumbered even though um you know maybe less financed than than all of them we have to do it and here i think we should call on all your viewers and you call everyone matters now because today all you need is to have an iphone or a laptop and just spread the truth use the uh material that the uh idf spokesman is putting out and just retweet and recent to all the contacts this is the only way to fight it because we are facing a whole network a cool calculated cynical network and the only way to fight a network is with creating a network of our own not in a structured way each one that sends to his contacts and their context to their context this is the only way to stop and and remind the world to remember the 7th of october i have to i have to resonate what baser island said a couple of years ago potatoes participated in this international conference and the prime minister of estonia who's helping the ukrainian prime minister told us president that's what you told to zelezky back then you have two weeks two weeks and the world forgets the the world moves on and this is what and we're the we're ukraine in the scenario there's there is um it's not a coincidence that the ukraine is one of the most supportive ally of israel these days because they understand and we're on uh their side of of the access uh of what's going on in global politics right now and and and the world can't forget what happened to us and that's why we continue to just remember october 7th and the tragedy and and really hear first hand accounts of the horrific attack that happened i'm joined now by ross milovich a resident of moshad natif hasara uh ross thank you so much for for being here you have a a story to tell specifically how your son himself was impacted having to shelter at home for 14 hours tell us exactly what happened on october 7th hi how are you doing um yeah so my personal story is kind of uh hilarious in so many ways because i live in moshad natif asa by the god of sleep for the last 40 years of my life um and during october 7th which was shabbat um my the family went out for camping and my oldest son is 70 years old had to experience the whole things by himself which means that he woke up at six six thirty in the morning way before the alarm started because his friend went fishing on the beach and told him that something is happening and there's terrorists on the beach soon after alarm started hitting and it was way stronger than anything we've known there was a rain of missiles there was ongoing alarms he understood something bad is happening he locked the house he entered a bomb shelter he tried to communicate with us we were not available i was not available it took me about an hour to to understand what's happening and to get back to uh civilization and server service basically he went through all those horrors i was um by himself and there's ongoing shelling there's yelling in arabic he understands that he lost contact with his friend on the beach and he's worried about them we found out later on that evening that they were murdered in the beach to his best friends and all those long hours i'm away from home and he's out here by himself in the front it's it's heartbreaking to even hear uh exactly what he had to experience and how you had to experience it from a distance away from your son meanwhile i know you've returned to your community since then to help clean up some of the damage what was it like seeing exactly the the the devastation that happened to your community i don't know if i can even put it into words in english nevertheless in sorry in Hebrew nevertheless in english it's it's way beyond i can never imagine um i got back to the moshav on sunday morning i actually speak to you from the moshav now i'm in the moshav as we speak um and i had to go and i was part of the members of my community who was assigned to take care of the cemetery and we literally had to attend uh and to physically hold the funeral so we had to dig the halls and bury our friends on top of that we had to go back to the moshav and clean up all the sets clean up all these murder scenes from the ostraces done by chamas when my neighbors my friends are murdered in their house how do they know quite well each one of those people i know since i was born most of the part entering those house seeing how they were brutally executed and how after they were on the floor those terrorists those horrible animals shot them individual in the hand and i'm sparing you the details of what we had to encounter in those roots cleaning the blood and cleaning what's left of them and it took us actually a few days before we understood that it's way beyond our abilities and actually approached a friend who works for unit 360 who deals with those kind of scenarios and they came and helped us clean all those scenes from any trace of blood in a drop of human relics that might be there and should be buried according to jewish laws in a cemetery it's it's heartbreaking even hearing you explain it i'm curious you're at the moshav right now how have you been able to return i you know you've seen the the devastation firsthand although you might have cleaned up some of the remnants how does it feel to still be back there in your community it strengthens me it gives me power it gives me feeling of control that my house not abandoned the only reason i can be here is because i'm i'm drafted on and reserve service now i'm part of the moshav's immediate response team which is a bunch of reserve soldiers who are equipped with our combat military gear in our possession and when times of escalation where the fence wants to respond but usually even that when there's an escalation and the army takes over we are the ones that as locals and as soldiers we are with them so this i'm not on uniform now but i'm actually on service i'm on duty and the reason that i'm here is i'm it's my ships now i'm we're taking turns few days in here and few days back with our families because technically we cannot all be here at all times our family needs us so we take shifts i'm here for a few days and then i go back to with my family and the colleague friend comes back so for the next few days i'm here in the moshav we are helping our neighbors come back home clean their houses we left on september on october 7th with what we have on us it's been over a month now people need their clothes people need their medications people need their stuff and we help them we accompany them we secure them we go with them to their houses and that's why i'm here so i'm technically here for the next few days i don't know if you can hear the bombing but there's a lot of booming around wow ross milovich thank you so much for your service right now and just the strength that you've been showing for the past one month and continuing to share your story because that's the most important part for people to remember exactly that date october 7th thank you thank you so much now meanwhile one month after hamas's attack on israel and ensuing war in the angaza strip anti-semitism is now on the rise around the world including attacks on jewish people causing injuries and deaths a 69 year old man paul kessler was killed on the streets of los angeles by a pro-palestinian protester it's truly horrific scenes that we are seeing around the world right now ton pak and i'm joined by david kaufman an editor and columnist at the new york post unfortunately with a focus lately on the rise in anti-semitic attacks in the united states just the danger that we're seeing for jewish people at these protests right now what exactly are you hearing on the ground the feeling of the jewish people uh yeah there's thank you for having me number one um the idea that uh jews now exist in fear exist in fear in the united states of america a bastion of of of liberal democracy and protection for all is a very scary reality but it's actually quite true um i've heard from numerous uh community members both privately and publicly that there was a feeling now that jews are not safe that they're afraid to show outward displays of Judaism they're afraid to look to jews they're afraid to necessarily have uh missus those on their on their home and and the death of paul kessler yesterday a 69 year old man protesting peacefully in los angeles one of the most vibrant jewish communities in america proves that this uh campaign of anti-semitism that the united states is now is now experiencing uh has reached fever pitch and unfortunately uh as i wrote last week you know the writing was on the wall like it was only a matter of time before somebody was seriously hurt if not died at these protests uh just because of the sheer uh of um anger and and relentlessness of the protesters and and the sense of of unimpeded entitlement in how they're protesting uh these are swarms of mobs in a way um that we've never really seen in america in in many many years and these are some of the protests that we're seeing on the streets but we have to note just the united states college campuses are also a hot spot for some of these i'm i'm curious how us colleges are maybe fueling this anti-semitism i know just just today the united states announced that federal funding could be cut to schools if they fail to really tackle this anti-semitism and also islamophobia yeah i mean this speaks to i think the most important issue here which is consequence i think one of the reasons why we've seen such uh such high fever protests around the country over the last few weeks is that there's been a feeling that there isn't really consequence what these folks are doing uh in la just go back to la for a second you know we happen they haven't apprehended uh the person who who who who caused this man's death but they will you know and when they do it's extremely important that there is a hate crimes put on this case this case is considered a hate crime and it is is tried as such and that the person who perpetrated this is it receives a sentence consistent with hate crime that is what's missing here is a sense of consequence and that goes into what you're just saying about about college college campuses um i think previously uh throughout the past few years has been you know a huge rise of identity focused protests identity focused movements on college campuses they've been allowed to kind of flourish unchecked and without consequence and what we're seeing now from the government in this sort of edict that there could be a federal funding pulled for colleges that do not control uh anti-semitism is the first is the first signs of real concerted uh a policy-based consequence that says that we are not going to tolerate this rise in anti-semitism and that folks who participated will face serious consequences my alma mater brandyce university for instance just yesterday or this morning made clear that uh that um a well-known pro-hamas movement a group has been basically banned from brandyce and they're the first university to do this uh and um that if they do protest on campus there will be consequences they will be in violation of the university's code and this needs to be sort of a standard for for college campuses all over america i'm happy that the u.s government has taken it upon themselves to to be very vocal in you know this potential the specter for uh funding being removed for colleges that engage in that that that uh the fuel and and and tolerate anti-semitism but it's also very telling that they also they had to embed islamophobia anti-muslim uh actions as well it's not that you know islamophobia are actions against muslims optioned in any way at any moment anywhere in this country be tolerated of course not but it's idea this idea that even the u.s government even in their effort to clamp down anti-semitism even in this moment of unprecedented with the with the head of the caa last week called an unprecedented epidemic and anti-semitism even then the u.s government still can't just say on its own that we are going to tackle anti-semitism it has to be bundled into a larger a larger message i'm curious david quickly is there a reason we're one month into this we've seen for weeks now these pro-palestinian protests many of them violent why is the united states just now stepping up that's a good question i think we're all asking ourselves how this has been allowed to happen i i feel like you know number one we we we did have a moment a huge moment of protest three years ago with uh black lives matter since then there's been a massive effort to fund the police all over the country and those efforts have worked all over the country you're now seeing police forces with you know 10 to 20 less police officers so there are literally fewer police officers on the ground to to to you know to to patrol these massive protests at the exact moment when we need them and more importantly the police officers that are left or many of the police officers that have left are the exact types of protest police officers we needed so so there is a manpower issue there physically aren't enough police officers in many cities and those officers are dealing with you know huge epidemics of homelessness and drugs and mental health so they're already you know sidelined by by pressing issues i also feel like you know we don't we are not a nation we are a nation used to dealing with issues of racism we're a nation used to dealing with issues of abortion and abortion protests we are not a nation that really has any history in dealing with the widespread anti-semitism that was clearly always there and it's now rearing its ugly head and this is what's going to have to change i think a mental change to say we now live in a country where anti-semitism is the most pressing social issue of the day and must be addressed accordingly. David Kaufman thank you for your insight as we continue to look at this increase in anti-semitism that we're seeing meanwhile we also are focusing on exactly what's happening to the communities here in southern Israel our i24 news correspondent Eury Shapiro tells us one story of the Kibitz community this house was burned to the ground with a couple inside there's a studio where she made peace artworks was not damaged Nativa Saray has known many challenges throughout the years the original community was established in 1973 in the Sinai Peninsula back then under Israeli control in 1979 Israel and Egypt signed a peace agreement and Israel agreed to hand Sinai back to Egypt and to evacuate the Israeli settlers there once we heard about the evacuation plans we fought the government in ways that even the hilltop youth are not using today we had many protests we even brought tractors to Jerusalem as a protest but the protest against the Israeli government failed and residents of Nativa Saray had to find a new home they declined an offer to relocate to an area in southern Israel and decided to move here adjacent to the northern edge of the Gaza Strip they offered us a new location in southern Israel but we refused because we were farmers and our agriculture was based on growing on beach sand we had an amazing experience in this type of agriculture for nine years and we wanted to continue it so we moved here and as you can see it is the same beach line as the previous location we are also working now on dunes despite the sensitive location Smodar a member of the community says that in the early days Nativa Saray was a place of peace in 1982 Gaza was under Israeli military rule we hung out in Gaza without any problem the army protected us there were no borders we used to shop in Gaza and Jabalia refugee camp in 2005 Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip and Nativa Saray became a border community ever since then several deadly rounds of terror have occurred here but nothing prepared the residents for the horrific events of october 7 they put walls and walls but Hamas got here from the air there is a huge crisis of confidence here i used to say that Nativa Saray is 95 percent heaven and five percent hell now it turned to 100 percent hell Smodar says that the residents of Nativa Saray had early signs of the attack days before it took place before the onslaught we told the army that Hamas was training constantly they told us to calm down and that everything would be fine on october 3 four days before the attack we heard them training and shooting towards the sea we recognized their training but these were new sounds some of the residents who were evacuated after october 7 said that they want to return to Nativa Saray though it may be too soon to discuss this possibility meanwhile those who remained here are fighting to keep this beautiful wounded place alive this is breaking news edition i'm Benita Levine coming to you live from Tel Aviv israelis across the country have today observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the Hamas terror onslaught exactly one month ago the 7th of october one month since the darkest day in israel's 75 year history a Hamas terror rampage early on that saturday morning a surprise terror onslaught rocket fire in the early hours of that day thousands of armed terrorists managed to infiltrate the southern parts of the country from Gaza by land sea air and by tunnels scores of civilians attacked at a music festival and in their homes many of the brutal attacks in kibbutzim and moshavim caught on camera by the terrorists themselves the death toll is at more than 1400 at least 240 people kidnapped on that day are still being held hostage by the terror group today it's day 32 and rockets are still being fired from the Gaza strip towards israeli cities including earlier in ashdod in the south and earlier in the northern golan the idf continuing with its airstrikes against many Hamas terror sites across the Gaza strip troops on the ground encircling Gaza city with evidence emerging of how a terror command center is situated under a hospital and how rockets are launched by Hamas from civilian sites including mosques and even a playground israel vowing to eliminate Hamas the us reiterating israel's right to defend its citizens benny gants a member of israel's war cabinet sharing this message just a short while ago the entire nation embraces over 200 families whose sons and daughters are in Gaza i promise we will do everything to bring them home with force and with diplomacy we will fight anyone we will talk to everyone we will not let go of the chance to bring back all of them there will be no place to hide for child killers we call on all gardens to move south adhere to the idf's warnings and to not cage themselves in the Hamas death traps to all of israel's factions there will be time for protests discussions and investigations now is the time to fight and win nothing else Benny gants speaking just a short while ago our breaking news coverage continues here from Tel Aviv very shortly so stay tuned to this special coverage this is breaking news edition one month since the darkest day in israel's 75 year history we go straight to the ground and our correspondent Mary McAuliffe joins us from northern israel so mary there has been so much concern around the possibility that the Hezbollah terror group in lebanon may decide to fully join this war there have been developments today across the northern border what is the latest there that's right benita so today there's certainly at least in the past few days there has been an escalation in terms of the numbers of rockets that have been fired in northern israeli communities for three days now we have double digit rockets being fired into these communities here today some 20 rockets were perceived to fly from over across the lebanon border into northern israeli communities both in the golan heights and also the galilee region we don't have any reports of injuries from those we know a number were intercepted and that a couple might have fallen in open areas at least we saw reports of a fire that was burning inside the golan heights but no major reports of damage coming out from that in turn the idf said that it was responding to the source of the fire launching a number of different artillery strikes in response to that and i can tell you from here where we are near the border we could absolutely hear the sounds of the israeli artillery pounding some targets in southern lebanon lebanese reports coming from inside are also saying that there was a drone attack on an area just very near the border it's one of a number of different incidents throughout the day where both israel and hezbollah continue to trade fire idf tacking also a cell that they said we're preparing to launch anti tank missiles we know anti tank missiles have been frequently sent across the border mostly at idf observation posts and other other military infrastructure along this border area but of course just like the rockets we do continue to see sporadic attacks targeting the civilians here which is why israel continues to remind all the civilians and all the people who are still here in this area from evacuated communities to pay attention to the restrictions and if your community is evacuated telling them immediately to get to safer areas and mary while all this unfolds across the border us envoy amos hoxstein is in beirut meeting with lebanese officials amidst these regular skirmishes let's take a listen to what he had to say a short while ago the united states does not want to see conflict in gaza escalating and expanding into lebanon restoring calm along the southern border is of utmost importance to the united states and it should be the highest priority for both lebanon and israel that is what un security council resolution 17 for one is all about and why was what it was designed for let's all use it and fully implement it now mary amos hoxstein has made numerous visits to lebanon and to israel particularly when the two countries were trying to reach that maritime border deal last year he certainly has his work cut out for him right now absolutely benita so him here on the ground now is just yet another step taken by the united states as they try and work to try and prevent this situation from escalating into a further and a broader conflict we know for the us they have been actively involved on the ground here of course we've seen us secretary of state antony blinkin throughout the middle east in recent weeks but hoxstein's president inside lebanon is a new level to the diplomatic efforts that are underway and it does after we had a particularly deadly week here on this border inside lebanon and israeli airstrike killed four a grandmother and four children and the mother remains in hospital and on the israeli side one israeli civilian was killed in yufta by an attack that came from inside southern lebanon it's the deadliest week that we have seen so far here and we know that hezbollah has been warning against civilian casualties and so this is very why the region is on high alert as we have seen these deaths this week live from northern israel correspondent mary mccullough thank you stay safe and now for more it's a pleasure to welcome to studio a major general in the reserves etan dungart former military secretary to three ministers of defense and the former coordinator of government activities in the palestinian territories in the idf etan as always thank you so much for being here in studio difficult to believe it's been one month since that terror onslaught the nation still processing the sheer scale of it the depravity of it and here we have developments on the ground right now to start your assessment one month in on the security situation first of all it will go with us not for one month for years and even i says for generations this event and it will be for us memorial and symbol to see how we have to defend the country the people and the civilians concerning this period i think we have to see after the tragedy of the sevens and our failure great failure about what happened i think you can see that the first block was to move ahead or to kill the hundreds of terrorists that entered to the israeli and to bring them back or to kill them from the israeli territory outside of defense secondly beginning of strike and plans what and how to do and immediately the idf went to the program in one main goal that is still exist now to destroy khamas structure leadership capacities and to move it ahead from gaza to move ahead the threat of khamas in that case you see can we can share it to two periods first of all the using of fire of targeting of strike from the air from other kind of fire sources in order to prepare the area secondly in around 48 hours more than 300 000 reserve people came by themselves more than 100 of each unit and prepared themselves from logistic and training to be on readiness to the mission they will get it took two weeks and you see that we are on the second week of the movement of the ground forces inside gaza and now meanwhile we didn't get the goal now but we are on the way we have to understand that we are fighting in the most complicated urban area not even in the middle east in the world while the enemy was prepared in itself for years with arms with training with everything by sharing the underground area and above it what is on the ground and prepare itself very professional to what's going to what it will be and now you see that israel succeed in around 48 to 72 hours to surround the north part of gaza and by it to bring a message the north part of gaza is under israel control to fulfill its mission and there we are coming now to the most important and complicated stage to enter you will hear more and more about targeting tunnels killing people in i mean terrorists in the tunnels and above it meanwhile we succeed to move most of the population of this area under the war to the south area of gaza in the north this is the last remark we keep in a low level the escalation with hamas till now after israel declared that it has no any kind of interest to ever war now with kisbala in the libanon it and stay with us prime minister benjamin netanyahu is about to speak on the continuation of the war in the south combat in the gaza strip is proceeding in a forest that hamas is never known before the city of gaza is encircled we are acting inside it we are deepening pressure over hamas by the hour by the day we have already killed thousands of terrorists above the ground and beneath the ground among them we have we have eliminated some major murderers who committed that terrible massacre at the black sabbath a month ago we have destroyed dozens of bases headquarters tunnels and hamas training facilities hamas is discovering that we are reaching places that they never thought we would reach and the campaign continues i've just visited our troops in the base of tsahilim some of them were in the gaza and veron's region and they fought fearlessly and fiercely on that day and then they fought in the north just as forcefully and now they are preparing to go into the gaza strip when they are equipped with two major advantages the first one are the lessons that the idea for systematically learning following a combat in the gaza strip these lessons are even further improving the outcomes of combat and the more the more important thing is that they have a fighting spirit which is unparalleled they are extremely determined they have faith and more than anything else they have a sense of mission they are defending and protecting their home i salute them all israeli salute them in the north of the israel we are both on the offensive and the defensive we are going to continue to protect our border we will not come to terms with the reality in which his bala and its proxy its proxies in lebanon will just target us we are going to retaliate with very strong fire we have killed many his bala terrorists and targeted many of their facilities and like and i would like to say once again if his bala chooses to enter the war if his bala chooses to enter the war they'll be making the biggest mistake of their lives as for the hostages i spoke with the president of the red cross and demanded that the red cross will take action for the immediate release of our hostages and that is mandatory by international law and i also asked them to exercise their duty and to visit all the hostages in order to ascertain their well-being and health yesterday i convened all the foreign ambassadors in israel and i asked them to join israel's call for the immediate release of all hostages i said that their abduction is a war crime and once again i'd like to clarify to both our enemies and our friends there will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages and now i'd like to speak to the families of the hostages who are living an ongoing nightmare i'd like you to know we are taking every means every measures in all fronts in order to bring back your loved ones our loved ones home the military action is as is an essential part of this effort on the diplomatic front we are working around the clock in order to give the idf international leeway so that they can continue their military activities we are bringing in leaders from all over the world i meet with them i show them the atrocities of hamas i show them the heroism of our civilians and troops and i say to them our war is your war because if we don't win you will be next and i always add we are going to win we will not stop until we reach victory and i am in constant communication with the president of the us joe biden we truly appreciate and value his support the support of the american administration the support of the american people people of israel a month ago on the terrible black saturday on october 7th a terrible brutal war was started by a vicious and cruel enemy that wished to massacre us and we will destroy this enemy we will completely eliminate the governmental and military capabilities of hamas gaza will no longer pose a threat over israel once again i'd like to call upon the civilian population in gaza go south you're already doing it please complete doing so because we will not stop and i'd like to emphasize we will not allow fuel to go in and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages on the economic aspect my instruction to the government to the ministers is absolutely clear to lift all barriers to open all the faucets and to take care of the civilians the businesses all those who have been hurt and harmed to make sure that no one israeli is left behind we have approached 100 000 israelis we have transported 100 000 israelis from the south and north we'll do everything we can to bring them back we are working to rehabilitate all the kibbutzim all the villages all the communities and we will exert every and any possible effort and we are giving increased payment to those who were called to do reserve duty compensation for businesses and one more thing the home front as a front i just visited the headquarters of the city of ashtod i could see the resilience of the people of the leadership and i'd like to say to all you israelis your resilience your determination to continue until victory that gives us the government the idea of the troops out there in the front to the power to complete the mission citizens of israel our heart goes out to the families of those who were murdered of those who have been abducted and we embrace the bereft families of our troops who have given their lives for our country and we wish full recovery to all those who have been wounded we pray for them we are providing a very strong backing to our brave soldiers and i can tell you with certainty out of the darkness and pain we will come out more just more correct more united together we will fight and god willing together we will win an impassioned speech thereby israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu on day 32 of the war with me in studio still major general in the reserves etan dangot benjamin netanyahu covering a whole range of issues that certainly the israeli public wants to hear not least of which no ceasefire until all hostages are safely returned what stood up for you i think first of all it's in my opinion the best speech that the prime minister made from the beginning of this event and there was a lot of mistakes tonight he spoke very directly covered all the circle of things that are bothering the everett civilian and in his words he said a few things first we will not stop till we succeed to reach our goal no anymore hamas in gaza secondly made it very clear that there will not be any kind of ceasefire in gaza till the release of the the hostages and bring them back it means humanitarian completely towards humanitarian step and he had to eat that he asked the head of the red cross to make his duty to visit them and to give us signs of life to those people the third sign was to libanon be aware we are not have any interest to work to any kind of escalation with his bala if it happens we will react but we will react in a way that libanon and this is what i had to his words libanon as a country and his bala is terror movement will pay a heavy price i think he made very important thing to the israeli people because we are going to a very difficult time no doubt concerning atmosphere of a war economic exchange difficulties are coming people will evoke it from their places and he says we will put the government will release all the sources financial to keep people above the water and to be aware to what they have to do i mean to support it and i think that these are the main messages for this speech that made it clear about the two goals in gaza the goal in the north part and the interior situation with the civilian economical and to continue to fulfill the on-front let's say instructions concerning saving people life i think that today you saw three speeches of you have gallant beniguns baby netanyahu it also signal unity in the cabinet cabinet war absolutely also speaking about the fighting spirit within the army right now and as you mentioned the resilience of the people of this country i think that the way the idea is working in such complicated area by achieving the goal by making it professionality making it with a lot of motivation a lot of feelings towards the country a soldier cannot do it without being in duty to understand what is the mission and i think the soldiers reserve as conscript understood from the first minute that this is a war in their back for the babies that are not alive and for the babies that are alive and will give them the future for the future no doubt eight undone god thank you very much stay with us i want to go now to new york we welcome our senior u.s correspondent mike wagonheim and mike we just heard benjamin netanyahu saying that he is in constant contact with joe biden something that is very abundantly clear in recent weeks the u.s has shown its unwavering support since the start of the war of course the president making that unprecedented visit during wartime the u.s secretary of state has been here several times the defense secretary and in recent days the cia director to talk us through the rhetoric and the physical show of support from the u.s in the past month benita i liken it to the the bear hug method you ever give somebody a tight bear hug she call you draw them in real close to you let them know that you're but where is your mouth at that point it's right right up to their ear it's right there so you're showing your support you're showing that you're there with them you're showing your love and your affection but you're also able to whisper in their ear and they can't move away they're right there they've got to listen to you because of that of that connection that you're trying to make with it that appears to be the method that joe biden is using here and what the biden administration is using shower the netanyahu government the israeli people with all the support they can get let them know that america has their back whether it's in words whether it's indeed but when you've got government officials up close when you've got idf officials up close you whisper in their ear what you think they need to hear at that moment if it's support great if it's direction if it's concern what have you as american officials are often telling israeli officials in their ear right now that that's kind of the method that they're using right now so whether it's coming from the white house the state department the national security council the pentagon from congressional leaders it all seems to be employing for the most part the same method here outward support but letting them know whether it's what's going on in jaday and samaria the west bank with potential settler violence whether it's humanitarian concerns in gaza right now whether it's concern about israel not really having a plan for the day after hamas these are issues that they keep whispering in the israeli government's ear right now to try to get them going and thinking constantly about how to solve those potential problems so that that tight bear hug can remain in place for as long as it takes to complete this operation benita well mark there's certainly no bear hug so to speak when it comes to brandes university it is revoking recognition of the group students for justice in palestine saying it openly supports hamas what has been made of the stance out of the university right now given everything else we're seeing emanating from campuses and rallies in the u.s. right now all of these events have a back question to them and the question is if you supported hamas before october 7th why did you have a camp a campus club that was allowed to to flourish the way it was i think that's more of the question rather than why a brandes university has chosen this moment here to extricate students for justice in palestine from the university community by the way this is the first private university to do so ron de santis the governor of florida and a presidential candidate banished sjp from public universities in florida in the aftermath of october 7th and those clubs support for hamas but now brandes university which has an incredibly large jewish population but also a significant palestinian and arab student population as well spj has been given the excuse me sjp has been given the boot there and it really we're now going to see whether this has a domino effect on other campuses throughout the country where jewish students have said well before october 7th that they felt threatened and harassed by students for justice in palestine clubs on campus whether this will get the ball rolling on potential future action here on campuses across america again it's now happening private universities in florida now in the rather public universities in florida now in the private sector here in massachusetts and brandyce university this will really tell here if we're going to see a domino effect in the coming days and weeks and mike in los angeles a disturbing incident a 69 year old jewish protester killed after being hit in the head during an altercation what more is known what is the latest there there's actually an ongoing press conference by the ventura county a sheriff's office that i've been trying to pay attention to here waiting to go on air 69 year old paul kessler killed at a pro palestinian demonstration in which pro israeli supporters came over to essentially counter and show their support for the other side here this death of kessler apparently after he was hit possibly by a megaphone he has had facial lacerations apparently fell to the ground and hit his head causing brain injury he was able to speak to the police while he was still conscious but later passed away the ventura county sheriff's office is uh dean this a homicide that's what they're investigating it as with a potential potential hate crime element to it they say they do have a suspect a 50 year old palestinian supporter they've searched his home no arrests get made in this case devastating indeed live from new york senior u.s correspondent mike wagenheim thank you very much for that update and from new york to jerusalem we're joined by our senior correspondent oan ultiman he's at the western wall where families are holding a prayer service tell us more oan yeah it's an incredibly impressive event benita hundreds of people here gathered at the western wall led by of course the families of the hostages themselves for a prayer service you know benita over the course of the last month a lot of the events held by the hostages families have had more of a secular character but not tonight this is the time for religion to shine and i just want to share with you the highlight in my mind the most poignant moment of this entire ceremony just the plaintive singing by people standing in a large circle around the western wall plaza linking their arms it's a song that observant traditional jews will recognize from the kibros i read the english translation uh as for our brothers the whole house of israel who are given over to trouble or captivity whether they abide on the sea or on the dryland may they all present have mercy upon them and bring them forth from trouble to enlargement from darkness to light and from subjection to redemption now speedily and in a near time i've put the video on my twitter you can go and look at it and and hear the plaintive singing for yourself whether you recognize that song