 We'll come back to our special coverage here on I-24 News. Let's go to Tel Aviv, I-24 News, Emily Francis is there with the hostage families. Some of them have met or are meeting the prime minister right now. What's the latest? Hi, Jacob. Well, yes, the meeting is still ongoing and every hour more and more people are going. I'm going to step out of the frame and you can see what's happening right now. They're all chanting. I'm going to let you listen for a second. So basically, for those of you that don't understand Hebrew, they're saying you're basically make a deal, bring them home now, bring the families home now. Listen, the spirit and the hope will never be broken here. This is Israel at its finest despite the very disappointing news. Every single time they meet with the war cabinet, still the hostages are not home. But as you can see, they are not going to stop. They are not going to lose hope and they're going to do whatever it takes to bring everyone home. And one of the leaders here tonight who has been speaking every hour, they're closing the street at 29 past the hour, which is when the October 7th invasion began. And for 241 seconds, which is how many hostages were taken, they are reading all of the names over and over again. So we will not forget, especially the hostages that are still in captivity, like the ones that we saw in the video that was released yesterday and this ongoing nightmare that doesn't have an end in sight, but the hope is still there. And I want you to listen now to Anadav Rudayev, the son of Lior Rudayev, who is one of the hostages and hear what he had to say about meeting with the war cabinet. I think the first couple of times we were more focused on them realizing who we are and who is our personal hostage that is there. And I think in the last couple of weeks, we as families started to demand answers. And we are here because we want the answers. We want to know that the Israeli government and Netanyahu is doing whatever they can to be the leaders they need to be in front of us and in front of the whole world and the Western world in terms of leading and be the one that are initiating the process of the negotiations. Because I don't think we can continue dancing around what the Hamas is saying and we need to be more affirmative. So we are here because we want to reinforce them that we are here with them, not against them. Now Francis, there are reports in Israel that the negotiations are somehow renewed and Israeli officials were quoted with this. That doesn't seem to calm down the atmosphere over there. Certainly not. If that's the information that is coming through through those sources, absolutely that's something. But from the standpoint of the people here, again, we don't have any more information. We know that the meeting is still ongoing. Hopefully the families that are meeting with the Prime Minister now will come out before the end of the evening and we'll have a little bit more information about what was said. And if there's any forward momentum, I mean at this point it doesn't seem like there is, but as you can hear, the spirit and the fortitude and the resolve will go on as long as it takes to bring the hostages home. All right, Emily Francis in Tel Aviv live. Thank you very much for that. Joining us now is Rami Iqra, former head of Mossad MIA unit. Thank you for being here. What do you make of these very fresh reports of possibly new negotiations and President Herzegov Israel saying Israel might be ready for a ceasefire in order to renew negotiations? The Hamas is asking for cessation of hostilities, not for a ceasefire. What it wants is for us to go back to the 6th of October, let the Hamas survive, forget what happened on the 7th of October. And this is something that is it's unconceivable in Israel. So the Israeli government, with all due respect, and even though everybody wants to see the hostages home, the other side is not negotiating. The other side wants us to raise a white flag and be defeated in this war. This is not going to happen. And the families are not helping the situation. The fact that they are protesting a government that is all there in order to save the hostages is not doing any good for their relatives. What they are, they are they are prolonging the stay of their families in the Hamas. Hamas loves the situation as it is in Israel. What's their price? Is there any price that Hamas would take for a deal? Yes, they've already said that. They've also come back today and said it cessation of hostilities and the blockade and had all kinds of requests before they start negotiating the release of any of the hostages. So we are really talking to ourselves and the fact that there are negotiations that we talk to the Qatari and the Qatari talk to the Egyptians is not moving the Hamas anyway. We have to understand that on the other side, we are dealing with a religious organization that is that's sacrificing death. Sinwar himself said not once that he rather go home. He rather go to his maker as a Shahid than anything else. And if you ask me at the end of the day, Hamas knows that the the end of the rope is near and it knows that the only way that this is going to end is with the destruction of Hamas. They know this and they're playing for for time. That's all. Yeah. But what about the leaders in Qatar? What about the Qataris? What about the Egyptians? They have no leverage whatsoever on Mr. Sinwar. Yeah. So if you if you understand that Sinwar is a religious leader, that he is he really is a religious organization. If you understand that during the fighting, we are faced with women wearing bombs on themselves and exploding themselves or trying to explode themselves amongst the soldiers. You understand that we are dealing with a with an entity that doesn't understand our work, that doesn't understand what we want. The Qatari are the Qatari are trying. The Qatari have financial leverage. The Egyptian have much more leverage. But at the end of the day, this doesn't really move the Hamas. Hamas wants cessation of hostilities. I don't think there's a soul in Israel, a soul in Israel, including the hostages, the families of the hostages that are willing to surrender to the Hamas. And that's what they want. Now, I want to say a word or two about what the families are doing. The families that are, by the way, split between two kinds of families. Some of the families are against against what is happening in summer for the people that are standing there in front of the key and the Kyriac and shouting now, shouting a slogan that is not realistic and they are not helping their relatives. The Hamas is on the other side watching this and is very satisfied with what is happening in Israel. There are families that are shouting surrender now. There are Israeli leaders that are talking about this. And you and I should understand that if God forbid this happened, we will not be a villa in the jungle. We will be a castle in zombie land, and we have to understand that. All right, Drami Agra, thank you very much for that. It's hard to judge families, of course, with their loved ones there for over 70 days in terrible conditions. With me here in the studio is Ambassador Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States. Thank you for coming. It's becoming more and more difficult for the decision makers to take decisions. I don't think at the end of the day, they really don't have much choice. And I want to just add some of the things that said by my good friend, Rami Agra, for what I have the highest regard. And that is that it's unclear to me what the family of the hostages actually want. Do they want Israel to agree to a ceasefire? If Israel agrees to a ceasefire, that means Hamas gets away with mass murder. It means that 250,000 Israelis who are now homeless cannot go back to their homes in large swaths of the state of Israel become uninhabitable, both in the South and in the North. It means we have no regional security anymore because Iran will internalize that they can go to war against us with impunity. And, you know, we're just going to agree to a ceasefire eventually. And and so I don't understand how this country continues to exist with that ceasefire. So that's the only part of what the hostage families are demanding. They're also demanding that Israel accede to the demands of Hamas to release all the prisoners, terrorist prisoners from our jails. Now, those prisoners have the blood of hundreds and hundreds of Israelis on their hands. Think about the families of the victims are going to say about that, how absolutely devastatingly demoralizing that will be to Israeli society to say nothing about our ability to defend ourselves. So at the end of the day, there's really not much of a choice that Israelis decision makers can make. The only choice they have is to continue the battle. And if Hamas cries, Uncle, in attempt to sort of get a temporary ceasefire that will then can expand into a longer ceasefire, because that's what they want. They want a series of ceasefires, three, four days. And in the world, we'll say, well, you have three, four days. When I have three, four weeks, when I have three, four months, that's what they're going for, because that's that is their sole goal. Then maybe in return for certain hostages and certain number of hostages, we could agree to that. But that's really the only decision we can make. We can make a decision about letting more humanitarian aid into Gaza. We can also about more humanitarian pauses and corridors and all these things that the Americans want you can do. But the end of the day, there's no choice. This is a war of national survival. It's an existential war. And decision makers are just going to have to keep that in mind at all for how long could Israel prolong this first? Long as it takes. Now, I suppose Israel prolong it for it as long as it can. Now, there are a number of clocks that will make it increasingly difficult. OK, there's an economic clock. Clearly, there is the the reservist clock of keeping hundreds of thousands of our most productive members of society states. Oh, right. Sure. The Americans said clearly there's an ammunition clock that one talks about. We run low on ammunition all the time. We have to ask the Americans, and that's going to give the Americans more leverage if the Americans want to say, stop or change your war. You know, you want those bullets, you're going to have to listen to what we say. There's that clock at the end of the day. I'm going to say this again. I don't care if we throw rocks at these people. It's an existential war. And and that government irrespective was in the government. Well, let me understand your point. Why is it existential? Can Hamas destroy Israel? No, but Hamas can create a situation and they say this themselves. If there's a ceasefire, they will rearm. They'll regroup and they'll prepare to stand the next wave across. But Israel is still there next to the border if it pulls out. They're still going to try. Then they'll wait it out until Israel is forced to withdraw. And they'll end another five, ten years. They have a long game. They'll try it again and go, you know, I don't know if you have children. Do you have a family? You want to go settle along the Gaza border? If that were the case, would you go live in Matula tomorrow? If that were the case, they won't know. No, I'm telling you won't. They will not go back. So you're talking about large swaths, the country becoming uninhabitable. Will tourists come? I don't know. Will people invest in this country? I don't know. And so, you know, will people continue to make out there and come and live in this country and that kind of circular service that country created to ensure security for the Jewish people, which can't guarantee security for the Jewish people? That's why it's existential. It's not essential because Hamas is going to bomb Tel Aviv, though they tried several times today, as you know. But they know full well with all the rockets in the world, even with all the most egregious, horrendous attacks like October 7th, they cannot destroy us. But they can create a situation, as Asar Arifat said back in the 1967, back in the 1960s, he said, we can't destroy the state of Israel with terror, but we can create a situation where the Israelis are going to prefer to leave the state of Israel because life in that country will become abominable. And that's what Hamas can do to us. So far, didn't Israel relay the message to the Arab world that what happened to Gaza is bad enough, you know what I mean? I know the destruction is bad enough. No, because that Arab world expects us to win. We have these wonderful relations with the Abraham Accord countries. We have a possibility of peace with Saudi Arabia. The Abraham Accords will prove sustainable and peace with Saudi Arabia will prove achievable. Only if we win. Only if we win because these countries are facing the dual threat of Sunni extremism and Shi'ite extremism. We're the only country in the Middle East in the world fighting both of them. We'd better win if we want peace. All right. Let's go to one of the personal stories. With us now is Ofir Metzger, the granddaughter of Yoran Metzger, eight years old, whose video was released by Hamas yesterday together with two other Israeli hostages. Ofir, thank you very much for speaking with us. Thank you. How did you learn about this video and what was your reaction? Actually, my boyfriend called me and told me that this video was released. So I searched for it and I watched it. And it was pretty much a mix of emotions. I can say it was just bad or just, of course, not just good. But I was happy to see that he's alive and there's a sign of life, you know. But on the same time, I saw that how he's looked and he doesn't look good. And was it was it hard to recognize him? I mean, no, because I know all the three of them and I was told that this is him. So I recognized him, but he don't look like he always looks. They did this bird thing on purpose. It's part of the psychological terror that they're trying to do to us to make him look like Muslim, like, I don't know, like someone of theirs. And he got skinnier. He lost weight. He looks older. He looks he doesn't look healthy and also not Haim and Amiram, which both I know them as well. And it's just, you know, the video doesn't change what we are trying to say for 74 days already, that it is urgent to bring them home and that they don't have much time. Their time is running out. Think about it, they are old. It's enough to catch a cold and it can be devastating. So we are worrying. My grandfather has his diabetic. So, you know, changes in what he eats and to not eat enough. It's all of those things can have a pretty critical effect on him. So this video doesn't change what we already thought, that it is urgent and that the time is running out. But yeah, it wasn't easy to watch. Right. You know, we've been discussing here and actually all of Israel is discussing this. What to do with hostages? What are your thoughts? How to resolve this? If I had good ideas, I wasn't at my position, I guess. I have no information. This is not my job to find solutions. And you won't ask any, I don't know, English or American civilian to find out how to return his hostage family member. Because how would they know? How would I know? It's not my job to know that. And we are all, you know, like any democracy, we are civilians here and we do our duties and we expect to be protected. And that's why they need to be brought back and our government needs to do whatever it takes to bring them back. And that's it. It's not my job to decide to give ideas because I don't know. And I can give ideas, but I'm not sure they will be good. So yeah. All right, Ophir. Thank you very much. And I wish you the best and good news very soon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Back to you, Ambassador Orr and so many stories like this. This is something, I mean, this nation is going through something that is unbelievable. You know, I'm a historian by training and I can't look back at history and I can't find any other example like it. Hamas, on October 7th, hit us. We want to say they hit us between the eyes, but the eye would be like capital I because Israel has two eyes. We know we're a Jewish and democratic state and you know how difficult that is to reconcile. But we have two defense eyes. Israel comes into being in May, 1948, three years after the end of the Holocaust with a promise. This isn't going to happen again. This country is going to protect the Jewish people in the land of Israel from it happening again. But there's another eye. And the other defensive eye is this country, if your children or your parents or your grandparents fall captive, this country is going to do everything that's power to get it back. And that was true in Entebbe. It was true with the airlifting from Yemen, Iraq, from Ethiopia. It's something very essential in our national ethos. Hamas hit a square in the middle by attacking our land, attacking our people and taking hostages. And that's never been done before. And so the government has to make a decision. What are you going to do? You're going to defend the country, defend the border, or you get the hostages back. So what the government has been doing, and the army's been doing, is a little bit of both. Attacking Hamas and trying to get the hostages back in the hope that if you squeeze Hamas hard enough, it'll give up some of the hostages. The bad news is, at the end of the day, it's not going to entirely work because Hamas is not going to give up the last of the hostages because it knows that once it does that, the last hostages to leave a tunnel is who's going to flood the tunnels or set them on fire. So hostages, they're not going to do that. So at some point, those two eyes converge. They are contradictory. They're not mutually reconcilable. And that is a scenario that for this country, for any country, particularly for a Jewish country, is just unbearably exquisitely painful. All right, later I'll ask you whether Israeli leadership is able to take these kind of decisions right now. Let's talk about Alina Tovenberg, a makeup artist and a body painter that is known for her UV body paints. And on October 7th, she found herself on the front line during the Hamas attack at the Nova Festival near the Gaza border. I-24 News reporter, Uri Shapira brings her story. Alina Tovberg didn't believe in divine intervention until October 7th. For years, she's worked as a makeup artist and body painter. Working at the Nova Festival was only natural for her. We came to the field on Thursday and stayed for the entire weekend. We decided to stay at Nova. I was attracted to the wonderful people who came there, the perfect place and the unique atmosphere in the air. So I decided to stay. At 6.20 a.m., we saw this amazing sunrise. I was just finishing painting Eleanor, my last painting. I gave her a hug and a kiss and went on dancing on the floor. Everybody was waiting for the sunrise. 15 minutes earlier, my partner, Tomer, gave me a glass of tea and told me that he wanted to go to the car because he was tired. It seemed very strange to me because he never acts like that. But in retrospect, this is what for me resembled the first miracle that happened to me. I looked to the horizon and I saw heavy smoke, very dark. To see the smoke inside this beautiful place felt very strange to me and I immediately closed my makeup kit. Suddenly, we started to hear booms. The music was still on. We could hear the bits. But we heard the shooting mixed with the trance music. After three to four minutes, they shut down the music. And the chaos began. It was a sharp transition. People were at their peak and suddenly everything was shut down. And you find yourself in a war. At a certain point, Alina's partner could not start his car. The group found itself in a survivor scenario. We split into two areas. In one place, I took care of girls who were in panic. In the other spot, Tomer tried to fix the car. He asked his brother to bring people to help. And he got a call from his brother and heard that he'd been shot. Tomer understood that there were terrorists in the area. He managed to find someone who helped him fix the car. This angel is not with us today. We drove like crazy to Kibbutz-Reim. A black truck tried to crash into us, but Tomer managed to escape. It was another miracle. It was a matter of seconds. Then we managed to get to Reim. God opened the gate for us. God opened the gate for us. Alina says that everyone she's painted that night survived. One of the people Alina remembers the most is a young woman named Elinor, who Elina painted. When the Hamas attack began, Elinor hid inside the fridge and survived. In this short soundtrack, we hear the moments of horror when Elinor saying goodbye to her eight-year-old son. I'll tell him that I love him. Elinor was like this... I painted on Elinor, an image of a woman, full of light and hope. More than two months after October 7, Elina took part in an exhibition in Tel Aviv dedicated to the Nova Rave. She rebuilt the boot where she walked at that night. The truth is that every scene, one by one, I remember. I remember every painting I made that night. Each painting I made that night became a part of me. It became a part of my family, a part of my story. There is Elina, and there is my art. And there is this night. And this night laid down roots. 350 young people died and were killed in this festival. We'll take a break now. We'll be right back with more special coverage in our night 24 news. Stay tuned. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Welcome back to our special coverage here on IA 24 News. Owen, there are some reports about maybe renewing the negotiations. Israeli Minister, sorry, President Herzog was quoted as saying that Israel might agree to a ceasefire in terms of hostages. Where do we stand? Yeah, and obviously continuing reports, Jacob, of meetings between the head of the Mossad and Qatar's prime minister. Look, I did a piece on this a day or two ago. I think we all have to be very clear-eyed and open-eyed about this. That at least in this round of the talks, it certainly seems to me that Hamas is the one that has the leverage. And not Israel. We're not talking about children who get so much sympathy abroad and in a sense an asset in Hamas' perverse logic because they can be traded, right? But also a liability in terms of the way they were looked at in international public opinion. And that's of course all of the hostages are a liability, but much more so the children. And we all remember the covers of all of those newspapers around the world and how children had been featured. So there, Israel had a bit more leverage and also the military pressure incrementally day to day in October, November, seemed at least from our vantage point, again with all the fog of war, seemed to be more meaningful and exerting more pressure in Hamas than the incremental pressure day to day is now. So I think for both of those reasons, it's no accident that it's Israel that is being seen publicly as pushing for this deal and not Hamas. Right. Ambassador Michael Oren, you are being interviewed all over the world, especially in the United States for many, many times since this began. What's the perception right now of what's happening here in the Middle East? Well, there's a perception of the media and there's a perception of the American public. So yes, it's true that we had this, your times, Paul, that we were just talking about earlier that showed that some 53% of young Americans, generation Z, think that Israel shouldn't exist and actually should be given over to Hamas. But that's not the American population. The American population still is overwhelmingly supportive of Israel in the next campaign. And the war, anything from 75, depending on the polls, 75 to 81% of Americans are supporting Israel in this. But that breaks down according to age. It breaks down according to party. It breaks down according to region. And then there's other subcategories like did you go to college? Did you not go to college? Are you a Muslim? You're not a Muslim. It breaks down. The media coverage though, it was clear that for the first couple of weeks we enjoyed a certain grace period because of October 7th. Those images of suffering by Jews were replaced steadily by pictures of Palestinian suffering. And today it's pretty much uniform. October 7th is for the most part forgotten. And particularly if you're going on the BBC. And it's all about how much Palestinian suffering is Israel willing to inflict? And why don't you agree to a ceasefire? Why don't you get the hostages back? And that image, that narrative is compounded by the open rejection of this government but President Biden wants to hear about the day after about a two-state solution, about a solution to the Palestinian problem. All that contributes to a very critical negative narrative about the state of Israel. All right, we'll go back to that. But first, Tony Colt said in the northern, sorry, southern city office, they wrote where we saw before. There's a lot of fire tonight. What's happening? Yes, we did see quite a bit of action behind me here in the overlooking the northern part of the Gaza Strip. No word yet from the IDF as to exactly what we were seeing and hearing with those massive, massive explosions really lighting up the sky behind here. But Palestinian reports are taking to different social media accounts stating that most of this action was actually happening in Jabalia. They said several people were injured in two different house bombings. This is according to different Palestinian media sources. People injured in not only house bombings, 10 people, they claim wounded, 40 others injured. And Jabalia is an area that we have seen a lot of this heavy military activity with the IDF operating in there. We heard earlier today the IDF saying not only in Jabalia, but also in Atatsara, which is just north of Jabalia, that as troops were operating in those two cities, they discovered massive weapons caches of rockets and guns and different ammunition in these two cities. So they were able to locate that in Jabalia. Also as they were operating in these town towns, they also went into different Hamas operatives houses. And inside those houses, they also found more weapons, more guns, but also photos of children wearing Hamas uniforms and posing with guns. And these photos of these young, young children just goes to show just the ideology of many of these Hamas terrorists and how it's infiltrating into the younger generation. And that is the really sad problem that is happening right now throughout the Gaza Strip. So it has been an active site. We haven't heard anything, as I said, from the IDF, but constant sounds of war happening here in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Jacob, not only with those explosions that we're seeing, we're hearing different explosions, also firing from what it sounds like as well. Well, we are about two, two and a half miles away from at least a bit Hanun. However, as of yesterday, it's been more than 24 hours that the IDF says that they have completely secured, militarily the city of Bait Hanun. But all these different areas in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, they do continue to operate in because Jabalia is just south of Bait Hanun. And that is, it seems to be where a lot of the action does be happening tonight. Nicole Sadek live in Israel. Thank you very much for that. Now in the background, the relationships between the United States and Saudi Arabia with us now is Bradley Bowman from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thank you very much for joining us. What do the Saudis want in Gaza, in the Red Sea? What's their plan? Thanks for the opportunity to join you. Saudi Arabia by all accounts was on the verge within a few months of potentially conducting a historic normalization agreement with Israel. And October 7th really put a wedge into those plans and is really a gift to the Islamic Republic of Iran. All indications I have is that Saudi Arabia would still like to move forward with these normalization plans, but Iran has added again. And by that I mean they're using Israeli-Palestinian challenges as a means to divide its adversaries. And it's interesting, the Biden administration and the Pentagon just announced this new task force in the Red Sea to deal with the more than 100 drone and missile attacks on 10 merchant vessels involving more than 35 nations. And who's on the list? The only Arab country on the list is Bahrain, who's absent, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE. So it feels like at least at this moment that once again, Riyadh is permitting the Islamic Republic of Iran to divide its adversaries in an unhelpful way that allows Tehran to pick off its adversaries one by one and keep them divided. So the Saudis are okay with the Americans doing the dirty job, but they're not going to join? Well, it's quite interesting, right? Because Saudi Arabia was the leading victim of Houthi attacks for years, as many of your viewers will know. Now there are reports that Saudi Arabia is cautioning Washington not to hit the Houthis back. I'm a former US military officer. This is starting to feel like a shooting gallery in the Red Sea, and sooner or later some Americans are gonna get hurt. And so I think as a simple force protection measure, we're gonna have to hit back at these Houthi launch sites. And if Saudi Arabia doesn't like that, maybe they should pick up that new hotline that they have with Beijing and tell Beijing to tell Tehran and its terror proxy in Yemen and knock it off. Yeah, that's the question. What will these coalition forces do? Will they sit there like sitting ducks, so to speak, on the water, or should they get into offensive? Because the Houthis caused enough damage so far. You know, I wrote a piece in Defense News on October 8th, saying we should take the Combined Task Force 153, this existing US-led task force, which by the way, Egypt led for more than six months earlier this year, and use that to build a broader coalition that includes G7 countries, countries around the world. I mean, this is not a US problem. This is not an Israel problem. You're looking at 10 to 15% of global trade passing through the Red Sea. So I'm glad to see the task force announced, but they need to expand it bigger. They need to protect shipping, and the US is gonna have to hit back at these launch sites. And we should also focus on interdicting Iranian weapons smuggling to the Houthis. Because as long as the Houthis have a reliable supply of Iranian weapons, we should expect these attacks to continue. They really have the impression right now that they can conduct these attacks with little to no consequences. And anyone who's been on a playground or been a parent knows, if there are no consequences, you should expect more of the same. Probably. Bradley Bowman, thank you very much for that. Thank you. Thank you. Latest political polls in Israel show a deep disappointment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, and a strong desire for elections, where Benny Gantz is the leading favorite by far. I-24 News on Ultraman reports. For Benjamin Netanyahu, the numbers are pre-apocalyptic. A new poll Monday from Israel's Channel 12 News, showing the Prime Minister's Likud Party polling at just 18 seats in the Knesset. Down from the 32 seats, the ruling party won in elections just last year, with half a million right-wing Israeli voters shopping for a new leader, despite Netanyahu's messages. I will not let Israel repeat the Oslo mistake. I will not allow that after the great sacrifice of our citizens and fighters, we bring in to Gaza those who teach terrorism, support terrorism, finance terrorism. The full breakdown from the poll, the governing coalition sworn in last December down to 44 seats from 64, and the big winner for now, Benny Gantz and his National Unity Party. In the current lineup of parties, Gantz would likely be Israel's next Prime Minister and asked between Gantz personally and Netanyahu personally, the public wants Gantz by a margin of 45% to 27%. I would like to send my support to the IDF soldiers and the big hug to all the bereaved families and those who are still waiting for their loved ones. All the citizens of Israel are with you and behind you. The starting point is horrific, but Netanyahu could mount a comeback, even against upstart rivals within the right. Netanyahu could connect to his base by blaming the October 7th failure on elites. He could paint rivals as not truly right-wing or not able to stand up to foreign leaders like US President Joe Biden. All tried and true Netanyahu scripts. Episodes which could be back for another season in 2024. So Owen Alterman is here and Ambassador Michael Oren. Let me start with you, Mr. Ambassador. You worked for the Netanyahu administration. Yeah, many years, not now. What do you make? You clearly see that the public would like to see a change of leadership. I think there's one issue here. My response is not political, it's not moral, it's strategic. Israel has one interest and one interest only right now and that is to provide the time and space that the IDF needs to win. And whatever leadership we have, it has to be the leadership that can provide the best or the maximum amount of time and space for the IDF to win. This government needs to have a tremendous amount of legitimacy, unlike, say, the United States government where you have a commander-in-chief who's the president who can send US forces off to war. In this country, it's not the prime minister, it's not the defense minister, the chief of staff who can do that. It's the entire government has to send people off to war. So you need a tremendous amount of consensual legitimacy in order to do that. This government doesn't have it right now and it's also attracting tremendous amount of fire. It's drawing fire from the world because of the people in the government. In fact, any government would do exactly the same thing in Gaza, but this government is being blamed for it because of Netanyahu and other ministers in that government. And so the big question now is whether this government is not a strategic asset anymore but a strategic liability and whether this government has legitimacy to continue this war, particularly if this war leads to an opening of a second front up north. And is there anything Prime Minister Netanyahu can do up his sleeve to stay in power? I think one thing he can do, and you're gonna be surprised to see this, to hear this, is he could take responsibility. I think the fact that the chief of staff, the head of the military intelligence, the head of the Shabbat, our internal security, have come out repeatedly and said, we take responsibility for what's happened. Galan, the defense minister says, I have taken responsibility. Now that's this really code, which you probably get the code and that is that when you say I take responsibility, it means that when this is over, I'm gonna resign. That's what it means. Right. And that has enabled the chief of staff and the head of the Shabbat and Galan and the defense minister to gain legitimacy. People respect that. And they say, okay, if you're taking responsibility, I will send my kid out to the army or I'll send my husband or my wife out to the army. But if his really officials don't take responsibility, then they will start hemorrhaging legitimacy. Owen, this poll and others, they are all very similar. Absolutely. We're gonna emphasize that. It's an equal, but very consistent. Friends are very consistent. Yeah, it tells us more than anything that we don't know because there are a lot of unknowns and many politicians standing by to get in and the future will be very different from what we see today in the political map. Yeah, I mean, that's one clear scenario, Jacob. I mean, the numbers that were in the version or the part of the poll that we put into that report, again, this poll tested different combinations. We're the existing parties and it's very, very important to emphasize that because one of the main takes coming out of this poll, as you both know, is that there is a huge space, it is said, for a new set or old new set of right-wing leaders who are not Netanyahu. Meaning that the electorate doesn't necessarily want to move leftward, although it's important to note, the Israeli left holds its own in these polls. Holds its own in these polls, right? When you put in a combination where the labor and merits parties merge in a way, the Israeli left clocks in with nine seats in the Knesset, not a small feat, given what's happened. But the reality is the Israeli electorate as a whole doesn't want to necessarily move left. But they are, as I said, 500,000 right-wing Israeli voters. I said in the report, 500,000 right-wing Israeli voters are shopping for a new leader. And the question is, are they going to find them? And then the question is, new or old? New or old, and of course, there are lots of names, some of them new, some of them old, some of them old new, and all sorts of combinations. But they're in, Jacob, may lie as a point of weakness. As is also, I should say, been said, that it's going to be hard for this group to come together, some of them have less experience. And Benjamin Netanyahu still has plenty of tools and plenty of arguments that I think conveniently for him, go back to his brand, go back to his previous strengths, go back to his way of connecting with his base. And the issue of responsibility, basically, if he decides not to take the Michael Oren track, if he decides instead to say that he wasn't responsible in one way or another, the line of argument I think is going to be, let's say it's the elites in the military, in the intelligence office, services, right? And that goes back to Netanyahu's previous argument. Again, Americans, again, will link this into this limited sense. I think Netanyahu is similar to Trump in this limited sense to Donald Trump's argument. And Netanyahu again, say the elites are after me. And not just after me, but after us, me and my base together. And that's just one example of the types of arguments and types of messages he can use to reconnect to that very, very strong Likud base. It's safe to say one way or another that Likud party will not get 18 seats in the election. It will get more. But again, will it be enough for Netanyahu to be prime minister, of course, is a question. And even with all of those tools said, it has to be said, the opening line of that report, these numbers are pre-apocalyptic, right? The notion that this coalition, the coalition at least that was sworn in last December, the core of the coalition has 44 seats and then Likud is 18 seats. Again, this is a horrific starting point for Netanyahu. And indeed, pre-apocalyptic, but it doesn't necessarily mean the apocalypse is going to happen from Netanyahu's perspective. Let's talk a little bit about Benny Gantz. He's like the big champion. I mean, he's skyrocketing in the polls. It's not gonna stay like that. No, and I have known Benny Gantz for a long time. He was my military attaché in Washington. He doesn't really have any policies. I have challenged people to say, okay, give me one policy that Benny Gantz stands for. He's the non-baby. And people see him as an honest politician. Let me give you one, a Palestinian state. Is he really in favor of Palestinian state? He was the only one who met Mr. Abbas in his house. He met him, but I think Lior Lapide has been more open about the possibility of a two-state solution. I actually haven't heard Benny Gantz say that, but okay, let's even say that. I think what Owen said is right. The oxygen is on center-center-right, center-center-left. And if you want to be prime minister, that's where you're gonna have to aim for that constituency and not a left-wing constituency. And right now, the two-state solution for the jazz majority of Israelis is a non-starter because who's gonna be in that other Palestinian state, but at best, a Palestinian authority that's gonna fall to Hamas in three days. And most Israelis understand this. So it's not a good starting position. He can meet, as long as Netanyahu doesn't take responsibility, as long as the Quds stays at this 18 seats, his popularity doesn't necessarily have to go down because he's not taking any positions that are controversial or can be debated in any way. He just has to sit there and be the anti-BB. Now to Iran, while the world is watching the new chapter of the Middle East unfold, Iran's enrichment of Iran is moving forward. Under the cover of smoke created by the escalation in the Gaza Strip, Iran continues to raise the levels of uranium enrichment. The UN Security Council flagging the issue once again during a briefing specifically on the Islamic Republic. The agency is still unable to verify the stockpile of enriched uranium in the country. Nevertheless, the agency estimates that Iran maintains a total enriched uranium in stockpile more than 20 times the allowable amount under the JCPOA. After several failed attempts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the UN now says that monitoring and assessing Iran's uranium enrichment has become increasingly difficult. Earlier this year, the Iranian Atomic Agency disabled the UN nuclear watchdog's cameras at its sites to apply pressure for the renewal of a nuclear deal. Iran has come under massive economic pressure from Western sanctions. As concerns grow, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has suggested the U.S. should lift its sanctions as a gesture of goodwill to advance talks. At the same time, Iran is adding fuel to the fire backing Hamas and Gaza, his balance southern Lebanon, and allegedly supporting Yemen's Houthis attacks against Israeli-linked ships. Although Iran denies the letter. The Yemenis are an independent player in the international scene, who act based on their recognition. Therefore, it is not right to relate their measures to others. On Monday, gas stations across Iran were hit in a cyber attack by a group said to be linked to Israel. Now let's go to Mike Wagenheim at the UN, watching what's happening there, Mike. Yeah, well first yesterday, Jacob, there was in fact a meeting of the Security Council on the Iran issue, the semi-annual meeting on the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord the United States and its European allies in the JCPOA, the UK, France and Germany, sounding the alarm about Iran's nuclear enrichment. Also the use of drones in provision to Russia and the development of a ballistic missile program. The UN officials who spoke insist that the JCPOA is the only way forward to ensure that Iran remains a peaceful nuclear state. However, the U.S. and its European allies condemning Iran for what it says is a stepping out of line, not only with the spirit but the letter of the JCPOA. That is a story that is to be continued. But that's not the headline grabber here at the UN this week. New Security Council resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates being floated in terms of the Israel Hamas War. The vote on that resolution delayed from last night to today and already delayed again several times today. Here's what it calls for, Jacob. Number one, it calls for the urgent, urgent suspension of hostilities. That word is very, very important, the suspension of hostilities in order for humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza unimpeded and also demands the release of all hostages being held by Hamas and other armed groups along with the addressing immediately of their medical needs. It also calls for the importation of fuel into Gaza to make sure that humanitarian needs are being met and it calls for urgent steps to be taken for the secession, the stoppage of hostilities. That's later on, but more immediately, the suspension of hostilities. Now, why is that vote being held up? Well, the United States has some issues with the language in that resolution. Number one, in terms of the eventual secession of hostilities, it seems the U.S. does not want to handcuff Israel in terms of a timeline for the stoppage of hostilities. Washington is okay with the suspension of hostilities for the meantime, but not for the eventual secession, which means stoppage completely. Also, the U.S. has a problem, according to our sources and published reports with the de-confliction mechanism which is being developed within the context of that resolution. What does that mean? Well, there's a process to make sure that aid workers operating in Gaza are safe, that they won't be struck by Israel, armed forces, air force, what have you. There is still an issue trying to make sure that there is an agreement on a de-confliction mechanism and making sure that those aid workers are protected, but Israel will still have freedom of movement to strike targets, terrorist targets in Gaza, as they see fit. So those two issues are holding up this vote. It's now delayed until at least three o'clock p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m. Israel time. Again, it's already been delayed several times and nowhere yet on if there's any movement from the U.S. on those two clauses. Notably, by the way, Jacob, that resolution from the UAE also calls for an eventual, eventual, no timeline, making sure two-state solution remains intact and that the Gaza script, once again, comes under the Palestinian authorities' purview, meaning Hamas will not be the governing entity in Gaza according to that UAE-drafted resolution. Yeah, well, I hear a lot of things, but I don't hear a linkage between this suspension and the hostages. Those two are tied together in this resolution. Again, those are two separate demands within this resolution. The suspension of hostilities is one demand. The release of hostages is another demand. Of course, we know the pressure will be applied on Israel to make sure the suspension of hostilities happens, but where's the pressure coming from for the release of the hostages? Hamas doesn't really have to answer to that in the way that Israel would have to answer for their responsibilities. Again, a reason why the U.S. is holding this up, making sure the language is crafted in a way in which Israel is not handcuffed knowing full well that Hamas is not exactly going to jump at the opportunity to release the hostages simply because there's a UN resolution saying they need to. All right, Michael Gennheim, I-24 News, senior U.S. correspondent at the UN. Thank you very much for that. Back to the studio here, Ambassador Michael Oren, the United States' still-standing firm besides Israel at the UN. Yeah, and there's been a big change in the last couple of days, Yakov, and that in previous weeks, the administration was speaking in two very distinct different voices. There was one voice of, say, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, Matt Miller, the spokesman for the State Department, saying that the United States is four square behind Israel. We understand Israel is taking extraordinary steps to limit Palestinian casualties and we're against a ceasefire. The other voices, which were Secretary of State, Bill Lincoln, even the president himself, saying that Israel had been bombing indiscriminately and Gaza, causing too many Palestinian casualties. Backed away somehow. They've backed away in the last couple of days. The legal term of art that doesn't apply here and good that they backed away. They backed away, but what happened when they realized, as they say in Hebrew, the token fell, okay, the light went off, and that is that they realized that it was creating a momentum for the type of security council resolution that they're gonna have to veto. It's a self-made goal, and they've backed away from it, and I think that it's very important that they did. Still, they're facing rising criticism both abroad, international community with Germany, the UK, France calling for a sustainable ceasefire, which Hamas is an oxymoron, but a sustainable ceasefire. They're using the ceasefire word and growing course criticism within the Democratic Party as the numbers of Joe Biden in the political surveys continue to fall. Right. I'd like to thank you very much. Ambassador Michael Owen and Owen Alterman, as we said, some negotiations about releasing hostages are in place. I'm sure you'll have more details in the rundown with Benito Levine coming up. Meanwhile, have a good night from television. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. This is Breaking News Edition. I'm Benito Levine. President Isaac Herzog is reiterating the urgent call for all 129 hostages held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza to be released from captivity, saying Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause to secure the release of the hostages. He also told a group of diplomats that international organizations need to do more to facilitate the delivery of assistance to Gaza. The youngest hostage in captivity is baby Kfir Bebas, nine months old at the time of the brutal Hamas terror assault and abduction on the 7th of October. He is now 11 months old. The eldest hostages are in their 80s. They include the three men shown in the Hamas propaganda video published more than 24 hours ago now, Chaim Peri, Amiram Cooper and Yoram Metzger. It's still not clear when that video was recorded, all part of the psychological manipulation being used by the terror group. Meanwhile, on the ground, fighting has intensified inside the Gaza Strip. Confirmation that the soldier killed in the northern Gaza Strip today was 25-year-old Sergeant First Class in the Reserves, Ma'auz Fenigstein, bringing to 132 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the retaliatory ground operation. Earlier in the day, a major barrage of rockets was launched from Gaza to southern and central Israel, no injuries, day 74 of the war. And now we welcome to studio Major General in the Reserves, Eitan Dungart, former military secretary to three ministers of defense and former coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories in the IDF and our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Ultiman, gentlemen. Thank you so much for being here. We know that Daniel Higari, the IDF spokesperson, is likely to deliver his briefing earlier than usual. If and when that happens, we will, of course, go there live. But I want to start with you, Eitan, and this urgent call for all hostages to get home safely, what it's going to take right now. We now are hearing more and more discussion around a humanitarian pause. What does that mean on the ground, though, for Israel and its operation in Gaza? I think that we are in a very sensitive time, as you describe, because the time of the, let's say the future of these hostages is coming more and more complicated. You see the picture that was released yesterday or the day before. And it means that we have to do whatever we can in order to come to this kind of humanitarian or human goal or duty goal towards our civilians and bring them all to their families. And I think that yesterday has done a very big step, because we cross a line, which was like only a few talks, but we cross it towards opportunities. The fact that Hamas published a picture of the three people, elder people, means what they like to make the first release of those people, the elderly, I guess. Secondly, it's also a psychological step that reminds us what was on the former circle, when was the ceasefire before that Hamas released. They made the same system to release movie of the hostages they had and intend to release them. Secondly, I think Hamas signaled two notes by their spokesman from Beirut and by the Egyptian about their will to do. The answer to the end, of course, the meeting in Warsaw between the head of the Mossad and the prime minister of Qatar and the head of the CIA. It's a very serious one. I think this triangle is the main key for delivering the agreement. But, above all, I think what President Erzog say today on his words to the foreign ambassadors, I think, it is something to show the Israeli will to make things in order to release. And it means humanitarian break, ceasefire. It's the same thing. We're going to unpack much more of that in a short while. But first, let's go to the ground. We go to our correspondent, Nicole Zedek, and she joins us now from southern Israel. And, Nicole, fighting intensifying inside the Gaza Strip, it seems in Jabalia and Beit Hanun again. What is the latest there? What update can you share this hour? Well, earlier today, we saw a lot of military activity happening behind me here in the northern Gaza Strip. And I can tell you, within the past five minutes now, the IDF coming out with a statement stating that they do have now operational control over Jabalia. So this means this northern part of the Gaza Strip, Beit Hanun. Jabalia, the military, now says that they have control of the area. In fact, in this statement, they said 1,000 Hamas operatives had been killed by troops in Jabalia. Another 3,500 Palestinians captured by the IDF, 500 of them suspected terrorists. So they're also interrogating many of these terrorists that they've been able to capture over this weeks-long, months-long now, operation inside Jabalia, which had been such a terror hotspot. So it's interesting that within the past two hours, the explosions that were happening right behind us here, it aligns with different Palestinian media reports also stating that they had seen heavy, heavy bombardment in Jabalia. And now the IDF saying that they've secured the area. And this is all part of the IDF's plan, so working here in the northern part of the Gaza Strip just yesterday, more than 24 hours ago, is when they said they had full capacity, full operational command over Beit Hanun. And now they're working slightly south of that in Jabalia. So they're going, it seems, really city by city, securing all of those areas, but also taking their time and going to not only kill the terrorists that they can't, but also capture them so that they continue to interrogate them and find more information about their different activity in many of these different areas. And Nicole, despite the progress being made in terms of the IDF operation still, rockets can be sent out of the Gaza Strip at lunchtime, local time. That major barrage of rockets sent from Gaza to southern and central Israel. Despite the operation, talk to us about the rocket capabilities that remain intact day 74 of the war. You're exactly right, Benita, 74 days in and we're still seeing. Hamas's military capabilities, long range rockets fired towards Tel Aviv, although it is dwindling, we do have to say that was the first time they had targeted Tel Aviv for the first time in a week. But these southern areas here where I am in the city of Sterot a few hours ago, we saw just south of here, the town of Sufa, red alerts going off there. So these southern border communities are absolutely still subject to these different rocket barrages, but I think what is absolutely surprising to not just the millions of Israeli civilians that are forced to continue to run into their bomb shelters 74 days into the war now, it's shocking. No one thought that Hamas had this type of military capability and that is as the IDF continues to go after tens of thousands of different Hamas terror targets. So they're targeting them. We know that they're getting in these tunnels, but as you said, they are unfortunately still able to fire these rockets. Thank you so much correspondent Nicole Zedek, live from southern Israel. More to come from Nicole in the coming hours. Thank you. And from the south to the north. Let's go to our correspondent, Zach Anders. He joins us now from northern Israel. And there are more reports that Israel has told the US at once Hezbollah pushed back six miles from its northern border in a deal that would end tensions across that northern front where you are. What is the latest on the ground, Zach? What can you tell us this hour? Well, Benita, just analyzing the media coverage from the last week, it appears that this six mile buffer almost is a proposal from the US side. It's some of the first times that we heard of this six mile buffer came out of DC and New York with the United Nations. Of course, Israel has been pushing for this buffer to the Latani River and that's been a statement that's been circulating clear and strong language has been used for the last two, three weeks. And now this is changing a bit to a six mile buffer. It appears just to start these really sides still very firm on the Latani River. This is an international agreement with the United Nations Security Council vote after 2006. So it does appear that that's still the reality that they want to create here, but perhaps from what we're hearing out of Beirut that the US, France, the UK have been trying to find where there's some daylight in these negotiations to just start, start these talks to see where there can be movement. Big question, where is Hezbollah and where is Nasrallah in all of this in this massive equation? Because it does not appear that they're party to some of these diplomatic talks that have been taking place in Beirut. They've been taking place with the LAF in the room, the Lebanese Armed Forces, the UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon that has 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon, but Hezbollah, will they agree to any sort of agreement and what's on the table to get them to agree to this is the big question. And as you say, given that Hassan Nasrallah isn't in the room, so to speak, talk us through the likelihood of any kind of breakthrough right now, what are the experts suggesting? Well, if you talk to the IDF, it's very clear that they have positioned equipment, troops, personnel in such a way that makes this a very clear outcome or eventuality for Hezbollah should they enter into any kind of engagement that the IDF is one prepared for any defensive measures that need to take place, whether that be a large salvo of rockets that kick off some sort of ground conflict. They say they're prepared for any eventuality here in the North, including offensively, including going into southern Lebanon. And that's where some of the strong rhetoric has been to try and make this very clear to Hezbollah that if there is to be a fight, that it is one that they will not win. However, that does not mean that Hezbollah is going to back down or shirk away from this fight and the way they've been firing seven different attacks today, at least seven attacks. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for many of these. We've seen large salvos of six, seven rockets launched just over my shoulder here at Shemona today and that's after yesterday when they hit a kindergarten as well. So it's one of these impossible positions where it appears neither side is backing down. So where do the mediators find any common ground or daylight here to make something happen? That certainly is the major question right now. Thank you so much for now, correspondent Zach Anders live from Northern Israel. Thank you, Zach. And still in studio, I'm going to come straight to our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Ultiman, for that very question. Mediation efforts, diplomatic attempts to try and find some kind of common ground up north. How realistic is it your thoughts on what is unfolding there? I think at the end of the day, it's fairly realistic, Benita, to some degree. I think that it seems to me neither side really wants a full on war, right? Not Israel, which is going to come out exhausted after the war in Gaza. Even with the situation at the Northern border, as what it is, I think the public mood here will prefer on the whole not to go into an all out war. Obviously the Biden administration for reasons that are too obvious to detail, right? The last thing they want to see is something like that. Even for his ballast part, has been historically very, very cautious about going into a full-scale war after what happened in 2006 by his own admission. It's true at some stage there may be some goading from Tehran and from the people who are writing the checks, but we know from experience that Hassan Esra'la tends to want to push back. It seems to me, if I were a betting man, that there will be some kind of diplomatic arrangement that doesn't solve the problem, that everyone knows is going to be violated, that kicks the can down the road, that delays a real resolution, that isn't even fully implemented in a similar sense to what we saw in 1701, but it keeps the peace in the immediate term, which I think is going to be a common interest. So I suspect we're headed somewhere in that direction, but exactly how it happens and exactly what the terms are and what the timetable is, obviously that all reigns to be seen. And Eitan, your thoughts on exactly that the pressure right now to make sure that Hezbollah stays fully out of the phrase, so to speak? I think that we will not have a choice. We will see it, in my opinion, in a few weeks because Hezbollah is still keeping the same low, let's call it a low level of escalation with Israel around the border, more or less the same system of arms, trying to also break the gate of targeting civilians and on the other end, be aware for what yesterday the Austin, who visited Israel, the state secretary of defense from the United States, delivering his speech, he said that when Israel come to the second stage on the 31 of January, probably Israel will have to move towards the North, he mean to the military force. So in my opinion, it cross a line while he put something like a deadline for trying to make the procedure on the diplomatic talking or trying to get agreement and he also made it that Israel is with its face towards military operation. Now, for my opinion, we will not have a choice. Israel will come to a moment. After reaching the main goal in Gaza, it will come to a military activity with diplomatic activities on the other way and the meeting of those two points will bring the question, how will be the military activity? Because when you start, you don't know how it will be ended. You can direct it to something on a medium level and you can find yourself in a full escalation with a war. And Hezbollah and Iran above all has lost of price for such activity and of course, Lebanon, people and Lebanon nation. Well, let's go back to that main goal that you're talking about right now, the pressing goal, which is of course, eliminating Hamas in the Gaza Strip and securing the release of 129 hostages. Let's take a look at this footage. The Israeli army is distributing a video as troops discover an explosive device located in a medical clinic in the Gaza city district of Shezhaiya. Let's take a look. We are in the center of the hospital in Shezhaiya located next to the hospital where there was a explosion of two piers. You can see the hospital. In this area, we have a medical clinic from Magor. We are in the Shachor hospital. Of course, there is a medical clinic which was over here with the explosion of two piers and the hospital. It is located in the center of the hospital. Astounding images there out of a medical clinic in the Gaza city district of Shezhaiya, Etan Dengot, your thoughts on exactly what we've just seen there right now. I would like to say that from the medical clinics to the medical hospitals, it is recognized as a military post of Hamas. It is really scenic and it's something that should come to the world because every medical clinic almost, we are entering our hospitals. You see the head of the hospitals that were taken to investigation in Israel, what they are talking about, Hamas presence in the hospitals, some of the doctors, some of the team were belong to Hamas. And you see that everything is about terror activities using the medical structure in order to cover them. And that will be more and more every day. In each place we are entering, you find this kind of proof. We are dealing with the terror land, with the terror nation, with the terror army, with the terror organization. Talking of exactly that, a little bit later on in this broadcast, we will bring you some of the comments during an interrogation of one of the chiefs from one of the hospitals inside Gaza. It is quite astounding. I would like also to add the message that on the north part of Gaza, we have taken Jibalia, the IDF complete. I'm going to stop you right now because Daniel Higari, the IDF spokesperson, is delivering his daily briefing. We are deepening to the centers of gravity from us. Our fighters are above and below ground fighting. In the beginning of the ground operation in Gaza, we found about 1,500 shafts and tunnels of Hamas. This is exciting. It's one of the most important causes against the terror of Hamas. We're going to grab it from us in the north, in the center, in the south. This is an important asset in taking apart Hamas. Our forces are working in order to do this. We published today a special publication of the Shadag unit from the Air Force that are fighting inside a tunnel of Hamas inside Gaza City with new capabilities that are pioneering and that are helping us bring meaningful achievements, including killing terrorist underground. We're talking about a horrible area for terror, both above and below ground. These are underneath hospitals, residential buildings, and schools. The forces are deepening their activity in the space, finding weapons and tunnels, trying to get rid of Hamas' capabilities. In the south of Gaza, in the city of Han Yunus, we are deepening our activity. We have added a full battalion and additional forces. To work in the space, engineering activities to help our capabilities in the space. We are putting our forces in the centers of gravity in Han Yunus in order to take apart Hamas, and we will continue to do that with determination in every place where we're needed. This is the purpose of the war. We are tasked with taking apart Hamas that will take as much time as it takes. The idea of forces and land and air and land have taken and have attacked targets of Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon, including terror infrastructure, military buildings, and storage units or weapons. In addition, we attacked a band of terrorists and killed a number of Hezbollah terrorists over the course of the day. We will continue to attack every band that will try or will shoot onto our territory. Over the course of the day, Hamas returned fire after there were launches toward the country, including a drone, a correction, an unmanned drone of Hezbollah. Among the launches, there was also a firing at us from Lebanon that Hamas took responsibility for, and we returned fire to the sources of fire. Hezbollah continues to act as a shield for Hamas, ISIS, and as such, to endanger the state of Lebanon and its citizens. Hezbollah continues to act as a shield for Hamas, ISIS, and is such an endangering Lebanon and its citizens. On the home front, I call to all of you to continue to follow the home front command's directives. I continue to say we have an excellent air defense, but defense is not hermetic. Bringing back hostages is one of the objective of the war and a central objective of the war. The IDF is investing special forces and intelligence to identify living hostages. It is a goal of the highest order. We are asking how to find living hostages. We will continue to take all possible efforts in order to bring all of the hostages who are being held in Gaza, all of them are making all possible efforts. We embrace the families of the hostages and continue to liaise with them. Questions? We hear of attacks by some of the ministers on the Chief of the General Staff. Do you have something to say to the ministers? I am not commenting on discussions from the closed security cabinet. I think that the citation and quoting of what happens inside a closed security cabinet is endangering the security of the State of Israel. The strength of the State of Israel is to keep things like that inside those rooms, whether they be operational plans. That is the way to win a war, to keep those things secret and inside the room and to focus on one task, to achieve the goals of the war. IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari delivering his daily briefing, day 74 of the war at Tandangat, match of what we were discussing a little bit earlier on in the broadcast, what stood out for you. I think another point that was emphasised by the Israeli spokesman, the IDF spokesman, is the fact that he announced about three every centres under the ground and up of the ground, in the north, in the centre and in the south, that Israel, the IDF identify and has the opportunity with a special way to attack on the underground and also in the up, and if it will be achieved, it will shake the Hamas, besides the fact that Israel deliver another brigade to Hanyunas. It means that we are going around Hanyunas with a lot of forces. We will deliver more later on after we finish and that was an announcement that is very important, that we complete the mission in the north part of Gaza, Jibalia as a symbol, as a place which were one of the best battalions of Hamas, that the activities of the IDF succeed there to kill and to destroy a lot of infrastructure of Hamas. You know it's unbelievable. Each apartment almost you are entering, each block you find arms, you find papers, you find kind of computers, you find all the charges and all the activities. It has Hamas changed Gaza as a one piece of explosion. And I think that the way we succeed now to finish the mission in the north, we have one mission to complete in Sajaya. The moment it will be done, the forces will be ready to move to the south and it's a red light to Sinwa. You know, two points just to follow up on. We're going to do that after a very short break. Don't go anywhere. Our rolling coverage continues. Eitan Dungart and Owen Ultiman will be unpacking all the latest developments. So don't go anywhere. Our rolling coverage continues on this Breaking News Edition. Stay tuned. Must reach the whole world. The I-24 News Channel broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondents throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. Bringing Israel's story to the world. I-24 News Channels. Now on Hot. Back to this Breaking News Edition. We have two points. In the second segment, we're going to bring Tanya, Vanessa Lavine, day 74 of the war. Let's go straight to Tel Aviv now. Emily Franses joins us live from hostage square. Emily, President Isaac Herzog is reiterating this urgent call for all 129 hostages held by Hamas to be released from captivity. He says Israel is ready for another humanitarian Well, hi Benita, you know right now, you know they are focusing on a meeting that's going on right now with some of the family members inside the war cabinet with the prime minister and a lot of the representatives are here trying to stay as positive as possible. They've been chanting bring the hostages home in Hebrew. We're waiting for that meeting to come out and have exactly some more information to follow up on your question. But in the meantime what's happening right now and I'm going to step out of the frame is that every hour at 29 minutes exactly past the hour which is when the October 7th massacre began they are taking a 241 second pause which is a number of hostages that were taken originally they're blocking the entrance to the Kyriac to the IDF headquarters and they are reading each of the individual names so I am going to just take a pause right now you can hear a second of this they're reading the names right now. As you can see it's very emotional. My cameraman needs to mark your pan a little bit you can see even all the cars again this is the IDF headquarters with all of these military personnel that are leaving and stopping here in solidarity with all of the hostage families who are here somehow it's really it's mind blowing how they're able to keep their spirit high in light of this complete nightmare especially after you're releasing the video through the hostages yesterday and the tragedy of Friday earlier this evening I had a chance to speak to Nadav Rudayev who is the son of Lior Rudayev one of the hostages a man who is an ambulance driver and a medic who went out to try to be a hero from his kibbutz when he heard what happened he went out to try to save lives and instead was become one of the hostages he even had a heart attack a few years ago but his son Nadav the strength is unbelievable the younger brother also survived the Nova festival on that very same day and here's what he had to say a little earlier. I think the first couple of times we were more focused on them realizing who we are and who is our personal hostage that that is there and I think in the in the last couple of weeks we we as family is starting to started to demand answers we want and we are here because we want the answers we want to know that the Israeli government and Netanyahu is doing whatever they can to be the leaders they need to be in front of us and in front of the whole world and the western world in terms of leading and and be the one that are initiating the process of the of the of the negotiations because I don't think we can continue dancing around what the Hamas is saying and we need to be more affirmative so we are here because we want to reinforce them that we are here with them not against them. So the 241 seconds of the names ended and now they're back to chanting which they have been doing all night you could take a listen in Hebrew they're saying we need to make a deal we need an agreement everyone needs to come home take another listen before we go they opened up the roads and they're back to chanting together in solidarity so here you here at the the undying spirit tenacity that the Israeli people and the families here and the support the families have because that is what's keeping them going as you heard from Nadab what a strong man his father's a hostage his brother survived the Nova Festival they grew up on the kibbutz in the south and they are trying to hold it together and to get some answers which they even said the prime minister even with yes or no questions in the past when they've been in the work cabinet does not answer the yes or no question he finds a way of averting the question into his own answer and that is coming from the mouth of one of the family members so this is what the hostage families are dealing with not getting the answers that they're asking for back to you in the studio cannot imagine the pain the families are going through after all this time Emily Francis live from Tel Aviv thank you so much for that update what an emotional moment unbelievable so now how is the UN Security Council responding to all these latest developments in the war on day 74 let's find out we cross to our senior US correspondent Mike Wagenheim he joins us from New York and while we hear these impassioned pleas from the families of the hostages the unimaginable pain the UN Security Council is supposed to be voting soon on a ceasefire diplomats said to be fine tuning the language to avoid a US veto we're hearing reports of a postponement what is the latest what can you tell us Mike not just eight postponement beneath it but several postponements this United Arab Emirates draft resolution in the Security Council was supposed to be voted on here last night now was pushed back to this morning and several times has been delayed and there won't be any vote until at least three o'clock Eastern time 10 p.m. Israel time if there's one at all there's four words essentially carrying the story of the day here suspension yes cessation no what does that mean well certain language in the resolution here that everybody agrees with but other language the US says is a no-go for them so this resolution here calls for the urgent suspension of hostilities along with the demand that all humanitarian aid be led in by land air see what have you it also demands that all the hostages be released and that their medical needs are taken care of in the meantime also making sure that all the fuel necessary to take care of humanitarian needs gets into Gaza in an expeditious and safe fashion but it also calls for beyond that steps to be taken for the urgent cessation of hostilities a stoppage a ceasefire essentially and that's where the US is growing the line they don't want to handcuff their ally Israel they want to make sure that Israel can take care of business and targeting Hamas terrorists and that they're not essentially getting a handcuffed here with nothing in return remember Hamas really doesn't have to follow any demands to release the hostages they're not as bound by international law as Israelis there's also another issue with the resolution that the Washington is finding and that's within the process of deconfliction what does that mean Benita well you need to make sure that aid workers UN or other parties going into Gaza can deliberate safely without the being in danger of being struck by Israel while Israel is searching for Hamas terrorists well there hasn't been language agreed upon as of yet to make sure that that deconfliction mechanism is safe and sound and everybody agrees to it again Washington doesn't want to handcuff Jerusalem when it comes to possibly targeting a terrorist in Gaza while they're under the cover of you know civilian shields as has been the case throughout this conflict and past conflicts in Gaza so those are the two holdups right now on this vote the UAE wants to move forward the United States representative told reporters just a little while ago they're working on the language they hope they can get there but we're not there yet well we certainly will come back to you in the coming hours to find out how it all unfolds for now thank you so much to our senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim live from New York thank you Mike and still in studio I'm coming straight to our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman because much on the go out of the United States not only what I like to hear your take on the latest postponement out of the U.N. but also the New York Times has published a poll focusing on American survey American opinion right now changing opinion on Israel right now and the war tell us more yeah but you know we've gotten a huge deluge of polls over the last over the last two plus months since the war started maybe as much as we've seen in a lifetime on how Americans feel about Israel but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this case on the war so this is far from the only poll but in some ways is the most detailed poll when you look at the number of questions that are asked the nuances in the questions and most importantly the cross tabs the way that this the New York Times supplies us with information but how these responses break down by age hugely significant we'll get to that in a second by party by income by race by education level by who you voted for in 2020 by your party affiliation by gender by a huge range of variables and all out there it's it's just a wealth of information viewers who are interested in this stuff I invite you to go online and to take a look at it and weave your own way through it but just to bring a couple of the highlights and again some incredibly troubling news for Israel first of all the horse race question right who do you sympathize with more do you sympathize more with Israel do you sympathize more with the Palestinians and again the breakdown by age and you see you see that for 80 those in the 18 to 29 age group again 46 percent sympathize more with Palestinians only 27 percent with Israel benita those numbers absolutely upside down if you look at the generation gap on this issue again this comes up in poll after poll after poll after poll after poll long before the war we should we should emphasize but certainly during it and how that gender gap that generation gap rather has gotten exacerbated so if you ask yourself are the protest and is the activity on college campus is something that's contained there that's contained to a loud minority the reality is it is a loud minority in terms of the passion and the feeling but it represents something much much larger going on in that generation and obviously very very troubling news for Israel down the road and another question is Israel we can put this one up is Israel intentionally killing civilians or unintentionally killing civilians and again this is among those who are 18 to 29 not the entire population you see those results on there benita 48 percent saying Israel is not killing civilians or having civilians be killed because the army is not doing enough to protect them but that the army is actually targeting those civilians israel's trying to kill the civilians israel wants to kill the civilians the air force is going up looking down at an apartment building and hitting that apartment building on purpose because the civilians are there that's what this question means and that's what this generation is saying it answers being a very very troubling information of itself for obvious reasons beyond that one wrinkle here that i think is important to look out for in the new york times it's i was going through the cross tabs i was i was struck by this reading between the lines of the new york times itself had an article drawing this out there is a slice of those 18 to 29 year olds to make a long story short think donald trump would be more pro-palestinian than joe biden it's hard to say exactly what how big a slice but it's statistically significant right five percent ten percent maybe even 15 percent a not small slice of that demographic that thinks donald trump is more pro-palestinian what's going on there i think the simplest explanation is it's just a protest vote but i think it goes to the larger idea that this generation is not only affiliate not only assigning israel to the right side of the political spectrum but to the establishment to the center and israel in the sense is is is old in the same way that joe biden is old it's almost as if these numbers talk to you from the screen i can't explain exactly how i how i get to this but the idea is it's a revolt against joe biden and israel at the same time and yes you ask people which is the most important issue for you voting in the 2024 election only one percent of the electorate says the middle east and of course that you'd surprise none of us how many americans are actually going to say this is the most important issue right let alone a year from now but it's important for another reason because this is is an emotional issue for the generation you you see the passion hear the passion of the numbers and the way israel is is is joe biden are in a sense one and in the same way that joe biden is old and disconnected with them israel is old in a sense and disconnected with them and part of the establishment and part of the political center that many of them are revolting against and so to say that in reaction to joe biden's support for israel you are going to vote for donald trump actually in a sense starts in a way to fit and i think it starts to help us understand this phenomenon although again even with all this information we have a lot of work to do to pull this group to pull them extensively and to really have a larger sample to really get to the bottom of this and understand it flabbergasting findings indeed a tonne i'd like your take specifically on what owen is talking about and given your security and intelligence experience specifically the allegation according to the poll that the idf is actually targeting civilians when we know every single night we're hearing daniel higari explaining in precise detail the efforts and the steps that are taken to protect palestinian civilians your reaction first of all it's more than a wake-up call to many areas to change strategic policy in order to bring the israeli view or the israeli effects in a different way i i'm not surprising benita because when i visited during my job as a coordinator of government activities being in uniform to columbia university i was escorted by three policemen and i was shocked at the beginning when i entered and they understand the atmosphere there are few reasons first of all it's the new generation we can point on it secondly it is a lot of impact concerning your question from the fact that the net activity social net activity brings a lot of fake news and made a lot of activities pro-palestinians in this field and this is a thing that the youth are using and have a lot of influence by reading by having and by listening third is the fact that in the united states most of the educational institutes college universities are supported by arab money and i saw it in my face that there is you give money what you demand for it from the directors of the university what to change it has been already kind of a process that changed the atmosphere in these places the fourth reason is that the jewish community in i'm not mean specifically those who are making a lot of efforts i think we're very passive towards these kind of activities and didn't understand that this is something that can bring a big damage and they have to realize to react on a different way the fifth point i think that the israeli government do the embassy and you are the kind of organization should create strategic plan in order to bring we will not change it dramatically but we can limit this kind of activities and the bad news that after biden i'm not recognized in the democratic party kind of such a figure that can bring the israeli or the jewish issue it has become jewish not to israel also to such a thing we are losing our last deep friendship in the democratic party and we have to be ready on such a thing as strategy we have to bring to the united states people that can organize and can fulfill fulfill important tasks in this field the foreign ministry it starts from the ambassador and it's coming to the problematic people listen i agree with so much of what you said a time but we have to i think also understand that this problem is much bigger than us and a lot of the things that are going on going back to my last comments don't have much to do with israel they have a lot to do with america and trends in america and the way that this that parts of this generation and not just of course are alienated from the establishment from the center from the what joe biden represents right generationally temperamentally in terms of his policy and israel is affiliated with that and there is this these currents in this generation that simply resist that i mean one of the things by the way that we don't yet know from this poll how many of those 18 to 29 year olds got their information about israel not only through social media but through university educations we don't have a breakdown between among the 18 to 29 year olds who have this opinion on israel how many of them again we're getting into the granulars but we need this information how many of them have a ba degree and how how many don't so again there's a lot we don't yet know and i also think that we have to consider the possibility that this is a problem that's going to be too big for us to solve that it's going to be too big for us to solve this is a disease from israel's perspective that doesn't have a cure and the answer is not to try to change it but to recognize it and to think about how to plan around it and how to have a plan that is strategic national security policy that takes it into account and also of course the question around social media around tiktok around the videos that also tested in the poll by the way also tested in the poll controlling for age and all of the rest if you are a 48 year old democrat who is on tiktok you are going to be less favorable to israel than a 48 year old democrat again controlling for all the other variables who who is who is not on who is not on tiktok right and the same at every age in every party affiliation you know if you're a 24 year old republican who is on tiktok you'll be less favorable to israel than a 24 year old republican who who is not on tiktok so again that is a factor in this poll again with its extensive cross tabs and questions tested for it and something we keep on talking about is the importance of verified information and talking of exactly that let's take a look at this the chief of the kamal adwan hospital in gaza telling the shinbet security agency that his medical center was taken over by khamas and that a hostage was held at that medical facility let's take a listen in his own words um What do you think about Zouama Hamas? I told you that they came to us. They came to us because they were in the middle of the field. They didn't want us to be in the field. And they didn't want us to be in the field. What do you mean? They came to us. They came to us. Compelling information there. The chief of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, he was speaking to the Shin Bet Security Agency talking about the medical center being taken over by Hamas. And when one looks at that interrogation and of course understanding exactly what that was, it certainly sounds very believable, very plausible. What do you make of that kind of testimony in front of the Shin Bet? Look, it's important obviously for the Israeli military to get the information out there as they are. Right? Because again, Israel has been criticized over the course of the war for operating in hospitals. Again, the Israeli military time and again has explained that Hamas operates inside these hospitals. We of course remember the saga around Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and what the Israeli military found there. And in some senses did not find there. But at any rate, obviously important for everyone to understand that it's not just in one hospital. This was systematic throughout the strip. Again, Don Goat said earlier on in the broadcast, right? It wasn't of course just the hospitals or just the schools. It was the entire, it seems to be, large parts of the entire territory that were essentially made in our base, in our camp. And that's the conundrum of this war, right? How do you distinguish between that and the many hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza who weren't involved in this, who may have odious and horrific political opinions but were not themselves involved in Hamas, certainly didn't meant most cases participate in hostilities and how do you distinguish between them? And of course in hospitals where that problem and where that dilemma is that it's most acute. And we've seen so many American top brass coming here to Israel showing their support but also we know behind the scenes saying that these operations need to end, that there is a timeline even if it isn't a hard timeline. Let's just speak, when you look at evidence like that, when you look at the testimony like that, how is it likely being received by the big security names coming here from the United States, putting pressure on Israel and then they see that kind of testimony? How does it impact the developments and the relations between the U.S. and Israel right now? I think they have a lot of sympathy, I think, when they see that. Again, professionals, military professionals. And I think even before these disclosures, Benita, I think they already had sympathy for Israel's predicament. I mean, I think that said, there are two things going on. One, there is the duck-trinal debate, right? The Israeli military having its plan for the war. And again, we've seen how that's played out. And the American military from the get-go saying, no, you should learn the lessons that we learned in Mosul and other parts of Iraq during the Iraq war and in Afghanistan and so forth about how urban warfare is conducted. Lloyd Austin personally being involved in many of those operations. And based on our lessons and those experiences, we think you should instead be doing X, Y, and Z. Again, even given the understanding of what Hamas is, feeling that that would be a more effective way of achieving the goals and the objectives. Again, I think there are real differences between the two situations, but at any rate, that's one of the answers I think they would have. And the other answer is to be blunt, Benita, the national interests of the United States are different than Israel's. No doubt about that. Exactly. Hamas, there is not an app for sirens of Hamas rockets in Washington the way there is in Tel Aviv. Oh, and ultimately lots more to unpack, but right now...