 ingredients and we do the job that the Vakita can be protected. In news edition, I'm Vanessa Levine, coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Rocket fire once again in the south and in the north of the country, siren sounding in southern communities of Israel in recent hours and in parts of the north. Day 16 of the war. Israel evacuating 14 communities near the Lebanon border. Amid concerns around the next move by the Hezbollah terror group, the Israeli Defence Force confirming it intercepted a hostile drone from southern Lebanon and returned fire on terrorist positions in Lebanese territory. The IDF also targeting a terrorist squad that launched an anti-tank missile in the area of Haradov on Sunday morning. There was another missile attack towards the area of Tsiporen and two attempted attacks in Aviv and in Zari. Meanwhile, airstrikes continuing on terror infrastructure in Syria, allegedly the most extensive strikes by the Israeli Air Force since the start of the war. The runways at airports throughout Syria are reportedly damaged, seemingly a move to stop advanced weapons from being sent from Iran and Iraq to Lebanon and Syria. Now our rolling coverage will include a range of developments on the ground. The IDF capturing a Hamas terrorist who had been hiding in fields near the border with Gaza for over two weeks since the Hamas killing rampage on the 7th of October. He's from the Nukba force of Hamas and has been handed over to the Shin Bet internal security agency. Earlier in the day, the IDF updating the number of hostages believed to be held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza, spokesman Daniel Higari saying 212 families had been notified. The figure does not include two hostages that Hamas released over the weekend. He also says the families of 307 fallen soldiers have been notified. Now for the latest updates on the ground. We go to our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev. He joins us from the Southwest. Sirens were sounding earlier in the afternoon local time in Nireem, in Kusufim and other communities near the Gaza border. What update can you share for us this hour, Jonathan? Yes, Benita. So there have been fire red alert rockets in those communities which you mentioned also in the city of Zderot, the largest community right on the Gaza border. No injuries simply because there's really practically no one to injure. In these communities they're all empty. Hamas perhaps trying to locate the soldiers, soldiers of forces preparing to enter, but those forces have learned the lesson of 2014 of Protective Edge when they were preparing for entry into the Gaza Strip and they were doing it very close to the border itself and they were target of a few mortar attacks this time. They're further away therefore and no real injuries from these rockets, no casualties from those rockets fired by Hamas earlier in the day. When we come to updates out of the Gaza Strip Jonathan, talk us through the latest on humanitarian aid coming in from Egypt and those concerns that these supplies and this aid might actually be used for terror purposes and not for humanitarian purposes. What is the latest there? Yes, so first there have been reports of 17 trucks coming in adding to the 20 that came in yesterday. Israeli saying that no such fuel came in. At least no, the fuel that was seen moving around in Gaza was moved from the Palestinian side of Rafa further into the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Regarding the assistance, we can be practically sure that none of this coming into Gaza will not be used for humanitarian purposes. Hamas will take control of all of it, whether it's food, water, fuel, whatever, even if it's not used for military purposes. The population, we know it's the Hamas are not really concerned with the welfare of the Palestinian population and we can be pretty sure that none of the assistance coming in will go to the population. It will head straight to Hamas. Senior defense correspondent Jonathan Reger, thank you very much for that update from Southern Israel. We will be coming back to Jonathan in the coming hours. News just in now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharing this message with Israeli forces in the North just a short while ago. Let's take a listen. You fought with supreme bravery in Gaza. The stories are inspiring. I know you lost friends. It is very, very difficult. But we are in a battle for our life, a battle for our home. This is not an exaggeration. This is the war. It is to be or to cease. They should cease. What you're doing here and what I just heard from your commanders is an extremely important thing. You're taking down Hezbollah operators trying to attack our frontline. I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war. If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War. It will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with force. It cannot imagine. And the meaning for it and for the state of Lebanon is devastating. But we are prepared for any scenario. You are prepared for any scenario. And still in the North, let's go to our correspondent, Mary McAuliffe. And Mary, we just heard there Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Israeli troops, talking about the Hezbollah threat as well, and obviously a message of strength and a message to motivate troops. Talk us through the latest developments on the ground there. There were sirens earlier on in Yiftakh. What update can you share this hour? That's right, Benita. So those sirens that rang a couple of hours ago in Yiftakh was apparently from mortar attacks that were fired on that community in northern Israel. There are no reports of injuries. This is one of the communities of many that have been evacuated in the recent weeks today. An additional 14 communities were given an evacuation order. So many of the communities here in northern Israel trying to flee south or to the center of the country where it is a bit safer for them. But a lot of them are also running into issues with space in the hotels that have been designated for them. So a lot of them are coming out now saying they're being told to leave, but they don't really know exactly to where they're supposed to go. So this is one problem as they try and do evacuations. But as this is all going on, we continue to see a number of different attacks across the border from Israel into Lebanon. Lebanese attacks into Israel. We've seen a number of anti-tank missiles have been fired, both on IDF positions here in northern Israel, but also at communities in northern Israel and some of these settlements near the border. So this will continue to see tax ringing out. And the IDF in response has been attacking inside southern Lebanon, attacking what they say are terror cells who are both launching missiles and both attempting to launch missiles at Israeli communities and Israeli troops who have been stationed in the area. We are looking at live images on our screens while we're talking to you, Mary, across that northern front and talking about developments across the border. In Syria, the most extensive strikes allegedly by the Israeli air forces at the start of the war, reports that the runways there throughout the country are damaged. What update can you share? What is known or is difficult to ascertain exactly what is transpiring in Syria? That's right. So we're seeing these reports coming out of Syrian state media, publishing attacks, and once again saying that the airport in Damascus has been attacked. This is not the first time Israel has attacked in Syria since the beginning of this war, nor is it the first time Israel has attacked in Syria in the last year or so. We have frequently seen Israel launching airstrikes from above into areas inside Syria where they say Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed proxy groups have been using and trying to attack Israel from positions within Syria. So we often see Israel trying to track weapons depots where they're both manufacturing weapons, also where they're storing weapons, and also numerous times we've seen when the Iranian-backed planes were coming into the area allegedly bringing weapons and other munitions for Iranian-backed proxies in the group. And Israel has always said that it will continue to attack terror targets wherever they are, anybody who is posing a threat to the State of Israel, that they are prepared to act. This is also what we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit here today, telling the troops there that they're preparing to launch the operation into the Gaza Strip. That's one of the tasks for the army, but the other task for the army is trying to keep this line here, so trying to protect this border, both from Lebanon as well as groups who are acting in Syria. Thank you so much. Live from the north, near the Israel-Lebanon border, we appreciate that update from our correspondent, Mary McAuliffe, and we will be coming back to Mary as well for regular updates. And now for more insight, we welcome to studio retired Colonel Amit Assa, a former member of the Israeli Security Agency and our correspondent, Guy Azrael. So Amit, I want to start with you. So many developments on this day, lots to unpack, but let's start with what we just heard up north from Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Israeli troops. What did you make of that message right now? It's day 16 of the war, and one thing we are well aware of is that what is going to unfold is going to be lengthy and intense. Look, what we see is what we know that we have to do. It's to prepare ourselves very, very precise to get it in. We know that they are waiting for us. We need the information, very precise, where they are, where is the tunnels. We have a lot of tunnels that we sealed. When the tunnel is under a building and you blow up all the building, because it's under the building, the entrance for this tunnel, so you seal this tunnel. And this is what we are doing now. So step by step, by getting information from all of the people that we are taking in our investigation, because we know that we spoke with this kind of animals, I'm sorry that I'm calling them animals, but we have information from them. So we are seeking for the right information to do everything very precise and quiet and easy. We don't have to be on rush, okay? What's going to have the time is to do it very easy. And at the same time, of course, this is agonizing weight for the hostages and the families of the hostages. Yes, of course, this is also a thing that we have to dig into when we are talking about the information. We have two major things in intelligence now. We know where is the enemy exactly and to know where is the hostages kept. So we will have to deal with these two missions in parallel. So we have to have the time for it and to investigate it, and we have time. Complicated situation indeed, and in terms of the numbers that update from the IDF, 212 hostages known at this hour. And they are spreading all over the... We are lucky that that number is higher. And obviously, we wait to see for that confirmation. What did you make of the fact that the IDF captured a Hamas terrorist who had been hiding near the Gaza border communities for the two weeks since this terror attack first started? It is a terrifying prospect. We can imagine that thousands, thousands of people, thousands of terrorists were entering Israel and doing whatever they want for hours and then going back and forward, back and forward. Sometimes you miss them. Sometimes they don't have any communication to their people also, so you can't find them. And the chaos, the chaos is enormous in this area. You have to dig for bodies. Sometimes you need to find out your bodies and you see bodies of terrorists side by side. So this time is very normal and we can take it as something that is logical, that if somebody is hiding somewhere, it will be very difficult to find him. But he was exhausted. This was with no water, no food. Nobody is assisting him. It's not that some kind of population will assist some kind of terrorist. But it can happen. It can happen. And he's being interrogated right now by the Shin Bet Internal Security Agency. Give us an idea of the kind of interrogation that is happening right now. What kind of information could come out of a terrorist who, as you say, is exhausted, been hiding and now he could have a wealth of information about what is going on and what is being planned out of Gaza. It's not just what is planned. We don't know really what is the plan of the Hamas, but we have a lot of information about his tunnels, his unit, his place that he is getting into the ground because we have to know that this is the entrance to the tunnel. And if he has any information about his bodies, his members of the small, maybe small unit, even if he doesn't know a lot, he knows a lot of information that's important for us to seek for hostages, to seek for tunnels, to seek for what we need to know now when we are getting in. I want to bring Guy in on a couple of these developments because it's something we spoke about a little bit earlier is the fact that identifying bodies is a difficult and complicated and enormously upsetting situation and it is affecting the death toll in terms of the numbers, the people who have confirmation about what happened to their loved one and that is just terrifying to contemplate. That is perhaps the most gruesome part of this attack and the fact that so many of the bodies have been desecrated, have been burned and it is therefore very difficult for these very authorities, for the police, for the forensic institute to identify so many of the victims so far only around 758 of the civilian victims have been identified. That is just around 75% of the bodies and it just goes to show 16 days later how difficult it is to locate even DNA in bodies that were so badly damaged. I'm sorry that we have to talk about it, but this is the reality. As a result of that, we heard today from the former chief rabbi of the IDF saying that some of these bodies may never be identified and may have to be buried in one grave. Obviously, a very difficult work, a very difficult operation to separate these bodies to find their DNA. We know that happened both in the Kibbutzim where families were very often burned alive in some cases and also at the Nature Party where the terrorist officer shooting down 260, at least 260 victims there also piled them up together and attempted to torch them. Difficult actually to listen to some of the details of exactly what unfolded. The horror is just very, very difficult to contemplate. Amit, I want to go back to the actual developments on the ground. We spoke earlier to my colleagues on the ground. Mary Makalov was talking about the developments in Syria. These are alleged Israeli airstrikes targeting apparent terror infrastructure. Of course, it's always difficult to get a clear confirmation about exactly what is unfolding, but perhaps some context about why it is that Israel could well be setting its focus right now on developments across the Syrian border. I think that we all know that who's controlling everything is Iran. Right. Iran is a Shia nation, as a terrorist nation is controlling everybody under the Iranian, but they will not do anything. So they are using the Syrian, they are using the Hezbollah and of course they are using the Hamas. So if we think about some development that will happen, it will come from Hezbollah first, it will come from Syria or any Yemen areas controlling the up from Iran. So what is Israel signing with these bombs is stop, we are holding you and be aware, don't get your legs into this and hands into this war. Okay, this is a sign from Israel, aesthetically for all of the members of the Iranian that they are controlling from the up. And the difference here really between the situation in Gaza to that in Lebanon is that Hamas doesn't have anything to lose. Hamas is very happy to see the death toll rise. It took that into consideration when it embarked in this operation. Hezbollah is also a political movement that is very influential in Lebanon and that message from Netanyahu today was also to the people of Lebanon saying the damages would be catastrophic for the state of Lebanon as well. Something that Hezbollah needs to be aware of should it embark in a wide scale operation against Israel. If it joins the war, obviously Israel will hold Lebanon accountable and the damage to civilian infrastructures in Lebanon would be severe as well. That is the threat of Netanyahu there. It will not be just the South Lebanon war. It will be the war of all Lebanon and this is the pressure that we want the Lebanese will put on Hezbollah. I want your take on the rocket fire that is still happening with increased regularity in areas that are pretty much empty as our colleague Jonathan Reggae reported on just a short while ago. So the rocket fire happens, the siren sound, people if they are there, running to shelters and yet it doesn't seem like the arsenal or the weapons capabilities right now out of the Gaza Strip it doesn't seem, not saying it is the case. We have to be very careful. Exactly, so give us your understanding of that message, of that rocket fire. It's happening daily, it's happening in the evenings but it isn't connecting, it isn't having an impact in terms of connecting and hurting people as such, yes emotionally, yes psychologically but not physically. Why continue like that? What is the message? Is it a distraction? Your insight. We are alive. That's what they want to say. They can say to the world, they can say to anybody that will have the effect that Hamas is alive and wants to do some damage to Israel and here we can do. We can do damage with missiles, we can do damage also to the IDF that will come in. It's a message, okay? But the ability is getting lower and lower and as you can see. But we have to be very careful with it and the population have to know, Israeli population have to know that they have every siren to take it seriously as they can and to go to the shelter as at the beginning. And as we always saying without the iron dome missile defence system the situation within Israel would be even more catastrophic. Stay with us, we've got more to discuss but I want to go to an earlier interview earlier on on I-24 News. I spoke to Hillel Fould, Israel's startup adviser and tech columnist about the way some international media are reluctant to cover this killing rampage of civilians in their homes and at a music festival as a terrorist attack. Let's take a listen to some of his thoughts. The reporting is mind-boggling. Why is there an obsession with Gaza when Hamas, the government that the civilians in Gaza elected came in here and brutally, savagely murdered, raped and abducted 1300 people and all the media is obsessed with is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They should turn to Hamas for that. They should turn to Egypt to take them in. I don't even understand why it's even part of the dialogue. It should not be. It is dangerous and it is dishonest. Hillel, this is exactly what I would like to unpack. There is so much confusion in the media space and in the social media space and many questions around the response to this war so far. Hamas has a very clear charter outlining in no uncertain terms its mandate as such to eradicate Jews. Why then, when it's there in black and white is it difficult for certain international news channels to refer to this killing rampage on the 7th of October which targeted civilians some of whom were butchered in front of their families and other unimaginable atrocities. Why is it so difficult for some to call Hamas terrorists? Well, because let's start with the fact that it's not just Hamas whose charter says that. The PLO, the moderate Palestinians, right? Go look at their charter. They exist so that Israel does not exist. These people do not have a nationalistic agenda. They have one agenda, they're Jews. And it might not be politically correct. It might not be pleasant to hear. But the entire country here is in post traumatic stress here and we're drawing our best not to see these horrible, horrible videos that these absolute savages are sharing proudly on social media. So the question I'm going to throw back at you, why are we even discussing Hamas and the PLO or the Palestinian authorities, two separate entities? But in reality, literally there is nothing different between what the PA, the Palestinian people did here in Gaza as compared to what Germans did in Nazi Germany. Hillel Fould speaking to us a little earlier on I-24 News. And now I want to go to our correspondent guy, Israel, because amidst this trauma which Hillel was talking about, there are moments of heroism and there are moments of some kind of hope. Talk to us about a development at Miffl Sim. Yes, it's one of the most incredible videos that we've seen in recent days. And that is the moment that the members of Kibbutz Miffl Sim, we hope we can see this video on the screens right now. For the first time, we're able to meet the head of the security team who saved their lives. Let's just listen to that welcome and watch it. Emotional moments there. That is the head of the security team in Miffl Sim, Moshe Kaplan, part of a group of less than 10 volunteers in the Kibbutz who on that Saturday morning at 6.30 a.m. realized they have to come out of their homes and protect their families. Not something they imagined they would have to do at such a scale. No one expected that sort of infiltration into these communities. They bravely fought some of them from their living rooms, others running in between the homes of their families, fending off the Kibbutz. This was one of the rare cases in which the security team has managed to fend the terrorist off, killing some 15 terrorists outside the gates of the Kibbutz. Many innocent civilians were killed outside the gates of the Kibbutz during this attack, but as for anyone who was inside, they managed to take them down, and these visuals say everything because the members of this Kibbutz owe their lives to Moshe Kaplan and to his friends who bravely fought for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones. You cannot help but feeling the emotions and the joy and the gratitude, and that is the story of the heroism of that Saturday, of that brutal attack. Very briefly, I'll make your thoughts on those images we just saw. You know that it's not the only example that we have. We had a lot of places that we saw bravery, but as we know, it's a few against a lot of terrorists that came in. The conception was if there will be any attack, it will be three, four terrorists that we will have to fight in. But every one of the fighters that came into this Saturday came into some Kibbutz, some place to save people. They confront a massive terrorist organization inside the Kibbutz already, and they had to fight few with a lot. And the only reason that they could do it is because we are fighting for our life. And you have said it so well, a nation fighting to survive, retired Colonel Amit Asar, former member of the Israeli Security Agency and our correspondent guy, Azrael. Thank you both so much for being here for this breaking news edition. I'm Benisa Levine in Tel Aviv. Stay tuned. Thank you for watching. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. It actually starts from scratch, and the way that it works is it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge, and it evaluates its behavior. In this edition, I'm Benisa Levine coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Rocket fire once again in the south and in the north of the country, siren sounding in southern communities of Israel in recent hours and in parts of the north. Day 16 of the war. Israel evacuating 14 communities near the Lebanon border. Amidst concerns around the next move by the Hezbollah terror group, the Israeli Defense Force confirming it intercepted a hostile drone from southern Lebanon and returned fire on terrorist positions in Lebanese territory. The IDF also targeting a terrorist squad that launched an anti-tank missile in the area of Haradov on Sunday morning. There was another missile attack towards the area of Tsiporen and two attempted attacks in Avivim and in Zari. Meanwhile, airstrikes continuing on terror infrastructure in Syria allegedly the most extensive strikes by the Israeli Air Force since the start of the war. The runways at airports throughout Syria are reportedly damaged, seemingly a move to stop advanced weapons from being sent from Iran and Iraq to Lebanon and Syria. Now our rolling coverage will include a range of developments on the ground. The IDF capturing a Hamas terrorist who had been hiding in fields near the border with Gaza for over two weeks since the Hamas killing rampage on the 7th of October. He's from the Nukba force of Hamas and has been handed over to the Shin Bet Internal Security Agency. Here in the day, the IDF updating the number of hostages believed to be held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. Spokesman Daniel Higari saying 212 families had been notified. The figure does not include two hostages that Hamas released over the weekend. He also says the families of 307 fallen soldiers have been notified. Now for the latest updates on the ground we go to our senior defence correspondent, Jonathan Regev. He joins us from the south, where sirens were sounding earlier in the afternoon local time in Nireem, in Kusufim and other communities near the Gaza border. What update can you share for us this hour, Jonathan? Yes, Benita, so there have been fire red alert rockets in those communities which you mentioned, also in the city of Zderot, the largest community right on the Gaza border. No injuries simply because there's really practically no one to injure in these communities. They're all empty. Hamas perhaps trying to locate the soldiers' forces preparing to enter, but those forces have learned the lesson of 2014 of Protective Edge when they were preparing for entry into the Gaza Strip and they were doing it very close to the border itself. And they were target of a few mortar attacks this time. They're further away therefore and no real injuries from these rockets, no casualties from those rockets fired by Hamas earlier in the day. When we come to updates out of the Gaza Strip, Jonathan, talk us through the latest on humanitarian aid coming in from Egypt and those concerns that these supplies and this aid might actually be used for terror purposes and not for humanitarian purposes. What is the latest there? Yes, so first there have been reports of 17 trucks coming in adding to the 20 that came in yesterday, Israeli saying that no such a fuel came in. At least no, the fuel that was seen moving around in Gaza was moved from the Palestinian side of Rafa further into the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Regarding the assistance, we can be practically sure that none of this coming into Gaza will not be used for humanitarian purposes. Hamas will take control of all of it, whether it's food, water, fuel, whatever, even if it's not used for military purposes. The population we know it's, Hamas are not really concerned with the welfare of the Palestinian population and we can be pretty sure that none of the assistance coming in will go to the population. It will head straight to Hamas. Senior defense correspondent Jonathan Rege, thank you very much for that update and we will be coming back to Jonathan in the coming hours. News just in now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharing this message with Israeli forces in the north just a short while ago. Let's take a listen. You fought with supreme bravery in Gaza. The stories are inspiring. I know you lost friends. It is very, very difficult. But we are in a battle for our life, a battle for our home. This is not an exaggeration. This is the war. It is to be or to cease. They should cease. What you're doing here and what I just heard from your commanders is an extremely important thing. You're taking down Hezbollah operators, trying to attack our frontline. I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war. If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War. It will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with force. It cannot imagine. And the meaning for it and for the state of Lebanon is devastating. But we are prepared for any scenario. You are prepared for any scenario. And still in the north, let's go to our correspondent, Mary McAuliffe. And Mary, we just heard there, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Israeli troops, talking about the Hezbollah threat as well. And obviously a message of strength and a message to motivate troops. Talk us through the latest developments on the ground there. There were sirens earlier on in Yiftakh. What update can you share this hour? That's right, Benita. So those sirens that rang a couple hours ago in Yiftakh was apparently from mortar attacks that were fired on that community in northern Israel. There are no reports of injuries. This is one of the communities of many that have been evacuated in the recent weeks today. An additional 14 communities were given an evacuation order. So many of the communities here in northern Israel are trying to flee south or to the center of the country, where it is a bit safer for them. But a lot of them are also running into issues with space in the hotels that have been designated for them. So a lot of them are coming out now saying they're being told to leave, but they don't really know exactly to where they're supposed to go. So this is one problem as they try to do evacuations, but as this is all going on, we continue to see a number of different attacks across the border from Israel into Lebanon. Lebanese attacks into Israel. We've seen a number of anti-tank missiles have been fired, both on IDF positions here in northern Israel, but also at communities in northern Israel and some of these settlements near the border. So this will continue to see attacks ring out and the IDF in response has been attacking inside southern Lebanon, attacking what they say are terror cells who are both launching missiles and both attempting to launch missiles at Israeli communities and Israeli troops who have been stationed in the area. We are looking at live images on our screens while we're talking to you, Mary, across that northern France and talking about developments across the border. In Syria, the most extensive strikes, allegedly by the Israeli Air Force since the start of the war, reports that the runways there throughout the country are damaged. What update can you share? What is known or is difficult to ascertain exactly what is transpiring in Syria? That's right. So we're seeing these reports coming out of Syrian state media and publishing attacks and once again saying that the airport in Damascus has been attacked. This is not the first time Israel has attacked in Syria since the beginning of this war, nor is it the first time Israel has attacked in Syria in the last year or so. We have frequently seen Israel launching airstrikes from above into areas inside Syria where they say Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed proxy groups have been using and trying to attack Israel from positions within Syria. So we often see Israel trying to attack weapons depots where they're both manufacturing weapons, also where they're storing weapons, and also numerous times we've seen when the Iranian-backed planes were coming into the area, allegedly bringing weapons and other munitions for Iranian-backed proxies in the group. And Israel has always said that it will continue to attack terror targets wherever they are, anybody who is posing a threat to the state of Israel, that they are prepared to act. This is also what we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit here today, telling the troops there that they're preparing to launch the operation into the Gaza Strip. That's one of the tasks for the army, but the other task for the army is trying to keep this line here. So trying to protect this border, both from Lebanon, as well as groups who are acting in Syria. Thank you so much. Live from the north, near the Israel-Lebanon border, we appreciate that update from our correspondent Mary McAuliffe, and we will be coming back to Mary as well for regular updates. And now for more insight, we welcome to studio retired Colonel Amit Assa, former member of the Israeli Security Agency and our correspondent Guy Azrael. So Amit, I want to start with you. So many developments on this day. Lots to unpack, but let's start with what we just heard up north from Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Israeli troops. What did you make of that message right now? It's day 16 of the war, and one thing we are well aware of is that what is going to unfold is going to be lengthy and intense. Look, what we see is what we know that we have to do. We prepare ourselves very, very precise to get it in. We know that they are waiting for us. We need the information, very precise, where they are, where is the tunnels. We have a lot of tunnels that we sealed when the tunnel is under a building and you blow up all the building because it's under the building the entrance for this tunnel. So you seal this tunnel. And this is what we are doing now. So step by step, by getting information from all of the people that we are taking in our investigation, because we know that we spoke with this kind of animals that I'm sorry that I'm calling them animals, but we have information from them. So we are seeking for the right information to do everything very precise and quiet and easy. We don't have to be on rush, okay? What's gonna have the time is to do it very easy. And at the same time, of course, this is agonizing weight for the hostages and the families of the hostages. Yes, of course. This is also a thing that we have to dig into when we are talking about the information. We have two major things in intelligence now to know where's the enemy exactly and to know where's the hostages kept. So we will have to deal with these two missions in parallel. So we have to have the time for it and to investigate it. And we have time. Complicated situation indeed and in terms of the numbers that update from the IDF, 212 hostages known at this hour. And they're spreading. They're spreading all over the... Very likely that that number is higher. And obviously we wait to see for their confirmation. What did you make of the fact that the IDF captured a Hamas terrorist who'd been hiding near the Gaza border communities for the two weeks since this terror attack first started? It is a terrifying prospect. Yeah, we can imagine that thousands, thousands of people, thousands of terrorists were terrorists in Israel and doing whatever they want for hours and then going back and forward, back and forward. Sometimes you miss them. Sometimes they don't have any communication to their people also. So you can't find them. And the chaos. The chaos is enormous in this area. You have to dig for bodies. Sometimes you need to find out your bodies and you see bodies of terrorists side by side. So this time is very normal and we can take it as something that is logical that if somebody is hiding somewhere, it will be very difficult to find him. But he was exhausted. He was with no water, no food. Nobody is assisting him. It's not that some kind of population will assist some kind of terrorist. But it can happen. It can happen. And he's being interrogated right now by the Shin Bet Internal Security Agency. Give us an idea of the kind of interrogation that is happening right now. What kind of information could come out of a terrorist who, as you say, is exhausted, been hiding and now he could have a wealth of information about what is going on and what is being planned out of Gaza. It's not just what is planned. We don't know really what is the plan of the Hamas. But we have a lot of information about his tunnels, his unit, his place that he is getting into the ground because we have to know that this is the entrance to the tunnel. And if he has any information about his bodies, his members of the small, maybe small unit, even if he doesn't know a lot, he knows a lot of information that's important for us to seek for hostages, to seek for tunnels, to seek for what we need to know now when we are getting in. I want to bring Guy in on a couple of these developments because it's something we spoke about a little bit earlier is the fact that identifying bodies is a difficult and complicated and enormously upsetting situation and it is affecting the death toll in terms of the numbers, the people who have confirmation about what happened to their loved one and that is just terrifying to contemplate. That is perhaps the most gruesome part of this attack and the fact that so many of the bodies have been desecrated, have been burned and it is therefore very difficult for the Israeli authorities, for the police, for the forensic institute to identify so many of the victims so far only around 758 of the civilian victims have been identified. That is just around 75% of the bodies and it just goes to show 16 days later how difficult it is to locate even DNA in bodies that were so badly damaged. I'm sorry that we have to talk about it, but this is the reality. As a result of that, we heard today from the former chief rabbi of the IDF saying that some of these bodies may never be identified and they have to be buried in one grave. Obviously a very difficult work, a very difficult operation to separate these bodies, to find their DNA. We know that happened both in the Kibbutzim where families were very often burned alive in some cases and also at the nature party where the terrorist officer shooting down 260, at least 260 victims there also piled them up together and attempted to torch them. Difficult actually to listen to some of the details of exactly what unfolded. The horror is just very, very difficult to contemplate. Amit, I want to go back to the actual developments on the ground. We spoke earlier to my colleagues on the ground. Mary Makalov was talking about the developments in Syria. These are alleged Israeli airstrikes targeting apparent terror infrastructure. Of course it's always difficult to get a clear confirmation about exactly what is unfolding but perhaps some context about why it is that Israel could well be setting its focus right now on developments across the Syrian border. I think that we all know that who's controlling everything is Iran. Right. Iran as a Shia nation, as a terrorist nation is controlling everybody under the Iranian but they will not do anything. So they are using the Syrian, they are using the Hezbollah and of course they are using the Hamas. So if we think about some development that will happen it will come from Hezbollah first, it will come from Syria or any Yemen areas controlling at the up from Iran. So what is Israel signing with these bombs is stop, we are holding you and be aware. Don't get your legs into this and hands into this war. Okay. This is a sign from Israel aesthetically for all of the members of the Iranian that they are controlling from the up. And the difference here really between the situation in Gaza to that in Lebanon is that Hamas doesn't have anything to lose. Hamas is very happy to see the death toll rise. It took that into consideration when it embarked in this operation. Hezbollah is also a political movement that is very influential in Lebanon and that message from Netanyahu today was also to the people of Lebanon saying the damages would be catastrophic for the state of Lebanon as well. Something that Hezbollah needs to be aware of should it embark in a wide scale operation against Israel if it joins the war. Obviously Israel will hold Lebanon accountable and the damage to civilian infrastructures in Lebanon would be severe as well that is the threat of Netanyahu there. It will not be just the South Lebanon war. It will be the war of all Lebanon and this is the pressure that we want that Lebanon will put on Hezbollah. I want your take on the rocket fire that is still happening with increased regularity in areas that are pretty much empty as our colleague Jonathan Reggae reported on just a short while ago. So the rocket fire happens, the siren sound, people if they are there run to shelters and yet it doesn't seem like the arsenal or the weapons capabilities right now out of the Gaza Strip it doesn't seem not saying it is the case. We have to be very careful. Exactly. So give us your understanding of that message of that rocket fire. It's happening daily. It's happening in the evenings but it isn't connecting. It isn't having an impact in terms of connecting and hurting people as such. Yes emotionally, yes psychologically but not physically. Why continue like that? What is the message? Is it a distraction? Your insight. We are alive. That's what they want to say. They can say to the world, they can say to anybody that will have the effect that Hamas is alive and wants to do some damage to Israel and here we can do. We can do a damage with missiles. We can do damage also to the IDF that will come in. It's a message. But the ability is getting lower and lower and as you can see. But we have to be very careful with it and the population have to know, Israeli population have to know that they have every siren to take it seriously as they can and to go to the shelter as at the beginning. And as we always saying without the iron dome missile defense system the situation within Israel would be even more catastrophic. Stay with us, we've got more to discuss but I want to go to an earlier interview earlier on on I-24 News. I spoke to Hillel Fould, Israel's startup advisor and tech columnist about the way some international media are reluctant to cover this killing rampage of civilians in their homes and at a music festival as a terrorist attack. Let's take a listen to some of his thoughts. The reporting is mind boggling. Why is there an obsession with Gaza when Hamas, the government that the civilians in Gaza elected came in here and brutally savagely murdered, raped and abducted 1,300 people and all the media is obsessed with is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They should turn to Hamas for that. They should turn to Egypt to take them in. I don't even understand why it's even part of a dialogue. It should not be. It is dangerous and it is dishonest. Hillel, this is exactly what I would like to unpack. There is so much confusion in the media space and in the social media space and many questions around the response to this war so far. Hamas has a very clear charter outlining in no uncertain terms its mandate as such to eradicate Jews. Why then, when it's there in black and white is it difficult for certain international news channels to refer to this killing rampage on the 7th of October, which targeted civilians some of whom were butchered in front of their families and other unimaginable atrocities. Why is it so difficult for some to call Hamas terrorists? Well, because let's start with the fact that it's not just Hamas whose charter says that. The PLO, the moderate Palestinians, right? Go look at their charter that they exist so that Israel does not exist. These people do not have a nationalistic agenda. They have one agenda, they're Jews. And it might not be politically correct. It might not be pleasant to hear. But the entire country here is in post traumatic stress here and we're trying our best not to see these horrible, horrible videos that these absolute savages are sharing proudly on social media. So the question I'm going to throw back to you, why are we even discussing Hamas and the PLO or the Palestinian authorities, two separate entities? But in reality, literally, there is nothing different between what the PA, the Palestinian people did here in Gaza as compared to what Germans did in Nazi Germany. Hillel Fould speaking to us a little earlier on I-24 News. And now I want to go to our correspondent guy, Azrael, because amidst this trauma, which Hillel was talking about, there are moments of heroism and there are moments of some kind of hope. Talk to us about a development at Mefal Sim. Yes, it's one of the most incredible videos that we've seen in recent days. And that is the moment that the members of Kibbutz Mefal Sim, we hope we can see this video on the screens right now. For the first time, we're able to meet the head of the security team who saved their lives. Let's just listen to that welcome and watch it. Emotional moments there. That is the head of the security team in Mefal Sim, Moshe Kaplan, part of a group of less than 10 volunteers in the Kibbutz who on that Saturday morning at 6.30 a.m. realized they have to come out of their homes and protect their families. Not something they imagined they would have to do at such a scale. No one expected that sort of infiltration into these communities. They bravely fought some of them from their living rooms, others running in between the homes of their families, fending off the Kibbutz. This was one of the rare cases in which the security team has managed to fend the terrorist off, killing some 15 terrorists outside the gates of the Kibbutz. Many innocent civilians were killed outside the gate of the Kibbutz during this attack. But as for anyone who was inside, they managed to take them down. And these visuals say everything because the members of this Kibbutz owe their lives to Moshe Kaplan and to his friends who bravely fought for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones. You cannot help, but filling the emotions and the joy and the gratitude and that is the story of the heroism of that Saturday, of that brutal attack. Very briefly, I'll make your thoughts on those images we just saw. You know that it's not the only example that we have. We had a lot of places that we saw, bravery, but as we know, it's a few against a lot of terrorists that came in. The conceptions was if there will be any attack, it will be three, four terrorists that we will have to fight in. But every one of the fighters that came into this Saturday came into some Kibbutz, some place to save people. They confront a massive terrorist organization inside the Kibbutz already and they had to fight few with a lot. And the only reason that they could do it is because we are fighting for our life. And you have said it so well, a nation fighting to survive, a nation fighting to live. Retired Colonel Amit, a former member of the Israeli Security Agency and our correspondent Guy Azrael. Thank you both so much for being here for this Breaking News Edition. I'm Benisa Levine in Tel Aviv. Stay tuned, thank you for watching. It's not just Bolivia, it's all over the world. And we need rain to protect the people. These last ten years, I've been in many areas of conflict. Kilometers only from the south of Mosul. For me, the most intense mission, but also certainly the most exciting, and the one that brought me to Mosul in June 2017 to cover the fierce battle between the Iraqi forces with whom we had arrived and the terrorists of the Islamic State who had made this city their caliphate in Iraq a few years earlier. After crossing Mosul in ruins, we finally found ourselves in Casbah, in the west part of the city, near the combats and the bombing of the international coalition. We're here a few hundred meters away from Mosque. We're here to cover Daesh's snipers before arriving on a roof. At the front line, where the Iraqi soldiers were able to spread their arsenal and their firepower in front of our cameras. It's only after leaving this war theater that I took the measure of what I wanted to live. When the information fell and according to which a French television team had been killed by an explosive machine, a mine in the same place where we found ourselves a few days earlier. Thirteen hundred people murdered and more than three thousand injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on. Only on I-24 News. This breaking news edition, I'm Bernice Levine coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Rocket fire once again in the south and in the north of the country. Siren sounding in seven communities of Israel in recent hours and in parts of the north. Day 16 of the war. Israel evacuating 14 communities near the Lebanon border amidst concerns around the next move by the Hezbollah terror group. The Israeli Defence Force confirming it intercepted a hostile drone from southern Lebanon and returned fire on terrorist positions in Lebanese territory. The IDF also targeting a terrorist squad that launched an anti-tank missile in the area of Haradov on Sunday morning. There was another missile attack towards the area of Zipporen and two attempted attacks in Avivim and Zari. Meanwhile, air strikes continuing on terror infrastructure in Syria, allegedly the most extensive strikes by the Israeli Air Force since the start of the war. The runways at airports throughout Syria are reportedly damaged seemingly a move to stop advanced weapons being sent from Iran and Iraq to Lebanon and Syria. Now our rolling coverage will include a range of developments on the ground. The IDF capturing a Hamas terrorist who had been hiding in fields near the border with Gaza for over two weeks since the Hamas killing rampage on the 7th of October. He's from the Nukba force of Hamas and has been handed over to the Shin Bet internal security agency. Earlier in the day, the IDF updating the number of hostages believed to be held by the Hamas terror group 212 families had been notified. The figure does not include two hostages that Hamas released over the weekend. The number of families of fallen soldiers who have been notified is now at 307. And now for the latest updates up north, let's go to our correspondent Mary McAuliffe. So many developments in recent hours bring us up to speed, Mary. What is the latest where you are near the border between Israel and Lebanon? That's right, Benita. So the last time that we had sirens ringing out in this area was a couple hours ago and that was mortar fire directed at the community of Iftah. That's a community here in northern Israel that has already been ordered to be evacuated. That's an order that came within recent weeks. We've seen over 40 communities in northern Israel that have been told to leave southwards. Today they added an additional 14 different communities that were added, but throughout the morning we've seen a number of different attacks from Hezbollah forces inside Israel, both attacking civilian infrastructure, civilian cities, as well as attacks on IDF personnel who are stationed in the area. But I'm going to step out of the way and show you just some of these communities behind me, right here, but all the ones behind on this ridgeline that you can see in the far distance were some of those communities that were added to the list of evacuations. So given evacuations today, told to go farther south into the country, into more of the central area where it's safer, and a meet cast behind the camera is also going to show you these plumes of smoke that we can also see in the distance on this ridge side. We're not sure exactly what those were caused by. We did, within the past hour, we heard sounds of missiles, some kinds of loud explosions in the area, but there have not been that have been ringing out in the recent hours. So we will continue to monitor that. But what we do know is that we have seen many attacks from Hezbollah forces, also Hamas forces who are stationed in southern Lebanon into Israeli communities here and targeting Israeli soldiers who have been stationed here. Very briefly, a quick update on developments out of Syria. Difficult always to confirm, but what is known about the apparent Israeli Air Force strikes earlier on in Syria? Very briefly. So Syrian state media said that once again Israeli strikes this is the second time in the past two weeks have hit simultaneously both airports in Syria, so both the Damascus and Aleppo airport, putting those airports out of commission and also injuring one and killing a civilian worker at that airport. We'll be coming back to our correspondent Mary Makalov in the north. Thank you for now, Mary. Stay safe. And in recent hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been delivering this message with Israeli forces in the north. Let's take a listen. You fought with supreme bravery in Gaza. The stories are inspiring. I know you lost friends. It is very, very difficult. But we are in a battle for our life. A battle for our home. This is not an exaggeration. This is the war. It is to be or to cease. They should cease. What I just heard from your commanders is an extremely important thing. You are taking down Hezbollah operators trying to attack our front line. I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war. If Hezbollah decides to enter the war it will miss the second Lebanon war. It will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with force. It cannot imagine. And the meaning for it and for the state of Lebanon is devastating. But we are prepared for any scenario. You are prepared for any scenario. So for more insight it's a pleasure to welcome to studio Avi Paznare, former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy and former world chairman of Karen Hayasod, United Israel Appeal. Avi, very briefly thank you for being here in studio. I'd like your take on what we just heard from Benjamin Netanyahu. He says this is quote unquote a battle between Lebanon and Hezbollah. I think he launched a very stern warning to Hezbollah and not only to Hezbollah. He is a prime minister. He has to be cautious. The warning is also to Lebanon. Because Hezbollah is a Lebanese group. They are part of the Lebanese government. They are part of the Lebanese society. And if they really attack Israel in a wide range they will be disproportionate. And of course Netanyahu cannot say that. I say it for him. Wander Hezbollah don't you dare attack us. Avi Paznare stay with us more to discuss because as we're speaking sirens are sounding warning of incoming rocket fire in the south. So we go straight to our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev. What update can you share right now Jonathan? Yes Benita we're in the city of Netivot. 10 minute driver so from Sderot and there were sirens here 5-10 minutes ago. At least 10 interceptions right above our head. As opposed to what happens in Sderot where there are protected shelters literally every 100 meters here there's no such thing. Therefore you have to duck and hide next to the car next to the wall. What we did about 5 minutes ago this is the reality here this is what is happening here in Netivot further closer to the Gaza border we're hearing of an incident in the area of Kisufi the community right on the border fence we're hearing of some kind of a fire exchange there between Hamas terrorists and IDF forces happening about 30 minutes ago. No more no more information regarding that incident but it shows us basically that fighting is on Hamas is not only on the defense but also trying to locate especially the forces operating right on the border fence this is fire as rocket fire continues on the Gaza border communities. We heard earlier on that a Hamas terrorist had been arrested he had been hiding according to reports for more than 2 weeks since the 7th of October in the fields in the bushes nearby Gaza communities talk to us about what is known about this terrorist and how he was caught after 2 weeks. He was caught what we're hearing there's no official confirmation but he was caught as he was trying to steal a car of course he's exhausted 10 or 12 days on more than 15 days actually 2 weeks in the field and he was able to steal a car and the owner of the car advised the company ensuring the car and they were able to locate the car and immediately Nuz was transferred to police and security forces who were able to locate him regarding the barrage of rockets which we just saw here too in Tivot also we're quite close to the Gaza border roughly 5-6 miles from the border itself we're hearing of at least 6 rockets fired to this area possible landfall rocket fire continuing all the time Stay safe our senior defence correspondent Jonathan Regev thank you for that update now there are many unsung heroes in this war emergency response teams risking their lives to help scores of volunteers involved in these organizations including the World Yarin Pellet a combat medic from Kibbutz now she was killed in battle at Nakhal Oz and is being laid to rest today our Emily Francis was in Savion a little earlier let's take a listen the funeral for 20 year old Yarin Pellet is about to get underway here in Savion in the military section of the cemetery here as you can see people have started to arrive early it is expected a huge huge crowd of people here to mourn but also to champion the life of one of our biggest heroes a 20 year old young woman who dedicated her entire life to McGendavida Dome also known here as Mata I'm told by the deputy spokesperson of Mata Nadav Matskar that she actually began her career as a 15 year old as a youth volunteer paramedic where she continued as an 18 year old in the IDF where she was a military combat trained IDF medic she is a young woman that was not afraid to not only follow her passion but also to be willing to go into the most dangerous of situations to save others and this is what makes her a hero she was on duty at the time of the invasion on October 7th she's from Kibbutz as you mentioned but she went to Nakhal Oz where these horrible terrorists came and mutilated people and she got caught in the crossfire while on duty she was shot and died and one thing about her that also shows her bravery is even in those moments where she knew she was going to have to go out and put her life on the line she took the time to write a note knowing that people who loved her would find it and in that note she asked everybody if she should die to come to this funeral wearing the uniform of Mata the white shirt and the red McGendavida symbol and this is what you can see now not only members of her own community but the larger community of McGendavida dome workers also members of the IDF here and of course family and friends here to mourn and also making it that much worse many of you asking why if she was killed on October 7th is the funeral now where according to Jewish law you are to bury your loved ones the day after they die this is the reality and the truth of how hard it is to identify these people who were killed there are hundreds of families in the south now still trying to identify the remains of their loved ones who they know are dead and it has taken this long again October 7th and now we are at October 22nd this is how long it has taken to give her a proper burial may she rest in peace that is all for now I'm Emily Francis back to you in the studio heartbreaking and devastating indeed and now for more we welcome Rabbi Ron Perez for his personal story Rabbi thank you very much for your time cannot imagine the range of emotions you are going through right now thank you for speaking to us this extraordinary situation your one son Daniel is still missing 16 days into this war your other son Jonathan injured in the war and has gone ahead with his wedding as I say one cannot imagine the range of emotions let's start how are you and what news have you heard about Daniel take us back to what is known about his tank and his team what can you tell us thank you Benita nice to see you and thank you for the opportunity as you as you correctly said we know that his tank was involved in action in the in the Nakhaloz area and sometime during the morning is a command of his tank sometime during the morning there was there was a lost contact with the tank and only when the army came to see us on Thursday a number of days later was it confirmed we had heard rumors we had had no contact was it confirmed that indeed is considered missing in action near Dar the reward as opposed to confirmed is taken captive or God forbid killed or anything like that because you know as we know their various their various categories as was just said in the previous views before around 1400 people who were brutally murdered as you know many thousands injured and bodies are still being identified so when they came to tell us that he is he's missing in action along with the members of his crew in fact one of the crew members was found dead in the tank and was buried in fact in the day of my son's eldest son Yonatan's wedding but the other three were confirmed as missing in action what missing in action means is that amongst the dead that Israel has is not amongst them amongst the wounded that Israel has is not amongst them and amongst those which are confirmed to have been hijacked either through personal testimony or through you know eye witness or camera footage or other technological means he they don't have any anything more definitive than missing in action and that's still the status at the moment well certainly our hearts are with you and obviously everybody hoping for news and for good news as well talk to us about Yonatan I understand he was visiting his fiance now his wife and responded to a call also on that day talk to us about what he went through yeah so our oldest son he was actually at our home in Yad Binyamin in the center of Israel his fiance was actually with us for Shabbat so both Yonatan and his fiance on Shabbat of Simchat Torah Shmini Yasser in Israel those 16 days ago were both 15 days ago they were both with us in our home in Yad Binyamin and we were going into the air raid shelter just like everybody else in our area at the time there were very many missiles and around 8 o'clock in the morning we'd been out of the air raid shelter for about an hour and a half he started getting all types of whatsapps on a group of 120 officers he's a company commander known in Israel as in hebra as a mempei a company commander has a hundred 40 soldiers which he commands the paratroopers and he these there's about 120 officers who is he was in an officer's course of them a while ago his phone started pinging and pinging non stop he observed the Sabbath so he didn't he didn't open it but once this happened he realized that he something's going on and he saw the initial images there of this minitrader this truck with these terrorists shooting people and nobody could I don't think anyone in Israel could fathom or understand at that moment what this meant could it be that terrorists have got through the the Gaza fence and fathomable yeah a bird fly through there without being detected so even when they sought all these officers they were all trying to work out what this was maybe it was they couldn't they couldn't work out what it was but then his commanding officer he's brigade commander of his base sent a message to all of the officers and said to them about 30 or 40 officers company commanders and deputy company commanders and platoon commanders said to all of them about 30 or 40 of them whoever can come to Sterot should come to Sterot and Jonathan left straight away his fiancee and our family in fact didn't even have his his m16 and he had left it in the base because it was a festival and it was going to continue the festival and take his fiancee home just by the way his fiancee and her family live inside one of the kibbutzim down south close to the border so they're also at the moment in don't have a home and they've all moved up north in fact Jonathan was going to live inside but has to find alternative plans at the moment like so many other Israeli so he goes to Sterot and with his to he just had a pistol his act is pistol and he took him my other son's pistol and he ended up going to Sterot to where his officer was and they got this this inorganic force together and nothing prepared them for a few special forces people right few officers and they got together and basically bonito for the next five hours five to six hours they were involved in non stop gun battles wherever they went with RPGs shot at them the Jeep in front of them on their way down to to Nakhaloz in fact my other son was stationed he happened to be sent to the Kfar Azar Saad Nakhaloz area and a Jeep in front of them was actually shot with an RPG and three officers were killed his Jeep was shot with an RPG which went over their heads and they involved in non stop gun battles in fact when a friend of his was injured next to me took his gun because he didn't have a proper M16 he took his M16 he took his vest he took a helmet from somebody from a from a special forces and this is how his ad hoc ongoing battles were taking place unbelievable unbelievable unbelievable and and and his stories only one of thousands of stories of civilians and soldiers who fought with incredible bravery to defend you know to defend as much as they could the civilians and soldiers of the south what eventually happened was they got a message that Nakhaloz base has been overrun nobody from the army has got there they should go there and they went as the first force into Nakhaloz base it just so happened that my other son was positioned there for Shabbat he noticed when he went into the base in fact he was one of the few in fact the only soldier of those 10 or 15 officers who knew the base because he had visited my other son Daniel multiple times he Yonatana older son had been stationed in that base and therefore he thankfully he was quite familiar with the base and that saved many lives because firstly when they went in through the tank shed he noticed that Daniel he knew where our son Daniel's tank was parked because he visited there many times and he noticed that his and other tanks were not there and that was comforting hoping that he was involved in gun battles and they spent the next approximately two hours in the base going securing area they saw as they walked in they saw a number of terrorists turned out there are about 12 terrorists still in the base thankfully Benita along the way managed to save about 20, 25 soldiers mainly female soldiers who these observers that had been hiding he knew the base and figured he knew where they would be hiding and they were able to literally first they found six of them in one room and took them out then 15 of them in another room took them out and then eventually during one of the gun battles towards the end him and the two soldiers the two officers on each side of him were shot in the back the one in the right was shot in the stomach and he was shot in the leg and I cannot tell you what a miracle it is absolutely a miracle and also that it not only went through his leg it missed the main artery it missed all the you know the nerves and the bone because it took them hours and hours in this ad hoc situation to get to Siroc hospital in the south as you know one can bleed to death from these type of wounds unfortunately so basically to cut a long story short when we found out that Yonatan thankfully had you know when we realised that thank God he was you know recovering he was okay and a number of days later when when Daniel we realised he is missing in action and it's going to be a while to the status changes we decided firstly our son and daughter in law now we said both us and their family her family from Kibbutzad said we will support them whatever they want to do even though he has a brother missing in action and we have a son missing in action we feel that if they would like to get married it's such a positive thing to do we'll support them in it otherwise he's going to go back to the army at some point who knows how long this is going to go on for and on Thursday afternoon they took the decision to get married right the original time but this not in Ashkelon in the hall because it was too big it to happen in our back you know in the Ishiva Ha school in our area and it was very very limited it was on live stream and thankfully people participated it was somebody said to me Benita that at the that she was at the wedding canopy she said that for her it was the holiest saddest happiest wedding she was ever at and it was a very special occasion we thank you so much Rabbi for sharing this ordeal and the fact that you have managed to find this experience of happiness amidst all this pain is something that really is or inspiring thank you for your positivity and your message of hope very briefly we have just a few seconds your brief message right now for a nation traumatized very briefly please in one sentence the Jewish people more than any other people are a life affirming people almost no value is greater than the value of human life and the enemy we face is a enemy committed to death it's an enemy which praises death will kill and torture not only their enemy but also their own not allow not allow them to flee will use them as human shields and ultimately just like this wedding and so many other weddings which have taken place gives hope because the Jewish people are traders of hope believers of hope because we believe in life a better future ultimately those who love life will prevail over those who praise death Rabbi Doron Peres thank you for speaking to us may you hear good news about Daniel soon and best wishes to the newlyweds thank you very much for speaking to us thank you very much and any good news for all of the Jewish people in the state of Israel thank you extraordinary story and now for more we bring in Joe Trisman research analyst at the foundation for defense of democracies focused on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East he joins us from Portland I'm not sure if you heard some of that story quite phenomenal the stories of heroism right now people sharing un imaginable heroic stories it's 16 days in Joe I'd like to start with the massive intelligence failure that led to the situation on Israel's part training for this Hamas terror attack happening right across the border but what about the US intelligence what is your take on how this elaborate terror plot was released first of all I think we're having me yes it's absolutely a failure however we're still in the initial phase right we're on this war so there's a lot of questions that need to be answered yes there are I would say signs that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups were planning something and what I mean by that is that over the years Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups they routinely published videos and statements demonstrating showing that they were attempting to breach the border fence or attack and attacking Israeli bases so some of the signs were there but nobody really I guess believed that it would happen most people and I think most people in the intelligence community not only in Israel and in the United States thought that something like North right from Hezbollah but not from Gaza so I think that was that was one if you could take failure from the intelligence community especially both Israeli and American also one can say my assessment at the moment is that everybody became complacent Gaza rather Hamas and Gaza lulled the Israelis and perhaps the Americans and made it seem that they weren't interested in war the past two years there was several conflicts between Israel and Gaza mostly between Islamic Tihad and other Palestinian armed groups and Israel and Hamas seemingly didn't point in the war but we know that it was for an overall plan they had a plan right so there's definitely intelligence failures there and there were signs before that before the October 7 attack however I think it's still too early to figure this out right so a lot of questions to answer and only just a couple only a few assessments that could be made as of now. So as we are speaking right now we know that there was rocket fire in the Niti vort area and we're just getting an update two people were wounded that happening just moments ago but as you alluded to the concern as well in the north Benjamin Netanyahu telling troops that if Hezbollah enters the war it's making the mistake of its life. What is your take on the likelihood of Hassan Nasrallah getting fully involved in this war and the risks for the terror group and obviously for the Lebanese people as well briefly please. Yes I'll just be very brief so over the since October 7th we've Hezbollah has displayed or shown us or shown Israel rather that it's interesting in only maintaining a certain amount of fighting between rockets guided missile attacks against IDF mostly IDF bases so and this is continuing since October 7th but it's gradually increasing day by day so it's going to get to a point where a decision needs to be made either by Israel or by Hezbollah to open up a really open up a second front right but also we understand that Hezbollah and other Palestinian armed groups and those connected to the overall axis of resistance that's led by Iran can open up other fronts Syria for example Iraqi groups that operate in Syria that's another one or the Houthis in Yemen so there's a lot going on here not just Hezbollah not just the armed groups in Gaza there are other fronts. Joe Trosman live from Portland Oregon thank you as always for your insight I have no doubt we will be talking again very soon thank you very much Joe Avipa is still in studio we have just a few seconds left but we heard heart-wrenching accounts earlier on in the show from people I'd like your take your understanding of the sentiment on the ground within the Israeli nation briefly please. You know personally I am shattered to hear the testimony of this father who doesn't know if his son is alive dead or missing but who speaks of hope where is another one this is our strength Benita this is our strength of our people and this is why we will win at the end we will win the day. Avipa Zner always appreciate your insight thank you for being here in studio and with that message of hope we wrap up for now for this breaking news edition I'm Benisa Levine in Tel Aviv thank you for watching. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israelbonds.com and invest now this edition I'm Benisa Levine coming to you live from Tel Aviv rocket fire once again in the south and in the north of the country siren sounding in seven communities of Israel in recent hours and in parts of the north day 16 of the war Israel evacuating 14 communities near the Lebanon border amidst concerns around the next move by the Hezbollah terror group the Israeli defence force confirming it intercepted a hostile drone from southern Lebanon and returned fire on terrorist positions in Lebanese territory. The IDF also targeting a terrorist squad that launched an anti-tank missile in the area of Haradov on the morning. There was another missile attack towards the area of Zepporen and two attempted attacks in Avivim and Zari. Meanwhile, air strikes continuing on terror infrastructure in Syria allegedly the most extensive strikes by the Israeli air force since the start of the war. The runways at airports throughout Syria are reportedly damaged seemingly a move to stop weapons being sent from Iran and Iraq to Lebanon and Syria. Now our rolling coverage will include a range of developments on the ground the IDF capturing a Hamas terrorist who had been hiding in fields near the border with Gaza for over two weeks since the Hamas killing rampage on the 7th of October. He's from the Nukba force of Hamas and has been handed over to the Shinbet internal security agency. Earlier in the day the IDF updating the number of hostages believed to be held by the Hamas terror group 212 families had been notified the figure does not include two hostages that Hamas released over the weekend. The number of families of fallen soldiers who have been notified is now at 307. And now for the latest updates up north. Let's go to our correspondent Mary McAuliffe. So many developments in recent hours bring us up to speed Mary. What is the latest where you are near the border between Israel and Lebanon? That's right Benita. So the last time that we had sirens ringing out in this area was a couple hours ago and that was mortar fire directed at the community of Iftar. That's a community here in northern Israel that has already been ordered to be evacuated. That's an order that came within recent weeks. We've seen over 40 communities in northern Israel that have been told to leave southwards today. They added an additional 14 different communities that were added but throughout the morning we've seen a number of different attacks from Hezbollah forces inside Israel both attacking civilian infrastructure, civilian cities, as well as attacks on IDF personnel who are stationed in the area. But I'm going to step out of the way and show you just some of the things that are behind on this ridge line that you can see in the far distance for some of those communities that were added to the list of evacuations. So given evacuations today told to go farther south into the country into more of the central area where it's safer and a meet cast behind the camera is also going to show you these plumes of smoke that we can also see in the distance on this ridge side. We're not sure exactly what those were caused by. We did within the past hour we heard sounds of missiles, some kinds of loud sounds, some of the recent hours. So we will continue to monitor that but what we do know is that we have seen many attacks from Hezbollah forces also Hamas forces were stationed in southern Lebanon into Israeli communities here and targeting Israeli soldiers who have been stationed here. Very briefly a quick update on developments out of Syria difficult always to confirm but what is known about the apparent Israeli Air Force strikes earlier on in Syria very briefly. Syrian state media said that once again Israeli strikes this the second time in the past two weeks have hit simultaneously both airports in Syria. So both the Damascus and Aleppo airport putting those airports out of commission and also injuring one and killing a civilian worker at that airport. We'll be coming back to our correspondent Mary Makalov in the north. Thank you for now Mary stay safe. And in recent hours Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharing this message with Israeli forces in the north let's take a listen. You fought with supreme bravery in Gaza the stories are inspiring I know you lost friends it is very very difficult but we are in a battle for our life a battle for our home this is not an exaggeration this is the war it is to be or to cease they should cease what you're doing here and what I just heard from your commanders is an extremely important thing you're taking down Hezbollah operators trying to attack our front line I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war if Hezbollah decides to enter the war it will miss the second Lebanon war it will make the mistake of its life we will cripple it with force it cannot imagine and the meaning for it and for the state of Lebanon is devastating but we are prepared for any scenario you are prepared for any scenario I don't know so for more insight it's a pleasure to welcome to studio Avi Paznare former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy and former world chairman of Karen Hayesod united Israel appeal Avi very briefly thank you for being here in studio I'd like your take on what we just heard from Benjamin Netanyahu he says this is quote unquote a battle for our life your thoughts absolutely and I think he launched a very stern warning to Hezbollah not only to Hezbollah I mean he is a prime minister he has to be cautious the warning is also to Lebanon to Lebanon because Hezbollah is a Lebanese group they are part of the Lebanese government they are part of the Lebanese society and if they really attack Israel in a wide range the answer will be disproportionate and of course Netanyahu cannot say that I say it for him Wanda Hezbollah don't you their attack us Avi Paznare stay with us more to discuss because as we're speaking sirens are sounding warning of incoming rocket fire in the south so we go straight to our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev what update can you share right now Jonathan Yes Benita we're in the city of Netivot 10 minute driver so from Sderot and there were sirens here 5-10 minutes ago at least 10 interceptions right above our head as opposed to what happens in Sderot where there are protected shelters literally every 100 meters here there's no such thing therefore you have to duck and hide next to the car next to the wall what we did about 5 minutes ago this was a reality here this is what is happening here in Netivot further closer to the Gaza border we're hearing of an incident in the area of Kisufi the community right on the border fence we're hearing of some kind of a fire exchange there between Hamas terrorists and IDF forces happening about 30 minutes ago no more no more information regarding that incident but it shows us basically that the fighting is on Hamas is not only on the defense but also trying to locate especially the forces operating right on the border fence this is a fire as rocket fire continues on the Gaza border communities. We heard earlier on that a Hamas terrorist had been arrested he had been hiding according to reports for more than two weeks since the death of October in the fields in the bushes nearby Gaza communities talk to us about what is known about this terrorist and how he was caught after two weeks he was caught what we're hearing there's no official confirmation but he was caught as he was trying to steal a car of course he's exhausted 10 or 12 days on more than 15 days actually two weeks in the field and he was able to steal a car and the owner of the car advised the company insuring the car and they were able to locate the car and immediately news was transferred to police and security forces who were able to locate him regarding the barrage of rockets which we just saw here too in a TV also were quite close to the Gaza border roughly five six miles from the border itself we're hearing of at least six rockets are fired to this area possible a landfall rocket fire continuing all the time stay safe our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev thank you for that update now there are many unsung heroes in this war emergency response teams risking their lives to help scores of volunteers involved in these organizations including 20 year old Yarin Pellet a combat medic from Kibbutz Sperry now she was killed in battle at Nakhal Oz and is being laid to rest today our Emily Francis was in Savion a little earlier let's take a listen the funeral for 20 year old Yarin Pellet is about to get underway here in Savion in the military section of the cemetery here as you can see people have started to arrive early it is expected to be a huge huge part of people here to mourn but also to champion the life of one of our biggest heroes a 20 year old young woman who dedicated her entire life to McGendavida Dome also known here as Mada I'm told by the deputy spokesperson of Mada Nadav Matskar that she actually began her career as a 15 year old as a volunteer a youth volunteer paramedic where she continued as an 18 year old in the IDF where she was a military combat train IDF medic she is a young woman that was not afraid to not only follow her passion but also to be willing to go into the most dangerous of situations to save others and this is what makes her a hero she was on duty at the time of the invasion on October 7 she's from Kibbutz Berry as you mentioned but she went to Nakhal Oz where these horrible terrorists came and mutilated people in a crossfire while on duty she was shot and died and one thing about her that also shows her bravery is even in those moments where she knew she was going to have to go out and put her life on the line she took the time to write a note knowing that people who loved her would find it and in that note she asked everybody if she should die to come to this funeral wearing the uniform of Mada the white shirt and the the red McGendavida symbol you could see now not only members of her own community but the larger community of McGendavida dome workers also members of the IDF here and of course family and friends here to mourn and also making it that much worse many of you asking why if she was killed on October 7 is the funeral now where according to Jewish law you are to bury your loved ones the day after they died this is the reality and the truth of how hard it is to identify these people who were killed there are hundreds of South now still trying to identify the remains of their loved ones who they know are dead and it has taken this long again October 7 and now we are at October 22 this is how long it has taken to give her a proper burial may she rest in peace that is all for now I'm Emily Francis back to you in the studio heartbreaking and devastating indeed and now for more we welcome Rabbi Doron Perez for his personal story Rabbi thank you very much for your time cannot imagine the range of emotions you are going through right now thank you for speaking to us this extraordinary situation your one son Daniel is still missing 16 days into this war your other son Jonathan injured in the war and has gone ahead with his wedding as I say one cannot imagine the range of emotions let's start how are you and what news have you heard about Daniel take us back to what is known about his tank and his team what can you tell us thank you nice to see you and thank you for the opportunity as you as you correctly said we know that his tank was involved in action in the in the Nahal area and sometime during the morning is a command of his tank sometime during the morning there was they lost contact with the tank and only when the army came to see us on Thursday number of days later was it confirmed we had heard rumors we had no contact was it confirmed that indeed is considered missing in action near Dar the Hebrew word as opposed to confirmed is taken captive or God forbid killed or anything like that because you know as we know their various their various categories as was just said in the previous interviewers before there around 1400 people who were brutally murdered as you know many thousands injured and body is still being identified so when they came to tell us that he is missing in action along with the members of his crew in fact one of the crew members was found dead in the tank and was buried in fact in the day of my son's eldest son Yonatan's wedding but the other three were confirmed as missing in action or missing in action means is that amongst the dead that Israel has is not amongst them amongst the wounded that Israel has is not amongst them and amongst those which are confirmed to have been hijacked either through personal testimony or through you know eyewitness or camera footage or other technological means he they don't have any anything more definitive than missing in action and that's still the status at the moment well certainly our hearts are with you and obviously everybody hoping for news and for good news as well talk to us about Yonatan I understand he was visiting his fiance now his wife and responded to a call also on that day talk to us about what he went through yeah so our oldest son he was actually at our home in Yad Binyamin which is in the center of Israel his fiance was actually with us for Shabbat so both Yonatan and his fiance on Shabbat of Simchat Torah Shmini Yasser in Israel those 16 days ago were both 15 days ago they were both with us in our home in Yad Binyamin and we were going into the air raid shelter just like everybody else in our area at the time there were very you know many missiles and around 8 o'clock in the morning we'd been in and out of the air raid shelter for about an hour and a half he started getting all types of whatsapps on a group of 120 officers he's a company commander known in Israel as in Hebra as a man pay a company commander he's a hundred and forty soldiers which he commands the paratroopers and he these hundred there's about 120 officers who is he was in the officers course of them a while ago his phone started pinging and pinging on stop and you know we observe the Sabbath and he didn't open it but once this happened he realized that he something's going on and he saw the initial images there of this minitrader this truck with these you know terrorists shooting people and nobody could I don't think anyone in Israel could fathom or understand at that moment what this meant could it be that terrorists have got through you know the the Gaza fence a bird can't fly through there without being detected so even when they sought all these officers they were all trying to work out what this was maybe it was they couldn't they couldn't work out what it was but then his commanding officer his brigade commander of his base sent a message to all of the officers and said to them about 30 or 40 officers company commanders and deputy company commanders and platoon commanders said to all of them about 30 or 40 of them whoever can come to Sterot should come to Sterot and you're not straight away his fiancee and our family in fact didn't even have his his M16 and he had left it in the base because it was a festival and it was going to continue the festival and take his fiancee home just by the way his fiancee and her family live inside one of the kibbutzim down south close to the border so they're also at the moment don't have a home and they've all moved up north in fact Jonathan was going to live inside has to find alternative plans at the moment like so many other Israelis so he goes to Sterot and with his two he just had a pistol he's actually his pistol and he took him my other son's pistol and he ended up going to Sterot to where his officer was and they got this inorganic force together and I think prepared them for a few special forces people a few officers and they got together and basically Benito for the next five hours five to six hours they were involved in non-stop gun battles wherever they went RPGs shot at them the Jeep in front of them on their way down to Nakhaloz in fact the other son was stationed he happened to be sent to the Kfar Azar Saad Nakhaloz area and a Jeep in front of them was actually shot with an RPG and three officers were killed his Jeep was shot with an RPG which went over their heads and they're involved in non-stop gun battles in fact when a friend of his was injured next to him he took his gun because he didn't have a proper M16 he took his M16 he took his vest from somebody from a special forces and this is how his ad hoc ongoing battles were taking place unbelievable unbelievable unbelievable and his stories only one of thousands of stories of civilians and soldiers who fought with incredible bravery to defend you know to defend as much as they could the civilians and soldiers of the south what eventually happened was they got a message that Nakhaloz base has been overrun nobody from the army has got there they should go there and they went as the first force into Nakhaloz base it just so happened that my other son was positioned there for Shabbat he noticed when he went into the base in fact he was one of the few in fact the only soldier of those 10 or 15 officers who knew the base because he had visited my other son Daniel multiple times he Yonatana older son had been stationed in that base and therefore he was quite familiar with the base and that saved many lives because firstly when they went in through the tank shed he noticed that Daniel he knew where our son Daniel's tank was parked because he visited there many times and he noticed that his and other tanks were not there and that was comforting hoping that he was involved in gun battles and they spent the next approximately two hours in the base going securing area they saw as they walked in they saw a number of terrorists turned out there about 12 terrorists still in the base they managed to save about 20-25 soldiers mainly Khayalut female soldiers who these you know observers that had been hiding he knew the base and figured he knew where they would be hiding and they were able to literally first they found six of them in one room took them out then 15 of them in another room took them out and then eventually during one of the gun battles towards the end him and the two soldiers the two officers on each side of them were shot the one in the left was shot in the stomach and he was shot in the leg and I cannot tell you what a miracle it is and also that it not only went through his leg it missed the main artery it missed all the you know the nerves and the bone because it took them hours and hours in this ad hoc situation to get to Saroka hospital in the south as you know one can bleed to death from these type of wounds unfortunately so basically took out a long story short and found out that Yonatan thankfully had you know when we realized that thank God he was you know recovering he was okay a number of days later when Daniel we realized he is missing in action and it's going to be a while to the status changes we decided firstly our son and daughter in law now we said both us and her family from Kibbutzad said we will support them whatever they want to do even though as a brother missing in action and we have a son missing in action we feel that if they would like to get married it's such a positive thing to do we'll support them in it otherwise he's going to go back to the army at some point who knows how long this is going to go on for and on Thursday afternoon they took the decision to get married at the original time but this not in Ashkelon in the hall because it was too big to happen in our backyard not in the Ishiva high school in our area and it was very very limited it was on live stream and thankfully people participated it was somebody said to me bonita that at the at the hopa that she was at the wedding canopy she said that for her it was the holiest saddest happiest wedding she was ever at and it was a very special occasion we thank you so much rabbi for sharing this ordeal and the fact that you have managed to find this experience of happiness amidst all this pain is something that really is or inspiring thank you for your positivity and your message of hope very briefly we have just a few seconds your brief message right now for a nation traumatized very briefly please in one sentence the jewish people more than any other people or a life affirming people almost no value is greater than the value of human life and the enemy we face is an enemy committed to death it's an enemy which praises will kill and torture not only their enemy but also their own not allow not allow them to flee will use them as human shields and ultimately just like this wedding and so many other weddings which have taken place gives hope because the jewish people are traders of hope believers of hope because we believe in life a better future ultimately those who love life will prevail over those who praise death rabbi doron perris thank you for speaking to us may you hear good news about daniel soon and best wishes to the newly wed thank you very much for speaking to us thank you very much and any good news for all of the jewish people in the state of israel thank you extraordinary story and now for more we bring in joe trisman research analyst at the foundation for defense of democracies focused on palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the middle east he joins us from portland oregon i'm not sure if you heard from that story quite phenomenal the stories of heroism right now people sharing unimaginable heroic stories it's 16 days in joe i'd like to start with the massive intelligence failure that led to the situation on israel's part training for this hamas terror attack happening right across the border but what about the us intelligence what is your take on how this elaborate terror plot was missed first of all i think we're having me yes it's a failure however we're still in the initial phase right we're on this war so there's a lot of questions that need to be answered yes there are i would say signs that hamas and other palestinian armed groups were planning something and what i mean by that is that over the years hamas palestinian or rather islamic cihad and other palestinian armed groups would they routinely publish videos and statements demonstrating showing that they were attempting to breach the border fence or attack and attacking israeli israeli bases so some of the signs were there but nobody really i guess believed that it would happen most people and i think most people in the intelligence community not only in israel and in the united states thought that something like this would happen in the north but not from gaza so i think that was one if you could take failure from the intelligence community especially both israeli and american also one can say before my assessment for at the moment is that everybody became complacent right gaza rather hamas and gaza lulled the israelis and perhaps the americans and made it seem that they weren't interested in war the past two years there was several conflicts between israel and gaza mostly between islamic cihad and other palestinian armed groups and israel and hamas seemingly didn't point it in the war but we know that it was for an overall plan they had a plan right so there's definitely intelligence failures there and there were signs before that before the october 7th attack however i think it's still too early to figure this out right so a lot of questions to answer and only just a couple only a few assessments that could be made as of now so as we are speaking right now we know that there was rocket fire in the niti vort area and we're just getting an update two people were wounded that happening just moments ago but as you alluded to the concern as well in the north benjamin and yahoo telling troops that if he's baller enters the war it's making the mistake of its life what is your take on the likelihood of Hassan israel are getting fully involved in this war and the risks for the terror group and obviously for the Lebanese people as well briefly please yes I'll just be very brief so over the since october 7th we've has baller has displayed or shown us or shown israel rather that it's interesting and only maintaining a significant amount of fighting we've seen rockets guided missile attacks against IDF mostly IDF bases so and this is continuing since october 7th but it's gradually increasing day by day so it's going to get to a point where a decision needs to be made either by Israel or by his baller to open up a really open up a second right and but also we have to understand that has a lot of Palestinian armed groups and those those connected to the overall axis of resistance that's led by Iran can open up other fronts Syria for example Iraqi groups that operate in Syria that's another one or the which is in Yemen so there's a lot going on here not just because of Allah not just the armed groups in Gaza there are other fronts Joe Trosman lie from Portland Oregon thank you as always for your insight I have no doubt we will be talking again very soon thank you very much Joe Avipa's narrow still in studio we have just a few seconds left but we heard heart-wrenching accounts earlier on in the show from people I'd like your take your understanding of the sentiment on the ground within the Israeli nation briefly please you know personally I am shattered to hear the testimony of his father who doesn't know if his son is alive dead or missing but who speaks of hope there is another one this is our strength Benita this is our strength of our people and this is why we will win at the end we will win the day Avipa's narrow always appreciate your insight thank you for being here in studio and with that message of hope we wrap up for now for this breaking news edition I'm Benita Levine in Tel Aviv thank you for watching Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped Tel Aviv we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity 24 news special coverage of the war on Israel with I-24 news Mary McAuliffe live in the north in another day of increasing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah Mary we are with you live at the northern front apologize for the noise if you hear any background there's some heavy machinery it's all part of IDF relocation a lot of military personnel a lot of military vehicles in the area can be seen all throughout this area it's been quiet for the past two hours but we did have sirens ringing out about two hours ago one of the communities of Yiftaq here in northern Israel mortars were fired on that civilian community and this comes as Israel is moving to evacuate even more communities they've already evacuated 28 today deciding to evacuate 14 communities along Israel's northern border we're standing in front of one of these communities where they said only about 40 people are remaining here and most of those are people who are staying to guard the kaboots in this area so those who are staying as sort of a reserve force as well as medics who are also living here in this area but most of the families left even before the IDF issued this situation order this is the situation for many of the communities along this northern border where over the past over a week now we've seen a current fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, Hamas the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on the southern Lebanese side of the border firing into Israel including today we had a number of cross-border attacks and now Hezbollah is also saying that there were three Hezbollah fighters who were killed today in counterattacks by Israel that brings a number of Hezbollah fighters since the beginning of this in southern Lebanon to 24 who have been killed in Israel's retaliatory attacks let's talk a little bit about the south in Gaza more rockets are fired and some fire exchangers and humanitarian aid from Egypt that's right so it's been quite a loud day on the southern border we've seen a number of different attacks huge rocket bridges fired at southern Israeli communities one that seriously injured a man a 60 year old man in the southern community of Netsi votes who was in his car and the rocket fell right in front of him and he's been evacuated from the scene is undergoing medical treatment we've also seen reports coming from inside of Gaza strip Hamas claiming that it beat back in Israeli ambush inside the Gaza strip and firing on tanks that then cause them to retreat we haven't had any confirmation from the IDF about this incident but we do also know that there was a unit of Israeli soldiers who were targeted by an anti-tank guided missile so certainly a very hot area both the south and the north as Israel continues to retreat from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who's here today telling soldiers here in the north that the one mission of the army is one to try and wipe out Hamas in the south but the ones who are stationed here in this area their mission is to hold the line and to protect these areas these border communities and try and protect from any attack that could come from southern Lebanon all right Mary Macalff up there in the northern border thank you very much for your report Michael and Plina Sharvit Baruch thank you very much for coming and Dr. Michael Orrin former Israeli ambassador to Washington let me start with you Mr. Ambassador there are reports that the US is pressuring Israel now not to start the ground invasion in Gaza in order to allow some more time for hostage negotiations how do you see this? Well I don't doubt the reports from the President Biden Secretary of State Blinken have gone very very far I think far farther than I would have anticipated giving the mood in Washington against foreign entanglements particularly in the Middle East by moving two major naval forces into our area by shooting down rockets fired at Israel by Iranian back Kuti rebels in Yemen very very far and there's all sorts of different opinions about the United States too it's not achieving that solid backing as you might think but as they say you know in many walks of life and in diplomacy it's certainly true not just think as a free lunch and the free lunch gives America weight it gives way to America to say to Israeli decision makers hey wait think twice before you open up a second front against Hisbola and cards on the table I've been very much in favor of opening up a front against Hisbola for a long time and leaving Hamas to wait but also the question of hostages Hamas was very intelligent very smart by releasing two American hostages Judith and Natalie Manana creating increasing calls and I see it all the time in the American press for a ceasefire a ceasefire which basically means Hamas wins simple as that Israel cannot restore its deterrence power it can't restore truly its security to its people it can't begin to heal if Hamas wins it's a very serious debate and not just that we are up against clocks there's only so much time the Israeli army can keep up to 360,000 reservists mobilized and these also not just in terms of morale but in terms of the economy these are the most productive parts of our economy these are the young women and men who are between their 20s and 30s who make up the backbone of our economy so we can't wait indefinitely we hope for the release of more hostages but we can't enable Hamas to make us hostages the state of Israel hostages or the United States hostages and besides what they're doing I mean that corresponds in some ways with the sentiment in Israel that maybe move just a little bit from the desire to crush the Hamas and instead to worry a little bit more about the hostages let's say more than 200 according to Israeli count yes well I think this is one of the most complex conflicts we've had ever I think since the war of independence and I think it's okay to take out time I think the pressure on having the maneuver the ground maneuver too quickly it's not necessarily right even strategically so there's also the issue of the hostages also the preparation also some kind of surprise I think it's also grinding down a bit the Hamas they are also waiting and they are also having less and less supplies so I think it's not so bad that we are taking out time this is going to be a long war and yes it will impact the economy it will impact it will be a long time of this waiting period but we will recover we will recover the economy it will take us time to build back what has been destroyed but at the moment I agree a ceasefire with the Hamas so any kind of compromise with the Hamas is impossible it's like telling Ukraine agree that Russia will continue to control parts of Ukraine but we don't have to be under pressure what's the plan if not a ceasefire what is the negotiations about the Qataris were involved in the release of these two American citizens there's probably some quid pro quo along the line probably cash and do we want to play that game I think it's a very dangerous one and I just I just add I agree with Panina there's no major rush but what's also coming is reports of the Israeli military on easiness about the time frame they want to start already I would say I would say there's also another factor is the weather it's going to become winter the winter will impact our maneuverability of ground forces to coordinate with air forces but I think it's also going to impact the conditions among the Palestinian refugees have been moved into southern Gaza under the cold and I as someone who was interviewing all night on the international press I see how the narrative has changed it used to be about Jewish suffering now it's about Palestinian suffering and that narrative is going to become increasingly harsh toward us and that's going to translate into diplomatic pressure and before you know it, guess what Security Council is going to impose a ceasefire and so we have to beat out the security council so far I mean Secretary of State Blinken's press conference I think it's now two days ago was extraordinary people were saying Hawkman you don't press Israel you're not pressuring the Israelis he stood very firm said we're not going to do that I hope he continues to do that you implied or maybe even said it clearly that Israeli public will not be able to accept anything like a ceasefire at this stage right internally well if it's a tactical ceasefire for some kind of deal with the hostages and I think Hamas is also under pressure because they and I think one of the most important campaigns is to explain the campaign that Hamas is ISIS and all these photos of all these children at our hostages I think that's also a burden for Hamas to a certain degree but I think in the long run and not very long run we can't live with this Hamas threat at our border the Hamas has made it evidently clear and we will have to dismantle at least its military capabilities hopefully it will topple after it doesn't have this military capabilities it will topple down I don't know it's difficult now to already imagine what will be the day after but I think even if we don't know what will be the day after we still have to go after the military infrastructure of the Hamas we cannot live with this kind of threat this is the kind of things you hear from Israeli leaders take a listen for example Israeli prime minister today in the northern front you fought with supreme bravery in Gaza the stories are inspiring I know you lost friends it is very very difficult but we are in a battle for our life a battle for our home this is not an exaggeration this is the war it is to be or to cease they should cease what you're doing here and what I just heard from your commanders is an extremely important thing you're taking down Hezbollah operators trying to attack our front line I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war if Hezbollah decides to enter the war it will miss the second Lebanon war it will make the mistake of its life we will cripple it with force it cannot imagine and the meaning for it and for the state of Lebanon is devastating but we are prepared for any scenario you are prepared for any scenario yes so with this kind of rhetoric Israelis cannot afford not to finish the job so quote-unquote in Gaza I think that Hezbollah and I'm not then alone in thinking this Hezbollah is waiting I don't know if Hassan al-Sarana has actually made a decision yet with Iranians have made a decision yet but they could well make a decision if Israel enters Gaza is on the point of crushing Hamas then Hezbollah can enter with 150,000 rockets 15 times more rockets than Hamas has they have a terrorist force that has been killing the Syrians for the last decade you see what they did to the Syrians you can imagine what they do to us and wait they could wait until the Israeli army is bogged down in a fight in Gaza is tired and then they could strike and they make for reasons that have to do with their competition with the Sunni world and who is leading this Muslim world generally next issue here hate towards Israel goes hand in hand with anti-Semitism and nowadays it surges in many places I-24 News senior correspondent Owen Alterman reports when it happens in Germany it resonates even more two petrol bombs thrown at a synagogue in central Berlin last week an attack on the Jews in the land of the Holocaust a wide wave of anti-Semitism that has come in the wake of the war and has not yet crested across the English Channel British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visiting a Jewish school in north London sending a message of support in difficult times well I've come to this Jewish school this morning specifically to demonstrate my solidarity with the Jewish community here in the UK and let them know that we're going to do everything in our power to keep them safe anti-Semitism is up in the wake of the war in London by 1,350% police say and anti-Semitism is up in many parts of the world beyond London and beyond Berlin among some of the anti-Israel protesters and hanging in the air Jewish communities are boosting security leaders are speaking out we must without equivocation denounce anti-Semitism we must also without equivocation with homophobia and to all you hurting those who are hurting I want you to know I see you you belong in the United States the current wave of anti-Semitism comes on top of the wave that had already come in the years before the war at its worst claiming the lives of 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and now many American Jews saying they feel betrayed by some fellow left-wing activists all yielding a sense of vulnerability that has spread beyond Israel's borders to the furthest corners of the Jewish world we are joined by Jonathan Greenblatt CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League ADL thank you very much for joining us what's the extent of the anti-Semitism surge in America and elsewhere you monitor this well thank you for having me and as you said in the lead-in I mean the anti-Semitism we're seeing now is astonishing and was happening at a time when we already had a historic number of anti-Jewish acts 2022 was the worst year we had ever seen ever in almost 45 years of tracking harassment, vandalism and violence directed at the Jewish community but in the past two week period we've seen an almost 400% increase in anti-Jewish acts here in America alone you're seeing even a higher numbers in the UK in France etc we've tracked almost 400 pro-Hamas events in the United States in the last two weeks for massive demonstrations to teach-ins to other kind of public mobilizations and you have people on our op-ed pages at our universities making wild claims as if somehow the rape of women the kidnapping of children the torture of civilians is permissible it is disgusting and that's why our Jewish community is so alarmed Do you consider pro-Hamas demonstrations as anti-Semitism? Yes If you somehow think that it is permissible to demean and demonize Jews, Israelis or otherwise, if you think it is somehow okay to excuse and encourage violence against us because we are Jews that is anti-Semitism 101 but the incidents we're talking about that we're tracking are actual literal acts of harassment literal acts of violence a kosher restaurant is vandalized where a synagogue is to face and acts of assault last week here in New York an older woman was punched in the face by someone screaming about Palestine and there are so many examples of again Jewish children being bullied at school Jewish co-workers being harassed at work it goes on and on it's despicable How alert are Jewish communities for the United States That's a really good question I think we as a Jewish community in the United States and around the world we've learned there's a reason why we have squad cars in front of our synagogues security at every imaginable Jewish institution you can't go to a Jewish day school, a Jewish community center a shul of any size and not have to navigate a security situation by the way there is not security at churches in America there is insecurity at other community centers only the Jewish ones because we've learned over the years from Pittsburgh to Poway to Jersey City to Muncie to so many other moments and the kind of pictures you're showing here I mean imagine throngs of people out there somehow saying Israel is responsible for the beheading of its children it's hard to think of something so morally corrupt so just such barbaric atrocities being excused but again fortunately our Jewish community we work closely with law enforcement we use our own defenses even though we are sad about what happened and still healing and still grieving we are resolute and we will not allow the anti-Semites the Hamas supporters to intimidate us to threaten us you can forget it these Jews will not be silent never again by the way the Detroit Senegal case do you know what happened there we certainly well so yeah I can give you a little bit of information this 40 year old woman was found stabbed to death in front of her home yesterday morning we are working closely with the Detroit police department in part because this is what ADL does we're the largest trainer of law enforcement America but also because we knew this woman she volunteered for our local office she was the president of her synagogue in Detroit and so this is someone who's really it hits close to home now we don't know the motive but the Detroit police department will have a press conference at 12 noon eastern standard time so that's in about an hour we expect to learn whether it was motivated by hate whether it was a random act whether it was a targeted killing like a robbery or a disgruntled boyfriend or something we really don't know what caused it yet but I should say this he was an open proud Jew she was an engaged member of our community her death is a tragedy and in an environment where we have people make mobs literally accusing Israel of genocide when we have newspapers like the New York Times reporting a blood liable from Hamas about a hospital in Gaza of course these kinds of things will happen so we don't know the cause of her death yet the motive behind it but we are all on alert because we expect unfortunately horrible things to happen in a moment like this and Jonathan with everything that you've said we still see enormous support for Israel maybe more than ever before you see the empathy you see the sympathy to Israel you see it in the media as well and you see it in polls in America and elsewhere there is a strong support of Israel still oh yeah look in the United States President Biden has been rock solid the Democratic and Republican leadership in our Congress rock solid almost all of the elected officials not just at the federal level but the state local level rock solid celebrities like Bono and Madonna and many others stepping up to support Israel some important nonprofits like the National Action Network of the Asian American Foundation there is lots of support for Israel people know that Israel was attacked that her people were massacred and the support for Israel in America it runs deep it is really I think an unbreakable bond but the situation at our universities the situation in some progressive circles the situation even from some of these candidates running for office we can't take our eye off the ball we need to stay focused to make sure that support for Israel remains as rock solid as possible especially in the weeks ahead which are going to be hard right Jonathan Greenblatt ADL thank you very much thank you for the good work you do every day thank you back to the studio here Pina were you surprised by the support we've seen those big demonstrations for Hamas in London in Washington where? well I'm not surprised about the pro-Palestinians and the pro-BDS this free Palestine which is not free Palestine from Israel's occupation it's free Palestine by destroying the state of Israel so those that believe in that and our supporters of this idea clearly they would go to the streets for them it's a celebration but I think you have so many Americans and the members of the academia that are supporting the Palestinians out of this kind of humanistic idea a human rights idea and I think that the fact that they still continue to support it continue to be on the side of the Hamas without condemning these kinds of acts was maybe even giving some kind of justification for the most atrocities these were atrocities on the level of the Holocaust these were ISIS kind of tactics and you would expect people that believe in human rights believe in moral values believe in all these nice notions to say that you've crossed the line okay but occupation is bad this way to change but here you crossed the line and you don't see enough of that and that's very disappointing and I think it shows that underneath the support of the Palestinians there is a hidden sometimes maybe it's not so hidden anti-Semitism by these people Michael, second thing I think that Jonathan Greenberg spoke very well forcibly and eloquently but he mentioned at the end the campuses including the leading campuses and I think the new type of anti-Semitism is an anti-Semitism of silence these university presidents the heads of arts institutions atrocities were perpetrated against African-Americans against Asians, against gay people there would be a huge huge outcry there was that implicit anti-Semitism saying okay you murder Jews not so bad and maybe maybe they had it coming to them and that's what's implicit in this what's going on and that I hear from everybody that the Jews in America are frightened and I think that they're justified in being frightened what does Israel do in campuses I think we have to extend more help for these campuses we have to I'm speaking to them all the time especially for the Jewish students there who really feel that they're under a duress they cannot feel that they're isolated they've been abandoned we cannot abandon them and we have to be there for them I'm on a board of an organization that actually works with the ADL called the Secure Community Network which is 90 former FBI officials that interact with the FBI and block threats against 12,400 Jewish institutions in the United States and I spoke to the head of it today he talked about this incident in Detroit they don't know whether it's a hate crime or not they'll know shortly by the way the entry was not forced and there was nothing stolen in her house so it's very suspicious but everybody's in high alert they've closed schools, they've closed synagogues it's a very severe situation those are something about America these days let's go to London Vahid Bihash stays with us now from London thank you very much for joining us you're still out there in the streets tell us about what happened yesterday when you went to the demonstration the pro-Palestinian pro-Hamas demonstration so basically now we didn't go to the demonstration they came and they established their stage this time exactly in front of the street King Shara street which we camped for past 8 months in order to place IRGC Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard on the list of terrorist organization by UK so they put their stage exactly in front of this street about 50 meters away from here but thanks to the great work of police they couldn't get into this street they blocked the road from both sides the police of London happened on the other side about 100 meters towards Trafalgar Square they attacked the police and we saw how they react I am glad from one side and I am really upset from the other side but I am glad because for the first time the whole world even those countries who were defending these terrorists they showed the true face of these terrorists but we are upset because of all these lives that we lost but we have no choice unfortunately as I said I will repeat this again this is like a surgery we have a cancer so we have to go through this surgery to cure we have to go through this painful I call it even a holy war against terrorism we don't have any more choice we have to go all the way to clear the region it is not just Hamas it is Hezbollah and Hezbollah Iranian regime look what happened in Detroit 40 years old the president of Detroit in a synagogue these things are going to get worse in Europe and America I tell you why because the Iranian regime they know the moment Israel entered Gaza so Iran is going to get involved in itself or indirectly somehow because they have no choice if they don't get involved they are going to lose the trust of the other groups so because of this they want to put pressure on you and come to America we will wait and see and thank you very much for your things as you said a holy war on terrorism we will break and we will be right back Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we are talking within 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity works as it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of I-24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen now to the southern front I-24 news defense correspondent Jonathan Regev is live with us over there Jonathan another day of bombing in Gaza rockets towards Israel and some fire exchanges there give us the update yes so first we are in the city of Netivot in southern Israel just about an hour ago we mentioned this in a previous broadcast we had to basically duck and cover next to a wall when the sirens sounded and this is the site you can see one of the places where a rocket made landfall was hit just about an hour ago a little bit more one person was injured here in this site and was taken to a hospital it was quite a heavy barrage we saw at least 10 interceptions and city officials here everybody working in the city are so already used to this just see this is exactly the place of the impact right here and you can see an hour later this is the asphalt is already here everything at least on the road here is back to place the road is open now we have more municipal people inspecting the car one person as we mentioned was injured and this is the site this is just one place from one rocket of course we're speaking of hundreds of places where there have been impacts in the past two weeks this is where all these everything we hear we can actually see it and you saw the car I think it's nothing short of America that a person was taken from here injured and not killed and just a split of a second it can happen Jonathan what's happening with the demands or pressure on Israel to delay the ground attack I think Hamas is doing a very good job in the psychological warfare considering the fact that it has the latest update is 212 hostages and Israel was perhaps willing to go to begin with that offensive as early as the weekend but then on Friday evening those two prisoners were released and now comes the pressure on Israel from the US maybe from other players saying that maybe it is possible to secure the release of even more hostages before a ground offensive is already as far as we're hearing from Israeli officials are saying that the forces are ready they can be given the green light and go in but of course even if Israel wants to think that it is playing on its own and dictating the plays on its own we know that there's a very strong leverage from the United States which was already able to secure the release of two hostages American hostages there are plenty of other American passport holders and we can be quite sure that there's pressure at least from the United States and maybe other players to delay the ground offensive for some time to perhaps try and rescue the release of even more hostages Thank you very much Jonathan Regev out there in the south here in the studio are retired Colonel Plena Shervit Baruch Colonel Michael Oren former Israeli ambassador to Washington yesterday the things are moving so quickly wasn't it yesterday it was two days ago Friday and Saturday the two American citizens also Israeli citizens were released by Hamas what's behind this I think they're not Israeli citizens I think only Americans say it was behind it was an interview that I participated to see with the very famous journalist Martin Fletcher Pulitzer Prize winner and very respected journalist and it was a harsh it was a harsh interview because they had showed a lot of pictures about Palestinian suffering and all of a sudden Martin gets on and starts talking about his wife's sister and her daughter this is not Judith and Natalie and starts crying on live television and like you I've been on TV for many years I've never seen that they broke down crying and it changed the entire interview but I'm sure that Hamas was watching and Hamas said whoa we have this asset we already have national headlines on this and we're going to maximize this by releasing these too and the next time I went on TV at MSNBC Martin Fletcher was there and he was calling for a ceasefire and so it worked it worked it's very hard to say that because we're happy that they got out and we demand that we hope that other hostages will be released as well but we saw how it worked and I think that that's why Hamas drew lessons for this they're going to continue releasing hostages at a very slow rate and watching how immediately people are going to come out and demand more ceasefire so that more hostages can be released yeah obviously we know Martin Fletcher who's covered here NBC reporter for years all these conflicts here he knows the place he knows the people he knows the reality here that's a very interesting story let me bring in Joel Rubin former deputy assistant secretary of state thank you very much for joining us we've been talking here about US pressure or US leeway to Israel to act in Gaza how do you see this how much leeway does Israel have I thought this was going to be a discussion about anti-Semitism I'm sorry leeway and pressure Israel has been given support by President Biden and right now President Biden is providing the kind of political space for Israel to do what it will do but clearly he's also gently stating that the United States has a lot of experience in the region and understands that acting with rage can sometimes put one in a position where over a long run they wish they had been better prepared so that's where his guidance is going it's more of making sure that the Israeli leadership has the thoughts down on paper and the strategy clear about what it's trying to achieve if and when it does do a ground invasion okay let's talk about anti-Semitism well which we've discussed before also here there's a surge in anti-Semitism in America and elsewhere how do you see this there certainly is we're living in it right here every day we have had and I'm from Pittsburgh originally from Squirrel Hill about five years ago almost to the day we had the single largest mass murder of Jews in the United States in our country's history at the Tree of Life synagogue about five years now later we've seen the single worst number of Jews killed globally in one day with the massacre in the south of Israel and in the United States we've seen a response to that massacre that's incredibly disturbing we have seen a sort of connection between the far right white supremacist movement that supported the murders in Tree of Life five years ago and now the pro Hamas arguments that supported the murders of Jews the massacre of Jews of Israel sort of a gleeful kind of response as well and it's put Jewish communities on edge with synagogues I was at it by Mitzvah yesterday there's a police car up front in a nice beautiful small synagogue in the suburbs people here are nervous and we are we are confident in our government confident in our institutions this is the United States and these are institutions that support the Jewish community but there is a lot of concern about the kind of vitriol being directed at the Jewish community right now right let me ask you this I understand that you worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign a couple years ago yes yes so you know you know the Democratic Party you know the the progressive part of the left Democratic Party alright give me your assessment what do you think about their reaction maybe it's time for rethinking some thinking what do you think this is the question of the moment without a doubt I served as the Jewish outreach director for the 2020 Sanders campaign I also served in the Obama administration and when I worked in the United States Senate I worked for a long time Jewish Senator Frank Lautenberg grew up in Pittsburgh lived in Israel for a year of my life I've worked across all these issues for a number of years and there is a moment of reckoning happening right now inside the Democratic Party there are fissures that we have long known about particularly on the progressive side where in many ways they were papered over in recent years because of an integration of a common interest in the progressive side of the Democratic Party in fighting against hate and intolerance Islamophobia and antisemitism as part of that as well and right now the fissures are significant significant concerns amongst many American Jewish leaders on the left who felt disturbed and disappointed by the silence after the massacres in southern Israel I was disturbed by it I have a lot of family in Israel and I saw this an attack against the Jewish community worldwide not just against Israel and this is an ongoing debate and we are seeing moments where certain progressive leaders step up in particular the Jewish members have been very vocal in their support for Israel and support for peace but we're also seeing language that inflames the anti-Israel positions which now I believe is trending into antisemitism not just purely criticism of the state of Israel's policies which I do believe is a legitimate part of our political discourse All right Joel Rubin thank you very much Thank you I have a lot of agreement with Joel Rubin I would sign on to every word that he just said Would you expect any change now and any rethinking on the progressive left? Well it's a big problem for the progressive left because the darlings of the progressive left have turned out to be monsters so it's a moment of trauma for them and you have to make a very perverse case to say that the children of Kibbutz Kfar Azar, Be'eri which are generally very peaceful minded left-wing leading communities that somehow they had it coming to them and that the beheadings of mutilated relations and rapes were somehow a legitimate reaction to what they would call colonialist oppression it's a real trauma for them not just for the American Jews so the progressive left have to rethink their narrative All right Joel you want to live to that I must say it was enjoyable to hear the ambassador's reaction and I think this is the kind of conversation that we have to have there are major conversations happening behind the scenes we see what's in public behind the scenes with coalitions in direct one-to-one engagements people with whom for example I have worked closely over the years on issues related to war and peace and national security it's no secret I've been a strong long time advocate for diplomacy related to Iran related to Israel Palestine two state solution there are major major conversations happening because one of the red lines one of the baselines for that engagement certainly from my world view we are looking for a peaceful outcome we are looking for reconciliation we are looking for justice and sovereignty in particular related to Israel and Palestine we are not looking for the eradication of the state of Israel that is not where I stand that is not where people from my community who have been advocating for peace have stood for years that's why we call ourselves pro-Israel and pro-peace but the language has now moved into a direction that goes too far and that has caused a significant amount of concern amongst the Jewish community on the progressive side who cares deeply about Israel now there are some who don't and I'll say them right now Jewish voice for peace is an anti-Zionist organization that does not believe the state of Israel should ever exist so they're on the outside of the tent but for the people who are on the inside of the tent this is certainly a vigorous moment and a significant amount of debate is happening behind the scenes as well as what we see in public Nina? I think what we see you mentioned Kibbutz Berri Kibbutz Berri people were peace lovers they were the ones helping to drive Palestinians from Gaza to the hospitals in their vehicles organizing joint events with people that lost Palestinians who lost people in the conflicts in Israelis Liebstein the head of the council he was involved in supplying water to Gaza and sewage systems and the joint area for commerce and the industry these were the peace camp and I think we were hoping that with the Palestinians even with Hamas maybe they will become more pragmatic maybe they will care for their people so Hamas always said that it's aim is to destroy Israel but somehow we believe that maybe it would care once it's the de facto government in Gaza for so many years it would care for the Palestinians there we were totally wrong and I think today beyond the lives that were lost and the sense of security the peace camp in Israel has also suffered a huge blow I think today we understand with elements like Hamas I'm not talking about the Palestinians in general but with elements like Hamas there is no way except to uproot them and I think all the peace camp in Israel also agree with that and I think that it's good that there are second thoughts also in America and in other places and maybe understanding as I said before it's not free but as done it's destroy Israel and here also there's this understanding and I hope that media around the world and those that they have an impact on public opinion will wake up also and take our stand because it's really the question if they want to be on the right side of history or not Michael it might be a little early but let's talk a little bit about a day after what can come out of this in terms of Israel Palestinians this has been one of the key demands of the Biden administration they want to know what's Israel's long game what happens at the end does Israel intend at the end of this operation to be standing there holding the keys to Gaza and if so does Israel tend to give those keys to somebody else and it's a very valid request to know and they're talking about their experience in Iraq and Afghanistan where the United States went into these countries they removed principal enemies like Saddam Hussein but then they stayed to get involved in state making and that was their mistake and they're saying don't get involved in state making in Gaza don't do what we did and I think it's a valid point but I think it's a very different situation I mean if gas in San Francisco and Iraq are very far from the United States and they're not about to send rockets into into greater New York area but I do think and I do hope that the Israeli government is having that type of intimate discussion with the United States maybe an inter-Arab force maybe some type of international force or Gaza install a stable government rebuilding the process of rebuilding the big question for the Israeli government and I may say this gently generally it depends which Israeli government is actually going to be in power and this is over what is going to be the role of the Palestinian Authority because the long standing policy of certainly the Netanyahu governments and not just the Netanyahu it has been to divide the two not let the PA in there the last time the PA was in there they got overthrown but that's going to be a huge issue and I again going back to I say there's no such thing as a free launch part of the bill we're going to get for American support on this is going to come after it's all over and it's going to be in the form of Palestinian currency especially if this administration is still in the White House here's the second term they're going to come back to us and say okay what are we now going to do about the Palestinian issue what are you willing to do and I'm willing to bet on it all right thank you at this point thousands of family members in Israel are dealing with unbelievable situations now with us now is Kermit Pelti Katsir whose mother and brother were kidnapped to Gaza and her father was murdered by Hamas thank you very much for speaking with us Kermit thank you how are you first of all our condolences for your loss and I can try to imagine but cannot imagine what your family is going through what do you know about what's happening what do you know about your mother the last thing the IDF told us that they had their phone tracked in Gaza Strip on Saturday on October 7 and she was seeing a footage on a video posted by Hamas and that the last time we heard anything on the sign of life about her, about my brother we know nothing and we are terribly afraid something bad happened to him happened to all of my children actually wanting for his kidnap is missing my father was murdered tell us a little bit about your mother or about your brother my mother is 76 years old not healthy woman she's grandmother of six she's disabled she's walking with a walker she came without anything she was carrying even without her shoes she can't walk properly she fell down she needs medication I think what I want to stress most of all that we have no time we're running out of time we have to bring them back they're babies, they're kids they're grandparents we don't have time for anything did you get any information from anybody or you're just there in the dark an officer who keeps in touch with us but she doesn't have almost any information to give us no one other than her any other without her officials came here no one from the government of course we're in the dark we're in the dark, no one can communicate well enough with us almost at all we've done most of the research by ourselves, by our Kibbutz members we're trying to gather the pieces and we don't know almost anything other than what the survivors told us what's your message to the international community Kermit right now? I think my only message is they bring back our loved ones we have no time and I also want to say to the state of Israel we abandoned the residents of Kibbutz we abandoned us people were staying in their state rooms which obviously wasn't safe enough for many many hours the army, the IDF came only after the terrorists left we've abandoned us our family we have this moral obligation to bring them back now 14 days ago and time keeps on going and we don't hear anything and we're running out of time to ask the state and it's the state's duty to ensure in return all of them all the captives, all the misting all of them Kermit, I thank you very much and of course I wish I'll have good news very soon, thank you thank you Pina, you hear this kind of things all over Israeli media and that puts pressure also on Israeli government on Israeli public and it's really very complicated really complicated situation here never seen before I think really the government has a very very difficult task today and the dilemmas are huge and the heart goes out to all these stories of the hostages we should call them hostages by the way and taking hostages by the way is war crime it's a crime against the German humanity not that the Hamas cares about the law but we have to stress that I think that there has to be a lot of international pressure on the Hamas the Hamas has to feel that these hostages are a burden on it if those that support Hamas I'm not talking about the ones that I'm talking about even countries like Turkey, Qatar that are supporting Hamas other people that are and the bodies that have sympathy for the Palestinians they have to put the pressure on the Hamas and say you can't keep these hostages if you want any kind of support so the world can help the world can help I think what we will expect from anyone who thinks that they have some kind of moral compass to help with the situation of the hostages the world should help the devastated area next to Gaza is one of Israel's major suppliers of agricultural produce now volunteers are struggling to keep it going here's more in the next report two weeks into Israel's war with Hamas there are still hot warming gestures from volunteers who come to help the people of the south several organizations have joined forces to assist the farmers affected by the fighting driving down and seeing all the cars actually going towards the war zone in a way, I think it says a lot about the power that we have as a nation as a people and coming here hearing the echoes from the war zone meanwhile picking and helping the farmers out in times of need it's an amazing feeling it's really empowering and gives a really good feeling that we're in the right direction and this is winning here in Moschaviated close to the Gaza border only a few farmers the farmers have many problems these days such as the absence of foreign workers from Thailand and Palestinian workers who can't work here now so the assistance of volunteers is needed in addition to that some of the farmers were killed in the initial Hamas onslaught and others were recruited to military service others are mourning their loved ones so we operate this project not just here but across Israel I-24 News joint shy a local farmer who points out the damage done by a rocket from Gaza this is a crater made by a 170 millimeter rocket it caused huge damage to the environment the plants were destroyed the poles were broken we need major renovation here we're lucky we didn't have workers here because they wouldn't have survived this as we tour the greenhouse we hear a siren we're farmers we don't have anything else this is our job this is our home we need to secure this place we are guarding the borders we never thought about leaving here our wives and the foreign workers left for security reasons we can't leave this place we can't not far from here in the Amios village another group of volunteers assist with tomatoes we got used to the rockets what happened on October 7th was frightening we'll learn how to live with it but we need that the country will reorganize and help agriculture farmers say the current crisis may lead to a lack of fruit and vegetables for the entire country in the meantime they are continuing their labors while hoping for more assistance from the government and help from the public Ambassador Oren and Panina here in the studio it's a great task to bring everything back to this part of the country which is devastated right now thank you very much both for spending the time with me here we'll take a short break now and we'll be right back with more coverage here on I-24 News 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the frontlines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 News schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il madeforme official dresser of I-24 News please and gentlemen back to our special coverage here on I-24 News more fire exchanges in the north with IDF and Hezbollah I-24 News Mary McAuliffe is right there next to the northern border what's the update Mary? that's right Yaakov so throughout the afternoon it's actually been much quieter than it has been up here north in recent days this morning was quite loud but just an hour ago the IDF now releasing a statement saying that it did strike targets in southern Lebanon prior to that we've also heard reports from Lebanese paramedics inside the Lebanese Red Cross saying that they had evacuated a number of casualties from that air strike in the IDF statement they said they were striking a tear cell that was attempting to launch anti-tank missiles into northern Israeli communities also that statement adding that there was anti-tank missiles fired into northern Israel but that they landed in open areas and no damage or injuries were caused as a result of the strike but again it's just one of many cross-border attacks and incidents that we've seen between Israel and Hezbollah over the past week or so alright Mary McAuliffe thank you very much here in the studio with me are retired colonel Grisha Yakubovich who ran Gaza city when it was occupied by IDF thank you for coming and Guy Azriel editor here at I-24 News let's start with you Guy with some updates yes first of all just as we speak rocket alert sirens ring in Bersheva in Ofakim Bersheva is in the south right biggest city in the south in the Israeli desert an area that hasn't been targeted as much during these attacks but certainly always a good target for these Gaza terrorists staying in the south a very unusual incident just over an hour ago the IDF admitting that confirming that one of its tank accidentally fired and hit an Egyptian post near Karim Shalom right on the border in that triangle of borders between Israel, Egypt and Gaza the IDF in its statement says it expresses sorrow regarding the incident and saying they will be investigating and the details are under review so I'm sure we'll hear more from that and as we saw in the north IDF jets striking Hezbollah operatives who attempted to fire an anti-tank missile another anti-tank missile was fired in the north earlier today and back to the south an anti-tank missile hit IDF troops earlier today near Kisufim not a lot of information about that incident yet I'm sure we will get that later on there used to be another border crossing right Kisufim yes, yes, yes for now that's a place where Israeli troops are stationed near the border waiting for that ground incursion and as we see the IDF troops in the north same in the south to those anti-tank missiles they're a sitting target because those anti-tank missiles the cornet-style missiles are both very accurate unfortunately there's no way to defend from them like we do with rockets for example obviously there's no alarm it's a very quick missile and very accurate one unfortunately Grisha is a former military person I want to ask you what's happening with the ground invasion many Israelis are asking what are you waiting for what do you think is happening the whole war is actually asking about the grade the the entry, okay let's say the entry so the question is not if it will happen the question is when and how it doesn't mean that necessarily we will see the same sites that we saw in the past there were two rounds of escalation with Hamas in 2008 and 2014 where the IDF actually entered boots on the ground in Togasa and we saw the big denies opening the roads and then the tanks behind it this is the typical operational way to enter I'm not sure that this time the same thing will happen maybe it will happen differently there are few ways to do it smart ways and the fact that we don't see it happening yet doesn't mean it's not gonna happen that's what you're saying I'm saying that it's not gonna happen and I'm not saying that it's not happening all right I got you there's a lot of talk and headlines international media now but maybe to wait and maybe start some sort of hostage negotiations with Hamas the hostage situation is very hot on the table of the Americans it is on the table of dozens of other countries whose nationals are either kidnapped or killed in this attack but the recent interesting developments are the warnings from the US about the possible escalation we heard just over an hour ago both from Secretary Blinken and from Secretary Austin Blinken telling NBC News that actions by Iran and its proxies could spark an escalation and Defense Secretary Austin says the US is seeing the prospect of a significant Middle East escalation and this comes of course just after the Biden administration deployed anti-ballistic missile defense systems and that comes after that Houthi attack that we saw on Thursday we first reported the extents of this attack here on I-24 news 15 drones and three ballistic missiles fired by the Houthi rebels towards Israel and as we reported the US intercepted most of them we also reported that one of them was intercepted by the Saudis. Very interesting let me bring in Benjamin Anthony an expert on Lebanon thank you very much for joining us we are keep hearing about Hezbollah where is Lebanon? I'm sorry to the sound can you repeat your question? Yeah I'm asking where is Lebanon in all of this we keep hearing about Hezbollah will Hezbollah do that, will do this but Lebanon is a country, there's a government there in deep trouble by the way what about the government? Well first of all according to the latest reports with regard to Lebanon itself they have actually vacated all commercial airlines from their airport there inside the country for fear that that airport is going to be targeted by the Israel defense forces in case of a widening conflagration they've also circulated toward their personnel manuals for how and what they ought to do in the event of a conflagration between Israel and Hezbollah that drags Lebanon into that whether or not they still have the capability to do that speaking to what you alluded to in your question a country in deep, deep trouble basically a failed state remains to be seen but Lebanon is a country that has repeatedly been warned by the state of Israel that in the event of Hezbollah opening fire upon our country the price will be paid not only by Hezbollah but also by Lebanon itself precisely because of what you said it is a sovereign state that has a responsibility to adhere to international norms and expectations so all remains to be seen we're cleaning a conflict with Hezbollah it's a low level conflict but it's escalating Do you see any signs that the Lebanese government is doing any putting any efforts to avoid this kind of catastrophe for them I think it's very clear that the Lebanese government would like to avoid having the Israel defense forces open fire on Lebanese soil proper but there's a problem Hezbollah when we first, when we last engaged with them they were not part of the Lebanese government they now very much do play a role in the political echelons in Lebanon and therefore Israel is right absolutely right and absolutely justified in attaching responsibility for the actions of Hezbollah to the state of Lebanon I'm saying again and mentioning again that this country is in a very deep economic trouble Lebanon I mean the last thing they need is another war and I'm still not hearing from the leaders of the country of Lebanon saying anything that is contributing to maybe avoiding a war Well you know what you just said there in your question is very very interesting the state of Israel has come to current events also in a very troubled climate we've had the downturn of our economy we've had internal fighting internal strife many many difficulties many many challenges and now we face a greater challenge which is the evacuation of communities to the south and to the north there are more than 200,000 displaced persons here inside the state of Israel I mentioned that because I want to actually hear if I may say so more from our own government when it comes to caring for our citizens and our civilians I have to confess to you that's where my primary concern is my primary focus are we doing enough to care for those being evacuated from the north in light of the offence from Hezbollah by this time and from the south as a result of what took place on October the 7th my feeling is not really we can do better and it's to my government that I'm listening it's the voices from my government that I want to hear more loudly what Lebanon has to say to be perfectly frank with you far less important to me because I don't believe that they have the power or the ability to restrain Hezbollah Hezbollah is not primarily answerable to the Lebanese government we all know to whom it is answerable to the mothers of Iran all right Benjamin Anthony thank you very much thank you for having me back to the studio here just adding to these points Secretary Blinken holding a phone call with Prime Minister Najib Mikati yesterday voicing his concerns about the possible escalation Mikati said last week that if we go into war that is not his decision well I wonder whose decision is that just adding to what was said here well we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just earlier today as well sending a stern warning to Hezbollah but also to the Lebanese government to Lebanon as a whole that would be making the mistake of their life if they engage in this war with Israel Grisha there's always the question of two fronts can IDF, can Israel deal with two fronts at the same time maybe even more than two are you confident I think that we're talking about five fronts it's not two anymore and I want to explain it in 60 seconds if I may we are focused on Gaza we have our goals the IDF got the mission to eliminate Hamas I hope they will be able I think that they will deliver they will implement it Hezbollah their mission is to keep us busy by the way they declared also yesterday we are keeping them busy so three divisions are invested in the north now there's another division that was sent from the Azul on the border between Syria and Iraq by proxy Iranian organizations that have a lot of experience in fighting then they fought ISIS and they were moved to the Golan Heights to Conetra so they are also waiting to an order let's add to that the Huts from Yemen and let's add to that the West Bank we've seen the escalation yesterday I think this is the first time the IDF used an aircraft to bomb a mosque this is a response like don't start with us I understand it but there's something else going on in the Middle East exactly the methodology that Hezbollah are using to keep us busy Iranian proxies in Iraq and in Syria are making or holding the Americans busy so they attack American bases three Americans were killed yesterday three were injured in one of the attacks in Iraq and also in Syria so we see the same thing happening at circles around us circles close to us and this is the warnings that were mentioned here actually the same warning was also mentioned by the Iranian government we are in front of a possible global Middle East escalation so those are the dilemmas when it comes to another front with Hezbollah what surprises me is that the last 48 hours the level of escalation reached so high I think that Hezbollah lost three terrorists from those anti-missile terrorists only six bodies were found half an hour ago by ICRC at one of the villages in Marami I think so it means 36 almost 40 and let's go back years ago to Nasrallah that declared even one Hezbollah member that will be killed we will flame the borders so the question is what is happening is there a big surprise that they are planning and if we refer to what our Prime Minister said you know I always remember the movie the western the good bad and the uglier thing if you want to shoot shoot don't talk let's talk a little bit about the Yemen thing the Houthis first of all give us the details what happened there as far as we know just before we get to that breaking news now residents in Mehtullah were asked to remain locked in their homes in fear of possible infiltration northern tip of Israel speaking about the Houthis who better to represent them than their character her Prime Minister well he spoke just a short while ago that shoot is the Israeli aggression as he refers to it in Gaza continues Israeli ships in the Red Sea will come under attack there you have it but there's no surprise of course after they already attempted to strike Israel on a Thursday just another one of the Iranian proxies Iran uses its proxies both in Yemen in Syria and in Lebanon so they shot three missiles and you said dozens of 15 drones and I want to ask you Grisha where is the response to that that's the question this is exactly what I just mentioned the last 48 hours the escalation not only with Hezbollah but also in the Middle East against the Americans okay so who's going to respond the Americans or the Israelis I think that both sides are waiting to the first mistake okay who will do or who will do the first mistake so who will get let's say the the reason okay the legitimacy to a reason okay stop my fault they started as for now by the way right yes yes one thing we didn't get to speak on yet is the fact that now 16 days after this attack just yesterday Israeli troops located in a terrorist out of Gaza that came in during that attack it lasted here 15 days before he was tracked that is quite incredible apparently he was exhausted when he was found in between Zikim and Mufkim that is just south of Ashkelon one of the many thousands that crossed into Israeli territory according to one report he was actually located using tracking company for vehicles called Ituron when they spotted a suspicious movement of that car and notified the IDF and the Israeli police obviously these areas a closed military zone now know Israeli civilians are in that area that is so close to the Gaza Strip he attempted to make his way back there but was caught by the troops that is one of the many concerns of the Israeli military establishment that first of all they don't know how many terrorists infiltrated Israel obviously there's no way to get an exact number of that and how many of them remained how many of them are still alive perhaps seeking refuge perhaps getting help that is something that the Israeli defense establishment is very concerned about for now it does seem that to a large extent the Gaza border communities are safe but as we saw yesterday that is still not certain for sure right as we speak there are rockets being fired the southern part of Israel and sirens going off there as we speak heavy shellings by the IDF in the north in the north yeah okay we just spoke about it right we'll keep following this obviously with us now is Dr. Ellie Carmon expert encounter terrorism from Reichman University thank you very much for joining us it's it's a classic dilemma Israel is facing right now negotiate or not with terrorists can you afford not to negotiate when you have so many lives at stake speak about hostages we have negotiated for so many times it's not something new the problem is that we have a huge dilemma because in this case we are ahead of a very important crucial ground operation in Gaza and therefore all this time that we lose perhaps by negotiating and we understand that negotiating for 200 more than 200 hostages it's a very very long story especially with the Hamas sophisticated and cruel I would say kind of negotiations and my impression is that for the moment what happens is in the background or secretly there is a negotiations negotiations may not so much Israeli but American perhaps also French and Austrians that try to liberate first their own citizens and therefore Israel is compelled especially because the American pressure to wait and see how it develops because otherwise we should have closed completely the Gaza Strip without any drop of water any drop of fuel and medicaments and say if you don't present at least now all these hostages we won't permit anything to enter and we cannot afford unfortunately this kind of strategy Hamas is trying to divide between Israel and other countries on the issue of hostages no no no doubt in my opinion the only I would say not alternative but the possibility a more serious possibility is that Israel will press but when I say press is a physical pressure on Qatar because they have are hosting all the leadership the political leadership of the Hamas organization perhaps even Aruri which is also a military if you want leader and I think if Israel will know how to threaten Qatar and they know that they can lose also for the moment they are in a strong position because the Americans want them but still I think we have perhaps some cards because we know them we know from what they participated in the strengthening of Hamas how to perhaps use our own pressure to try to achieve some at least some liberation for instance of the children and women All right Dr. Ali Karamon thank you very much the question of Qatar it's an interesting one on one hand they are mediating now some sort of a deal or whatever and did before with the two American citizens on the other hand they are hosting the leadership of Hamas they are bankrolling Hamas for a long time what do you think about this play out playing a double game obviously that is something that they have been doing very well for such a long time and despite their close connections Israel in a way cooperated with Qatar assisting Qatar to bring in that aid money to the Gaza Strip obviously a lot of aid that much of it not just from Qatar of course went to the hands of Hamas as we can see the amount of ammunition the sophisticated tools that they have amount to many millions of dollars worth and much of that came from or all of it really came from external help as for Qatar that is something for other closer allies of Qatar to deal with like the U.S. how do you treat a nation like this that attempts to be negotiating with the U.S. at the same time hosting both Iranians and Hamas leaders at the same week just a day after Secretary Blinken was there the heads of Hamas there as well So Grisha, Qatar the problem or a solution there were always both Qatar it looks like it's a nation or a country I think it's 850,000 people who live in Qatar that actually Qataris the rest are all foreigners and the millions that we all we are so happy to get from the United States for them it's pocket money it's change they always played a few few rules it's like a player that plays many, many scenes and at each scenes here is somebody else so they are Shias but they support the Sunnis they are Shias but they are against themselves we use them or they used us it depends how you look at it to send the 30 million dollars a month to Gaza since 2014 after the round that that was in Gaza I think it was casted in 2014 and they are also a player well played by the way I don't know by who by themselves or by Hamas as part of the deception because we all when we analyzed the situation with Gaza we said that we can buy ideology for money and the money that we bought the ideology were not our money actually money that came from Qatar through Jordan into Israel and with Ambassador El-Aimadi the brother of the Minister of Treasury of Qatar that he brought it with suitcases and then through the banks or other ways but they were also part of the deception it's like impossible that they brought so much money into Gaza and El-Aimadi was a good partner sometimes and they didn't know that this is what about to happen we need to think about it again need to think Paramedic volunteer Yareen Pelle the resident of the Kibbutz who was killed in Nahalos during the initial Hamas attack was laid to rest today 24 years Emily Francis was there there was not a dry eye in the house during the nearly one hour long funeral for 20 year old Yareen Pelle who died a true hero she's a 20 year old who was an IDF combat medic and she also started her career as a 15 year old this is something she knew she wanted to do her entire life and she was based in the south near the Kibbutz in which she lived and when she got the call to duty and she heard what was happening on October 7th she did not stop for one second to go out and what do what she needed to do to save as many lives as possible instead 20 year old Yareen Pelle was killed and shot in the crossfire as you can see here behind me people are just starting to leave this funeral where literally hundreds of people also asked for her request where she left a note when she was going out to do what she needed to do she left a note that should she die in this battle that she asked that everybody from Mata would come in the uniform the white shirt with the red again David slogan also again David logo that is one of the things that people said during the funeral service that was just so impactful hearing from her mother from her father from her little sister all of them spoke with such strength such strength talking about her blue eyes how she had lightning in her eyes how she is now it's just unbelievable to hear this family how they are not going to be broken she is now their angel they are thanking her for now watching over everybody here and that they just said that she just has that fighting spirit and she is really a true true hero there are not words to explain the feeling of a country losing people who each individual person has their own story and we are learning so much about this heroic woman who is literally a superhero and is going to be remembered forever and her strong family saying we are going to continue we are going to move forward and thank you for being our angel you are a giant that is all for now from this funeral which again took from October 7th to October 22nd to have this funeral this is how long it is taking for families to identify the remains of their loved ones even though they knew that she was dead on October 7th and we are told by the spokesperson from Mata that there are still hundreds of families that are in line in the south trying to identify their bodies so they can have a proper burial even though in Jewish law you are supposed to bury the dead in 24 hours so this is a bigger bigger makah as they say in Hebrew here in Israel having to wait this long to give a proper burial but she was giving an amazing send off and she is a true hero to be remembered I'm Emily Francis back to you in the studio thank you Emily we'll take a break now and we'll be right back with more coverage here on I24 news 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I24 news works as it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity come back to I24 news special coverage on the war I24 news defense correspondent Jonathan Regev is live in the south Jonathan give us the update from there yes so it's been relatively let's call it relatively quiet for the past two hours or so the last barrage of rockets landing here in the city of Nativot we saw the impact here on that car right behind us and just about a half hour ago or so there were also sirens in the city of Beersheva about 20 miles to the east of us so rockets are continuing all the time we also heard of an incident with anti-tank fire towards the Israeli forces operating in the area of Kisufim which is right in front of the Palestinian town of Chanyones we're hearing that Israeli forces are entering a few hundred meters into the Palestinian territory perhaps to try and locate baddies and traces and so on so it continues to be rather loud all the time thank you very much Jonathan stay safe Grisha you're following some actions and movements in the realm of the Middle East give us an update well I think it looks like we can mark the first Middle East war that's how it looks like I know it maybe sounds dramatic a little bit but if we count the countries okay that support that's in the west it's the US, Israel, the Kurds some western countries that support all of it we have Iran, we have Hezbollah, Hamas, the Chutz in Yemen Iraqi militias we have some militias in Syria and maybe Russia backing yes or no so three events actually happen one is in Iran yesterday militias bombed a base in Iran and then we have today some fights in Iraq military in Iraq with Barazani pro-Iranian forces and not so a few hours ago some Kurds Kurdish forces attacking some militias pro-Iranian in the area of Irbil so it's a three dimensional war if I may say so okay and we see all the signs all over the Middle East and let's hope that it will not reach to what I just opened with yeah and guy let's repeat the threat by the Yemen was it was it the president or prime ministers? Caretaker prime minister of the Houthi rebels saying a short while ago his name if the Israeli aggression in Gaza continues Israeli ships in the Red Sea will come under attack and this is again nothing new because we saw Israeli ships attack several times Israeli owned ships rather not not even ships with Israeli personnel on them but over the past not even flags, not even flags over the past year we've had several instances of that nonetheless the threat on Israeli civilians and Israeli security establishment on so many fronts is certainly concerning on the first day of the mass attack several IDF bases near the Gaza border were captured however one unit of Bedouin soldiers managed to prevent their base from falling into Hamas hands here's their story was there a moment in the midst of all the chaos when you said to yourself how is this possible that's not the kind of thing that crosses your mind during a battle you're focused on countering the attack and preventing them at all costs from succeeding in doing what did you fear for your life I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't so yes of course the fear is there Lieutenant Colonel M is the commanding officer of the Bedouin trackers unit in the Israeli army for the area surrounding the Gaza Strip he has been in service for 24 years never in my worst nightmares did I think that I'd give the order to fire a missile from an Apache helicopter at my headquarters details of what transpired on the morning of the attack have been scarce now we can see from within the idea of base that has turned into a bloody battlefield the bedrooms and offices are riddled with bullets shattered glass in every corner and a gymnasium which was bombed to take down the terrorists who were barricaded inside on that morning I was called up with info of two simultaneous incidents near Kibbutz Nakhalaz at this time at headquarters only a few men are in sight some in the operation room with some staff officers the only combat soldiers on site are the Bedouin trackers I went outside and on the left about 200 or 300 meters away there was a long line of terrorists on motorcycles I understood right away that they were Hamas operatives and that they were blocking the road to prevent the terrorists from entering the base was long and no doubt it prevented a much greater catastrophe every nook and cranny around the base's entrance every signpost or rock turned into a fighting position then they tried to enter the base on their motorcycles but we stopped them with a barrage of bullets it lasted about an hour and a half we were six against 30 after a long exchange of fire the terrorists changed their tactics and split into several groups they placed one group ambushing at the crossroads and the other split up some attacked the entrance others blocked the road to prevent cars from passing at 6.30 am there were rocket alerts and at that moment I received a phone call from the officer at headquarters and told me there is a serious incident in the area I then headed for the Rhine base to rejoin the division and then I was ambushed by the terrorists in front of the base they put their motorcycles to block the way there were about 13 of them and they started coming towards me they were merely 40 meters away from us and at that point I had no choice but to make contact and attack then return to the base that's what I was trained for that's what I was brought up with as Major Akram rejoins the operations room and prepares to return to combat on the north side Lieutenant Colonel M also goes to the command room to get the latest information on the situation on the ground he leaves tracker Ashraf in position at the entrance with a single mission keep terrorists out my commander told me Ashraf you stay here no terrorist gets through we went into battle again and stopped them from advancing all the way to the entrance we killed 13 at the entrance alone as Ashraf directs the fighting at the base's entrance dozens of young people who have escaped from the rave party find refuge in the base he tells them where to go for cover there were over 30 families young people full of blood many with face injuries from shreds of glass from windows of the cars they were in when the terrorists shot at them many were shot in the leg arm or shoulder I got them into the room and told them to close the door and not let anyone in until I got back and that I'd say my name three times to let them know it was me the terrorists started to move towards the parking lot I didn't understand what they were doing at the time but I started to hear shooting from the other side of the base so I understood that they had managed to get into the base after all was the fence wide open? yes they opened a breach in the fence they wanted to get in with the motorcycles after more than an hour of fruitless efforts outside the base they realised they weren't going to make it and decided to break through the fence from then on things escalated even further dozens of terrorists invaded the north side of the base searching room by room for the command centre as they advance they shoot at anything that moves this went on for four hours in eternity in times of emergency at 10.30 am the IDF's special commander unit of Shaldag arrives on the base and starts taking control of the area gradually eliminating the terrorists at least a dozen were holed up here at the gymnasium of the base I saw them go in there so I called for an airstrike as you can see up above is this where the missile went through? exactly, some died here and others came out but we were already quite a few at night during the terrorist assault on the base they tried to penetrate the trekkers' living quarters precisely where all the wounded civilians who had fled the rave party were seeking refuge when they couldn't open the gate they set up explosives and started shooting everywhere any way they could but they didn't manage to force open the door of the room where the civilians were hiding they remained silent then they came out and my radio men shot one of the terrorists who had hidden there during the fighting six soldiers lost their lives others are missing but the numbers could have been much higher I'm very proud to have been able to save the lives of these people we really managed to limit the casualties and the injured and that's what counts Muslim Bedouin fighters give all to save lives and even if some are worried about tensions concerning their rights they are focused on their main task defense in times of war and they still have many complicated missions to fulfill I don't care about the gender, religion or race of those who are with me we are all citizens of this country the state of Israel and we must be united together now is the time for the people to come together to support and give everything to our country let's go to Morocco now Dr. Mohamed Shtato is with us from Rabat, thank you very much for joining us tonight first of all do you find the latest summit in Cairo helpful, positive I think I found it positive though it did not reach any any results any positive results as it were I think everything that could lead to peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis at this moment is a good event and this was kind of the first step I think probably there will be other steps from other countries Morocco is trying to negotiate to intervene in this the aim in the end is to bring this violence to an end is to bring the Palestinians and the Israelis to the negotiation table I read your article today about the two state solution you think this is still feasible and viable I think it's not a question of being feasible viable we must have the two state answer and approach because I think it's the only thing that can work and I think the two countries can live together the two people can live together and they can have exchanges they can have good relations if they have two states with their own borders with their own flag and with their own everything that is national so I think we must work together Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs and Jews and Christians to bring the peace and to bring the two states to fruition and this is very important for the moment it's hard to see this happening to be honest when fighting is still going on and after what happened inside Israel I think it's safe to say that at least in Israel the appetite for this is going lower and lower it may change who knows but what would be needed to even raise this thing again I think what is needed is first of all to start with steps of trust to start building the culture of peace between Arabs and Jews between Palestinians and Israelis I think this can happen because now there is anger on both sides when there is anger obviously there is no thought about peace what we are interested in for the moment is to bring this peace to reality through education through steps through trust through understanding each other through shaking hands and through stopping violence and anger let's hope there is hope Dr. Shatel thank you very much for joining us tonight thank you stay safe meanwhile Israeli morgue staff are trying to cope with the unimaginable body count here is one of them speaking things that we were shocked to see and we worked night and day in three shifts 60 or 70 people working for 24 hours a day hundreds of bodies came every day hundreds of bodies this is something we have never seen in Israel before we were glad to see bodies who are whole it's unimaginable to be able to say I can't imagine myself saying that I was glad to see a whole body because the rest of it was atrocious what have been done to people so going here in the studio we may never know what is the body count it's dreadful to even speak about this today we heard also from the former chief military rabbi saying that some of these bodies may never be identified and will have to be buried together also hearing from the head of the forensic institute saying I've been in this business for 30 years I've never seen such sites even animals don't operate this way there are some 200 people we have yet to identify in the regular methods and unfortunately I'll have to remind our viewers that in this gruesome attack of Hamas and the other terror groups that entered Israel into Israeli communities into homes of families butchering babies, toddlers women, elderly that did not suffice them to just shoot them dead in some cases beheading them and also setting them on fire to such extent that it is impossible to gather their DNA or 752 bodies have been identified of civilians but that is only 75% of the total number of civilians quite unimaginable Grisha I want to ask you about we've discussed this before I want to get your opinion as well on the pressure that is coming from the states apparently to hold and wait and maybe get some sort of wage deal this is something that Israeli public don't have much patience for isn't it true well it works to both sides you know if you have as an enemy Hamas and they kidnapped I think it's close to 300 people that's what I understand it will get there I think for now it's 212 there are another 100 people that we don't know kidnapped we don't know yet the number but it works both sides one, as long as you delay the ground attack it means you have you train your soldiers better you have more information you have more intelligence we arrested some terrorists we collect information every attack creates more targets and every new target is actually creating new other targets so in a way as long as we extend the period of time before entering to the ground attack we will enter stronger on the other hand the pressure and this is Hamas's strategy they knew that the moment they will kidnapped the Israelis the people, the soldiers, the civilians there will be a pressure inside Israeli society against the government and if you add to that the United States pressure of trying to show the western world that they succeeded or they are trying to do whatever they cannot release the people using all let's say always except violence we have to admit that it was very successful for them in the past during the Shalit all this leadership of Hamas was released we just commemorated 12 years but to that point exactly Anthony Blinken speaking to CBS just moments ago and is alluding to this saying in our conversation with the Israelis about the ground incursion the conversation of attempting to prevent harming civilians is being discussed it is focused on the way in which they intend to execute this ground incursion and what is the best way to achieve it including how do you maintain as much as possible obviously that is the impossible dilemma of Israel here wanting to eliminate Hamas understanding that they cannot live side by side next to Hamas anymore and at the same time so many human lives are on the line both of the Israeli and the foreigners who are captive at the ends of Hamas and also those of the innocent people of Gaza that are also being hostage to this dictatorship of the Hamas terrorists what Blinken says is basically it's not a question of if it's a question of how exactly, exactly they are holding very extensive conversations we saw this was unprecedented as well Anthony Blinken and Joe Biden sitting in the cabinet his closed Israeli war cabinet that is unprecedented for a leader or an official from a foreign country to sit in this closed cabinet but just goes to show the very close coordination between Israel and the US the very warm hug of the Americans with all the aid but it also comes at the price of having to work with the considerations and the demands of the Americans Blinken is not a military person but you can have miracles in wars right? No unfortunately no miracles at war and especially in the Middle East there is a different language this is not a western language we need to start speak or talk in Arabic it's a different approach for example the prime minister is threatening Hezbollah saying if and if and if as I mentioned before if you want to shoot shoot don't talk because the other side understands it as a weakness I think it sounds bad so we need to start talking Arabic I did it as a Russian Yeah all right More than two weeks after the Hamas massacre in southern Israel the scope of the human toll is not even clear yet as we've said there are also other victims many animals some are pets which lost their owners. Item 4 news Moore Ellen dogs and heroes on their mission Israeli residents living next to the Gaza border have been forced to evacuate their homes in a hurry many were forced to leave their pets behind we're talking about cases where people themselves had to run with their babies under hands stories of them you know jumping out of windows with their babies and they here are of people trying to call their dogs or cats is even harder to come with them but the dogs are so afraid that they hide or they run away and they just had to run they were running for their lives so a lot of the dogs which are right there another and cats there are other another family member that was just left behind so that's why it was really important for us to just go and get you know as fast as possible Dr. Shira Yasve from the dogs and heroes organization realized the problem early on and is trying to rectify it Dogs and Heroes is a spontaneous grouping of a few volunteers friends from before the war started some of us are graphic designers I'm a veterinary doctor there's people from all across the spectrum of professions so when the war broke we understood that animals would have to be animals needs would have to be addressed in some way and that there's going to be a crisis also on the animal front so and already like the same night of the 7th in October we started our gathering volunteers for the past two weeks thousands of Israelis from all over the country have come together to reunite families with their pets a war room in Baitkama north of Israel was established and from there the teams leave for their assignments these volunteers are headed to another operation to extract dogs from the dangerous areas the areas that are still closed military zones under the control of the IDF don't try run to a shelter just line the ground and put your hands on your head don't kneel same goes if we are driving quickly halt the cars put as far away as we can from the car and lie flat on the ground in Kerem Shalom or any other village when we look after animals if the dog runs off let us know so we can come with you don't get too far away from us we can be with the forces of the village they will direct us where to go I'm sure you all know as well but just please stay with us for those who are carrying weapons we are here to safeguard you please leave your gun in the holster except when we are under fire it doesn't faze these volunteers when the war broke out I was basically just at home and I didn't really do anything to help and I felt a little bad with myself that I can do something better than just sitting at home watching the news it can be a bit scary sometimes but it's for the dogs for the volunteers the satisfaction of reuniting pets with owners is worth the risk