 Hezbollah rocket smashes into a hotel in northern Israel. I'm Albert Lewiton at the I-24 Newsdesk in Tel Aviv. Welcome to our viewers around the world, day 93 of the war. Sunday, January the 7th, and we begin with breaking news. A Hezbollah rocket launched from somewhere in Lebanon has smashed into a hotel in northern Israel. This happened in the city of Metula. Details are still sketchy. As of now, there are no injuries. We're gonna get a live report from the region very shortly. Also today, Israeli troops operating deep in Gaza City have uncovered another tunnel and found inside technological equipment, including components used by Hamas, to build long-range missiles. We're talking a rocket engine and warhead of a cruise missile here. The thing is, until now, no one thought Hamas could do this. And the IDF says what else was found? Iranian guidebooks. Now it's still unclear how far along Hamas was at making these missiles operational. Right now in Gaza, there are heavy battles between IDF forces and Hamas's elite Nukba death squads. The Golanic Combat Infantry are fighting a series of battles, not only from the ground, but also from the air, which targeted airstrikes. Moving now to the West Bank, 19-year-old policewoman Shai Garmai was killed this morning when border police entered Genine to conduct a counterterrorism raid. Her funeral was just held with full military honors. She was killed and three of her fellow officers were wounded when a roadside bomb was detonated as their vehicle passed by. It was an ambush. The soldiers attempting to rescue the injured were then attacked by Palestinian Islamic Shahad gunmen who threw explosives at the Israeli troops. An attack helicopter eliminated the terrorists. Six were killed. Also in the West Bank, a man hunters underway for the drive-by killers who shot and killed a 34-year-old Arab-Israeli man, Ammar Mansour, from East Jerusalem. A woman driving behind him was also shot. She's in critical condition. It's all being labeled as a terror attack. In Qatar right now, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim Al-Tani. This is part of a tour, trying to calm things down in a region, but things remain tense on the northern border after Hezbollah shot 60-plus missiles across to Israel yesterday and some more moments ago, and the Israeli Air Force responded with lethal action. And now it seems the US Defense Intelligence Agency has leaked an assessment saying that Israel would be stretched too thin across too many fronts, seven of them in fact. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can handle it. I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months. No terrorist is immune, and we are determined to protect our citizens and return the residents of the north safely to their homes. It is a national goal shared by all of us, and we act responsibly to achieve it. If we can, we will do it in diplomatic ways. And if not, we will act in other ways. As we said at the top of the broadcast, Israeli troops have found a Hamas compound that had components to build long-range cruise missiles. Robert Swift, I-24 news correspondent, is in southern Israel with that part of the story. Robert. That's right, the focus of the war at the minute does appear to be on the northern border with escalations taking place there, but the fighting still continues here in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military saying that it found components which would, if utilized by Hamas, would have been essentially an upgrade in their long-range artillery systems. This being components which could enable rockets to act as missiles, essentially the same weapon system, but far more accurate and therefore more dangerous. Now we're filming here from close to the Gaza Strip. As you can see behind me, I'm just gonna step to the side so you can see the area. I'm not gonna say exactly where we are for security reasons, but we are very close to two different Israeli communities that were attacked on the 7th of October, and we're also, you'll be able to see now to our front, that is an Israeli army base which was attacked on that day as well. Now, it's worth noting that you'll be able to see the smoke to our front, and we're hearing artillery fire throughout the last hour, and most of it is coming from the south of us, and that's because the Israeli military is putting its efforts into southern Gaza. It's focusing on Khan Yunus. The buildings and the neighborhoods that we've seen to the north of us, we're close enough now that we can see these buildings, and they're absolutely devastated. There's just hills and hills of rubble there, but as you can see, the military operations in the Gaza continue. Greg, Robert, there's also what we're understanding is some very, very heavy fighting, and in fact, I think there was a report, you may have seen this report of some journalists who were killed inside Gaza. That's right. There's reports coming from Al Jazeera that two of their journalists were killed and what they've said was an Israeli airstrike. One of them, it's understood, is the son of the Al Jazeera bureau chief. Robert Swift joining us from the southern part of Israel. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm now joined on Zoom by Colonel Olivier Raffer, which he's the IDF spokesperson of Food International Media. Olivier, thanks so much for joining us. We have a lot to talk about. So let me start with first with this missile strike of a hotel in Metula. What do you know? Good afternoon and thank you to have me here on your program. I'm not going to elaborate about exactly what happened in Metula where the missile struck the city or village of Metula. But what is clear is that we are actually seeing an escalation of violent incidents from Hezbollah against Israeli territory. What happened today? It's totally unbearable. As you know, the IDF is tracking back, eating back Hezbollah positions along the border between Israel and Lebanon, according to our assessments, around maybe more. And 150 terrorist apparatus from Hezbollah have been killed since the 8th of October. And we see this incident as a new, very grave incident along the border between Israel and Hezbollah. So if I may, I would just go to first. I know you couldn't mention that. We have a correspondent. Olivier, I'm going to have you hold for one second. I'm going to go to our correspondent, Zach Anders, who's at the north of Israel. I'm going to come back to you in just a moment. Zach, you're at the north of Israel. What have you been hearing about what happened in Metula? Yeah, it does appear that a hotel was struck. And we don't know what type of ordinance was used here or what type of rocket. Again, the main fear for these border communities, the closer you are to the actual border are these ATGMs, the anti-tank guided missiles that are fired by the personnel on the ground. There is a bit of warning, not much, but there is some warning. If it's aerial target, a missile or rocket that's launched a bit further in and the Iron Dome can pick up that target and attempt to intercept it, these communities like Metula, again, hitting this hotel, there's no immediate reports of casualties. The damage does appear to be limited, but we're still working to put together some of that information for you. Great, Zach, thanks so much. Let me go, thanks so much for the update. Let me go right back now to Colonel Olivier Rafferwitz, again, from the IDF. Colonel, thanks again for staying with us. One of the things you mentioned in terms of striking back against the Hezbollah targets, there was a report earlier that some of the Lebanese armed forces were also under attack. That's coming from Lebanon. Is there any way that you can either confirm or feud or deny that that actually happened? Before answering your question concerning the Lebanese army, I would like to say that in the last few weeks we have been, we saw actually anti-tank missiles used by Hezbollah against villages, against communities, civilian communities. And I would say that's been it very seriously. Also to say that around 100,000 Israelis have left all this area. And we talk about almost ghost town in the northern part of Israel, which is actually a terrible situation. And again, Hezbollah is trying to push forward escalation. And right now we are actually seeing this escalation with a lot of worrisome. Concerning your question about the Lebanese army, as you know, we consider actually Hezbollah directly responsible for what's going on in the northern part of Israel. And of course, the state of Lebanon is also responsible that maybe has no the possibility to act against Hezbollah because Hezbollah is directly connected to Iran. Concerning the direct hits against any Lebanese position, as you know, we have no intention, no intention, no willingness to eat any Lebanese army position. Right, so is the idea what the IDF is trying to do is to just let Hezbollah know that there is a 1701 UN resolution that's in place that they're supposed to stay. First of all, they're supposed to be demilitarized up to the Lutani River. That hasn't happened. Is what the thought now is just to remind them that that's what's supposed to be in place? We don't remind Hezbollah anything. We just hope that the international community led by the USA or so with the French government will do a lot with the Lebanese government to push forward Lebanese terrorist groups from the Lebanese-Israeli border to the Lutani River according to 1701 UN Security Council resolution. With the time being, they are there along the border, they're eating, they're striking, they're trying to escalate the situation. It's a big, big threat. And as you know, if they continue to eat and to escalate, Lebanese and the Lebanon as a state will actually pay the price of this incredible, dangerous policy led by Iran using proxy Hezbollah against Israel. Colonel, there has been a report today also, maybe it's a leak from the US Pentagon from the Defense Intelligence Agency that basically said that Israel is stretched too thin, that they are not able to handle what's going to happen in Lebanon should things escalate. That there are seven fronts. You and I can name all seven of these fronts and that Israel is stretched too thin. What is the IDF's response to that? You know, we're not going to comment any leaks from anyone, but I can tell you that very seriously and very officially that the Israeli army is ready to any developments in the South and along the border on the North. We are there. We have a lot of troops in the South and also in the North. Many people have been enlisted during the crisis from the 7th of October. And I think that the Israeli army and the Self-Israel are sending very clear messages to our Lebanese government, to our Hezbollah, to our many, many parties in the area that we are not going to support, to sustain, to accept such a situation where 100,000 Israelis cannot be back home, cannot have a normal life because Iran is using Hezbollah against Israel on the back of the Lebanese people. This situation is unbearable and cannot continue. Colonel, there's also, now let's move on to the South. Since you brought up Iran, there was a report today that the IDF found inside a stash. Inside the stash, they found weapon, the manuals, Iranian weapon manuals for a cruise missile. Can you tell us more details as to what the IDF found? Well, I can tell you that we are actually looking for many things in the area where we are acting with our troops and we found, I would say, a factory of very precise missiles with the guidance, with the expertise of Iran. Again, Iran is not only helping and assisting Hezbollah in the North, so also assisting Hamas in the South against Israel and we can really see the Iranian willingness, Iranian policy against Israel everywhere. And it's not new, but here we have the proof of this factory with precise guided missiles. Do we know how many missiles are we talking about? I mean, do we know whether or not they were operational and if they were not operational and it's just one, is it just one location or does the IDF suspect there's several locations all throughout Gaza? Here we talk about one specific location, but it could be not the only one using Iranian expertise for producing precise guided missiles against Israel. It is also another issue that worries us, but we are aware that Iran is in the South, is in the North, trying to influence the proxies against Israel without being directly involved, but that's the Iranian side of mind. Using Hamas, Gaza, Hezbollah, Lebanese against Israel without being directly involved, but we know that they are fully involved against Israel and also against American and international interests. Well, that would also presume that in these missiles, they're not exactly, it's not the size of a coffee cup. These missiles are very large. You would imagine that those in Gaza knew that this was happening, that they knew that this was easily findable. You would have to lift it out of the underground bunkers to go someplace to launch them. So is there discussion on that too as to exactly how implicit or complicit some of the folks in Gaza are too? I'm not going to elaborate about it right now, but what I can tell you, it just proved one thing, that the operation in Gaza still continues. We need more time to continue to disclose weapons, ammunition, factories, production of such missiles on other things, on other parts in the North, in the center and the south part of the Gaza Strip. Even if we have now, I would say, almost full control, professional control of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, war against Hamas is not over. I repeat, war against Hamas is not over. We have killed around 8,000 terrorists, but war against Hamas is not over. Right, you're seeing live pictures, our viewers at home are seeing live pictures of Gaza right now where there's, I guess they're conducting a continued, the IDF and the IAF are continuing to have airstrikes along the area. I would imagine Olivier that what you're trying to show is that what things may be occurring in the North, that doesn't mean that things are letting up on the South. That would seem to have been what has been some of the discussion outside of Israel right now in the world stage, that like, well, if the things are happening in North, it's pulling people away from the South. You just mentioned in the beginning of your program, you know, there are fierce fights still going on in the south part of the Gaza Strip, mostly in HaNiNeser, we know that there are a lot of tunnels, war tunnels, also the leaders of Hamas, the terrorists, the chief, like Iqyisinwar, Mohamed Def and the others are hiding themselves in these tunnels, mostly likelihood in the HaNiNes area. So as I said before, war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is not over. Olivier, I'm gonna, Colonel Olivier, I'm gonna ask you one more question in terms of the population from Gaza. They have all been moved down to the South. There's 1.2 million Gaza residents. There were 1.2 million Gaza residents throughout the Gaza Strip. They've all been told to go to the South. Do we have any indications to what the conditions are in the South? There have been some humanitarian trucks, some 80, 90 of them a day. There's probably a little bit more. Maybe you have information about that. But do we have any indication what life is like there from the IDF's perspective? We are improving and we try to improve every day the humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Gaza. As you know, from the very beginning, we settled, I would say, modus operandi in order to prevent them to be involved in the combat areas. As you know, also Hamas did the opposite, tried to use all of them as human shields everywhere like schools, mosques, UN facilities to be used as not human shields, but at shields against Israel, then attacking and criticizing Israel and provoking a war reaction. We're aware of it. We do what we can do in order to prevent this population to be in the combat areas. But one, and unique, responsible for the humanitarian situation in Gaza is Hamas. And Hamas has to be defeated, has to be destroyed. And then Gaza area and Gaza people in the Gaza Strip will get another situation, also another humanitarian situation and hope that this situation will be changed soon. In case you're just joining us, I'm joined on remote with Colonel Olivier Raffer, which is the IDF spokesperson for international media. I'm also joined now in studio with Guy Azrael, his I-24 senior editor, Guy. The missile attack yesterday from Lebanon into Israel, from what we were told, it was really aimed at one place. Although there was a barrage of rocket and missiles yesterday by Hezbollah. Hezbollah claimed to have fired 62 projectiles towards Israel, and one of them is particularly interesting and particularly worrying as well. Hezbollah's claim to struck a very strategic Air Force Israeli Air Force facility that is a radar facility of the Israeli Air Force on Mount Meron. Now until now, Israel didn't really fear the possibility of that facility if the claims of Hezbollah are correct to be hit because that structure is pretty high up on the mountain, pretty far away from the border. And Israel, of course, has the iron door missile defense system to protect facilities like these from being hit. The news today is that the IDF now assists that the projectile that hit that radar facility was in fact an advanced anti-tank missile, a cornet EM that is a more advanced system of those cornet missiles, unlike the regular ones, this one can reach up to 10 kilometers in range. It is a precision guided missile with a laser beam that was able to hit, if that is correct, a very strategic, a very sensitive point for the Israeli Air Force. That sort of a radar facility is the one that enables the Israeli Air Force to control all of its aerial activity in the North, like we saw, perhaps in that strike in Beirut last week and so many other Israeli airstrikes in the region. I can also remind you in our viewers that just prior to the October 7th attack, Hamas has struck so many of Israel's surveillance systems, the cameras and other more advanced facilities and even on October 7th itself was able to use drones to hit some of the very important strategic defense and radar systems on the border, what enabled Hamas to go on with that attack and of course that is extremely worrying if Israel's surveillance systems in the northern part of the next to the Lebedee's border were also severely hit if Hezbollah's claims are correct. I'm gonna have you all in one second. I wanted to first thank Colonel Livia Rafa, which he's no longer with us, he had to go, he's gone, he had to go, there's some action, I guess, if he wanted to go chase down and we'll hopefully get back to him at some point through the evening. So thanks to him again for joining us. So, God, let me ask you about the South, the idea that they found cruise missiles or the instructions, components to make a cruise missile, worrying, but also not surprising, I shouldn't say surprising, but not shocking. Look, everything is shocking now in retrospect, knowing everything that Hamas has been doing all those years, what Israel knew or didn't know, well, that will be examined in many investigations that will be conducted after this war. Having said that, obviously extremely worrying that no one has a doubt about the fact that Iran has been so heavily involved in the technological advancement of Hamas with everything that we saw on October 7th and since then as well being able to really strike Israel so deep and in such a wide scale, both in terms of penetrating Israel, hitting such sensitive facilities, of course, murdering over 1,400 Israelis, all of these together, obviously extremely worrying. That is just one component and of course Israel has been fighting against the possibility of Hezbollah acquiring those precision missiles for so many years with the strikes on weapon deliveries from Syria and from Iran over the years. The fact that Hamas has attempted to do the same is perhaps not surprising and nonetheless. One of the things that viewers will be shocked to hear is that things are still occurring in Janine that there was an incident overnight for that. Yes, seven Palestinians killed after an Israeli border police officer was killed when an explosive detonated in Israeli activity overnight. We also saw one Israeli man murdered in a shooting attack earlier today. Another woman from Jaffa was seriously wounded as well in that incident. Senior editor Guy Azrael, thanks so much for joining us. Former Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence is here in Israel. He took a tour of the area around the southern part of Israel by the border with Gaza. Take a look. Sir, we're standing right very close to the camera right now. She's a Gaza student. Over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday, ever since dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel. But only a few of them have reached this point. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stood here overlooking the Gaza Strip. This is a safe room. Her brother and sister, Mithra and Amali, were hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours. Not far from here was the house of the Dan family. The parents, Roy and Smodar, were murdered. The older brother and sister hid in a closet and Zlitalavi Gael was kidnapped to Gaza and later released. Pence, who received a full update about what happens that morning, has one clear message to the world regarding the abductees. I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message, not just to Hamas, but to Iran. The United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released. Pence served as Vice President of Donald Trump, a conservative Republican, a great friend of Israel. He came here not only to express his support, but also to offer help. It's not a secret that there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration. Do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration? I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel. But I think any message other than that, we will support the decisions that are made by the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation, to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza. That needs to be the message from the United States. The sort of threat that will come back and everything will go back. What's happening before the 6th of October. The tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station, where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism, penciled a candle in the memory of the victims. Dark time. Lots of not great stuff, at least, but that's what it is. Yeah. That's what we're doing. Great. Good job, man. Thank you. Accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament, he met with the abductees' families. They asked him for help to put pressure on the Red Cross. After seeing what you have seen here, does it meet the criteria of genocide? Hamas came through that fence line to kill Jews. And I know of no other definition of genocide than to target eight people because of who they are. Next week, we are being drugged by South Africa to the International Court of Justice, blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian. I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action to use the international court of justice in the United Nations to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of loss on the Jewish people with Israel's actions in self-defense. If Israel was in the business of genocide, on October 8th, there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip. So what we do now is to eradicate Hamas, eradicate Hamas' military and governmental capabilities. This is what the IDF is doing. And? I'm Albert Lewits in reporting from Tel Aviv. The news continues here on I-24, after this. In a state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Hezbollah rocket smashes into a hotel in northern Israel. I'm Albert Lewits and at the I-24 news desk in Tel Aviv. Welcome to our viewers around the world. Day 93 of the war. Sunday, January the 7th, and we begin with breaking news. The Hezbollah rocket launched from somewhere in Lebanon has smashed into a hotel in northern Israel. This happened in the city of Metula. Details are still sketchy. As of now, there are no injuries. We're going to get a live report from the region very shortly. Also today, Israeli troops operating deep in Gaza city have uncovered another tunnel and found inside technological equipment, including components used by Hamas, to build long-range missiles. We're talking a rocket engine and warhead of a cruise missile here. The thing is, until now, no one thought Hamas could do this. And the IDF says what else was found? Iranian guidebooks. Now it's still unclear how far along Hamas was at making these missiles operational. Right now in Gaza, there are heavy battles between IDF forces and Hamas' elite Nukba death squads. The Golanian combat infantry are fighting a series of battles, not only from the ground, but also from the air, with targeted airstrikes. Moving now to the West Bank, 19-year-old police woman Shai Garmai was killed this morning when border police entered Genine to conduct a counterterrorism raid. Her funeral was just held with full military honors. She was killed, and three of her fellow officers were wounded when a roadside bomb was detonated as their vehicle passed by. It was an ambush. The soldiers attempting to rescue the injured were then attacked by Palestinian Islamic Shahad gunmen, who threw explosives at the Israeli troops. An attack helicopter eliminated the terrorists. Six were killed. Also in the West Bank, a manhunt is underway for the drive-by killers who shot and killed a 34-year-old Arab-Israeli man, Amar Mansour, from East Jerusalem. A woman driving behind him was also shot. She's in critical condition. It's all being labeled as a terror attack. In Qatar right now, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim Altani. This is part of a tour, trying to calm things down in a region. But things remain tense on the northern border after Hezbollah shot 60-plus missiles across to Israel yesterday and some more moments ago. And the Israeli Air Force responded with lethal action. And now it seems the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has leaked an assessment saying that Israel would be stretched too thin across too many fronts, seven of them, in fact. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can handle it. I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months. No terrorist is immune and we are determined to protect our citizens and return the residents of the north safely to their homes. It is a national goal shared by all of us and we act responsibly to achieve it. If we can, we will do it in diplomatic ways. And if not, we will act in other ways. As we said at the top of the broadcast, Israeli troops have found a Hamas compound that had components to build long-range cruise missiles. Robert Swift, I-24 news correspondent, is in southern Israel with that part of the story. Robert. That's right, the focus of the war at the minute does appear to be on the northern border with escalations taking place there, but the fighting still continues here in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military saying that it found components which would, if utilized by Hamas, would have been essentially an upgrade in their long-range artillery systems. This being components which could enable rockets to act as missiles, essentially the same weapon system but far more accurate and therefore more dangerous. Now, we're filming here from close to the Gaza Strip. As you can see behind me, I'm just gonna step to the side so you can see the area. I'm not gonna say exactly where we are for security reasons, but we are very close to two different Israeli communities that were attacked on the 7th of October and we're also, you'll be able to see now to our front, that is an Israeli army base which was attacked on that day as well. Now, it's worth noting that you'll be able to see the smoke to our front and we're hearing artillery fire throughout the last hour and most of it is coming from the south of us and that's because the Israeli military is putting its efforts into Southern Gaza. It's focusing on Khan Yunus. The buildings and the neighborhoods that we've seen to the north of us, we're close enough now that we can see these buildings and they're absolutely devastated. There's just hills and hills of rubble there but as you can see, the military operations in the Gaza continue. Ray Robert, there's also what we're understanding is some very, very heavy fighting and in fact, I think there was a report, you may have seen this report of some journalists who were killed inside Gaza. That's right, there's reports coming from Al Jazeera that two of their journalists were killed and what they've said was an Israeli airstrike. One of them, it's understood, is the son of the Al Jazeera bureau chief. Robert Swift joining us from the southern part of Israel. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm now joined on Zoom by Colonel Olivier Rafferwitz, he's the IDF spokesperson of Food International Media Olivier. Thanks so much for joining us. We have a lot to talk about. So let me start with first with this missile strike of a hotel in Metula. What do you know? Good afternoon and thank you to have me here on your program. Listen, I'm not going to elaborate about exactly what happened in Metula where the missile struck the city or the village of Metula. But what is clear that we are actually seeing an escalation of violent incidents from Hezbollah against Israeli territory. What happened today? It's totally unbearable. As you know, the IDF is tracking back, eating back Hezbollah positions along the border between Israel and Lebanon according to our assessment around maybe more. And 150 terrorist apparatus from Hezbollah have been killed since the 8th of October and we see this incident as a new, very grave incident along the border between Hezbollah and Hezbollah. So if I may, I would just go to first. I know you couldn't mention that. We have a correspondent, Olivier, I'm going to have you hold for one second. I'm going to go to our correspondent, Zach Anders, who's at the north of Israel. I'm going to come back to you in just a moment. Zach, you're at the north of Israel. What have you been hearing about what happened in Metula? Yeah, it does appear that a hotel was struck and we don't know what type of ordinance was used here or what type of rocket. Again, the main fear for these border communities, the closer you are to the actual border are these ATGMs, the anti-tank guided missiles that are fired by the personnel on the ground. There is a bit of warning, not much, but there is some warning. If it's aerial target missile a rocket that's launched a bit further in and the Iron Dome can pick up that target and attempt to intercept it. These communities like Metula, again, hitting this hotel, there's no immediate reports of casualties. The damage does appear to be limited, but we're still working to put together some of that information for you. Great, Zach, thanks so much. Let me go, thanks so much for the update. Let me go right back now to Colonel Olivier Rafferwitz again from the IDF. Colonel, thanks again for staying with us. One of the things you mentioned in terms of striking back against the Hezbollah targets, there was a report earlier that some of the Lebanese armed forces were also under attack. That's coming from Lebanon. Is there any way that you can either confirm or feud or deny that that actually happened? Before answering the question concerning the Lebanese army, I would like to say that in the last weeks, we have been, we saw actually anti-tank missiles used by Hezbollah against villages, against communities, civilian communities. And I would say that's been it very seriously. Also to say that around 100,000 Israelis have left all this area and we talk about almost ghost town in the northern part of Israel which is actually a terrible situation. And again, Hezbollah is trying to push forward escalation. And right now, we are actually seeing the escalation with a lot of worrisome. Concerning your question about the Lebanese army, as you know, we consider actually Hezbollah directly responsible for what's going on in the northern part of Israel. And of course, the state of Lebanon is also responsible that maybe has no the possibility to act against Hezbollah because Hezbollah is directly connected to Iran. Concerning the direct hit against any Lebanese position, as you know, we have no intention, no intention, no willingness to hit any Lebanese army position. So is the idea what the IDF is trying to do is to just let Hezbollah know that there is a 1701 UN resolution that's in place that they're supposed to stay, first of all, they're supposed to be demilitarized up to the Lutani River. That hasn't happened. Is that what the thought now is just to remind them that that's what's supposed to be in place? We don't remind Hezbollah anything. We just hope that the international community led by the USA or so with the French government will do a lot with the Lebanese government to push forward Lebanese terrorist groups from the Lebanese-Israeli border to the Lutani River, calling to 1701 UN Security Council Resolution, with the time being they are there along the border, they're eating, they're striking, they're trying to escalate the situation. It's a big, big threat. And as you know, if they continue to eat and to escalate, Lebanese and the Lebanon as a state will actually pay the price of this incredible, dangerous policy led by Iran using proxy Hezbollah against Israel. Colonel, there has been a report today also, maybe it's a leak from the US Pentagon, from the Defense Intelligence Agency that basically said that Israel is stretched too thin, that they are not able to handle what's going to happen in Lebanon should things escalate, that there are seven fronts. I mean, you and I can name all seven of these fronts and that Israel stretched too thin. What is the IDF's response to that? You know, we're not going to comment any leaks from anyone, but I can tell you that very seriously and very officially that the Israeli army is ready to any developments in the south and along the border on the north. We are there, we have a lot of troops in the south and also in the north. Many people have been enlisted during the crisis from the 7th of October. And I think that the Israeli army and the self-Israel are sending very clear messages to our Lebanese government, to our Hezbollah, to our many, many parties in the area that we are not going to support, to sustain, to accept such a situation where 100,000 Israelis cannot be back home, cannot have a normal life because Iran is using Hezbollah against Israel on the back of the Lebanese people. This situation is unbearable and cannot continue. Colonel, there's also, now let's move on to the south. Since you brought up Iran, there was a report today that the IDF found inside a stash, inside the stash they found weapon, the manuals, Iranian weapon manuals for a cruise missile. Can you tell us more details as to what the IDF found? Well, I can tell you that we are actually looking for many things in the area where we are acting with our troops. And we found, I would say, a factory of very precise missiles with the guidance, with the expertise of Iran. Again, Iran is not only helping and assisting Hezbollah in the north, so also assisting Hamas in the south against Israel. And we can really see the Iranian willingness, Iranian policy against Israel everywhere. And it's not new, but here we have the proof of this factory with precise guided missiles. Do we know how many missiles are we talking about? I mean, do we know whether or not they were operational and if they were not operational? And it's just one, is it just one location or does the IDF suspect there's several locations all throughout Gaza? Here we talk about one specific location, but it could be not the only one using Iranian expertise for producing precise guided missiles against Israel. It is also another issue that worries us, but we are aware that Iran is in the south, is in the north, trained to influence, he proxies against Israel without being directly involved, but that's the Iranian state of mind using Hamas together with Hezbollah, Lebanese against Israel without being directly involved. But we know that they are fully involved against Israel and also against American and international interests. Well, that would also presume that in these missiles, they're not exactly, it's not the size of a coffee cup. These missiles are very large. You would imagine that those in Gaza knew that this was happening, that they knew that this was easily findable. You would have to lift it out of the underground bunkers to go someplace to launch them. So is there a discussion on that too as to exactly how implicit or complicit some of the folks in Gaza are too? I'm not going to elaborate about it right now, but what I can tell you, it just proved one thing, that the operation in Gaza still continues. We need more time to continue to disclose weapons, ammunition, factories, prediction of such missiles on other things, on other parts in the north, in the center and the south part of the Gaza Strip. Even if we have now, I would say almost full control, operational control of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, war against Hamas is not over. I repeat, war against Hamas is not over. We have killed around 8,000 terrorists with war against Hamas is not over. Right, you're seeing live pictures, our viewers at home are seeing live pictures of Gaza right now where there's, I guess they're conducting, the IDF and the IAF are continuing to have airstrikes along the area. This, I would imagine Olivier that what you're trying to show is that what things may be occurring in the north, that doesn't mean that things are letting up on the south. That would seem to have been what has been some of the discussion outside of Israel right now in the world stage. They're like, well, if the things are happening in north, it's pulling people away from the south. You just mentioned in the beginning of your program, you know, there are fierce fights still going on in the south parts of the Gaza Strip, mostly in Hanyu Nessaray. We know that there are a lot of tunnels, war tunnels, also the leaders of Hamas, the terrorists, the chief, like Iqis in war, Mohamed Def and the others, are hiding themselves in these tunnels, mostly likely in the Hanyu Nessaray. So as I said before, war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is not over. Olivier, I'm gonna, Colonel Olivier, I'm gonna ask you one more question in terms of the population from Gaza. They have all been moved down to the south. There's 1.2 million Gaza residents. There were 1.2 million Gaza residents throughout the Gaza Strip. They've all been told to go to the south. Do we have any indications to what the conditions are in the south? There have been some humanitarian trucks, some 80, 90 of them a day. There's probably a little bit more. Maybe you have information about that. But do we have any indication what life is like there from the IDF's perspective? We are improving and we try to improve every day the humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Gaza. As you know, from the very beginning, we settled, I would say, Madusa Perendi in order to prevent them to be involved in the combat areas. As you know, also Hamas did the opposite, tried to use all of them as human shields everywhere, like schools, mosques, UN facilities to be used as not human shields, but as shields against Israel, then attacking and criticizing Israel and provoking a war reaction. We're aware of it. We do what we can do in order to prevent this population to be in the combat areas. But one, an unique responsibility of the humanitarian situation in Gaza is Hamas. And Hamas has to be defeated, has to be destroyed. And then Gaza area and Gaza people in the Gaza Strip will get another situation, also another humanitarian situation. And I hope that this situation will be changed soon. In case you're just joining us, I'm joined on remote with Colonel Olivier Rafa, which is the IDF spokesperson for international media. I'm also joined now in studio with Guy Azrael, I-24 Senior Editor Guy. The missile attack yesterday from Lebanon into Israel, from what we were told, it was really aimed at one place. Although there was a barrage of rockets and missiles yesterday by Hezbollah. Hezbollah claimed to have fired 62 projectiles towards Israel. And one of them is particularly interesting and particularly worrying as well. Hezbollah's claim to struck a very strategic Air Force Israeli Air Force facility that is a radar facility of the Israeli Air Force on Mount Meron. Now, until now Israel didn't really fear the possibility of that facility if the claims of Hezbollah are correct to be hit because that structure is pretty high up on the mountain, pretty far away from the border. Israel, of course, has the Iron Dome missile defense system to protect facilities like these from being hit. The news today is that the IDF now assists that the projectile that hit that radar facility was in fact an advanced anti-tank missile, a cornet EM, that is a more advanced system of those cornet missiles, unlike the regular ones. This one can reach up to 10 kilometers in range. It is a precision guided missile with a laser beam that was able to hit. If that is correct, a very strategic, a very sensitive point for the Israeli Air Force, that sort of a radar facility is the one that enables the Israeli Air Force to control all of its aerial activity in the north, like we saw, perhaps in that strike in Beirut last week and so many other Israeli air strikes in the region. I can also remind you and our viewers that just prior to the October 7th attack, Hamas has struck so many of Israel's surveillance systems, the cameras and other more advanced facilities. And even on October 7th itself was able to use drones to hit some of the very important strategic defense and radar systems on the border, which enabled Hamas to go on without attack. And of course, that is extremely worrying if Israel's surveillance systems in the northern part of the, next to the Lebanese border, will also severely hit if Hezbollah's claims are correct. I'm going to have you all in one second. I wanted to first thank Colonel Livia Rafowitz. He's no longer with us here to go. He's gone. He had to go there. There's some action, I guess, that he wanted to go chase down and we'll hopefully get back to him at some point through the evening. So thanks to him again for joining us. So, Guy, let me ask you about the south. The idea that they found cruise missiles or the instructions, components to make a cruise missile, worrying but also not surprising, I shouldn't say surprising but not shocking. Look, everything is shocking now in retrospect, knowing everything that Hamas has been doing all those years. What Israel knew or didn't know, that will be examined in many investigations that will be conducted after this war. Having said that, obviously extremely worrying that no one has a doubt about the fact that Iran has been so heavily involved in the technological advancement of Hamas with everything that we saw on October 7th and since then, as well being able to really strike Israel so deep and in such a wide scale, both in terms of penetrating Israel, hitting such sensitive facilities, of course, murdering over 1,400 Israelis. All of these together, obviously extremely worrying. That is just one component and, of course, Israel has been fighting against the possibility of Hezbollah acquiring those precision missiles for so many years with the strikes on weapon deliveries from Syria and from Iran over the years. The fact that Hamas has attempted to do the same is perhaps not surprising and nonetheless. One of the things that viewers will be shocked to hear is that things are still occurring in Janine. There was an incident overnight for that. Yes, seven Palestinians killed after an Israeli border police officer was killed when an explosive detonated in Israeli activity overnight. We also saw one Israeli man murdered in a shooting attack earlier today. Another woman from Jaffa was seriously wounded as well in that incident. Senator Gai Azrael, thanks so much for joining us. Former Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence is here in Israel. He took a tour of the area around the southern part of Israel by the border with Gaza. Take a look. Sir, we're standing right very close as close as we can right now. She's a Gaza student. Over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday. Ever since, dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel. But only a few of them have reached this point. Former US Vice President Mike Pence stood here, overlooking the Gaza Strip. This is a safe room. Her brother and sister, Mithana Mali, were hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours. Not far from here was the house of the Idan family. The parents, Roy and Smodar, were murdered. The older brother and sister hid in a closet, and Zlitalavi Gael was kidnapped to Gaza and later released. Pence, who received a full update about what happened that morning, has one clear message to the world regarding the abductees. I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message, not just to Hamas, but to Iran. The United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released. Pence served as Vice President of Donald Trump, a conservative Republican, a great friend of Israel. He came here not only to express his support, but also to offer help. It's not a secret that there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration. Do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration? I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel. But I think any message other than that we will support the decisions that are made by the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation, to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza. That needs to be the message from the United States. I'm so afraid that we'll come back and everything will go back. What's happened before 6 October? The tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station, where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism. Pence lit a candle in the memory of the victims. Dark time, lots of not great stuff that we saw, but it is what it is. It's what we're doing. Great, good job, man. Thank you. Accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament, he met with the abductees' families. They asked him for help to put pressure on the Red Cross. After seeing what you have to say here, does it meet the criteria of genocide? Hamas came through that fence line to kill Jews. And I know of no other definition of genocide than to target eight people because of who they are. Next week, we are being drugged by South Africa to the International Court of Justice, blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian. I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action to use the international court of justice, the United Nations, to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of Hamas on the Jewish people with Israel's actions in self-defense. If Israel was in the business of genocide on October 8th, there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip. So what we do now is to eradicate Hamas, eradicate Hamas's military and governmental capabilities. This is what the IDF is doing. And I'm Albert Lewitson reporting from Tel Aviv. The news continues here on I-24, activists. The I-24 News Channel broadcasting from Israel with dozens of correspondents throughout the world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. They're going to be completely gunned down in their beds. De la frontière qui sépare l'Israël, the state of emergency and war in Israel. Bringing Israel's story to the world, I-24 News Channels, now on Hot. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. It's three months since the war began, and there are no signs of calming down, rather the opposite. Over 130 hostages are still in the hands of Hamas in Gaza, and Hizballah has been increasing its attacks from Lebanon into Israel. We'll start off with I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift in the south near the Gaza border. Robert, what's the latest from there? Here on the ground, it's relatively quiet in the far north of the Gaza Strip. There's some sporadic Israeli artillery fire, but the majority of the fighting is coming from further south, from around the Canunis area, where we've been hearing heavier bombardments of Israeli artillery taking place there. Now, whilst this is all happening, the war of the words is as much taken the focus here on with regards to the Gaza Strip. Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, just released, sorry, the Jordanian palace just released information regarding him, saying that he had assured the Jordanians that the US government was deeply opposed to any form of population transfer from inside the Gaza Strip, and this comes as the US continues pushing its diplomatic efforts to find some sort of day-after scenario for the Gaza Strip that will both work for Israel, its close ally, but also for many of the Arab partners in the area. All right, Robert, thank you very much. We are awaiting some award from the Secretary of State who is in Dahai in Qatar, and he should speak live in a short while, and of course, we'll bring it to you live. According to a Washington Post report, the Biden administration suspects that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will venture into a war in Lebanon in order to cling to his power. On the other hand, American diplomacy has produced nothing so far to avoid this war. I-24 near senior correspondent Owen Alterman reports on another attempt by the US Secretary of State. If it's Sunday, this must be Jordan. As US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken jets through Amman on his tour of the Middle East, here meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah. This after stops in Turkey and Greece, and before stops in Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt. These are not necessarily easy conversations. There are different perspectives, different needs, different requirements, but it is vital that we engage in this diplomacy now. Blinken is juggling at least three balls. The first one, preventing all-out war in Israel's North, doing what he can to incentivize Hisbola to get to yes on a diplomatic agreement that allows Israelis to return to Northern communities feeling safe. Here, Blinken is part of a larger Western push. It is imperative to avoid the regional escalation in the Middle East. Absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict. And the second juggling ball, the war in Gaza itself, where Blinken will continue to push Israel to lower civilian casualties up the flow of aid and move on to the next phase of the war. And then the third ball, Gaza's day after, where Blinken has now laid out some of the clearest American thinking yet. And we also talked about the role that Turkey can play, both in the day after for Gaza, in terms of the challenging questions of governance, Palestinian-led governance, security, rebuilding. So the United States is moving to bring in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help run Gaza. How does Israel feel about that? Blinken will presumably find out. Israel is stop seven on his tour. Here we remain in the studio. Dr. Jacques Neriaga, good evening to you. You're now Lebanon, you're now Hezbollah. What's going on there? On one hand, it's not a full-blown war. On the other hand, it's getting there by the day. Well, it seems that most of us have forgotten what happened during the one-and-a-half years that passed. I remember very well that Hezbollah sent drones against the Karish gas field. It was his troops who destroyed all the cameras along the border. It was his decision to erect a tent on the blue line. It was under his instructions that the terrorists that just penetrated Israeli territory and got to Megiddo. And it was under his assent that the Palestinian factions in Lebanon find rockets and he himself find rockets on Israeli territory. And we did not answer. And these provocations continued day after day, day after day, whereas the Raduan units were just patrolling on the fence under the windows of the inhabitants in the north. And everybody was well aware that Hezbollah was preparing a plan to attack all the border communities. And exactly, I mean, a copy of what happened on the 7th of October in Gaza. So, I mean, trying to say that they were trying to stop Israel from responding to that is really something very naive because the one who have started the whole business is Hezbollah. And since the 8th of October, not the 7th, the 8th of October, he's been conducting an attrition war against Israel. And this is what he said very clearly, very simply. He said, our aim is to paralyze Israel and compel Israel to deploy 120,000 soldiers along the Lebanese border. This is one thing. Instead of those soldiers being sent to Gaza, they are right now deployed vis-à-vis Hezbollah. Second, we have initiated an evacuation of Israeli citizens. The first time since 1948 of more than 300,000, this is what he says. We know that we are talking about 60,000, but he says 300,000. And then he says, we have used all weapons that we have against Israeli positions. We have destroyed houses. And we have always, always aimed and targeted military targets, and not civilian, which is not correct at all. So this is what Hezbollah was intending to continue with us, to do with us naturally asking the Iranian militias in Syria and the Iraqi militias in Iraq and in Lebanon to intervene also in the pressure on Israel in order to stop its war activities in Gaza. And suddenly, out of the blue, there is a blow inside the sanctuary of Hezbollah. Something that Hezbollah could not imagine. Since 2006, the first time that something of the sort happens, assassination of the Salah al-Aroori. And it blows, I think, the mind of most of the observers. How did this happen? How could this happen? And because of that, we are now in a course of collision because Hezbollah said very clearly that he is going to punish this intrusion by Israel, as he says. And we have seen the first volley of rockets against the Har-Maron, the air base 506, as he says. And most of them did not even reach the target. Now it's another essay trying to hit all the border localities and if possible to go deep inside Israeli territory. In fact, we are now waiting for an Israeli reprisal to see how Israel is going to respond. And Israel has begun to signal to Hezbollah that our response is going to be deep inside Lebanon. We have hit targets inside. We have hit roads that link between south and north of Lebanon, just to make it difficult for Hezbollah to bring reinforcement in the area. So I mean, this is where we are right now. And the spark is there. And it takes, I mean, it will take only a good target hit by Hezbollah and all for us to begin an all-out war against Hezbollah. Some miscalculation and everything can explode. Now in the meantime, we are seeing some diplomatic efforts. Obviously, Secretary of State is coming here and so forth. And if there is any opening for a diplomatic solution there, it might be those 13 points on the border that Hezbollah has some claims upon. What is the deal over there? Well, Israel withdrew to the border of today called the blue line in the year 2000. And it was with the agreement of the UN and all the cartographers that this was the line that was decided upon. There was only a problem concerning the village. And Israel decided that half of it would go to Lebanon and half of it would remain under Israeli sovereignty. And the Sheba funds, which we say that they were never Lebanese. They were always Syrian. So there's no reason why we should give it back to Hezbollah. So Hezbollah is saying something different. I mean, under the disguise of 13 points, Hezbollah is talking of the international border. The international border was a border that was drawn in 1923 by the French and the British. And he says, this is our border, recognized border, international border. And if you look at the map, you would see that there are lots of villages, lots of kibbutzim that should go back into the Lebanese territory. And this is unacceptable to Israel. This is impossible. You're not going to talk 100 years back and to bring it to today. So Hezbollah is saying also very clearly, we are not going to be part of any negotiation until the war ends. So until this and the war in Gaza, supposedly, the war in Gaza, because when the war in Gaza will end, so the war in Lebanon will end also. So before that, there's nothing to talk about. And then you ask yourself, who is your partner in Lebanon? There's no president. The only one that can sign any agreement with Israel is the president, according to constitution. There's no president. There's a vacancy since October 19, 2022. The government is a transitional government. The prime minister is a transitional prime minister. So what are we talking about? The French tried three times with three personalities, with Macron, with Le Drian, and with Colonna in order to convince Lebanese to accept voting for a president due to no avail. So all their efforts are null. And Hezbollah says, we've been approached by the Americans, by the French, and by the Germans. And who else? Everybody is talking to us, but we have nothing to talk to. And what he says very clearly, this is the time that those 13 points will get, first of all, we will pocket them. And then we will talk something else. Yeah, that's a tragedy of Lebanon. Meanwhile, let's go to the West Bank. An Israeli soldier was killed and five were wounded in an operation near the city of Genine in the West Bank tonight, and later, a ramming terror attack left two injured and a toddler dead during a fire exchange with the terrorist. I-24 News, Nicole Cedric reports. Israeli border police can be seen nearly every night conducting counterterrorism operations in the northern West Bank city of Genine. But Saturday night, it turned deadly, as a roadside explosive hit one of their vehicles, killing 19-year-old Shai Grimai and injuring three others. The wounded were air evac to the hospital, while the IDF carried out an airstrike killing seven Palestinian gunmen who hurled explosives at troops, four of them brothers, according to family members. I never imagined that they would die all at once. I was thinking that maybe Hazar and Rami were the most likely to be killed. But Allah and Ahmed, I never thought that they would be martyred, especially altogether at one time. The Palestinian-Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the deadly roadside bomb. Near hours after the attack in Genine, an Arab-Israeli man was shot dead near Ramallah. 33-year-old Ammar Mansour was killed in his car. The woman driving behind him also injured in serious condition. It's the first deadly shooting attack in the West Bank since November, showing terrorism is still boiling over in the area, even as Israel has arrested more than 2,600 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, trying to gain a stronghold on the third front of the war. Good afternoon, I'm Ahmad Najib. Thank you very much for joining us. You know, they keep talking about the future of Gaza, and I want to ask you, what's the future of the West Bank? Yes, both the question, Yaakov, actually. Since 7th October, the IDF intensified its race invasions of the West Bank, cities, religious camps, and towns, as Genine told Karim and Nablus. And every night, there is an invasion. And at every invasion, there is clashes that are up between the Palestinian youth and the IDF, sometimes armed or stony clashes. And the results are arrests or casualties or injured as a result of those clashes. So the West Bank, security chaos here, and no control for the Palestinian Authority. And there is anger. There is a difficult economic situation. After Israel has stopped 200,000 Palestinian workers who work in Israel, and they bring 6 million shakers to the Palestinian economy now, they are completely stopped. So they are suffering. The Palestinian Authority also cannot bear the salaries of its public employees. So the economic situation are catastrophic. The security situation are very bad and getting worse and worse. And there is a huge amount of anger here among the Palestinians for what's going in Gaza and for what's going in the West Bank. Which makes the Hamas more popular in the West Bank? Actually, the Palestinians sympathized with Hamas because it's fighting Israel and attacking and targeting by Israel, not because of the ideological reason, and also because the absence of a strong Palestinian Authority that lead them to achieve something on the ground to stop the war in Gaza, to bring them economic prosperity or something. So the Palestinian Authority's absence is poor here and cannot provide any services for the people. And Hamas is managing and dominating the scene. You are right. Is there any hope for this Palestinian Authority to somehow come back? It's difficult, actually. I know that Americans try to reshape the Palestinian Authority to go to control Gaza, but the performance of the Palestinian Authority here is not that good. And in the latest survey conducted by the Palestinian Center here, 90% of the Palestinians said that President Abbas had failed in conducting his duties and he must leave the scene and some civility called for the dismantle of the Palestinian Authority because it doesn't respond to the expectation of the Palestinians. But despite that, it's still the legitimate body that represent the Palestinians internationally and recognized by the international community. And without that will be a security chaos in the West Bank. No one knows how the situation will be, especially with the ongoing violence and the increase in violence in the West Bank during the last few months and in particular since in October right now. All right, Mohamed Najiba, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Two updates, meanwhile. There are sirens in southern Israel. That's one. Another one reports on cyber attack in Beirut's airport. Apparently, Jacques Nerilla on the boards in Beirut's airport, instead of flights, you see some slogans against Hezbollah. Well, this is something that was expected and that something of the sort would happen. Now, if you try your ways today and try to get to a north locality, you will be directed to Beirut. So, I mean, the GPS also has gone mad and you have to be very careful when you use this technology at this point. I mean, cyber attacks are not represented by states. They could be, I mean, groups or the, I would say, nationalist group or whoever just wants to make fun. And it means that the cyber security of the Beirut International Airport is not so good. This is what it means. To the point of the West Bank, will there be a chance, an opportunity to reshuffle and rebuild the PA or maybe it's going to be the end of it? Well, the Americans are working very hard to convince Mahmoud Abbas to step down. This is something that they have decided here. It's been in office for more than 18 years. He has prevented all possible elections and all possible reunions with the Hamas and with all Palestinian factions. And as such, he has just favored a group of people who are very corrupted. And this is how this Palestinian Authority is seen and interpreted by most of the population. This is why you have a wide support of Hamas inside the West Bank and where it not the activities of Israel in the area. You'd have seen Hamas taking over long ago. So this is the situation. So this is why the Americans have already begun talking with the Egyptians, with the Jordanian and with the Israelis in Acaba and in Sharm Asher twice about reshuffling the Palestinian Authority, giving it more power, training about 5,000 to 10,000 new recruits in order to impose order, law and order. This is something that has a long, long way faded from the landscape. Now there are also opposition, the opposition mainly Dahlan. Right, Dahlan. We'll talk about him later maybe. The Nova Music Festival turned into a killing field on October 7th. More than 350 music fans were slaughtered there by Hamas and dozens were abducted to Gaza. Their families went to the venue recently. The United States Uniformity Army of Israel brings their story. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different. I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Michail Levi, visiting this beautiful woods outside Kibbutz Reim near the Gaza border is an emotional rollercoaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival. And on October 7th, his brother, Ol and sister-in-law Einav arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything as he describes it led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Einav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw their grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter. But I can imagine. I can understand from the stories. He was, she was in front of him. He saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Michail has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Einav arrived in the morning of the party and not the night before when it began was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Almog, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Reim at dawn. Now, Almog is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He calls them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the words, the words, dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand, but he understands that they are not here with him. Michail is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage who came to this now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped, and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on that dreadful October 7th. The area here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here. Now, these are their faces. Most of them are gone for good, but for some, there's still hope to return home, but time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itai Regev, who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken from the party remain in captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days, and every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive, very hard. The hostages cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. Asaf Pozniak lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hoda'ya and Ta'ir, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. The hostages were found to have been killed by a group of people who were killed six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hoda'ya and Ta'ir. They were at my wedding in June, and I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Mikhail remain optimistic that the hostages will return, and soon. I'm hopeful I wake up every morning with that hope, even when there are more difficult days in which we hear the terrible news of another hostage killed in captivity. Close to 20 hostages murdered by Hamas and the brave soldiers who risked their lives to bring back the hostages. We expect from the government to present an Israeli initiative, to bring back all of the hostages and not to play by Hamas' dune. It's not hope. I know he will be back. It's just a matter of time. That's it. I know he will be back, and like I said on stage, I will do everything to bring him back, even if it means to turn the world upside down. Thank you. We'll take a short break and we'll be right back. Eight of war families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. It is set in Doha, Qatar, to listen to Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, and his hosts in Qatar. Momentarily, we are waiting for their remarks live and we'll bring it to you as soon as they start speaking. Now, to Northern Israel intensifying fire exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel over the weekend. I-24 News, Zach Anders is in Northern Israel tonight with the update from there, Zach. Yeah, and listening to Blinken's comments, Secretary Blinken's comments earlier when he was on the tarmac after landing, he said that he wanted to de-escalate the conflict right here in the North with Hezbollah. Now, the conflict has turned a bit of a corner. Yesterday, over 60 rockets launched in separate attacks. Today, it has been quieter for claimed attacks by Hezbollah, including some damage to a hotel in Matula. No apparent casualties, although no confirmation yet from the IDF as to the extent of the attacks. They often wait until the very end of the day after all the attacks have come in to release such reports. So we'll still wait to see how detailed some of the damage reports will come out to later in the afternoon. But we wanted some of the more interesting notes of the last several hours in an airport in Beirut at the international airport there. The screens appear to have been hacked or changed, manipulated somehow to send a message to Hezbollah that Lebanon would not stand behind Hezbollah in a war here in the South of Lebanon that they do not want a war here. Of course, this is a very diverse country with multiple different religious factions. Beirut is a very diverse city. So the swell of support behind Hezbollah is certainly within Hezbollah's ranks. But outside of that, not within the rest of these other parties throughout the country, not as strong as Hezbollah's support is within its own ranks. So a little bit of an interesting note. But again, today's attacks have been limited in scope, some damage, and they do appear to in the last few hours keep coming, so we will stay on that and bring them as they happen. All right, Zach, thank you very much for that. With us now is Dr. Nasir Al-Omarri. Thank you very much for joining us. And I'd like to ask you, is there a realistic diplomatic option to avoid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel? Yeah, I believe Hezbollah does not want to see a war with Israel. It's not in their interest to have this war. They know exactly what will happen if they escalate. They want to maintain control over Lebanon. They want to continue with the propaganda. And they want to have a few kilometers between on the border where they can every now and then launch a missile here and there. Their masters in Tehran have said repeatedly that they don't want this war. However, I think on the Israeli side, they want concrete action. They want the people who are displaced from the northern parts of Israel to return there safely. And so now we're talking about a deal that can stabilize the border if all goes well. Do you give it a chance? Having been listening carefully to Hassan Masrallah's speeches, I don't think he keeps repeating that this is not the war that they are interested in, that they support Hamas. But I don't hear a desire to launch a full scale like missile attacks on Israel because they know exactly what will happen. However, they were embarrassed because of the Saleh al-Aroori's assassination and they want to show that they are not just all talk, no action. I think there is a chance to return to whatever normalcy means in that region for the time being because the Iranians don't see this as a good move at this point. So do you assume some sort of diplomatic upside for an Australia on the border might convince him to draw back to like 1701 line? Yeah, I think from what I have been reading, he wants about seven kilometers, he wants whatever skirmishes happen between him and the IDF to be confined to seven kilometers because if this war becomes part of the daily life in Lebanon and if targets are hit across Lebanon, then he will have no option, he will look weak and he will look like he's sitting back and doing nothing when he's being attacked. So I think they want all of this to be confined to the border so that they can continue with the propaganda, they can continue with what they call deterring Israel. From the Israeli side, I think they want a way for the Israelis to return to Northern Israel and this time not to be displaced again. So Huckstein has a very tough job but I think the appetite for not escalating this war is present on the Israeli and Hezbollah side. Right, and how do you think your US election here will come into play here? We have said, are you asking me about how the Biden administration dealing with the situation, with the escalation in the region, I guess that's what you're asking. Am I right? Yes, exactly. Yeah, I think for the Biden administration they really hope by this time this war should be winding down. The last thing that Biden administration wants to worry about is a full-fledged war in the Middle East or the situation that is going on internally within the Democratic Party. There are divisions over the Gaza war. So I think they're hoping and that's what Mr. Blinken is trying to achieve. They're hoping that the war will wind down in a few weeks and the war will be contained. That will be a positive outcome for the Biden administration but definitely what has been going on over the last few days with Hezbollah is very worrying and that's why we have seen Mr. Blinken doing this seven stop trip across the Middle East to make sure that all parties are on the same page that this thing should wind down and this war should come to an end soon. Yeah, Dr. Nasir Alamari, thank you very much for that. Thank you. Back to you, Dr. Jagna Ria here in the studio. I wanna ask you about the Lebanese people, the people of Lebanon. They're suffering, they've been suffering so much for so long. Where are they in all of this? No, I ask the same question. What are they? I think that the only ones that have expressed their enthusiasm for the war were the southern audience of Hezbollah, the northern party. If you look at Lebanon, you divide it in three. There you have the Beirut Damascus axis and then you have the north where the Tripoli, Akar, Hermel region and in between those two areas you have the Christian enclave headed by the Lebanese forces and the Cathay parties. Those are against the war. Definitely they are against the war. They want the war to be restricted and Lebanon not to be involved. All the others have no voice in Lebanon. They have, really they have no influence at all. The Sunnis are almost inexistent in Lebanon because since Saad Khareyui has disappeared from the political scene, there's no leader up through the Sunni community in Lebanon. So the Sunni community is just left aside of the main events. And the only one that expressed their opposition to the war are the Christians. Unfortunately, they are not heard. Unfortunately, they cannot influence the decision of Hezbollah and Hezbollah just receiving its order from Tehran. Let us all remember that Hezbollah is an Iranian invention. It was founded in 1982 by Iran and works as an Iranian tool. So this is what we are facing and we are not facing a Lebanese organization. We are facing a militia that was set up by Iran and serves its goal in the region. What about the civilians in Southern Lebanon? They are suffering as well. Well, you know, Hezbollah, the Nassana said in his speech that they have been forced to evacuate about 80,000, more or less, the same amount of people from the Israeli side. And he was ready to rent houses and apartments for all those who are in need. I don't think that anyone would have asked, will ask for such an assistance. As far as I remember, I think that till now the those who suffered the 1956 earthquake in Lebanon were not compensated till now. So I mean, really, I mean, this is not the Israeli side of the border. This is not the people that are directed to hotels and that the government is caring for to try to give them the sort of compensation in Lebanon. Either you live or you die. It's really a tragedy. I mean, you've been to Lebanon. I also have been to be rooted, you know, some better times back in the 80s. That was the Paris on the Middle East for some time. And then came the Israeli Lebanese war. No, before that, that was the Civil War in Lebanon twice. The Civil War, yeah, seven years of war or something like that. Since 1975 to 2009. So this country is really, you know, a tragedy, OK? Don't have any other word. The problem of Lebanon is that it is an artificial state. It was till 1920. It was Mount Lebanon was Lebanon. It was the known at the Grand Liban. It was with a majority of Christian, Maronite Christians. In 1920, the Maronite Partiac was very greedy. He wanted to add to that small area, to add more territory. And the French were the responsible of the mandate. Added to Lebanon, the old Mecca Valley, the southern part of Lebanon, which was part of Syria, Greater Syria, and formed Lebanon with 10,453 square kilometers. But this was the basis of the problem, of the crisis. Because from a majority of 90%, the Christian became a majority of 51%. And then the natality of the Sunnis and the Shiites were such that today they represent maybe, maybe one-third of the population in Lebanon. Add to this the fact that since the civil war in Syria, you have 2 and 1 half million refugees, Syrian refugees in Lebanon. It means that out of every four or five Lebanese, you have one Syrian. So this is the situation in Lebanon. Those Syrians are completely discriminated, completely said that their children don't even attend school. They have been not attending school for years. And they are allowed to, they are not allowed to leave their homes after seven o'clock in the evening. So this is the kind of, and to add to this, you have 95 professions in Lebanon that Palestinians cannot exercise. Even if you study the medicine, let's say that Palestinians study medicine, he cannot exercise his medicine in Lebanon. He cannot be a doctor. He cannot be an engineer. This is a very, very special country. There's also the kafala system. Kafala system is the Lebanese Excel. They take the passports of all those foreign workers and they turn them into slaves. And where they keep their passports and in order to release the passport, they ask the people who are working for them to pay them back money in order to get their passports and to get away from Lebanon. Unbelievable. Great ground for Iran to operate, obviously. Exactly so. Obviously. All right, now China. China has a lot to lose from shipping disruptions in the Red Sea. So why is China so quiet about it? With us now is Tommy Steiner, policy director at Signal Group. Thank you very much for joining us this evening. First of all, tell us what's the scope of Chinese commerce in the Red Sea? Well, first of all, it's not only Chinese commerce per se. It's the whole route is China's economy is to a large extent highly dependent on that sea route for various reasons. It's not only the direct commerce between China and the Middle East and Europe, if you wish. It's not only about the energy coming from the Middle East to China. It's far more than that because if the prices of exports and imports, if there's a global recession, everything is tied into this, including the price of oil and gas. So in that respect, China does not want to see a conflagration in the Red Sea. It is not in its interest, especially not at a time when its economy is already suffering and suffering quite a bit. Right. And also, we've seen Costco, the world's fourth largest shipping company, the Chinese company, has suspended shipping to Israel as well. How long can China afford losing money like this? Well, first of all, I don't think that shipping to Israel is a major concern for the Chinese economy. It's notable that it is only two Chinese, that it's only two container companies have announced suspension of services to Israel. And the two are Chinese. Costco is the largest. It has something like 12% of global container shipping. And the other one is smaller evergreen. But the two early ones are indeed Chinese. And that's reason for concern. How long can China put up with this? Well, I think that they have considerable wear with them in that respect. One, it's not the first time that they are suffering because of Iranian Houthis' attacks not only on the Red Sea. If you go back to 2019, if I'm not mistaken, when the Iranians and the Houthis attacked Saudi-Iranian facility, it cost China something like $100 million a day for extra payments in oil prices for a period of three to four weeks. So this is not the first time they're suffering. And probably the reason for their suspension of services is to try and appease the Houthis and the Iranians and simply allow them to continue using the Red Sea as a routing lane. Yeah, well, definitely not joining any Western country in policing the waters or something like that. Not at all. By the way, the Chinese do have a vessel that operates in the Red Sea. They have a naval facility in Jibouti. That's the only foreign base outside of China is in Jibouti. And they have a naval operation in the Red Sea. But as far as one knows, it only escorts Chinese ships. They do not get involved directly with any other operation that is undergoing in the Red Sea. Between you and me, having the relationships between China and Iran, one phone call could make the whole thing change, right? Well, let's put it this way. I'm not sure that the Chinese really want to test, to put that to a test. And that's one of the reasons probably that they are not doing it. Yeah, there is one call, but for some unknown reason, they're not putting that call. And I'm not sure it's because it's not in their interest to put the call. It's one way to make sure that you don't get, turns out that you really don't have any real influence. Because at the end of the day, the relationship is not that Iran is totally dependent on China. China also has an interest in its relations with Iran in terms of oil and other regional interests of Afghanistan and beyond. It's a bit more complicated than that. So yes, can they exert pressure by all means? Is it as simple as some people here in Israel will think it is? No, it isn't. Not yet, at least. Tommy Steiner, thank you very much for that. Back to you, Dr. Jacques Nariya. You know, looking at the Iranian operation, we've been talking about Lebanon, Gaza obviously, Houthi is in Yemen, and Iraq and Syria. I mean, they've been doing a pretty good job. Well, the Iranians have done a very good job since 1979, since they have been exporting the Islamic revolution since then. Khomeini has set the rules, and the first ball they have chosen, the weak links. And the first weak link was Lebanon. They understood that Lebanon was the potential, and this is where they founded Hezbollah. And then they began assisting all the anti-American groups in Iraq. And then they went to the... And the flip side of it was that the Western world, including Israel, were having an affluent sleep. Well, it reminds me of the period between the two world wars. They called it the Jolli days. I mean, everybody thought that this would continue forever, and that Iran would be contained at the end of the day. And this is why you had this big discussion concerning whether, yes or not, the JCPOA was the right thing to do with Iran in 2015, and had we accepted that, where Iran would have been today? I mean, the whole issue was how to contain Iran was not how to subdue Iran, how to control Iran. It was only to contain, and since, I mean, it's only to contain. And the Iranians found a way to just sneak from this containment and continue their policy as they are present in the Red Sea, they're present in the Arabian Sea, they're present in the Indian Ocean, they're present all over the world, and they're present in South America. Yeah, and we haven't mentioned the nuclear project. And this is why I'm talking about the JCPOA, that it was the mistake or not. I mean, this is something to be discussed in particular. But the Iranian run for the nuclear continues, and under the cover of this war, they have been enriching more and more uranium to an almost military grade. Right, we'll talk about that later in the program. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has been touring Israel in the past few days with a firsthand look at what happened on October 7th. Here's more in the next report. Sir, we're standing right very close as close as we can right now. Here's the Gaza Strip. Over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday. Ever since, dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel. But only a few of them have reached this point. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stood here, overlooking the Gaza Strip. This is a safe room. Her brother and sister, we're hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours. Not far from here was the house of the Dan family. The parents, Roy and Smodar, were murdered. The older brother and sister hid in a closet, and Zlitalavi Gael was kidnapped to Gaza and later released. Pence, who received a full update about what happened that morning, has one clear message to the world regarding the abductees. I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message, not just to Hamas, but to Iran. The United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released. Pence served as Vice President of Donald Trump, a conservative Republican, a great friend of Israel. He came here not only to express his support, but also to offer help. It's not a secret that there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration. Do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration? I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel. But I think any message other than that we will support the decisions that are made by the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation, to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza. That needs to be the message from the United States. The sort of way that we'll come back and everything will go back. What's happened before the Sixth of October. The tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism, penciled a candle in the memory of the victims. Dark time, lots of not great stuff that we saw, but this is what it is. It's what we're doing. Great, good job, man. Appreciate it, thank you. Accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament, he met with the abductees' families. They asked him for help to put pressure on the Red Cross. After seeing what you have to say here, does it meet the criteria of genocide? Hamas came through that fence line to kill Jews. And I know of no other definition of genocide than to target eight people because of who they are. Next week, we are being drugged by South Africa to the International Court of Justice, blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian. I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action. To use the international court of justice, the United Nations, to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of Hamas on the Jewish people with Israel's actions in self-defense. If Israel was in the business of genocide on October 8th, there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip. So what we do now is to eradicate Hamas. Eradicate Hamas's military and governmental capabilities. This is what the IDF is doing. Pence also called on the international community to stop using a double standard regarding Israel. And we are still waiting for US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to speak in Doha Qatar. We'll bring it to you live as soon as things start. Over there, we'll take a short break. We'll be right back.