 It's exactly two months since the darkest day in Israel's 75-year history, two months since that surprise Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October. More than 1,200 people shot or butchered during the hour's long killing rampage. More than 240 people were abducted, babies, children, women, men and the elderly held captive by Hamas in Gaza. In total, 110 hostages have been released, most of them during a brief truce, a hostage deal broken by Qatar. At the moment, 138 people are still in captivity, including the youngest hostage baby Khair Bebas, who was kidnapped with his mom Shiri and four-year-old brother Ariel. The two redhead boys becoming a symbol of the inhumanity of Hamas, holding a defenseless mother and her two young children captive for more than two months. Hamas saying in recent weeks, the Bebas family had been handed to another terror group in the strip to this day. No confirmation if that is in fact true. The Red Cross is yet to see any of the hostages in captivity. Confirmation earlier today that Mohammed al-Atrash, who has been missing for two months, is among the hostages being held captive by Hamas, relatives of the 40-year-old father of 13 from the Bedouin village of Sawa in the Negev, haven't heard from him since the terror assault. Let's start with finding out the latest developments on the ground. We cross live to our correspondent, Zak Anders, who joins us from northern Israel. Zak, the IDF says it carried out airstrikes against a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including rocket-launched sites and observation posts. Talk us through the latest developments up north. Well I can hear, as you speak to me, some of the outgoing artillery that appears to be targeting some of these Hezbollah positions not far from us in southern Lebanon. We're seeing early, early, unconfirmed reports that potentially within the last hour there has been a strike. There was no red alert, so we're still waiting for confirmation from the IDF. But there has been social media chatter regarding potential civilians in the area as an attack was taking place, and we're waiting to see and hear more from this latest development. But today, and the number of strikes that Hezbollah has taken credit for, claimed through Lebanese media channel, is far less than what we saw yesterday where they claimed responsibility for 11 separate attacks this morning. Just a handful so far, but of course, the evening and afternoon hours are still ahead. Thank you so much. Correspondent Zak Anders live from northern Israel, more to come from our team on the ground in the coming hours right now. We welcome to studio political commentator Daniel Sheik, the director of diplomacy at the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. And the former Israeli ambassador to France and our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman. Thank you both so much for being here on this day, two months exactly. Since the Hamas terror onslaught, it's difficult to imagine and process what has happened in that time. And Daniel, I want to start with you, 138 hostages still in captivity in Gaza for two months now. Here in touch with the families, what is the sentiment like? What is the feeling like? What are the concerns like right now? Well, I'll tell you a little story just before coming to the studio. I went down at the headquarters to lunch and you meet families, you meet colleagues, you meet and one of the family members who she is someone I'm in contact with. So I asked her, how are you? And she says, I don't know. It's a bad day. I can't explain why. So I say maybe because of the date. So she said, I didn't realize, but you're probably right. So it's sort of a sad anniversary for many. Plus, it comes at a time where, honestly, for these families, there's no real silver lining on the horizon currently. There are no known serious talks for the next round of exchanges. Fighting in southern Gaza is intensifying. There are all sorts of talks about new measures, possibly flooding the tunnels and things like that, which obviously, if you're a family member or close to a family member of a hostage makes you cringe. Complete goosebumps at the story that you're telling the fact that there are families who obviously aren't even keeping track of the days. Why would they? They're just waiting for some kind of good news. And Owen, I want you all to take looking across at the past two months. We know that there was this truce. And during that time, that was when the hostage deal, so to speak, happened. And we saw 110 people in total coming home. But for the families right now, where is that silver lining on the diplomatic front? Where can the pressure come right now to secure something else that would see some kind of hope to see these families getting to reunite with the hostages that are still being held captive for two months now? Well, other than obviously a rescue, which would be a best, best case scenario, right? And of course, it's important to remind ourselves we had one of those earlier on in the war. As the space for keeping hostages, one would imagine narrows and as the military comes in, one would hope that that's something that the military could achieve. Although again, no one is far from guaranteeing it. Our leaders don't really talk about that. So that gives you a sense of how they're trying to set expectations on that front. But short of that, the best realistic, best case realistic scenario is that in whatever period of time, days, weeks, Hamas comes back to the table, right? If they are waiting right now, potentially, let's say for Israel to make some kind of mistake, God forbid kill a large number of civilians in a kind of mass casualty attack. Or God forbid the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is already very difficult, obviously, take some dramatic turn for the war, something that puts real pressure on Israel, right? Barring that, once that doesn't materialize, and they continue losing on the battlefield as I think everyone expects them to, that they will inevitably want to come back to the table and play more of their quote unquote cards, hostages. And then there will be a deal on the table that the Israeli government and Israeli public could support. It's the best case realistic scenario. It is a realistic scenario, it's important to emphasize, it is a realistic scenario. But as Daniel Shek just said, it's not about to happen on December 7th. And so one can certainly understand why for a family member, it's not a good day. You know, it's just one more point that's not completely rational, but it's sort of a state of mind among the families. Many of them say, okay, you took hostages, you had a purpose, you intend to use them. So first of all, if you intended to negotiate with them, negotiate. Plus they say, what difference does it really make in the value of what you are holding in your hands, if you're holding 138 hostages, or let's say 50. And they're right, you know, for the fact of the matter is that it doesn't really make a difference at the negotiating table, they can still sit down maybe in two weeks or three weeks with 50 hostages, a list of 50 hostages, and say these are our demands. They probably won't be smaller than what they can expect now. So just release the rest, release the weak ones, release the, that's the state of mind of the families, obviously are not impartial in this, but it does make sense. Absolutely, we had a discussion in a discussion with Michael Orrin in our broadcast about an hour, hour and a half ago. And I made a similar point, right, where everyone understands the base case of the trajectory of where events are headed, both in the military arena, which of course is central, also in the diplomatic arena. And if everyone has the same set of expectations, why can't the deal that will be reached after those scenarios play out in three weeks be reached right now, which essentially is what the faster thing. What came out of the discussion with Michael Orrin is that maybe the expectations between the two sides, you know, and Hamas are different in terms of what can happen. And one element I just laid out is Hamas is maybe gambling that there will be some kind of quote unquote mistake on the Israeli side that will actually help them. It's a scenario that starts to make sense out of this picture, but I still can't help to come back to the analysis you just put out that still in the big picture, because the base case is so strong here and the spectrum of scenarios is relatively narrow at this point in the war. It is a bit of a mystery still to me, but why the deal that could be reached in three weeks can't be reached now. And Daniel, exacerbating the trauma that these families have to be going through and the uncertainty that they face right now are all these emerging details about what did happen in captivity for people who were held there for more than seven weeks, young and old. Give us a sense of the information that you can reveal about what it has been like mixed reports, conflicting reports, but you are in touch with people directly. What can you share? Well, if there's not anything that I can share that you haven't seen in the media, whatever can come out came out. And there are certain restrictions that certain family members were asked to keep for security reasons and but mostly the problem for them is emotional to speak about it. But things are beginning to come out and most of them are really not pretty. That you can imagine that that just exacerbates the panic among families and the urgency among those who are trying to help them. Because there is a clock on many of these people, maybe not all of them. And some of them are strong, robust, maybe not in immediate danger. But there are still many fragile hostages, elderly people, women, children, people with chronic diseases that people that are injured that were injured during the abduction. And clearly, according to those who came back with injuries, those injuries were not treated properly. So there's really no reason to believe that others get better treatment. One thing does come out that the way people were treated is not uniform. It depends a little bit probably by the person who held them and guarded them, which people differ. And some felt a little bit more humanely towards their captives than others. But everybody shared the same experience of hunger, lack of food, lack of light, obviously, and things like that, even if they were not directly brutalized. And one of the many distressing issues that has come out is when you heard people saying they have no concept of time. So you have a young girl who was held captive for seven weeks, but she thought she was there for a heartbreaking beyond. Stay with us, we've got more to discuss. Because meanwhile, the IDF is today revealing additional evidence gathered during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, showing the economic gap between Hamas leaders and the public in Gaza. It's found receipts totaling thousands of dollars from purchases of luxury jewelry by one of the sons of Ishmael Khania. The head of the political bureau of Hamas is believed to be in Qatar, while Gazans wait for humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian crisis is in focus inside Gaza, as we're discussing with displaced Palestinian civilians speaking out against Hamas on television, confirming that the terror group is taking humanitarian aid for its own purposes. These comments have gone viral. Let's take a listen. The aid doesn't come to the nation or to the people, all of them. It's too much, it's too much, it's too much, it's too much, it's too much, and it's distributed, that's what they're talking about. All of them are in their homes. Let them take it or take it, or do what they want, or Hamas. Fascinating comments indeed. Meanwhile, on the ground, the IDF says Hamas has been launching rockets at Israeli cities. The launch sites are situated within humanitarian zones in Gaza on Wednesday afternoon. Terrorists launching 12 rockets towards the city of Beishiba in southern Israel. The rockets were launched close to 10th, housing evacuated, Gazan civilians in Rafah, and from next to United Nations facilities. It also says Hamas launched a rocket from inside a humanitarian zone. The rocket misfire, putting many Gazan civilians at risk. So for the latest, let's go live to our correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, and he joins us from southern Israel. So, Pierre, we heard some red alert siren sounding in the southern community of Beiri. That was a short while ago. Meanwhile, fighting inside the Gaza Strip, intensifying Israeli troops making advances in communist. What is the latest? What can you share? Well, I can tell you that's here, the air breezes of muffled explosions emanating from the Jabalia refugee camp, which is a few kilometers away in this direction, where there are ferocious battles between terrorists and Israeli ground forces with air support, artillery support, and Navy support, and hence we even smell from time to time the gunpowder of those fighting. In the background, here is Beth Hanun, which is supposedly nominally under operational control of the IDF forces, but there are still some clashes from time to time, and there's also the cleaning up job of the IDF ground forces, especially the engineering corps, trying to neutralize the tunnels that are part of the huge and dense network of the northern Gaza Strip. And just behind me in the past two hours, we had three huge explosions, which seems to indicate that this was the neutralization, the destruction of a tunnel. In the town of Shejahia, which is on the southeastern outskirts of Gaza, Israeli media reported that just yesterday, there were 50 clashes, close range, between the IDF forces and the terrorists, in which 200 terrorists, according to Israeli media, but unconfirmed by the IDF, were killed. That was yesterday, but the fighting is still going on for a fourth consecutive day in Shejahia. Again, fierce fighting with air, Navy, and artillery support. And further south of Gaza City, in the Hanunas area, which has become the new focal point of the ground offensive of the IDF, fierce bombing, fierce fighting from within and without Hanunas, as the city is fully encircled. They are fighting on the eastern outskirts, on the northern outskirts in the refugee camps, such as Nusserat and Direl Balak. And the IDF is urging the population, as every day, to use the interactive map and to move west of Hanunas. The encirclement is breezing. It allows the civilian non-involved Palestinian population to move west and join the displaced population in the El Mwasi area, which is the humanitarian zone that you referred to just earlier when you spoke about the rocket fire being launched from the vicinity, from the perimeter of that humanitarian zone. Now, the UN is saying that over 80% of the total population of 2.2 million inhabitants in the Gaza Strip have moved to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, which means that now the sector of the fighting is even more delicate than it was before, because there are now almost the total population of the Gaza Strip, which is crammed in those areas of fighting, Hanunas and Rafah. So it's a difficult situation. The Palestinians media are quoting the Ministry of Health affiliated to Hamas that yesterday, in the past 24 hours, there were 350 casualties, 350 fatalities. But of course, there is no distinction between the civilian population and the terrorists, so we don't know how many terrorists were killed amongst the 350 people that were notified that were killed. Benita. Thank you so much. For now, that's our correspondent, Peir Kloschendler, updating us from southern Israel. Thank you so much, Peir. Stay safe. And now, for more, it's a pleasure to welcome Rabbi Menachem Traxler, the founder and director of the Kolel Chabad's pantry packers joining us from Jerusalem. Rabbi, thank you so much for your time. Now, the eight-day festival of Chanukah starts tonight. Jews around the world will be lighting their menorahs or candelabra. Chabad has been helping evacuated communities for two months now, so talk us through the plans right now. How are you sharing the lights, so to speak, for the festival of lights right now? So by spreading light, that's how we're doing it. Through joy, joy through toys and kids in hospitals, thousands of toys. You can see on my desk, we're going out to hospitals throughout the country, medical centers. We've been doing that for so many years. Of course, that's increased dramatically this year. Retreats for widows and their children in hotels. Starting tonight, we have a hotel with over 400 participants coming, mother widows and their children next week in Yerushalayim, another hotel. And toys for orphans, we've been packing this past week. As you can see, toys, good quality toys. I don't know if you can see, roller coaster, Israel, circuit maze. When my kids saw me getting all these toys, like, Kati, can you bring some home? Thank God, these are not for you. But we made sure to collect a lot of money with our donors and supporters to get the very best to bring joy to the children. I just want to point out actually that during the Hanukkah Live, the Bible Trevor said that Jews sitting in Jerusalem have an impact on Jews throughout the world. Back then, it might have not been so felt. I grew up in Houston, we would say Neskedol Ayasham. My kids say Neskedol Hayapoh. Today, it's the same. And we feel that every single day through our donors and our volunteers, those that can come in person and those that help overseas, the unity of Amistral and Aftas, everybody coming together and everybody has their own capacity and their own way, time or money, advocacy to help Amistral and their brothers and sisters in Israel that they have never met might not ever even meet them. Right. It's very, very special times. And as you are referring to a major miracle would certainly be very welcome right now. Rabbi, when it comes to the families evacuated from their homes, many have no indication as to when they'll be able to return, how long it will take to rebuild some of the Kibbutzim and the Moshe Vim destroyed two months ago and when it will be safe to do so. So share with us some of the stories you are hearing and the support that you are seeing for these communities right now. So we've been in this for a while. Actually, since 1788, Kola Chabad was founded by the first Chabad Rabbi, maybe going on ever since. More recently though, we've been chosen by the Israeli government to run and operate the National Food Security Program using these cards. Food cards, we created a system of a platform where almost every supermarket in the country can receive these cards and it's only for food. And we've been helping 30,000 families monthly for quite a while, just about 30,000 families. And more recently, we actually added baby foods to provide moms with cards so they can get formula for their families. But on October 7th, with the absolute horror and destruction that happens, the next morning we realized we need to start rolling this out and there's a lot more need. And together with channel 13, Guy Lair re-rolled out the Otefim. And within a week, we gave to every family from the immediate Otef Azaf, 3,440 families, 5,000 shekel each. These are families that left with a backpack, many without shoes, some were missing glasses. And we expanded the platform to include clothing stores and those for their emergency needs. These are families that have never been exposed to the welfare system and working and have jobs, but they were in a place that they left without their wallets, many of them, phones. The needs were just unimaginable. And this was like, here, take it, whatever you need. That was step one. And we were using the same platform again with these cards now to the families that are part of the welfare system to give 2,000 shekel if they have a family member that's been enlisted in the army. And we've been explaining that to another card that we've been doing this week together with the United Federation of North America, Leviah family, Kennedy dudes, to provide families beyond Otef Azaf in the South with cards of 500 shekel as a boost for food. So this platform, we've been able to keep on pushing it out with all our partners and donors and to help on me throw. And it's a miracle that we're able to be in this place to be able to continuously push out this assistance. And as we all know, food is the basic. Without food, kids can't study, and parents can't keep a job, and it's downhill. So it's always been our focus, food, and it continues to be our focus, it's the most basic. Right by Menachem Traxler, hoping for a miracle for the whole nation, hoping for a miracle for 138 hostages still being held captive. We so appreciate you sharing the way you are sharing the light. Thank you so much for speaking to us live from Jerusalem. Very briefly, please. Sure, briefly, please. Just we're lighting the first light. If everybody will be lighting that can hear this, get another menorah and give it to someone which might not know or have one. So they could do a light. Because that one light just increases and inspires. And we need to share the light and share the love of Am Israel to the entire world. Right by Menachem Traxler with that beautiful message. Thank you very much for speaking to us live from Jerusalem. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And very briefly, still in the studio, our senior diplomat. One little light that lights the spiritual darkness. We need to share the light for us, Owen, the message. Well, listen, as the rabbi and you were discussing, we approached the holiday of Hanukkah, a holiday about military victory, but about spiritual victory as well. And obviously, both should be in our minds. And again, about the miracle. And again, in Jewish sources, right, there's a debate about what the miracle was. Was it the military victory? Was it the spiritual victory? Obviously, we could all use some of both. And in the meantime, epic Hanukkah, epic Hanukkah to all our viewers celebrate. And again, in Israel, the sun sets in just about an hour's time in darkness, just about 20 minutes later. And we welcome this eight-day festival. And we certainly would welcome a miracle to a time needing light and a time that has been very dark for the last two months. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman, always appreciate your insights. Thank you so much for being here in studio. And that's a wrap for this edition of our breaking news coverage. I'm Benita Levine. Our rolling coverage continues back in a bit. Stay tuned. Thank you for watching. Draw a story to the world. I-24 News Channels. Breaking news edition, I'm Benita Levine. It's exactly two months since the darkest day in Israel's 75-year history. Two months since that surprise Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October. More than 1,200 people shot or butchered during the hour's long killing rampage. More than 240 people were abducted. Babies, children, women, men, and the elderly, held captive by Hamas in Gaza. In total, 110 hostages have been released, most of them during a brief truce, a hostage deal brokered by Qatar. At the moment, 138 people are still in captivity, including the youngest hostage, baby Khvir Bebas, who was kidnapped with his mom Shiri and four-year-old brother Ariel. The two redhead boys becoming a symbol of the inhumanity of Hamas, holding a defenseless mother and her two young children captive for more than two months. Hamas saying in recent weeks, the Bebas family had been handed to another terror group in the strip. To this day, no confirmation if that is in fact true. The Red Cross is yet to see any of the hostages in captivity. Confirmation earlier today, that Mohammed Alatrash, who has been missing for two months, is among the hostages being held captive by Hamas, relatives of the 40-year-old father of 13 from the Bedouin village of Sawa in the Negev, haven't heard from him since the terror assault. Let's start with finding out the latest developments on the ground. We cross live to our correspondent, Zach Anderson. He joins us from northern Israel. So, Zach, the IDF says it carried out airstrikes against a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including rocket-launched sites and observation posts. Talk us through the latest developments up north. Well, I can hear, as you speak to me, some of the outgoing artillery that appears to be targeting some of these Hezbollah positions, not far from us in southern Lebanon. We're seeing early, early, unconfirmed reports that potentially within the last hour, there has been a strike. There was no red alert, so we're still waiting for confirmation from the IDF. But there has been social media chatter regarding potential civilians in the area as an attack was taking place, and we're waiting to see and hear more from this latest development. But today, and the number of strikes that Hezbollah has taken credit for, claimed through Lebanese media channel, is far less than what we saw yesterday where they claimed responsibility for 11 separate attacks this morning, just a handful so far. But of course, the evening and afternoon hours are still ahead. Thank you so much. Correspondent Zach Anders live from northern Israel. More to come from our team on the ground in the coming hours right now. We welcome to studio political commentator, Daniel Sheik, the director of diplomacy at the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. And the former Israeli ambassador to France and our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Ultiman. Thank you both so much for being here on this day. Two months exactly since the Hamas terror onslaught, it's difficult to imagine and process what has happened in that time. And Daniel, I want to start with you, 138 hostages still in captivity in Gaza for two months now. You're in touch with the families. What is the sentiment like? What is the feeling like? What are the concerns like right now? Well, I'll tell you a little story. Just before coming to the studio, I went down at the headquarters to lunch and you meet families, you meet colleagues, you meet, and one of the family members who she is someone I'm in contact with. So I asked her, how are you? And she says, I don't know, it's a bad day. I can't explain why. So I say maybe because of the date. So she said, I didn't realize, but you're probably right. So it's sort of a sad anniversary for many. Plus it comes at a time where, honestly, for these families, there's no real silver lining on the horizon currently. There are no known serious talks for the next round of exchanges. Fighting in Southern Gaza is intensifying. There are all sorts of talks about new measures, possibly flooding the tunnels and things like that, which obviously, if you're a family member or close to a family member of a hostage, makes you cringe. Complete goosebumps at the story that you're telling the fact that there are families who obviously aren't even keeping track of the days. Why would they? They're just waiting for some kind of good news. And Owen, I want you all to take looking across at the past two months. We know that there was this truce and during that time, that was when the hostage deal, so to speak, happened. And we saw 110 people in total coming home. But for the families right now, where is that silver lining on the diplomatic front? Where can the pressure come right now to secure something else that would see some kind of hope to see these families getting to reunite with the hostages that are still being held captive for two months now? Well, other than obviously a rescue, which would be a best, best case scenario, right? And of course, it's important to remind ourselves that we had one of those earlier on in the war. And as the space for keeping hostages, one would imagine narrows and as the military comes in, one would hope that that's something that the military could achieve. Although again, no one is far from guaranteeing it, our leaders don't really talk about that. So that gives you a sense of how they're trying to set expectations on that front. But short of that, the best realistic, the best case realistic scenario is that in whatever period of time, days, weeks, Hamas comes back to the table, right? That if they are waiting right now, potentially, let's say for Israel to make some kind of mistake, God forbid kill a large number of civilians in a kind of mass casualty attack, or God forbid the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is already very difficult obviously, take some dramatic turn for the war, something that puts real pressure on Israel, right? Barring that, that once that doesn't materialize and they continue losing on the battlefield, I think everyone expects them to, that they will inevitably want to come back to the table and play more of their quote unquote cards, hostages, and then there will be a deal on the table at the Israeli government and Israeli public could support. It's the best case realistic scenario, it is a realistic scenario, it's important to emphasize, it is a realistic scenario. But as Daniel Schect just said, it's not about to happen on December 7th. And so one can certainly understand why for a family member, it's not a good day. Just one more point that's not completely rational, but it's sort of a state of mind among the families. Many of them say, okay, you took hostages, you had a purpose, you intend to use them. So first of all, if you intended to negotiate with them, negotiate, plus they say, what difference does it really make in the value of what you are holding in your hands if you're holding 138 hostages, or let's say 50? And they're right, you know? For the fact of the matter is that it doesn't really make a difference at the negotiating table. They can still sit down maybe in two weeks or three weeks with 50 hostages, a list of 50 hostages and say these are our demands. They probably won't be smaller than what they can expect now. So just release the rest, release the weak ones, release that's the state of mind of the families, obviously are not impartial in this, but it does make sense. Absolutely, you know, we had a discussion and a discussion with Michael Oren in our broadcast about an hour, hour and a half ago. And I made a similar point, right? Where everyone understands the base case of the trajectory of where events are headed, both in the military arena, which of course is central, also in the diplomatic arena. And if everyone has the same set of expectations, why can't the deal that will be reached after those scenarios play out in three weeks be reached right now, which essentially is what the faster thing. What came out of the discussion with Michael Oren is that maybe the expectations between the two sides, you know, Hamas are different in terms of what can happen. And one element I just laid out is Hamas is maybe gambling that there will be some kind of quote unquote mistake on the Israeli side that will actually help them. It's a scenario that starts to make sense out of this picture, but I still can't help to come back to the analysis you just put out that still in the big picture, because the base case is so strong here and the spectrum of scenarios is relatively narrow at this point in the war. It is a bit of a mystery still to me, but why the deal that could be reached in three weeks can't be reached now. And Daniel, exacerbating the trauma that these families have to be going through and the uncertainty that they face right now are all these emerging details about what did happen in captivity for people who were held there for more than seven weeks, young and old. Give us a sense of the information that you can reveal about what it has been like. Mixed reports, conflicting reports, but you are in touch with people directly, and what can you share? Well, there's not anything that I can share that you haven't seen in the media. Whatever can come out came out, and there are certain restrictions that certain family members were asked to keep for security reasons, but mostly the problem for them is emotional to speak about it, but things are beginning to come out, and most of them are really not pretty. That you can imagine that that just exacerbates the panic among families and the urgency among those who are trying to help them, because there is a clock on many of these people, maybe not all of them, some of them are strong, robust, maybe not in immediate danger, but there are still many fragile hostages, elderly people, women, children, people with chronic diseases, that people that are injured, that were injured during the abduction, and clearly according to those who came back with injuries, those injuries were not treated properly, so there's really no reason to believe that others get better treatment. One thing does come out that the way people were treated is not uniform. It depends a little bit probably by the person who held them and guarded them, which people differ, and some felt a little bit more humanely towards their captives than others, but everybody shared the same experience of hunger, lack of food, lack of light, obviously, and things like that, even if they were not directly brutalized. And one of the many distressing issues that has come out is when you heard people saying they had no concept of time, so you have a young girl who was held captive for seven weeks, but she thought she was there for a heartbreaking beyond. Stay with us, we've got more to discuss, because meanwhile the IDF is today revealing additional evidence gathered during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, showing the economic gap between Hamas leaders and the public in Gaza. It's found receipts totaling thousands of dollars from purchases of luxury jewelry by one of the sons of Ishmael Chania, the head of the political bureau of Hamas is believed to be in Qatar, while Gazans wait for humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian crisis is in focus inside Gaza as we're discussing with displaced Palestinian civilians speaking out against Hamas on television, confirming that the terror group is taking humanitarian aid for its own purposes. These comments have gone viral, let's take a listen. This is a difficult situation, don't get into it. There's no way that all the assistance will go down. The assistance won't come to the nation or to the people. Fascinating comments indeed. Meanwhile, on the ground, the IDF says Hamas has been launching rockets at Israeli cities. The launch sites are situated within humanitarian zones in Gaza on Wednesday afternoon, terrorists launching 12 rockets towards the city of Bershiba in southern Israel. The rockets were launched close to 10th, housing evacuated Gazan civilians in Rafah and from next to United Nations facilities. It also says Hamas launched a rocket from inside a humanitarian zone. The rocket misfire putting many Gazan civilians at risk. So for the latest, let's go live to our correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler, and he joins us from southern Israel. So, Pierre, we heard some red alert siren sounding in the southern community of Be'eri. That was a short while ago. Meanwhile, fighting inside the Gaza Strip, intensifying Israeli troops, making advances in Khan Yunus. What is the latest, what can you share? Well, I can tell you that here the air breezes of muffled explosions emanating from the Jabalia refugee camp, which is a few kilometers away in this direction where there are ferocious battles between terrorists and Israeli ground forces with air support, artillery support, and Navy support, and hence we even smell from time to time the gunpowder of those fighting. In the background here is Beth Hanun, which is supposedly nominally under operational control of the IDF forces, but there are still some clashes from time to time. And there's also the cleaning up job of the IDF ground forces, especially the engineering corps, trying to neutralize the tunnels that are part of the huge and dense network of the northern Gaza Strip. And just behind me in the past two hours, we had three huge explosions, which seems to indicate that this was the neutralization, the destruction of a tunnel. In the town of Shejaia, which is on the southeastern outskirts of Gaza, Israeli media reported that just yesterday there were 50 clashes, a close range, between the IDF forces and the terrorists in which 200 terrorists, according to Israeli media, but unconfirmed by the IDF, were killed. That was yesterday. But the fighting is still going on for a fourth consecutive day in Shejaia. Again, fierce fighting with air, navy, and artillery support. And further south of Gaza City, in the Hanyunas area, which has become the new focal point of the ground offensive of the IDF, fierce bombing, fierce fighting from within and without Hanyunas, as the city is fully encircled. They are fighting on the eastern outskirts, on the northern outskirts in the refugee camps, such as Nusserat and Direl Balak. And the IDF is urging the population, as every day, to use the active map and to move west of Hanyunas. The encirclement is breezing. It allows the civilian, non-involved Palestinian population to move west and join the displaced population in the El-Muassi area, which is the humanitarian zone that you referred to just earlier when you spoke about the rocket fire being launched from the vicinity, from the perimeter of that humanitarian zone. Now, the UN is saying that over 80% of the total population of 2.2 million inhabitants in the Gaza Strip have moved to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, which means that now the sector of the fighting is even more delicate than it was before, because there are now almost the total population of the Gaza Strip, which is crammed in those areas of fighting, Hanyunas and Rafah. So it's a difficult situation. The Palestinians' media are quoting the Ministry of Health affiliated to Hamas, that yesterday, in the past 24 hours, there were 350 casualties, 350 fatalities. But, of course, there is no distinction between the civilian population and the terrorists. So we don't know how many terrorists were killed amongst the 350 people that were notified that were killed. Benita. Thank you so much. For now, that's our correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, updating us from southern Israel. Thank you so much, Pierre. Stay safe. And now, for more, it's a pleasure to welcome Rabbi Menachem Traxler, the founder and director of the Kolel Chabad's Pantry Packers, joining us from Jerusalem. Rabbi, thank you so much for your time. Now, the eight-day festival of Chanukah starts tonight. Jews around the world will be lighting their menorahs or candelabra. Chabad has been helping evacuated communities for two months now. So talk us through the plans right now. How are you sharing the lights, so to speak, for the festival of lights right now? By spreading light, that's how we're doing it. Through joy, joy through toys and kids in hospitals, thousands of toys. You can see on my desk, we're going out to hospitals, throughout the country, medical centers. We've been doing that for so many years. Of course, that's increased dramatically this year. Retreats for widows and their children in hotels. Starting tonight, we have a hotel with over 400 participants coming, widows and their children, next week in Jerusalem, another hotel. And toys for orphans, we've been packing this past week. As you can see, toys, good quality toys. I don't know if you can see, roller coaster, Israel, circuit maze, when my kids saw me getting all these toys, like, Tati, can you bring some home? Thank God, these are not for you. We made sure to spend a lot of money, collect a lot of money with our donors and supporters to get the very best to bring joy to the children. And to start to point out, actually, that during the Hanukkah Live, the laboratory ever said that Jews sitting in Jerusalem have an impact on Jews throughout the world. Back then, it might have not been so felt. I grew up in Houston, we would say Neskedol Hayasham. My kids say Neskedol Hayapo. Today, it's the same. And we feel that every single day, through our donors and our volunteers, those that can come in person and those that help overseas, the unity of Am Israel and Aftos, everybody coming together and everybody has their own capacity and their own way, time or money, advocacy to help Am Israel and the brothers and sisters in Israel that they have never met, might not ever even meet them. Right. So it's very, very special times. And as you are referring to a major miracle would certainly be very welcome right now. Rabbi, when it comes to the families evacuated from their homes, many have no indication as to when they'll be able to return, how long it will take to rebuild some of the Kibbutzim and the Moshe Vim destroyed two months ago and when it will be safe to do so. So share with us some of the stories you are hearing and the support that you are seeing for these communities right now. So we've been in this for a while. Actually, since 1788, Kola Kibbutz was founded by the first Kibbutz Rabbi, we've been going on ever since. More recently though, we've been chosen by the Israeli government to run and operate the national food security program using these cards, food cards. We created a system of a platform where almost every supermarket in the country can receive these cards and it's only for food. And we've been helping 30,000 families monthly for quite a while, just about 30,000 families. And more recently, we actually added baby food to provide moms with cards so they can get formula for their families. But on October 7th, with the absolute horror and destruction that happens, the next morning we realized we need to start rolling this out and there's a lot more need. And together with channel 13, Guy Lair re-rolled out the Huts Vim and within a week, we gave to every family from the immediate Otef Azaf, 3,440 families, 5,000 shekel each. These are families that left with a backpack, many like without shoes, summer misting glasses. And we expanded the platform to include clothing stores and those for their emergency needs. These are families that have never been exposed to the welfare system and working and have jobs, but they were in a place that they left without their wallets, many of them, phones, the needs were just unimaginable. And this was like, here, take it, whatever you need. That was step one. And then we were using the same platform again with these cards now to the families that are part of the welfare system to give 2,000 shekel if they have a family member that's been enlisted in the army. And we've been explaining that there's another card that we're doing this week, together with the United Federation of North America, the Viya family, Kennedy dudes, to provide families beyond Ota Faza in the South with cards of 500 shekel as a boost for food. But this platform, we've been able to keep on pushing it out with all our partners and donors and to help Amisral. And it's a miracle that we're able to be in this place to be able to continuously push out this assistance. And as we all know, food is the basic, without food, kids can't study, parents can't keep a job, and it's downhill. So it's always been our focus, food, and it continues to be our focus. Right. It's the most basic. Right by Menachem Traxler, hoping for a miracle for the whole nation, hoping for a miracle for 138 hostages still being held captive. We so appreciate you sharing the way you are sharing the light. Thank you so much for speaking to us live from Jerusalem. Very briefly, please. Sure, briefly, please. Just, we're lighting the first light. If everybody will be lighting that can hear this, get another menorah and give it to someone which might not know or have one, so they could do a light. Because that one light just increases and inspires, and we need to share the light and share the love of Amisral to the entire world. Right by Menachem Traxler, with that beautiful message, thank you very much for speaking to us live from Jerusalem. Thank you. Thanks a lot to you. Thank you. And very briefly, still in the studio, our senior diplomat. One little light that lights the spiritual darkness. We need to share the light for us, Owen. The message. Well, listen, as the rabbi and you were discussing, we approached the holiday of Hanukkah, a holiday about military victory, but about spiritual victory as well. And obviously, both should be in our minds. And again, about the miracle, and again, in Jewish sources, right, there's a debate about what the miracle was. Was it the military victory? Was it the spiritual victory? Obviously, we could all use some of both. And in the meantime, at the Hanukkah, at the Hanukkah, all our viewers celebrate. And again, in Israel, the sun sets in just about an hour's time in darkness, just about 20 minutes later, and we welcome this eight-day festival. And we certainly would welcome a miracle to a time needing light and a time that has been very dark for the last two months. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman, always appreciate your insights. Thank you so much for being here in studio. And that's a wrap for this edition of Our Breaking News Coverage. I'm Benita Levine. Our rolling coverage continues back in a bit. Stay tuned. Thank you for watching. In this edition, I'm Benita Levine. We start with news just in a missile strike out of Lebanon a short while ago, killing a civilian near the Israeli settlement of Mactat near the northern border emergency teams, confirming one person has been killed. Let's go straight to our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osirand, joining us from northern Israel. What can you tell us, Ariel? Right, Benita. Sad news today from the northern border. Just a short while ago, Israel's emergency services Mada announcing the death of a 60-year-old man believed to be a farmer from the border community of Mactat. That's in the upper Galilee. IDF saying that this was an anti-tank guided missile attack on the area of Mactat. Also adding in a statement that IDF attack choppers, as well as artillery, are responding to the source of the fire. And pretty much a short while after the anti-tank missile attack, there were also rockets fired to the border community of Arab el-Ramsh, it's a little more to the west of Mactat, also following that IDF responding to the sources of the fire. Now with this death of the farmer in Mactat, we're talking about four Israeli civilians who have been killed by Hezbollah fire since the start of the war here in the northern border. And Ariel, how does this incident, as you say, a civilian farmer being killed in a missile strike? How does this impact the response out of the IDF right now? Right, so there's the immediate response and that's to the origin of fire and that's what we're seeing right now. But usually after a more significant attack on the part of Hezbollah, which results in casualties, the tendency is that afterwards we see a more significant strike on Hezbollah infrastructure. But indeed, this comes also as Hezbollah itself announced the death of its first and 92nd members, terrorists in Israeli strikes. Now this is the official number, the real numbers believe to be higher, but as the attacks become more significant in their severity, then it prompts a dynamic of more escalatory responses and that obviously has the possibility of changing the dynamic here on the border, which until now has been cross-border fire. Obviously when there's casualties involved, you can expect a more severe response on the part of Israel. And Ariel, throughout the past two months, exactly since the start of this war, essentially in the south between Israel and Hamas inside the Gaza Strip, there have been repeated concerns about what Hezbollah, Hassan, Israel and by extension Iran will be doing in terms of a full escalation across the northern front. Talk to us about those concerns right now. Indeed, that's a concern. It's been a concern since day one and that's why already on October 7th, the IDF deployed large amounts of forces here to the northern border. However, the dynamic so far has been limited to cross-border fire with every once in a while. Over a few days, perhaps the range is extended. But at the end of the day, both sides are aware that residents of the northern border communities do not feel safe to return, saying that they will not go back to their homes the up until four kilometers distance from the border they've even been evacuated by the IDF. But they're saying that they won't return as long as there's a threat along the northern border. What Israel's doing now, it is not taking care of that threat. It's responding to attacks. And so this is what Israel is saying, that there is an order to things and first taking care of the south, but that there will be a response to the threat along the northern border. Obviously on the other side of the border, they're hearing these threats and what the dynamic that is playing out could be setting the stage for something bigger. But obviously there's no indication on the ground that that is where we're heading. For more on all the breaking news developments in the coming hours, stay tuned, our correspondent Ariel Oseran will be live in northern Israel. Thank you, Ariel. As we were saying, it's exactly two months since the darkest day in Israel's 75 year history. Two months since the surprise Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October, more than 1,200 people shot or butchered during the hours long killing rampage. More than 240 people were abducted, babies, children, women, men and the elderly held captive by Hamas in Gaza. In total, 110 hostages had been released, most of them during a brief truce, a hostage deal broken by Qatar. At the moment, 138 people are still in captivity, including the youngest hostage, baby Kfir Bebas, who was kidnapped with his mom Shiri and four year old brother Ariel. The two redhead boys becoming a symbol of the pain of the nation, holding a defenseless mother and her two young children captive for more than two months. Hamas saying in recent weeks, the Bebas family had been handed to another terror group in the strip. To this day, no confirmation if that is in fact true. The Red Cross is yet to see any of the hostages in captivity. Confirmation earlier in the day that Mohammed Ala Trash, who has been missing for two months, is among the hostages being held captive by Hamas. Relatives of the 40 year old father of 13 from the Bedouin village of Sawa in the Negev haven't heard from him since the terror assault. So for more on all the latest developments, we welcome to studio Israeli-Palestinian relations expert Colonel in the reserve, Grisha Yakubovich, former head of the civilian department of Kogat in the IDF. Grisha, thank you so much for being here in studio, much to unpack two months since the start of this war. But let's start with the breaking news at the top of this hour. An Israeli farmer, 60 years old, killed in a missile strike up north that missile emanating from Lebanon. Yeah, another civilian, unfortunately, and we are losing too much. Whatever I'm gonna say now might change in a matter of an hour, okay? But I will use this opportunity of two months exactly since the war started. And when I refer to the north, I can say that it's the second day that the IDF takes the initiative and attacks. It's not responding to Hezbollah attacks, but the IDF is actually attacking without any alerts, any anti-tank rockets or missiles, whatever. It's an understanding that a solution in the north might actually start. Either a political solution, 1701, from 2006, the decision. The resolution. The resolution that was taken. So the IDF for Israel can reach there, either through a political process, a process with France, with the United States, with Saudi Arabia, with the Emirates, all together leading an initiative. And if they will not achieve that, the IDF will achieve it by force. So we can see the initiative the IDF is actually taking it brings us to that process of backing or Hezbollah will decide or will actually implement this resolution of 1701. This is why this event of the unfortunate civilian that was killed, another unnecessary death, unfortunately, is an event that will be treated as part of the equation that was created since the last exactly two months in the north. I want to add to that, that it looks like the great campaign that Iran planned in advance has gone wrong. How so? And it looks like Hamas, not Hamas, but it looks like Iran accepted the fact that Hamas is falling. That's how it looks like. Two months exactly to the war today, we see the Houthis in Yemen launching their missiles and the aircraft and harming the economy, not only of Israel, but of let's say of the whole Western world. Hezbollah continues keeping this equation without changing it too much. Again, maybe there will be an event in the next 30 minutes that will change everything, okay? Well, it's a war, so that is very possible. But if we look on the two months since the war started, so Hezbollah are counting between 10 to 13 attacks a day, okay? The proxy Iranians, the militians from Iraq, Khashri al-Shaab, they are attacking the American bases. It's a routine. And if we are asking ourselves why the United States are not responding, we can understand that maybe it's because of the fact that this great campaign of Iran went wrong. So there's no need to start a war. Let's go to Syria, the militians there, try to launch some rockets to the Golan Heights, okay? Some of them fell in Syria. And the most important thing that I got too many messages or too many reports that there's a huge, huge fear of Iran that the regime in Syria Assad is going to fall. This is an explanation to why Raisi landed today in Moscow. So when we wrap it all, it looks like Iran gave up on Hamas and Hamas will collapse. That's how it looks like. We are today in Hanukkah and maybe this is the miracle. That will be the first miracle. Maybe the second one will be that we will see our civilians getting back home. And we can see that whatever is happening around us with huge aid and support from the United States without it, it will probably look differently. It brings us to an understanding that the war or the big war of flaming the borders around Israel, this is not the time for that. We're going to take a deeper look at that visit by the Iranian president, Abraham Raisi to Moscow a little bit later on in this broadcast right now though. Stay with us, Grisha. We've got more to discuss, but we're first going to go to our senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev. And he joins us from Southern Israel. And we know Jonathan fighting inside the Gaza Strip is intensifying. We are hearing Israeli troops making advances in Khan Yunus as the Air Force carries out strikes on dozens of targets belonging to Hamas. What update can you share there? What is the latest? Yes, we're seeing more and more Israeli advances into the Gaza Strip, whether in Khan Yunus, whether in Gaza city itself, the campaign is ongoing. We heard the chief of staff saying it was two days ago that anyone who thought that Israel would have trouble returning to the fight after the ceasefire was completely wrong. Israel came back with full force, gaining more and more power in the North and the South. There's still resistance. We're still seeing casualties on behalf of the IDF, but Israel is pushing strong in the North, in the South. And there are many goals to this one, of course, pushing forward and eliminating Hamas targets one after the other. And the second, perhaps even more important, putting Hamas under such pressure that they will be ready to go into a next hostage deal. Because let's remember, there's still 138 Israelis in captivity. And Israel is hoping that through this pressure and to save their lives, to save themselves, Hamas leaders will be willing, agreeing to another round of hostage deal. To that exact point, we were talking here in studio, Jonathan, about the fact that the nation is almost waiting for a miracle, a Chanukah miracle, so to speak, and hoping and praying that the 138 hostages still being held captive for exactly two months by Hamas may eventually be sent home. Talk to us about how the fighting underway inside the Gaza Strip right now is being impacted by the fact that the hostages could be in the tunnels, in communes. It's not clear how is this all correlating with one another? Israel is pushing forward, but Israel is careful pushing forward because if you push too hard into those tunnels, for example, you might eventually hurt Israelis who may be held there. We heard from some of the hostages who came back, saying that sometimes or even most of the time, they were in tunnels under the ground. So you have to be very careful pushing forward. You have to be very careful with your bombardments. Israel wants to hurt every possible Hamas target, but Israel also wants to be as careful as possible because there's an understanding that more than 130 Israelis are still there. Thank you so much. Our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev live from southern Israel. More to come from Jonathan in the coming hours. Thank you. Meanwhile, the IDF is today revealing additional evidence gathered during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, showing the economic gap between Hamas leadership and the public in Gaza. It's found receipts, totaling thousands of dollars from purchases of luxury jewelry by one of the sons of Ishmael Chania. That's the head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, and he is believed to be in Qatar, while Gazans wait for humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip. And talking of the humanitarian crisis in focus inside Gaza with displaced Palestinian civilians speaking out against Hamas on television, confirming that the terror group is taking humanitarian aid for its own purposes. These comments have gone viral. Let's take a listen. So for more insight, still in studio, Palestinian relations, expert Colonel Nerozez Gusha Yakubovic, what do you make of what we just saw there, those comments by Gazans saying, where is the humanitarian aid? It's being used by Hamas. I've seen this video on social media, and I've seen many, many comments saying, oh, El Jazeera missed again, and they were trying to achieve something else, and this woman embarrassed them. No, guys, this is exactly what Hamas wants to achieve. People suffering, people starving. It's not that they are taking the aid to themselves. They are preventing the aid from the people. This is what they want to show the world. Chaos, anarchy, people starving, demonstrations against Onra. We've seen that inside Gaza. And why? Because this is the last savior to Hamas to stop the IDF from fighting against them. We can see many, many videos of Hamas terrorists, Nohba and others surrendered, raising their hands, white flags by the hundreds, 60 days, okay? They are in a situation, in a very difficult situation, and the only thing that can save them is the humanitarian crisis. And this is exactly what they want to achieve. So the international organizations, the international community would state like yesterday that it's too risky to send aid to Gaza. It's too risky to give people food because it's too dangerous and we cannot implement our mission. We cannot implement it. The meaning of that, a crisis. It means a pressure on Israel, stop the war. And we should avoid that. Something we're going to unpack in a very short while. Grisha, lots to discuss on that front, but something else we were talking about a little bit earlier in this broadcast. Iranian President, Ibrahim Raisi, is in Moscow, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting comes after the Russian president's blitz visits to the UAE and Saudi Arabia this week. He is focusing on major outreach to numerous countries in the region. So what exactly are the Iranian and Russian presidents focusing on right now? For more, we welcome Natia Ceskorea, Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Associate Professor in Russian Politics, joining us from London. Thank you so much as always for your time. So something we've been discussing right now in studio. What is Ibrahim Raisi discussing with Vladimir Putin right now? According to Russian state media, they're talking about trade and economic cooperation. But Iran supplies Russia with drones and obviously defense during a war time. Several wars is crucial. What is your take? What is this meeting all about? Thank you very much, first of all, for having me. It's great to be back with you. Well, I think this shows once again that this is the alliance of two authoritarian regimes that are very much in line when it comes to their anti-Western aspirations interests. And for Putin, it is very important to have Iran as it's one of its primary allies because as you mentioned, Iran has been supplying Russia with weapons and it remains one of the few countries which is willing to do so. And in a long-term perspective, of course, trade and economics are important for Putin, but I think it is much more important to make sure that these countries are in line when it comes to their anti-Western interests. And in this case, of course, it will be very crucial for Putin to make sure that he gets as much as he can from Iran in terms of military support. And then of course, earlier in the day, Vladimir Putin and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, calling on OPEC plus members to join an agreement on oil output cuts, saying they were for the good of the producers and the broader global economy as well. Of course, that meeting happening in Riyadh, it's their first face-to-face talk since 2019. How worried should Israel be about Putin's blitz outreach to Gulf nations right now? Well, it's quite a rare appearance because we don't really see Putin engaging abroad in a while, especially since the outbreak of the war and since the decision of ICC. And in this case, he is very interested to be present in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia and UAE remain one of those countries that Putin sees as potential allies partners. And in this case, of course, the cooperation in terms of trade, economics and energy is very important for Putin. We saw in the press release that one of the areas that was discussed during the meetings was the Israel Hamas war. And I think Israel should be indeed very worried and very much interested in how these relationships will be going ahead in the future. We have also seen that Putin has engaged in with the UAE. And this once again indicates that he wants to still build his international image and he still wants to create an impression that Russia still has some allies. And he's standing with regards to Israel Hamas war has been quite interesting. In a way, he has criticized that there have been some criticisms towards Israel at the beginning voiced by Foreign Minister Lavrov, for example, who is very cynically indicated at the international law violation of the international law which is very much coming from Lavrov indeed. And at the same time, Putin has highlighted that Russia wants to play in some sort of a mediators role. And I think that way he tries to elevate Russia's international leverage and image. And at the same time, I think he's rhetoric towards the US and US foreign policy failure in that sense was very interesting and it once again indicated that Russia wants to take some benefits and profits out of this conflict. When the hostage release deal was happening in this part of the world, there was more than one case in which Russian Israeli hostages, in other words, hostages with dual passports were released and Hamas said it was some kind of gesture to Vladimir Putin at the time. What do you make of that? The relationship right now between Vladimir Putin and Hamas and the fact that the terror group is saying they were releasing those particular hostages early, so to speak, because of the relationship with Putin. Yes, that is quite interesting. And we don't actually know much about, we don't have much information about what is this relationship, what sort of relationship they really have. However, I think that really serves how Putin wants to portray himself as some sort of brokering power within the region in the Middle East. But at the same time, we have to take into consideration that by doing so, he's trying to overshadow his failures in the war where he's very much invested and by that I mean the war against Ukraine, of course. Thank you so much, so much too. And Paik, always appreciate your insights and at TSS Korea live from London. Thank you as always. Thank you very much for having me. And still in studio, Israeli-Palestinian relations expert, Colonel Nerozers Gusha Yakubovich, your thoughts on what we just heard? Well, it's interesting. Let's not forget about the Israeli-Russian, Russia that were released. Let's not forget there was a Hamas delegation in Russia that met Putin. And that was a personal request and a gesture that Hamas executed. But I think that what is happening or this meeting between Raisin and Putin is a message. If it took me at the beginning of this week to understand that it's a threat or maybe a possible new order in the Middle East, now it looks like because of all the cards that I showed that they are trying to find a solution to get out of this mess. And what do you think very briefly? I've got 30 seconds. What do you think that solution in their eyes looks like briefly? To make sure that there will be no war with Hezbollah, that the militias will be safe. That's why I started this interview by saying that Hamas decided, and that Hamas, Iran decided that they accepted the fall of Hamas. Certainly is going to be an important development. We watch what comes out of the meeting. We watch the implications across the region. As always, we appreciate your insight. Palestinian relations expert Colonel on the reserves, Grisha Yakubovich. Thank you as always for being here in studio. And that is where we wrap up this edition of our Breaking News coverage. I'm Benita Levine. Our rolling coverage continues shortly. Back in a bit, stay tuned. This is I-24 News Breaking News Edition. This week on News 24, Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and information about the events of the war, Iron Spades. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone, the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only Spanish media that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. Hi, I'm Benita Levine. We start with news just in a missile strike out of Lebanon a short while ago, killing a civilian near the Israeli settlement of Makhtat near the northern border emergency teams, confirming one person has been killed. Let's go straight to our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Ozaran, joining us from northern Israel. What can you tell us, Ariel? Right, Benita. Sad news today from the northern border. Just a short while ago, Israel's emergency services Mada announcing the death of a 60-year-old man believed to be a farmer from the border community of Makhtat. That's in the upper Galilee. IDF saying that this was an anti-tank guided missile attack on the area of Makhtat. Also adding in a statement that IDF attack choppers as well as artillery are responding to the source of the fire. And pretty much a short while after the anti-tank missile attack, there were also rockets fired to the border community of Arab and Arab shits, a little more to the west of Makhtat, also following that IDF responding to the sources of the fire. Now, with this death of the farmer in Makhtat, we're talking about four Israeli civilians who have been killed by Hezbollah fire since the start of the war here in the northern border. And Ariel, how does this incident, as you say, a civilian farmer being killed in a missile strike, how does this impact the response out of the IDF right now? Right, so there's the immediate response, and that's to the origin of fire, and that's what we're seeing right now. But usually after a more significant attack on the part of Hezbollah, which results in casualties, the tendency is that afterwards we see a more significant strike on Hezbollah infrastructure. But indeed, this comes also as Hezbollah itself announced the death of its first and 92nd members, terrorists in Israeli strikes. Now, this is the official number. The real numbers believe to be higher. But as the attacks become more significant in their severity then it prompts a dynamic of more escalatory responses. And that obviously has the possibility of changing the dynamic here on the border, which until now has been cross-border fire. Obviously, when there's casualties involved, you can expect a more severe response on the part of Israel. And Ariel, throughout the past two months, exactly since the start of this war, essentially in the south between Israel and Hamas inside the Gaza Strip, there have been repeated concerns about what Hezbollah, Hassan, Israel, and by extension, Iran will be doing in terms of a full escalation across the northern front. Talk to us about those concerns right now. Indeed, that's a concern. It's been a concern since day one, and that's why already on October 7, the IDF deployed large amounts of forces here to the northern border. However, the dynamic so far has been limited to cross-border fire with every once in a while. Every few days, perhaps the range is extended. But at the end of the day, both sides are aware that residents of the northern border communities do not feel safe to return, saying that they will not go back to their homes up until four kilometers distance from the border they've even been evacuated by the IDF. But they're saying that they won't return as long as there's a threat along the northern border. What Israel is doing now, it is not taking care of that threat. It's responding to attacks. And so this is what Israel is saying, that there is an order to things, and first, taking care of the south, but that there will be a response to the threat along the northern border. Obviously, on the other side of the border, they're hearing these threats. And what the dynamic that is playing out could be setting the stage for something bigger. But obviously, there's no indication on the ground that that is where we're heading. For more on all the breaking news developments in the coming hours, stay tuned. Our correspondent Ariel Oseran will be live in northern Israel. Thank you, Ariel. As we were saying, it's exactly two months since the darkest day in Israel's 75-year history. Two months since the surprise Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October, more than 1,200 people shot or butchered during the hours-long killing rampage. More than 240 people were abducted. Babies, children, women, men, and the elderly held captive by Hamas in Gaza. In total, 110 hostages have been released, most of them during a brief truce, a hostage deal brokered by Qatar. At the moment, 138 people are still in captivity, including the youngest hostage, baby Kfir Bebas, who was kidnapped with his mom, Shiri, and four-year-old brother, Ariel. The two redhead boys becoming a symbol of the pain of the nation, holding a defenseless mother and her two young children captive for more than two months. Hamas saying in recent weeks, the Bebas family had been handed to another terror group in the strip. To this day, no confirmation if that is in fact true. The Red Cross is yet to see any of the hostages in captivity. Confirmation earlier in the day that Mohammed al-Atrash, who has been missing for two months, is among the hostages being held captive by Hamas. Relatives of the 40-year-old father of 13 from the Bedouin village of Sawa in the Negev haven't heard from him since the terror assault. So for more on all the latest developments, we welcome to studio Israeli-Palestinian relations expert, Colonel in the reserves Grisha Yakubovich, former head of the civilian department of Kogat in the IDF. Grisha, thank you so much for being here in studio, much to unpack two months since the start of this war. But let's start with the breaking news at the top of this hour. An Israeli farmer, 60 years old, killed in a missile strike up north that missile emanating from Lebanon. Yeah, another civilian, unfortunately, and we are losing too much. Whatever I'm gonna say now might change in a matter of an hour, okay? But I will use this opportunity of two months exactly since the war started. And when I refer to the north, I can say that it's the second day that the IDF takes the initiative. And attacks. It's not responding to Hezbollah attacks, but the IDF is actually attacking without any alerts, anti-tank rockets or missiles, whatever. It's an understanding that a solution in the north might actually start. Either a political solution, 1701 from 2006, the decision. The resolution. The resolution that was taken. So the idea for Israel can reach there either through a political process, a process with France, with the United States, with Saudi Arabia, with the Emirates, altogether leading an initiative. And if they will not achieve that, the IDF will achieve it by force. So we can see the initiative, the IDF is actually taking. It brings us to that process of backing or Hezbollah will decide or will actually implement this resolution of 1701. This is why this event of the unfortunate civilian that was killed, another unnecessary death, unfortunately, is an event that will be treated as part of the equation that was created since the last exactly two months in the north. I wanna add to that, that it looks like the great campaign that Iran planned in advance has gone wrong. How so? And it looks like Hamas, not Hamas, but it looks like Iran accepted the fact that Hamas is falling. That's how it looks like. Two months exactly to the war today. We see the Houthis in Yemen launching their missiles and the aircraft and harming the economy, not only of Israel, but of let's say of the whole Western world. Hezbollah continues keeping this equation without changing it too much. Again, maybe there will be an event in the next 30 minutes that will change everything, okay? Well, it's a war. So that's a war. Yes, but if we look on the two months since the war started, so Hezbollah are counting between 10 to 13 attacks a day, okay? The proxy Iranians, the militians from Iraq Khashri El Shaab, they are attacking the American bases. It's a routine. And if we are asking ourselves why the United States are not responding, we can understand that maybe it's because of the fact that this great campaign of Iran went wrong. So there's no need to start a war. Let's go to Syria. The militians there tried to launch some rockets to the Golan Heights. Okay, some of them fell in Syria. And the most important thing that I got too many, too many messages or too many reports that there's a huge, huge fear of Iran that the regime in Syria Assad is going to fall. This is an explanation to why Raisi landed today in Moscow. So when we wrap it all, it looks like Iran gave up on Hamas and Hamas will collapse. That's how it looks like we are today in Hanukkah and maybe this is the miracle that will be the first miracle. Maybe the second one will be that we will see our civilians getting back home. And we can see that whatever is happening around us with huge aid and support from the United States without it, it will probably look differently. It brings us to an understanding that the war or the big war of flaming the borders around Israel, this is not the time for that. We're going to take a deeper look at that visit by the Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi to Moscow a little bit later on in this broadcast right now. Though stay with us Grisha, we've got more to discuss but we're first going to go to our senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev and he joins us from Southern Israel. And we know Jonathan fighting inside the Gaza Strip is intensifying. We are hearing Israeli troops making advances and communists as the Air Force carries out strikes on dozens of targets belonging to Hamas. What update can you share there? What is the latest? Yes, we're seeing more and more Israeli advances into the Gaza Strip, whether in Khan Yunus, or whether in Gaza City itself, the campaign is ongoing. We heard the chief of staff saying it was two days ago that anyone who thought that Israel would have trouble returning to the fight after the ceasefire was completely wrong. Israel came back with full force, gaining more and more power in the north and the south. There's still resistance, we're still seeing casualties on behalf of the IDF but Israel is pushing strong in the north, in the south, and there are many goals to this. One, of course, pushing forward and eliminating Hamas targets one after the other. And the second, perhaps even more important, putting Hamas under such pressure that they will be ready to go into a next hostage deal because let's remember there's still 138 Israelis in captivity and Israel is hoping that through this pressure and to save their lives, Hamas leaders will be willing, agreeing to another round of hostage deal. To that exact point, we were talking here in studio, Jonathan, about the fact that the nation is almost waiting for a miracle, a Chanukah miracle, so to speak, and hoping and praying that the 138 hostages still being held captive for exactly two months by Hamas may eventually be sent home. Talk to us about how the fighting underway inside the Gaza Strip right now is being impacted by the fact that the hostages could be in the tunnels, in communists, it's not clear, how is this all correlating with one another? Israel is pushing forward, but Israel is careful pushing forward because if you push too hard into those tunnels, for example, you might eventually hurt Israelis who may be held there. We heard from some of the hostages who came back saying that sometimes, or even most of the time, they were in tunnels under the ground. So you have to be very careful pushing forward. You have to be very careful with your bombardments. Israel wants to hurt every possible Hamas target, but Israel also wants to be as careful as possible because there's an understanding that more than 130 Israelis are still there. Thank you so much. Our senior defense correspondent, Jonathan Righev, live from Southern Israel, more to come from Jonathan in the coming hours. Thank you. Meanwhile, the IDF is today revealing additional evidence gathered during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, showing the economic gap between Hamas leadership and the public in Gaza. It's found receipts, totaling thousands of dollars from purchases of luxury jewelry by one of the sons of Ishmael Khania. That's the head of the Political Bureau of Hamas and he is believed to be in Qatar while Gazans wait for humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip. And talking of the humanitarian crisis in focus inside Gaza with displaced Palestinian civilians speaking out against Hamas on television, confirming that the terror group is taking humanitarian aid for its own purposes. These comments have gone viral. Let's take a listen. So for more insight, still in studio, Palestinian relations expert Colonel Nerozez Gusha Yakubovich, what do you make of what we just saw there? Those comments by Gazans saying, where is the humanitarian aid? It's being used by Hamas. You know, I've seen this video on social media and I've seen many, many comments saying, oh, El Jazeera missed again and they were trying to achieve something else and this woman embarrassed them. No, guys, this is exactly, exactly what Hamas wants to achieve. People suffering, people starving. It's not that they are taking the aid to themselves. They are preventing the aid from the people. This is what they want to show the world, chaos, anarchy, people starving, demonstrations against UNRWA. We've seen that inside Gaza. And why? Because this is the last savior to Hamas to stop the IDF from fighting against them. We can see many, many videos of Hamas terrorists, Nukhba and others surrendered, raising their hands, white flags by the hundreds. 60 days, okay? They are in a situation, in a very difficult situation and the only thing that can save them is the humanitarian crisis. And this is exactly what they want to achieve. So the international organizations, the international community would state like yesterday that it's too risky to send aid to Gaza. It's too risky to give people food because it's too dangerous and we cannot implement our mission. We cannot implement it. The meaning of that, a crisis. It means a pressure on Israel, stop the war. And we should avoid that. Something we're going to unpack in a very short while. Grisha, lots to discuss on that front, but something else we were talking about a little bit earlier in this broadcast. Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi is in Moscow meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting comes after the Russian President's blitz visits to the UAE and Saudi Arabia this week. He is focusing on major outreach to numerous countries in the region. So what exactly are the Iranian and Russian presidents focusing on right now? For more, we welcome Nathya Seskureya, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and associate professor in Russian politics, joining us from London. Thank you so much as always for your time. So something we've been discussing right now in studio. What is Ibrahim Raisi discussing with Vladimir Putin right now? According to Russian state media, they're talking about trade and economic cooperation. But Iran supplies Russia with drones and obviously defense during a war time. Several wars is crucial. What is your take? What is this meeting all about? Thank you very much, first of all, for having me. It's great to be back with you. Well, I think this shows once again that this is the alliance of two authoritarian regimes that are very much in line when it comes to their anti-Western aspirations interests. And for Putin, it is very important to have Iran as it's one of its primary allies because as you mentioned, Iran has been supplying Russia with weapons and it remains one of the few countries which is willing to do so. And in a long-term perspective, of course, trade and economics are important for Putin, but I think it is much more important to make sure that these countries are in line when it comes to their anti-Western interests. And in this case, of course, it will be very crucial for Putin to make sure that he gets as much as he can from Iran in terms of military support. And then, of course, earlier in the day, Vladimir Putin and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, calling on OPEC-plus members to join an agreement on oil output cuts, saying they were for the good of the producers and the broader global economy as well. Of course, that meeting happening in Riyadh. It's their first face-to-face talk since 2019. How worried should Israel be about Putin's blitz outreach to Gulf nations right now? Well, it's quite a rare appearance because we don't really see Putin engaging abroad in a while, especially since the outbreak of the war and since the decision of ICC. And in this case, he is very interested to be president in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia and UAE remain one of those countries that Putin sees as potential allies, partners. And in this case, of course, the cooperation in terms of trade, economics, and energy is very important for Putin. We saw in the press release that one of the areas that was discussed during the meetings was the Israel Hamas war. And I think Israel should be indeed very worried and very much interested in how these relationships will be going ahead in the future. We have also seen that Putin has engaged in with the UAE. And this once again indicates that he wants to still build his international image and he still wants to create an impression that Russia still has some allies. And he's standing with regards to Israel Hamas war has been quite interesting in a way he has criticized that there have been some criticisms towards Israel at the beginning voiced by foreign minister Lavrov, for example, who is very cynically indicated at the international law violation of the international law, which is very much coming from Lavrov indeed. And at the same time, Putin has highlighted that Russia wants to play in some sort of a mediators role. And I think that way he tries to elevate Russia's international leverage and image. And at the same time, I think he's rhetoric towards the US and US foreign policy failure in that sense was very much very interesting. And it once again indicates that Russia wants to take some benefits and profits out of this conflict. When the hostage release deal was happening in this part of the world, there was more than one case in which Russian Israeli hostages, in other words, hostages with dual passports were released and Hamas said it was some kind of gesture to Vladimir Putin at the time. What do you make of that? The relationship right now between Vladimir Putin and Hamas and the fact that the terror group was saying they were releasing those particular hostages early, so to speak, because of the relationship with Putin. Yes, that is quite interesting. And we don't actually know much about, we don't have much information about what is this relationship, what sort of relationship they really have. However, I think that really serves how Putin wants to portray himself as some sort of brokering power within the region in the Middle East. But at the same time, we have to take into consideration that by doing so, he's trying to overshadow his failures in the war where he's very much invested and by that I mean the war against Ukraine, of course. Thank you so much. Thank you so much too, Anpak. Always appreciate your insights. Natya says, Korea, live from London. Thank you as always. Thank you very much for having me. And still in studio, Israeli-Palestinian relations expert, Colonel Nerozerz Gusha Yakubovich, your thoughts on what we just heard. Well, it's interesting. Let's not forget about the Israeli-Russian, Russia that were released. Let's not forget there was a Hamas delegation in Russia that met Putin. And that was, let's say, a personal request and a gesture that Hamas executed. But I think that what is happening or this meeting between Raisin and Putin is a message. If it took me at the beginning of this week to understand that it's a threat or maybe a possible new order in the Middle East, now it looks like because of all the cards that I showed that they are trying to find a solution to get out of this mess. And what do you think very briefly? I've got 30 seconds. What do you think that solution in their eyes looks like briefly? To make sure that there will be no war with Hezbollah, that the militias will be safe. That's why I started this interview by saying that Hamas decided, and that Hamas Iran decided that they accepted the fall of Hamas. Certainly is going to be an important development. We watch what comes out of the meeting. We watch the implications across the region. As always, we appreciate your insight. Palestinian relations expert Colonel on the reserves, Grisha Yakubovich. Thank you as always for being here in.