 The IDF is warning residents of Gaza City, the area is now a battlefield and reiterating a call to civilians in Gaza to move south. Israel also said humanitarian efforts to Gaza led by Egypt and the United States will be expanding. On the diplomatic front, Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after President Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th, and accused Israel of war crimes for striking Hamas targets in Gaza in response. Nenon who also reiterated that he had no intelligence warning of Hamas's intention to come to a massacre, saying he believed intelligence estimates that the terror group had been deterred. Israel now says the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230. Their fate becoming the number one priority to the Israeli public and according to opinion polling, support for an immediate ground operation beginning to drop. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas has begun with an expanding ground offensive into the Gaza Strip and that the war will be long and difficult. On Friday evening, more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo. This is the second phase of the war whose goals are clear, the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the return of the hostages home. At every stage until now and at every stage from now on, we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families. The war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long and we're prepared for it. And we're going to open with our eye on the northern front where our correspondent Hamda Salhout is standing by in the north. Hamda, give us a quick appraisal about what the most recent developments are on the northern front. Well, these changes of fire continuing between the Israeli military and Hezbollah just moments ago, the city of Nahariah, announcing that the Israeli military was renewing its shelling against targets inside Lebanese territory. Now, yesterday, there were several rockets that were fired into Israeli territory, a total of six, three in two separate towns falling in open areas. Now, Unifil, that's the UN peacekeeping group on the other side of the border in Lebanon, says that an Israeli shell hit part of their compound and they were looking into an investigation as to exactly how it happened. Now, earlier in the week, there have been several fires that have been lit by the Israeli military because of different types of drone strikes that they have been doing inside Lebanese territory. Those fires have finally subsided after civil defense inside of Lebanon was able to get them under control. But some experts were saying that the reason why the Israeli military was doing this is to try to prevent Hezbollah from traveling through the mountainous terrain, through the trees, to try and then have these sneak attacks on the Israeli military and especially on surveillance equipment. So the Israeli military is on high alert here at the northern border as the exchanges of fire continue. And we'll be coming to you throughout the day as the situation there develops. Thank you, Hamda, for that report from the north. For further analysis of the northern front, we are joined by Surit Zahavi, Lieutenant Colonel of the IDF and founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center. Thank you very much for joining us, Surit. I want to understand exactly what's happening on the northern front because the low intensity conflict with Hezbollah seems to have been dropping slightly in intensity over the past few days. Is there an indication that they are conserving their strength to plan something larger? What actually happened in the past few days is that IDF succeeded to create a systematic prevention of the anti-tank launching that's coming from Lebanon. We've seen from the beginning of the war that this is the main effort of Hezbollah, mortars and anti-tanks against IDF positions and vehicles and a little bit against civilians as well, civilian infrastructures and vehicles and communities. IDF succeeded in taking off these squads of anti-tanks launching either before they launch or right afterwards. And that's why you saw a little bit of break, very little, very short with these launching while Hezbollah had almost 50 terrorists that were killed by the IDF against the indisactivity. And I think that yesterday afternoon, we've seen Hezbollah trying to get back to recalculate what exactly is the best way to operate. It is clear to me though that what Hezbollah is doing on the other side of the border is preparation for an invasion. I don't accept the assessments or the assumptions that Iran is not involved since there is a similarity between what Hamas had done and what Hezbollah was planning as published a decade ago. There is a similarity between what Hamas had done and the preparations that we saw in the northern border in the past year and that we've seen in the past few weeks. And that's why I believe that in the IDF it is well known and that's why you see these provincial tactical attacks on the Lebanese side. I must say something about UNIFIL. We knew for a long time before this war started that Hezbollah will use UNIFIL as human shields. So the question that should be asked this morning is where these anti-tank missiles that were launched yesterday to Rocha Nikra, where they were launched from? There is a big UNIFIL base right on the other side of the border. Where did they launch from and how come a UNIFIL soldier was there? We've seen this in the trainings of Hezbollah that they were training right below UNIFIL positions. And I'm not surprised that if they are doing that now, in their video of claiming responsibility for this shooting, they blared like I did now. They blared the background of where the missile was launched from because they understand that we know where they are launching these rockets from. I want to talk more about their planning and the assessment here because Hezbollah has been warning since this conflict was launched by Hamas's invasion that the moment Israel goes into Gaza on the ground, they were going to commit to the war in earnest. We can't really say they've been deterred by the death of 50 terrorists. They have 60,000 men up there. What sort of movements have we seen on the northern border? What do we think is the next step? I think it's preparation and exhaustion, meaning that Hezbollah is trying to exhaust us. It is clear to everybody here that Israel prioritizes Gaza. This is how it should be. It's fine. But when you look at the other side of the border for Hezbollah, it is using that because they don't care to hold this situation of anticipation of Lebanese out of their homes and Israelis out of their homes for months. And that way, if Israel is focused on Gaza for months and on the northern border, it's just exhaustion. I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing it correctly. But the idea is that that way they can continue to be prepared and they will find the right moment for them to escalate the situation, which I really don't know if it will be tomorrow, next week, or within a few months. But it creates a situation that here on the border, IDF must be constantly prepared to add to the moment that Hezbollah will decide to initiate, which of course, eventually we will have to make a decision here in Israel who is the initiator, whether we want to be the initiators, we want to be the one who will prevent Hezbollah from doing that. We want to continue waiting for them. And I want to talk more about Hezbollah's main backer because the ultimate fight here is Iran who has been funding every single militia and terror group in the region with the express goal of destroying Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu coming out the other day saying he was absolutely certain Iran's fingerprints were on the October 7th attack, but that there's no proof yet. Let's talk a look at the circumstantial evidence. What is the case here and ultimately what will Iran be doing in this war? I think, look, I don't have intelligence, okay? I'm the head of a civilian think tank. We based on open source intelligence. And when you look at the open source intelligence, I don't see how you can get to this kind of conclusion. Because we've seen the meetings between the foreign minister of Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Nasrallah. There were a sequence of meetings before the war, during the war Nasrallah was the key player there. He met with everybody on the timeline. When you look at the meetings, you understand it is actually confirmation of the plans. I think that Iran is the engineer of all of that. I think that the master plan was made by Iran. I think Iran published its intention in the past year very clearly and said that they want to send tens of thousands of warriors that they trained from various places into the state of Israel. So all they had to do is to create this kind of collaboration and coordination and which they did. We see that the plan, as I've said, it's the same plan, the plan of Hizbara and the plan that was finally executed by Hamas. It's exactly the same plan, including the idea of taking civilians as hostages and human shield. So I truly don't understand how we say that Iran didn't know what. Can you imagine a situation that the head of Hamas was sitting in Nasrallah a month before the invasion and not telling him that this is what he's going to do and then Nasrallah is meeting with the foreign affairs of Iran and not telling him what the head of Hamas told him. It doesn't make sense. Absolutely. And sorry, thank you very much for being with us to discuss all of this, a very large scale plan against Israel that now the hard work of unraveling it begins. Thank you for that analysis. We are going to move now to the southern front where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Ashkelon, an Israel city that oh so often comes under bombardment. Pierre, give us the latest updates from the south. Well, we are here south of Ashkelon and Roy Paltzman can show you the fog, which is very appropriate with the fog of war that we've been encountering since the start of the ground operation on Friday evening. But we clearly hear the Ratatouf gunfire, the roaring of the Israeli jets. We hear the explosions and the front is very active as we can hear. This is very discernible. At the same time, there's been rocket fire launched in toward Ashkelon and the localities, which are south of it. At 6.30 AM local time, there was a salvo of rocket fire after a nine hour lull. And the situation is such that although we cannot be close to the front, close to the boots on the ground inside Gazan territory, we know from the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniela Garry, that this ground operation is only expanding by the hour. Now, the only thing that we can feel about what's going on there is the noise of the war at this moment. Pierre, a big question. We've seen escalating limited incursions on the ground by the IDF since the war has begun. The last one considered the second stage of the war in the words of the Prime Minister. What do we know about the current status of this incursion and what they're accomplishing? Okay, what we know actually is that there are infantry civilian military engineering forces as well as armored tanks that are you just heard an explosion maybe armored tanks that are rolling into Gaza since Friday evening. Before that penetration into Gazan territory on Friday evening, there was a blitz of shelling and aerial attacks on Gazan targets, 600 targets were hit within an hour and a half before the ground incursion started at 5.30 p.m. on Friday evening, local time. And since then, they're still into Gazan territory in the area of Beth Hanoon, which is on the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. But what we understand is that those forces have already penetrated several kilometers inside the Gaza Strip toward Gaza City. And hence, the appeal of the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Agari, to the residents of the northern Gaza Strip that Gaza City is turning into a battleground. And therefore, they need urgently to evacuate in order to spare their life to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where humanitarian aid is waiting for them in terms of water, food and medicine, of course, not of fuel. Thank you very much for the updates from the southern front here. We're going to be back with you over the course of the day as that situation develops. Hanging over this entire situation, though, is, of course, one of the world's biggest hostage situations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting Saturday with representatives of families who loved ones are being held captive in Gazan pledging that Israel will exhaust every possibility to bring their loved ones back home. These families are urging Netanyahu to agree to an all-for-all prisoner exchange with Hamas, the terror group there. Let's take a quick lesson. The demand is unequivocal that the operational activity will consider the fate of the abducted and missing persons and responsibility for this operation rests with the Israeli government. We demanded that no move be made that endangers our family members and any move would take into account the safety of our loved one. In the second part of the meeting, we made it clear that from the point of view of the families, a deal for the immediate release of family members within the framework of all for all is a consideration and will have broad national support. And for more on this, we are joined in studio by our Middle East correspondent Ariel Osseron. Thank you for being in here with us. What exactly does all-for-all mean here? Well, all-for-all means all the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but these are security prisoners. Almost every night we report over these IDF operations, arrest raids to arrest terror suspects or people terrorists who have committed attacks against either Israeli civilians or soldiers. Currently in Israeli prisons, there are over 6,000 of these. Many of them with the way Israel labels them with blood on their hands, meaning they are directly responsible for killing Israelis. And so all-for-all means all of those. For all the Israeli hostages, 229 children, babies, women, elderly, they're equating all those. And this makes it a challenging situation for Israel. I will note, though, that this demand by Yichiya Sunwar Hamas' leader in Gaza that was presented on Hamas' channel, Al-Aqsa TV, it was a statement. It wasn't three weeks since the war began. He has not appeared face or his voice. He just released this statement, and that is telling to the concern that Hamas' leadership has since Israel's retaliation to Hamas' atrocities began, and it would also be indicative as to the status of Israel's ground incursion. But the fact that already on day one, they presented this equation. They said we have enough prisoners, enough hostages to release all of our people from Israeli prisons. Now it seems that they're turning these statements into official demands. And we're going to continue further and other angles as well. But first, we're going to bring in Erdogan and Turkey, because he was speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people, where President Erdogan of Turkey said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a terrorist and that the militant group Hamas is not calling Israel an occupier. Just as Netanyahu is a terrorist, the opposition says, Hamas is a terrorist organization as well. Shame on you. Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world. Right now, we are making preparations for this. Hey, Israel, how did you come here? How did you enter here? You are an occupier. You are an organization. The Turkish people know this. We're going back to the studio with our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osiron. Israel now pulling its diplomatic teams out of Turkey in response to this. It seems that any reproachment between the two nations is put on hold or kaput might be a better way to put it. Ultimately, where's Turkey coming in on all of this? Well, look, first, I'll say that my understanding is that the diplomatic teams are there now. They left a week ago prior to Erdogan's statements against Israel. But look, this isn't the first time we've heard Erdogan say statements like this, call Israel terror-state. This usually happens around major escalations in the Gaza Strip. He's accused Israel of being like the Nazis, of being war criminals. Everything that we just heard, we've heard before. But it's surprising, because Erdogan himself has been leading this charge of warming ties between Israel and Turkey in recent years. Erdogan has been the one who also sent Israel away, but also now is trying to pull it closer since the war began. He was a little bit hesitant in his statements, but now he's going all in in his attacks against Israel. Again, when it comes to the Palestinians, Erdogan tries to show that he's a key actor. He always uses these opportunities to bash Israel. It just illustrates the volatility that is Erdogan's leadership style. But as far as Israel is concerned, they need to take these steps. As for what this will mean, moving forward for the relations, I think Israel is getting, once again, a reminder as to who Erdogan really is, what he really feels. And moving forward, this should be back of mind when Israel decides if to renew relations and how. And it's worth mentioning because originally there was hope that Turkey could potentially be a mediator in hostage negotiations with this obviously kaput. And now people in Israel saying that clearly Qatar is not acting in good faith. Is Israel stuck between a really bad deal and no deal at all? Yes, the fact that Qatar is emerging as the key player here in mediating the hostage release deal, that is indeed a predicament because on the one hand it's the same Qatar that has been funneling funds to Hamas that has been supporting Hamas's regime in Gaza also through its TV channel El Jazeera, which has been pumping Hamas propaganda since October 7th and well before that. And so, on the other hand, they're a non-NATO ally. They're a major non-NATO ally. They're a key ally of the U.S. in the area. I would hope to see the U.S. pull as much weight as it can to pressure Qatar to deliver on a hostage deal and not to drag its feet and not to back Hamas on this entirely. I think the Biden administration in Washington does have the capability to pressure Qatar to facilitate such a deal and that if a deal does not happen, then it would be a failure on behalf of Qatar and it should affect Qatar-U.S. relations if you're asking me personally because Qatar, the U.S. does have pull when it comes to Doha and the decisions that it makes and given that we're seeing Qatar act in two hats, one as the pumper of Hamas propaganda and funneler of money. On the other hand, they're supposed to be a mediator that helps release hostages perhaps without any cost. This is something that I think we need to pay attention to how the U.S. treats Qatar regarding this hostage situation and what pressure they can put on the Emir in Doha to try and facilitate such a deal as fast as possible. Absolutely, Ariel. Thank you very much. It's a tense situation. We've got to hope for the best while living in the worst of it. We're going to turn our eye now back to the southern border where we take a look at some of the Kibbutz scene that were destroyed in Hamas's October 7th rampage and the stories of these people returning now to their homes to see what's left and to pick up the shattered pieces of their community. We also placed explosives on children's bags here. I ask you not to touch anything, nothing that isn't really needed right now, okay? We've suffered enough losses here. We have enough people dead. I really want you all to get out of here alive. On the ground in Kibbutz Kisufim, a group of 20 members are returning for the first time to what was once their paradise to collect leftover equipment to map the damages, a paradise that turned into hell. This is my grandmother's home. I will not go there, if you may. It's hard, very hard, incomprehensible. I still can't digest the fact that I'm here and she's not. We were here a lot. Now I'm here and she isn't around. She was taken away from us. She was murdered. Pure murder. When she comes in, Shashi examines the damage to her house. On the kitchen table, she finds a letter left by IDF soldiers who stayed there during the fighting. Dear Shaked family, thank you very much for your contribution to the country. By making your home here, you are the shield of our society and our country, and hope for quiet days soon. Wow, is this just a bad nightmare? They're setting the neighbor's house on fire here. We woke up at 6.25 a.m. by the vibration of the rocket fire alert on my phone, and it went on and on. Then came sounds that we're not used to. Something about the feeling. It was different from the last 20 years. When did you realize this is something else? When I heard gunshots. The time is now 141. Power has gone out. I'm afraid that terrorists will get into our house as well. Don't worry, my love. Dad has a gun. We sat in the security room until half past six in the evening. After seven hours, troops entered the Kibbutz. For seven hours, the person who led the battle in the Kibbutz was the deputy commander of our emergency team, Shai Asher. The emergency team that day was small. Three close friends, Ronnie, the commander, Saar Morgolis, and Shai Asher. On the 7th of October, when the alarms rang, it looked like an ordinary incident of rocket fire. As far as you can call this reality ordinary. Shai immediately joined his friend, Saar. Saar took one. I took the other. Saar took two more. What do you mean by two? I mean they were no longer able to threaten the safety of our community. To mislead the terrorists, Shai breaks his house window and spreads ketchup on it in order for the terrorists to believe that this house was already massacre. They continue fighting, trying to join Ronnie. I encountered a very massive force of Hamas terrorists. And it's only the two of you? Two of us, me and Saar, as far as we are concerned, Ronnie is unaccounted for. He's either kidnapped or killed. I have two security rooms in this house. In one of them, my two daughters were sleeping. They didn't even hear the gunshots. And in the other room, two more children. I moved the two girls to the other room, closed the door on them, and sat here at the kitchen counter. I took out the first terrorist here. I shot him with the M16. Then I had a malfunction, so I took out the gun and fired several bullets at the other terrorist. He fell to the ground. Almost instantly, an explosive was thrown at me through this window. It exploded, I was hit with shrapnel. I realized my time was running out. I ran to the security room and held on to the door. I locked it with my left hand and stood against it. They went into Eliminator, throwing grenades and explosives inside the house. I didn't move from the door. I fought them to keep it shut. And we're going to have some more of this harrowing story on a later broadcast where we can show the whole thing in full uninterrupted. So stay with us for that. I'm going to be back at the top of the next hour for more breaking news from around Israel at war and news from all possible fronts. So stay with us. We'll be right back. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 News. I-24 News is coverage of Israel at war on Ariole 11 of Waldman. Just a short while ago, sirens were activated in the south as rockets barraged in the area this after a relatively quiet night. The Israel Defense Forces continue to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a satellite targeting several Hamas operatives and positions, that's according to the military. The IDF is warning residents of Gaza City the area is now a battlefield and reiterating a call to civilians in Gaza to move south. Israel also said humanitarian efforts to Gaza led by Egypt and the United States will be expanded. On the diplomatic front, Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after President Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th, and accused Israel of war crimes for striking Hamas targets in Gaza in response. Nenon, who also reiterated that he had no intelligence warning of Hamas' intention to commit a massacre, saying he believed intelligence estimates that the terror group had been deterred. Israel now says the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230. Their fate becoming the number one priority to the Israeli public, and according to opinion polling, support for an immediate ground operation beginning to drop. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas has begun with an expanding ground offensive into the Gaza Strip, and that the war will be long and difficult. On Friday evening, more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo. This is the second phase of the war, whose goals are clear, the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, and the return of the hostages home. At every stage until now, and at every stage from now on, we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families. The war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long, and we're prepared for it. And we're going to open with our eye on the northern front where our correspondent Hamda Salhout is standing by in the north. Hamda, give us a quick appraisal about what the most recent developments are in the northern front. Well look, these changes of fire continuing between the Israeli military and Hezbollah. Just moments ago, the city of Naharia announcing that the Israeli military was renewing its shelling against targets inside Lebanese territory. Now yesterday, there were several rockets that were fired into Israeli territory, a total of six, three, and two separate towns falling in open areas. Now, Unifil, that's the UN peacekeeping group on the other side of the border in Lebanon, says that an Israeli shell hit part of their compound that they were looking into in an investigation as to exactly how it happened. Now earlier in the week, there have been several fires that have been lit by the Israeli military because of different types of drone strikes that they have been doing inside Lebanese territory. Those fires have finally subsided after civil defense inside of Lebanon was able to get them under control. But some experts were saying that the reason why the Israeli military was doing this is to try to prevent Hezbollah from traveling through the mountainous terrain, through the trees, to try and then have these sneak attacks on the Israeli military, and especially on surveillance equipment. So the Israeli military is on high alert here at the northern border as the exchanges of fire continue. Then we'll be coming to you throughout the day as the situation there develops. Thank you, Hamda, for that report from the north. For further analysis of the northern front, we are joined by Surit Zahavi, Lieutenant Colonel of the IDF and Founder and President of the Alma Research and Education Center. Thank you very much for joining us, Surit. I want to understand exactly what's happening on the northern front because the low intensity conflict with Hezbollah seems to have been dropping slightly in intensity over the past few days. Is there an indication that they are conserving their strength to plan something larger? What actually happened in the past few days is that IDF succeeded to create a systematic prevention of the anti-tank launching that's coming from Lebanon. We've seen from the beginning of the war that this is the main effort of Hezbollah, mortars and anti-tanks against IDF positions and vehicles and a little bit against civilians as well, civilian infrastructures and vehicles and communities. IDF succeeded in taking off these squads of anti-tanks launching either before they launch or right afterwards. And that's why you saw a little bit of break, very little, very short with these launchings while Hezbollah had almost 50 terrorists that were killed by the IDF against the in this activity. And I think that yesterday afternoon we've seen Hezbollah trying to get back to to recalculate what exactly is the best way to operate. It is clear to me though that what Hezbollah is doing on the other side of the border is preparation for an invasion. I don't accept the assessments or the assumptions that Iran is not involved since there is a similarity between what Hamas had done and what Hezbollah was planning as published a decade ago. There is a similarity between what Hamas had done and the preparations that we saw in the north and border in the past year and that we've seen in the past few weeks. And that's why I believe that in the IDF it is well known and that's why you see this provincial tactical attacks on the Lebanese side. I must say something about UNIFIL. We knew for a long time before this war started that Hezbollah will use UNIFIL as human shields. So the question that should be asked this morning is where these anti-tank missiles that were launched yesterday to Rocha Nikra, where they were launched from? There is a big UNIFIL base right on the other side of the border. Where did they launch from? And how come a UNIFIL soldier was there? We've seen this in the trainings of Hezbollah that they were training right below UNIFIL positions. And I'm not surprised that if they are doing that now. In their video of claiming responsibility for this shooting, they blared like I did now. They blared the background of where the missile was launched from because they understand that we know where they are launching these rockets from. I want to talk more about their planning and the assessment here because Hezbollah has been warning since this conflict was launched by Hamas's invasion that the moment Israel goes into Gaza on the ground they were going to commit to the war in earnest. We can't really say they've been deterred by the death of 50 terrorists. They have 60,000 men up there. What sort of movements have we seen on the northern border? What do we think is the next step? I think it's preparation and exhaustion, meaning that Hezbollah is trying to exhaust us. It is clear to everybody here that Israel prioritizes Gaza. This is how it should be. It's fine. But when you look at the other side of the border for Hezbollah, it is using that because they don't care to hold this situation of anticipation of Lebanese out of their homes and Israelis out of their homes for months. And that way, if Israel is focused on Gaza for months and the northern border is just exhaustion, I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing it correctly. But the idea is that that way they can continue to be prepared and they will find the right moment for them to escalate this situation, which I really don't know if it will be tomorrow, next week or within a few months. But it creates a situation that here on the border, IDF must be constantly prepared to add to the moment that Hezbollah will decide to initiate, which of course, eventually, we will have to make a decision here in Israel who is the initiator, whether we want to be the initiators, we want to be the one who will prevent Hezbollah from doing that. We want to continue waiting for them. And I want to talk more about Hezbollah's main backer because the ultimate fight here is Iran, who has been funding every single militia and terror group in the region with the express goal of destroying Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu coming out the other day saying he was absolutely certain Iran's fingerprints were on the October 7th attack, but that there's no proof yet. Let's take a look at the circumstantial evidence. What is the case here? And ultimately, what will Iran be doing in this war? I think, look, I don't have intelligence, okay? I'm the head of civilian think tank. We based on open source intelligence. And when you look at the open source intelligence, I don't see how you can get to this kind of conclusion. Because we've seen the meetings between the foreign minister of Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Nasrallah. There were a sequence of meetings before the war, during the war Nasrallah was the key player there. He met with everybody on the time. And when you look at the meetings, you understand it is actually confirmation of the plans. I think that Iran is the engineer of all of that. I think that the master plan was made by Iran. I think Iran published its intention in the past year, very clearly, and said that they want to send tens of thousands of warriors that they trained from various places into the state of Israel. So all they had to do is to create this kind of collaboration and coordination, and which they did. We see that the plan, as I've said, it's the same plan, the plan of Hizbara and the plan that was finally executed by Hamas. It's exactly the same plan, including the idea of taking civilians as hostages and human shield. So I truly don't understand how can we say that Iran didn't know what. Can you imagine a situation that the head of Hamas was sitting in Nasrallah a month before the invasion and not telling him that this is what he's going to do? And then Nasrallah is meeting with the foreign affairs of Iran and not telling him what the head of Hamas told him. It doesn't make sense. Absolutely. And sorry, thank you very much for being with us to discuss all of this. A very large scale plan against Israel that now the hard work of unraveling it begins. Thank you for that analysis. We are going to move now to the southern front where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Ashkelon, an Israel city that oh so often comes under bombardment. Pierre, give us the latest updates from the south. Well, we are here south of Ashkelon and Roy Paltzman can show you the fog, which is very appropriate with the fog of war that we've been encountering since the start of the ground operation on Friday evening. But we clearly hear the Ratata of gunfire, the roaring of the Israeli jets. We hear the explosions and the front is very active as we can hear. This is very discernible. At the same time, there's been rocket fire launched in toward Ashkelon and the localities which are south of it. At 6 30 a.m. local time, there was a salvo of rocket fire after a nine hour lull. And the situation is such that although we cannot be close to the front, close to the boots on the ground inside Gaza territory, we know from the IDF spokesperson Daniela Garry that this ground operation is only expanding by the hour. Now, the only thing that we can feel about what's going on there is the noise of the war at this moment. Pierre, a big question. We've seen escalating limited incursions on the ground by the IDF since the war has begun. The last one considered the second stage of the war in the words of the Prime Minister. What do we know about the current status of this incursion and what they're accomplishing? Okay, what we know actually is that there are infantry military engineering forces as well as armored tanks that are you just heard an explosion maybe armored tanks that are rolling into Gaza since Friday evening. Before that penetration into Gaza territory on Friday evening, there was a blitz of shelling and aerial attacks on Gaza targets. 600 targets were hit within an hour and a half before the ground incursion started at 5 30 p.m. on Friday evening, local time. And since then, they're still into Gaza territory in the area of Beth Hanun, which is on the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. But what we understand is that those forces have already penetrated several kilometers inside the Gaza Strip toward Gaza City. And hence the appeal of the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniela Garry, to the residents of the northern Gaza Strip that Gaza City is turning into a battleground and therefore they need urgently to evacuate in order to spare their life to the southern part of the Gaza Strip where humanitarian aid is waiting for them in terms of water, food and medicine, of course, not a fuel. Thank you very much for the updates from the southern front, Pierre. We're going to be back with you over the course of the day as that situation develops. Hanging over this entire situation though is of course one of the world's biggest hostage situations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting Saturday with representatives of families who loved ones are being held captive in Gaza and pledging that Israel will exhaust every possibility to bring their loved ones back home. These families are urging Netanyahu to agree to an all for all prisoner exchange with Hamas, the terror group there. Let's take a quick lesson. The demand is unequivocal that the operational activity will consider the fate of the abducted and missing persons and responsibility for this operation rests with the Israeli government. We demanded that no move be made that endangers our family members and any move would take into account the safety of our loved one. In the second part of the meeting, we made it clear that from the point of view of the families, a deal for the immediate release of family members within the framework of all for all is a consideration and will have broad national support. And for more on this, we are joined in studio by our Middle East correspondent Ariel Osseron. Thank you for being in here with us. What exactly does all for all mean here? Well, all for all means all the Palestinians held in Israeli security in Israeli prisons, but these are security prisoners. These are, you know, every night we almost every night we report of over these IDF operations, arrest raids to arrest terror suspects or people terrorists who have committed attacks against either Israeli civilians or soldiers currently in Israeli prisons. There are over 6000 of these. Many of them with the way Israel call labels them with blood on their hands, meaning they are directly responsible for killing Israelis. And so all for all means all of those for all the Israeli hostages, 229 children, babies, women, elderly, they're equating all those. And this makes it a challenging situation for Israel. I will note, though, that this demand by Yahya Sunwar Hamas's leader in Gaza that was presented in Hamas's channel, Al Aqsa TV, it was a statement. It three weeks since the war began, he has not appeared face or his voice. He just released this statement. And that is telling to the concern that Hamas leadership has since Israel's retaliation to Hamas's atrocities began and would also be indicative as to the status of Israel's ground incursion. But the fact that already on day one, they presented this equation. They said we have enough prisoners, enough hostages to release all of our people from Israeli prisons. Now it seems that they're turning these statements into official demands. We're going to continue further and other angles as well. But first, we're going to bring in Erdogan and Turkey because he was speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people where President Erdogan of Turkey said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a terrorist and that the militant group Hamas is not calling Israel an occupier. Just as Netanyahu is a terrorist, the opposition says Hamas is a terrorist organization as well. Shame on you. Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world. Right now, we are making preparations for this. Hey, Israel, how did you come here? How did you enter here? You are an occupier. You are an organization. The Turkish people know this. We're going back to the studio with our Middle East correspondent, Israel. Israel now pulling its diplomatic teams out of Turkey in response to this. It seems that any rapprochement between the two nations is put on hold or kaput might be a better way to put it. Ultimately, where's Turkey coming in on all this? Well, look, first, I'll say that my understanding is that the diplomatic teams are there now. They left a week ago prior to Erdogan's statements against Israel. But look, this isn't the first time we've heard Erdogan say statements like this, call Israel terror-state. This usually happens around major escalations in the Gaza Strip. He's accused Israel of being like the Nazis, of being war criminals. Everything that we just heard, we've heard before. But it's surprising because Erdogan himself has been leading this charge of warming ties between Israel and Turkey in recent years. Erdogan has been the one who also sent Israel away, but also now is trying to pull it closer since the war began. He was a little bit hesitant in his statements, but now he's going all in in his attacks against Israel. Again, when it comes to the Palestinians, Erdogan tries to show that he's a key actor. He always uses these opportunities to bash Israel. It just illustrates the volatility that is Erdogan's leadership style, but as far as Israel is concerned, they need to take these steps, as for what this will mean moving forward for the relations. I think Israel's getting, once again, a reminder as to who Erdogan really is, what he really feels, and moving forward, this should be back of mind when Israel decides if to renew relations and how. It's worth mentioning because originally there was hope that Turkey could potentially be a mediator in hostage negotiations with this obviously kaput, and now people in Israel saying that clearly Qatar is not acting in good faith. Is Israel stuck between a really bad deal and no deal at all? Yes, the fact that Qatar is emerging as the key player here in mediating the hostage release deal, that is indeed a predicament because on the one hand it's the same Qatar that has been funneling funds to Hamas, that has been supporting Hamas's regime in Gaza, also through its TV channel El Jazeera, which has been pumping Hamas propaganda since October 7th, and well before that. And so on the other hand, they're a non-NATO ally, they're a major non-NATO ally, they're a key ally of the US in the area. I would hope to see the US pull as much weight as it can to pressure Qatar to deliver on a hostage deal and not to drag its feet and not to back Hamas on this entirely. I think the Biden administration in Washington does have the capability to pressure Qatar to facilitate such a deal and that if a deal does not happen, then it would be a failure on behalf of Qatar and it should affect Qatar-U.S. relations if you're asking me personally because Qatar, the US does have pull when it comes to Doha and the decisions that it makes. And given that we're seeing Qatar act in two hats, one as the pumper of Hamas propaganda and funneler of money. On the other hand, they're supposed to be a mediator that helps release hostages perhaps without any cost. This is something that I think we need to pay attention to how the US treats Qatar regarding this hostile situation and what pressure they can put on the Emir in Doha to try and facilitate such a deal as fast as possible. Thank you very much. It's a tense situation. We've got a hope for the best while living in the worst of it. We're going to turn our eye now back to the southern border where we take a look at some of the Kibbutzim that were destroyed in Hamas's October 7th rampage and the stories of these people returning now to their homes to see what's left and to pick up the shattered pieces of their community. They also placed explosives on children's bags here. I ask you not to touch anything. Nothing that isn't really needed right now, okay? We've suffered enough losses here. We have enough people dead. I really want you all to get out of here alive. On the ground in Kibbutzki Sufim, a group of 20 members are returning for the first time to what was once their paradise to collect leftover equipment to map the damages, a paradise that turned into hell. This is my grandmother's home. I will not go there, if you may. It's hard, very hard, incomprehensible. I still can't digest the fact that I'm here and she's not. We were here a lot. Now I'm here and she isn't around. She was taken away from us. She was murdered. Pure murder. When she comes in, Shashi examines the damage to her house. On the kitchen table, she finds a letter left by IDF soldiers who stayed there during the fighting. Dear Shaked family, thank you very much for your contribution to the country. By making your home here, you are the shield of our society and our country, in hope for quiet days soon. Wow, is this just a bad nightmare? They're setting the neighbor's house on fire here. We woke up at 625 a.m. by the vibration of the rocket fire alert on my phone, and it went on and on. Then came sounds that we're not used to. Something about the feeling, it was different from the last 20 years. When did you realize this is something else? When I heard gunshots, the time is now 141. Power has gone out. I'm afraid that terrorists will get into our house as well. Don't worry, my love. Dad has a gun. We sat in the security room until half past six in the evening. After seven hours, troops entered the Kibbutz. For seven hours, the person who led the battle in the Kibbutz was the deputy commander of our emergency team, Shay Asher. The emergency team that day was small. Three close friends, Ronnie, the commander, Saar Morgolis, and Shay Asher. On the 7th of October, when the alarms rang, it looked like an ordinary incident of rocket fire. As far as you can call this reality ordinary. Shay immediately joined his friend, Saar. Saar took one. I took the other. Saar took two more. What do you mean by two? I mean, they were no longer able to threaten the safety of our community. To mislead the terrorists, Shay breaks his house window and spreads ketchup on it in order for the terrorists to believe that this house was already massacre. They continue fighting, trying to join Ronnie. I encountered a very massive force of Hamas terrorists. And it's only the two of you? Two of us, me and Saar. As far as we are concerned, Ronnie is unaccounted for. He is either kidnapped or killed. I have two security rooms in this house. In one of them, my two daughters were sleeping. They didn't even hear the gunshots. And in the other room, two more children. I moved the two girls to the other room, closed the door on them, and sat here at the kitchen counter. I took out the first terrorist here. I shot him with the M16. Then I had a malfunction, so I took out the gun and fired several bullets at the other terrorist. He fell to the ground. Almost instantly, an explosive was thrown at me through this window. It exploded, I was hit with shrapnel. I realized my time was running out. I ran to the security room and held onto the door. I locked it with my left hand and stood against it. They went into Eliminator, throwing grenades and explosives inside the house. I didn't move from the door. I fought them to keep it shut. And we're going to have some more of this harrowing story on a later broadcast where we can show the whole thing in full uninterrupted. So stay with us for that. We're going to be back at the top of the next hour for more breaking news from around Israel at war and news from all possible fronts. So stay with us. We'll be right back. Good morning from Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 News coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Levin Waldman. Just a short while ago, Sirens activated in Israel's south after a relatively quiet night. The IDF continuing to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip throughout Saturday, targeting several Hamas operatives and positions, the military said. 450 Hamas military targets struck in the last 24 hours, and that one Israeli soldier was seriously injured, another moderately injured by an improvised explosive device. The military also announcing that they are increasing the number of soldiers on the ground and in Gaza. They warned residents of Gaza City the area is now a battlefield, reiterating calls for civilians to move south. Israel also said that humanitarian efforts to Gaza led by Egypt and the United States will be expanding, and that communications networks in Gaza are beginning to come back online after getting knocked out by airstrikes on Friday. On the diplomatic front, Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after President Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th, and accused Israel of war crimes for striking Hamas targets in Gaza in response. Ninyahu also reiterated they had no intelligence awarding Hamas's intention to commit a massacre, saying he believed intelligence estimates that the terror group had been deterred. Israel now saying the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230. Their fate is becoming the number one priority to the Israeli public, according to opinion polls. Opinion polls also showing support for an immediate ground operation beginning to drop. Ninyahu announced that a second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas had begun with an expanding ground offensive, and that the road ahead will be long and difficult. On Friday evening, more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo. This is the second phase of the war, whose goals are clear, the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, and the return of the hostages home. At every stage until now, and at every stage from now on, we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families. The war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long, and we are prepared for it. And we turn our eye to the southern border where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Ashkelone town not too far from that border and typically the prime target of bombardments from Hamas. Pierre, walk us through the latest developments on that front. Well, we just received an IDF communique explaining that in the past 24 hours, 450 terrorist targets were hit in the Gaza Strip. Now, because of the ground incursion, the intelligence on the ground allows the air force and the artillery to pinpoint our targets in a more precise way and also to find new targets in that ongoing war. An IDF officer was severely wounded according to the ebrew version of that communique. It was not injured by an IED but by a mortar shell. And another soldier was moderately wounded in a clash with terrorists. The army says that command posts, headquarters, anti-tank positions, etc., were hit in those past 24 hours and that the military operation, the ground incursion, the boots on the ground is actually increasing and expanding. And gradually moving from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip, Beth Hanun, for instance, toward Jebalia, the refugee camp, toward Gaza City, and hence the call by the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Agari, to the residents of Gaza. Those who haven't left the battleground, to leave urgently the battleground, move south of the Gaza Strip where humanitarian aid in water medicine and food will await for them. Now, is that call being heard? Listened? I don't know. But in terms of communication, what we can say is that also the Palestinian company Pal Net is resuming gradually its cellular network in the Gaza Strip. Well, Pierre, we're going to come back to you over the course of the day as the situation on the south develops. For a closer look on the situation and all of its angles, we're joined in studio by Colonel Jack Nariot, former Deputy Head of Assessment with the Israeli Military Intelligence, as well as Daniel Shaq, former Israeli Ambassador to France. Thank you both for being with us. I want to open with you, Jack, because we're talking about the Israeli military operation on the ground escalating at the same time as Israel is allowing more and more aid into the Gaza Strip. We have to discuss what has been accomplished by the military so far, and at what cost? What does Israel get from the concessions that they're making right now? Well, let us first of all give some information concerning the humanitarian aid. On a regular day, 400 trucks go into Gaza and go out from Gaza. Now we're talking about 20 trucks a day. So this is the proportion. So we shouldn't, I mean, exaggerate and say, huge humanitarian aid. No, this is pinpoint. And it doesn't include lots of things, lots of material, lots of merchandise. So this is very limited. This is very limited and in a very special place. I agree with you that water has been reopened in the central part of Gaza. Look, Israel has to maintain pressure but has to evade the fact of creating a humanitarian crisis, which could be the disasters from Israel's point of view. This is on the humanitarian. On the ground, we are in a very murky position. There's a, you know, foggy and you can say whatever you want. The Israeli army is not interested in letting you or Hamas know where is the main effort. And the main effort could be in the north, could be in the center of Gaza and could be from the sea. This is something that we have to see in the next hours and days. This is a campaign that will last a long time because advance in an urban area demands to be very cautious and under the umbrella of huge fire from airports and from the artillery. So this is, and the way it is conducted right now gives you, I mean, great satisfaction because, I mean, except for those two, one officer and one soldier who were wounded, we are talking about a huge number of elements that have entered Gaza in the last 24 hours. And certainly this is the prelude for others. What is the intention? The intention is certainly reaching Gaza, the Gaza city, where the command centers are there, where the underground city is there. And the real battle will be fought there. And do we have any indication that ground forces have made any advancement in locating hostages for the possibility of special forces raids to retrieve them? In my assessment, I believe that the hostages are well in the south in the areas that are protected right now by the fact that Israel is not attacking. And do not forget that there are areas in Gaza that still live in luxury that people are just enjoying life there. And we're going to continue this discussion in a brief moment because we're going to bring in the angle of the hostages first with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting sadly with representatives of those families whose loved ones are being held captive in Gaza, pledging that Israel will exhaust every possibility to bring their loved ones home. Families are now urging Netanyahu to agree for an all-for-all prisoner exchange with Hamas terror group. Let's take a lesson. The demand is unequivocal that the operational activity will consider the fate of the abducted and missing persons. And responsibility for this operation rests with the Israeli government. We demanded that no move be made that endangers our family members. And any move would take into account the safety of our loved one. In the second part of the meeting, we made it clear that from the point of view of the families, a deal for the immediate release of family members within the framework of all-for-all is a consideration and will have broad national support. Let's return to the studio for a moment where Daniel Shek, in addition to being the former ambassador, is also part of the forum for the families of the hostages. Jenna, I want to talk about this deal that's currently being floated, this all-for-all deal. What are the ramifications here? Well, first of all, it's not a deal yet. And it's a suggestion which is not completely outlandish. You know, that's more or less what everybody expected the final deal to be. And, you know, officially nothing has been said about it, obviously, and rightly so. We, as a civil society-based organization that is completely voluntary and that represents one single agenda item, which is the safe return of the hostages and support for the families, we can say this, that Israel should be prepared to do a deal of everybody against everybody. That's where it stands right now, but we don't know that the Israeli government accepts that. And it's not just the Israeli government. We've been hearing for weeks now that there's not even necessarily an ability to gather everyone in one place to perform an exchange, all kinds of statements coming out, their believability given the source Hamas, questionable at best, but how realistic would such a plan even be in the first place? Well, if there is willingness for an exchange, everything is realistic. And I think that Hamas can't be exempted of responsibility for any one of these 230 confirmed hostages. There might still be more, but, you know, they are the rule. They set the rules in the Gaza Strip and they have the responsibility to gather them, have them. I don't know for a fact that they don't already control all of them. I think it's quite comfortable for them to say that there might be rogue captors, etc. They are responsible, and with them we will have to negotiate. And when I say we, I say the State of Israel, obviously the forum doesn't have the authority or the ability to negotiate with anyone. We're just serving as a voice for the hostages and helping them get that voice carry. I'm going to turn back to you, Jack, because if such a plan were to advance, we're talking about over 6,000 security prisoners, 6,000 soldiers being returned directly to Hamas's ranks in the middle of a war against Hamas. I ask you the same question, how realistic would such a plan be? You know, history teaches us that exchange of prisoners happens only in two cases, ceasefire, long ceasefire, or a cessation of hostilities. These are two options that are unacceptable for Israel, unacceptable. We've seen in the last week that Hamas in his cynical role has been playing with us, throwing in the air the idea of a very quick deal to exchange prisoners and all this was intended to delay the landing cushions. On the contrary, the landing cushions augments, I would say, the possibilities of pressure on Hamas. At least give us a list of names, give us a list of people who are, who is living and who's dead, who is missing. This is something that a basic thing that we didn't even receive after opening some avenues of humanitarian aid. And I think that this is the basic. Before that, we should not do anything else. I'd just like to say about this, that clearly there's a difference here between the approach of strategists and families. I completely understand what Jack says about putting up more pressure. But you also have to understand that when more pressure is put and when the land incursion begins, the families, their concern and their fear goes up by a notch or two. And that's, we saw this in the last 24 hours where they demanded a meeting with the Prime Minister and finally got it. And the main message was, are you sure that starting a land operation is not putting our loved ones in extra and maybe unnecessary jeopardy? Terrifying challenge going forward for indeed all sides as we attempt to extricate Israel from this situation. We are going to first move though to the Northern border to discuss developments there. Our correspondent Hamda Salhout standing by. Hamda, give us an assessment of what's going on on the Northern front. Well, the exchange is a fire continuing between the Israeli military and Hezbollah. Yesterday rockets flying into Israeli territory, a total of six, three and two separate areas. But an interesting piece of information coming out overnight is that the Lebanese government has been speaking to media really pushing their voice into this narrative because if Hezbollah enters the war, the consequences will be on the state of Lebanon and its people, not just Hezbollah. So the Lebanese government has been saying that officials from all ends have been speaking to them, telling them that Hezbollah cannot enter the war, that it will be catastrophic for them. But again, they're not the ones who are going to make the decision. And when the Lebanese government does say that Hezbollah might enter this war, they say they simply cannot deal with the consequences because of all of the disasters that the country has been in itself for the last four to five years. Now the Lebanese government has also told the United States if they don't want Hezbollah to enter the war, a main factor of this would be the ground incursion inside of the Gaza Strip. So the Lebanese government is now pressuring the United States, telling them that if they were to enter the Gaza Strip on foot, if there were to be this large ground operation, there really are no guarantees as to who can get involved. And this is something we've been hearing from a lot of leaders in the region. And now the Lebanese government said, quote, when we tell Hezbollah as the government that we cannot take a war, the answer is we understand you, but we also cannot take the fall of Hamas. These words, plain and simple, Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas and they do not want to see their defeat or their downfall inside of the Gaza Strip. So a ground incursion is really something we're going to have to look out for in the next coming days and weeks to see how the Israeli military is going to enter the second phase of its war, as officials were saying yesterday, because the repercussions of that could be a new front on the northern border and a new adversary for the Israelis to fight. Absolutely. And that's going to be developing in the near future as we see the Gaza operation continuing. Hamda, thank you for that assessment and we'll be back with you over the course of the day as things develop. We're going to look now at Turkey, though, where their president, Erdogan, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people where Erdogan said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a terrorist that the militant group Hamas was not and said that Israel is an occupier. Just as Netanyahu was a terrorist, the opposition says Hamas is a terrorist organization as well. Shame on you. Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world. Right now, we're making preparations for this. Hey, Israel, how did you come here? How did you enter here? You are an occupier. You are an organization. The Turkish people know this. And we're going to return to Daniel Shack in the studio again. I want to turn to you now as a diplomat rather than your humanitarian work. Of course. Because now we have the leader of the day job. And as part of that, you see the leader of a NATO aligned nation that never exactly had the best ties at Israel directly coming out saying that they're pro Hamas. Not a real big surprise from Erdogan, but dismay in Israel. I stopped counting the number of times that Erdogan went from a foe to friend and from friend to a detractor and criticizing, et cetera. I probably may have had a chance once or twice in your studio when there was this big revival a few months ago and everybody was celebrating the return of Turkey to the circle of allies of Israel in the region where I said, yes, absolutely, this is a very good and very positive development. But I would approach it very cautiously and remember that he is not a reliable ally. He's an important one. I'm not saying the contrary. As long as we have good relations with Turkey, it's an asset for Israel. But you should never count on this guy because he, you know, he changes colors much too fast for my liking. And here you go at the first opportunity. Instead, you know, he has a choice like the leaders of Qatar have. He can either stay on the wrong side of this story and be remembered as the ally of Hamas, of a terrorist organization that has perpetrated one of the worst massacres in human modern memory, or he can choose to be the hero of this story. If he can liberate 230 civilians out of captivity under terrible conditions, he can become a hero internationally applauded. It's his choice. And from one leader who seems to be taking as strong a position against Israel, I want to look at the opposite, the Defense Minister of the Czech Republic coming after the Czech Republic has given their full-throated support of Israel in these dark times. It's good to know there are people on Israel's side as well. Well, there are many people on Israel's side. You know, even in countries where we hear about demonstrations against Israel and pro Hamas and so on, these are the noisiest parts of public opinion. They don't necessarily represent the majority. And that goes for political leaders, too. Now, I will say, and I will say so proudly because I have 100% Czech genes in my blood. Both my parents were Czech. The Czech Republic is a traditional, very, very close ally of Israel, a close friend. So I'm really not surprised about them. And I wish there were more. But even in other countries, we hear a lot of signs of sympathy and empathy and understanding for Israel. It's dwindling. That's the fact of the modern news cycle. The sympathy is centered around the events of October 7th. That's where nearly in November. So memories tend to dwindle and to be overtaken by new images. And Israel will have to deal with it, take it into consideration. It's not necessarily a decisive factor for what Israel or the army or the government will decide to do. But it has to be taken into consideration because international public opinion, but also the international climate surrounding Israel, does have ramification for its ability to operate in Gaza. Practically speaking, Czech support, what do they bring to the table? Well, they're a member of the EU. I don't think that specifically. Yeah, NATO. And, you know, it's just nice to know that you have friends that stay friends even in difficult times. It's as simple as that. And I'm not trying to downplay it. Czech Republic is not a decision-making superpower. But it is a member of the EU. And it does weigh on the decisions of the EU in foreign policy. I want to turn to you as well, Jack, because there's more angles to this that we have to discuss. And that being the wider regional conflict, we're hearing that U.S. bases in the region have been attacked, including this morning, a base in Syria, being struck very likely by Iranian-backed groups. Well, there's something very special. There's a convergence of interests from the U.S. on the one hand and from Iran on the other hand. Iran is interested in a limited conflict and preventing Israel from entering the land-ground incursions into Gaza. So to limit it and not to expand it into a regional conflict. Whereas the Americans have the same interest, not to expand it into a regional context, because they're not interested in a regional war. So there is a convergence of interests. But what's happening on the ground is totally different. All American bases from the Kurdish territory, till Jordan and other places, are being under attack by Iraqi militias and militias, pro-Iranian militias. And the Americans have already more than 20 soldiers wounded and they are under attack all the time. This is why the U.S. has asked Israel for time to deploy its forces before the landing incursions. And this is how the USS Karni took care of the cruise missiles and the 30 drones that were sent from Yemen. But this was only intercepted once. Since then, there were twice attempts by the Houthis to fire at Israel. And the expansion of the conflict is almost inevitable. This is where we stand right today, because if we have to believe what Hezbollah has been saying all the time, that if there's a red line and if we cross it, meaning if we begin our ground operation into Gaza, then automatically they will expand the conflict with Israel. Till now, for almost three weeks, we've been firing at one another on a limit of five kilometers depth from each side. We haven't gone beyond that. So at the moment, Hezbollah will just trespass that and will hit targets inside Israel. Then you have to understand that we are in an open conflict with Hezbollah. And we've seen the United States try to say that their strikes against Iranian-backed militias in the region are not linked to the war in Gaza. They're supposed to be entirely defensive operations against the strikes on bases. It seems, as you said, it's inevitable this is becoming a regional conflict. Well, remember that the Americans have been striking bases in Iraq and Syria for a long time. Just to remember, January 21, February 21, August 22, and March 23, all air strikes by the U.S. forces. So it's not the first time. And it pleases them to say it is not connected to the conflict. But in fact, we know everybody knows that this is deeply connected and this is part of the conflict. And the Iranians have been saying only the last few days that these interventions are just pushing them to answer in a different way, where different from what it was until now on the Lebanese and Syrian-Israeli borders. May I just say that inevitable is not an acceptable word in diplomatic vocabulary. Everything is inevitable. The trick is to understand how to make it inevitable before it happens and not in retrospect. Because in most cases in history, you understand in retrospect that you might have avoided this catastrophe. But you can try and do this ahead of time, too. And I think the Lebanese front, the Hezbollah front, is a typical such situation because it looks like nobody really wants this to happen. But that doesn't mean that this bomb won't go off just because somebody will make a little mistake, like Jacques Néria just said. If one of their rockets or attacks goes a bit too deep, deeper than the five kilometers, then things can escalate. And nobody wants that, especially the international community, the United States, the EU. They can manage, quote, unquote, a localized conflict in Gaza. They really wouldn't want this to become a regional hotspot now. That's going to be a big challenge and a big question going forward. Thank you very much, Daniel. Thank you very much, Jacques, for explaining the situation for us. For everyone else, though, we are going out on break now. We'll see you again at the top of the next hour. Until then, stay safe out there, and we will be back with you soon. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived, and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on, only on I-24 News. The IDF continuing to escalate ground operations in the Gaza Strip throughout satellite, targeting several Hamas operatives and positions, the military said. 450 Hamas military targets struck in the last 24 hours, and that one Israeli soldier was seriously injured, another moderately injured, by an improvised explosive device. The military also announcing that they are increasing the number of soldiers on the ground in Gaza. They warned residents of Gaza City the area is now a battlefield, reiterating calls for civilians to move south. Israel also said that humanitarian efforts to Gaza, led by Egypt and the United States, will be expanding. Now communications networks in Gaza are beginning to come back online after getting knocked out by airstrikes on Friday. On the diplomatic front, Israel has pulled its diplomatic teams from Turkey after President Erdogan praised Hamas as liberators for their crimes against humanity on October 7th, and accused Israel of war crimes for striking Hamas targets in Gaza in response. Netanyahu also reiterated that he had no intelligence awarding Hamas' intention to come out of massacre, saying he believed intelligence estimates that the terror group had been deterred. Israel now saying the number of hostages held by Hamas confirmed to be at least 230, their fate is becoming the number one priority to the Israeli public according to opinion polls, opinion polls also showing support for an immediate ground operation beginning to drop. Netanyahu announced that a second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas had begun with an expanding ground offensive and that the road ahead will be long and difficult. On Friday evening, more of the ground forces entering to Gaza in the development of the stronghold of Ivo. This is the second phase of the war, whose goals are clear, the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas in the return of the hostages home. At every stage until now, and at every stage from now on, we will exhaust every possibility to return our abducted brothers and sisters to their families. The war inside the Gaza Strip will be difficult and long, and we are prepared for it. And we turn our eyes to the southern border where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Ashkelone, town not too far from that border and typically the prime target of bombardments from Hamas. Pierre, walk us through the latest developments on that front. Well, we just received an IDF communique explaining that in the past 24 hours, 450 terrorist targets were hit in the Gaza Strip. Now, because of the ground incursion, the intelligence on the ground allows the air force and the artillery to pinpoint our targets in a more precise way and also to find new targets in that ongoing war. An IDF officer was severely wounded according to the ebrew version of that communique. It was not injured by an IED but by a mortar shell. And another soldier was moderately wounded in a clash with terrorists. The army says that command posts, headquarters, anti-tank positions, etc., were hit in those past 24 hours and that the military operation, the ground incursion, the boots on the ground is actually increasing and expanding. And gradually, moving from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip, Beth Hanun, for instance, toward Jebalia, the refugee camp, toward Gaza City, and hence the call by the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Agari, to the residents of Gaza, those who haven't left the battleground, to leave urgently the battleground, move south of the Gaza Strip where humanitarian aid in water medicine and food will await for them. Now, is that call being heard, listened? I don't know. But in terms of communication, what we can say is that also the Palestinian company Pal Net is resuming gradually its cellular network in the Gaza Strip. Well, Pierre, we're going to come back to you over the course of the day as the situation on the south develops. For a closer look on the situation and all of its angles, we're joined in studio by Colonel Jack Nariot, former deputy head of assessment with the Israeli military intelligence, as well as Daniel Shaq, former Israeli ambassador to France. Thank you both for being with us. I want to open with you, Jack, because we're talking about the Israeli military operation on the ground escalating at the same time as Israel is allowing more and more aid into the Gaza Strip. We have to discuss what has been accomplished by the military so far and at what cost? What does Israel get from the concessions that they're making right now? Well, let us first of all give some information concerning the humanitarian aid. On a regular day, 400 trucks go into Gaza and go out from Gaza. Now we're talking about 20 trucks a day. So this is the proportion. So we shouldn't, I mean, exaggerate and say huge humanitarian aid. No, this is pinpoint and it doesn't include lots of things, lots of material, lots of merchandise. So this is very limited. This is very limited and in a very special place. I agree with you that water has been reopened in the central part of Gaza. Look, Israel has to maintain pressure but has to evade the fact that of creating a humanitarian crisis, which could be the disasters from Israel's point of view. This is on the humanitarian on the ground. We are in a very murky position. There's a, you know, foggy and you can say whatever you want. The Israeli army is not interested in letting you or Hamas know where is the main effort. And the main effort could be in the north, could be in the center of Gaza and could be from the sea. This is something that we have to see in the next hours and days. This is a campaign that will last a long time because advance in an urban area demands to be very cautious and under the umbrella of huge fire from airports and from the artillery. So this is, and the way it is conducted right now gives you, I mean, great satisfaction because, I mean, except for those two officers and one soldier who were wounded, we are talking about a huge number of elements that have entered Gaza in the last 24 hours. And certainly this is the prelude for others. What is the intention? The intention is certainly reaching Gaza, the Gaza city where the command centers are there, where the underground city is there, and the real battle will be fought there. And do we have any indication that ground forces have made any advancement in locating hostages for the possibility of special forces raids to retrieve them? Well, in my assessment, I believe that the hostages are well in the south in the areas that are protected right now by the fact that Israel is not attacking. And do not forget that there are areas in Gaza that still live in luxury that people are just enjoying life there. And we're going to continue this discussion in a brief moment because we're going to bring in the angle of the hostages first with Prime Minister Benjamin meeting sadly with representatives of those families whose loved ones are being held captive in Gaza, pledging that Israel will exhaust every possibility to bring their loved ones home. Families are now urging Netanyahu to agree for an all for all prisoner exchange with Hamas terror group. Let's take a listen. The demand is unequivocal that the operational activity will consider the fate of the abducted and missing persons and responsibility for this operation rests with the Israeli government. We demanded that no move be made that endangers our family members and any move would take into account the safety of our loved one. In the second part of the meeting, we made it clear that from the point of view of the families, a deal for the immediate release of family members within the framework of all for all is a consideration and will have broad national support. Let's return to the studio for a moment where Daniel Shek, in addition to being the former ambassador is also part of the forum for the families of the hostages. Jenna, I want to talk about this deal that's currently being floated, this all for all deal. What are the ramifications here? Well, first of all, it's not a deal yet and it's a suggestion which is not completely outlandish. That's more or less what everybody expected the final deal to be. And you know, I officially nothing has been said about it, obviously, and rightly so. We as a civil society based organization that is completely voluntary and that represents one single agenda item, which is the safe return of the hostages and support for the families. We can say this, that Israel should be prepared to do a deal of everybody against everybody. That's where it stands right now, but we don't know that the Israeli government accepts that. And it's not just the Israeli government, we've been hearing for weeks now that there's not even necessarily an ability to gather everyone in one place to perform an exchange, all kinds of statements coming out, their believability given the source Hamas, questionable at best, but how realistic would such a plan even be in the first place? Well, if there is willingness for an exchange, everything is realistic. And I think that Hamas can't be exempted of responsibility for any one of these 230 confirmed hostages, there might still be more. But you know, they are the rule, they set the rules in the Gaza Strip and they have the responsibility to gather them, have them. I don't know for a fact that they don't already control all of them. I think it's quite comfortable for them to say that there might be rogue captors, et cetera. They are responsible, and with them we will have to negotiate. I mean, when I say we, I say the State of Israel, obviously, the forum doesn't have the authority or the ability to negotiate with anyone. We're just serving as a voice for the hostages and helping them get that voice carry. I'm going to turn back to you, Jack, because if such a plan were to advance, we're talking about over 6,000 security prisoners, 6,000 soldiers being returned directly to Hamas's ranks in the middle of a war against Hamas. I asked you the same question, how realistic would such a plan be? You know, history teaches us that exchange of prisoners happens only in two cases, ceasefire, long ceasefire, or cessation of hostilities. These are two options that are unacceptable for Israel, unacceptable. We've seen in the last week that Hamas in his cynical role has been playing with us, throwing in the air the idea of a very quick deal to exchange prisoners and all this was intended to delay the landing cushions. On the contrary, the landing cushions augments, I would say, the possibilities of pressure on Hamas. At least give us a list of names, give us a list of people who are, who is living and who's dead, who is missing. This is something that, a basic thing that we didn't even receive after opening some avenues of humanitarian aid. And I think that this is the basic. Before that, we should not do anything else. I'd just like to say about this that clearly there's a difference here between the approach of strategists and families. I completely understand what Jack says about putting more pressure, but you also have to understand that when more pressure is put and when the land incursion begins, the families, their concern and their fear goes up by a notch or two. And that's, we saw this in the last 24 hours where they demanded a meeting with the prime minister and finally got it. And the main message was, are you sure that starting a land operation is not putting our loved ones in extra and maybe unnecessary jeopardy? Terrifying challenge going forward for all sides as we attempt to extricate Israel from this situation. We are going to first move though to the northern border to discuss developments there. Our correspondent Hamda Salhout standing by. Hamda, give us an assessment of what's going on on the northern front. Well, the exchanges of fire continuing between the Israeli military and Hezbollah yesterday rockets flying into Israeli territory, a total of six, three and two separate areas. But an interesting piece of information coming out overnight is that the Lebanese government has been speaking to media really pushing their voice into this narrative because if Hezbollah enters the war, the consequences will be on the state of Lebanon and its people, not just Hezbollah. So the Lebanese government has been saying that officials from all ends have been speaking to them, telling them that Hezbollah cannot enter the war, that it will be catastrophic for them. But again, they're not the ones who are going to make the decision. And when the Lebanese government does say that Hezbollah might enter this war, they say they simply cannot deal with the consequences because of all of the disasters that the country has been in itself for the last four to five years. Now the Lebanese government has also told the United States if they don't want Hezbollah to enter the war, a main factor of this would be the ground incursion inside of the Gaza Strip. So the Lebanese government is now pressuring the United States, telling them that if they were to enter the Gaza Strip on foot, if there were to be this large ground operation, there really are no guarantees as to who can get involved. And this is something we've been hearing from a lot of leaders in the region. And now the Lebanese government said, quote, when we tell Hezbollah as the government that we cannot take a war, the answer is, we understand you, but we also cannot take the fall of Hamas. These words, plain and simple, Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas and they do not want to see their defeat or their downfall inside of the Gaza Strip. So a ground incursion is really something we're going to have to look out for in the next coming days and weeks to see how the Israeli military is going to enter the second phase of its war, as officials were saying yesterday, because the repercussions of that could be a new front on the northern border and a new adversary for the Israelis to fight. Absolutely. And that's going to be developing in the near future as we see the Gaza operation continuing. Hamda, thank you for that assessment and we'll be back with you over the course of the day as things develop. We're going to look now at Turkey, though, where their president, Erdogan, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people, where Erdogan said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a terrorist, that the militant group Hamas was not, and said that Israel is an occupier. Just as Netanyahu was a terrorist, the opposition says Hamas is a terrorist organization as well. Shame on you. Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world. Right now, we're making preparations for this. Hey, Israel, how did you come here? How did you enter here? You are an occupier. You are an organization. The Turkish people know this. And we're going to return to Daniel Shack in the studio, and I want to turn to you now as a diplomat, rather, than your humanitarian work, because now we have the leader. You have a day job. It's a day job. And as part of that, you see the leader of a NATO-aligned nation that never exactly had the best ties with Israel directly coming out, saying that they're pro-Hamas. Not a real big surprise for Erdogan, but dismay in Israel. I stopped counting the number of times that Erdogan went from foe to friend and from friend to detractor and criticizing, et cetera. I probably may have had a chance once or twice in your studio when there was this big revival a few months ago and everybody was celebrating the return of Turkey to the circle of allies of Israel in the region where I said, yes, absolutely, this is a very good and very positive development. But I would approach it very cautiously and remember that he is not a reliable ally. He's an important one. I'm not saying the contrary. As long as we have good relations with Turkey, it's an asset for Israel. But you should never count on this guy because he, you know, he changes colors much too fast for my liking. And here you go. At the first opportunity, instead of, you know, he has a choice, like the leaders of Qatar have, he can either stay on the wrong side of this story and be remembered as the ally of Hamas, of a terrorist organization that has perpetrated one of the worst massacres in human modern memory, or he can choose to be the hero of this story. If he can liberate 230 civilians out of captivity under terrible conditions, he can become a hero internationally applauded. It's his choice. And from one leader who seems to be taking as strong a position against Israel, I want to look at the opposite, the Defense Minister of the Czech Republic coming after the Czech Republic has given their full throated support of Israel in these dark times. It's good to know there are people on Israel's side as well. Well, there are many people on Israel's side. You know, even in countries where we hear about demonstrations against Israel and pro Hamas and so on, these are the noisiest parts of the public opinion. They don't necessarily represent the majority. And that goes for political leaders too. Now, I will say, and I will say so proudly because I have 100% Czech genes in my blood. Both my parents were Czech. The Czech Republic is a traditional, very, very close ally of Israel, a close friend. So I'm really not surprised about them. And I wish there were more. But even in other countries, you know, we hear a lot of signs of sympathy and empathy and understanding for Israel. It's dwindling. You know, that's the fact of of the modern news cycle. The sympathy is centered around the events of October 7th. That's we're nearly in November. So memories tend to dwindle and to be overtaken by new images and Israel will have to deal with it. Take it into consideration. It's not necessarily a decisive factor for what Israel or the army or the government will decide to do. But it has to be taken into consideration because international public opinion, but also the international climate surrounding Israel does have ramification for its ability to operate in Gaza. Practically speaking, Czech support, what do they bring to the table? Well, they're a member of the EU. I don't think that specifically. Yeah, NATO. And, you know, it's just nice to know that you have you have friends that stay friends even in difficult times. I, you know, that's it's it's as simple as that. And it I'm not trying to downplay it. But I mean, Czech Republic is not a decision making superpower. But it is a member of the EU and it does weigh on the decisions of the EU in foreign policy. I want to turn to you as well, Jack, because there's more angles to this that we have to discuss. And that being the wider regional conflict, we're hearing that U.S. bases in the region have been attacked, including this morning a base in Syria being struck very likely by Iranian fact. Well, there's something very special. There's a convergence of interest from on from the U.S. on the one hand, and from Iran on the other hand, Iran is interested in a limited limited conflict and preventing Israel from entering the land land ground incursions into Gaza. So to limit it and not to expand it into a local into a regional regional conflict, whereas the Americans have the same interest, not to expand it into a regional context, because they're not interested in a regional war. So there is a there's a convergence of interest. But what's happening on the ground is totally different. All American bases from Kurdish the Kurdish territory till Jordan and other places are being under attack by by Iraqi militias and militias pro Iranian militias. And the Americans have already more than 20 soldiers which wounded and they are under attack all the time. This is why the U.S. has asked Israel for time to deploy its forces before the landing incursions. And this is how the the USS Carney took care of the the cruise missiles and the 30 drones that were sent from from yen. But this was only intercepted once. Since then, there were twice attempts by by the Houthis to fire at Israel. And the expansion of the conflict is almost inevitable. This is where we stand right today because if we have to believe what Hezbollah has been saying all the time, that if we there's a red line and if we cross it, meaning if we begin our ground operation into Gaza, then automatically they will expand the conflict with Israel till now. For almost three weeks, we've been firing at one another on the on a limit of five kilometers depth from each side. We haven't we haven't gone beyond that. So at the moment, Hezbollah will just trespass that and will hit targets inside Israel. Then you have to understand that we are in an open conflict with Hezbollah. And we've seen the United States try to say that their strikes against Iranian-backed militias in the region are not linked to the war in Gaza. They're supposed to be entirely defensive operations against the strikes on bases. It seems, as you said, it's inevitable this is becoming a regional conflict. Remember that the Americans have been striking bases in Iraq and Syria for a long time. Just to remember, January 21, February 21, August 22, and March 23, all air strikes by the U.S. forces. So it's not the first time. And it pleases them to say it is not connected to the conflict. But in fact, we know everybody that everybody knows that this is deeply connected and this is part of the conflict. And the Iranians have been saying only the last few days that this is these interventions are just pushing them to answer in a different way where different from what it was in now on the Lebanese and Syrian Israeli borders. May I just say that inevitable is not an acceptable word in diplomatic vocabulary. Everything is inevitable. The trick is to understand how to how to make it inevitable before it happens and not in retrospect, because in most cases in history, you understand in retrospect that you might have avoided this catastrophe. But you can try and do this ahead of time too. And I think the Lebanese