 officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. We just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the Unity. Breaking news edition. I'm Benita Levine coming to you live from Tel Aviv. A massive barrage of rockets sent to southern and central Israel just a short while ago. Sirens sounding in many cities including here in Tel Aviv, in Jaffa, back yam and in the south in Kisufin, Mirim and Farazah. It's day 20 of the war, 20 days since the Hamas terror killing rampage. The death toll is at more than 1,400. More than 5,400 people were wounded. A targeted raid in northern Gaza overnight. The IDF hitting 250 Hamas targets including a rocket launcher hidden by a mosque and a kindergarten. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking once again discussing ways to free at least 222 hostages still being held captive by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The hostages come from 25 different countries ranging in age from a nine month old baby to an 89 year old man. So far four female hostages have been freed and Qatar says it's making progress in efforts to secure a hostage release. And in recent hours, Benny Gantz member of the war cabinet saying that Israel will ultimately make its own decisions over its war plans following several reports that America was pressurizing it to delay its Gaza ground invasion. Meanwhile, horrific new gruesome details emerging out of Israel's southern communities. One of those communities targeted in the Hamas terror rampage on the 7th of October. Kibbutz Be'eri which was decimated by terrorists in an onslaught that lasted more than a day. The IDF's Colonel Golan Wach outlining this disturbing discovery in the early days of the war. A warning that these details which are being released officially today are difficult to hear. Along the way that we've just walked, we found 20 victims all dead. But when we got to this house, I saw something I never faced before. It was a woman lying here. A woman lying here. It was still burning so she could be recognized. She was shot in the back and she was protecting a baby. A baby, small baby, I don't know exactly one or two years and the baby was decapitated. I carried the baby in my own hands. Pure evil. Pure evil. Right now, we go to our correspondent Pierre Clashendler. He joins us from Ashkelon in southern Israel. So, Pierre, these horrific new details emerging out of Kibbutz Be'eri. The scale and extent of the brutality is difficult to comprehend. Talk to us about the new details emerging on this day. Well, first of all, this is an authorized publication by the IDF. And it seems its intent is to explain to the world the atrocity that the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad and even maybe some civilians from Gaza perpetrated against Israeli civilians, men, children and women, elderly. Now, why do they publish it now? Because there's been a lot of facts-checking, morbid facts-checking. In Western media, how many babies were decapitated? How many were burnt? You know, all these grossy details that they want to, they want an evidence about. So the IDF has, for instance, a couple of days ago shown a film of all the atrocities that the Hamas terrorists themselves filmed with their GoPro camera while they were killing people and posted on their social networks and claimed that they killed five civilians, ten civilians, talking to their parents with pride. And the IDF wants to set the record straight because there is no sense of proportionality when such thing occur. In one single day, 1,400 civilians at least butchered, civilians and soldiers butchered. That's something that is difficult to comprehend. And in order to have legitimacy for Israel waging a response to Hamas waging a war against Israel, there need to be legitimacy. There need to be an agreement amongst the governments of mainly in the West but also other governments that could be influential in not pressing Israel into a very difficult task, dismantling the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic terror organizations. And that will take time. That will take caution. And as a result, I think all these terrible details are being authorized for publication. Horrific and difficult to comprehend. And as we are speaking, siren sounding in some southern communities close to the border with Gaza. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much. We will come back to our correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler in Ashkelon. Thank you very much, Pierre. Now for more, we welcome to studio Yaakov Lappen, military and strategic affairs analyst at the Jewish News Syndicate and military and strategic affairs analyst at the Miriam Institute. Yaakov, thank you very much for being here. What an incredibly tough time. It's day 20 of this war and yet new details keep emerging and we're hearing the depravity, the butchering of a pregnant woman. We're hearing details as we heard just moments ago, the butchering of a mother protecting her child and that child gruesomely, gruesomely attacked. Your thoughts about the state of affairs in this war right now, day 20? Well, we do keep rediscovering the pure evil that was unleashed on the civilians of southern Israel. And the fact that many of these scenes are reminiscent of the Holocaust and that level of whole-scale massacre of people simply because of who they are, Israelis and Jews. And the unspeakable brutality, barbarity and evil that was unleashed on these people. I think all of this feeds into the unprecedented national consensus that is in place, that the Hamas terrorist organization has to be destroyed physically. Its terror army in the Gaza Strip will have to be uprooted completely and its political regime and all of the institutions that it runs in the Gaza Strip will have to be destroyed. It's all, I think, feeding into that national conclusion. It's a very important moment in this war. As we continue finding out more and more about the unspeakable evil and trying to process it each as individuals and as a nation, all of this is going to create, I wouldn't even call it pressure, I would call it a push on the government to make the decision that the reality in the Gaza Strip will have to change forever after this war. And I think that's part of the process of that happening. Talking about the reality on the ground, Commander of the Northern Khan-Yunus Rocket Unit has been eliminated just a short while ago. That confirmation coming through. His name is Ghassan Al-Abdulla. Talk to us about the extent of the air strikes by the IDF right now, seemingly ahead of this major ground invasion. How successful, how precise are they at this juncture? They're striking around the clock. Just last night, within hours, they struck 250 targets. It's very, very difficult work because they get intelligence about a terrorist army. And the reason that we use that term is because it's both a terrorist genocidal organization and it still functions as an army because it has a command structure. It's hierarchical. I mean, it's embedded in Gaza's civilian neighborhoods. So finding the needle in the haystack, finding these senior Hamas terrorist commanders, the entire leadership is on the Israeli assassination list. And they're going through them one by one, looking for them, striking them as they continue to strike infrastructure, rocket launching positions, rocket manufacturing centers, all of the things that Hamas has built over the years in Gaza. This war machine that it has built is being systematically eliminated from the air, but it will never be enough from the air. There will have to be a very large ground offensive in order to complete that task. So the air power right now that we're seeing is helping. It's keeping Hamas under a serious pressure, pinned down. It's losing capabilities all of the time. But it will not destroy Hamas. The only thing that would destroy Hamas as a terrorist army will be that ground offensive. And we're going to be talking about that ground offensive a little bit later right now, though, I'd like to go up north. Our correspondent, Pierre Stekelbach, joins us from northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. And obviously, Pierre, those concerns around Hezbollah's next move remain. What update can you share this hour from the north? Right, Benita, the northern front is continuously heating up. And when you go a bit closer to the Lebanese border, when you too, those communities that are two, three, four kilometers away from the border that have widely already been evacuated, civilians have left those areas, you can actually witness those skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. We've seen smoke arising from the border area. We've seen artillery being fired from the Israeli side toward Lebanon. We've been hearing that yesterday. The IDF confirming a statement saying that they targeted five squads trying to fire anti-tank missiles into Israeli territory yesterday for rockets in the afternoon being fired toward the area of Kiryat Shmoner, the eastern area of the border with Lebanon. Here, they all fell into open area. No interceptions there needed. Also throughout the night, one ground to air missile was fired from southern Lebanon. It was intercepted by Israel. It was trying to target an Israeli drone. Israel has been striking back to the origin of those launches of that fire continuously. And you can really feel and you can really witness those skirmishes also by just listening and being very high alert when you tour these areas as they have been evacuated. But you can somehow express access these areas there. This is what we've been doing all morning, really. Benita, remember that this is happening against the backdrop of Iran trying to combine all those fronts. And if you need any more proof for that, yesterday morning, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, met with the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also supported by Iran and a senior Hamas official in Beirut, saying that they were about to plan the next steps to be taken in that sensitive stage of the war and how to bring about the victory of what they called the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. And Hezbollah has really been saying all throughout the year that they have emphasis or that they have sympathy and they want to support the Palestinian cause. And Iran seems to see that as their chance to actually facilitate and support in putting that into action now. Now, we haven't seen that full-blown, that full-on escalation yet that everyone here is concerned for. But for sure, the Israeli security forces are preparing the area here. Many civilians have been evacuated in the area that is close to the border. And this scene, the front, is very, very volatile and very tense still, Benita. We will be coming back to our correspondent, Pierre Stechelbach, from Northern Israel, close to the border with Lebanon. Stay safe, Pierre. Thank you very much for that update. Meanwhile, Israeli media is reporting that 12 aid trucks have entered Gaza today, bringing food, water and medicine to the enclave, bringing the total number of trucks to have entered the strip in recent days to 74. The Palestinian authorities' foreign minister, Riyad Al-Maliki, calling Israel's offensive in Gaza a war of revenge, as he called for a ceasefire telling the Hague, quote, first we need to end this one-sided aggression. Yakov Lapin, one-sided aggression. What is he talking about exactly? I wouldn't know, I think in terms of facts, he is in a parallel universe. But, you know, there are obviously going to be attempts by Arab governments to placate internal pressure. They're releasing a lot of pressure because domestically, you know, if we look at a country like Jordan, for example, 60 or more percent of the population is Palestinian. Even in Egypt, where the government maintains good relations with the state of Israel, the population is very hostile to Israel. So we're seeing Arab governments trying to walk this fine line, giving completely false accounts of what's going on in order to show solidarity with the Palestinians and even with Hamas, even though Arab governments themselves are completely hostile to Hamas and views as a domestic threat. And the Palestinian Authority itself is a total adversary of Hamas and actually relies on the IDF to keep Hamas at bay in the West Bank. It will never admit that, of course. So we're seeing a lot of double-speak, cynical statements. And all of this is designed essentially to protect stability and political interest across the Arab world. Talking about mixed messages, the IDF has released an audio recording of a military intelligence officer speaking to a Gazan man who describes how Hamas is stopping Palestinian civilians from evacuating from the northern part of the Gaza Strip and is even shooting at them. The IDF has repeatedly called for civilians there to leave the northern part of the Strip ahead of its planned incursion. This man says that Hamas is blocking roads and sending people back home. Let's take a listen to that phone call. I am asking you to pick up the calls for the funeral. What? To pick up the calls for the funeral. I don't want to hear your situation. So I'm asking you to pick up the calls for the funeral. Please. Just talk to the telephone. I mean, you don't need to have a phone call. You need what you need to have. Hamas? You don't need to have a phone call. What? We were talking earlier on in this broadcast about the proof, the video, the recordings. Yeah. Talk to us. Okay, so I think a lot of things going on here. First of all, at least 750,000 Palestinians living in northern Gaza, living parts of Gaza city have moved south and Hamas wasn't able to prevent them, even though it tried. I mean, that is a vote of no confidence by these Palestinians in the regime that controls their life and risks their life. And Hamas is very unhappy about that. Now the reason it's trying to stop civilians from moving south is first and foremost because it needs them as human shields to protect its military terrorist capabilities. This is an operational need. It seems inconceivable to a Western mindset that a so-called military force will need to hide behind civilians for its safety when the military should be protecting civilians, but everything there is back to front in every way. So the civilians in Gaza, their designated role as far as Hamas is concerned, is to protect Hamas from Israeli airstrikes and from a future ground offensive. And second of all, on the media battleground, Hamas takes every incident of collateral damage in the Gaza Strip, unintended killing of civilians, and waves it around the international media as proof of so-called Israeli crimes. And of course, Israel makes every effort to try and strike only military terrorists a target. It's very difficult to do in such a heavily built-up environment. And this is exactly why Hamas built these human-shielding tactics in the first place. So we're seeing Hamas trying to hold on to these layers of human shields for both of those purposes. And yet the international media, much of it, will be showing people who can't get out, people trying to flee this so-called aggression from Israel if this invasion does, in fact take place. Yes. And the meantime, the proof is there. Why is it so difficult for people to absorb the proof, to hear these recordings, to see the footage, the satellite imagery as well? There is a certain inability among sections of the international media, unfortunately, to internalize the fact that these scenes are completely being engineered deliberately by Hamas as part of its human-shielding tactics, as part of its effort to protect its terrorists, its leadership, its hiding under hospitals and multi-storey apartment buildings. And the only way Israel can get to these leaders who threaten the lives of Israeli civilians is to attack. And it's trying to move Gaza civilians out of the way. There are multiple narratives that are at work, I think, that make it hard for, let's say, certain outlets to understand these very, very basic facts. And Hamas, to those who it wants to convince that it's an invisible enemy, it can become invisible. I think that's essentially what we're seeing. There are certain outlets out there that simply don't want to see Hamas and the way it operates. And they won't report about things like using civilian infrastructure for terrorism, using oxygen tanks that were supposed to go to hospitals, for tunnel digging, using steel, 16. Enough cement has entered Gaza to build more than 16 Borch Khalifas in the past 10 years or so. And most of that cement went to combat tunnel and terror tunnel building. So these facts, unfortunately, will not surface. This is what we're dealing with. How does this all impact the timing around this potential ground invasion? Obviously, Israel doesn't want civilians to be caught up in the crossfire here. However, Israel does have to defend itself and make sure that what happened on the 7th of October never happens again. So how are the time frames impacted by the fact that Hamas is actually stopping civilians from getting to safety? It's stopping civilians. It's holding hostages, and I think it's deliberately slowing down the negotiations for further hostage releases to try and take the momentum out of Israel's gathering offensive. And there's a whole host of factors that are not visible to the public that the cabinet and the intelligence and the operational commanders are aware of. But I think the offensive is inevitable. It's going to have to happen relatively soon. One of the major factors is the movement of the civilians. But another factor is also the North. I think that defense chiefs want to understand what's happening in the North, what's likely to happen. We're talking about managing resources, air power, ground forces. We have over 350,000 reservists called up, and they have to be divided along the two fronts. So there's a lot to take into consideration. And I think that the decision makers are trying to build as complete a picture as they can before ordering that offensive in. Another factor seems to be possible U.S. pressure. And many reports suggesting that Washington is saying, we need to get our ducks in a row in terms of American troops at various Middle Eastern bases. Talk to us about what is known about that pressure in terms of a potential delay. Benny Gantz says Israel will make its plans regardless. Tell us more. The U.S. has become part of this war. Right now, operationally, to a small degree, but still very meaningful in the sense that they've already intercepted a volley of cruise missiles and drones that were launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen. The U.S. as Carney intercepted those in the Red Sea, and they were heading towards the Latt region most likely. But beyond that, the U.S. has employed an aggressive, deterrent posture. It is moving more and more strike carrier groups into the Mediterranean, into the Middle East. And it is making it clear that if Iran directly becomes involved in the war, then that will very likely drag in direct U.S. involvement as well. There are ambiguous messages about what would happen if Qizballah becomes involved or not. But certainly I think the message is to Iran itself that if it fires, Iran has the Middle East's largest and most varied missile arsenal. And Iran itself has a decision to make about how it's going to get involved or not. It prefers to fight by proxy. But if it decides to get directly involved, it's going to find the U.S. facing it right back. And I think the U.S. is asking Israel for a little bit more time to get hardware in place, to get the pieces in place for readiness for a wider potential escalation should it come. Yacov Lapin, Military and Strategic Affairs Analyst, always appreciate your insight. Thank you very much for being here in studio. And as tensions intensify on the ground here in the Middle East, as we've been discussing, we now turn our attention to the United Nations Security Council. After two alternative resolutions were presented overnight. One from the U.S. and one from the Russian Federation. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman has more on the international reaction to this war, particularly out of Moscow and Beijing. What America is for, they are against. Russia and China. Moving on with their policy of taking sides with Israel's opponents. On Wednesday, Russia coming to the United Nations Security Council with a resolution on the war that got only China's vote and two others. The Russian resolution voted upon today sought to tie Israel's hands, preventing us from eliminating a threat to our existence. Would Moscow or Beijing be given a right to self-defense if faced with the same threat? I believe so. The positions at the U.N. Security Council highlight just how much this war has become a great power struggle. What started as a set of horrific local massacres kicked up the threat of a regional war and brought on Russia and China, who saw an opening to take aim at the United States. The U.S. is one of the leaders of those who are already intervening, which is manifested in the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups. The more such proactive measures are taken by any state, the greater the risk and danger of conflict escalation. For Israel, a key question going forward. How to relate to Russia and China? Israel has tried to boost economic ties with Beijing. Going as far as it can without angering the United States. And on Russia, Israel is famously tiptoed around the war in Ukraine. With the familiar arguments about keeping freedom of action in the skies of Syria and protecting the Jewish community in Russia itself. Now, Israel needs America's support and the support of the political center across the West, while Russia and China are explicitly siding with Israel's opponents, pushing Israel ever more into Washington's arms. And that's where we wrap up this breaking news edition. I'm Benita Levine in Tel Aviv. Our rolling coverage continues shortly, so stay tuned to I-24 News. Thank you for watching. 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. Okay, news edition, I'm Benita Levine coming to you live from Tel Aviv, a massive barrage of rockets sent to southern and central Israel just a short while ago, siren sounding in many cities, including here in Tel Aviv, in Jaffa, back yam, and in the South, in Kisufin, Miriam, and Farazah. It's day 20 of the war, 20 days since the Hamas terror killing rampage. The death toll is at more than 1,400. More than 5,400 people were wounded. A targeted raid in northern Gaza overnight, the IDF hitting 250 Hamas targets, including a rocket launcher hidden by a mosque and a kindergarten. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking once again, discussing ways to free at least 222 hostages still being held captive by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The hostages come from 25 different countries, ranging in age from a nine-month-old baby to an 89-year-old man. So far, four female hostages have been freed, and Qatar says it's making progress in efforts to secure a hostage release. And in recent hours, Benny Gantz, member of the war cabinet, saying that Israel will ultimately make its own decisions over its war plans, following several reports that America was pressurizing it to delay its Gaza ground invasion. Meanwhile, horrific new gruesome details emerging out of Israel's southern communities. One of those communities targeted in the Hamas terror rampage on the 7th of October. Kibbutz per airy, which was decimated by terrorists in an onslaught that lasted more than a day. The IDF's Colonel Golan Wach outlining this disturbing discovery in the early days of the war, a warning that these details, which are being released officially today, are difficult to hear. Along the way that we have just walked, we found 20 victims, all dead. But when we got to this house, I saw something I never faced before. It was a woman lying here, a woman lying here. It was still burning, so she could be recognized. She was shot in the back, and she was protecting a baby, a small baby, I don't know exactly one or two years, and the baby was decapitated. I carried the baby in my own hands. Pure evil, pure evil. Right now we go to our correspondent Pierre Clashendler. He joins us from Eschelon in southern Israel. Also Pierre, these horrific new details emerging out of Kibbutz per airy, the scale and extent of the brutality is difficult to comprehend. Talk to us about the new details emerging on this day. Well, first of all, this is an authorized publication by the IDF, and its intent is to explain to the world the atrocity that the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad and even maybe some civilians from Gaza perpetrated against Israeli civilians, men, children and women, elderly. Now why do they publish it now? Because there's been a lot of facts checking, morbid facts checking. In Western media, how many babies were decapitated, how many were burnt, all these gross details that they want an evidence about. So the IDF has, for instance, a couple of days ago shown a film of all the atrocities that the Hamas terrorists themselves filmed with their GoPro camera. While they were killing people and posted on their social networks and claimed that they killed five civilians, ten civilians talking to their parents with pride. And the IDF wants to set the record straight because there is no sense of proportionality when such thing occur. In one single day, 1,400 civilians at least butchered, civilians and soldiers butchered. That's something that is difficult to comprehend. And in order to have legitimacy for Israel waging a response to Hamas waging a war against Israel. There need to be legitimacy. There need to be an agreement amongst the governments of mainly in the West but also other governments that could be influential in not pressing Israel into a very difficult task, dismantling the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic terror organizations. That will take time. That will take caution. And as a result, I think all these terrible details are being authorized for publication. Horrific and difficult to comprehend. And as we're speaking, siren sounding in some southern communities close to the border with Gaza. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much. We will come back to our correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler in Ashkelon. Thank you very much, Pierre. Now for more, we welcome to studio Yaakov Lapin, Military and Strategic Affairs Analyst at the Jewish News Syndicate and Military and Strategic Affairs Analyst at the Miriam Institute. Yaakov, thank you very much for being here. What an incredibly tough time. It's day 20 of this war and yet new details keep emerging and we're hearing the depravity, the butchering of a pregnant woman. We're hearing details, as we heard just moments ago, the butchering of a mother protecting her child and that child gruesomely, gruesomely attacked. Your thoughts about the state of affairs in this war right now, day 20. Well, we do keep rediscovering the pure evil that was unleashed on the civilians of southern Israel and the fact that many of these scenes are reminiscent of the Holocaust and that level of whole-scale massacre of people simply because of who they are, Israelis and Jews. And the unspeakable brutality, barbarity and evil that was unleashed on these people. I think all of this feeds into the unprecedented national consensus that is in place that the Hamas terrorist organization has to be destroyed physically. Its terror army in the Gaza Strip will have to be uprooted completely and its political regime and all of the institutions that it runs in the Gaza Strip will have to be destroyed. It's all, I think, feeding into that national conclusion. It's a very important moment in this war as we continue finding out more and more about the unspeakable evil and trying to process it each as individuals and as a nation. All of this is going to create, I wouldn't even call it pressure, I would call it a push on the government to make the decision that the reality in the Gaza Strip will have to change forever after this war. And I think that's part of the process of that happening. Talking about the reality on the ground, Commander of the Northern Khan-Yunus Rocket Unit has been eliminated just a short while ago, that confirmation coming through. His name is Hassan al-Abdallah. Tell us about the extent of the airstrikes by the IDF right now, seemingly ahead of this major ground invasion. How successful, how precise are they at this juncture? They're striking around the clock. Just last night, within hours, they struck 250 targets. It's very, very difficult work because they get intelligence about a terrorist army and the reason that we use that term is because it's both a terrorist genocidal organization and it still functions as an army because it has a command structure. It's hierarchical. I mean, it's embedded in Gaza's civilian neighborhoods. So finding the needle in the haystack, finding these senior Hamas terrorist commanders, the entire leadership is on the Israeli assassination list and they're going through them one by one looking for them, striking them as they continue to strike infrastructure, launching positions, rocket manufacturing centers, all of the things that Hamas has built over the years in Gaza, this war machine that it has built is being systematically eliminated from the air, but it will never be enough from the air. There will have to be a very large ground offensive in order to complete that task. So the air power right now that we're seeing is helping. It's keeping Hamas under a serious pressure, pinned down. It's losing capabilities all of the time, but it will not destroy Hamas. The only thing that would destroy Hamas as a terrorist army will be that ground offensive. And we're going to be talking about that ground offensive a little bit later right now, though I'd like to go up north. Our correspondent Pierre Stekelbach joins us from northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. And obviously, Pierre, those concerns around Hezbollah's next move remain. What update can you share this hour from the north? Right, Benita, the northern front is continuously heating up. And when you go a bit closer to the Lebanese border, when you to those communities that are two, three, four kilometers away from the border that have widely already been evacuated, civilians have left those areas. You can actually witness those skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. We've seen smoke arising from the border area. We've seen artillery being fired from the Israeli side towards Lebanon. We've been hearing that yesterday. The IDF confirming a statement saying that they targeted five squads trying to fire anti-tank missiles into Israeli territory yesterday for rockets in the afternoon being fired toward the area of Kiryat Shmoner, the eastern area of the border with Lebanon. Here, they all fell into open area. No interceptions there needed. Also throughout the night, one ground to air missile was fired from southern Lebanon. It was intercepted by Israel. It was trying to target an Israeli drone. Israel has been striking back to the origin of those launches of that fire continuously. And you can really feel and you can really witness those skirmishes. Also by just listening and being very high alert when you tour these areas as they have been evacuated. But you can somehow express access these areas there. This is what we've been doing all morning, really. Benita, remember that this is happening against the backdrop of Iran trying to combine all those fronts. And if you needed any more proof for that, yesterday morning, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, met with the leader of the Palestinian Islamic jihad, also supported by Iran and a senior Hamas official in Beirut, saying that they were about to plan the next steps to be taken in that sensitive stage of the war and how to bring about the victory of what they called the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. And Hezbollah has really been saying all throughout the year that they have emphasis or that they have sympathy and they want to support the Palestinian cause in Iran seems to see that as their chance to actually facilitate and support in putting that into action now. Now, we haven't seen that full blown, that full on escalation yet that everyone here is concerned for. But for sure, the Israeli security forces are preparing the area here. Many civilians have been evacuated in the area that is close to the border. And this scene, the front, is very, very volatile and very tense still. Benita. We will be coming back to our correspondent Pierre Stekelbach from Northern Israel, close to the border with Lebanon. Stay safe, Pierre. Thank you very much for that update. Meanwhile, Israeli media is reporting that 12 aid trucks have entered Gaza today, bringing food, water and medicine to the enclave, bringing the total number of trucks to have entered the strip in recent days to 74. The Palestinian authorities foreign minister, Riyad Al-Maliki, calling Israel's offensive in Gaza a war of revenge. As he called for a ceasefire, telling the Hague, quote, first we need to end this one sided aggression. Yakov Lapin. One sided aggression. What is he talking about exactly? I wouldn't know. I think in terms of facts, he is in a parallel universe. But there are obviously going to be attempts by Arab governments to placate internal pressure. They're releasing a lot of pressure because domestically, if we look at a country like Jordan, for example, 60 or more percent of the population is Palestinian. Even in Egypt, where the government maintains good relations with the state of Israel, the population is very hostile to Israel. So we're seeing Arab governments trying to walk this fine line, giving completely false accounts of what's going on in order to show solidarity with the Palestinians and even with Hamas, even though Arab governments themselves are completely hostile to Hamas and views as a domestic threat. And the Palestinian Authority itself is a total adversary of Hamas and actually relies on the IDF to keep Hamas at bay in the West Bank. We will never admit that, of course. So we're seeing a lot of double-speak, cynical statements. And all of this is designed, essentially, to protect stability and political interest across the Arab world. Talking about mixed messages, the IDF has released an audio recording of a military intelligence officer speaking to a Gazan man who describes how Hamas is stopping Palestinian civilians from evacuating from the northern part of the Gaza Strip and is even shooting at them. The IDF has repeatedly called for civilians there to leave the northern part of the Strip ahead of its planned incursion. This man says that Hamas is blocking roads and sending people back home. Let's take a listen to that phone call. Is it on the road? I don't know. It's on the road? Yes. How is it on the road? There's a road. We have to go out there, and get on the road. What? How do you get on the road? Yes. How do you get on the road? What's your phone number? My phone number is on the road. We were talking earlier on in this broadcast about the proof, the video, the recordings. Yeah. Talk to us. Okay, so there, I think a lot of things going on here. First of all, at least 750,000 Palestinians living in northern Gaza, living parts of Gaza city have moved south and Hamas wasn't able to prevent them, even though it tried. I mean, that is a vote of no confidence by these Palestinians in the regime that controls their life and risks their life. And Hamas is very unhappy about that. Now the reason it's trying to stop civilians from moving south is first and foremost because it needs them as human shields to protect its military terrorist capabilities. This is an operational need. It seems inconceivable to a Western mindset that a so-called military force will need to hide behind civilians for its safety when the military should be protecting civilians, but everything there is back to front in every way. So the civilians in Gaza, their designated role as far as Hamas is concerned is to protect Hamas from Israeli airstrikes and from a future ground offensive. And second of all, on the media battleground, Hamas takes every incident of collateral damage in the Gaza Strip, unintended killing of civilians, and waves it around the international media as proof of so-called Israeli crimes. And of course Israel makes every effort to try and strike only military terrorists a target. It's very difficult to do in such a heavily built up environment. And this is exactly why Hamas built these human shielding tactics in the first place. So we're seeing Hamas try and hold on to these layers of human shields for both of those purposes. And yet the international media, much of it, will be showing people who can't get out, people trying to flee this so-called aggression from Israel if this invasion does, in fact, take place. And in the meantime, the proof is there. Why is it so difficult for people to absorb the proof, to hear these recordings, to see the footage, the satellite imagery as well? There's a certain inability among sections of the international media, unfortunately, to internalize the fact that these scenes are completely being engineered deliberately by Hamas as part of its human shielding tactics, as part of its effort to protect its terrorists, its leadership, its hiding under hospitals and multi-story apartment buildings. And the only way Israel can get to these leaders who threaten the lives of Israeli civilians is to attack, and it's trying to move Gaza civilians out of the way. There are multiple narratives that are at work, I think, that make it hard for, let's say, certain outlets to understand these very, very basic facts. And Hamas, to those who it wants to convince that it's an invisible enemy, it can become invisible. I think that's essentially what we're seeing. There are certain outlets out there that simply don't want to see Hamas and the way it operates. And they won't report about things like using civilian infrastructure for terrorism, using oxygen tanks that were supposed to go to hospitals for tunnel digging, using steel, 16, enough cement has entered Gaza to build more than 16 borch caliphas in the past 10 years or so. And most of that cement went to combat tunnel and terror tunnel building. So these facts, unfortunately, will not surface. I mean, this is what we're dealing with. How does this all impact the timing around this potential ground invasion? Obviously, Israel doesn't want civilians to be caught up in the crossfire here. However, Israel does have to defend itself and make sure that what happened on the 7th of October never happens again. So how are the time frames impacted by the fact that Hamas is actually stopping civilians from getting to safety? It's stopping civilians. It's holding hostages. And I think it's deliberately slowing down the negotiations for further hostage releases to try and take the momentum out of Israel's gathering offensive. And there's a whole host of factors that are not visible to the public that the cabinet and the intelligence and the operational commanders are aware of. But I think the offensive is inevitable. It's going to have to happen relatively soon. One of the major factors is the movement of the civilians. But another factor is also the north. I think that defense chiefs want to understand what's happening in the north, what's likely to happen. We're talking about managing resources, air power, ground forces. We have over 350,000 reservists called up. And they have to be divided along the two fronts. So there's a lot to take into consideration. And I think that the decision makers are trying to build as complete a picture as they can before ordering that offensive in. Another factor seems to be possible U.S. pressure. And many reports suggesting that Washington is saying, we need to get our ducks in a row in terms of American troops at various Middle Eastern bases. Talk to us about what is known about that pressure in terms of a potential delay. Benny Gantz says Israel will make its plans regardless. Tell us more. The U.S. has become part of this war right now, operationally to a small degree, but still very meaningful in the sense that they've already intercepted a volley of cruise missiles and drones that were launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen. The U.S. as Carney intercepted those in the Red Sea. And they were heading towards the Ailat region most likely. But beyond that, the U.S. has employed an aggressive deterrent posture. It is moving more and more strike carrier groups into the Mediterranean, into the Middle East. And it is making it clear that if Iran directly becomes involved in the war, then that will very likely drag in direct U.S. involvement as well. There are ambiguous messages about what would happen if Hezbollah becomes involved or not. But certainly I think the message is to Iran itself that if it fires, Iran has the Middle East's largest and most varied missile arsenal. And Iran itself has a decision to make about how it's going to get involved or not. It prefers to fight by proxy. But if it decides to get directly involved, it's going to find the U.S. facing it right back. And I think the U.S. is asking Israel for a little bit more time to get hardware in place, to get the pieces in place for readiness for a wider potential escalation should it come. Yaakov Lapin, Military and Strategic Affairs Analyst, always appreciate your insight. Thank you very much for being here in studio. And as tensions intensify on the ground here in the Middle East, as we've been discussing, we now turn our attention to the United Nations Security Council after two alternative resolutions were presented overnight. One from the U.S. and one from the Russian Federation. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman has more on the international reaction to this war, particularly out of Moscow and Beijing. What America is for, they are against. Russia and China, keeping on with their policy of taking sides with Israel's opponents. On Wednesday, Russia coming to the United Nations Security Council with a resolution on the war that got only China's vote and two others. The Russian resolution voted upon today, sought to tie Israel's hands, preventing us from eliminating a threat to our existence. Would Moscow or Beijing be given a right to self-defense if faced with the same threat? I believe so. The positions at the UN Security Council highlight just how much this war has become a great power struggle. What started as a set of horrific local massacres kicked up the threat of a regional war and brought on Russia and China, who saw an opening to take aim at the United States. Here, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking from Tehran. The U.S. is one of the leaders of those who are already intervening, which is manifested in the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups. The more such proactive measures are taken by any state, the greater the risk and danger of conflict escalation. For Israel, a key question going forward. How to relate to Russia and China? Israel has tried to boost economic ties with Beijing, going as far as it can without angering the United States. And on Russia, Israel is famously tiptoed around the war in Ukraine, with the familiar arguments about keeping freedom of action in the skies of Syria and protecting the Jewish community in Russia itself. Now, Israel needs America's support, and the support of the political center across the West, while Russia and China are explicitly siding with Israel's opponents, pushing Israel ever more into Washington's arms. And that's where we wrap up this breaking news edition. I'm Benita Levine in Tel Aviv. Our rolling coverage continues shortly. So stay tuned to I-24 News. Thank you for watching. Officially in a state of war, this is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't know what to do. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the UNICEF. In news edition, I'm Benita Levine, live in Tel Aviv. A massive barrage of rockets, sent to southern and central Israel in recent hours. Sirens sounding in many cities, including here in parts of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Bat Yam, and in the south in Kisufim, Nirim, and Kfar Azar. It's 20 days into the war, 20 days since the Hamas killing rampage. The death toll is at more than 1,400. More than 5,400 people have been wounded. A targeted raid in northern Gaza overnight. The IDF hitting 250 Hamas targets, including a rocket launcher hidden by a mosque and a kindergarten. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking once again, discussing ways to free at least 222 hostages being held captive by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The hostages come from 25 different countries, ranging in age from a nine-month-old baby to an 89-year-old man. So far, four female hostages have been freed, and Qatar says it's making progress in efforts to secure a hostage release. And in recent hours, Benny Gantz, member of the Wall Cabinet, saying that Israel will ultimately make its own decisions over its war plans following several reports that America was pressurizing it to delay its Gaza ground invasion. And as we're speaking, rocket siren sounding again in several southern communities right now. We will be going there in a short while, but first let's check in with the latest up north. Our correspondent Hamda Salhut is in northern Israel. And Hamda, talk to us about the latest on concerns around Hezbollah's next possible moves if Hassan Isra'la wants to be fully involved in this war. Right, Benito. So today there has been a continuous exchange of fire. There's smoke in the distance behind me along the Lebanon border. A lot of these communities are completely closed now. They're not even accessible to press. The Israeli military has declared this a military zone in parts of the northern border. Now, there is another incident after an Israeli military drone actually fell and injured around seven people. Those people are now in the hospital in Nahariah, just not too far from actually where we're standing. But the situation with Hezbollah is continuous. We've seen 46 combatants on their side that have been killed because of the exchanges of fire, four from Hamas, and four from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And remember yesterday in a meeting with Hassan Isra'la, Salih Al-Aroori from Hamas, and Ziyad al-Nakhaleh from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, they vowed for continued coordination in this war, meaning that Hezbollah could step up its efforts. Remember, they do have an arsenal that is equipped with hundreds of thousands of rockets that could heavily damage Israeli territory. We've seen a lot just on the drive up here, several armored vehicles, tanks, fighter jets in the air circling around Lebanese territory as the situation continues really to unfold here and also continues to escalate along the border. The Israeli military says that it's prepared on anything, prepared for whatever might happen next. But remember, the focus will also be the ground invasion inside of the Gaza Strip, where we've heard the Iranians, we've heard from Hezbollah saying that there are no guarantees as to who's going to get involved and what's going to happen next once the Israeli military enters Gaza, Benidah. Thank you so much Correspondent Hamda Salhut, live from Northern Israel, more to come from Hamda in the coming hours. And again, rocket sirens sounding in southern communities of Israel just a short while ago, Ashdod, Zikim and Netibot amongst others. Meanwhile, Kibbutz Baeri has tragically become synonymous with the atrocities that Hamas terrorists from Gaza committed in southern Israel on the 7th of October. The biggest Kibbutz in the area, Baeri saw some of the fiercest fighting between terrorists and IDF forces. Now, more than two weeks later, the Kibbutz is in ruins, but some of its residents are already trying to pick up the pieces. Our Middle East Correspondent, Ariel O'Sarran, visited Baeri and filed this report. Kibbutz Baeri, once a peaceful paradise, now a small community in ruins, notorious for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. I have been in here in 7 October. My name is Oriel and I'm 30 years old. We, for many decades, have been in the front line, mainly for a peaceful purpose, to be in here together. This is what was our willing, but at the end, they didn't want it. What they did want, and this is what I'm going to tell you now, it's what actually happened in the reality that I see in my own eyes. Ol is the son of the former regional council head, Chaim Yelin. Like all the survivors of the October 7th attacks, he was evacuated to a hotel, but he's back to guide foreign journalists who came to the Kibbutz. And on that horrific day, Ol was hiding in the safe room, along with his wife, his parents, and their two dogs. If you want afterwards, we can go and I can show you the stories inside the shelters when they kill, torture, and did things that they are undistractable to the humanity and civilians, regular people. And I tell you the time privilege regarding, I'm not three of my garden and I'm privileged. This community, they are all of survivor. This is what we feel. Walking through the small pathways of the Kibbutz feels like entering a war zone, small and quaint homes bombarded or destroyed. Children's toys lying around while maintained lawns of grass ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank. The smell of death fills the air. This is just one of hundreds of homes that remain either completely demolished or burned to the ground after the October 7th rampage. Kibbutz Berry is the biggest Kibbutz in the area. Until October 7th, there were 1200 residents. Now, following the attack, 130 were killed and an unknown number are missing. And the Kibbutz is left with lines and lines of homes just like these homes over here that are a sad monument to the vibrant life that used to be here. All walks us through the destroyed home of the Bachar family who like many households in Berry, suffered a devastating tragedy. What they did in here, they start, they break the door, you can see it, and then they burn all the house. When they burn the house, they open the gas, they put inside the tire to make a flame, and they hope that the people will run away and they can catch them. What is actually happened that the people didn't and they hide in the shelter? Let's get inside and we show you what happened in the shelter. Then he takes us to the safe room, where the Bachars, two parents, a boy and a girl were hiding. They put wet towels on the floor to keep the smoke from entering as a group of five or six terrorists broke into the house and began shooting at the safe room. And you see all of this blood? At 12 years old, what she needed, she needed to protect her family. And 12 years old, put a tourniquet in each one of them that she don't have a tourniquet. She needed to immunize, to take something to stop the bleeding. So what happened to the Bachar family here? So Carmel, 15 years old, is died and murdered by the terrorist of ISIS and Hamas. Dana Bachar, bless her memory, died as well, murdered by the terrorist of ISIS and Hamas. Avida Bachar, the father, he lost his leg and he injured badly. And Adar Bachar, that she's the 12 years old, she injured as well, but she saved her father at 12 years old. Outside the house, Oll tells us about his own experience in the shelter when he and his wife thought that this was their end too. She told me, oh, if they're coming for us, you have just a kitchen knife. Please kill me before. And you know what I will say to her? Yes, because I know what they aim to come, what they aim to do. To torture, maybe they will rape her, and after that they will tear her apart and then kill her. This is the reality. And if we're not going to face with the reality or the world will not face with the reality, it will come back to everyone in the world. That's it. Like many of the residents of these devastated border communities, Oll says he hopes to one day return to Beiri, but only after a clear and decisive victory over Hamas. As long as there is still a threat from Gaza, they will not return, he says. But not all of Beiri was destroyed that day. Just nine days after Hamas' horrific attack, the local printing factory, which emerged unscathed, was up and running again, even as bodies were still being pulled out from the destroyed homes. So, actually, this is amazing. The CEO, Ben, my friend, his mother also murdered. And this is the biggest print factory in the Middle East, not just in Israel. And let's say that it's not for profit what we're doing now, it's to serve the community. And yes, this is establishment and a statement that we're going to move on if you're going to help us, and we will do whatever we can to do it. On that cursed day of October 7th, Hell opened its mouth and swallowed Beiri and the nearby Kibbutzim. And despite 50 of its residents still unaccounted for, the rest of the survivors who have temporarily relocated as a community to the Dead Sea are starting to pick up the pieces. A much-needed sign of resilience in a place that suffered so much pain and devastation. So much pain, truly unbelievable, to see those images and hear those words. Now, for more, we go to our correspondent, Robert Swift. He's in Storot in southern Israel. And Rob, just moments ago, siren sounding in several parts of the South. Talk us through what you are seeing and hearing there. That's correct, siren sounding also here where we're standing a bit northeast of the Gaza Strip. We had to dash to the shelters and people in communities in Ashkelon, Ashdod and a couple of other communities to the east of the Gaza Strip also had to make their way to shelters as the rockets fired. We saw at least, I think, three, four, maybe five rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip in the sky behind me. This was about maybe five minutes ago, I would say. And we've been here and here for the last 30 minutes concerted artillery bombardment. The Gaza is sort of in this direction from me and we're here in a constant bombardment of Israeli artillery into the Gaza Strip from that direction for at least the last 20, 30 minutes, I would say. We're also here in some bursts of machine gun fire from there. It's not clear to us at the minute what's happening in the Army and not letting us get closer, but it does sound like quite heavy activity. Well, it is known that the IDF strikes are continuing and we also heard in recent hours the commander of the Northern Khan Unit's rocket unit was Eliminator Hassan Al Abdullah. Talk to us about what is known in terms of these targeted raids happening in Northern Gaza overnight as well. So the IDF is doing what it can to basically dismantle the rocket systems that the rocket units that the Hamas are using to attack Israeli cities. Now, as much as they can, they're firing onto these rocket positions before the rockets can be launched, but they're also killing commanders when they have the intelligence to enable them to do that. And that's the case here. Now, with regards to the operation that you mentioned, that's an operation that took place in the early hours of this morning. Now, it's not the first Israeli raid into Gaza during this war, but it is the largest of the scale. Previous raids have been more sort of based around special forces teams backed up by small numbers of tanks and they've mostly been aimed at intelligence gathering and recapturing the bodies of some of the Israelis that have been taken into the Gaza Strip. But this raid that took place earlier was on a larger scale involving infantry units, much more tanks. And that was attacking numerous Hamas positions, defensive positions of the Hamas infrastructure inside the Gaza Strip. And so this sort of operation looks a bit more like something that would be conducted prior to the next phase of the Israeli military operations against the Gaza Strip. We will be coming back to our correspondent, Robert Swift. He is live in Storot in southern Israel. Thank you, Rob. Stay safe. Now for more, we welcome to studio Robert Singer, the chairman of the Center for Jewish Impact and the former CEO of the World Jewish Congress and our Yisas Chahar head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Happy Tony Stim. Thank you, both gentlemen, for being here. At what remains an increasingly traumatic time in the country, 20 days in, and I want to start with you, Robert, because more and more details are emerging about the depravity and the scale of the brutality. We heard that report from our colleague Ariel Osaran at Kibbutz per area. Difficult to look at those images and hear what unfolded your thoughts about the assessment of the state of the country, the psyche of the country, the pain and the trauma right now for Israelis. Yeah. I don't think there's one person in Israel today that is not painful about this situation. I think regardless in what area of the state you live in, everybody feels it. There are many circles that suffered from what happened. Obviously, people living in the south, the 20 Kibbutz people and Moshe Avdan and Tivot suffered the most, but also the cities. Like Ashkelon, they took more than 25% of the rockets. It's the road of Akim and Tivot, Berseva, and every place. I visited the day before yesterday our hospitals in Barzila and Ashkelon, in Soroka and Berseva, in Asuta and Ashdod and in Kaplan in Rehovot. All of them received many wounded. And you can see on one hand the pain, but on the other hand the determination of Israel and many of the civil society, because I think that in many ways, civil society came and replaced what government is supposed to do in many areas. So we have today over half a million people in the uniform, which is heavily affects the government and everybody in the society and everybody else. But I think that everybody is ready and understand that we are here for long run. I do want to add the additional thing. The attack was obviously on Israel and on Israeli citizens, but it's an attack on Jewish people. Absolutely, and Hamas says as much. It's part of its mandate, it's part of its charter. Yeah, but what we see now, 100%, but what we see now and it's just the beginning of it, the effect of this and what is happening in different places in diaspora, I just saw the pro-Palestinian demonstration in one of the Ivy League universities in Cornell. Yesterday, students were locked up in the Cooper College, which is probably the most famous college for architecture. And you have it in many countries worldwide. Just a big demonstration was in Stockholm, in London, and almost in every place. And I think it's just the beginning of what we are going to see. And that's why also the bond and the relations between the diaspora and Israel on one hand become more fragile, but on the other hand became much stronger. We're going to unpack more of that in just a moment. Gentlemen, stay with us. I want to go quickly to Tel Aviv, our correspondent, Bachar Leventhal joins us now. And we know that the families of more than 222 hostages are waiting for word, waiting for updates. What can you share? What is the latest where you are? All right, Benita. It's a very emotional gathering here of the families of some of those that are still being held captive, over 220 of them. They've got an entire day, sort of all, at least the last couple of hours of sunlight planned in the sense that they're gathering here with yellow balloons, the international color of missing people. Some of the families are speaking just behind me and then we're waiting to release the balloons. A lot of them have pictures of some of the missing family members. Those pictures that we've been seeing with the slogan, bring them home. A lot of them with photos of their missing relatives and friends with their names and ages. After that, there will then be a march and then following that a press conference, which is set to happen near the Kyria, the IDF and military headquarters. They're really putting pressure on the government that it's been almost three weeks since the government announced that we are engaged in war with Hamas and yet there's only been four released out of more than 220 hostages. They're saying that their patience is running thin and time is running out, that they are being kept in conditions of which is not known to the Israeli public nor to the families themselves, and they want their returnees to come home. No doubt and certainly the country is wanting that everybody waiting for word. We will come back to that press conference when it does happen later. Thank you very much for now, but your 11th live from Tel Aviv. Or yes, the emotions are so raw, so many people waiting for answers. And when you think of what unfolded on the 7th of October, and then you think of the more than 222 people known to be held captive by Hamas, it is just terrifying to think of what is happening to them in Gaza right now. Absolutely. I mean, this is the big story here, really. More than 220 families who are simply expecting to see their loved ones back, and it's heartbreaking. I just came back from Tel Aviv and I saw this protest and this campaign and it's heartbreaking to see how people are so emotional and rightfully so because their relatives and friends are right now in Gaza. You have their pictures all over the walls and benches in Tel Aviv. And this is simply, we all pray for their fast return. And I think listening to all these claims about Hamas' territorial claims from Israel, all the excuses people in their national community try to make, this is pure and simple anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews. You look at, for example, you look at what the UN Secretary General said and you start to feel sorry for him, really, because it's a total misinterpretation of what's going on here. I think that the talking points are really stronger than him and as someone who is reading UN reports, unfortunately, quite adequately, I got to tell you that it has nothing to do with what's going on in Israel right now. Basically what they're saying is that Hamas' territorial disputes from Israel and that all happened, 1400 people murdered in the most heinous way possible because of occupation and settlements and house demolition. Look, let's have a brief reality check. There is no single Israeli in the Gaza Strip for 17 years. Israel evacuated to the last settler, to the last grave, to the last soldier. And I got to tell you, this is simply beyond me to realize how people who are supposed to be serious in running the world say these things. And even looking at US President Biden and French President Macron coming here and you commend their unequivocal support, and that's fantastic. But at the end of the day, if you look at 1400 people murdered after Israel already pulled out and your conclusion is that we need to have a two-state solution. A solution is only advantage is that many people reiterated over and over. We can't go back to our comfort zone, to the dogmas of the past. I do think the dogmas are stronger than them, but we need to have strong statement toward the international community. Israel needs to have defensible borders. We cannot pull out from the Judea and Samaria the same way we pull out of Gaza or we have the same disaster coming on us. I want to talk more about the international reaction. But first, on the apparent US pressure on Israel right now, Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, was asked earlier on this day about reports from the Wall Street Journal that the US asked Israel to delay its ground incursion so it can bolster security at its spaces in the Middle East. Now let's take a listen to his response. This is an event that is not only local, side of Israel. It can turn to be a multi-arena in the North and in other places. The US, our biggest strategic partner, also has its needs and talks to us about them. And we make considerations together as necessary. And Robert Singer, you have your finger on the pulse of the international world and the Jewish communities in the international world. Your take on the US support for Israel right now, obviously we know President Joe Biden came in recent days. His message was clear, unwavering support. But at the same time, these reports that the US is saying, just wait on that ground invasion, your take on the state of play between Israel and the US right now and the impact on the communities in the US. Yeah. No, I think that what we experienced, most of the Israelis here with the visit of President Biden and his statements, I think the majority of the Israeli population was positively surprised by the statements he made. The question really remains where it will lead us and what actions will be taken. In this situation where we have a puppet master sitting there in Tehran and every time activates different, pulls different strings. Once it's Hamas, that one that's his boleyn, the Khutim, and tomorrow I don't know what else will happen in what part of the world. And now attacking also the American military base obviously can bring to a bigger conflict and to regional conflict in the region. And I guess that this is what Americans are trying to avoid. But from the point of view of the statement and position of the American administration towards what's happening here in Israel, at least as of now, I think we have a full support or full legitimacy. And it's pretty clear to Americans, to everybody, to European leaders, it's pretty clear that there is going to be a complete restart of the situation in the South and hopefully also in the North. But we live in the area where every day is like a month and the developments here are very quick or it's dealing with the research on security. So he can tell you more about this and we really have to follow it up very, very quickly. The situation that the Jewish community in the United States reports 388% increase in the anti-Semitic attacks in only the last two weeks is intolerable. And the similar numbers you have in many countries in Europe. And I don't think that the leaders of many governments fully realize this. I'm just coming from lunch with one of the European ambassadors and about 10% in his country are people who are Muslim. But obviously, the problem is not with the whole Muslim population. The problem is with the extreme sides in this population. And this, from the point of view of the Jewish community, needs to be very closely watched, including the physical security of the communities. And I think that to some extent in the past, they had more to rely on what is happening in Israel. At this stage, they will have to see also how they closely cooperate with the local governments and also take care of their own security of their religious places, schools and all the rest. Or we don't have that much time left. I'd like your take on the fact that it is Qatar who is said to be working on helping to free hostages. This is something that is so close to the heart of everybody as we've been discussing to free civilians who are being held and the horrors that might be happening there as we speak. What do you make of the impact, the credibility of Qatar being the people to get this right? I think Qatar really enjoys playing on all soccer fields and really with the piles of money there, they are enjoying to talk both to Hamas and Israel, both the US and Russia. I think at the end of the day, Qatar needs to be pressured with the US leverage to get as many hostages out. But let's not lose sight of what's going on here. Hamas, Qatar has been financing Hamas by $30 million per month over the past year. And let's not forget, and host, you're absolutely right. While the attack unfolded, while it was carried out, while Israelis were murdered in their own homes burned alive, you had Hamas senior leadership in four-star, five-star hotels in Qatar watching the quote-unquote success of their terrorist attacks on the screen and praying for Allah as thankful for their success. And I think Qatar cannot keep playing that double game anymore. We need to be clear-sided here. This is anti-Semitism, pure and simple, and Qatar needs to be held accountable as well. Oryes Asha, Robert Singer, I wish we could unpack this for another hour. Thank you so much for your insight. We so appreciate you both being here in studio for this breaking news coverage. And that is where we wrap up this breaking news edition. I'm Venita Levine in Tel Aviv. Our rolling coverage continues shortly, so stay tuned. Thank you for watching. Israel is at war. Make an investment in Israel bonds. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel. Visit israelbonds.com and invest now. This is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Tell us we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children and elderly, were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Breaking news edition. I'm Venita Levine live in Tel Aviv. A massive barrage of rockets sent to southern and central Israel in recent hours. Siren sounding in many cities, including here in parts of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Baghiam and in the south in Kisufim, Nirem and Kfar Azar. It's 20 days into the war, 20 days since the Hamas killing rampage. The death toll is at more than 1,400. More than 5,400 people have been wounded. A targeted raid in northern Gaza overnight. The IDF hitting 250 Hamas targets, including a rocket launcher hidden by a mosque and a kindergarten. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking once again, discussing ways to free at least 222 hostages being held captive by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The hostages come from 25 different countries, ranging in age from a nine-month-old baby to an 89-year-old man. So far, four female hostages have been freed. And Qatar says it's making progress in efforts to secure a hostage release. And in recent hours, Benny Gantz, member of the war cabinet, saying that Israel will ultimately make its own decisions over its war plans following several reports that America was pressurizing it to delay its Gaza ground invasion. And as we're speaking, rocket siren sounding again in several southern communities right now. We will be going there in a short while. But first, let's check in with the latest up north. Our correspondent, Hamda Salhut, is in northern Israel. And Hamda, talk to us about the latest on concerns around Hezbollah's next possible moves if Hassan Isra'la wants to be fully involved in this war. Right, Benito. So today, there has been a continuous exchange of fire. There's smoke in the distance behind me along the Lebanon border. A lot of these communities are completely closed now. They're not even accessible to press. The Israeli military has declared this a military zone in parts of the northern border. Now, there is another incident after an Israeli military drone actually fell and injured around seven people. Those people are now in the hospital in Nahariah, just not too far from actually where we're standing. But the situation with Hezbollah is continuous. We've seen 46 combatants on their side that have been killed because of the exchanges of fire, four from Hamas, and four from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And remember, yesterday in a meeting with Hassan Isra'la, Salih Al-Aroori from Hamas, and Ziyad al-Nakhali from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, they vowed for continued coordination in this wars, meaning that Hezbollah could step up its efforts. Remember, they do have an arsenal that is equipped with hundreds of thousands of rockets that could heavily damage Israeli territory. We've seen a lot just on the drive up here, several armored vehicles, tanks, fighter jets in the air circling around Lebanese territories. The situation continues really to unfold here and also continues to escalate along the border. The Israeli military says that it's prepared on anything, prepared for whatever might happen next. But remember, the focus will also be the ground invasion inside of the Gaza Strip, where we've heard the Iranians, we've heard from Hezbollah saying that there are no guarantees as to who's going to get involved and what's going to happen next once the Israeli military enters Gaza, Benidah. Thank you so much, correspondent Hamda Salhut, live from Northern Israel, more to come from Hamda in the coming hours. And again, rocket sirens sounding in southern communities of Israel, just a short while ago, Ashdod, Zikim, and Netibot, amongst others. Meanwhile, Kibbutz Baeri has tragically become synonymous with the atrocities that Hamas terrorists from Gaza committed in southern Israel on the 7th of October. The biggest Kibbutz in the area, Baeri, saw some of the fiercest fighting between terrorists and IDF forces. Now, more than two weeks later, the Kibbutz is in ruins, but some of its residents are already trying to pick up the pieces. Middle East correspondent Ariel O'Sarren visited Baeri and filed this report. Kibbutz Baeri, once a peaceful paradise, now a small community in ruins, notorious for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. I've been in here in 7 October. My name is Orieline. I'm 30 years old. We, for many decades, have been in the front line, mainly for a peaceful purpose, to be in here together. This is what I was willing. But at the end, they didn't want it. What they did want. And this is what I'm going to tell you now. It's what actually happened in the reality that I see in my own eyes. Oriel is the son of the former regional council head, Haim Yelin. Like all the survivors of the October 7th attacks, he was evacuated to a hotel. But he's back to guide foreign journalists who came to the Kibbutz. And on that horrific day, Oriel was hiding in the safe room, along with his wife, his parents, and their two dogs. If you want afterwards, we can go and I can show you the stories inside the shelters when they kill, torture, and did things that they are indescribable to the humanity in civilians, regular people. And I tell you the time privilege regarding Haim Law 3 of my carton and Haim Privilege. This community, they are all of survivors. This is what we feel. Walking through the small pathways of the Kibbutz feels like entering a war zone. Small and quaint homes bombarded or destroyed, children's toys lying around while maintained lawns of grass ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank. The smell of death fills the air. This is just one of hundreds of homes that remain either completely demolished or burned to the ground after the October 7th rampage. Kibbutz Berry is the biggest Kibbutz in the area. Until October 7th, there were 1200 residents. Now, following the attack, 130 were killed and an unknown number are missing. And the Kibbutz is left with lines and lines of homes just like these homes over here that are a sad monument to the vibrant life that used to be here. All walks us through the destroyed home of the Bachar family, who like many households in Berry, suffered a devastating tragedy. What they did in here, they start, they break the door. You can see it and then they burn all the house. When they burn the house, they open the gas, they put inside the tire to make a flame, and they hope that the people will run away and they can catch them. What has actually happened that the people didn't and they hide in the shelter? Let's get inside and we show you what's happening in the shelter. Then he takes us to the safe room where the Bachars, two parents, a boy and a girl were hiding. They put wet towels on the floor to keep the smoke from entering as a group of five or six terrorists broke into the house and began shooting at the safe room. And you see all of this blood. At 12 years old, what she needed, she needed to protect her family. And 12 years old put a tourniquet in each one of them that she don't have a tourniquet. She need to immunize, to take something to stop the bleeding. So what happened to the Bachar family here? So Carmel, 15 years old, is died, murdered by the terrorist of ISIS and Hamas. Dana Bachar, bless her memory, died as well, murdered by the terrorist of ISIS and Hamas. Avida Bachar, the father, he lost his leg and he injured badly. And Adar Bachar, that she's the 12 years old, she injured as well, but she saved her father. At 12 years old. Outside the house, Ol tells us about his own experience in the shelter, when he and his wife thought that this was their end too. She told me, oh, if they're coming for us, you have just a kitchen knife. Please kill me before. And you know what I will say to her? Yes, because I know what they aim to come, what they aim to do. To torture, maybe they will rape her, and after that they will tear her apart and then kill her. This is the reality. And if we're not going to face with the reality, or the world will not face with the reality, it will come back to everyone in the world. That's it. Like many of the residents of these devastated border communities, Ol says he hopes to one day return to Beiri, but only after a clear and decisive victory over Hamas. As long as there is still a threat from Gaza, they will not return, he says. But not all of Beiri was destroyed that day. Just nine days after Hamas' horrific attack, the local printing factory, which emerged unscathed, was up and running again, even as bodies were still being pulled out from the destroyed homes. So actually, this is amazing. The CEO, Ben, my friend, his mother also murdered. And this is the biggest print factory in the Middle East, not just in Israel. And let's say that it's not for profit what we're doing now, it's to serve the community. And yes, this is establishment and a statement that we're going to move on if you're going to help us. And we will do whatever we can to do it. On that cursed day of October 7th, hell opened its mouth and swallowed Beiri and the nearby Kibbutzim. And despite 50 of its residents still unaccounted for, the rest of the survivors who have temporarily relocated as a community to the Dead Sea are starting to pick up the pieces. A much needed sign of resilience in a place that suffered so much pain and devastation. So much pain, truly unbelievable to see those images and hear those words. Now, for more, we go to our correspondent Robert Swift. He's in Storot in southern Israel. And Rob, just moments ago, siren sounding in several parts of the South. Talk us through what you are seeing and hearing there. That's correct. Siren sounding also here where we're standing a bit northeast of the Gaza Strip. We had to dash to the shelters and people in communities in Ashkelon, Ashdod, and a couple of other communities to the east of the Gaza Strip also had to make their way to shelters as the rockets fired. We saw at least, I think, three, four, maybe five rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip in the sky behind me. This comes, this was about maybe five minutes ago, I would say. And we've been here and here for the last 30 minutes, concerted artillery bombardment. The Gaza is sort of in this direction from me, and we're here in a constant bombardment of Israeli artillery into the Gaza Strip from that direction for at least the last 20, 30 minutes, I would say. We're also here in some bursts of machine gun fire from there. It's not clear to us at the minute what's happening in the Army and not letting us get closer, but it does seem like quite heavy activity. Well, it is known that the IDF strikes are continuing, and we also heard in recent hours, the commander of the Northern Khan Unit's rocket unit was Eliminator Hassan Al Abdullah. Talk to us about what is known in terms of these targeted raids happening in Northern Gaza overnight as well. So the IDF is doing what it can to basically dismantle the rocket systems, the rocket units that the Hamas are using to attack Israeli cities. As much as they can, they're firing onto these rocket positions before the rockets can be launched, but they're also killing commanders when they have the intelligence to enable them to do that, and that is the case here. Now with regards to the operation that you mentioned, that's an operation that took place in the early hours of this morning. Now it's not the first Israeli raid into Gaza during this war, but it is the largest of this scale. Previous raids have been more sort of based around special forces teams backed up by small numbers of tanks, and they've mostly been aimed at intelligence gathering and recapturing the bodies of some of the Israelis that have been taken into the Gaza Strip. But this raid that took place earlier was on a larger scale involving infantry units, much more tanks, and that was attacking numerous Hamas positions, defensive positions of the Hamas infrastructure inside the Gaza Strip. And so this sort of operation looks a bit more like something that would be conducted prior to the next phase of the Israeli military operations against the Gaza Strip. We will be coming back to our correspondent Robert Swift. He is live in Storot in southern Israel. Thank you, Rob. Stay safe. Now for more, we welcome to studio Robert Singer, the chairman of the Center for Jewish Impact and the former CEO of the World Jewish Congress, and our Yisra Schahr, head of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum. Happy Tony's Tim. Thank you both gentlemen for being here. At what remains an increasingly traumatic time in the country, 20 days in, and I want to start with you, Robert, because more and more details are emerging about the depravity and the scale of the brutality. We heard that report from our colleague Ariel Osaran at Kibbutz per area. Difficult to look at those images and hear what unfolded your thoughts about the assessment of the state of the country, the psyche of the country, the pain and the trauma right now for Israelis. Yeah. I don't think there's one person in Israel today that is not painful about the situation. I think regardless of what area of the state you live in, everybody feels it. There are many circles that suffered from what happened. Obviously, people living in the south, the 20 Kibbutz and the Mosheb and Tivot suffered the most, but also the cities like Ashkelon that took more than 25 percent of the rockets, Zderot, Afakim and Tivot, Berseva and every place. I visited the day before yesterday our hospitals in Barzila and Ashkelon, in Soroka and Berseva and Asuta and Ashdod and Kaplan in Rehovot. All of them received many wounded and you can see on one hand the pain, but on the other hand the determination of Israel and many of the civil society because I think that in many ways civil society came and replaced what government is supposed to do in many areas. So we have today over half a million people in the uniform, which is heavily affects the government and everybody, the society and everybody else, but I think that everybody is ready and understand that we're here for long ground. I do want to add the additional thing. The attack was obviously on Israel and on Israeli citizens, but it's an attack on Jewish people. Absolutely, and Hamas says as much, it's part of its mandate, it's part of its charter. Yeah, but what we see now, 100 percent, but what we see now and it's just the beginning of it, the effect of this and what is happening in different places in diaspora. I just saw the pro-Palestinian demonstration in one of the Ivy League universities in Cornell. Yesterday students were locked up in the Cooper College, which is probably the most famous college for architecture and you have it in many countries worldwide. Just a big demonstration was in Stockholm in London and almost in every place. And I think it's just the beginning of what we are going to see. And that's why also the bond and the relations between the diaspora and Israel on one hand become more fragile, but on the other hand became much stronger. We're going to unpack more of that in just a moment. Gentlemen, stay with us. I want to go quickly to Tel Aviv, our correspondent, Batja Leventhal joins us now. And we know that the families of more than 222 hostages are waiting for word, waiting for updates. What can you share? What is the latest where you are? Right, Penita. It's a very emotional gathering here of the families of some of those that are still being held captive, over 220 of them. They've got an entire day, sort of or at least the last couple of hours of sunlight planned in the sense that they're gathering here with yellow balloons, the international color of missing people. Some of the families are speaking just behind me and then we're waiting to release the balloons. A lot of them have pictures of some of the missing family members. Those pictures that we've been seeing with the slogan, bring them home. A lot of them with photos of their missing relatives and friends with their names and ages. After that, there will then be a march and then following that a press conference, which is set to happen near the Kiriya, the IDF and military headquarters. They're really putting pressure on the government that it's been almost three weeks since the government announced that we are engaged in war with Hamas and yet there's only been four released out of more than 220 hostages. They're saying that their patience is running thin and time is running out, that they are being kept in conditions of which is not known to the Israeli public nor to the families themselves and they want their attorneys to come home. No doubt and certainly the country is wanting that as well. Everybody waiting for word. We will come back to that press conference when it does happen later. Thank you very much for now about your 11th live from Tel Aviv. Or yes, the emotions are so raw, so many people waiting for answers. And when you think of what unfolded on the 7th of October and then you think of the more than 222 people known to be held captive by Hamas, it is just terrifying to think of what is happening to them in Gaza right now. Absolutely. I mean, this is the big story here really more than 220 families who are simply expecting to see their loved ones back and it's heartbreaking. I just came back from Tel Aviv and I saw this protest and this campaign and it's heartbreaking to see how people are so emotional and rightfully so because their relatives and friends are right now in Gaza. You have their pictures all over the walls and benches in Tel Aviv. And this is simply, we all pray for the fast return. And I think listening to all these claims about Hamas' territorial claims from Israel, all the excuses people in their national community try to make. This is pure and simple anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews. For example, you look at what the UN Secretary General said and you start to feel sorry for him really because it's a total misinterpretation of what's going on here. I think that the talking points are really stronger than him. And as someone who is reading UN reports, unfortunately, quite adequately, I gotta tell you that it has nothing to do with what's going on in Israel right now. Basically, what they're saying is that Hamas' territorial disputes from Israel and that all happened. 1400 people murdered in the most heinous way possible because of occupation and settlements and house demolition. Look, let's have a brief reality check. There is no single Israeli in the Gaza Strip for 17 years. Israel evacuated to the last settler, to the last grave, to the last soldier. And I gotta tell you, this is simply beyond me to realize how people who are supposed to be serious in running the world see these things. And even looking at US President Biden and French President Macron coming here and you commend their unequivocal support and that's fantastic. But at the end of the day, if you look at 1400 people murdered after Israel already pulled out, and your conclusion is that we need to have a two-state solution. A solution is only advantage is that many people, you know, reiterate it over and over. We can't go back to our comfort zone to the dogmas of the past. I do think the dogmas are stronger than them, but we need to have strong statement toward the international community. Israel needs to have defensible borders. We cannot pull out from the Judea and Samaria the same way we pull out of Gaza or we have the same disaster coming on us. I want to talk more about the international reaction. But first, on the apparent US pressure on Israel right now, Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, was asked earlier on this day about reports from the Wall Street Journal that the US asked Israel to delay its ground incursions so it can bolster security at its spaces in the Middle East. Now, let's take a listen to his response. This is an event that is not only local, south of Israel, it can turn to be a multi-arena in the north and in other places. The US, our biggest strategic partner, also has its needs and talks to us about them, and we make considerations together as necessary. And, Robert Singer, you have your finger on the pulse of the international world and the Jewish communities in the international world. Your take on the US support for Israel right now, obviously we know President Joe Biden came in recent days. His message was clear, unwavering support. But at the same time, these reports that the US is saying, just wait on that ground invasion. Your take on the state of play between Israel and the US right now and the impact on the communities in the US. Yeah. No, I think that what we experienced, most of the Israelis here with the visit of President Biden and his statements, I think the majority of the Israeli population was positively surprised by the statements he made. The question really remains where it will lead us and what actions we'll be taking. In this situation where we have a puppet master sitting there in a tear run and every time activates different, different, pulse, different string. Once it's Hamas, that one, that's his bolline, the Houthim, and tomorrow I don't know what else will happen in what part of the world. And now taking also the American military base, obviously can bring to bigger conflict, to regional conflict in the region. And I guess this is what Americans are trying to avoid. But from the point of view of the statement and position of the American administration towards what's happening here in Israel, at least as of now, I think we have a full support or full legitimacy. And it's pretty clear to Americans, to everybody, to European leaders, it's pretty clear that there is going to be a complete restart of the situation in the South and hopefully also in the North. But we live in the area where every day is like a month and the developments here are very quick or is dealing with the research on security. So he can tell you more about this and we really have to follow it up very, very quickly. The situation that the Jewish community in the United States reports 388 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in only the last two weeks is intolerable. And the similar numbers you have in many countries in Europe. And I don't think that the leaders of many governments fully realize this. I'm just coming from lunch with one of the European ambassadors and about 10 percent in his country are people who are Muslim. But obviously, the problem is not with the whole Muslim population. The problem is with the extreme sides in this population. And this, from the point of view of the Jewish community, needs to be very closely watched, including the physical security of the communities. And I think that to some extent in the past, they had more to rely on what is happening in Israel. At this stage, they will have to see also how they closely cooperate with the local governments and also take care of their own security of their religious places, schools and all the rest. Or we don't have that much time left. I'd like your take on the fact that it is Qatar who is said to be working on helping to free hostages. This is something that is so close to the heart of everybody as we've been discussing to free civilians who are being held and the horrors that might be happening there as we speak. What do you make of the impact, the credibility of Qatar being the people to get this right? I think Qatar really enjoys playing on all soccer fields and really with the piles of money there, they are enjoying to talk both to Hamas and Israel, both the US and Russia. I think at the end of the day, Qatar needs to be pressured with the US leverage to get as many hostages out. But let's not lose sight of what's going on here. Hamas, Qatar has been financing Hamas by $30 million per month over the past year. And let's not forget. And host, you're absolutely right. While the attack unfolded, while it was carried out, while Israelis were murdered in their own homes, burned alive, you had Hamas senior leadership in four-star, five-star hotels in Qatar, watching the quote unquote success of their terrorist attacks on the screen and praying for Allah as thankful for their success. And I think Qatar cannot keep playing that double game anymore. We need to be clear-sided here. This is anti-Semitism, pure and simple, and Qatar needs to be held accountable as well. Orye Sashar, Robert Singer, I wish we could unpack this for another hour. Thank you so much for your insight. We so appreciate you both being here in studio for this breaking news coverage. And that is where we wrap up this breaking news edition. I'm Benita Levine in Tel Aviv. Our rolling coverage continues shortly, so stay tuned. Thank you for watching. There have been countless memorable moments broadcasting with i24 news in the past six years. But for me, the one that stands out the most was the first time that I had ever personally heard a rocket siren sounding in Tel Aviv. And at that moment, we were live on air in studio. I will never forget the moment our senior producer said to me in my ear, the sirens are sounding in Tel Aviv. The control room is going to the shelter. With me in studio at the time were Michael Herzog, a former Brigadier General today, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, and Arsene Ostrowski, an international human rights lawyer. And their responses were completely different. Michael Herzog was calm and composed. And on the other hand, Arsene Ostrowski was trying to phone his family and check in to make sure that his loved ones were okay. The camera that normally faces us was hoisted from above. There was an overhead shot of the three of us in the studio. You could see colleagues going to the shelter if you looked at the glass behind the studio. And obviously we lost contact with our team on the ground, our reporters in Ashkelon and all the witnesses that we were speaking to during that time. When rockets are coming towards a residential area, they don't distinguish between race, religion, political views, cultural views. They just intend to harm civilians. And that moment being in studio, hearing those interceptions overhead was the most real coverage I've ever been involved in. This is Breaking News Edition. I'm Benita Levine, coming to you live from Tel Aviv, a massive barrage of rockets sent to southern and central Israel in recent hours, siren sounding in many cities, including here in parts of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Bat Yam, and in the south, Kisufim, Nirem, Farazah and Storot. It's 20 days into the war, 20 days since the Hamas killing rampage. The death toll is at more than 1,400. More than 5,400 people were wounded. A targeted raid in northern Gaza overnight, the IDF hitting 250 Hamas targets, including a rocket launcher hidden in a mosque and a kindergarten. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking once again, discussing ways to free at least 220 hostages being held captive by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The hostages come from 25 different countries, ranging in age from a nine-month-old baby to an 89-year-old man. So far, four female hostages have been freed, and Qatar says it's making progress in efforts to secure a hostage release. And in recent hours, Benny Gantz, member of the Wall Cabinet in Israel, saying the country will ultimately make its own decisions over its plans in this war, following several reports that America was pressurizing it to delay its Gaza ground invasion. Horrific new gruesome details emerging out of one of Israel's southern communities targeted by the Hamas terror rampage on the 7th of October. Kibbutz Bairi, which was decimated by terrorists in an onslaught that lasted more than a day. The IDF's Colonel Golan Wach outlining this disturbing discovery in the early days of the war, and a warning that these details, which are being released officially today, are difficult to hear. Along the way that we've just walked, we found 20 victims, all dead. But when we got to this house, I saw something I never faced before. It was a woman lying here. A woman lying here. It was still burning so she could be recognized. She was shot in the back and she was protecting a baby. A baby I carried the baby in my own hands. More accounts and more evidence of unadulterated evil. Now for more, we welcome to studio Dr. Avi Bitsur, the head of the Homefront and National Security Studies at Bait Burl Academic College, and Professor Nir Kedair, the president of Sapir College. Thank you gentlemen, both of you, for being here in studio. As we process, Professor, the hideous report that we just heard now, the new confirmation, the new details, the evil that unfolded on the 7th of October, you and your college have suffered major losses at Sapir College. Talk to us about what the 7th of October means for Sapir College. 7th of October means devastation. I mean, we are located, we are the academic institution which is the closest to the Gaza, to the Gaza Strip. We are located three and a half kilometers, less than two miles from the border. Many from our community live in the area, in the Gaza envelope. We have more than 250 staff and faculty who live there, and several hundreds, almost 1,000 students who live in the area. If you take the wider area between Fakim and Ashkelon, we have about 2,000 more people living. That brutal attack, quote, the community of the college, we have major losses. I mean, two of our students were assassinated, and seven of our faculty and staff members, and one member of our board was assassinated. Most of them, I'm very sad to say, were assassinated together with their families. I mean, brutal assassinations. And if you take the second circle of alumni, of family members with dozens more of casualties, people who were taken hostage to Gaza, people who were assassinated, killed, people who were wounded. So our college suffered a great loss. Both people who live in Zderot and people who live in the Kibbutzim and the Moshevim, all around in the Gaza envelope from the north to the south. And another problem was that even those who weren't killed or wounded or taken hostage, they have suffered a huge trauma these entire days in the shelters, trying to close the shelters when Hamas tried to burst inside. And now, most of them are dispossessed. I mean, all of them. They don't live there anymore. They were dispossessed. They were evacuated to other parts of the state, of the country, I'm sorry. And we have people, my faculty and staff now live between Tiberia and the Fula in the north to Elat in the south. Many of them suffer from trauma. And another problem is that it's very hard from an administrative point of view to run the college because people, they are refugees, basically. They live in different hotels and other parts. Some of them couldn't take anything with them. I mean, barely they're closed. They're closed. And that's how they were evacuated. And this is both a trauma, a very tragic trauma. And it's very hard now to rerun the college and to start to talk with those people to hear the stories. And we can only imagine how horrific so much devastation in a close community. Exactly. Working together, studying together, knowing each other, knowing each other, the collective trauma we spoke about, the fact that the whole nation is in shock. And even today, we're hearing more details emerging of more carnage. It all happened on the 7th of October, but you're hearing more and more of these examples of sheer depravity. I'm going to come back to unpack more of that. But first, we're going to go to our correspondent, Hamda Salhout. And she joins us for the latest update on the ground in northern Israel. And Hamda, talk to us about the latest concerns around Hezbollah's next possible moves. We're focusing obviously right now on the Hamas terror attack on the 7th of October. But many people wondering if Hassan Asrallah is going to be fully involved in this war. And if so, when? That's right, Pneeter. The question is not if, but when the Hezbollah chief meeting just yesterday with the head of Hamas in Palestine, Islamic jihad, saying that they're in this for the long haul, saying that they're in this together, the exchanges of fire along the Lebanese border have been continuous since October 7th with Hezbollah, looking to target Israeli observation posts and other military assets like artillery positions. Now 46 Hezbollah combatants have been killed on the Lebanese side along with four from Hamas and four from Palestinian Islamic jihad. And remember three weeks ago when this war began, the Palestinian factions operating in southern Lebanon said that they were quote eager to join the fight. But Hezbollah is the one who needs to take the lead because they are essentially in charge of anything that will come out of their territory in terms of weaponry. Now the exchanges of fire today have been somewhat intense. There are still fires burning inside Lebanese territory. It's incredibly hazy here in the north. The smell of smoke is everywhere and the Israeli military is still on high alert, closing several areas here. The National Emergency Center in Israel has said that the number of evacuees in both the north and the south has now exceeded 125,000 individuals. And while majority of them are from the south, there is a good chunk of that number from the north. Remember weeks ago the Israeli military first evacuating communities two kilometers from the border. That's 28 different towns and then exceeding it to five kilometers. So we're talking about tens of thousands of Israelis who have left these northern communities. The military has set up checkpoints everywhere here in fears of the conflict escalating and also in fears of civilians getting in the middle of the fire that seems to be not letting up anytime soon. Thank you so much Correspondent Khamdeh Salhut in northern Israel. Stay safe and we will be coming back to you of course for more regular updates. Thanks Khamdeh. Dr. Aviv Bitsur here in studio, your thoughts on the fact that Hamas is now being compared to being like ISIS or some suggest worse than ISIS. We heard my colleague Khamdeh talking about the concerns around Hezbollah potentially getting involved in this war. The concerns right now about the threats on so many France when the nation as we were discussing just a short while ago is in a severe state of trauma. First of all let me I heard you professor and I feel terrible in both ways one to hear the story of Sapir College and the other and you have to understand it's all around the country because at Bed-Berle about the students of mine and others we bury them and they are officers of security at the Kibbutzim. Let's say the officer of security at Kishufim. Sir Margolis was mine from the third year of his studies and we buried him next Sunday, last Sunday two weeks ago. It was awful to see the trains of funerals one by another it can take you to a breaking point and I speak about it because you said very accurate to the point and nearly right the trauma and the post trauma that we will have to deal with it in resilience centers or everything else and you know what in Bed-Berle we have a decision to build up a center for resilience okay in the middle of the country in a let's say quotation safe place okay because we understand the threats and we understand what the Israeli population now is going through but I want to say but because I know near and I know its people I used to work with them about resilience we live through it and I know us and I know Bed-Berle and I know you I know the Israeli people I think we have to observe and say something about ourselves we get we got a demolish a astonished strike on the 7th of October a shock in 10 hours 11 hours we came back to the places we were before we tried to do something and the shock was it it's a trauma but we've done things that other nations would have collapsed and it's something to say very good for us first of all second about the Hamas you have to understand what we see it's nothing if you see the films it's as awful as and they mean to do it and you know what when someone is calling yourself a snake and he's crying like a snake and he's speaking like a snake this is a snake Israel must change is a doctrine about everything you know when I'm teaching in my college okay on-front defense I'm not thinking about attack I'm speaking about you know iron doom wow what is this if someone is firing rockets at Petr Tkva where I live till now there will not we told you Petr Tkva is not on the map we laughed what is it you have two choices one to try to defend yourself and this is the Israeli conception about how to deal with our problems and threats and it's not right maybe there is another maybe the attack conception maybe if you threat me I will make you vanish before and it's very important to understand it because we have to change the way we are looking at things third thing third point and I will finish for now I heard about Hezbollah you have to understand Hezbollah and Hamas and the goods at Yemen are proxies of one devil Iran no doubt Iran wants to come to get a historic and you are professor of history historic place like Xersus about Persia and she want to come back and the West must understand the pain in the neck of Iran is Israel look on the map and we are standing there they are working with their proxies now we are dealing with the little one okay the little snake Hamas we have to decide are we going north and Hezbollah the same they have to think if they are coming to us I don't for 100% sure that there will be a war but maybe we're going to be talking more about that in a short while gentlemen stay with us I want to check in though again with our correspondent Robert Swift he's in Storot in southern Israel and on the one hand we're hearing siren sounding in Storot just a short while ago and in many southern communities at the same time we're getting confirmation just in that Hamas leaders or officials are in Russia what can you confirm what can you tell us on both fronts right now yeah indeed so regarding your first point we've had two launches of rockets in the in about the last hour both of them going over our heads with interceptions taking place just as we wrapped up last time we spoke with you so those have been rockets fired towards Ashkelon Ashdod and also some communities to the east of the Gaza Strip and now these take place whilst there's an ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military you might be able to see behind me there's a cloud of smoke which has started emanating from the direction of the Gaza Strip the bombardment there has been taking place for about the last hour basically I would say and it's been a pretty constant barrage just on the horizon behind us now with regards to the activity taking place in Russia and this has been reported by and by the Russian ministry foreign ministry I should say that representatives of Hamas are present in the country a senior member of Hamas's political bureau is reportedly there for talks with Russian foreign ministry officials and this obviously will raise some alarm both in Israel and in the west particularly Washington there is concern that the two conflicts taking place one here and one in Ukraine that these two conflicts will sort of seep into each other as the various alliances around the two conflicts begin to form two sides so any support or even hint of support from from Russia particularly but also obviously from Iran towards Hamas is treated with much concern here in Israel and with Israel's Western allies and the the reports that are Hamas political bureau operatives operating in Russia right now will add weight to those concerns thank you so much we will be coming back to our correspondent Robert Swift he's updating us live from Storot in southern Israel and we will be getting regular updates from him in the coming hours thank you for now Rob now as tensions intensify on the ground here in the Middle East as we've been discussing we turn our attention to the United Nations Security Council after two alternative resolutions were presented overnight one from the US and one from the Russian Federation our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman has more on the international reaction to this war particularly out of Moscow and Beijing let's take a look what America is for they are against Russia and China keeping on with their policy of taking sides with Israel's opponents on Wednesday Russia coming to the United Nations Security Council with a resolution on the war that got only China's vote and two others the Russian resolution voted upon today sought to tie Israel's hands preventing us from eliminating a threat to our existence would Moscow or Beijing be given a right to self-defense if faced with the same threat I believe so the positions at the UN Security Council highlight just how much this war has become a great power struggle what started as a set of horrific local massacres kicked up the threat of a regional war and brought on Russia and China who saw an opening to take aim at the United States here Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking from Tehran the US is one of the leaders of those who are already intervening which is manifested in the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups the more such proactive measures are taken by any state the greater the risk and danger of conflict escalation for Israel a key question going forward how to relate to Russia and China Israel has tried to boost economic ties with Beijing going as far as it can without angering the United States and on Russia Israel is famously tiptoed around the war in Ukraine with the familiar arguments about keeping freedom of action in the skies of Syria and protecting the Jewish community in Russia itself now Israel needs America's support and the support of the political center across the west while Russia and China are explicitly siding with Israel's opponents pushing Israel ever more into washington's arms still with me in studio dr avib it's sore and professor near cate dara professor i want to pick up on what we just heard in terms of the international reaction to what is happening given what your college superior college has suffered given the trauma that we've been talking about that is happening right now not only in the southern communities but collectively across the country are you surprised at the reaction from the international arena we have seen world leaders several world leaders come to show their support but a lot of questions as well questioning the veracity of what is actually happening we're seeing the idf coming with evidence to prove exactly the extent of the carnage that you know unfolded are you surprised at the response from abroad uh surprise or not i heard you know both from both sides i have many colleagues from all over the world you know calling me writing me and we're concerned about what happened and you know just being shocked like us on the other side i heard not only you know leaders from all over the world but from other parts of the world but also my colleagues in many of the largest universities uh in north america for example who i'm i'm i'm an i'm a harvard alumni i have my phd from harvard i was shocked to hear the president of harvard and refusing to denounce not only the attack but also the the 34 i think student cells that blamed israel for those basically blamed israel for those atrocities in 2023 can you believe that is the sentiment coming out of harvard i was shocked to hear that and i was i was ashamed as an harvard alumni uh to hear that it's not only harvard it's a other major universities in north america refuse to go um and to do you know the evidence to blame to denounce such a brutal attack to be outraged at the sheer brutality against civilians exactly and these are the same university you know or put the flag of ukraine after the russian invention or and so on and so forth but when it arrived to that brutal attack against israel by the hamas they they called them freedom fighters and militants and so on and so forth and the way they try to deal with it the the problem they have to denounce it openly um for me it was devastating it was uh more than a shock dr bitzer your take your response what you heard from others in the academic field globally it's not only the academic i want to speak about the international interests of of all the players in this play that we were the victim from the beginning look the world is very cynical and you live by interests i'm not surprising you when you come to the un 50 countries are muslims that will be immediately against israel and other from africa will be immediately against israel okay and china and russia will look on their interests so i want the conclusion of what i said first of all we have to deal and finish the hamas we have to do it for many reasons one of them is what the your uh your uh correspondence the correspondence spoke about that maybe we are going to a big war between the big forces okay i want the jude what can live without fence and without i want to and without nothing it's a i'm this you listen to me and say we are naive no but this is the goal and the target and we have to do it rapidly in gaza because we will have no time in the coming week or two because of general winter or because if his mullah and us will fight now we are making muscles we are killing some of them they have killed four two us six people it's not nothing but if it will escalate we'll find ourselves in lebanon and again russia will come and we have to think about it so we have to quickly finish the humas for ourselves and thinking about the next steps dr avid sir and professor nier k dire thank you both so much for your input and we wish you all the very best with your communities and especially with your resilient centers definitely going to be needed in the country thank you very much for your insight and so sorry again for your loss a very difficult time all around we really appreciate you speaking to us something we have a slogan in my class all the classes of mine be a stiff necked nation stiff necked it's from the second book in the bible schmott okay stiff necked i'm sure if thank you so much both of you before we end this broadcast we want to check in with our senior us correspondent mike wagenheim he joins us from outside the un in new york tell us why lots about to unfold there what is the latest yeah and benita right behind me here at the general assembly an emergency special session taking place as we speak to discuss the israel hamas war there's a draft resolution being floated by the jordanians to call for an immediate ceasefire unhindered access for a un staff and other parties to get into gaza to distribute aid and protect uh facilities they are also calling for a rescission of revocation of the israeli evacuation order of northern gaza and for all of the hostages to be immediately released by hamas and other terrorist groups in the gaza strip gilad ardan the israeli ambassador to the united nations will speak shortly he's criticized that resolution because it includes no mention of hamas no mention of the brutal massacre carried out on october the seventh he said the oh i see the organization of islamic countries has the automatic majority here at the un so he expects this resolution to pass keep in mind unlike the security council just down the hall the general assembly here resolutions that pass out of this hall do not have the force of international law they're more uh carrying symbolic weight though still uh kind of a signal of where each country stands at a given time at a particular uh conflict here so this emergency session will carry through this afternoon and then resume tomorrow we expect a vote by the full general assembly on this resolution either late afternoon or early evening tomorrow incredible to think mike that we are here in this part of the world looking at new images of the atrocities committed on the seventh of october and gilad ardan is going to be trying to convince the un that israel needs to be able to defend itself from such terror very briefly antonio good teresha's comments just in recent days didn't help the situation in terms of the un and its perception of israel and israel's rights to defend itself the latest on that fallout he did try to walk it back a little bit the fact that he said the attack didn't happen in a vacuum the latest on that front briefly please that just i have a different interpretation of it benid he didn't try to walk it back he doubled down on it essentially and there's a huge chasm between how antonio good teresha views his words and how they are viewed across the political spectrum from right to left in israel just a total chasm there which is really reflective of the united nations as a whole but it could very well impact the efforts going forward here israel is refusing visas already to un staff including the humanitarian coordinator martin griffiths the un told us yesterday that there are still contacts going on between ground level staff in jerusalem on the un side and the israeli side but obviously at the higher levels there is a much disagreement going on in no clear path forward here with neither side really giving in thank you so much for now it's our senior us correspondent mike wagenheim live from new york outside the un we will be coming back to mike of course for all the latest updates thank you very much mike and with that we wrap up this breaking news edition i'm benita levine in tel aviv our rolling coverage continues shortly so stay tuned this is i24 news breaking news edition israel is at war make an investment in israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with israel visit israel bonds dot com and invest now in news edition i'm benita levine coming to you live from tel aviv a massive barrage of rockets sent to southern and central israel in recent hours siren sounding in many cities including here in parts of tel aviv jaffa baghiam and in the south kiss of him near him far asa and starot it's 20 days into the war 20 days since the hamas killing rampage the death toll is at more than 1400 more than 5400 people were wounded a targeted raid in northern gaza overnight the idf hitting 250 hamas targets including a rocket launcher hidden in a mosque and a kindergarten president joe biden and prime minister benjamin itaña who's speaking once again discussing ways to free at least 220 hostages being held captive by the hamas terror group in gaza the hostages come from 25 different countries ranging in age from a nine month old baby to an 89 year old man so far four female hostages have been freed and katar says it's making progress in efforts to secure a hostage release and in recent hours benny gants member of the war cabinet in israel saying the country will ultimately make its own decisions over its plans in this war following several reports that america was pressurizing it to delay its gaza ground invasion horrific new gruesome details emerging out of one of israel's southern communities targeted by the hamas terror rampage on the 7th of october kibbutz berry which was decimated by terrorists in an onslaught that lasted more than a day the idf's colonel golan vah outlining this disturbing discovery in the early days of the war and a warning that these details which are being released officially today are difficult to hear along the way that we've just walked we found 20 victims all dead but when we got to this house i saw something i never faced before it was a woman lying here a woman lying here it was still burning so she could be recognized she was shot in the back and she was protecting a baby a baby small baby i don't know exactly one or two years and the baby was decapitated i carried the baby in my own hands more accounts and more evidence of unadulterated evil now for more we welcome to studio dr avid sur the head of the home front and national security studies at bait burl academic college and professor nier k dar the president of sapir college thank you gentlemen both of you for being here in studio thank you for having us as we process professor the hideous report that we just heard now the new confirmation the new details the evil that unfolded on the 7th of october you and your college have suffered major losses at sapir college talk to us about what the 7th of october means for sapir college 7th of october means devastation i mean we are the we are located we are the academic institution which is the closest to the gaza to the gaza strip we are located three and a half kilometers less than two miles from the border many from our community live in the area in the gaza envelope we have more than 20 250 staff and faculty you live there and several hundreds almost 1000 students who live in the area if you take the the wider area between of akim and askelon we have about 2000 more people living that brutal attack coat the community of the college we have major losses i mean two of our students were assassinated and seven of our faculty and staff members and one member of our board was assassinated most of them i'm very sad to say they were assassinated together with the families i mean brutal assassinations and if you take the second circle of alumni of family members with dozens more dozens more of casualties people were taken hostage to gaza people were assassinated killed people were wounded so our college just suffered a great loss both people who live in zderot and people who live in the kibbutzim and the moshavim all around in the gaza envelope from the north to the south and another problem was that even those who weren't killed or wounded or taken hostage they've suffered a huge trauma these entire days in the in the shelters trying to you know trying to close the shelters when the hamas tried to to burst inside and now most of them are dispossessed i mean all of them they don't live there anymore they were they are evacuated they were evacuated yet to other parts of the state of the country i'm sorry and we have people my faculty and staff now live between tiberia and the fula in the north to elat in the south many of them suffer from trauma and another problem is that it's very hard from uh and the administrative point of view to run the college because people you know they are they're refugees basically they live in different hotels and other parts they some of them couldn't it couldn't take anything with them i mean barely they're closed they're closed and that's that's how they were evacuated and this is both a both a trauma a very tragic trauma and uh yeah it's very hard now to rerun the college to start to talk with those people to hear their stories and we can only imagine yeah how horrific so much devastation in a close community exactly working together studying together knowing each other knowing each other the collective trauma we spoke about the fact that the whole nation is in shock and even today we're hearing more details emerging of more carnage it all happened on the 7th of october but you're hearing more and more of these examples of sheer depravity i'm going to come back to unpack more of that but first we're going to go to our correspondent khamda salhout and she joins us for the latest update on the ground in northern israel and khamda talk to us about the latest concerns around hezbollah's next possible moves we're focusing obviously right now on the khamas terror attack on the 7th of october but many people wondering if hassan israeli is going to be fully involved in this war and if so when that's right benita the question is not if but when the hezbollah chief meeting just yesterday with the head of hamas and palestinian islamic jihad saying that they're in this for the long haul saying that they're in this together the exchanges of fire along the lebanese border have been continuous since october 7th with hezbollah looking to target israeli military observation posts and other military assets like artillery positions now 46 hezbollah combatants have been killed on the lebanese side along with four from hamas and four from palestinian islamic jihad and remember three weeks ago when this war began the palestinian factions operating in southern lebanon said that they were quote eager to join the fight but hezbollah is the one who needs to take the lead because they are essentially in charge of anything that will come out of their territory in terms of weaponry now the exchanges of fire today have been somewhat intense there are still fires burning inside lebanese territory it's incredibly hazy here in the north the smell of smoke is everywhere and the israeli military is still on high alert closing several areas here the national emergency center in israel has said that the number of evacuees in both the north and the south has now exceeded 125 000 individuals and while majority of them are from the south there is a good chunk of that number from the north remember weeks ago the israeli military first evacuating communities two kilometers from the border that's 28 different towns and then exceeding it to five kilometers so we're talking about tens of thousands of israelis who have left these northern communities the military has set up checkpoints everywhere here in fears of the conflict escalating and also in fears of civilians getting in the middle of the fire that seems to be not letting up anytime soon thank you so much correspondent kandis al-hood in northern israel stay safe and we will be coming back to you of course for more regular updates thanks khamda dr aviv it's here in studio your thoughts on the fact that khamas is now being compared to being like isis or some suggest worse than isis we heard my colleague khamda talking about the concerns around hezbollah potentially getting involved in this war the concerns right now about the threats on so many fronts when the nation as we were discussing just a short while ago is in a severe state of trauma yeah first of all let me I heard you professor and I feel terrible in both ways one to hear the story of a superior college and the other and you have to understand it's all around the country because at bed at bedbell about the students of mine and others we bury them and they are officers of security at the kibbutz team let's say the officer of security at kisufim samar golis was mine from the third e-office studies and we buried him next sunday last sunday two weeks ago it was awful to see the trains of funerals one by another it can take you to a breaking point and I speak about it because you said very accurate to the point and nearly is right the trauma and the post trauma that we will have to deal with it in resilience centers or everything else and you know what in bedbell we have a decision to build up a center for resilience okay in the middle of the country in a let's say in quotation safe place okay because we understand the threats and we understand what the israeli population now is going through but I want to say but because I know near and I know each people I used to work with them about resilience we live through notes and I know us and I know bedbell and I know you I know the israeli people I think we have to observe and say something about ourselves we get we got a demolished a astonished strike on the 7th of october a shock in 10 hours 11 hours we came back to the places we were before we tried to do something and the shock was it it's a trauma but we've done things that other nation would have collapsed and it's something to say very good for us first of all second about the hammers you have to understand what we see it's nothing if you see the films it is awful and they mean to do it but you know what when someone is calling yourself a snake and you're crooning like a snake and he's speaking like a snake this is a snake israel must change is a doctrine about everything you know when i'm teaching in my college okay on-front defense i'm not speaking about attack i'm speaking about you know iron doom wow what is this if someone is firing rockets at petartik where i live till now there will not we told it petartik was not on the map we laughed what is it we have two choices one to try to defend yourself and this is the israeli conception about how to deal with our problems and threats and it's not right maybe there is another maybe that that conception maybe if you threat me i will make you vanish before and it's very important to understand it because we have to change that the way we are looking at things third thing third point and i will finish for now i heard about gizbullah you have to understand gizbullah enthamas and the hoots at yaman are proxies of one devil iran no doubt iran wants to come to get a historic and you are professor of history historic place like xersus about persia and she want to come back and the west must understand the pain in the neck of iran is israel look on the map and we are standing there they are working with their proxies now we are dealing with the little one okay the little snake hamas we have to decide are we going north and gizbullah the same they have to think if they are coming to us i don't for 100 sure that there will be a war but maybe we're going to be talking more about that in a short while gentlemen stay with us i want to check in though again with our correspondent robert swift he's in storot in southern israel and on the one hand we're hearing siren sounding in storot just a short while ago and in many southern communities at the same time we're getting confirmation just in that hamas leaders or officials are in russia what can you confirm what can you tell us on both fronts right now yeah indeed so regarding your first point we've had two launches of rockets in the in about the last hour both of them going over our heads with interceptions taking place just as we wrapped up last time we spoke with you um so those have been rockets fired towards ash gala and ash dodd and also some communities to the east of the gaza strip and now these take place whilst there's an ongoing bombardment of the gaza strip by the israeli military you might be able to see behind me there's a cloud of smoke which has started emanating from the direction of the gaza strip the the bombardment there has been taking place for about the last hour i would say and it's been a pretty constant barrage just on the horizon behind us now with regards to the activity taking place in russia this has been reported by the russian ministry foreign ministry i should say that representatives of hamas are present in the country a senior member of hamas's political bureau is reportedly there for talks with russian foreign ministry officials and this obviously will raise some alarm both in israel and in the west particularly washington um there is concern that the the two conflicts taking place one here and one in ukraine that these two conflicts will sort of seep into each other as the various alliances around the two conflicts begin to form two sides so any support or even hint of support from from russia particularly but also obviously from iran towards hamas is treated with much concern here in israel and with israel's western allies and the the reports that are hamas political bureau operatives operating in russia right now will add weight to those concerns thank you so much we will be coming back to our correspondent robert swift he's updating us live from starot in southern israel and we will be getting regular updates from him in the coming hours thank you for now rob now as tensions intensify on the ground here in the middle east as we've been discussing we turn our attention to the united nation's security council after two alternative resolutions were presented overnight one from the us and one from the russian federation our senior diplomatic correspondent oan ultiman has more on the international reaction to this war particularly out of musko and beijing let's take a look what america is for they are against russia and china keeping on with their policy of taking sides with israel's opponents on wednesday russia coming to the united nation's security council with a resolution on the war that got only china's vote and two others the russian resolution voted upon today sought to tie israel's hands preventing us from eliminating a threat to our existence would musko or beijing be given a right to self-defense if faced with the same threat i believe so the positions at the u.n. security council highlight just how much this war has become a great power struggle what started as a set of horrific local massacres kicked up the threat of a regional war and brought on russia and china who saw an opening to take aim at the united states here russian foreign minister sergiy lavrov speaking from tehran the us is one of the leaders of those who are already intervening which is manifested in the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups the more such proactive measures are taken by any state the greater the risk and danger of conflict escalation for israel a key question going forward how to relate to russia and china israel has tried to boost economic ties with beijing going as far as it can without angering the united states and on russia israel is famously tiptoe around the war in ukraine with the familiar arguments about keeping freedom of action in the skies of syria and protecting the jewish community in russia itself now israel needs america's support and the support of the political center across the west while russia and china are explicitly siding with israel's opponents pushing israel evermore into washington's arms still with me in studio dr avib it's or and professor near k darah professor i want to pick up on what we just heard in terms of the international reaction to what is happening given what your college superior college has suffered given the trauma that we've been talking about that is happening right now not only in the southern communities but collectively across the country are you surprised at the reaction from the international arena we have seen world leaders several world leaders come to show their support but a lot of questions as well questioning the veracity of what is actually happening we're seeing the idf coming with evidence to prove exactly the extent of the carnage that you know unfolded are you surprised at the response from abroad uh surprise or not i heard you know both from both sides i have many colleagues all from all over the world you know calling me writing me and we're concerned about what happened and you know just being shocked like us on the other side i heard not only you know leaders from all over the world but from other parts of the world but also my colleagues in many of the largest universities uh in north america for example who i'm i'm i'm an and i'm a harvard alumna i have my phd from harvard i was shocked to hear the president of harvard i'm refusing to denounce not only the attack but also the the 34 i think student cells that uh blamed israel for those uh basically blamed israel for those atrocities in 2023 can you believe that is the sentiment coming out i was shocked i was shocked to hear that and i was i was ashamed as an harvard alumni uh to hear that it's not only harvard it's a other major universities in north america refuse to go um and to do you know the evidence to blame to denounce such a brutal attack to be outraged the sheer brutality exactly against civilians exactly and these are the same university you know who put the flag of ukraine after the russian invention or and so on and so forth but when it arrived to that brutal attack against israel by the hamas they they called them freedom fighters and militants and so on and so forth and the way they try to deal with it the the problem they have to denounce it openly um for me it was devastating it was more than a shock dr bitzer your take your response what you heard from others in the academic field globally it's not only the academic i want to speak about the international interests of of all the players in this play that we were the victim forward from the beginning look the world is very cynical and they live by interests i'm not surprising you when you come to the un 50 countries are muslims that will be immediately against israel and other from africa will be immediately against israel okay and china and russia will look on their interests so i want the conclusion of what i said first of all we have to deal and finish the hamas we have to do it for many reasons one of them is what your uh your uh correspondent the correspondents spoke about that maybe we are going to a big war between the big forces okay i want the jude what can live without fans and without i want to and without nothing it's a i'm listening to listen to me and say we are naive no but this is the goal and the target and we have to do it rapidly in gaza because we will have no time in the coming week or two because of general winter or because if his mula and us will fight now we are making muscles we are killing some of them they have killed four two us six people it's not nothing but if it will escalate we'll find ourselves in lebanon and again russia will come and we have to think about it so we have to quickly finish the hamas for us out and thinking about the next steps dr avibet sir and professor nier k dire thank you both so much for your input and we wish you all the very best with your communities and especially with your resilient centers definitely going to be needed in the country thank you very much for your insight and so sorry again for your loss a very difficult time all around we really appreciate you speaking to us something we have a slogan in my class all the classes of my be a stiff necked nation stiff necked it's from the second book in the bible schmott okay stiff necked i'm sure or if thank you so much both of you before we end this broadcast we want to check in with our senior us correspondent mike wagonheim he joins us from outside the un in new york tell us why lots about to unfold there what is the latest yeah and benita right behind me here at the general assembly an emergency special session taking place as we speak to discuss the israel hamas war there's a draft resolution being floated by the jordanians to call for an immediate ceasefire unhindered access for a un staff and other parties to get into gaza to distribute aid and protect facilities they are also calling for a rescission of revocation of the israeli evacuation order of northern gaza and for all of the hostages to be immediately released by hamas and other terrorist groups in the gaza strip gilad ardan the israeli ambassador to the united nations will speak shortly he's criticized that resolution because it includes no mention of hamas no mention of the brutal massacre carried out on october the seventh he said the oh i see the organization islamic countries has the automatic majority here at the un so he expects this resolution to pass keep in mind unlike the security council just down the hall the general assembly here resolutions that pass out of this hall do not have the force of international law they're more carrying symbolic weight though still kind of a signal of where each country stands at a given time at a particular conflict here so this emergency session will carry through this afternoon and then resume tomorrow we expect a vote by the full general assembly on this resolution either late afternoon or early evening tomorrow incredible to think mic that we are here in this part of the world looking at new images of the atrocities committed on the seventh of october and gilad ardan is going to be trying to convince the un that israel needs to be able to defend itself from such terror very briefly antonio gutterishes comments just in recent days didn't help the situation in terms of the un and its perception of israel and israel's rights to defend itself the latest on that fallout he did try to walk it back a little bit the fact that he said the attack didn't happen in a vacuum the latest on that front briefly please that just i have a different interpretation of it beneath he didn't try to walk it back he doubled down on it essentially and there's a huge chasm between how antonio gutterishes have used his words and how they are viewed across the political spectrum from right to left in israel just a total chasm there which is really reflective of the united nations as a whole but it could very well impact the efforts going forward here israel is refusing visas already to un staff including the humanitarian coordinator martin griffiths the un told us yesterday that there are still contacts going on between ground level staff in jerusalem on the un side and the israeli side but obviously at the higher levels there is a much disagreement going on and no clear path forward here with neither side really giving in thank you so much for now it's our senior u.s. correspondent mike wagenheim live from new york outside the un we will be coming back to mike of course for all the latest updates thank you very much mike and with that we wrap up this breaking news edition i'm panita levine in tel aviv our rolling coverage continues shortly so stay tuned this is i-24 news breaking news israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity and you're watching i-24 news we're coming to you live from tel aviv on this day 20 of israel's war with hamas and there was a barrage of rockets fired from gaza at central israel this lunchtime one rocket struck a building in the city of pesartikva causing a fire in a residential home there were no reports of any casualties and the idf continues to pound gaza claiming today to have killed among others the commander in charge of rocket fire from the north khan unis it published a video of strikes on several hamas targets well there are diplomatic moves underway in new york where georgian and moritania have called an un emergency session on the situation in gaza and several arab countries including bahrain the ua e and saudi arabia have accused israel of collective punishment in gaza the israeli envoy to the un gilad adan is expected to speak shortly while there remains a large deployment of israeli forces in the north of israel close to the border with lebanon this amid tit for tat clashes with the iranian backed terrorist group hezbollah over the past two weeks and thousands of israeli civilians have been moved away from the northern border areas we can head up there now we're joined by our correspondent hanesan hall two's close to the border with lebanon hamda what's been happening today lora good evening changes of fire continuing today lebanese state media says that israeli air raids and drone strikes hit an area just on the other side of the border causing a huge fire the smoke is actually still in the air and in the distance it's still quite hazy anti-tank fire also exchanged earlier today now we also know that not only has this been happening but at the same time there are behind the scenes discussions between the palestinian factions and iran now in russia right now there is the iranian deputy foreign minister as well as a representative from hamas yesterday we saw hasa nasrallah the head of hezbollah speaking with a leader from palestinian islamic jihad and hamas saying that they are in this together and if there is should be for the long haul they're going to be in it together is really fighter jets continuing to circle overhead in this area as the tensions continue to escalate a heavy military presence here as a lot of these communities have been evacuated out of fears of civilians getting caught in the crossfire as the tensions continue to escalate here along the northern border laura and two main concerns aren't there hamda rocket fire missiles being fired from the north but also the possibility of terrorist infiltrations right the israeli military is on high alert for both of those things when it comes to air raids when it comes to rockets they do have interception systems in place to assist with that but when it comes to infiltrations that's a little bit more difficult hezbollah has been targeting a lot of israeli observation post and security equipment security surveillance stations that are quite large so they've been targeting that with anti tank fire and if the israeli military is not able to survey the area because of the infiltration it's incredibly mountainous there's a lot of trees so it's difficult to catch someone on foot but the israeli military has been firm that anything they see coming out of lebanese territory from hezbollah will be met with a strong response hamda thank you very much hamda sahud there is at israel's northern border well let me introduce my guest this hour with me in the studio shiri fine gossman is the former head of foreign of the foreign policy branch for the regional actions at the israeli national security council i think we're getting another alarm siren flaring there apologies joining us on the line from the u.s as well dr. waleed faris is a foreign policy expert and the author of iran imperialist republic good evening to you as well waleed i think i'm correct in saying that yeah we've got another barrage of rockets being fired at central televiv right now from gaza so people are headed to the shelters if you're happy to remain we will remain on air throughout that we of course saw rockets fired earlier in the day as well around lunchtime a barrage of rockets firing fired at central televiv with one direct hit in the town of petartik where there was a fire but thankfully no casualties were reported okay so let's talk a bit about the latest developments uh uh waleed if i could start with you we've just been to the north to see what's what's going on there and what is your assessment of hezbollah's actions so far a bit more quiet today but uh clearly biding their time all right we've got a bit of a sound problem one second waleed we should be able to hear you now okay we're having a bit of a technical problem there shiri i'll i'll come to you uh if i can then i mean we're sitting here 20 days in there have been unprecedented uh military strikes on gaza yet they are still clearly firing rockets at us yeah they have thousands of rockets uh still to to aim at televiv and and further places unfortunately and um they're really taking our our patience and we hear the booms around in the studio the interception everybody went for shelter and we're the brave two women that to stay here and to broadcast live to everybody um uh they're in they're being very selective on when they're firing and how much they're firing trying to um find weak spots in our our endome systems uh the latest um you know the latest rocks that we've seen in recent days are really massive massive amount of rockets being fired at once uh in an attempt to to really find the weak spots and i guess luckily nobody was hurt and i guess the timing is interesting as well lunchtime of course people are moving around i was on my way to pick up my daughter from kindergarten and now it's six p.m people are on their way home from work so uh oh but there's never a good time to to be hit by a rocket no and there's never a good time that's that's true i couldn't agree with that uh waleed ferris can you hear me and can we hear you all right i'm very sorry for that technical problem we've just had a barrage of rockets fired at us uh waleed um that we can hear the interceptions right over our heads um i wanted to ask you about this report um in in a british media the catar is saying all of the hostages all the israeli hostages and all the other nationalities being held in garza could be free within days if there was a ceasefire i just wonder what what are your thoughts on that that's exactly the modus vivendi of hamas that's that's why the reason they went into the the negative and partially also uh you know got all these hostages into the gaza it's to create some sort of dome this is for them a strategic dome they have the hostages they have a third party in the middle east who's negotiating for them or with them we don't know and they want to obtain as much time as possible they know the israelis or the israel government is preparing for an operation in gaza that has to come but they want to gain as much possible time why because they would rely on the media pounding the media as you can see worldwide is really very very active and large part of it is uh pro hamas or at least trying to force or impose a ceasefire to the government and that's exactly what the goal of hamas is hit and then run away and then establish this dome of protection where it's diplomatic and political sherry do you agree with that yeah 100 100 percent there i think the biggest mis in israel media and and in the public we're talking about a lot of misconceptions um and i say you know the biggest ones is is that um you know we are art smarting them well the art smarted us this time uh badly so horribly so and with no limitations you know i i have a i came i was also an international law uh in our international law department at the nsc before that and i you know and i i quit because i i saw how how much the the the playing field is unleveled they could do whatever they want as many war crimes as they want genocide and still people are trying to play it like balanced uh and it's it's it's plain ignorance and it's infuriating and that's it's exactly what they're doing they're playing all their cards very very wisely and and we should be we should think i mean what we're really missing is a grand strategy and how to us smart them both tactically and strategically and and i hope that's what our war cabinet is actually working on these days and uh well i mean the the media is one thing isn't it but the uh i mean steadfast support from washington remains um and we've seen that in the diplomatic level as well uh there have been reports the united states is is leaning on is well to get it to delay its ground offensive into gaza while it gets its own uh ducks in a row if you will if it gets while it gets its own military uh air force defences in place in anticipation of more attacks by iranian proxies against american assets absolutely that's exactly the heart of the matter now in washington we know that the by the administration asked the israeli government to delay uh to postpone possible uh a full fledged attack uh ground attack on gaza they did not say much about the airstrikes on gaza so that now listen to this one so that the us will be able to establish its own air defense against the drones and the missiles of the iran axis that would be missiles coming from hezbollah southern syria's organizations and militias and of course across iraq and the question has been here at least in congress with some members have been speaking with what have we been doing for the last 10 years our basis were a practice is not the first time and it was very logical that at one point the iran regime and its militias are going to attack our units or push them regardless of gaza with or without gaza that was supposed to happen it was in the open press you know pro hezbollah or pro hamas or pro iran media was saying at one point and they use the gaza operation now to try to get all those units out so yes of course we need to establish that american dome also from bayrut all the way to the borders with iran and iraq and and well do you think iran anticipated such strong support from the united states including the sending of direct military aid i'm sad to report that iran knows a lot about our moves about us moves and there is a whole file here about who's speaking with iran you know it's in the media it's open information there are a lot of influence by the iran regime and that's due to the iran deal and to the money that have been transferring right and left so there is a whole matter that congress will review did they anticipate actually that two task forces are going to be deployed in the eastern mediterranean or not i'm not sure about that but what they are aware of is the decision making process regarding confronting iran yes the u.s the biden administration stood in his standing you know side by side with israel standing is one thing but given a green light the full green light to the israeli government to move in given a green light to other allies in the region to stop the the work of of iran that is something that has not been yet clarified okay thank you what they thank you yeah so a few points about the american ask here i don't think it's only it's of course to keep safe their their troops in in the area they have in syria in iraq and in katar in bahrain all over the area but it's it's it's a little more complicated first of all there is is the effort to free hostages hostages the civilian ones especially american ones chamas has shown that they he has some that are still in good condition and that are healthy and he's playing with all the those cards so i think they want some time to see if they can manage to to to free a lot of the hostages the number two is their concern about the grand strategy of israel and what's what's the next step you know even if you conquer gaza and then they're really worried about you know second first lebanon war and i think another another concern of them is is more of a tactical matter they have a lot of experience with dealing with isis in the past and they haven't and what they're telling us is we learn from our experience that raiding the whole gaza concreted it it won't be as effective as targeted raids of commando special forces we've seen those limited raids haven't we exactly last night and and and do you think israel would in any circumstance consider some kind of pause in fighting if it meant the hostages would be released as katar appears to be saying well i i think that's the biggest dilemma that's the biggest dilemma i think um we're i hope we're there's a lot we don't know actually right we're not exposed to to what's going on in the negotiations room i i believe katar is playing a double role and we have to be much more forceful with her and there's need to be a carrot but also a stick a big stick and if it was up to me i wouldn't as an israeli talk to katar ever again and just have the americans but if it meant getting back the hostages no americans the america should deal with it we're done with katar that's my personal own opinion i know a lot don't agree with me and many are influenced you know it's it's hard you go to katar people were there for the world cup yeah yeah it's really impressive they have very nice english but um they're hosting the hamas leadership for me they're basically have grown a military force of 50 000 soldiers that they financed and uh and now they're harboring people from hamas that basically planned the genocide so for me it's game over dr welly various of course katar is a is a close ally of the united states do you think that the current situation long term is is going to change that i don't think it's going to change at least not under this administration and i move to say that katar has been so successful in lobbying in the united state you must have seen a lot of reports about the complications of that lobbying even under the previous administration that's the trump administration they were able to play some of their project they were able to protect some of their interests but there is a tendency inside congress to actually try to change u.s policy towards katar because of the linkage katar has with the muslim brotherhood and the linkage the muslim brotherhood has with a lot of jihadists around uh the area but i don't think despite the fact that most experts on katar realize that it has this sympathy to the let's call them at least the the islamist movement it has also uh you know relationship with most of the west and including the united states we have a base there it's very similar or comparable to turkey but certainly turkey is a member of nato that's a different story absolutely and a word on um what's happening in moscow today the iranian foreign minister is there along with a delegation from hamas um just briefly uh valide a word on that well first of all quickly this is not new for people who are following hamas iran has ballad the other militias they always meet there are always pictures what is new about it is that musco now is giving high profile to iran to meet with hamas in musco that's something maybe they have met before but to publicize for it it is a message from musco that we have this sort of umbrella over our regional partners including iran until what part of the but this is certainly coming from musco dr valide faris thank you very much we appreciate it we're going to head now to central televieve um the families of some of the hostages who are being held in gaza have called together a press conference just listen here even those who are in different places in israel all of us 20 days we have no idea what's happening we're with our beloved ones it's illogical we were patient very patient beyond very but this is it our patience is over our patience is over and we are appealing to the government of israel all of them all the leaders we are citizens of the state of israel our expectation is that the state of israel will take care of us we'll take care of our beloved that it will ensure their safety and that they will bring them all back today all of them today today today all of us to the government of israel all of us means all the families of the abducted but the whole state of israel who is behind us all the nine million citizens we appeal to the state and we say that's it our patience is over we want them back today we are demanding from you the leaders to do whatever you can today not in two days time not in 20 days time today to make sure they're coming back home to take advantage of every opportunity now in order to make sure they're coming back all of them we expect from the cabinet in the government to speak to us today and explain to us exactly what they're going to do so that we are going to get our beloved ones back and that the families that are there in Gaza will come back today today today the heart of all of us is together with our abducted beloved ones our heart is there there are additional parents who will speak here this evening all of us are in that together we all demand exactly the same thing we want the return of our dear ones today i'd like to ask paula prishtain the sister of karina and ronan her husband and yuval all of them all four of them are abducted from the kibbutz near us an entire family let them come and say they represent all of us today today today good evening everybody as it was said here i am karina's sister i'm the representative of the engelbeck family and i'd like to bring i'd want them back today karina ronan mika and yuval and the other 224 abducted i want to tell you that karina just recovered from cancer she's a strong woman in my heart i can see her saying to everybody there that because nobody's going to win over her she takes care of everybody else i'm sure everybody else who's there with her thank you all of you we are all one heart we are all one heart one heart we are actually one heart and as you can see all of us are here with her with paula it's not easy to stand here but we do not give up we do not give up and we will not give up until all of them are back safely all of them malki please malki shemptov the father of omer who was abducted from the music festival to come and speak to us i'm malki the father of shemptov he's 21 years old with other friends he went to have a good time in the festival at the moment he's in gaza and at the moment we have no idea what's happening to him now i do not appeal to you the families you all have your own suffering and your uncertainty i'm appealing to the cabinet to sit in tunnels in places that they are maybe there's no electricity maybe there's no oxygen or water and maybe they suffer from the shelling here every little shell here tons of bombs are falling on them just think of what they feel and i'm appealing to you the leaders the decision makers i'm talking to you now we during these 20 days in this uncertainty in this complete darkness so we want all of us here back today we want you the cabinet the government people just imagine it's your own children just imagine that they are sitting there just think that they are sitting there not my kids not our kids that your kids are sitting there waiting for us to save them from this hell so think now how you make sure to save them and bring them home now now today today today today all of them today bringing them back home now we do not desert them we are going to return them home now we are going to bring them back home now together exactly exactly our leaders just think it's your kids exactly what maliki said if these were your kids would you let them be there 20 days without certainty without what's happening to them these are the children the parents the sisters and brothers of all of us the father of ronnie a shell who was an outlook and she was abducted together somebody from the crowd says if you don't bring them back i'm going to go back together and i'm going to bring them myself i'm with you i'm al i'm the father of ronnie ronnie is a child of 19 a girl she's a soldier in the idf ronnie my daughter is under your shift under your responsibility 20 days and the government of israel is mute shame shame shame 20 days we are told nothing what happened to her what happened to her we have information and we have pictures and we have an idea of the situation but we did it all ourselves and from the investigations that we made the citizens of the state people who envelop me everything we did on our own you come to me to ask for information what are you doing there all day what are you doing there all day i don't want to hear about plans i don't want to hear about the modus operandi i'm not with you there a million of open questions i have the puzzle that i myself am doing for myself i demand one thing i demand one thing get up from your chairs try to put your heart in my place and take responsibility all my life all my life i dedicate to the state i'm also a reserve soldier active and also my daughter ronnie i also dedicated her to the state of israel don't turn your backs on me don't turn your backs on me we're all out of patience we're finished with patience bring them back home now patience is over patience is over behind every name of an abducted person there's a story there are people family friends loved ones there's a story behind the next family is the very sad story because shahar and neta who are friends of the rubano family from the kibbutz why are they coming because sasha trepanov his mother his grandmother and his spouse were all abducted there's no one here to speak on their behalf except for their friends and vitali satchas father was murdered so i call upon their friends shahar and neta to speak on their behalf we are here in order to voice those who are not here three generations who disappeared the grandmother irena the mother the father of the family sasha and his spouse sapir four family members are in captivity with because the father was murdered out of his house in the kibbutz a family that has no other family member in the state of israel not one not one who can voice their anguish we are here the friends in order to say that we are not going to stop to cry cry for you until all of them are back here all of you all of us here we are a family by choice by choice until you come back i'd like to tell you about sasha because as i said they have no family in israel except you i met him five years ago in berishiba we studied together in the benguion university electrical engineering sasha is a brilliant student he's independent he's nice he all wanted to go over the material with us to teach us and we were very important to him as he was important to us and i call upon the government the cabinet to bring sasha and his family back today not tomorrow not the day after today to bring him back home and when sasha comes back together with his family we're going to wait for him here a huge family because all of us all of us are his family is that clear it is clear we are one family we are one family we are one family i'd like to say that i am proud of everybody here there's patience the restraint the respect that we maintain because it's not easy for parents for children for siblings their nerves are already shattered it's not simple to be patients and respectful so the entire nation is here with us together we are not alone it's not they are the families of the abducted we are one that's the first thing the second thing we do not give up none of us we are sticking to the target we want all of them back i call upon dita or their mother of amina tan or who was abducted from the music festival that's my son avina tan he's 30 years old he is an electrical engineer he was in the party and uh you remember the uh clip the video of his girlfriend who was abducted on a motorcycle we heard from testimonies that he could have escaped but he didn't he remained in order to look for his girlfriend and not to desert her and i ask the state of israel not to desert us and i ask the entire nation because if the abducted do not come back we have a national problem i don't know how the state is going to go on after such a story that's the first thing i want to see and the same thing i call upon all the rulers of this country i don't call them leaders they don't lead us they have power and they govern us they control us they're not leaders it's all of you when this is all over your place is going to be in the trash can of history in the garbage pail of history the only ones who will be able to be rescued from the rule of history are those who will bring with their own hands the abducted people home all right very moving scenes in central televiva some of the families of the 224 at least hostages who are being held by terrorists in gaza we heard from one woman her sister and her entire family have been kidnapped as she said her sister karina has just recovered from cancer and she knows that she's a strong woman we also heard from the father of a 19 year old girl a girl who's currently doing her military service she's also been abducted and he said that he had given his life to the state of israel and he wanted the state of israel to now help him and help his daughter we heard the father of one of the young people his son was taken from the music concert and you know story after story of people telling of their loved ones who have been missing now for 20 days nearly three weeks and they say they've been getting very little information from the government let me remind you that shiri fang osman is with us from israel's national security council formally we're also joined now by danie ayalon he's the former israeli ambassador to the united states are welcome to you both i mean this is israel's agonizing dilemma isn't it it has said that its military objective is to destroy hamas but all of those people all of those israelis and other citizens are being held right now in gaza what what can they do well certainly the historic ethos of israel and the israeli governments are never to leave anyone behind and when you have kidnapped situation you know even if it's four thousand miles away like in and teb in 1976 we would go and do everything to rescue them this is of course a very complicated issue now and i'm sure that had we had better intelligence we could have done something which is more you know on the operational side but meanwhile yes meanwhile we have to do everything that we can and this is the government's main objective is to bring them back home together with smashing and doing away with the hamas and this is not i mean this may not be this is not necessarily mutually exclusive and that that's the main point i think what we should do is to have this and i totally understand the families of the kidnap but i think that the pressure should be in new york on the u n should be in geneva on on the red cross you mean this is a par excellence humanitarian issue and when israel allows this humanitarian supplies going into gaza with them should be a humanitarian teams of red cross and u n to go in and demand from hamas to go see them they kidnapped and red cross officials have said they are unable to get into gaza that well if if well i'm not sure they're right because if this humanitarian trucks go into gaza they can be on the trucks and then they can get there nobody will harm a pause in fighting would you would you agree to a pause in fighting or a ceasefire if it meant this hostages could get out there's a i'm sure there would be a report that catara said all catara said all the hostages can be free if there's a ceasefire do you think that israel would agree to that i think so yeah i think so but i'm not sure that this is the the truth you know there's a lot of psychological warfare laura that's the problem with and with hamas you cannot believe the word they say absolutely and i should say that hamas has made another unverified claim it says that almost 50 of the hostages have been killed in airstrikes asheri i want to get your view on that in just a moment but first we're going to cross to sterot our correspondent robert swift is there for us now and rob we've just had a barrage of rockets haven't we in the last what was it 40 minutes coming out of gaza headed towards central tel aviv what's happening where you are yeah so this was the third barrage of rockets that we've seen since we've been here for about the last three hours and what was interesting with this one is as it launched from the gaza strip you could tell that it was going further afield beyond the cities of ash dawdan ash golan which have already been struck at twice today the rocket trajectory was going higher up into the air and that was the first sign that it was that these rockets were going to tel aviv and then a few seconds later we did indeed get confirmation of that on our apps now now there are rockets being fired fairly regularly this evening and there's also been a very heavy barrage of israeli artillery now as i said we've been here for about three hours and the israeli artillery has been fairly non-stop throughout that time the majority of it is artillery there are airstrikes mixed in amongst it but from what we are here in the majority of it is indeed artillery and this is i may be the fourth or fifth day i've been down here on the gazon border and this is the the highest intensity artillery barrage that i've heard whilst down here and which suggests that the israeli military is escalating their attacks escalating the pressure that they're putting on khamas using using artillery but like you say there have also been airstrikes um and just a short while ago the israeli military and the shin bet announced that they had indeed killed the deputy head of um khamas's intelligence in an airstrike so those airstrikes are having some uh some impact but a lot of observers of khamas will point out that individuals like this they're easily replaceable um so while israel will try to have as we'll try to apply as much pressure as possible by killing these key commanders there is a question mark as to how much impact that will have on khamas all right and uh rob what about the um civilians who live in the south of israel we know that thousands of them have been moved to safety um it looks like that is now going to be a long-term plan people will not be able to return to their homes before december at the earliest yeah indeed the israel's defense minister benny gantz and sorry israel's uh incoming minister benny gantz um he said earlier today that he thought it might be you know up to a year that people are away from this region um now the the community is immediately around uh gaza many of them are are you know very uh heavily depopulated with the vast majority of people moved out of the immediate uh rocket range of of gaza but let's not forget that there are towns only a short distance to the north of us ash galambi in the obvious example it's a large town a small city um which is probably received more rockets in any other location uh since the start of this war and um it's understood that there's about 70 000 uh people that live there that don't have um they don't have an actual shelter within their home either uh they they have a shared shelter in their building which young people might be able to run to but from my own experience i've seen from my neighbors that many elderly uh residents are not so easily able to get to a shared uh shelter inside a building so these 70 000 people either they have a shared shelter or some of them have no shelter at all and there's like concerted efforts at the moment um in the ash galambi municipality to try and find ways to get these people into hotels elsewhere in the country and that's very much the focus uh due to the the continuation of these rocket fire all right well thanks very much robert swift there at uh in sterot all right well let's uh get back to the hostage situation i'll just uh point out that the idf has said in the last few minutes that it's also killed the deputy head of hamas's intelligence director at shadi barud uh the idf accuses barud of planning the october 7 massacre along with the hamas leader yai yai asin why he has been killed according to the idf um shiri fangrosman um let's go back to uh the situation with the hostages then we just heard uh the families of people being held there um they're in an impossible situation um it is impossible to imagine what they're going through and you can see that they are beginning they say themselves they're running out of patience with the government they want information and they want their loved ones brought home it's an horrific situation on my way to the studio and i'll just share with the audience around the world that you go through the streets of tilaviv and there are signs everywhere of bringing back the people that kidnapped all our news feeds is filled with people either been killed or or being taken hostage um it's really really horrific and the government is in a in a very tough spot i think a lot of the criticism comes from lack of communication there's really have been kind of lack of um they need someone uh that actually you know hugs these people and and and and there for them to listen to them and uh unfortunately we don't have the enough sensitivity for that but i i think their main outcry should be and i agree with tani on this one two world leaders i've spoken before against you know pressuring kathar pressuring iran with sanctions with holding off business deals germany did this the hold off business deals with kathar it has an effect people watching us now uh contact your congressmen your governor your senator you know every parliament member you know in e every country you know put the pressure on them and there's a lot kathar yeah on kathar and iran if if people are you know there i mean iran is already under yeah it's having a sanction but whatever can be done should be done okay all right thank you sherry well uh here in israel um it is seen as a fight uh for the country but in mosco and beijing the war is viewed differently part of a wider contest with the united states our senior diplomatic editor owin altman looks at the russian and chinese positions on the war and the questions that they pose for israel what america is for they are against russia and china keeping on with their policy of taking sides with israel's opponents on wednesday russia coming to the united nation security council with a resolution on the war that got only china's vote and two others the russian resolution voted upon today sought to tie israel's hands preventing us from eliminating a threat to our existence would mosco or beijing be given a right to self-defense if faced with the same threat i believe so the positions at the un security council highlight just how much this war has become a great power struggle what started as a set of horrific local massacres kicked up the threat of a regional war and brought on russia and china who saw an opening to take aim at the united states here russian foreign minister sergi lavrov speaking from tehran the us is one of the leaders of those who are already intervening which is manifested in the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups the more such proactive measures are taken by any state the greater the risk and danger of conflict escalation for israel a key question going forward how to relate to russia and china israel has tried to boost economic ties with beijing going as far as it can without angering the united states and on russia israel is famously tiptoed around the war in ukraine with the familiar arguments about keeping freedom of action in the skies of syria and protecting the jewish community in russia itself now israel needs america's support and the support of the political center across the west while russia and china are explicitly siding with israel's opponents pushing israel evermore into washington's arms and we'll talk a bit more about the international aspect of this war a bit later in the program of course there is a special meeting at the un tonight that was called by jordan and moritania about what they call the crisis in gaza so we will talk about that a bit later but first let's talk about the economic impact on israel uh just yesterday the ratings agency standard and pause downgraded israel's credit outlook to negative and with hundreds of thousands of workers tied up in the reserves the economy is expected to take a hit with me in the studio dr efram hallamish is an nyu and qual institute fellow thank you for being with us it's good to be here i'm good to have you with us uh first of all let's start with the credit rating downgrade um how significant is that what kind of impact will it have sure so first we have to understand what happened here i mean clearly the rating agency looked at immediate results a short term a look on the crisis and clearly there is a reduction in economic activity and as you mentioned yourself we have many people as part of the economy participating in in the reserve forces so this is pretty much kind of the most important component which impact the downgrade that you refer to and frankly other credit agencies kind of follow the similar path the real story here is what's going to happen midterm and long term and i think s and p itself actually said explicitly that as long as it's contained as long as the crisis is just between gaza and the um in israel i think it's going to be pretty positive and midterm and long term obviously if it's going to become a region and conflict at that point i think the down downgrade going to be more significant and i think most importantly you ask about the impact on the economy israel started the crisis very strong financially we're talking about macroeconomics which is in a very good shape we have one of the lowest number in terms of debt to ratio debt to gdp ratio we have very strong foreign exchange reserves so all in all i think the israeli economy is pretty strong so even if down the road we have a significant downgrade israel and its ability to raise money in public market it's still quite strong all right well um israel is very much dependent on its shipping exports and imports um how have they been affected by the war sure this is a great question and and and i have to say that here the ports uh locally regionally and internationally uh played a very important role in keeping the economy going i think that the ports did a very good job securing the security both locally and internationally for the shipping industry i think the ports and the israeli government communicates all the time to the international business community and the shipping industry that they should feel comfortable uh uh keep keep the ships here and frankly again most players around us they don't have any interest in escalation in the sense that they're going to kind of stop the uh the ships from from coming it's going to have a regional you're talking about countries with which is what has relations like turkey for example exactly i i think that what we're going to see is is even uh if the risk premium going to go up and it's going to be a little bit more expensive to ship both the israeli government and the private sector will find ways to compensate for the increase in pricing a word if you wouldn't mind on the on the abraham accords and maybe sure you want to come in on this as well um because uh you know we we've had messaging from Saudi arabia and Bahrain that they want to continue with the abraham accords and we saw you know substantial economic uh investment particularly between israel and the ua e and we've now got you know um statements coming out from the ua e bahrain um and and uh also marocco saying israeli is imposing collective punishment on the passage you know at what point might this um war start to damage relations and even reverse uh relations between israel and the abraham accords country frankly uh law i don't see it happening from what i hear in the marketplace talking different executives and policymakers there is still sense of continuity they want to keep the momentum going they want to make sure that business ventures and good commercial ideas that started over the last two years will continue having said that i think we don't live in a bubble we know that if the crisis escalates significantly probably certain institutions within the world will decide to kind of wait and see and maybe suspend some projects but again frankly i haven't seen it happening uh yeah sure you you would like to weigh on that yeah there's a trend we're seeing ever since the formation of the of this uh current government that there's separation between economics and trade and politics politics political situation political ties have gone down dramatically uh being uh i'll say that it's like this possible you know being unhappy of the formation of this current government so they're trying to differentiate and and of course we don't know how severe the situation is going to end of course as if israel and this i wrote about this publicly as long as we show that we're aiming for the two-state solution it'd be much easier to keep the relationship uh going and strategically and on all ends but with the government being the formation it is it's it's very unlikely to see in the near future fortunately all right then interest of all these ebram court countries and all the suni governments the moderate suni governments for that matter have not changed quite the country actually they are now even more dependent on a strong israel to be able to secure their own governments because hamas is a mortal enemy and it's an existential threat to them and to the Saudis so of course they cannot out loud support us and and and cheer and and but underneath you know under the radar they are very much waiting for a decisive decisive results both in in gaza with hamas and also possibly with the khizballah in the north i just want to add one i think critical component which is the israeli economy is today really based on technology uh almost 20 percent actually 18 percent of the uh of the export economy is based on technology which means that whether it's remote work or more creative solutions when it comes to managing employees it really impacts not only israel but some of the arab countries that already starting buying some of these tech products and solutions and they understand that they understand that part of the crisis is is locally and as danny said said well really there are pretty much depend on the strong success of the process but at the same time many of the products and services that we're talking about you can actually manage them remotely and internationally even in terms of crisis also israeli military industry has gotten such a boost the defense industry the defense industry right uh i think these are two strong legs the uh the the tech industry and the military industry are going to really sustain the israeli economy for the for the when you look at the the markets then uh f prime because this is where you kind of get a sense of of of where things are headed i mean do you do you see any signs of a flight from israel do you do you see that people are questioning investments and that kind of thing so again as i said before because technology and as danie just said defense as well becoming such an important part of our economy and regional and international economies that so far the international community focuses on the more positive part of the market having said that there are some signals that certain international players are waiting to see because again the conflict unfortunately started only two or three weeks ago so they're waiting to see how the conflict evolves in order to make some significant commercial decisions i think it's also uh important to remember that israel is home for almost 500 multinationals uh managing big teams here in israel and for them not only that the crisis will impact negatively their decision making process but we heard quite a bit many international companies with operation in israel using it as an opportunity to justify what's really inspiring about the israeli economy and they already announced that they're going to invest more here both in terms of talent and financial resources so i think we have kind of a hybrid approach to the market okay that's just want to add to that historically all the wars that we previously in in the last 20 years of always we bounce back economically there's not a long-term damage it's only in the short term to tourism and sectors that are most affected but i i i i think it's right in saying i don't know correct me if i'm wrong um you know the the sheer number of israelis who have had to leave their homes they've had to flee towns and villages in the north and and obviously the the border communities in the south as well uh the government the defense ministry says it's already transferring you know 70 million shekels that that is quite unusual isn't it for for conflict in israel the people have had to leave their homes correct so as as we just heard there are some immediate economic consequences as a result of what you just described laura which means that you have to pay more on a daily basis you have to deal with extra housing costs and as we just heard it impacts transportation cost aviation tourism and other things but again at the end of the day the the fiscal status of the israeli economy the israeli government is pretty strong i think we're well prepared for that that may change down the road if again if the downgrade will be more more significant that the borrowing costs will be higher and i think another outcome has been the um really cementing of the relationship between israel and the united states that we've seen this week oh absolutely we see to an unprecedented levels that actually we work together in the war rooms you know to get i i think it's the same level of cooperation that uh church in the roosevelt had in the world war two you know with the british and the americans were together in the war room we see the same thing here so um i think that very much bodes well not only towards the results of how these crises will end but also for future relationship between israel and the united states will just continue and grow even further and we're seeing an influx of donations from uh the jury in in the united states and others and uh and also christians not christians yes absolutely uh going into to israel so to balance some of the some of the damage and and that's hugely supportive of us and i i wish they would you know continue yeah one of the most amazing things is is the way this country has really mobilized the whole country has really got together with initiatives volunteers or the rest of it laura there are two booms in the wake of a war economic boom and a baby boom uh yeah i'm sure we're going to see lots of babies as well all right thank you to you all we're going to take a short break our live coverage continues right after this a barrage of rockets fired at televieve lunchtime and uh this evening as well no casualties reported will keep you updated we'll be heading to the north of israel as well plus we'll be going to new york