 Thanks for watching I-24 News this morning for the latest live updates from Israel US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wakes up in Israel today on his fourth visit here since the Hamas War began in October he is today meeting with Israeli ministers and IDF generals and the message from his boss the president is very clear time to wrap the war up get out of Gaza the significant and meaningful way top IDF commanders have already this week had given English language interviews saying the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require fewer airstrikes and ground operations the focus of the fighting will move to South Gaza meanwhile the IDF just minutes ago sadly confirming four more IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza six other soldiers critically wounded Blinken last night said that other Arab nations are interested in normalizing ties with Israel but the war needs to end first and the needs to be Israel in concessions everywhere I went I found leaders who are determined to prevent the conflict that we're facing now from spreading doing everything possible to deter escalation to prevent a widening of the conflict I also found across the board that the countries we visit the leaders we spend time with are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions to advance all of these objectives to advance this vision for the region we're heading now to Israel where I'll have an opportunity to share with Israeli leaders everything I've heard thus far on this trip and also to talk to them about the future direction of their military campaign in Gaza I will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it we'll also of course focus on our relentless efforts to bring back the hostages Americans Israelis and others and we'll talk about how we see the future for the region and for Israel with growing US pressure for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and end major ground operations and IDF confirmation that the Israeli footprint in Gaza is being dramatically reduced the families of kidnapped families still held by Hamas terrorists are wondering what will come of their loved ones I went for news correspondent Pierre Klochendler is at the Gaza border for us this morning with some updates we are on the road to the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border between Israel and EG and the Gaza Strip near Kibbutz again here there are tens of representatives of families of hostages 136 hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad after almost 100 days in captivity near me is Avraham more the nephew of Avraham under a Yalmo my name my name I'm the nephew of Avraham under 79 years old who has been kidnapped for almost 100 days in the Gaza Strip so what are you requesting now we request that the humanitarian humanitarian aid will be delivered also to the Israeli hostages my uncle is 79 years old he's sick he doesn't get food he doesn't get medicine he doesn't get fresh air sometimes no light no electricity and we believe doesn't make sense that Israel is allowing the humanitarian aid to enter Gaza for the Gazians at the same time our our civilians our people that being has taken from their beds on Saturday say October 7th do not get this humanitarian supply the Kerem Shalom crossing is one of the crossing to deliver humanitarian aid to the non-involved Palestinian civilian population 175 trucks of humanitarian aid out of two hundred and two trucks were delivered yesterday and the demonstrators are want to block that crossing in order to say loud and clear no humanitarian aid for the hostages no humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population this is Pierre Kloschenler I 24 news on the way to the Kerem Shalom crossing with me now is retired IDF colonel dr. Jacques Nari a former head deputy head of assessment for Israeli military intelligence great to see you here with us in studio shock I want to ask first your analysis your thoughts on the fact obviously there's no ceremony there's no balloons when you go from phase one to phase two to phase three it's it's all kind of very fluid that being said the old the first proclamation and the first answers about the phase of the war comes in English to American newspapers not in Hebrew not to not to the country where the soldiers are actually fighting and dying what you make of that is that significant or is this being overblown I think it is overblown because I mean basically the message was sent to the Americans saying that we are the shifting from a high-intensity the conflict to a low the lower-intensity conflict they raise them themselves know it they've seen that the troops was drawn from from Gaza from the north and part of Gaza lots of reservists have returned home and lots of them have been directed for training or retraining so the situation is the factor we are in phase three everybody knows that in Israel we are in phase three we don't need a proclamation for that and it doesn't lead us to anything I mean so what if we say that we're in phase three that doesn't mean that the warrior has ended no it hasn't ended and according to our leaders on the chief of the army they say very clearly that to that this year 2024 will be a full year of war meaning that we'll continue conducting war activities in Gaza and maybe on a different scale on a different approach different the teaming I mean the army will know will withdraw will redeploy on the border with with the buffer zones most of more less about one kilometers deep and from there that will conduct operations targeting according to the very the very acute intelligence and by the same token spread and they're deploying on the border will allow the inhabitants of the localities to go back to the homes this is where we stand today we are not talking right now about the end of the war where this is not this is not on the table right now what do you think the announcement of a significant withdrawal from North Gaza the talk about winding down the intensity of the war is this connected and with blinking being here in Israel today is this in some way also connected do you think to the north the Hezbollah which needs some kind of answer to the to the war in Gaza before they proceed diplomatically well you know the equation is very clear but when you look at the history I mean very recent history when when we had a when we had a small ceasefire between us and Hamas the Hezbollah did not fire on the border so there's a link between what's happening in Gaza and what's happening on the in the Lebanese border and this is what the Americans are saying let us consider the reach a ceasefire in the south in the in this way Hezbollah will stop firing at the at the localities in the north and this will allow us to begin a process of a diplomatic process maybe to reach a deal with Lebanon not with Hezbollah but with the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the border and allowing the Israeli citizen to go back to their homes this is basically the idea and of course what would be what would the Hezbollah receive in return not only a ceasefire but also negotiations on the rectification of the border between Lebanon and and Israel 13 points of litigation between us and and Lebanon most of them it seemed that Israel would be ready to to to give back to to Lebanon if I mean if the the cartographs will say so and this will according to the Americans come down the the the fury of Hezbollah but when we hear the IDF say things like pull out and withdraw from parts of Gaza withdraw and pull out less intense winding down are those words music to Hamas's ears well the this is not definitely not the they look at that as proof of weakness this is what's happening I mean they have been interpreting Israel since a year and a half ago the beginning with the with the drones that were sent to the Karish gas field with the destruction of the cameras on the border with the incursions inside Israel with the rockets that were fired on Israel and Israel has not responded even for the tent there was a tent on the blue line and Israel did not respond everything and the and because of the internal she's she's inside Israel Hezbollah has has interpreted that that is so weak that it will not respond but also Hamas are they hearing the knowing that the IDF plans on dramatically changing their their strategy for the war for the year this means does Hamas think they're gonna ride this out they're gonna stay in power in parts of Gaza definitely so this this this means for Hamas that we are still in power we haven't we haven't been disintegrated we haven't been eradicated and our our policy or strategy to to send with Israel has been the correct one and Israel has not succeeded in destroying the whole the the whole apparatus and has not succeeded in eradicating eradicating the the military and the and the political power of of Hamas on the contrary Hamas seems to have have gotten more power now in the Arab world and in the international arena because of let's say South Africa who has raised the issue of of the Palestinians at the so-called genocide and and you know all those protests in the world and even now I mean before the president Biden I mean during his speech I mean the the protesters who just shouted free Palestine free Palestine and just stopped his speech so that this is a situation where he's well the Hamas understand that he is right now on on the winning side so why should why keep fighting I mean if israel's if the the goal is to eradicate Hamas to destroy Hamas and the Israel saying we're going to fight for the rest of the year is it a worthwhile fight if at the end is going to be you know with Hamas still in in control of much of Gaza there's going to be a buffer zone why keep fighting on the ground well this is this is a good question the the because the the the goal that was said by the government was to eradicate Hamas this was the goal that was sent to the army and was instructed to the army eradicate Hamas politically and militarily from from Gaza so as long as we don't accomplish that so we the mission has failed so if we stop right now then bear we have failed you know in in our quest to the to destroy Hamas and if this is so what are the consequences on Israel in the in the regional context I mean how how would this be interpreted by Hezbollah how would this would be interpreted our enemies and certainly our by by Iran so this is a very very important element so we have to to continue in order to prove that we are the ones who are dictating the the the cards here the goals of the US Secretary of State on his trip to Israel are quite clear reduce the Israeli presence in Gaza convince Israel to let displaced Palestinians return home advance hostage negotiation talks and calm these broader regional tensions let's go now to our correspondent Nicole Setic in Tel Aviv for more on how Blinken may accomplish some of those goals and who he will be meeting with today as he wakes up in Israel Nicole good morning good morning Jeff yes Blinken certainly has a packed visit while he's here in Tel Aviv not long in in these coming hours he's expected to meet with President Isaac Herzog later in the day also for Minister Isaac Katz also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with the war cabinet also it's important to know he'll likely be meeting also with the heads of the Mossad the Shin Bet and all to wrap it up the family members of the hostages so he really is meeting it seems with Israeli officials from every part of this ongoing war and this packed agenda comes as he has a lot of different goals that Blinken is hoping to accomplish on his visit here to Israel and really his entire tour here in the Middle East now some of his main goals while here in Israel meeting with many of these leaders it's talking about the next phase of the war shifting to this lower intensity realm of fighting in the Gaza Strip and with that also he's not only wants to see more humanitarian aid delivered to many of the displaced Palestinians and Gazans he also wants to see some of those displaced Palestinians return home to the north this as the IDF says that they've gained operational control over the northern part of the Gaza Strip but that could be a difficult deal for Israel to accept if it's not included in a hostage negotiation deal so that's likely what we could expect from some of his meetings coming today Nicole we've been talking a little bit in studio about what happened yesterday here with President Biden let's play that sound bite i'll get your reaction to it U.S. Secretary of State of course Anthony Blinken is here his boss the president heckled phased by what was happening during his speech in a church let's listen to the sound bite I understand their passion I'm quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza and using all that I can to do stand the passion Nicole Copa thinks her president Biden is in campaign mode he's campaigning for reelection this year he's being heckled on the Palestine issue and I'll note and get your reaction to this it seems like he was a little bit phased and he was speaking off the cuff no words about withdraw or reduce or less intense he said his goal is to get to convince Israel to get out of Gaza those were his words what do you make of all this coming on the fact that Blinken is here today listen you're absolutely right that this is a campaign year and U.S. President Joe Biden he is really been walking this fine line of supporting Israel talking about their right to defend itself we heard just yesterday actually Israeli president Isaac Herzog was on the phone with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris thanking her for their continued support for Israel's right to defend itself but Biden also walking that fine line of not necessarily calling for a ceasefire yet still pushing Israel and saying that they're pushing Israel to shift into this next stage to limit the the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and to get out as soon as possible so with this continued rhetoric he really is panning to both sides just as politicians and presidents do when it comes to an election year so talking about not only okay we're not necessarily calling for a ceasefire yet we are pushing Israel in his own words he's telling Israel to do everything they can to get out as soon as possible of the Gaza Strip and to wrap up these operations but also I want to note that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken just yesterday and some of his visits with some of these regional leaders did recognize that this war is going to take months possibly even the full year and so the United States does recognize that and for now they might be supporting Israel but still walking this fine line Nicole thanks for that update live for us in Tel Aviv with Anthony Blinken we'll begin this meeting soon here in studio Jockery thank you so much for being with us here in the studio a delegation of American students from some of the top schools in the country are in Israel this week learning more about the Hamas massacre of October 7th to bear witness to the atrocities so that these crimes are not forgotten or ignored by their peers back home our correspondent Emily Francis has more. I am alone or it's another and I really appreciate you coming and to the square and seeing everything that's going on delegation of professors and alumni from the University of Pennsylvania came to Israel to offer support for the families of the hostages music is a language that transcends space and time and on this day there was not a dry eye in hostage square this is the piano of Alon Ohel a 22 year old jazz and classical music pianist who remains a hostage in Gaza music is part of his life he plays all the time he's like he moves through music even when he walks he walks through music I am sure of it that he's like over there now sitting whatever he's doing is like doing this with his hands and playing in his head music I know this alone narrowly escaped the nova music festival and hid in a bomb shelter with 30 people before Hamas terrorists kidnapped alone and three others and killed 19 others it's really important for me for people to know that he is a person he is a life that he is he's wonderful and he's he's my son and I didn't want him to come back home but the thing is is that this won't happen if the world doesn't come and help us Israel and the fact is is that we need everybody to be with us a few weeks later people were knocking on our doors saying we cannot stay in America or in the UK or in Australia while our brothers and sisters are here suffering we cannot be silent and therefore we must come and show up to me the reactivation of trauma in my own personal experience was because I was in Hamas terror attack in 1994 on October the ninth of 1994 really and it took me 24 years to come back to Israel after that attack Michael Kahana is one of dozens of people on the University of Pennsylvania trip the psychology professor who happens to be a distant cousin of the Ohel family teaches psychology of human memory a subject that hits very close to home I was here for an academic visit and I went out to dinner and I met Hamas 29 years ago when Hamas terrorists shot automatic weapons and threw hand grenades at in the restaurant where I was and it wasn't until the massacre of October 7th that specific memories of his own trauma came to light 24 years after the trauma I came back to Israel and I couldn't remember what happened I went with my kids back to the restaurant and I couldn't remember details of what happened and on October the 9th 8th 9th 10th at night I started to remember and I heard the screams things I hadn't heard in my head in almost 25 years so that was the shock also shocking to the Jewish world and beyond is the vitriolic anti-semitism and violence against Jews at Ivy League universities those words were said not here on Amsterdam not on Broadway those words were said in Jerome green hall Columbia's law school building here I am experiencing hate hate is what people on our college campus feels towards us as we walk by simply because we are Jewish my Jewish sisters and brothers and I are on the receiving end of death threats from our peers undergraduates who have filed reports about these incidents have been left with no emotional support no feedback and no consequences for the perpetrators of these hateful actions and what's even more inhumane is the throngs of people tearing down posters of the Israeli hostages still in captivity in Gaza all over new york and the world people are ripping down posters of your son so make you angry yeah it's of course because he is a citizen he didn't do anything he went to an enola festival he he's a you know innocent bystander he didn't fight anybody he wasn't in war we weren't in war they came in and they took him you know think about it you know the United States somebody comes in and just takes anyone who wants to and you're fine with it I don't understand that I don't understand that how can you be fine with a person that is in your country you're supposed to be feel feel safe and somebody comes and rips you out of your country and takes you hostage this is not supposed to happen and everybody who's everywhere in the world and they're thinking that everything is fine well terrorism is going to come to you and they're going to do it to you and they're going to rip your sons and daughters you know posters and say well that's not my problem and you're and that's not okay that is not okay because my son is important and the University of Pennsylvania's President Liz McGill and Harvard's President Claudine Gay did nothing to stop the anti-semitic violence and calls for Jewish genocide and they didn't even back down during December's congressional hearing I am asking specifically calling for the genocide of Jews does that constitute bullying or harassment if it is directed and severe or pervasive it is harassment so the answer is yes it is a context dependent decision congresswoman it's a context dependent decision that's your testimony today calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context amounts to bullying harassment intimidation that is actionable conduct and we do take action so the answer is yes that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct correct again it depends on the context it does not depend on the context the answer is yes and this is why you should resign these are unacceptable answers across the board McGill and Gay have since resigned but the scars still run deep I think these are tensions and problems that are thousands of years old and this is a sad valley in that history and I hope that we can improve things but I think it's a constant fight that'll and that'll go on forever I hope it doesn't but that's what history tells us one way to begin to make a change is to bring people to Israel to experience the relics of the horrors of October 7th firsthand they need to see this they need to meet the families this is not an issue of politics October 7th is not about who you vote for or which position you have on political issues this is about evil this is about Hamas, ISIS, Al Qaeda, it's about cults of death that just want to kill and destroy even still Edith O'Hell has unwavering faith that music can heal the binds of hate and on January 14th a piano in a Lones honor will be placed in central Berlin and New York City inviting musicians to come play and bring on the spirit to bring a Lone home I use music language and everybody understand that and music is beautiful because my style is beautiful and using music to fight is a good way because everybody can understand that they can understand that my son loves life loves music thanks for watching i'm for news at this hour we'll be back soon with more live coverage on today's events stay with us and thanks for watching i'm for news famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the promised land 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true hundreds of african-american women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land we'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of african-americans news 24 israel bajo ataque news 24 en español trail analysis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra espadas de hierro entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra la reacción de los países hispano parlantes news 24 el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en hay 24 news 24 news this morning for the latest live updates from israel u.s secretary of state antony blinken wakes up in israel today on his fourth visit here since hama the hamas war began in october he is today meeting with israeli ministers and idf generals and the message from his boss the president is very clear time to wrap the war up get out of gaza the significant and meaningful way top idf commanders have already this week had given english language interviews saying the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require fewer air strikes and ground operations the focus of the fighting will move to south gaza meanwhile the idf just minutes ago sadly confirming four more idf soldiers have been killed in gaza six other soldiers critically wounded blinkin last night said that other arab nations are interested in normalizing ties with israel but the war needs to end first and there needs to be israeli concessions everywhere i went i found leaders who are determined to prevent the conflict that we're facing now from spreading doing everything possible to deter escalation to prevent a widening of the conflict i also found across the board that the countries we visit the leaders we spend time with are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions to advance all of these objectives to advance this vision to the region we're heading now to israel where i'll have an opportunity to share with israeli leaders everything i've heard thus far on this trip and also to talk to them about the future direction of their military campaign in gaza uh i will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it will also of course focus on our relentless efforts to bring back the hostages americans israelis and others and we'll talk about how we see the future for the region and for israel with growing us pressure for israel to withdraw from gaza and end major ground operations and idea of confirmation that the israeli footprint in gaza is being dramatically reduced the families of kidnapped families still held by hamas terrorists are wondering what will come of their loved ones by 24 news correspondent pierre clochendler is at the gaza border for us this morning with some updates we are on the road to the carom shalom crossing on the border between israel and e g and and the gaza strip near kibbutz again here there are tens of representatives of families of hostages 136 hostages held by hamas and palestinian islamic jihad after almost 100 days in captivity near me is avram more the nephew of avram under ayal more my name my name i'm the nephew of avram under 79 years old who's been kidnapped for almost 100 days in the gaza strip so what are you requesting now we request that the human nature humanitarian aid will be delivered also to the israeli hostages my uncle is 79 years old he's sick he doesn't get food he doesn't get medicine he doesn't get fresh air sometimes no light no electricity and we believe doesn't make sense that israel is allowing the humanitarian aid to enter gaza for the gazians at the same time our our civilians our people that been has taken from their beds on saturday october 7 do not get this humanitarian supply the carom shalom crossing is one of the crossing to deliver humanitarian aid to the non-involved palestinian civilian population 175 trucks of humanitarian aid out of 202 trucks were delivered yesterday and the demonstrators are want to block that crossing in order to sail out and clear no humanitarian aid for the hostages no humanitarian aid for the palestinian population this is pia kloschenler i-24 news on the way to the carom shalom crossing riffinella is retired idf colonel dr schock nary a former head deputy head of assessment for israeli military intelligence good to see you here with us in studio schock i want to ask first your analysis your thoughts on the fact obviously there's no ceremony there's no balloons when you go from phase one to phase two to phase three it's it's all kind of very fluid that being said the old the first proclamation and the first answers about the phase of the war comes in english to american newspapers not in hebrew not to not to the the the country where the soldiers are actually fighting and dying what do you make of that is that significant or is this being overblown i think that it is overblown because i mean basically the message was sent to the americans saying that we are the shifting from a high intensity the conflict to a lower the lower intensity conflict the israelis them themselves know it they've seen that their troops withdrawn from from gaza from the northern part of gaza lots of reservists have returned home and lots of them have been directed for training or retraining so the the the situation is de facto we are in phase three everybody knows that in israel we are in phase three we don't need proclamation for that and it doesn't lead us to anything i mean so what if we say that we're in phase three that doesn't mean that the warrior has ended no it hasn't ended and according to our leaders our chief of the army they say very clearly that to that this year 2024 will be a full year of war meaning that we'll continue conducting war activities in gaza maybe on a different scale on a different approach different the teaming i mean the the army will will withdraw will redeploy on the border with a with a buffer zone more so more less about the one kilometers deep and from there that will conduct operations targeting according to the very the very acute intelligence and by the same token spread and they're deploying on the border will allow the inhabitants of the localities to go back to the homes this is where we stand today we are not talking right now about the end of the war where this is not this is not on the table right now what is do you think the announcement of a significant withdrawal from north gaza the talk about winding down the intensity of the war is this connected and with blinkin being here in israel today is this in some way also connected do you think to the north the hezbollah which will need some kind of answer to the to the to the war in gaza before they proceed diplomatically well you know the equation is very clear but when you look at the history i mean the very recent history when the when we had when we had a small ceasefire between us and kamas the hezbollah did not fire on the border so there's a link between what's happening in gaza and what's happening on the in the lebanese border and this is what the americans are saying let us reach a ceasefire in the south in the in this way hezbollah will stop firing at the at the localities in the north and this will allow us to begin a process of a diplomatic process maybe to reach a deal with lebanon not with hezbollah but with the withdrawal of hezbollah from the border and allowing the israeli citizen to go back to their homes this is basically the idea and of course what would be what would the hezbollah receive in return not only a ceasefire but also negotiations on the rectification of the border between lebanon and and israel 13 points of litigation between us and and lebanon most of them it seemed that israel would be ready to to to give back to lebanon if i mean if the the cartographs will will say so and this will according to the americans calm down the the the fury of hezbollah but when we hear the idf say things like pull out and withdraw from parts of gaza withdraw and pull out less intense winding down are those words music to kamas's ears well this is not definitely not the they look at that as proof of weakness this is what's happening i mean they have been interrupting israel since a year and a half ago beginning with the with the drones that were sent to the karish gas field with the destruction of the cameras on the border with the incursions inside israel with the rockets that were fired on israel and israel has not responded even for the tent there was a tent on the blue line and israel did not respond everything and the and because of the internal she's she's inside israel hezbollah has has interpreted that there is so weak that it will not respond but also kamas are they hearing knowing that the idea of plans on dramatically changing their their strategy for the war for the year this means those kamas think they're going to ride this out they're going to stay in power in parts of gaza definitely so this this this means for kamas that we are still in power we haven't we haven't been disintegrated we haven't been eradicated and our our policy or strategy to to send with israel has been the correct one and israel has not succeeded in destroying the whole the the whole apparatus and has not succeeded in eradicating eradicating the the military and the and the political power of of kamas on the contrary kamas seems to have have gotten more power now they in the arab world and in the international arena because of let's say south africa who has raised the issue of of the parisians at the so-called genocide and uh and you know all those protests in the world and even now i mean before the president biden i mean during his speech i mean the the protesters who just shouted free paris and free paris and i just stopped his speech so this is a situation where he's well the kamas understand that he is right now on on the winning side so why should why keep fighting i mean if israel's if the the goal is to eradicate kamas to destroy kamas and the israel saying we're going to fight for the rest of the year is it a worthwhile fight if at the end is going to be us you know with kamas still in in control of much of gaza there's going to be a buffer zone why keep fighting on the ground well this is this is a good question the the because the the goal that was said by the government was to eradicate kamas this was the goal that was sent to the army and was instructed to the army eradicate kamas politically and militarily from from gaza so as long as we don't accomplish that so we the mission has failed so if we stop right now then we have failed you know in in our quest to the to destroy kamas and if this is so what are the consequences on israel in the in the regional context i mean how how would this be interpreted by khizballah how would this would be interpreted our enemies and certainly our by by iran so this is a very very important element so we have to to continue in order to prove that we are the ones who are dictating the the the cards here the goals of the u.s secretary of state on his trip to israel are quite clear reduce the israeli presence in gaza convince israel to let displaced palestinians return home advance hostage negotiation talks and calm these broader regional tensions let's go now to our correspondent nicole scenic in televieve for more on how blinkin may accomplish some of those goals and who he will be meeting with today as he wakes up in israel nicole good morning good morning jeff yes blinkin certainly has a packed visit while he's here in televieve not long in in these coming hours he's expected to meet with president isaac herzog later in the day also for minister isaac katz also prime minister benjamin netanyahu along with the war cabinet also it's important to know he'll likely be meeting also with the heads of the massad the shin bet and all to wrap it up the family members of the hostages so he really is meeting it seems with israeli officials from every part of this ongoing war and this packed agenda comes as he has a lot of different goals that blinkin is hoping to accomplish on his visit here to israel and really his entire tour here in the middle east now some of his main goals while here in israel meeting with many of these leaders it's talking about the next phase of the war shifting to this lower intensity realm of fighting in the gaza strip and with that also he's not only wants to see more humanitarian aid delivered to many of the displaced palestinians and gossians he also wants to see some of those displaced palestinians return home to the north this as the idf says that they've gained operational control over the northern part of the gaza strip but that could be a difficult deal for israel to accept if it's not included in a hostage negotiation deal so that's likely what we could expect from some of his meetings coming today nicole we've been talking a little bit in studio about what happened yesterday here with president biden let's play that sound bite i'll get your reaction to it u.s secretary of state of course and to the blinkin is here his boss the president heckled phased by what was happening during his speech in a church let's listen to the sound bite i understand their passion and i've been quietly working i've been quietly working with the israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of gaza and using all that i can do i understand the passion nicole couple things are president biden is in campaign mode he's campaigning for reelection this year he's being heckled on the palestine issue and i'll note and get your reaction to this it seems like he was a little bit phased and he was speaking off the cuff no words about withdraw or reduce or less intense he said his goal is to get to convince israel to get out of gaza those are his words what do you make of all this coming on the fact that blinkin is here today listen you're absolutely right that this is a campaign year and u.s president joe biden he has really been walking this fine line of supporting israel talking about their right to defend itself we heard just yesterday actually israeli president isaac hurtzog was on the phone with us vice president kamala harris thanking her for their continued support for israel's right to defend itself but biden also walking that fine line of not necessarily calling for a ceasefire yet still pushing israel and saying that they're pushing israel to shift into this next stage to limit the the number of civilian casualties in the gaza strip and to get out as soon as possible so with this continued rhetoric he really is panning to both sides just as politicians and presidents do when it comes to an election year so talking about not only okay we're not necessarily calling for a ceasefire yet we are pushing israel and as a note in his own words he's telling israel to do everything they can to get out as soon as possible of the gaza strip and to wrap up these operations but also i want to note that u.s secretary of state antony blinkin just yesterday and some of his visits with some of these regional leaders did recognize that this war is going to take months possibly even the full year and so the united states does recognize that and for now they might be supporting israel but still walking this fine line we call thanks for that update live first and tell evie if we had to be blinking we'll begin this meeting soon here in studio jockeery thank you so much for being with us here in the studio a delegation of american students from some of the top schools in the country are in israel this learning more about the hamas massacre of october 7th to bear witness to the atrocities so that these crimes are not forgotten or ignored by their peers back home our correspondent emily francis has more i am alone or as mother and i really appreciate you coming and then to the square and seeing everything that's going on delegation of professors and alumni from the university of pennsylvania came to israel to offer support for the families of the hostages music is a language that transcends space and time and on this day there was not a dry eye in hostage square this is the piano of alone ohel a 22-year-old jazz and classical music pianist who remains a hostage in gaza music is part of his life he plays all the time he's like he moves through music even when he walks he walks through music i am sure that that he's like over there now sitting whatever he's doing is like doing this with his hands and and playing in his head music i know this alone narrowly escaped the nova music festival and hid in a bomb shelter with 30 people before hamas terrorists kidnapped alone and three others and killed 19 others it's really important for me for people to know that he is a person that he is a life that he is he's he's wonderful and he's he's my son and i want him to come back home but the thing is is that this won't happen if the world doesn't come and help us israel and the fact is is that we need everybody to be with us a few weeks later people were knocking on our doors saying we cannot stay in america or in the uk or in australia while our brothers and sisters are here suffering we cannot be silent and therefore we must come and show up to me the reactivation of trauma in my own personal experience was because i was in hamas terror attack in 1994 on october the ninth of 1994 really and it took me 24 years to come back to israel after that attack michael kahana is one of dozens of people on the university of pennsylvania trip the psychology professor who happens to be a distant cousin of the ohel family teaches psychology of human memory a subject that hits very close to home i was here for an academic visit and i went out to dinner and i met kamas 29 years ago when uh kamas terrorists shot automatic weapons and threw hand grenades at in the restaurant where i was and it wasn't until the massacre of october 7th that specific memories of his own trauma came to light 24 years after the trauma i came back to israel and i couldn't remember what happened i went with my kids back to the restaurant and i couldn't remember details of what happened and on october the ninth eighth ninth tenth at night i started to remember and i heard the screams things i hadn't heard in my head in almost 25 years so that was the shock to me also shocking to the jewish world and beyond is the vitriolic anti-semitism and violence against jews at ivy league universities the jews those words were said not here on amsterdam not on broadway those words were said in jerome green hall columbia's law school building here i am experiencing hate hate is what people on our college campus feels towards us as we walk by simply because we are jewish my jewish sisters and brothers and i are on the receiving end of death threats from our peers undergraduates who have filed reports about these incidents have been left with no emotional support no feedback and no consequences for the perpetrators of these hateful actions and what's even more in humane is the throngs of people tearing down posters of the israeli hostages still in captivity in gaza all over new york and the world people are ripping down posters of your son so make you angry yeah it's of course because he is a citizen he didn't do anything he went to an enola festival he he's a you know innocent bystander he didn't fight anybody he wasn't in war we weren't in war they came in and they took him you know think about it you know your united states somebody comes in and just takes anyone who wants to and you're fine with it i don't understand that i don't understand that how can you be fine with a person that is in your country you're supposed to be feel feel safe and somebody comes and rips you out of your country and takes your hostage this is not supposed to happen and everybody who's everywhere in the world and they're thinking that everything is fine well cherrison is going to come to you and they're going to do it to you and they're going to rip your sons and daughters you know posters and say well that's not my problem and you're and that's not okay that is not okay because my son is important sorry sorry sorry sorry and the university of pennsylvania's president liz mcgill and harvard's president claudine gay did nothing to stop the anti-semitic violence and calls for jewish genocide and they didn't even back down during december's congressional hearing i am asking specifically calling for the genocide of jews does that constitute bullying or harassment if it is directed and severe or pervasive it is harassment so the answer is yes it is a context dependent decision congresswoman it's a context dependent decision that's your testimony today calling for the genocide of jews is depending upon the context amounts to bullying harassment intimidation that is actionable conduct and we do take action so the answer is yes that calling for the genocide of jews violates harvard code of conduct correct again it depends on the context it does not depend on the context the answer is yes and this is why you should resign these are unacceptable answers across the board mcgill and gay have since resigned but the scars still run deep i think these are tensions and problems that are thousands of years old and this is a sad valley in that history and i hope that we can improve things but i think it's a constant fight that'll and that'll go on forever i hope it doesn't but that's what history tells us one way to begin to make a change is to bring people to israel to experience the relics of the horrors of october 7th firsthand they need to see this they need to meet the families this is not an issue of politics october 7th is not about who you vote for or which position you have on political issues this is about evil this is about camas isis al qaeda it's about cults of death that just want to kill and destroy even still edith ohel has unwavering faith that music can heal the binds of hate and on january 14th a piano in alone's honor will be placed in central berlin and new york city inviting musicians to come play and bring on the spirit to bring alone home i use music because music is an international language and everybody understands that and music is beautiful because my study is beautiful and using music to fight is a good way because everybody can understand that they can understand that my son loves life loves music thanks for watching i24news at this hour we'll be back soon with more live coverage on today's event stay with us and thanks for watching i24news in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well i24news this morning for the latest live updates from israel us secretary of state antony blinkin is just about to begin a busy day of meetings in israel he's about to meet with israeli ministers idf generals and more the message from his boss the president is very clear israel needs to get out of gaza in a significant and meaningful way top idf commanders have already this weekend given english language interviews saying that the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require fewer airstrikes and ground operations the focus of the fighting will shift to south gaza meanwhile the idf today confirming four more soldiers were killed overnight fighting in gaza six other soldiers critically wounded blinkin last night said that other arab nations are interested in normalizing ties with israel but the war needs to end first and there needs to be israeli concessions everywhere i went i found leaders who were determined to prevent the conflict that we're facing now from spreading doing everything possible to deter escalation to prevent a widening of the conflict i also found across the board that the countries we visit the leaders we spend time with are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions to advance all of these objectives to advance this vision for the region we're heading now to israel where i'll have an opportunity to share with israeli leaders everything i've heard thus far on this trip and also to talk to them about the future direction of their military campaign in gaza i will press on the absolute imperative to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it will also of course focus on our relentless efforts to bring back the hostages americans israelis and others and we'll talk about how we see the future for the region and for israel with us now as i plan for news correspondent nicole said i can tell evive with a specific update on blinkin's itinerary for the day nicole that's right he's about to kick off that busy itinerary right here this morning in televieve with an expected meeting with israeli president isaac hurtzog now that's how us secretary of state antony blinkin is beginning his day but throughout that afterwards he's going to meet with foreign minister israel cats later on prime minister benjamin ben yahoo is along with israel's war cabinet also the heads of the massad the shinbat and of course also some members of the family members of hostages who are still held captive in gaza so quite a busy itinerary and that's because blinkin has quite a lot he's hoping to accomplish on this trip one of the most important ones coming from the united states is just for israel to shift its war efforts to an imminent reduction in the fighting and an imminent to slow down in some of the fighting and the casualties that we're seeing now israel says that's exactly what they're doing after wrapping up and gaining operational control over the northern part of the gaza strip and moving much of that fighting to the central and southern part of the strip because of that something else we're expecting from today is a big push from blinkin to move some of those displaced godsans who have been in the south back home to the north now this could be a tough pill for israel to swallow and something that we're not sure if they're going to accept but it's not completely off the table and some reports are stating that israel might accept some of these demands if it's all involved in a hostage negotiation deal that's also a big item on blinkin's agenda discussing the ongoing hostage dilemma and this as he's also already met throughout his middle eastern tour he's been to saudi arabia he's been to qatar he's not only talking about the regional aspects of this war another goal is to aim at limiting any regional escalation but also meeting with some of these outside international leaders to talk about any hostage negotiations qatar has been a huge mediator in these deals and we know blinkin has met with them he's going to be meeting with them of these hostages family so that's really one of the main goals as long with just looking at the day after the ongoing war and how godsans will adjust to the to the day after nicole thank you so much for that update american support for israel is going to be a major campaign issue this year in the u.s. president biden already in reelection mode yesterday he was heckled and interrupted during the speech in a church biden says he's working behind the scenes to get israel to end the war i understand their passion and be quietly working with the israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of gossip and using all i can understand the passion of course one of the big reasons that the secretary of state is here on this fourth trip to israel's to try and calm the broader regional tensions as well as the northern front heats up in a wider war with hezbollah perhaps looms in the days ahead with us in the studio is our middle east correspondent aerial also an aerial the idf though there are reports of new attacks deeper into south lebanon than in previous days in south lebanon tell us what happened what happened this morning reportedly well the understanding is that following the elimination of uh yesterday that we saw him uh chasant a wheel considered to be a if not the commander of the special red one forces than the commander in effect um idf continuing operations their strikes across southern lebanon but this morning we're getting new information regarding the elimination of to which israel has not officially confirmed or acknowledged that it was behind but israel cuts israel's foreign minister did confirm it yesterday in in a panel in an interview with israeli television basically the wheel uh was considered one of the leading here we're seeing him on the screen now the lead one of the leading field officers that hezbollah has raised over the years and has climbed the ranks so he was killed in an explosion in his car a few hundred meters after leaving his home in khirbet silim in southern lebanon now there's conflicting reports in lebanon whether he was eliminated by a drone or by a roadside bomb uh that investigation continues but in terms of the implications or perhaps the effect of this on the ground for his bala this is a significant blow because um hajwad as he was called uh in in his bala he was he had his hands in almost every strategic operation his bala carried out over more than two decades whether it's the kidnapping of three soldiers in 2000 or the kidnapping of uh two soldiers in 2006 which launched the second lebanon war everything he was in charge of both those operations his home was believed to be a uh a hub for whenever uh attack against israel was expected to be carried out they left from his home and so the elimination of such a prominent commander is considered a blow to his bala and this comes as over the past two three weeks israel has indeed been escalating its attacks against his bala is nisrallah reacting to this elimination specifically valuing some kind of specific revenge or specific vengeance for this death is there anything or this is now the latest in a series of targeted assassinations linked to israel uh what kind of what's the reaction the response been from hezbollah's commanders and is there more to come yeah nothing um officials of course not from nisrallah because this is another blow following a week of significant blows to the organization first there was the elimination of sarah khilrouri the hamas deputy in beirut the heart of the capital his bala's underbelly in the dahi a quarter there in beirut and also another one of its field commanders in nakuha on the western part of the border to all of these his bala says officially and unofficially that they will respond that they will retaliate um but at the end of the day they are aware that they're in a bind because if we look at what nisrallah is saying very escalatory rhetoric uh moments away from the biggest war we've ever seen but on the ground the the dynamic remains cross-border fire nothing substantial since these attacks i mean there was the 40 rockets launched to a strategic air force base uh up in the north that hajj awad that was eliminated was believed to be behind uh carrying that attack out as well and so this does affect his bala's positioning on the ground but it doesn't seem like it's a step that will make them break the rules or change all the pieces at least not in the immediate future according to their steps on the ground let's bring into the conversation idf reserves major elia todof for his analysis here i want to ask about perhaps how linked is the gaza theater with the the northern front especially in terms of the u.s interest does uh blinkin does biden perhaps believe that if there are we they use words like withdraw or pull out or ceasefire in gaza will that calm tensions similarly on the northern front are they linked in a meaningful way well they're linked in the sense that his bala can't stand by and do nothing as the idf crushes kamas in gaza so i imagine and it's hard to tell because there are so many other moving parts in this but i imagine that if for whatever wrong reason uh the idf stopped its operations in gaza it would probably bring quiet to the northern border as well at least for the interim i think we we need to keep in mind that what's happening on the northern border is part of the grand iran strategy as well and as iran approaches its nuclear weapons capability we're going to see a hotter border in the north regardless having nothing to do with us sir i want to note of course the sad news this morning four more soldiers killed overnight in a deadly day of combat yesterday six other soldiers critically wounded the war now in its fourth month uh at this point why keep fighting why keep idf ground forces deep inside gaza at this point because the mission hasn't been accomplished yet the the mission is not to weaken kamas the the mission is to crush it now you can use whatever term you want to feed it dismantle it but destroy its its capability to the point that it cannot come back as it is as an organization and that hasn't been accomplished that's that still uh needs to be done in the primarily in the khanunas area also in the rafiq area uh and it even though it's been stated that the idf controls the ground in in what's called northern gaza or the gaza city area uh that doesn't mean the fighting there is over it's simply shifted from something of a slightly more military kind of an operation against kamas brigades and battalions to a more guerrilla style warfare where the idf has now become static in holding the ground and that means it's also going to become more vulnerable to attacks by individual or small groups because of kamas uh coming out of the ground out of out of the tunnel shaft and and and out of buildings i'll ask a blunt question here uh in your estimation can kamas be crushed defeated there's so much pressure now and to allow tens of thousands hundreds of thousands your palestinians to return to the north clearly there will be kamas uh militants and terrorists among those who would be allowed to go back north kamas still in control of south gaza they're intercepting humanitarian deliveries they're still in control of parts of the strip can kamas really truly be crushed still or do the goals have to change here of the war the short answer is yes it can be crushed uh there's still a command center uh sinwar def and and their their collaborators um are still operating and that means that there's a centralized organization it's still in political control and that means that there is a physical target that still has not been reached and i think for good reason it's it's well buried well covered and we're operating slowly and methodically in order to to minimize a our casualties and be uh non-combatant casualties as much as we can but it can certainly be destroyed does that mean that every last kamas member will be killed or captured the answer is no but the the structure the organization the centralized control and planning can certainly be eliminated i'll note here uh that u.s. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is now arrived at the televive hotel where he is going to beginning his whirlwind uh back to back day of meetings with israeli officials there is growing us pressure for israel to withdraw from gaza in a bigger way uh and reduce its footprint but the families of kidnapped uh the families of the kidnapped israeli still held by kamas wondering now what will come of their loved ones will they be freed will there be another negotiation i-25 news correspondent pia klochenler joins us this morning near the gaza border for an update pia yeah we are at the four minutes drive away from the kerem shalom crossing where the tens of relatives of the family of of the 136 hostages held by palestine islamic and by hamas for the past 90 days almost 100 days are held in captivity in hamas and pij jails and uh you can see they've been blocked on the way uh the police has declared the area a closed military area and they might intend to bypass that roadblock and try to go buy food to the kerem shalom crossing where humanitarian aid is delivered to the non-involved palestine population but uh we spoke earlier to the father of one of the hostages that was abducted at the nova rave party omer venkert and this is what he told us we're trying to go to the the kerem shalom terminal over there there are trucks of the humanitarian that's passed by and now there is a closed area this is a military closed area no one supposed to go inside and now we're trying to figure out how how can we go to to stop the trucks because humanitarian is for both sides it can't be one side only and so now now we stopped us the military and the police and we are trying to figure out how we are going to to go on you see here the the picture of omer venkert one of the hostages that uh his father you just heard now the thing is in kerem shalom 115 humanitarian aid trucks crossed yesterday out of 202 humanitarian aid trucks their demand the families of the hostages that there will be no humanitarian aid to the palestinian civilian population unless the hostages also receive humanitarian aid there's been a report published by the organization for the liberation of the families of the hostages and the the report was dire they spoke of very difficult conditions of the hostages some of them are elderly they suffer from chronic diseases they don't have the proper medicine they live in obscurity in darkness they do not receive the appropriate food or drinks nobody not the international committee of the red cross not the world health organization not u.n organizations have visited the hostages for the past 95 days and then and therefore the families believe that it's a matter of time before these hostages will be who are held in captivity will die in captivity yeah thank you for the update today as the protest continues and they desperately try to get updates and free their loved ones from hamas captivity appreciate your update today and also with us in studio and major elia shut off thank you so much for being with us on the program as well and thousands of israeli families who have been evacuated from their homes still living in hotels going on four months now it's unclear when exactly they'll be able to go back home and get back to routine here's a look at how young families are coping with the situation in their cramped living quarters so much space yeah come on have a seat where the living room guest room living room now you're in the hallway between the room and is this the hall yeah okay okay where are we now that's the bedroom this is kind of a playroom this is the playroom three square feet and here we're already in the living room yeah that's the living room you know so how are you guys generally speaking fine and not generally speaking not generally we can't stay home the decision to evacuate us was all right but we have no clue what's going to happen when if when we get to go home we're in the laundry area it happens to be pretty vacant because of the time usually it's crowded with long waits if you really want to get it done you might wait for five hours get out believe me five hours to get some laundry done i never thought i would have to sit and watch my clothes tumbling in the washing machine so we are here to do laundry yeah thanks for helping out of course i'll iron fold it later too five-star captivity we have everything and we have nothing we're together supporting each other helping each other out raising each other up but we aren't at work we aren't at home not at our businesses we don't know what's happening in our homes we are we are displaced people i've made a nice pantry here instead of clothes there's all kinds of food milk and stuff what's the hardest part about living like this that it isn't a normal life a sane life there's no waking up leaving for work dropping off at school coming home making lunch so what is there what's a day like you wake up wake up go down to breakfast it's all stiff how don't you go crazy you do go crazy there is not so much to do there's no realistic solutions all our alternatives would be out of our pocket our spare time how much can you take you can't say one day two three days a month three months we've been here with no return home in sight tell me how are you inside not easy there are moments of crisis what's a moment like that i have two grown boys that were on the verge of starting a business we kept saying we'll open after the jewish holidays we didn't say which holidays they kept paying the bills but with no income how do you make it work for three months financially you can cut down on a lot of things a lot like what what do you give up i give up on myself i don't buy for myself i make sure my kids aren't in need we aren't making it work i personally know people who have taken on loans now during the war now during the war borrowed money and some people aren't able to take a loan they can't make it how bad does it get in the day today it gets bad we're in jerusalem it's cold here we need winter clothes especially the kids we look for donations adults babies kids some people can't afford winter clothes some people can't afford to buy coats we got a donation of new coats for adults they can't afford it your donation came in so you know people come searching see what we can take you left home with no clothes nothing yes just clothes for maybe a few days you see anything you can people the unity of the public it's strengthening we see how much people are giving this is all new even myself i'm wearing you socks look three to four months ago you had such polarization in the people now look they're giving it to you without asking just take it it's important to remember once this is all over to keep that spirit to keep it not to go back to fighting let it be so red alert sorry where our area in the north that's live that's in shlomi right now why don't you turn the sound off anxiety i have to know what's going on i have a brother serving on the lebanon border and another brother in gaza on the one side you don't want to hear about these things on the other hand you have to know we aren't detached we're living through a war how long can you do this for what drives us is when we will be sure that we are returning to a safe home we'll live by the mountain we can see them we can wave at nasralla we will not go back to this kind of thing is there anyone saying we won't go back to shlomi back home many many if not all what do they say that until something huge changes some will never return they have no trust they're done giving up their home they've given it up what do you miss most privacy i work in education i never thought that the kids the students would see me in pajamas see me getting mad at my kids arguing with my husband complaining thanks for watching i try for news at this hour we'll be back shortly with more live coverage from the field as antony blinkin's visit continues stay with us we'll see you soon martin luther king's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the promised land well now 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true hundreds of african-american women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land we'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of african-americans this morning for the latest law u.s secretary of state antony blinkin is just about to begin a busy he's about to meet with israeli ministers idf generals and more the message from his boss the president is very clear israel needs to get out of gaza in a significant and meaningful way top idf commanders have already this weekend given english language interviews saying that the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require fewer airstrikes and ground operations the focus of the fighting will shift to south gaza meanwhile the idf today confirming four more soldiers were killed overnight fighting in gaza six other soldiers critically wounded blinkin last night said that other arab nations are interested in normalizing ties with israel the war needs to end first and there needs to be israeli concessions everywhere i went i found leaders who were determined to prevent the conflict that we're facing now from spreading doing everything possible to deter escalation to prevent a widening of the conflict i also found across the board that the countries we visit the leaders we spend time with are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions to advance all of these objectives to advance this vision to the region we're heading now to israel where i'll have an opportunity to share with israeli leaders everything i've heard thus far on this trip and also to talk to them about the future direction of their military campaign in gaza uh i will press on the absolute imperative to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it we'll also of course focus on our relentless efforts to bring back the hostages americans israelis and others and we'll talk about how we see the future for the region and for israel with us now as i went for news correspondent nicole said i can tell aviv with a specific update on blinkin's itinerary for the day nicole that's right he's about to kick off that busy itinerary right here this morning in tell aviv with an expected meeting with israeli president isaac herzog now that's how us secretary of state antony blinkin is beginning his day but throughout that afterwards he's going to meet with four minister israel cats later on prime minister benjamin ben yahoo as long with israel's war cabinet also the heads of the massad the shin bet and of course also some members of the family members of hostages who are still held captive in gaza so quite a busy itinerary and that's because blinkin has quite a lot he's hoping to accomplish on this trip one of the most important ones coming from the united states is just for israel to shift its war efforts to an imminent uh reduction in the fighting and an imminent to slow down in some of the the fighting and the casualties that we're seeing now israel says that's exactly what they're doing after wrapping up and gaining operational control over the northern part of the gaza strip and moving much of that fighting to the central and southern part of the strip because of that something else we're expecting from today is a big push from blinkin to move some of those displaced god's ins who have been in the south back home to the north now this could be a tough pill for israel to swallow and something that we're not sure if they're going to accept but it's not completely off the table and some reports are stating that israel might accept some of these demands if it's all involved in a hostage negotiation deal that's also a big item on blinkin's agenda discussing the ongoing hostage dilemma and this as he's also already met throughout his middle eastern tour he's been to saudi arabia he's been to qatar he's not only talking about the regional aspects of this war another goal is to aim at limiting any regional escalation but also meeting with some of these other outside international leaders to talk about any hostage negotiations qatar has been a huge mediator in these deals and we know blinkin has met with them he's going to be meeting with some of these hostages family so that's really one of the main goals as long with just looking at the day after the ongoing war and how god's ins will adjust to the to the day after nicole thank you so much for that update american support for israel is going to be a major campaign issue this year in the u.s. president biden already in reelection mode yesterday he was heckled and interrupted during a speech in a church biden says he's working behind the scenes to get israel to end the war i understand their passion and be quietly working with the israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of gossip using all i can understand the passion of course one of the big reasons that the secretary of state is here on this fourth trip to israel is to try and calm the broader regional tensions as well as the northern front heats up in a wider war with hezbollah perhaps looms in the days ahead with us in the studio is our middle east correspondent aerial also aerial the idf though there are reports of new attacks deeper into south lebanon than in previous days in south lebanon tell us what had what happened this morning reportedly well the understanding is that following the elimination of yesterday that we saw a chasant a wheel considered to be a if not the commander of the special road one forces than the commander in effect the idf continuing operations their strikes across southern lebanon but this morning we're getting new information regarding the elimination of tawil which israel has not officially confirmed or acknowledged that it was behind but israel cuts israel's foreign minister did confirm it yesterday in a panel in an interview with israeli television basically tawil was considered one of the leading here we're seeing him on the screen now the lead one of the leading field officers that hezbollah has raised over the years and has climbed the ranks so he was killed in an explosion in his car a few hundred meters after leaving his home in hezbollah in southern lebanon now there's conflicting reports in lebanon whether he was eliminated by a drone or by a roadside bomb that investigation continues but in terms of the the the implications or perhaps the effect of this on the ground for hezbollah this is a significant blow because hajwad as he was called in in hezbollah he was he had his hands in almost every strategic operation hezbollah carried out over more than two decades whether it's the kidnapping of three soldiers in 2000 or the kidnapping of two soldiers in 2006 which launched the second lebanon war everything he was in charge of both those operations his home was believed to be a hub for whenever attack against israel was expected to be carried out they left from his home and so the elimination of such a prominent commander is considered a blow to hezbollah and this comes as over the past two three weeks israel has indeed been escalating its attacks against hezbollah is this rather reacting to this elimination specifically valuing some kind of specific revenge or specific vengeance for this death is there anything or this is now the latest in a series of targeted assassinations linked to israel uh what kind of what's the reaction the response been from hezbollah's uh commanders and is there more to come yeah nothing um officials of course not from nasrallah because this is another blow following a week of significant blows to the organization first there was the elimination of sarah khilruri the hamas deputy in beirut the heart of the capital hezbollah's underbelly in the dahia quarter there in beirut and also another one of its field commanders in nakura on the western part of the border to all of these hezbollah says officially and unofficially that they will respond that they will retaliate um but at the end of the day they are aware that they're in a bind because if we look at what nasrallah is saying very escalatory rhetoric uh moments away from the biggest war we've ever seen but on the ground the the the dynamic remains cross-border fire nothing substantial since these attacks i mean there was the 40 rockets launched to a strategic air force base uh up in the north that had jihad that was eliminated was believed to be behind uh carrying that attack out as well and so this does affect hezbollah's positioning on the ground but it doesn't seem like it's a step that will make them break the rules or change all the pieces at least not in the immediate future according to their steps on the ground let's bring me to the conversation idf reserves major elliot trodolph uh for his analysis here i want to ask about perhaps how linked is the gaza theater with the uh the northern front especially in terms of the us interest does uh blink in does biden perhaps believe that if there are we they use words like withdraw or pull out or ceasefire in gaza will that calm tensions similarly on the northern front are they linked in a meaningful way well they're linked in the sense that hezbollah can't stand by and do nothing as the idf crushes kamas in gaza so i imagine and it's hard to tell because there are so many other moving parts in this but i imagine that if for whatever wrong reason uh the idf stopped its operations in gaza it would probably bring quiet to the northern border as well at least for the interim i think we need to keep in mind that what's happening on the northern border is part of the grand iran strategy as well uh and as iran approaches its nuclear weapons capability we're going to see a hotter border in the north regardless having nothing to do with us sir i want to note of course the sad news this morning four more soldiers killed overnight in a deadly day of combat yesterday six other soldiers critically wounded the war now in its fourth month at this point why keep fighting why keep idf ground forces deep inside gaza at this point because the mission hasn't been accomplished yet the the mission is not to weaken kamas the mission is to crush it now you can use whatever term you want to feed it dismantle it but destroy its its capability to the point that it cannot come back as it is as an organization and that hasn't been accomplished that's that still uh needs to be done in the primarily in the hanyunas area also in the rafiak area and it even though it's been stated that the idf controls the ground in what's called northern gaza or the gaza city area uh that doesn't mean the fighting there is over it's simply shifted from something of a slightly more military kind of an operation against kamas brigades and battalions to a more guerrilla style warfare uh where the idf has now become static in holding the ground and that means it's also going to become more vulnerable to attacks by individual or small groups because of kamas uh coming out of the ground out of the tunnel shaft and and and out of buildings i'll ask a blunt question here uh in your estimation can kamas be crushed defeated there's so much pressure now and to allow tens of thousands hundreds of thousands you have palestinians to return to the north clearly there will be kamas militants and terrorists among those who would be allowed to go back north kamas still in control of south gaza they're inter they're intercepting humanitarian deliveries they're still in control of parts of the strip can kamas really truly be uh crushed still or do the goals have to change here of the war the short answer is yes it can be crushed uh there's still command center uh sinwar def and and and their their collaborators um are still operating and that means that there's a centralized organization it's still in political control and that means that there is a physical target that still has not been reached um and i think for good reason it's it's well buried well covered and we're operating slowly and methodically in order to to minimize a our casualties and be uh non-combatant casualties as much as we can but it can certainly be destroyed does that mean that every last kamas member will be killed or captured the answer is no but the the structure the organization the centralized control and planning can certainly be eliminated i'll note here uh that uh u.s. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has now arrived at the Tel Aviv hotel where he is going to beginning his whirlwind uh back to back day of meetings with Israeli officials there is growing u.s. pressure for israel to withdraw from gaza in a bigger way uh and reduce its footprint but the families of kidnapped uh the families of the kidnapped Israelis still held by kamas wondering now what will come of their loved ones will they be freed will there be another negotiation i-25 news correspondent Pierre Klochenler joins us this morning near the gaza border for an update Pierre yeah we are at the four minutes drive away from the kerim shalom crossing where the tens of relatives of the family of of the 136 hostages held by palestine islamic jihad and by hamas for the past 90 days almost 100 days are held in captivity in hamas's and pij jails and uh you can see they've been blocked on the way uh the police has declared the area a closed military area and they might intend to bypass that roadblock and try to go buy food to the kerim shalom crossing where humanitarian aid is delivered to the non-involved palestine population but uh we spoke earlier to the father of one of the hostages that was abducted at the nova rave party omer venkert and this is what he told us we are trying to go to the the kerim shalom terminal over there there are trucks of the humanitarian that passed by now there is a closed area this is a military closed area no one supposed to go inside and now we're trying to figure out how can we go to to stop the trucks because humanitarian is for both sides it can't be one side only and so now now we stopped us the military and the police and we are trying to figure out how we are going to to go on you see here the the picture of omer venkert one of the hostages that uh his father you just heard now the thing is in kerim shalom 115 humanitarian aid trucks crossed yesterday out of 202 humanitarian aid trucks their demand the families of the hostages that there will be no humanitarian aid to the palestinian civilian population unless the hostages also receive humanitarian aid there's been a report published by the organization for the liberation of the families of the hostages and the the report was dire they spoke of very difficult conditions of the hostages some of them are elderly they suffer from chronic diseases they don't have the proper medicine they live in obscurity in darkness they do not receive the appropriate food or drinks nobody not the international committee of the red cross not the world health organization not un organizations have visited the hostages for the past uh 95 days and and therefore the families believe that uh it's a matter of time before these hostages will be who are held in captivity will die in captivity yeah thank you for the update today as the protest uh continues and they desperately try to get updates and free their loved ones from Hamas captivity appreciate your update today and also with us in studio and major elia shut off thank you so much for being with us on the program as well and thousands of Israeli families who have been evacuated from their homes still living in hotels going on four months now it's unclear when exactly they'll be able to go back home and get back to routine here's a look at how young families are coping with the situation in their cramped living corners so much space yeah come on have a seat where the living room guest room living room now you're in the hallway between the room and is this the hall yeah okay okay where are we now that's the bedroom this is kind of a playroom this is the playroom three square feet and here we're already in the living room yeah that's the living room you know so how are you guys generally speaking fine and not generally speaking not generally we can't stay home the decision to evacuate us was all right but we have no clue what's going to happen when if when we get to go home we're in the laundry area it happens to be pretty vacant because of the time usually it's crowded with long waits if you really want to get it done you might wait for five hours get out believe me five hours to get some laundry done i never thought i would have to sit and watch my clothes tumbling in the washing machine so we are here to do laundry yeah thanks for helping out of course i'll iron fold it later too five-star captivity we have everything and we have nothing we're together supporting each other helping each other out raising each other up but we aren't at work we aren't at home not at our businesses we don't know what's happening in our homes we are we are displaced people i've made a nice pantry here instead of clothes there's all kinds of food milk and stuff what's the hardest part about living like this that it isn't a normal life a sane life there's no waking up leaving for work dropping off at school coming home making lunch so what is there what's a day like you wake up wake up go down to breakfast it's all stiff how don't you go crazy you do go crazy there is not so much to do there's no realistic solutions all our alternatives would be out of our pocket our spare time how much can you take you can't say one day two three days a month three months we've been here with no return home in sight tell me how are you inside not easy there are moments of crisis what's a moment like that i have two grown boys that were on the verge of starting a business we kept saying we'll open after the jewish holidays we didn't say which holidays they kept paying the bills but with no income how do you make it work for three months financially you can cut down on a lot of things a lot like what what do you give up i give up on myself i don't buy for myself i make sure my kids aren't in need we aren't making it work i personally know people who have taken on loans now during the war now during the war borrowed money and some people aren't able to take a loan they can't make it how bad does it get in the day today it gets bad we're in jerusalem it's cold here we need winter clothes especially the kids we look for donations adults babies kids some people can't afford winter clothes some people can't afford to buy coats we got a donation of new coats for adults they can't afford it a donation came in so you know people come searching see what we can take you left home with no clothes nothing yes just clothes for maybe a few days you see anything you can people the unity of the public it's strengthening we see how much people are giving this is all new even myself i'm wearing new socks look three to four months ago you had such polarization in the people now look they're giving it to you without asking just take it it's important to remember once this is all over to keep that spirit to keep it not to go back to fighting let it be so red alert sorry where our area in the north that's live that's in slomi right now why don't you turn the sound off anxiety i have to know what's going on i have a brother serving on the lebanon border and another brother in gaza on the one side you don't want to hear about these things on the other hand you have to know we aren't detached we're living through a war how long can you do this for what drives us is when we will be sure that we are returning to a safe home we'll live by the mountain we can see them we can wave at we will not go back to this kind of thing is there anyone saying we won't go back to slomi back home many many if not all what do they say that until something huge changes some will never return they have no trust they're done giving up their home they've given it up what do you miss most privacy i work in education i never thought that the kids the students would see me in pajamas see me getting mad at my kids arguing with my husband complaining thanks for watching i 24 news at this hour we'll be back shortly with more live coverage from the field as antony blinkin's visit continues stay with us we'll see you soon israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well 24 news this morning for the latest live updates from israel we'll start with breaking news incoming rocket alerts in the north of israel as far south as spot and also incoming drone alerts as well from the north as that front heats up we'll have more on that in just a few minutes but first u.s secretary of state antony blinkin in israel on his fourth trip here since the hamas war began that right now he's meeting with israeli president isaac herzog he'll follow that up today with a flurry of meetings with ministers generals spy masters and families the message from blinkin's boss the president is very clear israel needs to get out of gaza in a significant way top igf commanders have already given english language interviews this weekend saying that the war is indeed in the new less intense space it will require fewer airstrikes and ground troops as the focus of fighting moves to south gaza here's blinkin in tel Aviv a few minutes ago this is your fourth trip already in the in this gaza war and we are very grateful to you for your support and for your steadfast commitment to israel's safety and to making sure that israel wins this war because it's a war that affects in international values and the values of the free world on thursday a proceeding will start in the international court of justice in the egg whereby the south africa has sued israel for supposedly genocide there's nothing more atrocious and preposterous than this claim actually our enemy is the hamas in their charter called for the destruction and annihilation of the state of israel the only nation state of the jewish people the convention against genocide was enacted by the international community following the worst atrocities of humankind the holocaust which was aimed specifically against the jews the jewish people in order to eliminate the jewish race the jewish people in hamas's charter it's almost identical in many many ways and here with the hypocrisy of south africa we will be there in the international court of justice and present proudly our case of using self-defense under our most inherent right under international humanitarian law where we are doing our utmost under extremely complicated circumstances on the ground to make sure that there will be no unintended consequences and no civilian casualties i've just come from a number of countries in the region uh turkey greece jordan cutter naivet i remember in saudi arabia and i want to be able to share some of what i heard from those leaders with the president as well as with the prime minister in the cabinet later today and of course we'll have an opportunity to sit with the families of some of the hostages and discuss our relentless efforts to bring everyone home and back with their families and there's lots to talk about in particular about the way forward with us now is i twitter news correspondent pierre clauschenler amid the growing us pressure for israel to withdraw from gaza and and major ground operations the families of the kidnapped families still held by hamas terrorists wondering what will come of their loved ones if there will be movement on a hostage negotiation deal pierre what efforts are the families making today to try and advance that cause right tens of the relatives of the 136 hostages held in captivity for the past 95 days uh in hamas and palestinian islamic jihad jails in gaza tried to break through to the kerem shalom crossing where part of the humanitarian aid is delivered to the non-involved palestinian population but they were blocked about four minute drive away from the crossing they uh wanted a stoppage of the humanitarian aid to the palestinians unless there is humanitarian aid given to the hostages in terms of medicine and in terms of food and visits by the international community of the red cross but to no avail and they vowed to continue demonstrating at the kerem shalom crossing or nearby uh if it's allowed in order to uh promote their plea yeah thank you so much uh and to the blinkin and isaac herit talk continuing their meeting now let's listen uh we don't have that uh press conference at the moment uh we'll keep you updated as the press conference continues sirens sirens is sirens are going off now here in uh more sirens in the north of israel hostile aircraft intrusion alerts likely indicating perhaps the presence of drones this comes on the wake of uh several rockets that may have been fired in the last few minutes with us in studio it was yakov lapin a military and strategic affairs analyst with the jewish news syndicate yakov good to see you lot going on here in the last few minutes we have isaac herit side meeting with anthony blinkin anthony blinkin here with a specific for a very specific reason uh as we've as we've been discussing but i want to start with the breaking news of course a series of red alert sirens going off across north and israeli communities uh perhaps drone several of them rocket sirens going off uh as far south as spot which is a significant distance away from the border talk to me about it well it's fat contains uh some sensitive military installations that may be a target of this um khizballah drone intrusion attempt um it's further south than we have seen um so this is um a new threshold that khizballah is creating um if this is indeed um a confirmed attack we've also had some false alarms so we have to um make sure that we're talking about a real attack but if this is a real attack then i think we're seeing khizballah create a new reality in which it is targeting um areas of israel further south than it has targeted in recent weeks and months um and this is part of the escalation dynamic that we are clearly seeing uh the assassination of the radwan commander uh yesterday and before that uh you know we had khizballah vowing revenge for the assassination of salih al-aruri in beirut um so we're seeing an escalation dynamic it's not very surprising um and we'll have to see where you know how this develops further we're looking live here uh at images in the far north of israel looking out into the border with lebanon i'll note here in the immediate moment the fog of war so many sirens going off a lot of them warning of drones perhaps rocket sirens as far south as spot there are reports from lebanese media that there was an israeli strike that targeted a car uh where where two to three two or three khizballah commanders may have been targeted and killed in the car that was about 15 miles or so away from the border significant distance away against spot significant distance away from the border as well fog of war we don't know how many of these reports are accurate if there's any damage or death uh but this is quite a busy morning so far on the northern front and it does come in a time when ante blinken is here specifically to try and calm the tensions in the north these actions indicate a violent flare-up yeah it seems that reality on the ground is not very interested right now in blinkens message um and i think that the linkage you're making is absolutely correct between the growing geographical range of strikes on both sides of the border this is in fact the story i think that this is the right linkage to make um because we've been told all along from the beginning that the sign of an escalation will be when we see strikes going further and further from the border and now we are starting to see that um so i think this is something very much to keep in mind um and you know regarding uh blinkens message look i honestly don't understand what kind of diplomatic arrangements uh the americans are trying to promote here uh khizballah has no intention of moving its forces in any real practical way back from the border the most that you know they could probably deliver some sort of cosmetic uh tactical retreat they could be reversed within 48 hours of some of its rudwan units the whole of southern lebanon uh is a khizballah iranian backed terror base uh 200 shia villages are acting each and every one of them as a military base for khizballah that's not going anywhere so i don't really understand what this arrangement is about i'll note uh you know there are reports now this leban this israeli reported strike from lebanese media on a car which may have uh killed two or three individuals in a village it's about 15 miles away from the border we're talking about the name of spot for our viewers around the world who may not know exactly what that is believe it's the highest point in in is in one of the highest points in israel uh a home uh two idf military positions but it is and i'm looking at google maps so it's not exactly right but it's about 50 kilometers you know 30 miles or so from the border so you're talking about the geographical distance of these attacks on both sides getting wider and wider at some point do we approach that tipping point well yeah it looks like the threshold is growing uh you know daily um ever since uh that incident in berut and the assassination of salih al-aruri and even before that we had our reports of strikes in lebanon some unusual strikes some of them were um 50 kilometers from the border according to international media reports and those may have been targeting actually khizballah strategic tunnels and weapons storage facilities so these are the kinds of strikes you know when we're talking about killing um important operatives um khizballah infrastructure that will actually start to change and downgrade khizballah's capabilities um those are the kinds of strikes that will start making a difference in an accumulative manner but they will require many many more of them because khizballah has you know tens of thousands of rockets tens of thousands of operatives deployed across lebanon so what we've seen so far unfortunately only scratches the surface of its capabilities i want to ask about the third front here and there is a third front i mean the war in gaza goes on operations actually intensifying in central gaza particularly in the khanunis area the clearly this morning the tensions heating up on the northern front with lebanon but in the west bank there are signs of perhaps a major uh flare up boiling over in the west bank that could impact the preparedness as well for israel yep um there are you know roving um terror cells in tulkarum that were engaged by idf special forces last night um and several of those terrorists were killed um there is definitely a intensified idf counterterrorism operations in places like janin where the idf keeps coming back and making sure that localized terror groups with the support of hamas and palestinian islamic jihad cannot rebuild capabilities there and across the whole of the west bank mass arrests based on intelligence um well over 2500 people um security suspects have been arrested uh since the beginning of this war and over half of them are hamas members so really we're seeing the idf making sure that hamas cannot raise its head in the west bank um build capabilities and preemptively stopping cells uh wherever it can based on some very accurate intelligence i'll just add that this is the biggest difference you know between the west bank and other arenas the fact that the idf has has been there for so many years has this intelligence coverage can act on this intelligence doesn't need to send in a whole brigade it can send in a battalion as well and that will do the job what is the risk i mean reportedly prime minister nipin yahoo and the security chiefs have received and recent days significant warnings about uh the west bank situation but what is the risk coming from the west bank here i mean look the the real risk i think is some sort of um breakdown uh you know of law and order and getting masses of people joining you know the violence sort of the second and two fata scenarios because when it comes to the organized terrorism that seems to be relatively under control because of the shin bet intelligence net and the fact that the idf works on that intelligence every single night essentially means that the west bank is a controlled arena and obviously you know terrible incidents slip through the net but they become the exceptions rather than the rule um the threat of sort of wider violence is people who haven't been involved in terrorism until now joining some sort of mass violence and you know that's that's the threat we have to be on the lookout for but there are no signs of that happening as of now let's go live now to tell of eve where i'm joined by our correspondent nicol cedric for an update on blinkin's visit so far in the cold visit is certainly grabbing the attention of different protesters who are demanding blinkin and the united states take action to help release hostages who are still in gaza strip right now take a listen to some of the boys that they're making taking their voices right here to this meeting where where u.s secretary of state antony blinkin was set to meet with israeli president isaac russoff now you can hear some of the chance and see some of the signs ceasefire before it's too late this is what we continue to hear along with the chance please bring them home now and you can see also waving the american flag this is cp cp you've been out many different demonstrations out here today waving the american flag what is your message to the united states right now urging for the release of these hostages right because uh uh foreign minister u.s foreign minister blinkin is here on a visit to israeli came last night and he's supposed to meet today here behind us with our president mr heltshaw and we want to call him we want to call the whole world to help us free our hostages there are currently 136 israeli citizens held by the khamas terrorist group in gaza it's been over three months now we're talking about babies children women men elderly people from the age of one year to over 80s years israeli citizens held by khamas and gaza they have to get out of there now every minute is a danger for their lives we don't want them back dead in coffins we want them back home alive we've heard recent evidence of torture from people who came back of torture that's going on now to our people in gaza physical sexual psychological torture they're in real danger every minute that passes we need them home now and you think that it's all the united states do you believe that the united states has been doing enough to push for their relief no i think it's a mission for all the world i don't know of any other incidents where 136 citizens of a free country were held hostages by a terror organization so as far as i'm concerned it's the mission of the entire world the western world the other the rest of the world and since the u.s is the leader of the western world i think it's there what for enforcement most mission like the first enforcement mission of the israeli government and the entire world to free these hostages cb thank you so much for bringing your voice out here really as you can see these hostages continuing to move because they're hearing that that u.s secretary of state antony bliggan might be moving right now so they're trying to get in his face get in her socks face as well to bring their voices to them because as you heard they're really hoping that the western world and the united states specifically will have a hand to continue to push for the release of these hostages and that certainly is on the agenda for blinkin along with a very heavy agenda that we've continued to talk about but for everyone out here they're hoping that this is the top priority for blinkin right now right nicole for us alive and tell me thanks for that update on the protests he has blinkin uh continues his day of flora a whirlwind day of activity and meeting with top israeli leaders joining this conversation is professor chuck franek a former israeli deputy national security advisor uh professor good to see you again i wanted to ask about perhaps the daylight between the united states and israel how much daylight is there between these allies when it comes to perhaps short term immediate more immediate goals and concerns especially in gaza and how much daylight is there perhaps when you think long term strategically about how to handle the day after both in gaza and even let's say in lebanon well i think the us has demonstrated remarkable support for israel since the war began uh we could not have asked for much more the president biden and secretary blinkin have been truly outstanding but the us is trying to get us to they fully support the objective of destroying hamas but i think at this point they've come to the uh conclusion that that's probably not an attainable objective and that what we have to talk about is greatly diminishing its capabilities maybe destroying or disrupting it as a coherent military force but in the end there will probably be uh hamas will probably continue to exist and they may even end up being the govern remain the governing body in gaza the us is trying to put together an alternative based on a revitalized p&a is also far has not uh bought into that approach but we also haven't presented any alternative certainly not a um a significant one so there's daylight over there over the day after in gaza and also the us is still firmly committed to the idea of once the fighting is over and maybe there's an interim stage but moving soon to uh talks on a two state solution the other area in which there are some differences uh are on the lebanon border because israel well we may be forced into a uh khizballah initiated escalation but the us really wants us to do the best we can so not to escalate in response and certainly not to uh initiate the escalation on our own part which i mean there is certainly some good a strategic reasoning for doing that and there is some support for that in the government the us certainly doesn't want to see that i want to ask about the language here because it because you can read it as being perhaps intentionally confusing or inconsistent because with english language media first we have top id of commanders and spokespeople uh saying that we are in turn a less intense phase especially in the north but it's a new phase there's going to be a draw down less intense ground operations but then in hebron even today we're hearing expanded operations in hanyunas especially in the center where uh entering new areas expanded operations what's the it seems to be a kind of mixed messaging here especially when there is so much pressure on the us to uh as president biden said yesterday to get israel to get out well i think the reality is that we started transitioning to uh so-called stage three the lower not low but lower intensity stage a few days ago and we already released large numbers very large numbers of reservists so it's happening in reality and in in english at least uh the id of spokesman has said specifically that that's what we're doing and this is partly in response to american pressure and it's partly simply because of the how how the operation is developed that's what's needed at this point in other words less we've expanded into most of the areas that we want yes there are still small areas that have to be done but basically most of the territory in gaza that we might want to take we've already done so there is this is pure politics and the idf is doing its best to avoid it so it's using one set of terminology in english and the other in hebron the hebron is more neutral uh this is just um let's say the idf adhering to or trying to avoid the political mind so to speak uh in the current cabinet situation professor thanks for being with us here guide point for news this morning great to have you thank you i'm back here in studio i want to ask here about the the messaging and the word specifically both nisrallah from khezbollah and yehia sinwar and khamas are known to be vociferous consumers of israeli medias and war himself a rather proficient hebron speaker that he picked up from his extended incarceration in israel uh so when you hear idf commanders use words like you know releasing uh releasing from um reserve duty mass you know from soldiers we hear words like withdraw from parts of gaza we hear words like less intense uh more precision uh the calls for withdrawal from gaza is that music to khamas's ears do they believe they can just wait this out over the next few weeks or few months um i don't think that this is music to khamas's ears first of all because khamas itself will be aware that it has lost all of its military formal structures in northern gaza it doesn't have brigades or battalions they're still there they're still in control especially in rafiah in the south they're they're still in the south the idf has not let up any of its high intensity operations in the north it's responding to the first of all the situation on the ground which is what we have is khamas cells that have no uh command structure they're just you know doing hit and runs as they see fit as they can do possibly on the ground but they don't have any commanders they don't have intelligence they don't have firepower in an organized manner they have the rpg or the ak under their bed they'll go out and they'll try and do something so khamas as a terrorist army that is organized in northern gaza has ceased to exist and it remains as a sort of a disorganized guerrilla force and that's why the idf is allowing itself to downgrade its operations in northern gaza in hanyunas in southern gaza that is the epicenter of the fighting and also to some extent in central gaza and we see that the idf is being very responsive it's just not being very declarative about this but it's being very responsive to the reality on the ground there there's only been an intensification today there was a further intense intensification and we're going to see you know divisions like division 98 in the idf which is got a lot of special forces those are the kinds of forces that will start leading the fighting in southern gaza and we'll see less of these you know full-on armored core divisions like 162 that will you know have been leading the fight in northern gaza and gaza city so it's it's shifting but khamas is under massive pressure about that pressure one thing that is specifically a specific plan that may be raised today according to both american media and israeli media is the idea of letting hundreds of thousands of palestinian families who have been displaced to the south letting them go if they wish back north uh to go back to the areas in the north reportedly israel may be receptive to the that idea but linking it to some kind of progress with a hostage deal what of that do you think that blinking or the american pressure will there be and khamas feeling the pressure as well will there be some movement on on that arena i think that you know that's a complex decision and there's a lot of factors involved in that first of all israeli certainly sees a lever here in terms of um you know one of the few pressure levers that it has that are not military on khamas is this um is it going to condition the return of these northern gaza to their area on its progress with the hostage deal i think that is the likely picture it seems to be making that linkage also separately we have to say that a lot of these people have nowhere to go back to right now so you know they would be better off staying in a humanitarian center that is being nourished with food water medicine than going back to those ruins right now in their own interest you know i don't know how many would actually be interested in going back in reality it's a demand that's right now more theoretical than anything else um and you know but yeah i i think israel is saying look if we're going to start seeing a normalization of civilian life in gaza there's going to have to be progress on the hostage situation um but certainly i think that linkage is being made thank you so much for being with us in the next few minutes and today blinkin will leave his meeting with isaac kertzak he is soon to meet israeli prime minister of vanguards and yahoo and other war cabinet ministers will have live coverage and updates right here on the channel here in i24 news so we'll see you soon and thanks for watching i24 news is in a state of war families completely gunned down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well thanks for watching i24 news this morning for the latest live updates from israel we'll start with breaking news incoming rocket alerts in the north of israel as far south as spot and also incoming drone alerts as well from the north as that front heats up we'll have more on that in just a few minutes but first us secretary of state antony blinkin in israel on his fourth trip here since the hamas war began that right now he's meeting with israeli president isaac kertzak he'll follow that up today with a flurry of meetings with ministers generals spy masters and families the message from blinkin's boss the president is very clear israel needs to get out of gaza in a significant way top idea commanders have already given english language interviews this weekend saying that the war is indeed in a new less intense space that will require fewer airstrikes and ground troops as the focus of fighting moves to south gaza here's blinkin in tel Aviv a few minutes about this is your fourth trip already in the in this gaza war and we are very grateful to you for your support and for your steadfast commitment to israel's safety and to making sure that israel wins this war because it's a war that affects international values and the values of the free world on thursday a proceeding will start in the international court of justice in the egg whereby the south africa has sued israel for supposedly genocide there's nothing more atrocious and preposterous than this claim actually our enemy is the hamas in their charter called for the destruction and annihilation of the state of israel the only nation state of the jewish people the convention against genocide was enacted by the international community following the worst atrocities of humankind the holocaust which was aimed specifically against the jews the jewish people in order to eliminate the jewish race the jewish people in hamas's charter it's almost identical in many many ways and here with the hypocrisy of south africa we will be there in the international court of justice and present proudly our case of using self-defense under our most inherent right under international humanitarian law where we are doing our utmost under extremely complicated circumstances on the ground to make sure that there will be no unintended consequences and no civilian casualties i've just come from a number of countries in the region uh turkey greece jordan cutter united arab Emirates Saudi arabia and i want to be able to share some of what i heard from those leaders with the president as well as with the prime minister and the cabinet later today and of course we'll have an opportunity to sit with the families of some of the hostages and discuss our relentless efforts to bring everyone home and back with their families and there's lots to talk about in particular about the way forward with us now is i twitter news correspondent pierre clauschenler amid the growing us pressure for israel to withdraw from gaza and and major ground operations the families of the kidnapped families still held by hamas terrorists wondering what will come of their loved ones if there will be movement on a hostile negotiation deal pierre what efforts are the families making today to try and advance that cause right tens of the relatives of the 136 hostages held in captivity for the past 95 days uh in hamas and palestinian islamic jihad jails in gaza tried to break through to the kerem shalom crossing where part of the humanitarian aid is delivered to the non-involved palestinian population but they were blocked about four minute drive away from the crossing they uh wanted a stoppage of the humanitarian aid to the palestinians unless there is humanitarian aid given to the hostages in terms of medicine and in terms of food and visits by the international community of the red cross but to no avail and they vowed to continue demonstrating at the kerem shalom crossing or nearby if it's allowed in order to promote their plea yeah thank you so much uh entity blinkin and isaac hertzok continue when they're meeting now let's listen uh we don't have that uh press conference at the moment uh we'll keep you updated as the press conference continues sirens sirens is sirens are going off now here in uh more sirens in the north of israel hostile aircraft intrusion alerts likely indicating perhaps the presence of drones this comes on the wake of uh several rockets that may have been fired in the last few minutes with us in studio is yakov lapin a military and strategic affairs analyst with the jewish news syndicate yakov good to see you luck going on here in the last few minutes we have isaac hertzok meeting with anthony blinkin anthony blinkin here with a specific for a very specific reason as we've as we've been discussing but i want to start with the breaking news of course a series of uh red alert sirens going off across north and israeli communities uh perhaps drones several of them rocket sirens going off uh as far south as spot which is a significant distance away from the border talk to me about it well spot contains uh some sensitive military installations that may be a target of this chizpala drone intrusion attempt it's further south than we have seen so this is a new threshold that chizpala is creating if this is indeed a confirmed attack we've also had some false alarm so we have to make sure that we're talking about a real attack but if this is a real attack then i think we're seeing chizpala create a new reality in which it is targeting areas of israel further south than it has targeted in recent weeks and months and this is part of the escalation dynamic that we are clearly seeing the assassination of the red one commander yesterday and before that you know we had chizpala vowing revenge for the assassination of salih al-aruri in beirut so we're seeing an escalation dynamic it's not very surprising um and we'll have to see where you know how this develops further we're looking live here uh at images in the far north of israel looking out into the border with lebanon i'll note here in the immediate moment the fog of war so many sirens going off a lot of them warning of drones perhaps rocket sirens as far south as spot there are reports from lebanese media uh that there was an israeli strike that targeted a car uh where where two to three or three chizpala commanders may have been targeted and killed in the car that was about 15 miles or so away from the border a significant distance away against spot significant distance away from the border as well fog of war we don't know how many of these reports are accurate if there's any damage or death uh but this is quite uh a busy morning so far on the northern front and it does come in a time when anti blinker is here specifically to try and calm the tensions in the north these actions indicate a violent flare up yeah it seems that reality on the ground is not very interested right now in blinkin's message um and i think that the linkage you're making is absolutely correct between the growing geographical range of strikes on both sides of the border this is in fact the story i think that this is the right linkage to make um because we've been told all along from the beginning that the sign of an escalation will be when we see strikes going further and further from the border and now we are starting to see that so i think this is something very much to keep in mind um and you know regarding uh blinkin's message look i honestly don't understand what kind of diplomatic arrangement uh the americans are trying to promote here uh chizpala has no intention of moving its forces in any real practical way back from the border the most of the you know they could probably deliver some sort of cosmetic uh tactical retreat that could be reversed within 48 hours of some of its rudwan units the whole of southern lebanon uh is a chizpala iranian backed terror base uh 200 chiite villages are acting each and every one of them as a military base for chizpala that's not going anywhere so i don't really understand what this arrangement is about i'll note uh you know there are reports now this leban this israeli reported strike from lebanese media on a car which may have killed two or three individuals in a village it's about 15 miles away from the border we're talking about the name of spot for our viewers around the world who may not know exactly what that is believe it's the highest point in it is in one of the highest points in israel uh a home uh two idf military positions but it is and i'm looking at google maps so it's not you know exactly right but it's about 50 kilometers you know 30 miles or so from the border so you're talking about the geographical distance of these attacks on both sides getting wider and wider at some point do we approach that tipping point well yeah it looks like the threshold is growing uh you know daily um ever since uh that incident in beirut and the assassination of salih al-aruri and even before that we had our reports of strikes in lebanon some unusual strikes some of them were um 50 kilometers from the border according to international media reports and those may have been targeting actually khizballah strategic tunnels and weapons storage facilities so these are the kinds of strikes you know when we're talking about killing important operatives um khizballah infrastructure that will actually start to change and downgrade khizballah's capabilities um those are the kinds of strikes that will start making a difference in an accumulative manner but they it will require many many more of them because khizballah has you know tens of thousands of rockets tens of thousands of operatives deployed across lebanon so what we've seen so far unfortunately only scratches the surface of its capabilities i want to ask about the third front here and there is a third front i mean the war in gaza goes on uh operations actually intensifying in central gaza particularly in the khanunis area the clearly this morning the tensions heating up on the northern front with lebanon but in the west bank there are signs of perhaps a major uh flare up boiling over and the west bank that could impact uh the preparedness as well uh for israel yep um there are you know roving terror um cells in tulkarum that were engaged by uh idf special forces last night um and several of those terrorists were killed um there is definitely a intensified idf counterterrorism operations in places like janin where the idf keeps coming back and making sure that localized terror groups with the support of hamas and palestinian islamic jihad cannot rebuild capabilities there and across the whole of the west bank mass arrests based on intelligence um well over 2,500 people um security suspects have been arrested uh since the beginning of this war and over half of them are hamas members so really we're seeing the idf making sure that hamas cannot raise its head in the west bank um build capabilities and preemptively stopping cells wherever it can based on some very accurate intelligence i'll just add that this is the biggest difference you know between the west bank and other arenas the fact that the idf has has been there for so many years has this intelligence coverage can act on this intelligence doesn't need to send in a whole brigade it can send in a battalion as well and that will do the job what is the risk i mean reportedly prime minister nook and yahoo and the security chiefs have received in recent days significant warnings about uh the west bank situation but what is the risk coming from the west bank here i mean look the the real risk i think is some sort of um breakdown uh you know of law and order and getting masses of people joining you know the violence sort of the second into fata scenarios because when it comes to the organized terrorism that seems to be relatively under control because of the shin bet intelligence net and the fact that the idf works on that intelligence every single night essentially means that the west bank is a controlled arena and obviously you know terrible incidents slipped through the net but they become the exceptions rather than the rule um the threat of sort of wider violence is people who haven't been involved in terrorism until now joining some sort of mass violence and you know that's that's the threat we have to be on the lookout for but there are no signs of that happening as of now let's go live now to televieve where i'm joined by our correspondent nicole scenic for an update on blinkin's visit so far nicole visit is certainly grabbing the attention of different protesters who are demanding blinkin and the united states take action to help release the one hostage who are still in gaza strip right now take a listen to some of the boys that they're making taking their voices right here to this meeting where where u.s secretary of state antony blinkin was set to meet with israeli president isaq kurtzok now you can hear some of the chants and see some of the signs ceasefire before it's too late this is what we continue to hear along with the chants please bring them home now and you can see also waving the american flag this is cp hekovsky cp you've been out many different demonstrations out here today waving the american flag what is your message to the united states right now urging for the release of these hostages right because uh foreign minister u.s foreign minister blinkin is here on a visit to israeli came last night and he's supposed to meet today here behind us with our president mr helto and we want to call him we want to call to help us free our hostages there are currently 136 israeli citizens held by the chamas terrorist group in gaza it's been over three months now we're talking about babies children women people from the age of one year to over 80 years israeli citizens held by chamas and gaza they have to get out of there now every minute is a danger for their lives we don't want them back dead in coffins we want them back home alive we've heard recent evidence of torture from people who came back of torture that's going on now to our people in gaza physical sexual psychological torture they're in real danger every minute that passes we need them home now and you think that it's on the united states do you believe that the united states has been doing enough to push for their relief no i think it's a mission for all the world i don't know of any other incidents where 136 citizens of a free country were held hostages by a terror organization so as far as i'm concerned it's the mission of the entire world the western world the other the rest of the world and since the us is the leader of the western world i think it's there what for enforcement most mission like the first enforcement mission of the israeli government and the entire world to free these hostages cb thank you so much for bringing your voice out here really as you can see these hostages continuing to move because they're hearing that that uh u.s secretary of state antony bliggan might be moving right now so they're trying to get in his face get in her socks face as well to bring their voices to them because as you heard they're really hoping that the western world and the united states specifically will have a hand to continue to push for the release of these hostages and that certainly is on the agenda for blinken along with a very heavy agenda that we've continued to talk about but for everyone out here they're hoping that this is the top priority for blinken right now all right nicole for us alive and tell me thanks for that update on the protests here as blinken continues his day of flora a whirlwind day of activity and meeting with top israeli leaders joining this conversation is professor chuck fraylock a former israeli deputy national security advisor uh professor good to see you again i wanted to ask about perhaps the daylight between the united states and israel how much daylight is there between these allies when it comes to perhaps short term more immediate goals and concerns especially in gaza and how much daylight is there perhaps when you think long term strategically about how to handle the day after both in gaza and even let's say in lebanon well i think the u.s has demonstrated remarkable support for israel since the war began uh we could not have asked for much more of president biden and secretary blinken have been truly outstanding but the u.s is trying to get us to they fully support the objective of destroying hamas but i think at this point they've come to the conclusion that that's probably not an attainable objective and that what we have to talk about is greatly diminishing its capabilities maybe destroying or disrupting it as a coherent military force but in the end there will probably be hamas will probably continue to exist and they may even end up being the govern remain the governing body in gaza the u.s is trying to put together an alternative based on a revitalized p.a. is also far has not uh bought into that approach but we also haven't presented any alternative certainly not a um a significant one so there's daylight over there over the day after in gaza and also the u.s is still firmly committed to the idea of once the fighting is over and maybe there's an interim stage but moving soon to uh talks on a two state solution the other area in which there are some differences uh are on the lebanon border to because israel well we may be forced into a uh khizball a initiated escalation but the u.s really wants us to do the best we can so not to escalate in response and certainly not to initiate the escalation on our own part which i mean there is certainly some good a strategic reasoning for doing that and there is some support for that in the government the u.s certainly doesn't want to see that i want to ask about the language here because it because you can read it as being perhaps intentionally confusing or inconsistent because with english language media first we have top id of commanders and spokespeople uh saying that we are entering a less intense phase especially in the north but it's a new phase there's going to be a drawdown less intense ground operations but then in hebrou and even today we're hearing expanded operations in hanyunas especially in the center we're uh entering new areas expanded operations what's the it seems to be a kind of mixed messaging here especially when there is so much pressure on the us to uh as president biden said yesterday to get israel to get out well i think the reality is that we started transitioning to uh so-called stage three the lower not low but lower intensity stage a few days ago and we already released large numbers very large numbers of reservists so it's happening in reality and in in english at least the idea spokesman has said specifically that that's what we're doing and this is partly in response to american pressure and it's partly simply because of the how how the operation is developed that's what's needed at this point in other words less we've expanded into most of the areas that we want yes there are still small areas that have to be done but basically most of the territory in gaza that we might want to take we've already done so there is this is pure politics and the idf is doing its best to avoid it so it's using one set of terminology in english and the other in hebrou the hebrou one is more neutral uh this is just um let's say the idf adhering to we're trying to avoid the political mind so to speak uh in the current cabinet situation professor thanks for being with us here died 24 news this morning great to have you thank you i'm back here in studio i want to ask here about the the messaging and the word specifically both nisrallah from kezbollah and yirya senwar and khamas are known to be vociferous consumers of israeli medias and war himself a rather proficient hebrou speaker that he picked up from his extended incarceration in israel uh so when you hear idf commanders use words like you know releasing releasing from um reserve duty mass you know from soldiers we hear words like withdrawal from parts of gaza we hear words like less intense more precision uh the calls for withdrawal from gaza on is that music to khamas's ears do they believe they can just wait this out over the next few weeks or three months um i don't think that this is music to khamas's ears first of all because khamas itself will be aware that it has lost all of its military formal structures in northern gaza it doesn't have brigades or battalions they're still there they're still in control especially raffia in the south they're still in the south the idf has not led up any of its high intensity operations in the north it's responding to the first of all the situation on the ground which is what we have is khamas cells that have no uh command structure they're just you know doing hit and runs as they see fit as they can do possibly on the ground but they don't have any commanders they don't have intelligence they don't have firepower in an organized manner they have the rpg or the ak under their bed they'll go out and they'll try and do something so khamas as a terrorist army that is organized in northern gaza has ceased to exist and it remains as a sort of a disorganized guerrilla force um and that's why the idf is allowing itself to downgrade its operations in northern gaza in han units in southern gaza that is the epicenter of the fighting and also to some extent in central gaza and we see that the idf is being very responsive it's just not being very declarative about this but it's being very responsive to the reality on the ground there there's only been an intensification today there was a further intense intensification and we're going to see you know divisions like division 98 in the idf which has got a lot of special forces those are the kinds of forces that will start leading the fighting in southern gaza and we'll see less of these you know full on armored core divisions like 162 that will uh you know have been leading the fight in northern gaza and gaza city so it's it's shifting but khamas is under massive pressure about that pressure one thing that is specifically a specific plan that may be raised today according to both american media and israeli media is the idea of letting hundreds of thousands of palestinian families who have been displaced to the south letting them go if they wish back north uh to go back to the areas in the north reportedly israel may be receptive to the that idea but linking it to some kind of progress with a hostage deal what of that do you think that linking or the american pressure will there be and khamas feeling the pressure as well will there be some movement on on that arena i think that you know that's a complex decision and there's a lot of factors involved in that first of all israel certainly sees a lever here in terms of um you know one of the few pressure levers that it has that are not military on khamas is this um is it going to condition the return of these northern gazans to their area um on its progress with the hostage deal i think that is the likely picture it seems to be making that linkage also separately we have to say that a lot of these people have nowhere to go back to right now so you know they would be better off staying in a humanitarian center that is being nourished with food water medicine than going back to those ruins right now in their own interest you know i don't know how many would actually be interested in going back in reality it's a demand that's right now more theoretical than anything else um and you know but yeah i i think israel is saying look if we're going to start seeing a normalization of civilian life in gaza there's going to have to be progress on the hostage situation um but certainly i think that linkage is being made yaka thanks so much for being with us in the next few minutes and today blinkin will leave his meeting with isa kertzak he is soon to meet israeli prime minister of benjamin nikin yahoo and other war cabinet ministers will have live coverage and updates right here on the channel here in i-24 news so we'll see you soon and thanks for watching i-24 news king's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the promised land well now 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true hundreds of african-american women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land we'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of african-americans for watching i-24 news this morning for the latest live updates from israel as u.s secretary of state anthony blinkin continues his trip through the middle east today he is in israel it is it is his fourth trip here since the hamas war began more than three months ago right now he's finishing up a meeting with israel's foreign minister he just met this morning also with israel's president isa kertzak then after that today he has a flurry of meetings with other ministers and idf generals the message from blinkin's boss the president is very clear israel needs to get out of gaza in a significant and meaningful way top idf commanders this weekend have already given english language interviews saying the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require certainly in the north fewer airstrikes and ground operations as the focus of fighting shifts south here's blinking blinkin speaking in televieve a few minutes ago alongside israel's foreign minister we have to finish the war we have a very brave and hero soldiers they know the dangers but they are going in because they want to bring back the hostages it's very very important to us and to bring back the security to our people i just come as you know from a number of countries in the region i look forward to sharing with you some of what i've heard from colleagues around the region i know of your own efforts over many years to build much greater connectivity and integration in the middle east and i think there actually are real opportunities there but we have to get through this very challenging moment ensure that october 7th can never happen again and work to build a much different and much better future and of course we'll be also seeing hostage families later today talking about the relentless efforts that we're both making to bring people home to bring people back our correspondent nicole scenic is covering uh anthony blinkin's very busy day he's already held several meetings with many more to go nicole tell us more yes well as you were just hearing from blinkin and the israel foreign minister israel cats just talking about this continued trip and all of blinkin's efforts now as you stated it's a very busy day but he's already knocked at least two of those meetings off the bat with not only the foreign minister but earlier before that is really president isaac herzog as well and according to a readout between their meeting president herzog thanked blinkin for coming here for the united states continued support but also reiterated to blinkin that in his words israel is doing everything they can to to protect civilian lives in gaza he said they are dropping leaflets they are calling people they are doing everything they can to try and limit uh the the amount of civilian casualties in the gaza strip and this is exactly what the united states continues to push for for limiting the amount of casualties and also pushing forward to a less intensive phase of the war now blinkin reportedly told herzog thank you once again for for having me and also as we just heard saying a similar message to what he said to foreign minister cats touting how much he's learned from his regional tour here meeting with different representatives in saudi arabia and the ua e in jordan saying that he's hopeful that he'll get to share some of those lessons he's learned not only with the president and the foreign minister but later in the day as well prime minister benjamin netanyahu the israeli war cabinet heads of the masad in the shimbay and of course as he said the families of hostages and we saw quite a big demonstration out here actually a very loud demonstration of some of those enraged family members and friends and protesters who continue to push for the release of those hostages in fact i spoke to manian daniel who's good friend her schulber pullin an american israeli citizen is still held captive in gaza one of the 136 people still held captive and in his words he says it's up to the united states right now really to have some sort of a hostage really steal i know they have good intentions and all but let's say just like israel and everybody else on the political map they're taking too many kind of considerations political and different kinds of which are altogether dragging not only my good sweet sweet sweet hearted her sh friend his family so many other families and of the hostages but the whole region if not the entire western civilization at the moment down down to hell and it's not ending and it's not like i don't want to get hamas obviously disappear but there's reality and in reality they all know that's going to take a lot of time and there's other better ways to do it and to be honest the only one from all of these from egypt katar israel the states the only person in the world has honestly really has the power to make everybody do this differently and get a deal now to save so many lives of innocent people children hostages women being held captive is joe biden the only person on earth and the sign that daniel was holding it said biden only you can save them and this was the message that many of these demonstrators wanted to show to antony blinken united states and also the israeli officials as well continuing to urge the israeli officials to then urge their us counterparts to do everything they can to release the hostages so that's certainly on the agenda for us secretary of state antony blinken as he is here but also as we're talking it's not just the hostages he has a lot of priorities about how the next phase of this war is going to look specifically for the palestinians in the gaza strip and one thing that's also on the agenda is for him talking about moving some of those displaced gazzians back to the north after the idf has gained operational control in the northern part of the gaza strip so we're speaking humanitarian aid displaced residents and really just what's going to happen next for this next phase inside gaza all right the call thanks so much for that update live for us in televieve here in studio i'm joined by rafael urshalmi a former idf senior intelligence officer and also our middle east correspondent ariel osaron aerial as the war continues in the in the gaza strip i want to note overnight four idf soldiers confirmed killed in firefights with hama six other soldiers critically wounded the battle certainly very intense in the central part of the strip also today a lot of violence and attacks regarding the northern front with hezbollah what's the latest look jeff i think in up until a few weeks ago the focal point of the war was indeed in the south but about three weeks ago i think the pendulum shifted and the in terms of the dangerous border that is the situation more in the north we're talking about these images that we're seeing on screen right now are images from southern lebanon from the village of randoria which is near the litany river where um three hezbollah operatives were uh were taken out in a uh alleged idf drone strike israel obviously not commenting on this but all media in lebanon pointing the finger towards the israeli air force this is not an area particularly close to the border this isn't a border scrimmage this strike happened about 10 11 miles you know the 15 to 20 kilometers away from the border it's a significant distance from the actual border fence significant distance and it is in an area where hezbollah um central has a lot of uh command centers uh in that area given that it's not directly on the border but it is south of the litany river and according to uh urn resolution 1701 hezbollah is not allowed to conduct military operations not allowed to hold weapons south of the litany river randoria is there and so this uh doesn't absolve hezbollah obviously the fact that they're not adjacent to the border but this is an indication and you're right to point out that it's not directly on the border and this is a little further in and we're seeing in indeed israel kind of raised the level of escalation regarding its operations in southern lebanon to include operations that eliminate significant excuse me commanders that take out significant infrastructure that take out multi-story buildings these are new developments that we have not seen up until a couple weeks ago maybe even until last week with the big shift that we saw um with the elimination of salah el-aruri hamas da pideen beirut yesterday we saw tawil one of the uh perhaps the the acting commander of the red one force which is the main target of israel's operations or its goal its main target uh and its operation in southern lebanon but indeed we're seeing another strike of israel against hezbollah alleged strike by israel against hezbollah assets and the the price of these assets continue to rise for hezbollah and rafael in response hezbollah has had a morning of uh flurry of attacks into israel drone incursions at least drone alarms incoming aircraft alarms going off sometimes you know that there are alarms across many communities because uncertainty of where a drone is flying or where it's located exactly but many reports of incoming drones several rocket attacks as well targeting spot as a ariel mentioned you know this this area in lebanon is a significant distance from the border itself about uh you know 15 kilometers or so from the from the border just south of the latani river hezbollah attacking spot today which is about 50 kilometers from the border it's a significant distance it seems that the uh geographical location of these strikes is becoming wider on both sides so it looks like there is a very strong stern determination on both sides nobody seems to give up that hezbollah is not retreating further north away from the israeli border and the israelis are not uh like appeasing the game on the country they're striking harder they're inflicting pain targeted the killings are the best way to inflict pain to the leaders of the hezbollah and so we do not see how we can avoid now a major clash uh already there actually today we're really clashing pretty hard uh with the hezbollah and they're fighting back welcome mr blinken to the middle east that's quite welcome and honestly we i do not see how we can avoid a larger conflict the americans are being showing this is the first trip of mr blinken that they have no leverage on anybody they haven't achieved anything the only leverage they managed to apply is on israel because of the help they give to israel but they haven't put any pressure on the lebanon on the turks and the egyptians um on the qataris it hasn't worked uh also i think they miss read them up they say that they're afraid of an escalation would we attack hezbollah or be in food fledged war with hezbollah that would destabilize the region i think the region is pretty stable if you look at it since the beginning of the war it's one of the times it's been even the most stable and we even see that the normalization process is just on hold but not finished so they're not really reading the map quite very well i want to note of course the war goes on in gaza overnight a particularly deadly day four soldiers killed in gaza fighting six others seriously wounded let's go live to our correspondent piercol schindler update as the war goes on there into its fourth month yeah right the four soldiers uh the the way they died in the fighting gives you an indication of the nature of the fighting three of them died in the area of hanyunas in the southern sector of the gaza strip one by detonation of an explosive it could be a friendly explosive in inverted comma that means an incident an accident while trying to neutralize a tunnel shaft for instance another one died in from an rpg anti tank rocket explosion and another one died in close combat in clashes with hamas terrorists another one died in the central sector of the gaza strip which is just behind me right now so the thrust of the offensive and there it's a high intensity warfare is the central sector of the three refugee camp el borage noserat almorazi and the city of dir el balach and then further south hanyunas in the northern sector in this direction including gaza city there's a low intensity warfare for a few days now they've the idea has cut down the forces at least three brigades of reservists have been demobilized two brigades of conscript have been returned to their base for further training and there the army is operating on pinpoint information intelligence and are performing raids now you just heard the artillery outgoing because the front here is quite active there's a an air force jet just flying over us we can clearly hear the roar of the air force jet and you've got this artillery fire on presumed terror targets jeff thank you apia for that update along the israel gaza border back here in studio rafael we hear both in english first in english then later on in heber from both the defense minister and top idea of commanders that this is a new phase it's going to be a less intense phase and yet the same time we also hear that operations are expanding intensifying in hanyunas especially is the war actually winding down and should it be is it time perhaps to uh to question how much more can be gained with fighting at this point so according to the areas at stake the intensity of the war should be measured differently in the north it is obvious that we have general overall control of the theater of operation there is no need to sit on the ground and to sit in huge numbers of troops on the ground we can have like a relative retreat we can liberate and it has been done a few brigades of reservists have been sent back home and we can proceed in a more serene way into destroying whatever is left whatever is still kicking in the north in the south it's a completely different ball game hanyunas on the contrary needs an intensification of the operation because as we're nearing the goal which is reaching the high leaders of the ramas we need to put more and more pressure as it goes we have of course the problem of the hostages by now we know where Mr. Sinoir is hiding we do know where he is we just cannot do anything because he's surrounded by this human shield of Israeli hostages but we still can apply pressure from outside to try to frighten him somehow or force him into negotiating a reasonable deal anyway but the problem is that Mr. Sinoir knows that by the time the hostages will be liberated if he accepts ever to liberate them he is finished because then we can do what we want so at this point does Hamas feel and are they correct perhaps in their assessment is Sinoir correct if he thinks he can wait this out yes the signal for him is that the IDF and Israelis are getting a bit tired that they want to slow down the pace that is too much to keep up this level of intense combat for a long time that's how he interprets they interpret this and they also say that they're still kicking so far he sees that these military branch is still kicking he thinks he's in control he thinks he might get away with it which is of course completely wrong he has lost the war he has lost the control of the Gaza Strip and if nobody will stop us we will finish him off and we will finish the Hamas off but for the time being Mr. Sinoir doesn't see it that way he's disconnected from the reality whereas his partners in Doha are much more realistic about it and they already speaking of disarming the military branch of the Hamas and just changing the Hamas into some kind of political beast without the weapons and the mingling with maybe the Palestinian autonomy or having complete but in the tunnels in the bunker Mr. Sinoir doesn't see that he thinks he's still fighting and that's the mentality of the person we're dealing with now so long as he can inflict damage to Israel he will be happy he will be satisfied it doesn't matter to him how much damage the Palestinian people or even his own troops are suffering what matters to him is only what damage he can inflict on the enemy and so long and he can do that he will keep up the fight the question now becomes perhaps how to get the hostages home there's so much talk on both the American side and Israeli side of a movement that may allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans of Palestinian families to go back to the north Israel reportedly opened to the idea perhaps of letting movement back to the north but there has to be movement in the hostage negotiation deal where do you stand on that idea here moving these people back to the north is silly there is nothing to move back to so this this is can only happen when there is a peaceful environment in which you can reconstruct and you can it's not responsible even to send the women and children back there there are still terrorists there and there are still fights going on there also doing that will enable Hamas terrorists to mingle with the population and use that movement of population to re-enter their assets in the north so it's completely ridiculous and you have absolutely zero effect on Mr. Sinoir and the hostage situation because this is not there is no leverage as I said before Mr. Sinoir might accept some kind of a truth long-term truth to liberate some hostages but he will never get rid of them until the last moment because there are he's a life insurance there are the human shield is counting on to save his own skin and to continue functioning so there's no way we can do anything there is no leverage a humanitarian leverage political leverage diplomatic leverage nothing that is the strength of Mr. Sinoir is that there's nothing that touches him that would convince him to negotiate apart from his own personal interest as the leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip and I'll note some of the updates here on the attacks in the north that a drone fired launched by Hezbollah has landed our correspondents are able to confirm into some kind of IDF command base in the north I believe we have video or if not we're going to work on getting video here into the newsroom but an idea a Hezbollah drone landing in the north no reports of injuries yet with us now is Johannathan Sabin the spokesperson of the resilience and medical team hostages and missing families forum speaking here on the situation in Gaza thank you so much Johannathan for being with me tell me your thoughts here on the idea of the importance the urgency of some kind of progress to get the hostages freed from Hamas captivity how important how crucial is it in the days to come it's extremely crucial I mean 100 days since the since the kidnapping of the of more than 240 hostages we still have more than 100 hostages left in Gaza and they are in their immediate danger to their to their lives at the moment most of them suffer from pre-existing illnesses and disease many of them were hurt during the during the kidnap itself and we're talking about the condition of the captivity themselves poor diet lack of light you know the mental their mental state at the moment there are all the hostages now are in immediate risk of their life I want to ask you the conditions of the hostages and we have had released Hamas has released some horrible video but confirming several of proof of life from several of the captives talk to me a little bit here perhaps on the intervention of the Americans intervention of the Red Cross is there anything that more that can be done in the immediate term to get them help even if they're still inside Gaza I mean we're still you know we are we're still one we still want the Red Cross to come and visit get inside and visit and meet the hostages which is not happening due to the fact that Hamas is not allowing the Red Cross to do that but I think we still need to see more public pressure by the ICRC and by the international committee to allow to call Hamas to meet the hostages to allow the international humanitarian organizations to come and visit the hostages supply them with their medical needs and their and their medicines immediately. Do you think that there will be or do you hope that there will be in light of Anthony Blinken's visit here today to Israel some kind of announcement some kind of progress on that deal on that issue. Well I don't know what's going to happen in the meeting what I know is that we need the hostages home now immediately and that's what we need to do and that's what everyone needs to call and act and do whatever they can in order to bring all the hostages back home now. All right Jonathan thank you so much for being with us here on i20news appreciate your time the back here in studio also Rafael I want to note the West Bank also a third front here major operations last night again this every night we're seeing arrests of terrorists big concerns big warnings coming from top officials into the defense ministry and to the prime minister's office that the West Bank may erupt as well how concerned are you about that? Very concerned and I'm afraid the political level is dysfunctional on this matter it is very clear by now that we are on the brink of a boiling point that could lead even the word has been pronounced by security services the word anti-fada certain anti-fada why because we have first of all if you consider that the 150 000 people are out of work now that they had permits to work in Israel on a daily basis for three months now these 150 000 workers are stuck at home without any means of survival this means that with their families you're talking more than half a million Palestinians in dire straits just as dire as the Gazan population and that's very good terrain for the terrorists to exploit and manipulate and so the security services advise very strongly that these work permits should be given back to these workers they will of course ensure the screening of who he can go back to work but they should go back and it's also actually an economic need on the Israeli side there are many businesses who are in distress because they do not have these workers but anyway to have these people go back to work and have some kind of income so they do not come further for the terrorist propaganda and the second thing is to retrocede the tax monies that Israel is holding up to retrocede it to the Palestinian autonomy to have this influx of money because that there again you have like the police and the civil servants of the Palestinian autonomy also not getting paid because of that lack of money all this is only contributing to a very very bad tense atmosphere in the West Bank which until now actually was quiet the Palestinian street has been quiet Mr. Sinoir and the Hamas have not succeeded in inflaming the Palestinian people so we should preserve this this atmosphere thank you so much for that analysis Rafael good to have you in studio more updates coming up soon stay with us right here on i-20. Israel is in a state of war families completely gunned down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. It was this morning for the latest live updates from Israel as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken continues his trip through the Middle East today he is in Israel is it is his fourth trip here since the Hamas war began more than three months ago right now he's finishing up a meeting with Israel's foreign minister he just met this morning also with Israel's president Isaac Herzog then after that today he has a flurry of meetings with other ministers and IDF generals the message from Blinken's boss the president is very clear Israel needs to get out of Gaza in a significant and meaningful way top IDF commanders this weekend have already given English language interviews saying the war is now in a new less intense phase that will require certainly in the north fewer airstrikes and ground operations as the focus of fighting shifts south here's Blinken speaking in Tel Aviv a few minutes ago alongside Israel's foreign minister we have to finish the war we have a very brave and hero soldiers they know the dangers but they are going in because they want to bring back the hostages it's very very important to us and to bring back the security to our people I just come as you know from a number of countries in the region I look forward to sharing with you some of what I've heard from colleagues around the region I know of your own efforts over many years to build much greater connectivity and integration in the Middle East and I think there actually are real opportunities there but we have to get through this very challenging moment ensure that October 7th can never happen again and work to build a much different and much better future and of course we'll be also seeing hostage families later today talking about the relentless efforts that we're both making to bring people home to bring people back our correspondent Nicole Sinek is covering Anthony Blinken's very busy day he's already held several meetings with many more to go Nicole tell us more yes well as you were just hearing from Blinken and the Israel foreign minister Israel Katz just talking about this continued trip and all of Blinken's efforts now as you stated it's a very busy day but he's already knocked at least two of those meetings off the bat with not only the foreign minister but earlier before that Israeli president Isaac Herzog as well and according to a readout between their meeting president Herzog thanked Blinken for coming here for the United States continued support but also reiterated to Blinken that in his words Israel is doing everything they can to to protect civilian lives in Gaza he said they are dropping leaflets they are calling people they are doing everything they can to try and limit the the amount of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and this is exactly what the United States continues to push for for limiting the amount of casualties and also pushing forward to a less intensive phase of the war now Blinken reportedly told Herzog thank you once again for for having me and also as we just heard saying a similar message to what he said to foreign minister Katz touting how much he's learned from his regional tour here meeting with different representatives in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Jordan saying that he's hopeful that he'll get to share some of those lessons he's learned not only with the president and the foreign minister but later in the day as well Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli war cabinet heads of the Mossad in the Shimbab and of course as he said the families of hostages and we saw quite a big demonstration out here actually a very loud demonstration of some of those enraged family members and friends and protesters who continue to push for the release of those hostages in fact I spoke to many Daniel who's good friend Hirsch Gulbur pulling an American Israeli citizen is still held captive in Gaza one of the 136 people still held captive and in his words he says that it's up to the United States right now really to have some sort of a hostage really steal I know they have good intentions and all about let's say just like Israel and everybody else on the political map they're taking too many kind of considerations political and different kinds of which are altogether dragging not only my good sweet sweet sweet hearted Hirsch friend his family so many other families and of the hostages but the whole region if not the entire western civilization at the moment down down to hell and it's not ending and it's not like I don't want to get Hamas obviously disappear but it's reality and in reality they all know that's going to take a lot of time and there's other better ways to do it and to be honest the only one from all of these from Egypt Qatar Israel the states the only person in the world has honestly really has the power to make everybody do this differently and get a deal now to save so many lives of innocent people children hostages women being held captive is Joe Biden the only person on earth and the sign that Daniel was holding it said Biden only you can save them and this was the message that many of these demonstrators wanted to show to Anthony Blinken the United States and also the Israeli officials as well continuing to urge the Israeli officials to then urge their US counterparts to do everything they can to release the hostages so that's certainly on the agenda for US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as he is here but also as we're talking it's not just the hostages he has a lot of priorities about how the next phase of this war is going to look specifically for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and one thing that's also on the agenda is for him talking about moving some of those displaced Gazans back to the north after the IDF has gained operational control on the northern part of the Gaza Strip so we're speaking humanitarian aid displaced residents and really just what's going to happen next for this next phase inside Gaza all right the call thanks so much for that update live for us in Tel Aviv here in studio I'm joined by Rafael Urshalami a former IDF senior intelligence officer and also our Middle East correspondent Ariel Oceran Ariel as the war continues in the in the Gaza Strip I want to note overnight four IDF soldiers confirmed killed in firefights with Hamas six other soldiers critically wounded the battle certainly very intense in the central part of the strip also today a lot of violence and attacks regarding the northern front with Hezbollah what's the latest look Jeff I think in up until a few weeks ago the focal point of the war was indeed in the south but about three weeks ago I think the pendulum shifted and the in terms of the dangerous border that is the situation more in the north we're talking about these images that we're seeing on screen right now are images from southern Lebanon from the village of Randoria which is near the Litany River where three Hezbollah operatives were were taken out in a alleged IDF drone strike Israel obviously not commenting on this but all media in Lebanon pointing the finger towards the Israeli Air Force this is not an area particularly close to the border this isn't a border scrimmage this strike happened about 10 11 miles 15 to 20 kilometers away from the border it's a significant distance from the actual border fence significant distance and it is in an area where Hezbollah has a lot of command centers in that area given that it's not directly on the border but it is south of the Litany River and according to UN resolution 1701 Hezbollah is not allowed to conduct military operations not allowed to hold weapons south of the Litany River and Doria is there and so this doesn't absolve Hezbollah obviously the fact that they're not adjacent to the border but this is an indication and you're right to point out that it's not directly on the border and this is a little further in and we're seeing indeed Israel kind of raised the level of escalation regarding its operations in southern Lebanon to include operations that eliminate significant excuse me commanders that take out significant infrastructure that take out multi-story buildings these are new developments that we have not seen up until a couple weeks ago maybe even until last week with the big shift that we saw with the elimination of Saleh el-Rouri Hamas Dapidin Beirut yesterday Weesam Tawil one of the perhaps the acting commander of the Red One Force which is the main target of Israel's operations or its goal its main target and its operation in southern Lebanon but indeed we're seeing another strike of Israel against Hezbollah alleged strike by Israel against Hezbollah assets and the price of these assets continue to rise for Hezbollah and Rafael in response Hezbollah has had a morning of flurry of attacks into Israel drone incursions at least drone alarms incoming aircraft alarms going off sometimes you know there are alarms across many communities because uncertainty of where a drone is flying or where it's located exactly but many reports of incoming drones several rocket attacks as well targeting spot as Ariel mentioned you know this area in Lebanon is a significant distance from the border itself about you know 15 kilometers or so from the the border just south of the Latani River Hezbollah attacking spot today which is about 50 kilometers from the border it's a significant distance it seems that the geographical location of these strikes is becoming wider on both sides so it looks like there is a very strong stern determination on both sides nobody seems to give up and Hezbollah is not retreating further north away from the Israeli border and the Israelis are not like appeasing the game on the contrary they're striking harder they're inflicting pain targeted killings are the best way to inflict pain to the leaders of the Hezbollah and so we do not see how we can avoid now a major clash already there actually today we're really clashing pretty hard with Hezbollah and they're fighting back welcome Mr. Blinken to the Middle East that's quite welcome and honestly we I do not see how we can avoid a larger conflict the Americans have been showing this is the first trip of Mr. Blinken that they have no leverage on anybody they haven't achieved anything the only leverage they managed to apply is on Israel because of the help they give to Israel but they haven't put any pressure on the Lebanon on the Turks and the Egyptians and on the Qataris it hasn't worked also I think they misread the map they say that they're afraid of an escalation would we attack Hezbollah or be in food fledged war with Hezbollah that would destabilize the region I think the region is pretty stable if you look at it since the beginning of the war it's one of the times it's been even the most stable and we even see that the normalization process is just on hold but not finished so they're not really reading the map quite very well I want to note of course the war goes on and Gaza overnight a particularly deadly day four soldiers killed in Gaza fighting six others seriously wounded let's go live to our correspondent Pierre Colchandler for an update as the war goes on there into its fourth month yeah right the four soldiers the the way they died in the fighting gives you an indication of the nature of the fighting three of them died in the area of Hanyunas in the southern sector of the Gaza Strip one by detonation of an explosive it could be a friendly explosive in inverted comma that means an incident an accident while trying to neutralize a tunnel shaft for instance another one died in from an RPG anti-tank rocket explosion and another one died in close combat in clashes with Hamas terrorists another one died in the central sector of the Gaza Strip which is just behind me right now so the thrust of the offensive and there it's a high intensity warfare is the central sector of the three refugee camp El Burej Nusserat Almorazi and the city of Direl Balak and then further south Hanyunas in the northern sector in this direction including Gaza city there is a low intensity warfare for a few days now they've the IDF have has cut down the forces at least three brigades of reservists have been demobilized two brigades of conscript have been returned to their base for further training and there the army is operating on pinpoint information intelligence and our performing red raids now you just heard the artillery outgoing because the front here is quite active there's a an air force jet just flying over us we can clearly hear the roar of the FOS jet and you've got this artillery fire on presumed air targets Jeff thank you appear for that update along the Israel Gaza border back here in studio Rafael we hear both in English first in English then later on in Hebrew from both the defense minister and top IDF commanders that this is a new phase it's going to be a less intense phase and yet the same time we also hear that operations are expanding intensifying in Hanyunas especially is the war actually winding down and should it be is it time perhaps to question how much more can be gained with fighting at this point so according to the areas at stake the intensity of the war should be measured differently in the north it is obvious that we have general overall control of the theater of operation there is no need to sit on the ground and to sit in huge numbers of troops on the ground we can have like a relative retreat we can liberate and it has been done a few brigades of reservists have been sent back home and we can proceed in a more serene way into destroying whatever is left whatever is still kicking in the north in the south it's a completely different ball game Hanyunas on the country needs an intensification of the operation because as we're nearing the goal which is reaching the high leaders of the Hamas we need to put more and more pressure as it goes we have of course the problem of the hostages by now we know where Mr. Sinoir is hiding we do know where he is we just cannot do anything because he's surrounded by this human shield of Israeli hostages but we still can apply pressure from outside trying to frighten him somehow or force him into negotiating a reasonable deal anyway but the problem is that Mr. Sinoir knows that by the time the hostages will be liberated if he accepts ever to liberate them he is finished because then we can do what we want so at this point does Hamas feel and are they correct perhaps in their assessment is Sinoir correct if he thinks he can wait this out yes the signal for him is that the IDF and Israelis are getting a bit tired that they want to slow down the pace that is too much to keep up this level of intense combat for a long time that's how he interprets they interpret this and they also say that they're still kicking so far he sees that the military branch is still kicking he thinks he's in control he thinks he might get away with it which is of course completely wrong he has lost the war he has lost the control of the Gaza Strip and if nobody will stop us we will finish him off and we will finish the Hamas off but for the time being Mr. Sinoir doesn't see it that way he's disconnected from the reality whereas his partners in Doha are much more realistic about it and already speaking of disarming the military branch of the Hamas and just changing the Hamas into some kind of political beast without the weapons and the mingling with maybe the Palestinian autonomy or having complete but in the tunnels in the bunker Mr. Sinoir doesn't see that he thinks he's still fighting and that's the mentality of the person we're dealing with so long as he can inflict damage to Israel he will be happy he will be satisfied it doesn't matter to him how much damage the Palestinian people or even his own troops are suffering what matters to him is only what damage he can inflict on the enemy and so long and he can do that he will keep up the fight the question now becomes perhaps how to get the hostages home there's so much talk on both the American side and the Israeli side of a movement that may allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans of Palestinian families to go back to the north Israel reportedly opened to the idea perhaps of letting movement back to the north but there has to be movement in the hostage negotiation deal where do you stand on that idea here moving these people back to the north is silly there is nothing to move back to so this this is a can only happen when there is a peaceful environment in which you can reconstruct and you can it's not responsible even to send the women and children back there there are still terrorists there and there are still fights going on there also doing that will enable Hamas terrorists to mingle with the population and use that movement of population to re-enter their assets in the north so it's completely ridiculous and you have absolutely zero effect on Mr. Sinois and the hostage situation because this is not there is no leverage as I said before Mr. Sinois might accept some kind of a truth long-term truth to liberate some hostages but he will never get rid of them until the last moment because there are he's a life insurance that the human shield is counting on to save his own skin and to continue functioning so there's no way we can do anything there is no leverage a humanitarian leverage political leverage diplomatic leverage nothing that is the strength of Mr. Sinois is that there's nothing that touches him that would convince him to negotiate apart from his own personal interest as the leader of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip and I'll note some of the updates here on the attacks in the north that a drone fired launched by Hezbollah has landed our correspondents are able to confirm into some kind of IDF command base in the north I believe we have video or if not we're going to work on getting video here into the newsroom but an ID Hezbollah drone landing in the north no reports of injuries yet with us now is Johannes Saban the spokesperson of the resilience and medical team hostages and missing families forum speaking here on the situation in Gaza thank you so much Johannes for being with me tell me your thoughts here on the idea of the importance the urgency of some kind of progress to get the hostages freed from Hamas captivity how important how crucial is it in the days to come it's extremely crucial I mean 100 days since the since the kidnapping of the of modern 240 hostages we still have more than 300 hostages left in Gaza and they are in the immediate danger to their to their lives at the moment most of them suffer from pre-existing illnesses and disease many of them were hurt during the during the kidnap itself and we're talking about the condition of the captivity in themselves poor diet lack of light you know the mental their mental state at the moment there are all the hostages now are in immediate risk of their life the conditions of the hostages and we have had released Hamas has released some horrible video but confirming several of proof of life from several of the captives talk to me a little bit here perhaps on the intervention of the Americans intervention of the Red Cross is there anything that more that can be done in the immediate term to get them help even if they're still inside Gaza I mean we're still you know we are we're still one we still want the Red Cross to come and visit get inside and visit and meet the hostages which is not happening due to the fact that Hamas is not allowing the Red Cross to to do that but I think we still need to see more public pressure by the ICRC and by the international committee to allow to call Hamas to meet the hostages to allow the international humanitarian organizations to come and visit the hostages supply them with their medical needs and their and their medicines immediately do you think that there will be or do you hope that there will be in light of Anthony Blinken's visit here today to Israel some kind of announcement some kind of progress on that deal on that issue well I don't know what's going to happen we're in the meeting what I know is that we need the hostages home now immediately and that's what we need to do and that's what everyone needs to call and act and do whatever they can in order to bring all the hostages back home now all right Jonathan thank you so much for being with us here on i-20s appreciate your time the back here in studio also Rafael I want to note the West Bank also a third front here major operations last night again this every night we're seeing arrests of terrorists big concerns big warnings coming from top officials into the defense ministry and to the prime minister's office that the West Bank may erupt as well how concerned are you about that very concerned and i'm afraid the political level is dysfunctional on this matter it is very clear by now that we are on the brink of a boiling point that could lead even the word has been pronounced by security services the word anti fadda certain to fadda why because we have first of all if you consider that 150 000 people are out of work now that they would add permits to work in israel on a daily basis for three months now these 150 000 workers are stuck at home without any means of survival this means that with their families you're talking more than half a million Palestinians in dire straits just as dire as the gas and population and that that's a very good terrain for the terrorists to exploit and manipulate and so the security services advise very strongly that these work permits should be given back to these workers they will of course ensure the screening of who he can go back to work but they should go back and it's also an actually an economic need on the israeli side there are many businesses who are in distress because they do not have these workers but anyway to have these people go back to work and have some kind of income so they do not come further for the terrorist propaganda and the second thing is to retrocede the tax monies that israel is holding up to retrocede it to the palestinian autonomy to have this influx of money because that there again you have like the police and the civil servants of the palestinian autonomy also not getting paid because of that lack of money all these is only contributing to a very very bad tense atmosphere in the west bank which until now actually was quiet the palestinian street has been quiet mr sinwar and the ramas have not succeeded in inflaming the palestinian people so we should preserve this this atmosphere thank you so much for that analysis rafael good to have you in studio more updates coming up soon stay with us right here on i-24 you know that martin luther king's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the promised land well now 55 years later his prophetic words are coming true hundreds of african-american women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land we'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of african-americans security and military officials have acknowledged the intelligence failures that allowed hamas to plan and execute the october seventh attacks but new details have emerged in a report from the new york times describing how hamas financed its activities with the portfolio of investments a financial network that the newspaper says israel's leaders were aware of but did not shut down with more here's our correspondent robert swift as early as 2015 israelian us officials became aware of a network of companies that not only funded hamas but were owned and controlled by it an empire that was worth an estimated half a billion dollars while organizations like isis and al qaeda have frequently used fronts to launder money hamas's portfolio was a genuine enterprise launched with seed money to go out to make a profit the new york times reports it reportedly included mining chicken farming and roadbuilding firms in sudan two skyscrapers in the united arab emirates a property developer in algeria and trend a real estate company listed on the turkish stock exchange an israeli financial intelligence team task force harpoon began tracking the investments flagging up their concerns to us counterparts and the israeli cabinet but the threat from iran and the finances it distributed to its proxies hamas among them ultimately eclipsed fears over the hamas portfolio and at the time the israeli security services consensus was that money flowing into gaza would help tame hamas rather than arming it for the next attack a strategy led by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu regarding this published investigation i am not familiar with it and i suggest you wait until after the war a thorough examination and a thorough investigation of all these things will be done and the picture will become clearer while there were some sanctions placed on businesses and individuals in 2022 ultimately the flow of money from it was not disrupted money that israeli intelligence assesses was directly invested into hamas's military preparations cyber attack directed against aran over the past day the backer of the hooties of course may indicate that israel is also now seeking its own indirect response to address this issue our correspondent robert swift has more in this report as much as 70 percent of the petrol stations across aran were disrupted monday with iranian authorities citing a possible cyber attack as the cause some people say it was hacked some people say well we wonder if maybe there is a shortage but these are all questions that need to be answered by a high-ranking authority iranian state media singled out hacking group predatory sparrow as responsible it has been linked by israeli media in the past to unit 8 200 israel signals intelligence agency this cyber attack comes in response to the aggression of the islamic republic and its proxies in the region the hacker said in a statement in persian and english on telegram the incident occurs as israel's allies search for an appropriate response to hootie attacks against cargo ships passing the babel mandab straight this is a battle against the iranian axis the iranian axis of terror which is now threatening to close the maritime street of babel mandab this threatens the freedom of navigation of the entire world so in the red sea we're leading a multinational maritime task force to uphold the bedrock principle of freedom of navigation iran's support for hootie attacks on commercial vessels must stop part of iran's network of proxies the emin base group says it will attack any ships approaching israeli ports while fighting in gaza continues its drone and missile attacks have escalated in the last week causing numerous shipping lines to cancel voyages through the red sea placing a squeeze on the economies of israel and neighboring countries like egypt as well as international energy markets a cyber attack may be an efficient means for israel to reach into iran in response to the hootie actions on its southern front the question is whether his impact will be sufficient to alter the yanny group's behavior let's talk about alina tovenberg a makeup artist and a body painter that is known for her uv body paints and on october 7th she found herself on the front line during the hamas attack at the nova festival near the gaza border i24 news reporter orish apira brings her story alina tovberg didn't believe in divine intervention until october 7 her years she's worked as a makeup artist and body painter working at the nova festival was only natural for her we came to the field on thursday and stayed for the entire weekend we decided to stay at nova i was attracted to the wonderful people who came there the perfect place and the unique atmosphere in the air so i decided to stay at 6 20 a.m we saw this amazing sunrise i was just finishing painting elinor my last painting i gave her a hug and a kiss and went on dancing on the floor everybody was waiting for the sunrise 15 minutes earlier my partner tom air gave me a glass of tea and told me that he wanted to go to the car because he was tired it seemed very strange to me because he never acts like that but in retrospect this is what for me resembled the first miracle that happened to me i looked to the horizon and i saw heavy smoke very dark to see the smoke inside this beautiful place felt very strange to me and i immediately closed my makeup kit suddenly we started to hear booms the music was still on we could hear the bits but we heard the shooting mixed with the trance music after three to four minutes they shut down the music and the chaos began it was a sharp transition people were at their peak and suddenly everything was shut down and you find yourself in a war at a certain point alina's partner could not start his car the group found itself in a survivor scenario we split into two areas in one place i took care of girls who were in panic in the other spot tom air tried to fix the car he asked his brother to bring people to help and he got a call from his brother and heard that he'd been shot tom air understood that there were terrorists in the area he managed to find someone who helped him fix the car this angel is not with us today we drove like crazy to kibbutz rayim a black truck tried to crash into us but tom air managed to escape it was another miracle it was a matter of seconds then we managed to get to rayim god opened the gate for us alina says that everyone she's painted that night survived one of the people alina remembers the most is a young woman named elinor who elina painted when the hamas attack began elinor hid inside the fridge and survived this short soundtrack we hear the moments of horror when elinor saying goodbye to her eight-year-old son i painted on elinor an image of a woman full of light and hope more than two months after october 7 lina took part in an exhibition in televiv dedicated to the nova rave she rebuilt the boot where she walked at that night i remember every painting i made that night each painting i made that night became a part of me it became a part of my family a part of my story there is alina and there is my art and there is this night and this night laid down roots now we turned to the story of ophir engel one of 110 hamas hostages that were released from captivity last month now he's attempting to return as best he can to his normal life but the events of october 7th and almost two months in captivity in gaza still haunt him here's his story adapted from local channel 12 the romantic trip of these two teenagers of fir engel and his friend yuval sharabi to belgrade in time for christmas season to see his favorite basketball team apoyl jerusalem is accompanied with immense distress 18-year-old of fir was released from gaza two weeks ago but yuval's father and uncle remain in hamas captivity how does it feel to fly right now exciting but weird a little yuval a little because dad is still there yes we miss them so much they're probably in the tunnel or in a house on that black saturday of fir a 12th grade student from kibbutz ramat rachel near jerusalem was with 17-year-old yuvalin baeri during the sirens the two together with yuvals parents and two sisters entered the safe room it was 10 in the morning when the terrorists broke in and what do you see three terrorists enter with guns two with guns one with an rpg first thing they shoot the dog shoot the dog first they're very afraid of dogs and then just take us all downstairs are they speaking with you in arabic they say to you itba al-yehud and there they got us all up they took us to the road and a black car was just waiting there there's a black car waiting for us they motioned in opening the door her father yosie went in first and then she and i held hands she's already getting in her foot inside already then they take her out and put me in are the women just taken out no they just leave them with the other two terrorists this is the last image i have in my memory of them are you yelling anything to him i told him i love you did you hear yes did you answer no we're already driving away what i remember is the red eyes fear shock because you don't understand what's going on you see her with two terrorists and in captivity you think she is either dead or kidnapped there is no other option logically and you don't hear anything in captivity about you val nothing nothing two terrorists what are they doing with you the two terrorists just walked away what's going on in the car they just take us to gaza the person sitting in front has a weapon aimed at us like this oh really yes ophir was kidnapped together with yosie yuvall's father and a neighbor 16 year old amit chani 54 days in captivity they saw no other hostages ophir stayed close to his girlfriend's father and yuvall's father calms you down yes he reassured us but obviously everyone is scared so it's calming only for a moment what do you do all day play cards i can't look at another card what did you play a game they taught us are the terrorists also playing with you yes how did they act towards you it is relative to a good situation because no they weren't abused yes we were not abused they were simply psychologically abused they keep saying they don't want you who doesn't want you israel there's only one demonstration in israel there's only one demonstration for a week and the families don't want you to come back they don't take action or do anything you're going to stay here for at least a year things like that in your head you say it won't be a year for sure it'll be five months did you know you would come back i figured i'd be back sometime were you afraid to die there yes i was less afraid that they would kill me because if they wanted to kill me they probably would have killed me on the first day and they wouldn't care about bringing food what food really there was no food what did you eat a peter and a half a peter and a half a day in the morning yes with labneh so what scared you from the booms around that the idea doesn't know our location suddenly a missile would hit fear of death a house near us was bombed it sounded like it hit ours one of the guards was informed that a relative of his had been killed you say to yourself just as long as it doesn't come back at us just don't come back at us what feels most difficult moments were when terrorists moved them twice through the heart of the city when they were completely exposed in total darkness when all around and non-stop explosions when they transferred you it was always overnight do you see gazens obviously yes it was a terrible fear how would you know who's going to turn on you do you think they care no they don't care about each other you know some extremist would kill me and the hamasnik with me and did anyone come see you they had their boss who would come and bring food once every two days who bring a packet of peter bread whatever you eat you eat in these three days did he say anything to you he would come and tell us again that they don't want us and all that he was the main one who was psychologically abusing us did you make a connection with one of them that was more pleasant the one who guarded us was a bit better didn't he say something like death to the jews yes he did say that they know nothing other than that did you try to explain to him say what do you want from me i'm a kid from israel what so he told them a hundred times they said why are you in israel why did your family come to israel what did you answer i told him my grandfather was born here then he tells me you're lying you're lying why would i lie so i just said yes should i argue with him do you see sin war no where they told me this is sin war when they told me you are returning to israel he pointed at someone he said this is sin war but he was so fat and didn't even look like him do you believe them when they tell you you are going back the next day yes because they look happy and to get rid of you yes we are quite a heavy burden for them what did you say to you val's father before you separated nothing we were separated in an instant oh just like this yes just like this i call her and tell her i'm fine i'm alive everything is good what does she say to me shave your beard and then call me did you see what he looked like no you were excited yes yes until i saw him with my own eyes i couldn't believe it is there one moment that you cry or did you suddenly fall apart i asked the soldier on the minibus what about you val her mother and her sisters and they told me they were fine everything is well with them i was in shock crying falling apart yes that was the only thing i was worried about i was just shocked that he was there in front of me i collapsed for a second did it surprise you that she suddenly fell to the floor yes i think she was also a little shocked ophir who played last year on the apoel jerusalem youth basketball team is a diehard fan the team flew him and his family this week for a match against paak des aloniki in the champions league so i had this picture for two months on my shirt and he was in every square and to see him come out of all the demonstrations and the pictures and it comes out to something real on the court how do you say it's double happiness for us afir was locked trapped on gaza for almost two months i don't think any of us expected him to be here i don't think his family expected i don't think he expected to see the smile on the faces not only afir but his family and to the other families here with us as well it moves me a lot oh ophir and yuval's joy at apoel jerusalem's victory at the game and the feeling of freedom in belgrade is momentary the photos of yuval's father yossi and his brother ellie in gaza never leave their mind now as well though heartbreak in israel after three hostages were killed in a case of mistaken identity now families demand an immediate deal for the release of those still held by the hamas terror group these families marched in tel Aviv demanding an end to the fighting so that negotiations can begin they rejected the idea that military force will bring hamas to the negotiating table hamas has vowed that there will be no negotiations until a permanent ceasefire has been reached the position of the israeli state is that hamas cannot be allowed to endure as the group has vowed to commit more raids kidnappings and massacres modeled on october 7th that killed 1200 israelis the overwhelming majority of which were civilians and in the coolest and most sadistic ways possible it is believed the terrorists still hold 128 hostages spread across gaza not all of whom are still alive prime minister netanyahu reiterated he will not succumb to hamas's demands without the military pressure we would not have succeeded in creating an outline that led to the release of 110 hostages and only continued military pressure will lead to the release of all of our hostages my directive to the negotiating team is based on this pressure ceasefire remove our troops they have all kinds of demands so what do we understand as soon as we give in hamas has won we are obligated to eliminate it and return our hostages but will not give up either this goal or that goal and of course this is very concerning to the friends and the families of so many hostages still held by the terrorists one such being amit parpara the friend of noah argamani who is still being held by those terrorists amit i'm glad you could be with us there are no words to console you for what you are going through with your friends still in captivity what is your reaction when you hear the prime minister say this is not going to force a negotiation so thank you for having us we're happy to hear you talk about it i'd say no there's a lot of well feelings come up to your head when you think about all this stuff that are coming up in the news but i certainly believe that israel is trying its best to get out the hostages in the way that they know um and i really hope that the what are the what they are doing right now is going to bring them home safely um just yeah it's you have to believe in what you see and you have to believe in the government that will do everything to spare as he said i mean there were so many of us that were hoping and praying that the military action would succeed in freeing hostages on the ground do you still believe that's a realistic opportunity i think it's always the realest of opportunity i think that coming from both ways not just uh you know a deal is a deal but on the other side you can you never know what is going on on the other side uh we're dealing with terrorists they're not humans it's not it's not dealing with with a country that you know um they'll keep the hostages safe because we can just run out and bring the hostages back and and let them be free and you can never know what is really happening i think that uh what happened is is something that should concern the government and should concern us as the civilians and and should bring us our attention to bring it back to hostages as quick as possible but i believe that the government doesn't what it's best to to get them there so we've seen a lot of the families that were marching in Tel Aviv demanding an immediate ceasefire to start negotiating right now where do you fall on this discussion what should be done i think i personally believe that um um the military may be able to free some hostages but it's there and some i think that we should see we should we should take out the hostages in the deal i don't know if it sees far if it's releasing other hostages i don't know what that really means but i think that taking them out as a whole as a group should be the top priority right now and and to release those who are not in any way um connected to this war it should be the top priority because there's no winning picture without them at home and i think that bringing them whatever ceasefire or whatever it may have been i think that bringing them all them homes should be doing what whatever we need to do i know this is going to be a cruel question and light of everything we've seen in the last few days but when you see these news reports we hear the fate of these hostages that were so close to freedom what goes through your mind about the military operation and the people that are still trapped there um you need to understand that there's a lot of complex complexion when talking about these kind of military events and and much they do i can't blame anyone for what they've done i think that being there and fighting is hard enough but and deciding on the ground is hard i personally um know Aris Haim which is the the mother of uh Yatam Haim i was with her on the location to Australia and back a couple days ago and it's you see it seems like when they're there everything is fine and they can be released and and if they're alive they will come out alive this is the hope at least and because you know that they want them alive uh you know that they will come back to you but as we just saw again i can't blame anything or anyone of these missions but as we just saw no one is safe when they when they are in kama sense no one is safe and bringing them back should be now and not and and some other forms or ways in a couple days and should be now because in each second that you think that they might be alive they can they can get killed and we're talking about people that's that's the hardest thing that everyone needs to remember i mean thank you very much for being with us on this show and we're all praying for exactly what you're praying for that people do come home lose still alive will make it back to their families at the end of this ordeal a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well israel bajo ataque news 24 en español trae el análisis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra espadas de hierro entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra la reacción de los países hispano parlantes news 24 el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en i24 news but decisively the idf is moving deeper into gaza in practically every corner here signs of terrorism are found as the forces rated the private residents of a senior chamas official this is what they found suitcases containing five million shekels roughly 1.5 million us dollars meant purely for terrorism as well as weapons and rocket launchers yes all this in a private residence along with a ground maneuver and the aerial activity there is a constant search for hostages following the tragic incident in which three hostages were mistakenly shot by the idf chief of staff heritia levy came to visit the forces in order to reinforce the rules of conduct in these very delicate situations if it's two gozans with a white flag coming out to surrender would we shoot them absolutely not that's not the idea even those who fought us and now lay down their arms and raise their hands we arrest them we don't shoot them it may be somewhat unfair to judge the soldiers acting in this very tense environment but even if he doesn't say directly the chief of staff believes this incident could have had a different outcome three people came out they took the risk of approaching the idf troops to minimize that risk they took off their shirts so that no one would think they have an explosive device and they held a white cloth on a pole to identify themselves the friday incident and the desperate hebrou signs found in the home where the hostages were held surveys a reminder of this tragic reality a reality that needs to be resolved old yagil and his 16-year-old brother or were held for weeks by Hamas terrorists before they were released on november 27th as part of a temporary ceasefire deal their father though remains at the hands of the terrorists more in this report rena yagil and or who but you know how important it is to empower and strengthen all the children of the gaza envelope i want to invite you to light a seventh hanukkah candle our light the light of all of us is your return home let the light illuminates their way back and a great miracle will be here just before they lit the seventh kennel of hanukkah in a lot we met renana a mother whose two boys returned home only two weeks ago their father is still in gaza in captivity my brothers came to accompany me during these difficult days and forced me to go down here and enter the sea and snorkel to pass the time so on the day when my children went through this whole process and i was waiting nervously i snorkeled i went in from here until we were there to the bridge and back we spent another hour or in yagil were released in the fourth exchange i put crazy pressure on the members of the cabinet so that yagil was on the list because he was held by the islamic jihad he had to be transferred to hamas it was not clear if he was transferred and until there was family reunification they were not ready that was a condition right family reunification our condition so they weren't ready to release both of them and they had to transfer yagil yes everyone knows that yagil was with the jihad he was their presenter they chose the best presenter there was he said they did 50 takes they harassed him all night before that to probably get him to the studio they gave him a message sheet the first thing that was the most important for him to say bb are you listening the most important thing for him was to say that he didn't mean what he said there at all my sons were alone in my house sleeping they got into the safe room they called me scared to death they said they hear someone breaking into our home the door to the safe they were taken from the same house they threatened them with a knife put him up in boxers a boy in boxers with a knife to his throat they put him on an electric bicycle and after he left they took his brother renana who until october 7th was the head of kibbutz holit on october 16th took a new role she led the initiative for the return of the kidnapped children the discussion at that moment was about freeing foreign citizens israeli citizens with foreign passports there was no prioritization for children it took me 48 long hours to get the children's lists i turned to kfaraza i turned to berri and we started working etan stiva brought the money to the initiative professor cehanover was involved along with many other important people and the civic initiative led to four meetings of the parents of the kidnapped children with qatari representatives now the initiative is changing its face fighting for the return of men who remain captive men remained like it's okay my children's father came out injured probably seriously we don't know exactly what his condition is we haven't received any sign of life it keeps me awake and i admit that until you see my son he has to celebrate bar mitzvah we didn't even have the going up to the torah because he wants his father what did your children say there were very complex descriptions of loneliness because they were not together so one was really lonely and the other was with other people from our community to my delight the fact that you are with people who know you and care for you and you have someone to care for is something very significant the other one was really alone alone alone alone alone then he spent another 10 days with a seriously injured tie worker what does a child do alone for 30 days looks at the window learns the azan by heart watches lots and lots of al jazeera unfortunately learns arabic talks to his captors how he puts it i was without a phone so the brain started working he learned about them who they were and how many children they had and he looked and learned about the family sitting across the window he used his head the children are very very very worried about the condition of both their father and other fathers who stayed there including all those they met and were with the knowledge that he is there from the terrible place they were in they know unlike us they also know exactly what it looks like this fact is unbearable for them and how is sheer she is relatively okay singing is very difficult since they returned it's very difficult for her to bear the fact that her father is still there the discourse has become a discourse of another attack in canunis and another rocket hit in televiv in the next step in the strategy game you're playing you moved on to canunis and then you will move on to rafa and it is unbelievable under all this destruction there are 137 people sitting today waiting for you to get them out of there it's insane i'm not a great general the only thing i can say is that at the level of the state's contract moral agreement with its citizens you owe them you owe them get them out of there now you owe it to them these are people whose only sin was that they believed in you enough to sit there and maintain a community on the border between the lighting of the hanukkah candles and the meeting with the president the children as renana says returned to the regular thing from the past they quickly adapted their new life living in a hotel but every morning the first thing they ask is if there is a hostage deal and if dad is on the list and here in israel citizens are increasingly furious at the international red cross for lackluster efforts to secure access to israeli hostages while the icrc says they have no power to force the issue with the hamas terror group the icrc has not even made the token effort to get hostages their necessary medications something that israelis have noticed my son is suffering from asthma he need to use his inhaler and at that time you say that you will do everything in order to help them and i'm sure i'm sure you try and you try to do your best but my son cannot wait anymore and i'm sorry i cannot wait anymore this is his inhaler please make sure that he will get it i don't know the address or visit in gaza but we need he needs to get it and by the way this is your job right this is the job of the red cross please do your job it's worth noting that the international red cross was founded with the explicit purpose of ensuring humanitarian protections and assistance for the victims of war and other situations of violence but for so many israelis the icrc is failing that mission entirely when it comes to the hostages held by hamas in gaza the red cross being quite vocal publicly about the humanitarian situation of the palestinians in gaza but when it comes down to israeli hostages not so much this has drawn ire by the families of those hostages and the loved ones of those held captive in gaza we're gonna have so much more on that in this report adapted from local channel 12 news many emotions on display at the demonstration in front of the jaffa home of alessandra menagon the red cross representative in israel these voices are from all over israel and testify to the broad feelings among the public israelis simply do not like the red cross let her move from jaffa go leaving gaza i don't think she should be here i don't think she should be sharing the same oxygen with me right now so these are some of our offices for our operations we have cooperation um some economic security this week we receive permission to visit the offices of the international red cross in east jerusalem a body that acts discreetly its officials say this is the most successful way to deliver humanitarian aid to war victims around the world we do also have more teams operating in gaza and in the west bank area but the fact is for over 70 days the organization has not met any of the scores of hundreds of hostages held by hamas in gaza they have not provided any humanitarian aid or medicine the red cross says it's not that it doesn't want to it's that it can't people sometimes have the idea that the red cross is an organization that can achieve anything in conflict that we can swoop in anywhere we can access anywhere and while we work so that we can do this we always need the agreement of parties in conflict one of the fundamental principles of the red cross is the fact that it is neutral it must not take sides in any conflict in order to be acceptable to both parties our neutrality means that sometimes publicly we don't say things so that behind the closed doors in the direct discussions with the people involved with the parties involved with hamas we can say what needs to be said and know that we can have that dialogue that we can engage with them but when red cross president maryana spoliarych visited gaza two weeks ago she released a video that outraged many i've just visited the european gaza hospital and the things i saw there is it's beyond anything that anyone should be in a position to describe it took her a minute and a half to mention the israeli abductees and then it appeared only casually we have to protect the rights of the hostages when she arrived in israel for a short visit she met the members of the families of the abductees they had harsh words for her in recordings obtained by yulan cohen the tone of the meeting is clear yes i left the meeting shaken i don't know how you can sit so coldly in front of people who tell you that their loved ones are in such a difficult situation and your answer is so correct and so measured my son has a colitis disease and it's his medicine i don't want my son that will come back in a black plastic bag you've been at gaza last week at the philistine hospitals if they afford you to go inside gaza you need to ask or maybe to condition it by medicine for our kids or beloved that are injured and they are sick the members of the families also brought up spaliaritch's message from gaza as i saw it i thought the iclc is going only on one side so i'm asking you if the hamas don't give you any operation to go to the hospital or to give us the sign of life don't go inside gaza israel and the abductees families expect the red cross to take a clear position against hamas the organization claims it cannot do this public pressure it's not going to work because if the more public pressure we seemingly would do the more they would try to do well i'm not sure that they would they would a condemnation by the red cross which has such a large platform and so many international connections can change the narrative in the entire world as soon as it condemns hamas and that will change the story here as well for the abductees about three weeks ago israel held its breath when some released abductees made their way from gaza to the egyptian raffa crossing in red cross jeeps that sparked the criticism that this is what the organization's activity is all about a shuttle service you're like a taxi cab you're an uber you should be ashamed of yourself you call it uber you call it taxi you call it not enough and i'm not even agree not enough but everything we could we have done it maybe we're only a taxi but we did it nobody else did it after the disappointment of the meeting with the president the abductees family's campaign headquarters decided to intensify the fight against the organization by placing a container to collect medicines and sanitary equipment in hostages square in televieve the intent pass it on to the red cross offices and from there to the kerim shalom crossing on the border of the gaza strip well some 800 israeli children from the city of steahot have been unable to return to their homes since the attacks on october 7th they're currently staying in the red sea city of elat these kids grew up under constant threat of hamas rockets now though they are longing to go home still no idea though when they will be able to do that we've got more we did not want to disrupt the class but the rumor about the camera in the school's halls spread quickly only nicole kept to herself she had something more important to do oh for the last 67 days the children of steahot are scattered in different hotels in elat even though they were born to a reality of sirens and rockets they still can't comprehend the events of that morning when they woke up to terrorists walking around their city since then they have been here between the hotel the temporary school the promenade and other attractions we came here to hear from them a little bit of what they are going through where are they some of the buildings that are still in the buildings as far as the side there are those that have also been built or that they will come back later i don't okay because my house is a big one it's the first one in the house why is it a secret so it's kind of scary it's the first one in the house and I don't want you to come back close the educational staff here at amichai school is composed of steahot's teachers who know every child personally along with idf teachers and many volunteers that do everything they can to embrace the children it's not always easy some of the kids lost the people they love more than anything like halel whose uncle went on a morning jog on october 7th and never came back to the school okay I think I'll see you in the sky and in the sky there is a place that is with us in the room now to be all the photos and pictures of these things. At first, we thought that there were no cameras and that it was something else. Then, we took this blue jeep with the cameras and put it in the car. Are there any cameras for you? Yes. For us, it's not a test, because I really don't know what it's about. But again, it's not a test and it's not a test for the world. We had to go to the house to try to understand what it's about. Because we can't understand it. Children in the village don't really need to know what it's about. It's something that can't be fixed. And today, do you want to see them from the cell? Or not to Gamre? Not to Gamre? Because it can't be fixed. It's not something that can be fixed. People hear about it everywhere and it's still not working on it. It's known that people who come to you, people that we don't know, in families that talk on TV and hear how difficult it is for them and the problems that are there, it's scary. It's a very different thing. You can't eat more. You can eat more and more and more and more and more and more and more. It's impossible. I don't want to talk about what's happening now in Gaza and what's happening to families who are also fighting for it, who are fighting for it. Do you think it's a lot? Do you want to go back to your home for a few minutes? I really want to. But it's very difficult to go back to the village. It's very difficult to come to the village and there's no way to talk about what's going on in the village, or that suddenly there's a man's army or that suddenly starts to attack. You don't know what it is, because we really don't know. I want to, but I'm afraid to go back. Before the war, I would have been friends to say and do things, but now I don't know how to do it. In the end they said that there is only one way to go back. I told my father that I would go back to the village and he said, Yes, but I would go back. I told him that I would go back. I would go back. I would go back. I don't have any money. Do you think the question is what he said to you? He said that if the house is empty, it's like it needs to be. Today, over two months after October 7th, Styrot is still deserted and empty. The residents who are perceived as tough and immune will take a long time to recover from the images of the pickup trucks roaming the streets. Do you believe that such a thing can happen again? Yes. Really? Yes, it will happen again. You said that you don't have any idea what's going on. They already did it. They took it, they took it, they took it. They already did it. Do you believe that the residents will be empty without the garbage, without the village and the village? I believe that today, tomorrow, it will be a better place for them to leave. I already believe that they will leave. Why? They won't let us go. They won't, neither will Hamas, nor Yaza, and Yaza will be empty without the garbage. I believe that Hamas won't be empty. They will leave, and we will leave. What does that mean? The garbage will be empty. Do you think we will leave? Of course. Because it takes a lot of time. Really? The garbage will be empty too. How? The garbage will be empty. I will leave. The garbage will always be empty. The garbage will be empty. Okay. That's the only way. Did we leave them? Yes. Let's leave the garbage. Okay. Let's leave. If there is anything that crushes the heart, it is listening to children that lost their innocence, and furthermore, their optimism. Children that in one moment became adults that, like all of us, are still living through that morning. To this day, no one can tell them when the hands of the clock that stopped on October 7th will move again. Arthur King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land. 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African-American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African-Americans.