 and terrorism. And we have responded present. In Paris on November 13th, as you mentioned, 130 young people were murdered. Come to our viewers around the world, I'm Albert Lewiton reporting live from the I-24 News Headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas, and here's what you need to know. Number one, overnight, the IDF entered the Al Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. The American intelligence services say their information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital. The IDF says it is a targeted operation, with medical teams and Arabic-speaking personnel to evacuate the hospital, trying to minimize injuries to civilians. Here's rare admiral Daniel Hagari. We are working to facilitate the evacuation of the hospitals. All hospitals, including those in the north, including Al Shifa Hospital. Today, the evacuation of Al Quds Hospital was completed. We proposed to the management of Al Shifa Hospital, together with international organizations, to transfer incubators, medical equipment, and baby food for the hospital's neonatal department. The equipment is arranged and ready for delivery. In recent weeks, we have come back and warned that due to Hamas's military use of the hospitals, it will lose its special protection in the International Court of Justice. We are forced to act in a targeted and careful manner against the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas in the hospitals. We call on the Hamas operatives, who are hiding in the hospitals, to surrender, so as not to endanger those staying in the hospital. Second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source, says a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan Network is that Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar in the United States. The idea here, Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian children and youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources emphasized that the talks are still ongoing, but there's no final conclusion yet. Number three, fuel shipments are coming into Gaza from the humanitarian operations. It's the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the besieged territory since October the 7th. Kogat, the Israeli defense body that's responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that UN trucks will fill up about 6,200 gallons of fuel at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border later today. The United States pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings a death toll on the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David. He's 27 years old from Karmiel, a deputy commander in the Nega Brigade's 927 team battalion. And Captain Yedidia Asher Lev, 26 years old from Tal Minasheh, deputy commander, company commander in the Gavati Brigade's Shakad Battalion. We have live team coverage of the war against Hamas, day 40. We go first now to Pierre Klushlander. He's the I-24 news correspondent at the border. Now, Pierre, the operation into Al-Shifa Hospital, they call it targeted. Talk a little bit about why targeted. Exactly what are they doing? Well, first of all, because it's a hospital and there's patients, there's medical personnel, and there are also people that seek shelter in that hospital. So the Israeli army doesn't want them to be caught in the crossfire. And they're acting in a very prudent way, I would say. There is bombing around the Shifa Hospital complex. We've heard the warning of the U.S. administration warning Israel not to bomb the hospital, but there's no bombing according to the IDF. The bombing is just in the vicinity of the Shifa Hospital in order to destroy any kind of resistance while the operation is ongoing inside the hospital. Passions are reporting that the western side of one of the complex of Shifa Hospital has been invested by the Israeli army. A basement has been taken over. That's what we hear from Palestinian reporting. The army warned the people inside the hospital, the Palestinians inside the hospital, to get away from doors and windows in order not to be wounded. And they've brought with them doctors and Arabic speakers from the Israeli army that have been trained especially for this operation in order to assist the patients in order to instruct the people that are inside the hospital. What we know now, it's only that it's a very localized, targeted operation with the hope of maybe finding hostages inside the hospital. We know that the hospital is the most important headquarters of Hamas, both militarily and government-wise underground the hospital with an interlacing of tunnels with bunkers like the Rantisi hospital that was taken over yesterday overnight, but in a much larger scale. And Pierre, do we know for certain that from what I understood that there were about 500 people inside patients and another 500 to 1,000 medical personnel? When they go into the hospital, it's not as though, I mean, are they looking at just going door to door making sure do we know what happens inside? No, we clearly don't know. There's no image coming out of Shifa because the internet and the cellular network has been cut off locally around Shifa hospital. But at the same time, we know that these are special forces operating inside. If yesterday, up until yesterday, tanks and Israeli armed forces were a few hundred meters away encircling Shifa hospital and allowing the patients and the people and the medical personnel to live through a safe passage on the western side of Shifa. Now the forces are really around the complex, a few meters away. What we know, what we only know is that there is a hope of liberating hostages. We don't know what is the status of the firefight inside. We just know that special forces are operating there and these are very trained forces in very delicate situation. And this is a really sensitive operation going on there. Great player Kroschandir, thanks so much for joining us. We're going to come back to you later on this morning to get some more updates as the developments happen. Let me come back to the studio right now. Amir Oran, he's the defense and government commentator. He's joining me now live here in studio. Thank you so much. This isn't the Alamo, is it? This isn't the base where Hamas is going to say we're stuck in until somebody comes for us. Well, the Alamo is still waiting for the IDF around the Chanyunas area because the Alamo and in your analogy, we are the Texans or Hamas, the Mexicans or whatever. No, the two war aims that Israel has presented converge here, defeating Hamas and releasing the hostages because under the hospital, it's mostly under the hospital, under the basements even, the shafts, the tunnels, the bunkers, there are government notes, military notes, command and control, not necessarily the top leadership of Yahya Sinwar or Mohamedev. There are somewhere else, but it's important. And maybe hostages were there, even if they were whisked away by the time the IDF got there, there could be forensic evidence leading the forces to their new hideout. Right, so that's the question. What asset is this hospital? We suspect that so many of Hamas have already, let's presume they've all left, let's presume they've taken the hostages with them. What's the asset? Hamas is an underground. It's controlling Gaza or has control until the operation, but it still has the mood and the psyche of an underground, which means they have alternate command posts. They do not put all of their eggs in the Shifa basket. So if they ran away, and there is new fresh intelligence, because many Hamas combatants have surrendered to the Israeli forces and have given information which has been developed over the last several days. So we, they now have leads in order to get to the new places. So let me go two steps. First off, when you read the media around the world, they're saying IDF forces are storming the hospital. Whether or not they're storming the hospital is a question. But they're also bringing in a long journalist from around the world for a reason. The IDF wants to show, you see, we are showing you that hospitals are being used, because a lot of people around the world are saying they're not being used. This is all a ruse. So the first thing to know about Hamas is that those people who were able to diabolically massacre and commit atrocities can also lie. It's not such a great sin to lie if you're a mass murderer. And secondly, what the IDF is doing by bringing journalists is to show what is not happening. There is no war crime there. They are raiding a military target by virtue of Hamas operating from in and under the hospital. It's been decertified then as exactly. So under international law, if, for instance, a medical staffer, a doctor or a nurse pulls out a weapon and shoots, he is no longer a protected person. He is a combatant. And because there was intelligence long before the war, and it has been developed even most strongly during the war, they couldn't just leave Shifa and say, okay, let the doctors operate on their patients, we'll go somewhere else. Right. Amir, stand by one second. I'm going to now turn to the North. It's a second theater of combat, as you all know. Piaz Takhabak, she's joining us now from the northern part of Israel. Pia, good morning. It's been, I want to say, relatively quiet compared to what's happening in Gaza. Bring us up to speed as what's happening up there. Good morning, Albert. Well, you're right. It has been a relatively calm at 24 hours, although what you see is constantly continuing are those cross-border attacks with mortar shells and anti-tank missiles. We've seen a number of those yesterday throughout the day, really in different locations alongside the Israel-Lebanon border, mortar shelling towards the Kibbutz of Yiftah. That was a squad that was apprehended by the Israeli forces. Yiftah is one of those Kibbutz seamwares. Israeli civilian died more or less one week ago. Then also the communities of Metul and Margaleot in the very eastern part of the Galilee came under mortar and anti-tank missile fire. Those are communities which are very, very close to the Israel-Lebanon border, especially in the eastern part. We have seen quite a lot of events of shelling in recent weeks as well. And also the community of Arab Al-Ramsh, which is more towards the west of the Israel-Lebanon border that has gotten a mortar shelling yesterday. And that really just gives you an impression of how these days the Israel-Lebanon border looks like. This is just nothing, nothing very special anymore. And you're right. We do call that calm. However, we still speak about several of the communities that have been evacuated exactly because of that, because the tensions are so high and because that front is so volatile. Now that situation was addressed by Israeli politicians yesterday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with municipal leaders yesterday. And also Benny Gantz toured the communities of Kiryat Shmonai, Metulah in the north yesterday. Benny Gantz, the leader of the National Unity Party and the former defense minister as well and the current member of the Israeli War Cabinet. And he said that also the north will not go back to a situation that we had on October 6th, of course, referring to the reality here before the war, because tensions have been high with Hisballah. The threat that Hisballah poses was very much real also before the war. And he said that they will restore security here in the north as well. And also the current defense minister Joav Galant referred to the north in his speech that he gave yesterday evening, saying that the mission was the goal was to restore security here, really speaking to those security concerns of the residency in the north. We do know that many of those who have been evacuated now are fearful to go back to return because the threat of Hisballah is expected to still be there also after the end of this current war. Great. Pierre Sachebach is joining us from the north of Israel. Thanks so much. Amir, let me go back to you about the north. Is Hezbollah basically saying, let's see what happens now, Shefa, before we do anything? Shefa is not a watermark for Hezbollah. But let's use, because it's a war we can't be too choosy, let's use the old cliche of the glass half empty and the glass half full. The glass half empty means that there is no full-scale war yet because Hezbollah did not decide to go ahead with it, and Israel did not decide to preempt Hezbollah. The other side of the coin is that the war of attrition, the glass half full, can go over the line. And if we are in the middle of the glass, it can easily cross over and we can get from an attrition to a move of, war of movement whereby Israel will try to push Hezbollah northward across the Litany River, which is really the boundary between most of Lebanon and South Lebanon. But I'm asking more towards the PR, the world PR, the idea that the sympathy value that Al Shefa represents, even for Hezbollah, is there something for them there? It has become a symbol of sorts. But if you will look at the TV broadcasts, even on Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera always says it's genocide, there's no genocide in Gaza. You see medical staff going about their business in the wards and in the corridors, operating, moving babies and other patients around. It's not business as usual, but it can be done considerably. And the IDF is quite prudent in not mingling among the staff. You don't see combat laden soldiers with rifles. They are going about their business as solidly as possible. Right. I mean, I'll stand by one second. We're going to continue our live coverage of the war against Hamas now, day 40. But let me turn to America. In America, at least 300,000 people packed the National Mall in Washington. They showed support for Israel but also showed support for Jews in America because I'm sure you all know anti-Jewish incidents have surged since the October 7th attack on Israel. Earlier in the day, the top American political leaders screened the Hamas propaganda videos that showed the brutal butchering, the burning, the murders of at least 1200 Israelis. Many of those politicians, hardened politicians, war politicians, removed the tears and visibly sobbed during the screening. At the National Mall, people came by car, by bus, by train, by plane, from all over America to show support. Also there, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog. Whilst our loved ones are held captive in Gaza and our soldiers are fighting for our beloved Israel, Jews all over the world are assaulted for being Jewish. The hatred, the lies, the brutality, the disgraceful outburst of ancient anti-Semitism are an embarrassment to all civilized people and nations. How we are living is hard to describe to you. We hostage families have lived the last 39 days in slow-motion torment. These children of God range in age from nine months to 87 years. They are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindu. Why are they being left underground in the dirt? I mean, our audience still stays with us. Let me ask you a question about these hostages. It was a report overnight that the idea is to have child-for-child, one-for-one swap. These back channels that are occurring, does that surprise you? Is any of this surprise you? Well, there are no children in Israeli custody as far as I know. There are minors, 13- to 18. 13-year-old Palestinians or 15-year-old stabbing police officers in Jerusalem. This is not comparable to a 10-month-old baby. But for the sake of having some symmetry for Hamas being able that he has managed to release children, OK, let them be called children. What President Biden told Prime Minister Netanyahu last night was essentially children and Americans first. They talked about the makeup of the deal. There are, of course, other categories, as Rachel Goldberg powerfully told the crowd in the mall. But first of all, children and American passport holders. Then we will see women, the other civilians, and only finally the soldiers taken prisoner by Hamas. So apparently it is coming along. Hamas demands a five-day ceasefire. In exchange for that, Israel would probably get a promise by Biden to allow it to resume hostilities once this is over and not have the other international actors force it to prolong the ceasefire. So it's a multifaceted deal, not only Israel Hamas but also Jerusalem Washington. Let's talk about also the other who are held captive. These are not just Americans. They're French, British. There's 30 some odd nationalities, if I'm not mistaken, who have had somebody involved, right? Where do they stay in all of this? Is there political pressure to get them out as well? Of course. And their governments seem to be putting less pressure on Hamas than the Americans are. But the United States, as the leader of the free world, is probably having the others hitchhike on its vehicle. They will probably be released later with the other civilians where the Americans to insist that all foreign nationals be released at once, no one would have been released. So we must see it as several phases of the same grand deal and the end of which may include immunity for the Hamas leadership if they are willing to leave Gaza because they are not going to release the very last hostages, the very last cuts they have up to sleep before they know that they can survive. But this is still waiting down the road. Do you really think they would do that? Do you think they would have the idea of like I want immunity? I mean, I thought that the whole idea of martyrdom, Shahidism, it's so. So that's that's the great debate going on between scholars of Islam and especially of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot and of Yahya Sinwar personally. Up to now, we have never seen any Islamist organization leader become a martyr. They are sending others. We have not seen any of them sacrifice himself. Whether Sinwar will be the first remains to be seen. One last question about hitchhiking. You talked about hitchhiking, the Houthis in Yemen, hitchhiking, if you will, sending missiles to a lot yesterday. Now we have a space race. Now we have missiles attacking each other in space. What did they gain? Well, the Houthis are simply the proxies of Iran. They have nothing against Israel. They have some leverage because they can try to close the Babel Mandib straight leading from the Red Sea to the and then to attack ships. Yes. And if they do that, we will see them being counterattacked by Israel up to now Israel decided not to divert its attention and forces to this secondary arena. But if they insist the Houthis on launching more missiles and if one of them manages to penetrate the fantastic defense put up by by the various missile system, Arrow, Patriot, David Sling, Iron Dome, Israel has the best missile defense in the world. But as they said in England in the 1930s, the bomber can always get through. You send a thousand, one will get through a five. So if the Houthis managed to hit a lot and cause casualties, obviously Israel will counterattack, will retaliate. Great. I may stand by for one second. I'm going to talk on the logist subject one second. The huge amount of weapons that have been used by Hamas during the October 7th onslaught on southern Israel indicates how much intelligence and financial resources were invested in their military action throughout the years. Now some of those weapons are exposed by the Israeli army. Omar Rabi brings us the story on this. Take a look inside this tent, the full array of Hamas firepower vast in size and very sophisticated. The Israeli army invited the foreign media to come and see for themselves the weapons the terrorists used in their October 7th onslaught on southern Israel. Some of these weapons were left by the terrorists before they withdrew and went back to Gaza. Other arms were captured after terrorists were killed in battles. This tire filled with explosives was specially made for the border fence posts. I open it now. It can be closed like this so that it surrounds the fence post on all sides. It is connected to a detonator from this side. And when it is detonated, the column will collapse and Hamas militants will be able to infiltrate the Kibbutzim on the Gaza Strip. This means that they had the exact measurements beforehand. Yes, they took the measurements of the fence posts under the pretext of demonstrations and other civil activities. This frame is handmade. Some 80% of Hamas's weapons are made locally. The remaining 20% Russian made from the Soviet era or North Korean, Egyptian and Iranian. Russian, North Korean and Egyptian weapons were smuggled to Hamas through a third and perhaps even a fourth party. They were dismantled and parts of them were hidden in food and aid shipments and Hamas manufactures their duplicates inside the Gaza Strip and even explosive devices. This is a list of medical equipment explaining everything that this bag contains. It is intended to enable wounded Hamas terrorists to continue fighting. The large quantities of this equipment were intended to allow Hamas to continue the fighting inside Israeli territory for a long period of time. A huge amount of weapons indicates the amount of intelligence and financial resources that Hamas invested in its military action throughout the years. But it also shows the extent of the difficulties and dangers facing the Israeli forces now during their measured ground advance in Gaza. I'm still joined here by Amir Aran. Just that report itself shows the fact that Israeli forces, it sounds like they're okay for now in terms of just what they but any moment now they have all of these weapons that are up against them. This really shows how much that Hamas were armed to the teeth. You know the Israeli doctrine between the wars or the various rounds of exchanging blows was that you do not preempt the other side just because it is building its arsenal. Just having more ammunition, more training, more units is no cause for a war of choice partly because the domestic Israeli public will not support it out of the blue and the international arena as we are seeing will never strike the first bullet never shoot the first right but it is very sophisticated and the last detail here in the report is the most revealing. The Hamas planners knew that as long as Israel is concentrating on the defense, on clearing its own territory from the infiltrators, they will not go on the offense inside Gaza. So they had planned for some of the infiltrators to stay in Israel for many weeks and get as far as possible perhaps all the way to the West Bank and to the settlements in order to engage Israel in its own territory. But this also speaks to the fact that a lot of these weapons came from Russia, North Korea, Egypt, dismantle. There was a part of that report that it was shipped in in humanitarian food packages. Does this help the idea? I mean, I imagine that any moment now we'll find out that it's been like that through the whole time. But the Bedouins have been smuggling all along through tunnels into Gaza. We'll have more after the break. The news continues. So stay tuned here to I-24 News streaming and on the I-24 News I'm Albert Lewitton and Tel Aviv live. The news continues right after the break. Is in a state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. 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 hispanoparlantes. News 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. News 24, únicamente en I-24 News. Welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Albert Lewitton reporting live from the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas. And here's what you need to know. Number one, overnight the IDF entered the Al Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. The American intelligence services say their information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital. The IDF says it is a targeted operation with medical teams and Arabic-speaking personnel to evacuate the hospital, trying to minimize injuries to civilians. Here's Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. We are working to facilitate the evacuation of the hospitals. All hospitals, including those in the north, including Al Shifa Hospital. Today the evacuation of Al Quds Hospital was completed. We proposed to the management of Al Shifa Hospital, together with international organizations to transfer incubators, medical equipment, and baby food for the hospital's neonatal department. The equipment is arranged and ready for delivery. In recent weeks, we have come back and warned that due to Hamas's military use of the hospitals, it will lose its special protection in the International Court of Justice. We are forced to act in a targeted and careful manner against the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas in the hospitals. We call on the Hamas operatives, who are hiding in the hospitals, to surrender, so as not to endanger those staying in the hospital. Second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source, says a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan network is that Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar in the United States. The idea here, Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian children and youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources emphasized that the talks are still ongoing, but there's no final conclusion yet. Number three, fuel shipments are coming into Gaza from the humanitarian operations. It's the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the besieged territory since October the 7th. Kogat, the Israeli defense body that's responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that UN trucks will fill up about 6,200 gallons of fuel at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border later today. The United States pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings a death toll on the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David. He's 27 years old from Karmiel, a deputy commander in the Nega Brigade's 9217 Battalion. And Captain Yedidia Ashur Lev, 26 years old from Tal Minasheh, deputy commander, company commander in the Gavati Brigade's Shaked Battalion. We have live team coverage of the war against Hamas, day 40. We go first now to Pierre Klushlander. He's the I-24 news correspondent at the border. Now, Pierre, the operation into Al-Shifa Hospital, they call it targeted. Talk a little bit about why targeted, exactly what are they doing? Well, first of all, because it's a hospital and there's patients, there's medical personnel and there are also people that seek shelter in that hospital. So the Israeli army doesn't want them to be caught in the crossfire and they're acting in a very prudent way, I would say. There is bombing around the Shifa Hospital complex. We've heard the warning of the US administration warning Israel not to bomb the hospital, but there's no bombing according to the IDF. The bombing is just in the vicinity of the Shifa Hospital in order to destroy any kind of resistance while the operation is ongoing inside the hospital. Passions are reporting that the western side of one of the complex of Shifa Hospital has been invested by the Israeli army. A basement has been taken over. That's what we hear from Palestinian reporting. The army warned the people inside the hospital, the Palestinians inside the hospital to get away from doors and windows in order not to be wounded. And they've brought with them doctors and Arabic speakers from the Israeli army that have been trained, especially for this operation, in order to assist the patients, in order to instruct the people that are inside the hospital. What we know now, it's only that it's a very localized, targeted operation with the hope of maybe finding hostages inside the hospital. We know that the hospital is the most important headquarters of Hamas both militarily and government-wise underground the hospital with an interlacing of tunnels with bunkers, like the Rantisi hospital that was taken over yesterday overnight. But in a much larger scale. Pierre, do we know for certain that from what I understood that there were about 500 people inside patients and another 500 to 1,000 medical personnel? When they go into the hospital, it's not as though, I mean, are they looking at just going door to door making sure, do we know what happens inside? No, we don't. We clearly don't know. There's no image coming out of Shifa because the internet and the cellular network has been cut off locally around Shifa hospital. But at the same time, we know that these are special forces operating inside. If yesterday up until yesterday, tanks and Israeli armed forces were a few hundred meters away and circling Shifa hospital and allowing the patients and the people and the medical personnel to live through a safe passage on the western side of Shifa. Now the forces are really around the complex a few meters away. What we know, what we only know is that there is a hope of liberating hostages. We don't know what is the status of the firefight inside. We just know that special forces are operating there and these are very trained forces in very delicate situation. And this is a really sensitive operation going on there. Great player, Kroschandr. Thanks so much for joining us. We're going to come back to you later on this morning to get some more updates as the development is happening. Let me come back to the studio right now. Amir Oran, he's the defense and government commentator. He's joining me now live here in studio. Thanks so much. This isn't the Alamo, is it? This isn't the base where Hamas is going to say, we're stuck in until somebody comes for us. Well, the Alamo is still waiting for the IDF around the Chanyunas area because the Alamo and in your analogy, we are the Texans or Hamas, the Mexicans or whatever. No, the two war aims that Israel has presented converge here defeating Hamas and releasing the hostages because under the hospital, it's mostly under the hospital, under the basements even, the shafts, the tunnels, the bunkers. There are government notes, military notes, command and control, not necessarily the top leadership of Yahya Sinwar or Mohamedev. There are somewhere else, but it's important. And maybe hostages were there, even if they were whisked away by the time the IDF got there, there could be forensic evidence leading the forces to their new hideout. Right, so that's the question. What asset is this hospital? If we suspect that so many of them have already, and so many of Hamas have already, let's presume they've all left. Let's presume they've taken the hostages with them. What's the asset? Hamas is an underground. It's controlling Gaza or has control until the operation, but it still has the mood and the psyche of an underground, which means that they have alternate command posts. They do not put all of their eggs in the Shifa basket. Right. So if they ran away and there is new fresh intelligence because many Hamas combatants have surrendered to the Israeli forces and have given information which has been developed over the last several days. So we, they now have leads in order to get to the new places. So let me go two steps. First off, when you read the media around the world, they're saying IDF forces are storming the hospital. Whether or not they're storming the hospital is a question. But they're also bringing along journalists from around the world for a reason. The IDF wants to show, you see, we are showing you that hospitals are being used because a lot of people around the world are saying they're not being used. This is all a ruse. So the first thing to know about Hamas is that those people who were able to diabolically massacre and commit atrocities can also lie. It's not such a great sin to lie if you're a mass murderer. And secondly, what the IDF is doing by bringing journalists is to show what is not happening. There is no war crime there. They are raiding a military target by virtue of Hamas operating from in and under the hospital. It's been decertified then as exactly. So under international law, if, for instance, a medical staffer, a doctor or a nurse pulls out a weapon and shoots, he is no longer a protected person. He is a combatant. And because there was intelligence long before the war, and it has been developed even most strongly during the war, they couldn't just leave Shifa and say, okay, let the doctors operate on their patients. We'll go somewhere else. Right. Amir, stand by one second. I'm going to now turn to the north. It's a second theater of combat, as you all know. Piyas Tachabakh, she's joining us now from the northern part of Israel. Piyah, good morning. It's been, I want to say, relatively quiet compared to what's happening in Gaza. Bring us up to speed as what's happening up there. Good morning, Albert. Well, you're right. It has been a relatively calm 24 hours, although what you see is constantly continuing are those cross-border attacks with mortar shells and anti-tank missiles. We've seen a number of those yesterday throughout the day, really in different locations alongside the Israel-Lebanon border, mortar shelling towards the Kibbutz of Yiftakh. That was a squad that was apprehended by the Israeli forces. Yiftakh is one of those Kibbutz team where Israeli civilian died more or less one week ago, then also the communities of Metul and Mar Galiot in the very eastern part of the Gali Lee came under mortar and anti-tank missile fire. Those are communities which are very, very close to the Israel-Lebanon border, especially in the eastern part. We have seen quite a lot of events of shelling in recent two weeks as well. And also the community of Arab al-Ramsh, which is more towards the west of the Israel-Lebanon border that has gotten a mortar shelling yesterday. And that really just gives you an impression of how these days the Israel-Lebanon border looks like. This is just nothing, nothing very special anymore. And you're right, we do call that calm. However, we still speak about several of the communities that have been evacuated exactly because of that, because the tensions are so high and because that front is so volatile. Now, that situation was addressed by Israeli politicians yesterday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with municipal leaders yesterday and also Ben Igans toured the communities of Kiryat Shmona and Metullah in the north yesterday. Ben Igans, the leader of the National Unity Party and the former defense minister as well, the current member of the Israeli War Cabinet. And he said that also the north will not go back to a situation that we had on October 6th, of course, referring to the reality here before the war, because tensions have been high with Hisballah. The threat that Hisballah poses was very much real also before the war. And he said that they will restore security here in the north as well. And also the current defense minister, Joav Galant, referred to the north in his speech that he gave yesterday evening, saying that the mission was the goal was to restore security here, really speaking to those security concerns of the residency in the north. We do know that many of those who have been evacuated now are fearful to go back to return because the threat of Hisballah is expected to still be there also after the end of this current war. Great. Piaz Takhabak is joining us from the north of Israel. Thanks so much. Amir, let me go back to you about the north. Is Hezbollah basically saying, let's see what happens now, Shefa, before we do anything? Shefa is not a watermark for Hezbollah, but let's use, because it's a war, we can't be too choosy, let's use the old cliche of the glass half empty and the glass half full. The glass half empty means that there is no full-scale war yet, because Hezbollah did not decide to go ahead with it, and Israel did not decide to preempt Hezbollah. The other side of the coin is that the war of attrition, the glass half full, can go over the line. And if we are in the middle of the glass, it can easily cross over, and we can get from an attrition to a move of, war of movement whereby Israel will try to push Hezbollah northward across the Litany River, which is really the boundary between most of Lebanon and South Lebanon. But I'm asking more towards the PR, the world PR, the idea that the sympathy value that El Shefa represents, even for Hezbollah, is there something for them there? It has become a symbol of sorts, but if you will look at the TV broadcasts, even on Al Jazeera, and Al Jazeera always says it's genocide, there's no genocide in Gaza. You see medical staff going about their business in the wards and in the corridors, operating, moving babies and other patients around. It's not business as usual, but it can be done considerably. And the IDF is quite prudent in not mingling among the staff. You don't see combat laden soldiers with rifles, they are going about the business as solidly as possible. Right. I mean, I'll stand by one second. We're going to continue our live coverage of the war against Hamas now, day 40. But let me turn to America. In America, at least 300,000 people packed the National Mall in Washington. They showed support for Israel, but also showed support for Jews in America, because I'm sure you all know anti-Jewish incidents have surged since the October 7th attack on Israel. Earlier in the day, the top American political leaders screened the Hamas propaganda videos that showed the brutal butchering, the burning, the murders of at least 1200 Israelis. Many of those politicians, hardened politicians, war politicians, removed the tears and visibly sobbed during the screening. At the National Mall, people came by car, by bus, by train, by plane, from all over America to show support. Also there, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog. While our loved ones are held captive in Gaza, and our soldiers are fighting for our beloved Israel, Jews all over the world are assaulted for being Jewish. The hatred, the lies, the brutality, the disgraceful outburst of ancient anti-Semitism are an embarrassment to all civilized people and nations. How we are living is hard to describe to you. We hostage families have lived the last 39 days in slow-motion torment. These children of God range in age from nine months to 87 years. They are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindu. Why are they being left underground in the dirt? I mean, our audience still stays with us. Let me ask you a question about these hostages. There was a report overnight that the idea is to have child-for-child, one-for-one swap. These back channels that are occurring, does that surprise you? Is any of this surprise you? Well, there are no children in Israeli custody as far as I know. There are minors, 13-year-old 13 to 18. 13-year-old Palestinians or 15-year-old stabbing police officers in Jerusalem. This is not comparable to a 10-month-old baby. But for the sake of having some symmetry for Hamas being able that he has managed to release children, okay, let them be called children. What President Biden told Prime Minister Netanyahu last night was, essentially, children and Americans first. They talked about the makeup of the deal. There are, of course, other categories, as Rachel Goldberg powerfully told the crowd in the mall. But first of all, children and American passport holders. Then we will see women, the other civilians, and only, finally, the soldiers taken prisoner by Hamas. So apparently it is coming along. Hamas demands a five-day ceasefire. In exchange for that, Israel would probably get a promise by Biden to allow it to resume hostilities once this is over and not have the other international actors force it to prolong the ceasefire. So it's a multi-faceted deal, not only Israel Hamas, but also Jerusalem Washington. Let's talk about also the other who are held captive. These are not just Americans, they're French, British. There's 30 some odd nationalities, if I'm not mistaken, who have had somebody involved, right? Where do they stay in all of this? Is there political pressure to get them out as well? Of course. And their governments seem to be putting less pressure on Hamas than the Americans are. But the United States, as the leader of the free world, is probably having the others hitchhike on its vehicle. They will probably be released later with the other civilians where the Americans to insist that all foreign nationals be released at once, no one would have been released. So we must apply that, must see it as several phases of the same grand deal, and the end of which may include immunity for the Hamas leadership if they're willing to leave Gaza, because they are not going to release the very last hostages, the very last cards they have up their sleeve before they know that they can survive. But this is still waiting down the road. Do you really think they would do that? Do you think they would have the idea of like I want immunity? I mean, I thought that the whole idea of martyrdom, Shahidism, it's so so that's that's the great debate going on between scholars of Islam and especially of the Muslim Brotherhood of which Hamas is an offshoot and of Yahya Sinwar personally. Up to now we have never seen any Islamist organization leader become a martyr. They are sending others. We have not seen any of them sacrifice himself, whether Sinwar will be the first remains to be seen. One last question about hitchhiking. You talked about hitchhiking, the Houthis in Yemen, hitchhiking, if you will, sending missiles to a lot yesterday. Now we have a space race. Now we have missiles attacking each other in space. What did they gain? Well, the Houthis are simply the proxies of Iran. They have nothing against Israel. They have some leverage because they can try to close the Babel Mandem straight, leading from the Red Sea to the. And then to attack ships. Yes. And if they do that, we will see them being counterattacked by Israel. Up to now Israel decided not to divert its attention and forces to this secondary arena. But if they insist the Houthis on launching more missiles and if one of them manages to penetrate the fantastic defense put up by the various missile system, Arrow, Patriot, David Sling, Iron Dome, Israel has the best missile defense in the world. But as they said in England in the 1930s, the bomber can always get through. You send a thousand, one will get through a five. So if the Houthis manage to hit a lot and cause casualties, obviously Israel will counterattack, will retaliate. Great. I may stand by for one second. I'm going to talk on the subject one second, the huge amount of weapons that have been used by Hamas during the October 7th onslaught on southern Israel. It indicates how much intelligence and financial resources were invested in their military action throughout the years. Now some of those weapons are exposed by the Israeli army. Omar Rabi brings us the story on this. Take a look. Inside this tent, the full array of Hamas firepower, vast in size and very sophisticated. The Israeli army invited the foreign media to come and see for themselves the weapons the terrorists used in their October 7th onslaught on southern Israel. Some of these weapons were left by the terrorists before they withdrew and went back to Gaza. Other arms were captured after terrorists were killed in battles. This tire filled with explosives was specially made for the border fence posts. I open it now. It can be closed like this so that it surrounds the fence post on all sides. It is connected to a detonator from this side and when it is detonated, the column will collapse and Hamas militants will be able to infiltrate the Kibbutzim on the Gaza Strip. This means that they had the exact measurements beforehand. Yes, they took the measurements of the fence posts under the pretext of demonstrations and other civil activities. This frame is handmade. Some 80% of Hamas' weapons are made locally. The remaining 20% Russian made from the Soviet era or North Korean, Egyptian and Iranian. Russian, North Korean and Egyptian weapons were smuggled to Hamas through a third and perhaps even a fourth party. They were dismantled and parts of them were hidden in food and aid shipments and Hamas manufactures their duplicates inside the Gaza Strip and even explosive devices. This is a list of medical equipment explaining everything that this bag contains. It is intended to enable wounded Hamas terrorists to continue fighting. The large quantities of this equipment were intended to allow Hamas to continue the fighting inside Israeli territory for a long period of time. A huge amount of weapons indicates the amount of intelligence and financial resources that Hamas invested in its military action throughout the years. But it also shows the extent of the difficulties and dangers facing the Israeli forces now during their measured ground advance in Gaza. I'm still joined here by Amir Aran. Just that report itself shows the fact that Israeli forces, it sounds like they're okay for now in terms of just what they, but any moment now they have all of these weapons that are up against them. This really shows how much that the Hamas were armed to the teeth. You know the Israeli doctrine between the wars or the various rounds of exchanging blows was that you do not preempt the other side just because it is building its arsenal. Just having more ammunition, more training, more units is no cause for a war of choice partly because the domestic Israeli public will not support it out of the blue and the international arena as we are seeing will never strike the first bullet never shoot the first right, but it is very sophisticated than the last detail here in the report is the most revealing the Hamas planners knew that as long as Israel is concentrating on the defense on clearing its own territory from the infiltrators, they will not go on the offense inside Gaza. So they had planned for some of the infiltrators to stay in Israel for many weeks and get as far as possible, perhaps all the way to the West Bank and to the settlements in order to engage Israel in its own territory. But this also speaks to the fact that a lot of these weapons came from Russia, North Korea, Egypt, dismantle. There was a part of that report that they was shipped in a humanitarian food packages. Does this help the idea? I mean, I imagine that any moment now we'll find out that it's been like that through the whole time. But you know, the Bedouins have been smuggling all along through tunnels into Gaza. We'll have more after the break. The news continues. So stay tuned here to I-24 News streaming and on the I-24 News app. I'm Albert Lewerton in Tel Aviv live. The news continues right after the break. Israel is 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. Our viewers around the world, I'm Albert Lewerton reporting live from the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas. And here's what you need to know. Number one, overnight, the IDF entered the Al-Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. There has been some active fire. A number of Hamas terrorists have been killed at the entrance of the hospital. The American intelligence services say their information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital. The IDF says it is a targeted operation with medical teams and Arabic speaking personnel to evacuate the hospital, trying to minimize injuries to civilians. Incubators, baby food and medical supplies have been brought in. The second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source says that there's been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages, and that it may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Kahn Network says that Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar in the United States. The idea here is that Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian children and youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources emphasized though that the talks are still ongoing, but there is no final conclusion as of yet. The number three thing you need to know, fuel shipments are coming into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. It is the first time that Israel has allowed the fuel into the besieged territory since October the 7th. Kogat, who is the Israeli defense body that is responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that UN trucks will fill up to about 6,200 gallons of fuel at the Rafa crossing on the Egyptian border later today. The United States had pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings a death toll now on the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David. He's 27. He's from Carmel, a deputy commander in the Negev Brigade 9217 Battalion. And Captain Nididia Asher Lev, 26 years old from Talmanasha, a deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade Shacken Battalion. We have a lot going on here and a lot moving pieces. Let's go to our first live team coverage all throughout I-24 News. Let's not first go to Piaz Takhabak. She's the I-24 News correspondent in northern Israel right now at the border with Lebanon. Piaz, as of this morning, as we're now in the nine o'clock hour in Israel, it has been quiet. But that still doesn't mean that it's still not tense. So there's still tense there, I should say. Exactly, Albert. Well, the past 24 hours have been relatively quiet in the Israel-Lebanon border, although there were several launches of motor shells and anti-tank missiles towards communities really alongside the Israel-Lebanon border. The communities of Mar-Galiot and Metula, the very eastern part of the Upper Galilee region, have been targeted as well as Al-Bala Ramsh in the western part. And the idea of yesterday struck a squad trying to launch another anti-tank missile towards the Kibbutz of Yiftah. This is exactly where only last week an Israeli civilian was killed by one of those anti-tank missiles. And that really just gives you an impression of how tense and volatile the situation here is. But the situation here in the north has now also been addressed in the political establishment, where you're speaking about, of course, dozens of communities who have been evacuated, people who left their homes without really knowing when they will be able to come back. Yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with municipal leaders here in the north. Also, Benny Gantz came to the communities of Kiryat Shmona and Metula, very close to the Israel-Lebanon border. And he issued a statement saying that the situation here in the north will not go back to how it was on October 6, of course, referring to the reality here in the north, before the war. And he said that the mission is to restore a security here in the north. And that, of course, speaks to the concerns of many of those evacuees because, again, the threat that is posed by Hisballah will continue to exist. Also, after the current war with Gaza is going to end, and also yesterday, the current Defense Minister Joff Garland addressed the issue in his speech. He says that the lives of the northern residents are no less important than those of the residents in the south. Of course, again, picking up those concerns that we've been hearing from many of the people here that evacuated their homes, they're fearful to go back because they do know that Hisballah will still sit on the edge of the border there and will still continue to exist. And the question here is, how and if the Israeli military establishment will address that? Great, Piaz Sakheba, who's at the north at the border with Lebanon. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll catch in with you later on in the afternoon and in the day. Thanks again. Let me go back now in studio, continuing our live team coverage. Colonel Dr. Jacques Naria, he's the former deputy head of assessment for Israeli military intelligence and also the foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Thanks again, Jacques, for joining us. Let's talk about Al-Shifa Hospital. When we spoke yesterday, there was a discussion as to whether or not it was an asset because we suspect that many of the Hamas may have already fled from underneath it, although there could be some that still hold themselves underground. Well, if you find some, just tell me. I think that they're all left long ago. Several times, the Israeli army called the hospital, the director of the hospital and informed him that we are about to enter the hospital. Do you think that the director of the hospital, what did he do? He just called the people downstairs and says you should quit as soon as possible. So the chances that we meet there, real hostages, I mean, living hostages and terrorists are very slim. In fact, I mean, if we're not entering a destruction zone, I think that if it is so, this will weigh a lot on the continuation of the war, because the world opinion is not accepting the fact that we are attacking in the hospital. Even if we say it's a targeted attack, if we know that we had the information, the results will be definitely imposing on Israel, and they will limit, it's a liberty of maneuver. I mean, if a disaster happens, God forbid. So this is what's happening in Sheba. It's a pivotal moment. Exactly so. We are at a pivotal time, because by then, if we succeed in what we are looking at, even if we find some remnants of clothes, of diapers, whatever, I mean, hostages who were there, this will definitely give us the justification to continue further. There are 35 hospitals in Gaza. Imagine for two and a half million people, there are 35 hospitals. In all Israel, we have 14 big hospitals. This is what we have for 10 million people. So this is the difference. So we have to go from hospital to hospital to see what's going on there. We have, as you said, we are at a pivotal time, we have to make a decision concerning how do we continue the phase three? Do we go southwards toward the Kha'niunis, the Diyal Balak and Rafa, or do we just stop here and wait? I think that the army has chosen already the third phase, meaning that we are going to advance toward the south. This is what's happening. Now, concerning Hezbollah, I think that there is a link between the two. As long as Hezbollah believes that Hamas is standing fast against Israel, he will not enlarge its intervention. But the moment he feels that Hamas is crumbling, I think that Hezbollah will intervene and will just enlarge its operation in order to put more pressure on us to direct our forces to the northern front. In any case, in any case, the Iran is playing with us. They have opened the front. And the front is called the Houthis. The army is not giving us more details about how many ballistic missiles have been fired toward Israel. But it has now, it is openly a new front that we have to take care of. And Iran is just balancing Hezbollah on the north one day and Houthi on the other day, or Hezbollah in the morning and the Houthis in the evening. In America, we have this game called Wackamall. You hit one, you go to the other. Exactly. So just one second. If I can, Jacqueline, let me now go to the south of Israel right now where things are happening as we speak. Pierre Kloschlander is actually live in the south of Israel. Pierre, the IDF says from what I understand that there has been some active firefight out front of the hospital. Talk about that. Right. As the special forces entered the Shifa, one of the building of the Shifa Hospital located on the western side of it, according to Palestinian reports, there was a clash with Hamas terrorists who threw IDs on the forces. The five terrorists as far as we know have been annihilated during the clash. As the special forces entered inside the hospital, what we know and we don't get much information, but we know that the incubators for 37 premature babies that have been inside the hospital for a while already have been brought to the hospital personnel. We know from the IDF that the patients, the civilians, and the medical personnel are not in the crossfire. The IDF forces are calming the area of that building. We know from Palestinian reports that they've reached a basement or a bunker. We don't exactly know what it is. And the operation is going on inside the hospital. This is coming from the Hamas government media office. They say that there's 9,000 patients and medical staff and such. But they have also been saying that the incubators that they bring doesn't matter because there's no electricity. Do we know whether or not that the humanitarian efforts to try to get some of the people out of the hospital, is that still underway? Do we know any of that? Well, we know that the hospital has been encircled for a few days and there's been ongoing negotiations between the medical personnel and the IDF for the past four days at least, not only to bring in these incubators, but also to bring in fuel for electricity, for instance. 300 liters of fuel were brought on Sunday, but the hospital personnel refused to accept it. Up until yesterday evening, there were ongoing negotiations about inserting the incubators inside the hospital. That also didn't happen. And at the same time, the IDF is obviously receiving some intelligence report about something inside the hospital that they want to find, and perhaps also something regarding the fate of the hostages. And this is why they entered. Now, they entered, if you pay attention, after the deputy spokesperson of the Pentagon and the spokesperson of the White House agreed with what the IDF has been giving for three weeks already, that the hospital is actually underground the operational and control command of Hamas in an interlacing of tunnels and bunkers. And this is the first time, actually, that the White House and the Pentagon gave some sort of confirmation of the assertion of the IDF. Now, Hamas even said this evening overnight that the statements by the U.S. administration were a green light to the IDF forces. And indeed, to a certain extent, I'm sure that there is such an approval by the U.S. administration. Now, the U.S. administration has been warning the Israeli government not to bomb the hospital. But what we know is that there's been bombing around the hospital in order to annihilate Hamas' nests around the hospital, and hence that firefight this night as the forces were entering the hospital could be one of the indications that there is around the hospital a lot of things to clear out for the IDF forces. Pierre, you've covered wars for many, many years, whether it's here, Ukraine, anywhere else in the world. The IDF is dealing with such a unique situation here, aren't they? I mean, if this was Ukraine, Russia would have probably bombed the hospital outright. Or if it was any other place in the world, it probably would have been that situation. Here the IDF is dealing with something specific, something unique. Can you talk about that? Well, I think that the fate of the hospital, the fate of the civilian population in the hospital, be it the patients, the displaced people, and the medical personnel, is one of the criteria of this operation. Because if there is a disaster, a humanitarian disaster inside the hospital, that could put a break on the Israeli operation, on the order of mission, which is to dismantle Hamas totally. And thus, there is a lot of calculation in what the IDF is doing. First of all, in order to preserve the life of the Israeli soldiers, I'm reminding you that 48 soldiers in two and a half weeks were killed in the battlefield since the start of the operation on October 27th. That's not a lot. Although, you know, in Hebrew you said that one life is a whole world. That's not a lot given the density of the infrastructure of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. They're working methodically, very carefully, very cautiously, step by step. They've already said times and again that it's going to take months to prepare the civilian population in Israel to prepare also the international community that the fighting is going to go on for a long time. But that is conditional to the fate of the civilians in the Gaza Strip. And if there is a disaster in Shifa Hospital, which has become one of the symbols of the humanitarian predicament of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, this could put a break on the whole war. And this is something that Israel wants to avert at any price. Pierre Kloschunder, thank you so much for being there. Stay safe, and we'll be back in touch with you later on this morning. Let me now move on to the north, back up to the north. As you know, the area around the border of Lebanon has been under fire. There's been a relative calm. But there's been five, there's been a lot of missiles that have been sent over from Lebanon, from Hezbollah, from Hamas and Lebanon, across into the Israeli territory. Giorge Salz is the chairman of the Upper Galilee Regional Council. He's joining me now from Kiryat Shmona. Giorge, thanks so much for joining us. You stay behind. Why? What do you mean stay behind? Well, I mean, the entire place was evacuated. You're there. You mean personally? Personally. Well, you're right. It's like the soldiers. We are the municipality leaders. We have to stay in our places. First of all, there are still some people that are living in our settlements in our Kibbutzim because we evacuate our residents. We didn't evacuate our settlements. It's very important that some of us will stay in those places. So the other people that's already evacuated will, they have the opportunity to come back. So yes, we are here. We have some kind of emergency team of our municipality that stayed here. And it's a shelter. It's a big shelter that we are trying to operate both the war situation, but also, you know, we have to continue our services like collecting garbage and we have some kind of schools in some of our Kibbutzim. So we do have to both to manage the routine of the municipality and to manage the war situation, which as you said just now, we are in this war situation already since October 7th. Although the volume of this situation is not like in the south, like in Gaza, but we are in a war. We are in a military zone, I would say. We have here tanks and many, many soldiers and artillery all day, all the day. So it's complicated living here, but some of us should stay here. So the others that's already evacuated can come back and some someday might take weeks, maybe even more. But we will be back in our settlements, in our Kibbutzim, in our Moshevim, in Kiryat Shmona, in Shlomi. At the end of this war, we will come back, all of us to our places to continue our great lives here at the Upper Galilee in the north of Israel. Great. Giorga, you met with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday. What did he tell you? I think it's more important what we told him. And we asked him some things like to support those residents that evacuate from our municipality and some other municipalities, because you have to understand that those people that's a government is supporting them, evacuate because of, I would say, military needs. It wasn't out of the risks, assessments of the residents, which this is what we have done. So I think that one third of my residents that's evacuated is supported by the government. But two thirds, it's around 9,000 residents that's already evacuated from our municipality have no support from the government. So we asked him, please support those residents as well. The second thing that we asked him is, I would say that the economic security, which is not less important than the military security and all the programs that we have, all those benefits that residents should have, because they're already six weeks without they are not working, they are running around, they have their own, they don't have their salaries. So we asked him that this economic support will include all the people from the north that's their lives stopped at November 7th. And the third and the most important thing that we asked him, that's in addition to bring back all those people that was kidnapped, in addition to, I would say, bring some security to the south of Israel, one of the goals of the aims of this war should be that's all for the citizens, the residents of the north that's living near the border will have the ability to come back to the settlement of the kibbutzim, to the town, to the gilashmonar, 100% safe for a long time. And because if they will continue to see the Hezbollah in front of the rise, if the Hezbollah will stay on the other side of the fence of Israel, some of those families, mainly the young families with young kids, I'm afraid they won't go back to their houses. And it's an issue, it's a big issue. Right, so many people, so many people, so many of the military analysts have said that what Hezbollah is trying to do in the north is to have a war of attrition, that this could take months if not years of this constant small little flares that go back across, across all the time. Did you Giorgio, did you feel that you felt secure with your meeting with the Prime Minister that what you have up there is a secure zone that you're able at some point to come back? No, not at all. That's exactly what you said just now. This was the situation in the south for many, many years, that's every month or years there was some kind of a military event and then it stopped and then we wait another one year, one and a half years, three years to the next event. This is not a situation that we can live with it in the north, especially after October 7th, after this horrible Saturday, you have to understand and I think all of us should understand that the citizens, the residents of Israel after the 7th of October are not the same residents. Israel as a state is not the same state like it was till October 7th and we should understand it and people after they saw the movies, after they know what's happened there, they won't, some of them won't go back to their places unless they will be 100% secure and the Prime Minister said that he understood it and that this will be one of the aims of the war, of this war, but I can tell you that if the solution I would say will be some kind of an arrangement, some between the Iranians and the United States and Europe, it will not hold water. We should be in a position that we won't see eye by eye the Hezbollah around or the next side of the fence. If this won't be the situation, some of the people and some of the families won't go back to their places and again it's not the issues of those residents. It's actually, I would say maybe a big world, but this is a challenge for the Zionist values. It's not only those people that maybe won't come back to their places. If they won't be 100% secure, the Zionist values, the Zionist idea can be under a big, big challenge which it wasn't this way, more than 100 years, we didn't have this kind of a challenge of the Zionist challenge like we have after October 7th, this horrible Saturday. We understand it. I hope the government will understand it and I know what I'm saying. I know the meaning of a big military event up north, but I think we won't have any other solution but to do some kind of a military event. It can take, as you said, the weeks, maybe months, but we should know that in the end of this war we will be 100% secure for many, many years. Kira Salis, thanks so much for joining us, the chairman of the Upper Galilee Regional Council. He's joining me from Kira Chmonos. Stay safe, be well. Jack, let me go back to the studio with you here. You heard what he said at the Upper Galilee. I mean, it sounds as though what you cannot have, you cannot have the entire Upper Galilee frozen solid for months. Well, this is what Hezbollah is boasting about. He has paralyzed quite some units of the IDF instead of being directed to Gaza. They are now deployed facing Lebanon. Second, he has succeeded, I mean, never in the past, unprecedented. 60,000 residents left their homes that were evacuated, and they have created a sort of belt, a security belt where Hezbollah can fire at ease. This is the second thing. Third thing, he has turned his provocation into an open war. He has declared war on Israel on the 8th of October. He says, since the 8th of October, we are at war with Israel. And he has gradually, gradually intensified his intervention using today weapons that never used in the past, like the missiles, the Burkan missiles with 100 kilos of warheads, ground to air missiles, suicidal drones. All this didn't happen. And of course, I mean, the rocketing, I mean, the Kirat Shmone, Kirat Bialik and whatever he wants, and sending drones inside Israel and intervening into Israeli airspace. So we must not minimize the fact that we are at a day of war. It's not, it is a nutrition war, but it is a war. And it could very easily escalate if something very serious happens. Now, I will, I remind you that according to Hezbollah, there is a formula between him and Israel. And the formula is that if you kill one Lebanese, you will have to, to kill, we Hezbollah will have to kill one Israelis. Now, according to the latest, they have 64 people killed, 74 of their terrorists killed. And we have, unfortunately, nine people killed. So we, there's still a number lacking, which means that Hezbollah will do everything in his power in order to equalize the number of deaths from both sides. But the risk of starting something and preemptively starting something is greater than this. Well, you know, Hezbollah has lost the strategic surprise he hoped to have. Now, we are talking about tactics, and the strategic strike could be ours. We could surprise him with a preemptive, but till now we didn't do that because the Americans are holding us. And because of the situation, we don't want to open a second front right now. We are on a defensive deployment facing Hezbollah. But this could very easily turn into an offensive, the offensive initiative. If Hezbollah just, I mean, with its provocation, just at a certain point, Israel would say we had enough. But I think Israel then, and we have about 30 seconds left, but Israel will basically have to tell the Americans, hey, we're doing this. Whether you like it or not, we have to do it. I think that this is the case. Great, Jack Nairi, always a pleasure to have you here. It's to do a thank you for your analysis. Just to let everyone know, the news is moving very fast here. As we told you at the very top of the hour, the IDF has entered the Shefa Hospital Center in a targeted, very precise operation, not airing, not bombing from the air. We're going from street to street. Stay up to date here on I-24 News. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. We're around the world. I'm Albert Lewitton reporting live from the I-24 News Headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas, and here's what you need to know. Number one, overnight the IDF entered the El Shefa Hospital Center in Gaza City. There has been some active fire. A number of Hamas terrorists have been killed at the entrance of the hospital. The American intelligence services say their information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital. The IDF says it is a targeted operation with medical teams and Arabic-speaking personnel to evacuate the hospital, trying to minimize injuries to civilians. Incubators, baby food and medical supplies have been brought in. The second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source, says that there's been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages and that it may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan Network says that Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar in the United States. The idea here is that Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian children and youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources emphasized though that the talks are still ongoing, but there is no final conclusion as of yet. The number three thing you need to know, fuel shipments are coming into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. It is the first time that Israel has allowed the fuel into the besieged territory since October the 7th. Kogat, who is the Israeli defense body that is responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that UN trucks will fill up to about 6,200 gallons of fuel at the Rafa crossing on the Egyptian border later today. The United States had pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings a death toll now on the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David. He's 27. He's from Karmiel, a deputy commander in the Negev Brigade 9217 Battalion. And Captain Nididia Asher Lev, 26 years old from Talmanasha, a deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade Shackad Battalion. We have a lot going on here, a lot moving pieces. Let's go to our first live team coverage all throughout I-24 News. Let's now first go to Pia Stahabak. She's the I-24 News correspondent in northern Israel right now at the border with Lebanon. Pia, as of this morning, as we're now 90 in the nine o'clock hour in Israel, it has been quiet. But that still doesn't mean that the tense, it's still not tense. There's still tense there, I should say. Exactly, Albert. Well, the past 24 hours have been relatively quiet here in the Israel-Lebanon border. Although there were several launches of motor shells and anti-tank missiles towards communities really alongside the Israel-Lebanon border, the communities of Mar-Galiot and Metula, the very eastern part of the Upper Galilee region, have been targeted as well as Al-Arab al-Aramsh in the western part. And the idea of yesterday struck a squad trying to launch another anti-tank missile towards the Kibbutz of Yiftakh. This is exactly where only last week an Israeli civilian was killed by one of those anti-tank missiles. And that really just gives you an impression of how tense and volatile the situation here is. But the situation here in the north has now also been addressed in the political establishment. We're speaking about, of course, dozens of communities who have been evacuated, people who left their homes without really knowing when they will be able to come back. Yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with municipal leaders here in the north. Also, Benny Gantz came to the communities of Kiryat Shmona and Metula, very close to the Israel-Lebanon border. And he issued a statement saying that the situation here in the north will not go back to how it was on October 6th, of course, referring to the reality here in the north before the war. And he said that the mission is to restore a security here in the north. And that, of course, speaks to the concerns of many of those evacuees, because, again, the threat that is posed by Hisballah will continue to exist. Also, after the current war with Gaza is going to end, and also yesterday, the current Defense Minister Jov Galant addressed the issue in his speech. He says that the lives of the northern residents are no less important than those of the residents in the south. Of course, again, picking up those concerns that we've been hearing from many of the people here that evacuated their homes, they're fearful to go back, because they do know that Hisballah will still sit on the edge of the border there and will still continue to exist. And the question here is, how and if the Israeli military establishment will address that? Great. Piaz Sakhabak, who's at the north of the border with Lebanon. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll catch in with you later on in the afternoon and in the day. Thanks again. Let me go back now in studio, continuing our live team coverage. Colonel Dr. Jacques Naria, he's the former deputy head of assessment for Israeli military intelligence and also the foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Thanks again, Jacques, for joining us. Let's talk about Al-Shifa Hospital. When we spoke yesterday, there was a discussion as to whether or not it was an asset, because we suspect that many of the Hamas may have already fled from underneath it, although there could be some that still hold themselves underground. Well, if you find some, just tell me. I think that they're all left long ago, several times the Israeli army called the hospital, the director of the hospital, and informed him that we are about to enter the hospital. Do you think that the director of the hospital, what did he do? He just called the people downstairs and says, you should quit as soon as possible. So the chances that we meet there are real hostages. I mean, living hostages and terrorists are very slim. In fact, I mean, if we are not entering a destruction zone, I think that if it is so, this will weigh a lot on the continuation of the war, because the world opinion is not accepting the fact that we are attacking in the hospital. Even if we say it's a targeted attack, if we know that we had the information, the results will be definitely imposing on Israel. And they will limit, it's a liberty of maneuver if, I mean, if a disaster happens, God forbid. So this is what's happening in Sheikah. It's a pivotal moment. Exactly. Exactly. So we are at the pivotal time, because by then, if we succeed in what we are looking at, even if we find some remnants of clothes, of diapers, whatever, I mean, of hostages who were there, this will definitely give us the justification to continue further. There are 35 hospitals in Gaza. Imagine for two and a half million people, there are 35 hospitals. In all Israel, we have 14 big hospitals. This is what we have for 10 million people. So this is the difference. So we have to go from hospital to hospital to see what's going on there. We have, as you said, we are at a pivotal time, we have to make a decision concerning how do we continue the phase three? Do we go southwards toward the Hanyulis, the Diral Balak and Rafa? Or do we just stop here and wait? I think that the army has chosen already the third phase, meaning that we are going to advance toward the south. This is what's happening. Now, concerning Hezbollah, I think that there is a link between the two. As long as Hezbollah believes that Hamas is standing fast against Israel, he will not enlarge its intervention. But the moment he feels that Hamas is crumbling, I think that Hezbollah will intervene and will just enlarge its operation in order to put more pressure on us to direct our forces to the northern front. In any case, the Iran is playing with us. They have opened the front, and the front is called the Houthis. I mean, the army is not giving us more details about how many ballistic missiles have been fired toward Israel. But it has now, it is openly a new front that we have to take care of. And Iran is just balancing Hezbollah on the north one day, and Houthi on the other day, or Hezbollah in the morning, and the Houthis in the evening. In America, we have this game called Wackamall. You hit one, you go to the other. Exactly. So just one second. If I can, Jack, I'll now go to the south of Israel right now, where things are happening as we speak. Pierre Kloschlander is actually live in the south of Israel. Pierre, the IDF says now, from what I understand, that there has been some active firefight out front of the hospital. Talk about that. Right. As the special forces entered the Shifa, one of the building of the Shifa hospital located on the western side of it, according to Palestinian reports, there was a clash with Hamas terrorists who threw IDs on the forces. The five terrorists, as far as we know, have been annihilated during the clash. As the special forces entered inside the hospital, what we know, and we don't get much information, but we know that the incubators for 37 premature babies that have been inside the hospital for a while already have been brought to the hospital personnel. We know from the IDF that the patients, the civilians, and the medical personnel are not in the crossfire. The forces, the IDF forces are calming the area of that building. We know from Palestinian reports that they've reached a basement or a bunker. We don't exactly know what it is, and the operation is going on inside the hospital. Now, Pierre, this is coming from the Hamas government media office. They say that there's 9,000 patients and medical staff and such, but they have also been saying that the incubators that they bring doesn't matter because there's no electricity. Do we know whether or not that the humanitarian efforts to try to get some of the people out of the hospital, is that still underway? Do we know any of that? Well, we know that the hospital has been encircled far for a few days and there's been ongoing negotiations between the medical personnel and the IDF for the past four days, at least, not only to bring in these incubators, but also to bring in fuel for electricity, for instance. 300 liters of fuel were brought on Sunday, but the hospital personnel refused to accept it. Up until yesterday evening, they were ongoing negotiations about inserting the incubators inside the hospital. That also didn't happen. And at the same time, the IDF is obviously receiving some intelligence report about something inside the hospital that they want to find and perhaps also something regarding the fate of the hostages, and this is why they entered. Now, they entered, if you pay attention, after the deputy spokesperson of the Pentagon and the spokesperson of the White House agreed with what the IDF has been giving for three weeks already that the hospital is actually underground. The operational and control command of Hamas in an interlacing of tunnels and bunkers. And this is the first time, actually, that the White House and the Pentagon gave some sort of confirmation of the assertion of the IDF. Now, Hamas even said this evening overnight that the statements by the U.S. administration were green light to the IDF forces. And indeed, to a certain extent, I'm sure that there is such an approval by the U.S. administration. Now, the U.S. administration has been warning the Israeli government not to bomb the hospital. But what we know is that there's been bombing around the hospital in order to annihilate Hamas' nests around the hospital, and hence that firefight this night as the forces were entering the hospital could be one of the indications that there is around the hospital a lot of things to clear out for the IDF forces. Pierre, you've covered wars for many, many years, whether it's here, Ukraine, anywhere else in the world. The IDF is dealing with such a unique situation here, aren't they? I mean, if this was Ukraine, Russia would have probably bombed the hospital outright, or if it was any other place in the world, it probably would have been that situation. Here the IDF is dealing with something specific, something unique. Can you talk about that? Well, I think that the fate of the hospital, the fate of the civilian population in the hospital, be it the patients, the displaced people, and the medical personnel, is one of the criteria of this operation because if there is a disaster, a humanitarian disaster inside the hospital, that could put a break on the Israeli operation, on the order of mission, which is to dismantle Hamas totally. And thus there is a lot of calculation in what the IDF is doing. First of all, in order to preserve the life of the Israeli soldiers, I'm reminding you that 48 soldiers in two and a half weeks were killed in the battlefield since the start of the operation on October 27th. That's not a lot, although in Hebrew you said that one life is a whole world. That's not a lot given the density of the infrastructure of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. They're working methodically, very carefully, very cautiously, step by step. They've already said times and again that it's going to take months to prepare the civilian population in Israel, to prepare also the international community that the fighting is going to go on for a long time. But that is conditional to the fate of the civilians in the Gaza Strip. And if there is a disaster in Shifa Hospital, which has become one of the symbols of the humanitarian predicament of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, this could put a break on the whole war. And this is something that Israel wants to avert at any price. Pierre Kloschunder, thank you so much for being there. Stay safe and we'll be back in touch with you later on this morning. Let me now move on to the north, back up to the north. As you know, the area around the border of Lebanon has been under fire. There's been a relative calm. But there's been five, there's been a lot of missiles that have been sent over from Lebanon, from Hezbollah, from Hamas, and Lebanon, across into the Israeli territory. Giorz Salz is the chairman of the Upper Galilee Regional Council. He's joining me now from Kiryat Shmona. Giorz, thanks so much for joining us. You stay behind. Why? What do you mean stay behind? Well, I mean, the entire place was evacuated. You're there. You mean personally? Personally. Well, you're right. It's like the soldiers. We are the municipality leaders. We have to stay in our places. First of all, there are still some people that are living in our settlements in our Kibbutzim because we evacuate our residents. We didn't evacuate our settlements. It's very important that some of us will stay in those places. So the other people that's already evacuated will, they have the opportunity to come back. So yes, we are here. We have some kind of emergency team of our municipality that stayed here. It's a shelter. It's a big shelter that we are trying to operate both the war situation, but also, you know, we have to continue our services like collecting garbage and we have some kind of schools in some of our Kibbutzim. So we do have to both manage the routine of the municipality and to manage the war situation, which as you said just now, we are in this small situation already since October 7th, although the volume of this situation is not like in the south, like in Gaza, but we are in a war. We are in a military zone, I would say. We have here tanks and many, many soldiers and artillery all day, all the day. So it's complicated living here, but some of us should stay here. So the others that's already evacuated can come back and some someday might take weeks, maybe even more. But we will be back in our settlements, in our Kibbutzim, in our Moshevim, in Kiryat Shmona, in Shlomi. At the end of this war, we will come back all of us to our places to continue our great lives here at the Upper Galilee in the north of Israel. Great. Giorga, you met with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday. What did he tell you? I think it's more important what we told him. And we asked him some things like to support those residents that evacuate from our municipality and some other municipalities because you have to understand that those people that's a government is supporting them evacuate because of, I would say, military needs. It wasn't out of the risks, assessments of the residents, which this is what we have done. So I think that's one-third of my residents that's evacuated is supported by the government. But two-thirds, it's around 9,000 residents that's already evacuated from our municipality, have no support from the government. So we asked him, please support those residents as well. The second thing that we asked him is, I would say, the economic security, which is not less important than the military security and all the programs that we have, all those benefits that residents should have because they're already six weeks without they are not working, they are running around, they have their own, they don't have their salaries. So we asked him that this economic support will include all the people from the north that their lives stopped at the November 7th and the third and the most important thing that we asked him, that's in addition to bring back all those people that was kidnapped. In addition to, I would say, bring some security to the south of Israel, one of the goals of the aims of this war should be that's all for the citizens, the residents of the north that's living near the border will have the ability to come back to the settlements of the Kibbutzim, to the town, to the Gilay Shmonar, 100% safe for a long time. Because if they will continue to see the Hezbollah in front of the rise, if the Hezbollah will stay on the other side of the fence of Israel, some of those families, mainly the young families with young kids, I'm afraid they won't go back to their houses. And it's an issue, it's a big issue. Right, so many people, so many people, so many of the military analysts have said that what Hezbollah is trying to do in the north is to have a war of attrition, that this could take months if not years of this constant small little flares that go back across, across all the time. Did you, Giorgio, did you feel that you felt secure with your meeting with the Prime Minister, that what you have up there is a secure zone that you're able at some point to come back? No, not at all. That's exactly what you said just now. This was a situation in the south for many, many years. That's every month or years, there was some kind of a military event, and then it stopped, and then we wait another one year, one and a half years, three years to the next event. This is not a situation that we can live in the north, especially after October 7th, after this horrible Saturday. You have to understand, and I think all of us should understand, that the citizens, the residents of Israel after the 7th of October are not the same residents. Israel as a state is not the same state like it was till October 7th, and we should understand it. And people, after they saw the movies, after they know what's happened there, they won't, some of them won't go back to their places unless there will be 100% secure. And the Prime Minister said that he understand it, and that this will be one of the aims of the war, of this war. But I can tell you that if the solution, I would say, will be some kind of an arrangement, some between the Iranians and the United States and Europe, it will not hold water. We should be in a position that we won't see eye by eye, the Hezbollah around the next side of the fence. If this won't be the situation, some of the people and some of the families won't go back to their places. And again, it's not the issues of those residents, it's actually, I would say, maybe a big world. But this is a challenge for the Zionist values. It's not only those people that maybe won't come back to their places. If they won't be 100% secure, the Zionist values, the Zionist idea can be under a big, big challenge, which it wasn't this way, more than 100 years, we didn't have this kind of a challenge of the Zionist challenge, like we have after October 7th, this horrible Saturday. We understand it. I hope the government will understand it. And I know what I'm saying. I know the meaning of a big military event up north, but I think we won't have any other solution but to do some kind of a military event. It can take, as you say, the weeks, maybe months, but we should know that in the end of this war, we will be 100% secure for many, many years. Kira Siles, thanks so much for joining us, the chairman of the Upper Galilee Regional Council. He's joining me from Kira Chmones. Stay safe, be well. Jack, let me go back to the studio with you here. You heard what he said at the Upper Galilee. I mean, it sounds as though what you cannot have, you cannot have the entire Upper Galilee frozen solid for months. Well, this is what Hezbollah is boasting about. He has paralyzed quite some units of the IDF instead of being directed to Gaza. They are now deployed facing Lebanon. Second, he has succeeded in, I mean, never in the past, unprecedented. 60,000 residents left their homes that were evacuated and they have created a sort of belt, a security belt where Hezbollah can fire at ease. This is the second thing. Third thing, he has turned his provocation into an open war. He has declared war on Israel on the 8th of October. He says, since the 8th of October, we are at war with Israel. And he has gradually, gradually intensified his intervention using today weapons that never used in the past, like the missiles, the Bokkan missiles with 100 kilos of warheads, ground to air missiles, suicidal drones. All this didn't happen. And of course, I mean, the rocketing, I mean, the Kirat Shmone, Kirat Bialik and whatever he wants, and sending drones inside Israel and intervening into Israeli airspace. So we must not minimize the fact that we are at a day of war. It is an attrition war, but it is a war. And it could very easily escalate if something very serious happens. Now, I will remind you that according to Hezbollah, there's a formula between him and Israel. And the formula is that if you kill one Lebanese, you will have to kill, we, Hezbollah, will have to kill one Israelis. Now, according to the latest, they have 74 people killed, 74 of their terrorists killed. And we have, unfortunately, nine people killed. So there's still a number lacking, which means that Hezbollah will do everything in his power in order to equalize the number of deaths from both sides. But the risk of starting something, preemptively starting something is greater than this. Well, you know, Hezbollah has lost the strategic surprise he hoped to have. Now, we are talking about tactics. And the strategic strike could be ours. We could surprise him with a preemptive. But till now, we didn't do that because the Americans are holding us. And because of the situation, we don't want to open a second front right now. We are on a defensive deployment facing Hezbollah. But this could very easily turn into an offensive, the offensive initiative. If Hezbollah just, I mean, with its provocation just at a certain point, Israel would say we had enough. But I think Israel then, and we have about 30 seconds left, but Israel will basically have to tell the Americans, hey, we're doing this. Whether you like it or not, we have to do it. I think that this is the case. Great, Jack Nairi, it's a pleasure to have you here. It's to do a thank you for your analysis. Just to let everyone know, the news is moving very fast here. As we told you at the very top of the hour, the IDF has entered the Shefa Hospital Center in a targeted, very precise operation, not airing, not bombing from the air, but going from street to street. Stay up to date here on I-24 News. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. As our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Esta semana, News 24, 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 hispanoparlantes. News 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. News 24, únicamente en I-24 News. Our viewers around the world, I'm Albert Lewits and reporting live from the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas, news is coming in and here's what you need to know. Number one, overnight the IDF entered the Al Shefa Hospital Center in Gaza City. There has been some active fire. A number of Hamas terrorists have been killed at the entrance of the hospital. The American intelligence services say their information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital. The IDF says it is a specialized operation with medical teams and Arabic speaking personnel to evacuate the hospital trying to minimize injuries to civilians. Some incubators, baby food and medical supplies have been brought in. Now in just a minute I'll be speaking with the IDF live, you'll want to pay attention. Second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source, says that there has been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages. It may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan Network here in Israel, Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar and the United States. The idea here, Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources emphasized that the talks are still ongoing, but there is no final conclusion. Number three thing you need to know, fuel shipments are coming into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. It is the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the territory since October the 7th. Kogad, who is the Israeli defense body that's responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that UN trucks will fill about 6,200 gallons of fuel at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border later today. The United States have pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings a death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David. He's 27 from Karmiel. He was a deputy company commander in the Negev Brigade's 9217 battalion. And Captain Niededia Ashur Lev, 26 years old, from Tal Minashe. He also is a deputy company commander, but at the Guvati Brigade Shaka Battalion. We have live team coverage of all the moving parts here in this story, Day 40 of the war against Hamas. Let's not first go to the south where things have been moving very fast and furiously. Pierre Kloschlander, the I-24 news correspondent is live at the Israel-Gaza border. Thanks very much, Pierre. We know that the IDF has now entered the facility, has entered Shefa Hospital. What do we know as to what they're doing there now? And we're having some communications problems with Pierre. We'll get to him in just a second. I'm joined in studio now by Martin Hemmel. He's a political international security analyst. Martin, we knew that they were going to go into the Shefa Hospital, but this has proved to be a pivotal moment in terms of the idea, the external look of what the IDF is doing at the hospital. What challenge does the IDF have to make sure that it's seen as not a war of aggression or a crime against humanity, as some of Hamas has been saying? Well, it's always going to be an uphill battle because there is a permanent fixture that Israel is the aggressor here in the international social media scene. But there's definitely a tactical and strategic battles that still could be won here. For one, by bringing in incubators, by bringing in baby food, they're showing they're trying to address the problem. By trying to help the doctors and the patients to get out, they're also addressing the problem. It'll be harder to refute that Israel is just killing women and men and children in the hospital if they're actually taking these steps. Give me one second. Just a moment, Martin. Let's now go move on to something very important. This is a very pivotal day, as we've been mentioning in the ground operation. Gaza joining us live now is Colonel Olivier Rafferty. He's an IDF spoken. Colonel, thanks so much for joining us. My money. Colonel, tell us what exactly is happening as we speak. The IDF has entered the hospital facilities of several blocks within Gaza City. But what's happening right now? Are they, is it an all out assault on the hospital as has been mentioned by some of the international media? Or what exactly is happening? Good morning. And thank you to have me on your studio. No, it's not an assault in the hospital. It is a special operation with doctors and people speaking Arabic in order to find out exactly in specific rooms according to specific tactical and macro tactical intelligence, things concerning presence of terrorists, but also evidence is containing the kidnapped Israelis have been kidnapped on 7th of October. This operation that you just mentioned is a very targeted operation within the hospital with all the sensitivity that we have to take into account in order to prevent civilians and patients to be hurt by the by the operation in case that terrorist will open fire. Just to mention that before entering the facility, there were exchange of fire between the IDF and the terrorist cell outside and we eliminated seven terrorists before entering the hospital. So is it room by room, hallway by hallway, floor by floor? How exactly, how do you ensure that first that the Israeli troops are safe but that the patients themselves are safe and that the medical personnel are safe? And how do you know that the people that are on the beds don't have guns next to them, let's say? First of all, we are very careful it is a special operation with special forces. So everything is done according to would say some operational processes that I'm not going to elaborate about them. But as you just mentioned, it is very sensitive operation, the very sensitive area and we are aware not only has, by the way, also the American intelligence that terrorists from Hamas, maybe 200 or more that were or are still some of them in the hospital. And we are also continuing room by room very carefully to get what we need to get inside the hospital. I repeat, it is also a move to find out evidences or elements containing the kidnapped Israeli and we had some ideas that are in the hospital. Right, Olivier, yesterday in opening some of the basements that were at some of the other hospitals within Gaza, there was some evidence that was shown that there were some hostages being held there. Do we know yet whether or not that's the same situation here in Al-Shifa? Not yet. I just say the operation is still going on. We have there all the elements in order to bring back after the operation photos and other elements to show to the world. But I repeat, right now, the operation is still going on. And it's not an assault. It's not a bombing. It's not an attack. We're not attacking the hospital. We are perching into the hospital in coordination with the director of the hospital. And at the same time, we brought to the hospital, like you just mentioned, equipment for patients. And we are also going today to transfer around 30, 36, I think, or 37 incubators for babies in the hospital. What when you decide, when will the IDF decide it's secure, it's safe, it's fine? Is there a point where the IDF will feel comfortable that Al-Shifa is secure? Your question is very important because it is actually the same question for everywhere in the West, in the Gaza Strip, sorry, and in the Gaza City particularly. We have to be very cautious. So we are moving step by step according to a specific program and order that we planned just before previous the operation. But for the time being, we are moving where we need to move, again, according to specific intelligence. And when the operation is over, you will know it. Let's talk a little bit about the humanitarian aid that's been coming in. We understand that 6,200 gallons of fuel is being brought in from the South through the UN trucks. Can you talk a little bit about what that is expected to be? It was presumed to be today. Do you know whether or not that's still the situation? Like you said, it will be today from Rafa and it will be for UNRRA trucks bringing trucks with fuel within the Gaza Strip. It is very important to mention that now we decide and we can actually move further for humanitarian assistance when we think and when we assume that it's secure for the situation. We can improve this humanitarian assistance. And we have a specific channel of communication between the IDF and between Israel and the elements within the Gaza Strip in order to prevent humanitarian problems. And I repeat, I want to be very clear, the Israeli army is not in a war against the Palestinian people, against Palestinian people in Gaza. We are in a war against Hamas. We will defeat Hamas and at the same time we'll do whatever should be done in order to help, to assist, and to prevent civilian innocent people to be involved in the combats. By the way, to make it clear, Hamas did everything, still doing everything to involve his own population within the combats and to make them hurt and then explain to the world that they are hurt because of Israel. But of course, all of that, all of that, it is Hamas' strategy actually to promote their own interests and it's a fake, it's a lie and it's terrible. Always thank you very much, Olivier Rafferwitz, Colonel Olivier Raffer, it's joining us again from the IDF. Thanks again for joining us. Thank you very much. There is a second path, a second theater of battle right now and it's at the north and that's where Pia Stachelback, our 24 news correspondent, she's joining us for the northern part of Israel. Pia, thank you for joining us through the, it sounds as though as of right now, it has been all quiet on the northern front. Right Elba, well the past 24 hours have been relatively quiet here, but what you do always see is that mortar shells and anti-tank missiles are launched from southern Lebanon towards Israeli communities in the north. Yesterday the communities of Metula and Margaliot in the upper eastern part of the Galilee were targeted as well as Arab al-Aramsh, which is more towards the western side there. Also the kibbutz of Yiftach was targeted or was meant to be targeted by a squad that was apprehended before by Israeli military there. Yiftach is a community, is a kibbutz, where about a week ago an Israeli civilian was killed exactly by an anti-tank missile. So these cross-border skirmishes do continue also here in the morning hours. We could hear Israeli artillery firing towards the southern Lebanon there and this is basically what we've been seeing all throughout the past weeks that these cross-border confrontations continue and intensify. You're right that today and also yesterday was a relatively quiet day, but the situation here is very tense and the frontier is very volatile. That also speaks to the dozens of communities that have been evacuated in a proximity of about five kilometers to the Lebanese border. Thousands of people who do not know when to come back to their homes and yesterday that issue was addressed by Israeli politicians Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with municipal leaders here in the north. Also Ben Higgans, the leader of the National Unity Party and the member of the current war cabinet, toured cities like Kiryat Shmona and Mettula and he said that the situation here will not go back to how it was at October the sixth, of course referring to the reality before the current war with Gaza broke out because the threat that his Bala post and is still posing has been also very much real before the current war and it will persist also after and also yesterday you have gone and the current defense minister addressed this issue in a speech saying that the goal is to restore security here and that really speaks to the concerns of many people who evacuated the region here and who are fearful to come back knowing that his Bala and other Iranian proxies are still sitting on the border. Great, Piaz Takhabah who's joining us live from the northern front with Lebanon. Thanks again for joining us for this update. We'll be back in touch with you throughout the day. Now, the subject of Russia and how Russian involvement in this war, it's a pretty large cloud that hovers over against this war here. So I'm joined now by Arkady Milman. He's the senior researcher and the head of the Russia program at the Institute for National Security Studies. He's also the former Israeli ambassador to Russia and Azerbaijan. He's joining us again this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. Now you did a paper for the INSS and in the paper you wrote that Moscow has a firm support for Hamas, especially after October the 7th. That's a turning point between the relations between Israel and Russia. Can you explain why that is? Why it's such a turning point? Oh, it's a Russian position. There was a conception in Israel that Russia is a friendly country. But actually after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia really, it's not friendly country to Israel and to other Western countries. They are on the anti-American and anti-Western position. And their perception is that Israel is a part of Western world. So it's very easy to think that also Israel is a part of Western world. So they have to take a different approach to relations with Israel. And that's the main problem. Now, the military strategic alliance between Russia and Iran, also the part of this war in Ukraine, of course, helps Russian in their understanding that Israel is not on their side. And because of the Iranian proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic jihad, and other terrorist organizations, so for Russia it was very easy not to condemn the massacre of 7th of September and not to condemn Hamas and take on the Israeli position. So do we know what kind of level of participation it was by the Russians? Was it more of the, you'll let the Iranians do the work, coordinating it, funding it, whatever. We'll just take a look and we'll just see it from above. Or was there more active operation, cooperation? Yes, no. First of all, there's of course an active cooperation between Russia and Hamas. First of all, Russia had given the license to produce AK-47 and Kalashnikov weapons. Now, they had their possession of different kinds of anti-tank missiles and other RPG, for example. There's also weapons. Now, Hamas, their server, especially of the arm parts of Hamas, they used the serers in Russia. Now, they also used the crypto stock exchange and the special exchange in Russia to transfer dozens of millions to their digital wallets and also Jihad Islamic, that's the same. So there's a lot of different kind of activities and of course diplomatic activities and different kind of meetings and visits to Moscow, et cetera, et cetera. Now, the Prime Minister had tried to have better ties with Moscow and it seems as though Moscow basically said, thanks, but we're not interested. Do you think that there's been a shift even more so after October 7th? I don't think that today the relations with Russia some turning point. I don't think that we can maintain the same level of relations with the country that is really anti-Israeli country and not friendly country. So it's impossible to maintain the same kind of level of relations between Israel and Russia. It's impossible. We saw some really, really disturbing video if you remember October 8th and 9th of the anti-Semitic rhetoric and some riots that occurred Dagestan for instance. Can it go any further, any more anti-Semitic, any more anti-Jewish, any more anti-Israel in Russia or is there some point where it just doesn't get any lower? Oh, it's a look, it's a very problematic issue because Putin himself started this anti-Israeli and I will say anti-Semitic campaign in the beginning of September and also before this when he blamed the Ukrainian president Zelensky because of his Jewish roots. And in the beginning of September he started a real anti-Semitic campaign and one of expression of this campaign was of course the pogrom or attempt of pogrom in Makhachkala. And this is a very dangerous development in Russia and they continue this policy. Arkady, one question I have to ask you now is about Ukraine. I mean, if Russia has basically said, all right, we'll have Hamas on our side. We're against the US. We've now set up a cold war, if you will. Does that mean that Israel then turns and says to Ukraine, you know what, we will not only give you more armaments, not only help you with more iron dome-ish type of missiles, but we'll help you even more so. Is that a possibility? There's a possibility, but I don't think that this possibility is realistic today when we have a war, a real war with Hamas. But what is realistic is to take the position, pro-Ukrainian position, because of the very simple one. Today we have an axis of evil. It's Russia, North Korea, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and of course in Yemen we have also different kind of proxy of Iran, et cetera, et cetera. And the other axis is the axis of the Western countries with Ukraine, with Israel, with the United States and European country. So today there's some kind of war between two these camps and between two these axes. So we are on the Western part, and we have to take this position. And of course we have to support Ukraine, because Ukraine and Israel, our fight is for democracy. And the fight of Russia and Hamas is against the democracies. So that is, in my opinion, a very, very simple issue. And we have to understand it from a strategic level. We have to be on the right side. Arkady Milman, Senior Researcher and the Head of the Russian Program at the Institute for National Security Studies, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia and Azerbaijan. Thanks again for joining us this morning. So now let's turn to America. In America, at least 300,000 people packed the National Mall in Washington showing support for Israel, but also showing support for Jews in America. Anti-Jewish incidents have surged since the October 7th attack on Israel. Earlier in the day, the top American political leaders, bipartisan, screened Hamas propaganda videos showing the brutal butchering, burning and murders of at least 1200 Israelis. Many of these hardened politicians removed to tears and visibly sobbed during the screening. At the National Mall, people came by car, by bus, by train and plane from all over America to show support. Also there, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog. Whilst our loved ones are held captive in Gaza and our soldiers are fighting for our beloved Israel, Jews all over the world are assaulted for being Jewish. The hatred, the lies, the brutality, the disgraceful outburst of ancient anti-Semitism are an embarrassment to all civilized people and nations. How we are living is hard to describe to you. We hostage families have lived the last 39 days in slow-motion torment. These children of God range in age from nine months to 87 years. They are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindu. Why are they being left underground in the dirt? Join me again here in studio as Martin Hemel, political and international security analyst. Martin, 300,000 people going to the National Mall in Washington. It's a pretty large crowd. But that's not really enough, is it? No, it's not enough. But it's a very good start because there have been massive rallies in London, Paris, New York, etc. To have a big Jewish rally is a very important statement to show that Jews around the world are not going to tolerate this new brand of anti-Semitism, basically. But what is really needed are sustained small continuous demonstrations throughout Western capitals, the Western world to counteract a massive growing pro-Palestinian pro-Hamas surge of social media and protests. Go ahead. No, I was going to say there was a Harris poll that came out yesterday that showed that one third of all Americans under the age of 34 support Hamas. I mean, these numbers would make a lot of Americans blanched. They would say this is insane. It is insane to some degrees. But racism and anti-Semitism is an insane thing. The way to counteract it is to drive the message that this is not about Palestinians, civilians. This is about destroying Israel, destroying Jews, and destroying the Jewish state. And to drive home, this is a surge of anti-Semitism. And that has to be bombarded all the time in key small protests, social media, and mainstream media interviews. Let's talk about the European support, Germany. I can't even describe the word ironic. Germany is coming to the support of Israel on this. Well, Germany has a very sinister past and knows what the severe cost of virulent anti-Semitism can be, could lead to Holocaust. The fact that Germany is coming out now, I think is a way for the Germans to always look back at their responsibility to help Jews now and to account for the Holocaust. And that's why this support is so crucial at this time, especially in Europe, where there's a real big surge of anti-Semitism. Right, England, France, Portugal. I remember the Portugal Prime Minister coming out and saying in support, Portuguese president coming out in support, I should say. Germany, at some point, is there a risk that that good will will disappear as this continues on? Well, I think we passed the point where maybe that good will could disappear. Because I think at this point, the amount of civilian casualties actually dropped somewhat because the attacks are becoming more surgical on the ground. So I think the leadership support will continue. The question is what's happening on their ground, their ground of public opinion. There are very large Muslim communities in Europe. They're pressing very hard for anti-Israel action. And so the battle on the ground is a battle of social media protests. And that's why small continuous protests by Jews anywhere in Europe are very, very important. And that talks a lot about the social media battle on the streets that turns into political battles in their respective countries. I mean, if there's an election coming up in the United States, there's discussion of the fact that Joe Biden in the US administration is gonna back off just a touch because they're afraid of what it would encounter in terms of election that's coming on next year. Are we gonna have this all over the world where it basically have to do nothing but push harder because of what may turn in a lot of these countries? We may see that in France or in Britain where there are very powerful anti-Israel movements going on there. But Joe Biden is taking a calculated risk also because on the other side, on the Republican side, there's very, very strong support for Israel. And the Republicans could use that as a weapon. See, the Democrats are going anti-Israel. We're for Israel. And that could sway somewhat Jewish support, depending if Donald Trump's gonna actually be the leader of the Republicans. But Joe Biden's got a real problem with that because he is intrinsically pro-Israel on this. And I think he's gonna try to minimize the damage as much as possible. But he is facing a progressive eruption within his party that's quite anti-Israel. Let's talk about the United Nations, okay? A hospital, school, World Health Organization run hospital as has a terrorist all underneath it. Unra schools that basically have teachers that are supporting Hamas with 30 seconds that we have left. Is the UN relevant in this situation? The UN is relevant because it represents 195 countries around the world. Well, Israel will win a certain initial battle here when it shows the incubators going to the Palestinians. But still it faces the daunting tasks of Unra saying that there are millions of Palestinians displaced and they have to be fed. And that's gonna be an ongoing concern. Martin Hemel, thank you so much for joining us. The news is moving very fast. So stay up to date here on I-24 News, here on TV, streaming. And on the I-24 News app, I'm Albert Lewitson, reporting live from Tel Aviv. The news continues after the break. Is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where you see us. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. News is around the world. I'm Albert Lewitson, reporting live from the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas, news is coming in. And here's what you need to know. Number one, overnight the IDF entered the Al-Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. There has been some active fire. A number of Hamas terrorists have been killed at the entrance of the hospital. The American intelligence services say their information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital. The IDF says it is a specialized operation with medical teams and Arabic speaking personnel to evacuate the hospital, trying to minimize injuries to civilians. Some incubators, baby food and medical supplies have been brought in. Now in just a minute, I'll be speaking with the IDF live. You'll want to pay attention. Second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source, says that there has been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages. It may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan Network here in Israel, Israel and Hamas, are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar and the United States. The idea here, Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources emphasized that the talks are still ongoing, but there is no final conclusion. Number three thing you need to know, fuel shipments are coming into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. It is the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the territory since October the 7th. Kogad, who is the Israeli defense body that's responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that UN trucks will fill about 6,200 gallons of fuel at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border later today. The United States have pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings a death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David. He's 27 from Karmiel. He was a deputy company commander in the Nega Brigade's 9217 battalion. And Captain Yedidia Ashurlev, 26 years old, from Tal Manashe. He also is a deputy company commander, but at the Gwavati Brigade Shaka Battalion. We have live team coverage of all the moving parts here in this story, day 40 of the war against Hamas. Let's not first go to the south, where things have been moving very fast and furiously. Pierre Klushlander, the I-24 news correspondent is live at the Israel-Gaza border. Thanks very much, Pierre. We know that the IDF has now entered the facility, has entered Shefa Hospital. What do we know as to what they're doing there now? We're having some communications problems with Pierre. We'll get to him in just a second. I'm joined in studio now by Martin Himmel. He's a political international security analyst. Martin, we knew that they were going to go into the Shefa Hospital, but this has proved to be a pivotal moment in terms of the idea, the external look of what the IDF is doing at the hospital. What challenge does the IDF have to make sure that it's seen as not a war of aggression or a crime against humanity, as some of Hamas has been saying? Well, it's always going to be an uphill battle because there is a permanent fixture that Israel is the aggressor here in the international social media scene. But there's definitely a tactical and strategic battles that still could be one here. For one, by bringing in incubators, by bringing in baby food, they're showing they're trying to address the problem. By trying to help the doctors and the patients to get out, they're also addressing the problem. It'll be harder to refute that Israel is just killing women, men and children in the hospital if they're actually taking these steps. Give me one second. Just a moment, Martin. Let's now move on to something very important. This is a very pivotal day as we've been mentioning the ground operation in Gaza. Joining us live now is Colonel Olivier Rafferty. He's an IDF-spoken. Colonel, thanks so much for joining us. Good morning. Colonel, tell us what exactly is happening as we speak. The IDF has entered the facility, the hospital facilities of several blocks within Gaza City. But what's happening right now? Is it an all-out assault on the hospital as been mentioned by some of the international media? Or what exactly is happening? Good morning, and thank you to all of me on your studio. No, it's not enough salt in the hospital. It is a special operation with doctors and people speaking Arabic in order to find out exactly in specific rooms, according to specific tactical and macro tactical intelligence, things concerning presence of terrorists, but also evidence is containing the kidnapped Israelis that have been kidnapped on 7th of October. This operation that you just mentioned is a very targeted operation within the hospital with all the sensitivity that we have to take into account in order to prevent civilians and patients to be hurt by the operation in case that terrorists will open fire. Just to mention that before entering the facility, there were exchange of fire between the IDF and the terrorist cell outside and we eliminated seven terrorists before entering the hospital. So is it room by room, hallway by hallway, floor by floor? How exactly, how do you ensure that first that the Israeli troops are safe, but that the patients themselves are safe and that the medical personnel are safe? And how do you know that the people that are on the beds don't have guns next to them, let's say? First of all, we are very careful. It is a special operation with special forces. So everything is done according to, I would say, some operational processes that I'm not going to elaborate about them. But as you just mentioned, it is a very sensitive operation, a very sensitive area. And we are aware, not only has, by the way, also the American intelligence that terrorists from Hamas, maybe 200 or more of that, were or are still some of them in the hospital. And we are also continuing room by room very carefully to get what we need to get inside the hospital. I repeat, it is also a move to find out evidences or elements containing the kidnapped Israeli and we had some idea that are in the hospital. Right, Olivier, yesterday in opening some of the basements that were at some of the other hospitals within Gaza, there was some evidence that was shown that there were some hostages being held there. Do we know yet whether or not that's the same situation here in Al-Shifa? Not yet. I just say the operation is still going on. We have there all the elements in order to bring back after the operation photos and other elements to show to the world. But I repeat, right now the operation is still going on. And it's not an assault. It's not a bombing. It's not an attack. We're not attacking the hospital. We are perching into the hospital in coordination with the director of the hospital. And at the same time, we brought to the hospital, like you just mentioned, equipment for patients. And we are also going today to transfer around 30, 36, I think, or 37 incubators for babies in the hospital. What when you decide when will the IDF decide it's secure, it's safe, it's fine. Is there a point where the IDF will feel comfortable that Al-Shifa is secure? Your question is very important because it's actually the same question for everywhere in the West, in the Gaza Strip, sorry, and in the Gaza City particularly. We have to be very cautious. So we are moving step by step according to a specific program on the order that we planned just before previous the operation. So for the time being, we are moving where we need to move, again, according to specific intelligence. And when the operation is over, you will know it. Let's talk a little bit about the humanitarian aid that's been coming in. We understand that 6,200 gallons of fuel is being brought in from the South through the UN trucks. Can you talk a little bit about what that is expected to be? It was presumed to be today. Do you know whether or not that's the situation? Like you said, it will be today from Rafa and it will be for UNRA trucks bringing trucks with fuel within the Gaza Strip. It is very important to mention that now we decide and we can actually move further for humanitarian assistance when we think and when we assume that it's secure for the situation. We can improve this humanitarian assistance and we have a specific channel of communication between the idea from between Israel and the elements within the Gaza Strip in order to prevent humanitarian problems. And I repeat, I want to be very clear. The Israeli army is not in a war against the Palestinian people, against Palestinian people in Gaza. We are in a war against Hamas. We will defeat Hamas and at the same time, we'll do whatever should be done in order to help, to assist and to prevent civilian innocent people to be involved in the combats. By the way, to make it clear, Hamas did everything, still doing everything to involve his own population within the combats and to make them hurt and then explain to the world that they are hurt because of Israel. But of course, all of that, all of that, it is Hamas strategy actually to promote their own interests and it's a fake, it's a lie and it's terrible. Always thank you very much, Olivier Raffer which Colonel Olivier Raffer is joining us again from the IDF. Thanks again for joining us. Thank you very much. There is a second path, a second theater of battle right now and it's at the north. And that's where Pia Stachelbacker, our 24 news correspondent, she's joining us for the northern part of Israel. Pia, thank you for joining us through the, it sounds as though as of right now, it has been all quiet on the northern front. Right Elba, well the past 24 hours have been relatively quiet here but what you do always see is that motor shells and anti-tank missiles are launched from southern Lebanon towards Israeli communities in the north. Yesterday, the communities of Metula and Margaliot in the upper eastern part of the Galilee were targeted as well as Arab al-Aramsh which is more towards the western side there. Also the kibbutz of Yiftah was targeted or was meant to be targeted by a squad that was apprehended before by Israeli military there. Yiftah is a community, is a kibbutz where about a week ago an Israeli civilian was killed exactly by an anti-tank missile. So these cross-border skirmishes do continue also here in the morning hours. We could hear Israeli artillery firing towards southern Lebanon there and this is basically what we've been seeing all throughout the past weeks that these cross-border confrontations continue and intensify. You're right that today and also yesterday was a relatively quiet day but the situation here is very tense and the frontier is very volatile. That also speaks to the dozens of communities that have been evacuated in a proximity of about five kilometers to the Lebanese border, thousands of people who do not know when to come back to their homes. And yesterday that issue was addressed by Israeli politicians Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with municipal leaders here in the north. Also Benigans, the leader of the National Unity Party and the member of the current war cabinet towards cities like Kiryat Shmona and Metula. And he said that the situation here will not go back to how it was at October 6th, of course referring to the reality before the current war with Gaza broke out because the threat that is Bala Post and is still posing has been also very much real before the current war and it will persist also after. And also yesterday Joav Galant, the current defense minister addressed this issue in a speech saying that the goal is to restore security here and that really speaks to the concerns of many people who evacuated the region here and to a fearful to come back knowing that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies are still sitting on the border. Great, P.S. Takhabah who's joining us live from the northern front with Lebanon. Thanks again for joining us for this update. We'll be back in touch with you throughout the day. Now the subject of Russia and how Russian involvement in this war, it's a pretty large cloud that hovers over against this war here. So I'm joined now by Arkady Millman. He's the senior researcher and the head of the Russia program at the Institute for National Security Studies. He's also the former Israeli ambassador to Russia and Azerbaijan. He's joining us again this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. Now you did a paper for the INSS and in the paper you wrote that Moscow has a firm support for Hamas especially after October the 7th. That's a turning point between the relations between Israel and Russia. Can you explain why that is? Why it's such a turning point? Oh it's a Russian position. There was a conception in Israel that Russia is a friendly country but actually after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia really it's not a friendly country to Israel and to other Western countries. They are on the anti-American and anti-Western position and their perception is that Israel is a part of Western world. So it's very easy to think that also Israel is a part of Western world. So they have to take a different approach to relations with Israel. And that's the main problem. Now the military strategic alliance between Russia and Iran also the part of this war in Ukraine of course helps Russia in their understanding that Israel is not on their side. And because of the Iranian proxies as like Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations. So for Russia it was very easy not to condemn the massacre of 7th of September and not to condemn Hamas and take on the Israeli position. So Arkady do we know what kind of level of participation there was by the Russians? Was it more of the let you let the Iranians do the work coordinating funding it whatever we'll just take a look and we'll just see it from above or was it more active operation cooperation? Yes no first of all there's of course an active cooperation between Russia and Hamas. First of all Russia had given the license to produce AK-47 and Kalashnikov weapon. Now they had their position different kind of anti-tank missiles and other RPG for example. There's also a weapon. Now Hamas the server especially of the arm parts of Hamas they use the servers in Russia. Now they also use the crypto stock exchange and the special exchange in Russia to transfer dozens of millions to their digital wallets and also Jihad-Islamic does the same. So there's a lot of different kind of activities and of course diplomatic activities and different kind of meetings and visits to Moscow etc etc. Now the Prime Minister had tried to have better ties with Moscow and it seems as though Moscow basically said thanks but we're not interested. Do you think that there's been a shift even more so after October 7th? I don't think that today the relations with Russia is some turning point. I don't think that we can maintain the same level of relations with the country that is really anti-Israeli country and not friendly country. So it's impossible to maintain the same kind of level of relations between Israel and Russia. It's impossible. Arkady we saw some really really disturbing video if you remember October 8th and 9th of anti-Semitic rhetoric and some riots that occurred Dagestan for instance. Can it go any further any more anti-Semitic any more anti-Jewish any more anti-Israel in Russia or is there or is there some point where it just it just doesn't get any lower? Oh it's a look it's a it's a very problematic issue because Putin himself started this anti-Israel and I will say anti-Semitic campaign in the beginning of September and also before this when he blamed the the Ukrainian president Zelensky because of his Jewish roots and in the beginning of September he started a real anti-Semitic campaign and one of expression of this campaign was of course the pogrom in our attempt to pogrom in Makhachkala and this is a very dangerous development in Russia and they continue this policy. Arkady one question I have to ask you now it's about Ukraine. I mean if Russia has basically said all right we'll have Hamas on our side they've now we're against the US we've now set up a cold war if you will. Does that mean that Israel then turns and says to Ukraine you know what we will not only give you more armaments not only help you with more iron dome type of missiles but we'll help you even more so is that a possibility? There's a possibility but I don't think that this possibility is realistic today when we have a war real war with Hamas but what is realistic is to take the position pro-Ukrainian position because of the very simple one it's that today we have an axis of evil it's Russia, North Korea, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and of course in Yemen we have also different kind of proxy of Iran etc etc and the other axis is the axis of the Western countries with Ukraine, with Israel, with the United States and European country so today there's some kind of war between two these camps and between two these axes so we are on the Western part and we have to take this position and of course we have to support Ukraine because Ukraine and Israel our fight is for democracy and the fight of Russia and Hamas is against the democracies so that is for in my opinion it's very very simple issue and we have to understand it from a strategic level we have to be on the right side. Arkady Milman senior researcher and the head of the Russian program at the Institute for National Security Studies former Israeli ambassador to Russian Azerbaijan thanks again for joining us this morning so now let's turn to America in America at least 300,000 people packed the National Mall in Washington showing support for Israel but also showing support for Jews in America anti-Jewish incidents have surged since the October 7th attack on Israel earlier in the day the top American political leaders bipartisan screened Hamas propaganda videos showing the brutal butchering burning and murders of at least 1200 Israelis many of these hardened politicians removed to tears and visibly sobbed during the screening at the National Mall people came by car by bus by train and plane from all over America to show support also there the president of Israel Isaac Herzog whilst our loved ones are held captive in Gaza and our soldiers are fighting for our beloved Israel Jews all over the world are assaulted for being Jewish the hatred the lies the brutality the disgraceful outburst of ancient anti-semitism are an embarrassment to all civilized people and nations how we are living is hard to describe to you we hostage families have lived the last 39 days in slow motion torment these children these children of God range in age from nine months to 87 years they are Christians Muslims Jews Buddhists and Hindu why are they being left underground in the dirt join me again here in studio as Martin Hemel political and international security analyst Martin 300,000 people going to the National Mall in Washington it's a pretty large crowd but that's not really enough is it no it's not enough but it's a very good start because there have been massive rallies in London Paris New York etc to have a big Jewish rally is a very important statement to show that Jews around the world are not going to tolerate this new brand of anti-semitism basically but what is really needed are sustained small continuous demonstrations throughout western capitals the western world to counteract a growing a massive growing pro-palestinian pro-hamas surge of social media and and protests it go ahead no I was going to say there's a Harris poll that came out yesterday that showed that one third of all Americans under the age of 34 support Hamas I mean it's that these numbers would make a lot of Americans blanched they would say this is insane it is insane to some degrees but you know racism and anti-semitism is an insane thing the way to counteract it is to drive the message that this is not about Palestinians civilians this is about destroying Israel destroying Jews and destroying the Jewish state and to drive home this is an anti a surge of anti-semitism and that has to be bombarded all the time in key small protests social media and mainstream media interviews let's talk about the european support Germany that's ironic to I can't even describe the word ironic if Germany is coming to the support of Israel on this well Germany has a very dissinistered past and knows what the severe cost of of virulent anti-semitism can be could lead to holocaust the fact that Germany is coming out now I think is a way for the Germans to always look back at their responsibility to help choose now and to account for the holocaust and that's why this support is so crucial at this time especially in Europe where there's a real big surge of anti-semitism right England France Portugal I remember the Portugal Prime Minister coming out saying in support Portuguese president coming out in support I should say Germany at some point is there is there a risk that that goodwill will disappear as this continues on well I think we passed the point where maybe that goodwill could disappear because I think at this point the amount of civilian casualties actually dropped somewhat because the attacks are becoming more surgical on the ground so I think the leadership support will continue the question is what's happening on their ground their ground of public opinion there are very large Muslim communities in Europe they're pressing very hard for anti-israel action and so the battle on the ground is a battle of social media protests and that's why small continuous protests by Jews anywhere in Europe are very very important and that talks a lot about the social media battle on the streets that that turns into political battles in their respective countries I mean if I'm a there's an election coming up in the United States there's discussion of the fact that that Joe Biden in the US administration is going to back off just a touch because they're afraid of what it would encounter in terms of election that's coming on next year we're going to have this all over the world where it basically have to do nothing but push harder because of what may turn in a lot of these countries we may see that in France or in Britain where there are very powerful anti-israel movements going on there but Joe Biden is taking a calculated risk also because on the other side on the republican side there's very very strong support for Israel and the republicans could use that as a weapon see the democrats are going anti-israel we're for Israel and that could sway somewhat Jewish support depending if Donald Trump's gonna actually be the leader of the republicans but Joe Biden's got a real problem with that because he is intrinsically pro-israel on this and I think he's going to try to minimize the damage as much as possible but he is facing a progressive eruption within his party that's quite anti-israel let's talk about the imati nations okay a hospital school world health wealth world health organization run hospital as has a terrorist all underneath it UNRWA schools that are basically have teachers that are supporting Hamas with 30 seconds that we have left it's the UN relevant in this situation the UN is relevant because it represents 195 countries around the world well Israel will win a certain initial battle here when it shows the incubators going to the Palestinians but still it faces the daunting tasks of UNRWA saying that there are there are millions of a million Palestinians displaced and they have to be fed and that's going to be an ongoing concern Martin Hemel thank you so much for joining us you know the news is moving very fast and stay up to date here on i24 news here on tv streaming and on the i24 news app i'm albert lewitton reporting live from televieve the news continues after the break 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 line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well come to our viewers around the world i'm albert lewitton reporting live from the i24 news headquarters in televieve day 40 of the war against Hamas news coming in fast and furious and here's what you need to know number one overnight the idf has entered the al shifa hospital center in gaza city there has been some active fire a number of Hamas terrorists have been killed at the entrance of the hospital the idf told i24 news that it is a specialized operation with medical teams and arabic speaking personnel going room to room to minimize injuries to civilians incubators baby food and medical supplies have been brought in the american intelligence services say that their independent information is that Hamas has a command node under the hospital the second thing you need to know abc news in the united states citing an israeli source says that there has been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages it may happen in 48 to 72 hours another report from the con network israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal it's being mediated by cutter in the united states now the idea here the israeli children kidnapped to gaza will be released in exchange for palestinian children and youngsters imprisoned in israel one of the sources emphasize that the talks are still ongoing that there's no final conclusion number three thing you need to know fuel shipments are coming into the gaza strip for humanitarian operations it is the first time that israel has allowed fuel into the territory since october the seventh kogat the israeli defense body responsible for palestinian affairs says that united nations trucks will fill up about 6200 gallons of fuel at the rafa crossing on the egyptian border that will happen later today the united states had pushed hard for this and the number four thing you need to know two idf soldiers were killed tuesday in fighting in the northern gaza strip now this brings the death toll to the ground offensive against hamas to 48 they are captain omer yosef david 27 years old from karmiel a deputy company commander in the negate brigades 92 17 battalion and captain yadidia asher lev 26 years old from tal minashe a deputy company commander in the gavati brigade shack head battalion we have live team coverage of the ins of the war against hamas day 40 let me first now go to rafael urshami he's a former senior intelligence officer for the idf thanks so much for joining us this incident at the al-shifa hospital they've now gone in and what the idf told me told us earlier is that they're going room to room why are they going room to room instead of an assault first of all because it's a precaution to avoid collateral damage the second of all they have very specific intelligence that is leading the operation so it's dictated by the info they have i have to remind you that the hospital was built by an israeli architectural firm i mean we have all the plans so we know exactly what it looks like and there's been a simulation virtual reality simulation designed by unit 9900 with intel from unit 8200 so that soldiers can visualize even before going in what the place looks like inside more or less we have some intel as to where the tourists themselves the armed threatening tourists are situated in the hospital in the compound and there are other places where it's only really civilians medical staff and sick people but you still have to check room by room floor by floor the main objective now is to evacuate as peacefully as possible the whole of the hospital if we can manage to do so including babies i mean have you ever seen an army going forward into an attack with incubators and maternal baby bottles so that's what we are doing now it's absolutely surreal but we're doing it and the objective is very clear to evacuate all these innocent people so that the idea can work serenely on the compound and especially on what's under the compound so for this you have to take a lot of care it's everything has been taken into account including facial identity cameras and the metal detectors so to make sure that amongst the people that will evacuate now there are no tourists trying to escape as well but also maybe that no hostages are being smuggled out of the hospital because we believe that we might find some hostages there some of them being held for medical reasons because some of the hostages when they were kidnapped were very mistreated and needed medical and if the Hamas wants to bargain you know with the these hostages they need them in a good condition some of some of them might have been hospitalized there all these put together it's an operation i think let's pray it will succeed if it will succeed i think it will stay in history books even more than the antebe operation it will be something never done before in the surgical way it's being done let's do hope that we can avoid a lot of collateral damage that's the main purpose otherwise we would be able to act freely and eliminate all these terrorists but we have to be very very careful and patient until the hospital is evacuated it should be evacuated we have evacuated alcoots hospital for instance from where our pg's were shot at some people in the entrance of this hospital was booby trapped meaning if the entrance is booby trapped so it's the exit you can't go out meaning the people there were hostages of the Hamas now we're taking a look just what i want our viewers at home to show can we roll on video one more time please control room there's a there's some video that's coming in now from inside shifa hospital and what you see here uh this is an actual firefight that's going on let me let's play a little bit you'll see uh that this is what the idf is encountered but you have to understand that the idf is in direct contact with the administration of the hospital officers are speaking with the medical staff to ensure that the safety of people it's you can see it's frightening for so trying to assure them that's why also the troops are coming with arabic speaking soldiers that can communicate in arabic with the people and also their own medical staff to assist the already present the medical staff of the palestinian hospital all these two to two limits you see they are very frightened but they understand that if they show that they are not a threat to the soldiers then they will be spared and they will be protected rafael it's i'm going to have you stay back for one second let me now turn to our pier close under who is at the border with gaza right now from the israeli side uh you pier you've been seeing with some of the video that's been coming in it seems as though what the idf it confirms what the idf told us earlier that they're doing this for no pun intended a surgical strike within the hospital right uh there's a lot of commotion in that video that you add and you can clearly hear uh shots but probably from outside because the room in which the the people the palestinians are trying to protect themselves from the gunshots is inside but you can see an opening in the wall and it seems the gunshots are from outside because from palestinian reports even uh trying to affirm that there is no terror infrastructure in chifa hospital that they said that inside the hospital no gunshot was fired what we know also from testimonies on palestinian reports is that the special unit forces are combing uh one of the buildings on the western side of the complex which is about 22 acres in superficy in surface they're combing room after room floor after floor in order to find any trace of weapons of terror infrastructure but also of the hostages up until now there's no indication that the the hostages are present in the complex but they found caches of weapon and terror sets as they call it in the idf now a security official who required anonymity said that this operation is only at the beginning that they're going to enlarge it probably to other buildings in the complex but right now what they're doing is also calling the young people to come up they're hand raised in order to interrogate them because they suspect that some of them might be terror terrorists that have decided to dress in civilian clothes they're also interrogating the medical personnel a few hundred of them um they're interrogating also the displaced palestinians also one thousand one thousand five hundred of them and uh they're taking care also of the patients they brought in incubators they brought in medical supplies baby food there's 37 newborns premature newborns that need to be evacuated and there's been a an ongoing negotiation with the medical management of the of the shifa hospital for four days already the incubators were already brought uh facing shifa hospital out of shifa hospital yesterday yet the management decided not to accept it now egypt is uh undertaking an effort to evacuate those newborn baby those newborns in the hope that they will be treated uh you know in the proper way in the meantime there's been a lot of confusion we don't exactly know what's happening because we hear for instance from palestinians that the internet and the cellular uh networks have been cut off around the compound but uh you've seen a video so probably it was localized and it's over so we don't exactly know per se what's going on what we know is that there's no indication of hostage presences presence but they found weapon caches at the moment pierna this is in al shifa hospital which is in the middle of agaza city but it doesn't mean that all of the idf troops are targeting towards that hospital there's still the rest of gaza city to fight block by block street by street and it's been pouring rain was pouring rain overnight i'm sure that doesn't help in terms of the fight it doesn't help in terms of the fight it doesn't help also in terms of the dire humanitarian condition of the civilian population because i've been to gaza in the the year 2000 and once rain pours down on on gaza uh you you have lakes forming in the streets you have uh lakes of rainwater mixed with sewage so the difficult there's a difficult dire humanitarian predicament even more dire than for the soldiers the soldiers are fully equipped for the rain here one line is regarding hospitals yeah regarding hospitals another hospital has been fully evacuated the al kuzh hospital after ron tc al kuzh hospital has been evacuated and probably shifa at the end of the operation will be fully evacuated one final question for you pier there's been about 6200 gallons of fuel 34 around 34 000 liters of fuel that's been brought in through uh through the rafa crossing we heard uh just now our i24 news desk has been told that they it has actually happened what help does that bring well this diesel fuel is uh dedicated for the yunra operation the yunra is the un agency for the relief of palestinian refugees that was uh created in 1949 and we we now have four generations of palestinian refugees palestinians who have a status of refugees this diesel fuel is for about 48 hours for the yunra operation because they were running out of fuel and under u.s administration pressure israel for the first time as you mentioned earlier has agreed to facilitate the refueling of the yunra uh operations with 24 000 liters that will be fine for 48 hours and probably at the end of those 48 hours israel will have to agree for another refueling for another 48 hours and it's going to go on like this in a very monitored way thank you so much for your update we'll keep in contact with you throughout the morning thanks again now let's go on to another front in this war there's been an interception over the red sea yesterday and it's believed to have been a surface-to-surface missile launched from yemen by iran-backed huhti rebels the southern city of elat was apparently the intended target the israeli defense forces say the long-range arrow air defense system had been used to shoot down the missile i-24 news reporter robert swift is here joining me tell me a little about what why what is so important about this particular part essentially what's happening here is the huhtis are trying to lend their support to humas now yemen and israel are quite some distance apart but the huhtis do have weapon systems clearly which can make these ranges now israel is making its best efforts to defend against them using the arrow interception system which is the the sort of the upper atmosphere air defense system that it has alongside the other two systems at the same time the u.s. military has been deploying assets into the red sea in an effort to essentially assist israel in these interception efforts it's worth noting that some analysts have pointed to the fact that one of these interceptions of a huhti ballistic missile by the arrow three system was possibly the first instance of space warfare with because the the ballistic missile comes in from that high up that the arrow three has to be capable of hitting the the missile at that distance but it's not only just israel at target and then the huhtis have said that they will target some of the ships crossing in the red sea indeed they have and the huhtis have demonstrated the ability to do this in the past they have targeted shipping that's moved around past past yemen in the past ships that were essentially linked to israel but not necessarily flagged as israeli ships have been targeted in the past often using coastal to ship missiles and there has been casualties in those instances in the past interestingly enough the huhtis are considered terrorist organization by israel and by the us so the the us did label the huhtis as a terrorist organization for about a month in january of 2021 when the biden administration came into power they removed that label there is some discussion taking place in the united states now to reinstate that label there are some countries that do label it as such Saudi arabia which has received a lot of attacks because of its involvement in the war it labels them as such the ua e does and also malaysia does israel doesn't but then it doesn't tend to label organizations in that way well robert what is the who what do the huhtis get out of all of this so there are 1100 miles away from israel they're not within the theater aside from being brothers in arms with the jihadists that harm us what what do they stand again essentially they're part of iran's proxy network you can call it the huhtis are a shia movement they're essentially a tribal they're based on a tribal structure but they're they're part of they're one of the major factions in the Yemeni civil war they are strongly allied to iran that's what where they've received many of these weapons from iran supports commas and therefore the huhtis are tied in in the same way that khizbollah is tied in they might be more distant to the conflict and say khizbollah they might represent a smaller threat than an organization is formidable as khizbollah but they're nonetheless part of this network of alliances also Saudi Arabia happens to be their enemy so Saudi Arabia normalizing relationship with israel doesn't exactly bowed you know that's one of the reasons why i imagine well a lot of people have pointed to the fact that it was normalization between israel and Saudi Arabia that may have been one of Hamas and de-extension iran's primary objectives the disruption of that diplomatic cooperation that was one of the reasons the hooties in Saudi Arabia are sworn enemies so if it's bad for Saudi Arabia it's good for the hooties Robert stand by one second let me go back to rafael you just shamley that what we let's talk about the hooties and let's talk about these air defense systems and at some point it sounds as though you're getting four you're getting four fronts in this war between Hamas in the south Hezbollah in the north quiet right now but west bank is third and now hooties fourth every angle well i'd say that considering Hamas and Judea and Samaria that's mostly an Israeli problem considering khizbollah and the emn problem that should involve the united states and the international community there's absolutely no reason why especially if the biden administration wants to avoid destabilizing the region or an extension of the conflict why israel should be the sole responsible to keep quiet these fronts these fronts are dangerous for everybody you're talking here about the red sea and the persian gulf being threatened by iranian proxies that's solely the job of also the american fleet they're present in the red sea they're doing it they're giving anti air defense but it should be a bit more proactive maybe but also and that's why the point is important if you transpose this problem to the north of israel to the lebanon then it's the same exact problem and there's no reason why israel should confront the hezbollah on its own you're talking here at destabilization of the region a threat to the mediterranean a threat to a country i mean the hamas is is is in gaza hamas does what they want in gaza there's nobody to tell them otherwise they're the only rulers but in yemen the witties are not alone there's a country called yemen in the lebanon khizbollah is not alone there's a country called lebanon so these these countries are serving countries that need assistance they are held hostage by these factions but really these are countries that could be much more peaceful and that would contribute to the security of the region if the problem was dealt with by the international community and the united states of america they have to come in i imagine europeans would also have to come in i mean the concern everyone has had is that you're going to spark a war between the us iran slash russia china yes okay but president macron of france for instance did of think of this idea of reorganizing a coalition similar to the coalition that fought daish so when you were fighting daish you're also fighting in iraq or in syria when you were fighting daish in syria you were also against the russian presence there uh or the chinese interest there you had to take that chance you're fighting this this organization so this can be done again if one thing is for sure if the international community the west will not intervene whatever they don't do that's what the russian and the chinese can do so that's that's a big problem when donald trump took forces out of for instance syria he didn't want so many boots on the ground so the more the more boots on the ground you got from the russians right to fill the vacuum was the russians who got who filled the vacuum and then um let's talk a little bit about al-shifa i'm going to go back to one second about al-shifa they go in they do room to room they make sure that it's secure i asked earlier alivia refowitz the alivia refowitz the idf uh spokesperson when do you know it's secure like when when will they know and he said it will take time to know that it's secure the question is then what so what what what gain do you have of of evidence and you have possible you know where the hostages have all left what gain do you get after this the if the hospital is really evacuated and free of innocent civilians then the idea of can operate serenely on first of all making sure there are no terrorists left above ground clean the complex and once this is done and secured do the real main work because the objective we all know is not the complex it's what's under it and under it is the headquarters of at least the northern branch of the military hamas but maybe of the whole military strength of the hamas they like the real hq is there and of course try tracking that that will disrupt the chain of command the chain of communication make it much more difficult for different brigades in the gaza strip to coordinate their actions and they will also be a kind of chaos because the the the hq will be impacted so i think it's a very very important target and that's why the itf is taking this huge risk because it's a huge risk not only for our soldiers and for the collateral damage and the Palestinians it's a huge risk for the whole operation there because would we have some terrible incidents involving babies and that's it people are gonna tell us stop fighting stop stop the whole thing so we're taking this huge risk because the target is so important and crucial for us to strike this blow if you strike this blow we can honestly say that we're in control of the military situation at least of the north if not the whole gaza street and that's probably one of the reasons why the itf is bringing some western journalists or you know worldwide international journalists along with them as they operate here to show them that nothing's been pilfer nothing's been tainted by you know as as has been reported by some of the pro hamas propaganda media if you will that's oh it's been touched it's been built by the idea for all these rooms downstairs are all there for the cameras for built by the idea the idea is to bring in the journalists in so they could see for themselves that's right and it throws the professionalism of the idea because while you are fighting imagine you're fighting somebody like you you know let's take let's take a western movie Hollywood movie you're in a saloon and you're fighting somebody it's a gun gun fight right and while you are shooting at the guy you're explaining to the third guy that's watching what you're doing and why you're doing it i mean this is nuts but that's what we're doing and we're doing it and the idea for it's doing it has it's in a unique position no other i mean i'm sure they'll look back in years from now they'll look back and they'll show what unique position the IDF has been in through history if you go through a war two Korea and Vietnam any of the other African wars hospitals being used as a military installation and someone having to deal with not attacking the entire hospital and dealing with the civilians i don't think any other any other army in the world has had to deal with this first of all any general in the world sees that the Israeli generals are faced with your worst ever nightmare i mean it's so complicated it's so intricate and i know you have political considerations and mediatic considerations but mainly you have operational considerations that are super intricate and complicated that nobody can sleep at night if you have to do that kind of a job and as you rightfully pointed if you look back at history and the history of war or warfare the record is very poor to those countries who today would like to give us some lessons i don't remember this record seeing that in vietnam i don't remember the american forces doing much for afghan civilians when the taliban took over tens of thousands were abundant to their horrible fate i will not speak of other colonial wars like the french war on the interbalance of algeria the record is very very dire on most armies including western armies of how moral they were in dealing with the with the problem and the problem was not as intricate as it is here in gaza in the gaza street but we have to admit that apart from our high moral standards there is an operational use for this because we do want to dissociate the population from the terrorist factions and we are succeeding in doing so right now because we hear more and more voices among the gaza population condemning the hamas not the israeli soldiers today if you have a wife and kids and you are crossing the gaza street you will be so happy to see israeli soldiers you will go to them where is that you will not go to the hamas where do you see that you don't see that in any media you don't see that on social media you don't see it i mean the social media is being flooded tech talks being flooded by bad bad bad things well i'd say that today some people like the associated press do not want to call the terrorist the terrorist i think today the word terrorist might be not used well maybe i think the word journalist is also not always used properly many journalists are not journalists today they just do not inform they just disinform and it's very regrettable you're talking not a little channels that nobody watches you're talking bbcc and so we have come to a point where people choose camps they do not give the proper information i would at least ask for balanced information you know what i agree that the people might say the israeli is the official version is propaganda okay but show our propaganda when you show the other guy's propaganda you know what raffaello you show me thank you always for your analysis and thank you robert swift also here the news is moving very fast so stay up to date here on i-24 news here on tv and streaming on the i-24 news app would just give you an update as to what's happening the idf has entered the al-shifa hospital in a surgical strike within the hospital clearing the hospital of terrorists there have been some firefights and some casualties will have updates throughout the day i'm albert louis and reporting live from tele v israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where you see as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well for louis and reporting live from the i-24 news headquarters in tele v day 40 of the war against hamas news coming in fast and furious and here's what you need to know number one overnight the idf has entered the al-shifa hospital center in gaza city there has been some active fire a number of hamas terrorists have been killed at the entrance of the hospital the idf told i-24 news that it is a specialized operation with medical teams and arabic speaking personnel going room to room to minimize injuries to civilians incubators baby food and medical supplies have been brought in the american intelligence services say that their independent information is that hamas has a command node under the hospital the second thing you need to know abc news in the united states citing an israeli source says that there has been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages it may happen in 48 to 72 hours another report from the con network israel and hamas are negotiating a child for child deal it's being mediated by cutter in the united states now the idea here the israeli children kidnapped to gaza will be released in exchange for palestinian children and youngsters imprisoned in israel one of the sources emphasize that the talks are still ongoing that there's no final conclusion number three thing you need to know fuel shipments are coming into the gaza strip for humanitarian operations it is the first time that israel has allowed fuel into the territory since october the 7th kogat the israeli defense body responsible for palestinian affairs says that united nations trucks will fill up about 6200 gallons of fuel at the rafa crossing on the egyptian border that will happen later today the united states had pushed hard for this and the number four thing you need to know two idf soldiers were killed tuesday in fighting in the northern gaza strip now this brings death toll to the ground offensive against hamas to 48 they are captain omer yosef david 27 years old from karmiel a deputy company commander in the nega brigade's 92 17 battalion and captain yadidia ashur lev 26 years old from tal minasha a deputy company commander in the gavati brigade's shack head battalion we have live team coverage of the ins of the war against hamas day 40 let me first now go to rafael urshami he's a former senior intelligence officer for the idf thanks so much for joining us this incident at the al shifa hospital they've now gone in and what the idf told me told us earlier is that they're going room to room why are they going room to room instead of an assault first of all because it's a precaution to avoid collateral damage the second of all they have very specific intelligence that is leading the operation so it's dictated by the info they have i have to remind you that the hospital was built by an israeli architectural firm i mean we have all the plans so we know exactly what it looks like and there's been a simulation virtual reality simulation designed by unit 9900 with intel from unit 8200 so that soldiers can visualize even before going in what the place looks like inside more or less we have some intel as to where the tourists themselves the armed threatening tourists are situated in the hospital in the compound and there are other places where it's only really civilians medical staff and sick people but you still have to check room by room floor by floor the main objective now is to evacuate as peacefully as possible the whole of the hospital if we can manage to do so including babies i mean have you ever seen an army going forward into an attack with incubators and maternal baby bottles so that's what we are doing now it's absolutely surreal but we're doing it and the objective is very clear to evacuate all these innocent people so that the idea can work serenely on the compound and especially on what's under the compound so for this you have to take a lot of care it's everything has been taken into account including facial identity cameras and metal detectors so to make sure that amongst the people that will evacuate now there are no tourists trying to escape as well but also maybe that no hostages are being smuggled out of the hospital because we believe that we might find some hostages there some of them being held for medical reasons because some of the hostages when they were kidnapped were very mistreated and needed medical and if the Hamas wants to bargain you know with the these hostages they need them in good conditions some of some of them might have been hospitalized there all these put together it's an operation i think let's pray it will succeed if it will succeed i think it will stay in history books even more than the antebe operation it will be something never done before in the surgical way it's being done let's do hope that we can avoid a lot of collateral damage that's the main purpose otherwise we would be able to act freely and eliminate all these terrorists but we have to be very very careful and patient until the hospital is evacuated it should be evacuated we have evacuated alcoots hospital for instance from where our pg's were shot at some people in the entrance of this hospital was booby trapped meaning if the entrance is booby trapped so it's the exit you can't go out meaning the people there were hostages of the Hamas now we're taking a look just what i want our viewers at home to show can we roll a video one more time please control room there's a there's some video that's coming in now from inside shifa hospital and what you see here this is an actual firefight that's going on let me let's play a little bit of you'll see that this is what the idf is encountered but you have to understand that the idf is in direct contact with the administration of the hospital officers are speaking with the medical staff to ensure that the safety of people it's you can see it's frightening for them so trying to assure them that's why also the troops are coming with arabic speaking soldiers that can communicate in arabic with the people and also their own medical staff to assist the already present the medical staff of the palestinian hospital all these two two limits you see they are very frightened but they understand that if they show that they are not a threat to the soldiers then they will be spared and they will be protected rafael it's i'm going to have you stand by for one second let me now turn to our pier close under who is at the border with gaza right now from the israeli side uh you pier you've been seeing with some of the video that's been coming in it seems as though what the idf it confirms what the idf told us earlier that they're doing this for no pun intended a surgical strike within the hospital right uh there's a lot of commotion in that video that you had and you can clearly hear shots but probably from outside because the room in in which the the people the palestinians are trying to protect themselves from the gunshots is inside but you can see an opening in the wall and it seems the gunshots are from outside because from palestinian reports even trying to affirm that there is no terror infrastructure in chifa hospital they said that inside the hospital no gunshot was fired what we know also from text ceremonies on palestinian reports is that the special unit forces are calming one of the buildings on the western side of the complex which is about 22 acres in superficy in surface they're combing room after room floor after in order to find any trace of weapons of terror infrastructure but also of the hostages up until now there's no indication that the hostages are present in the complex but they found caches of weapon and terror sets as they call it in the idf now a security official who required anonymity said that this operation is only at the beginning that they're going to enlarge it probably to other buildings in the complex but right now what they're doing is also calling the young people to come up their hand raised in order to interrogate them because they suspect that some of them might be terror terrorists that have decided to dress in civilian clothes they're also interrogating the medical personnel a few hundred of them they're interrogating also the displaced palestinians also one thousand one thousand five hundred of them and they're taking care also of the patients they're brought in incubators they're brought in medical supplies baby food there's 37 newborns premature newborns that need to be evacuated and there's been a an ongoing negotiation with the medical management of the of the shifa hospital for four days already the incubators were already brought facing shifa hospital out of shifa hospital yesterday yet the management decided not to accept it now egypt is undertaking an effort to evacuate those newborn baby those newborns in the hope that they will be treated you know in the proper way in the meantime there's been a lot of confusion we don't exactly know what's happening because we hear for instance from palestinians that the internet and the cellular networks have been cut off around the compound but you've seen a video so probably it was localized and it's over so we don't exactly know per se what's going on what we know is that there's no indication of hostage presence presence but they found weapon caches at the moment pierna this is in al shifa hospital which is in the middle of agaza city but it doesn't mean that all of the idf troops are targeting towards that hospital there's still the rest of gaza city to fight uh block by block street by street and it's been pouring rain was pouring rain overnight i'm sure that doesn't help in terms of the fight it doesn't help in terms of the fight it doesn't help also in terms of the dire humanitarian condition of the civilian population because i've been to gaza in the in the u.s. 2000 and once rain pours down on on gaza you you have lakes forming in the streets you have lakes of rainwater mixed with sewage so the difficult there's a difficult dire humanitarian predicament even more dire than for the soldiers the soldiers are fully equipped for the rain one line regarding hospitals yeah regarding hospitals another hospital has been fully evacuated the al kutze hospital after ron tc al kutze hospital has been evacuated and probably shifa at the end of the operation will be fully evacuated one final question for you pier there's been about 6200 gallons of fuel 34 around 34 000 liters of fuel that's been brought in through through the rafa crossing we heard just now our i24 news desk has been told that they it has actually happened what help does that bring well this diesel fuel is dedicated for the yunra operation the yunra is the un agency for the relief of palestine refugees that was created in 1949 and we now have four generations of palestine refugees palestines we have a status of refugees this diesel fuel is for about 48 hours for the yunra operation because they were running out of fuel and under us administration pressure israel for the first time as you mentioned earlier has agreed to facilitate the refueling of the yunra operations with 24 000 liters that will be fine for 48 hours and probably at the end of those 48 hours israel will have to agree for another refueling for another 48 hours and it's going to go on like this in a very monitored way thank you so much for your update we'll keep in contact with you throughout the morning thanks again now let's go on to another front in this war there's been an interception over the red sea yesterday and it's believed to have been a surface-to-surface missile launched from yemen by iran-backed huhti rebels the southern city of elat was apparently the intended target the israeli defense forces say the long-range arrow air defense system had been used to shoot down the missile i24 news reporter robert swift is here join me tell me a little about what why what is so important about this particular part essentially what's happening here is the huhtis are trying to lend their support to humas now yemen and israel are quite some distance apart but the huhtis do have weapon systems clearly which can make these ranges now israel is making its best efforts to defend against them using the arrow interception system which is the the sort of the upper atmosphere air defense system that it has alongside the other two systems at the same time the us military has been deploying assets into the red sea in an effort to essentially assist israel in these interception efforts it's worth noting that some analysts have pointed to the fact that one of these interceptions of a huhti ballistic missile by the arrow three system was possibly the first instance of space warfare with because the the ballistic missile comes in from that high up that the arrow three has to be capable of hitting the the missile at that distance but it's not only just israel targeted that the huhtis have said that they will target some of the ships crossing in the red sea indeed they have and the huhtis have demonstrated the the ability to do this in the past they have targeted shipping that's moved around past past yemen in the past ships that were essentially linked to israel but not necessarily flagged as israeli ships have been targeted in the past often using coastal to ship missiles and there has been casualties in those instances in the past interestingly enough the hooties aren't considered terrorist organization yeah by israel and by the us so the the us did label the hooties as a terrorist organization for about a month in january of 2021 when the biden administration came into power they removed that label there is some discussion taking place in the united states now to reinstate that label there are some countries that do label it as such saudi arabia which has received a lot of attacks because of its involvement in the war it labels them as such the ua does and also malaysia does israel doesn't but then it doesn't tend to label organizations in that way well robert what is the who what do the hooties get out of all of this there are 1100 miles away from israel they're not within the theater aside from being brothers in arms with the jihadists that are mass what what do they stand to gain essentially they're part of iran's proxy network you can call it the hooties are a shia movement they're essentially a tribal they're based on a tribal structure but they're they're part of they're one of the major factions in the yemeni civil war they are strongly allied to iran that's what where they've received many of these weapons from iran supports commas and therefore the hooties are tied in in the same way that khizbullah is tied in they might be more distant to the conflict and say khizbullah they might represent a smaller threat than an organization is formidable as khizbullah but they are nonetheless part of this network of alliances also saudi arabia happens to be their enemy so saudi arabia normalizing relationship with israel doesn't exactly boat you know that's one of the reasons why i imagine well a lot of people have pointed to the fact that it was normalization between israel and saudi arabia that may have been one of khimas and di extension iran's primary objectives the disruption of that diplomatic uh cooperation that was one of the reasons the hooties in saudi arabia are sworn enemies so if it's bad for saudi arabia it's good for the hooties okay robert stand by one second let me go back to rafael yudhishthami that what we let's talk about the hooties and let's talk about these air defense systems and at some point it sounds as though you're getting four you're getting four fronts in this war between hamas in the south hezbollah in the north quiet right now but west bank is third and now hooties fourth every angle well i'd say that considering hamas and judya and samaria that's mostly an israeli problem considering khizbullah and the yemen problem that should involve the united states and international community there's absolutely no reason why especially if the biden administration wants to avoid destabilizing the region or an extension of the conflict why israel should be the sole responsible to keep quiet these fronts these fronts are dangerous for everybody you're talking here about the red sea and the persian gulf being threatened by iranian proxies that's solely the job of also the american fleet they're present in the red sea they're doing it they're giving anti-air defense but it should be a bit more proactive maybe but also and that's why the point is important if you transpose this problem to the north of israel to the lebanon then it's the same exact problem and there's no reason why israel should confront the khizbullah on its own you're talking here at destabilization of the region a threat to the mediterranean a threat to a country i mean the hamas is is is in gaza hamas does what they want in gaza there's nobody to tell them otherwise they're the only rulers but in yemen the witties are not alone there's a country called yemen in the lebanon khizbullah is not alone there's a country called lebanon so these these countries are sovereign countries that need assistance they are held hostage by these factions but really these are countries that could be much more peaceful and that would contribute to the security of the the region if the problem was dealt with by the international community and the united states of america they have to come in i imagine the europeans would also have to come in i mean the concern everyone has had is that you're going to spark a war between the us iran slash russia slash china yes okay but president macron of france for instance did of think of this idea of reorganizing a coalition similar to the coalition that fought dash so when you were fighting dash you're also fighting in iraq or in syria when you were fighting dash in syria you were also against the russian presence there or the chinese interest there you had to take that chance you're fighting this this organization so this can be done again if in one thing is for sure if the international community the west will not intervene whatever they don't do that's what the russian and the chinese can do so that's that's a big problem when donald trump took forces out of for instance syria he didn't want so many boots on the ground so the more the more boots on the ground you got from the russians right to fill the vacuum was the russians who got who filled the vacuum and then let's talk a little bit about al shifa i'm going to go back to one second about al shifa they go in they do room to room they make sure that it's secure i asked earlier alivia refowitz the alivia refowitz the idf uh spokesperson when do you know it's secure like when when will they know and he said it will take time to know that it's secure the question is then what so what what what gain do you have of of evidence and you have possible you know where the hostages have all left what gain do you get after this the if the hospital is really evacuated and free of innocent civilians then the idf can operate serenely uh on first of all making sure there are no terrorists left above ground uh clean the complex and once this is done and secured uh do the real main work because the objective we all know is not the complex it's what's under it and under it is the headquarters of at least the northern branch of the military hamas but maybe of the whole military strength of the hamas they like like the real hq is there and of course try tracking that that will disrupt the chain of command the chain of communication make it much more difficult for different brigades in the gaza strip to coordinate their actions and they will also be a kind of chaos because the the the hq will be impacted so i think it's a very very important target and that's why the itf is taking this huge risk because it's a huge risk not only for our soldiers and for the collateral damage and the palestinians it's a huge risk for the whole operation there because would we have some terrible incidents we're involving babies and that's it people are gonna tell us stop fighting stop stop the whole thing so we're taking this huge risk because the target is so important and crucial for us to strike this blow if you strike this blow we can honestly say that we're in control of the military situation at least of the north if not the whole gaza street and that's probably one of the reasons why the itf is bringing some western journalists or you know worldwide international journalists along with them as they operate here to show them that nothing's been pilfer nothing's been tainted by you know as as has been reported by some of the pro hemats propaganda media if you will that's oh it's been touched it's been built by the itf all these rooms downstairs are all there for the cameras for built by the the idea is to bring in the journalists in so they could see for themselves that's right and it shows the professionalism of the itf because while you are fighting imagine you're fighting somebody like you know let's take let's take a western movie Hollywood movie you're in a saloon and you're fighting somebody it's a gun gun fight right and while you are shooting at the guy you're explaining to the third guy that's watching what you're doing and why you're doing it i mean this is nuts but that's what we're doing and we're doing it and the itf is doing it has it's in a unique position no other i mean i'm sure they'll look back in in years from now they'll look back and they'll show what what uh unique position the itf has been in through history if you go through a war two korea vietnam uh any of the other of the african wars hospitals being used as a military installation and someone having to deal with not attacking the entire hospital and deal with the civilians i don't think any other any other army in the world has had to deal with this first of all any general in the world sees that the israeli generals are faced with your worst ever nightmare i mean it's so complicated it's so intricate and i know you have political considerations and mediatic considerations but mainly you have operational considerations that are super intricate and complicated that nobody can sleep at night if you have to do that kind of a job and as you rightfully pointed if you look back at history in the history of war or warfare the record is very poor to those countries who today would like to give us some lessons i don't remember that this record seeing that in vietnam i don't remember the american forces doing much for afghan civilians when the taliban took over tens of thousands were abundant to their horrible fate i will not speak of other colonial wars like the french war in the independence of algeria the record is very very dire on most armies including western armies of how moral they were in dealing with the with the problem and the problem was not as intricate as it is here in gaza in the gaza strip but we have to admit that apart from our high moral standards there is an operational use for this because we do want to dissociate the population from the terrorist factions and we're succeeding in doing so right now because we hear more and more voices among the gaza population condemning the hamas not the israeli soldiers today if you have a wife and kids and you are crossing the gaza strip you will be so happy to see israeli soldiers you will go to them where is that you not go to the hamas where do you see that you don't see that in any media you don't see that on social media you don't see it i mean the social media is being flooded tech talks being flooded by bad bad bad things well i'd say that today some people like the associated press or do not want to call the terrorist a terrorist i think today the war terrorist might be not used well maybe i think the word journalist is also not always used properly many journalists are not journalists today they just do not inform they just disinform and it's very regrettable you're talking not a little channels that nobody watches you're talking bbcc and then so we have come to a point where people choose camps they do not give the proper information i would at least ask for balanced information you know what i agree that the people might say the israelis is the official version is propaganda okay let's show our propaganda when you show the other guys propaganda you know what rafael you show me thank you as always for your analysis and thank you robert swift