 campaigns and wars that Israel had with its enemies. This war is much closer to home. This is a war in which Israeli civilians were targeted in the place that is supposed to be the safest for them in their homes, in these communities, both on the Gaza border, but also in towns like Afakim, which is 15 to 20 kilometers away from the border. So for a very good reason, Israeli civilians are paranoid. But just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that no one is chasing you, right? Well, absolutely. And the Israeli police says that yet to find a connection between this and terror, they're asking for the public to remain vigilant, but not to draw panic on social media. Obviously, that is pretty difficult to do when the personal security is harmed to such an extent. And another consequence of this is the fact that we're seeing so many Israeli civilians now looking to get armed, looking to defend their families in fear that these terrorists might be targeting their homes not just on the borders, but also much deeper inside Israel, in Tel Aviv and in other cities. Long way ahead, not just in terms of the unfolding events in the Gaza Strip. We want to head now to Jerusalem, my 24 news political correspondent Batya Levinthal, standing by their Batya. There's a mass prayer that will soon be underway with the masses praying for the release for the return home of hundreds of Israelis being still held captive hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Right, Ali. But not just for the hostages that are being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Also, for the safety and security of the Israel Defense Forces. I have to say, Ali, I've been doing this for a while now and more so than that. I used to live in Jerusalem. The scenes behind me are just depressing to put it plain and simple. This is normally an area that is bustling all throughout the day, whether it's the morning, the afternoon or the evening. There are thousands of people that come out to pray and it is just desolate. It is absolutely, absolutely desolate. When we were coming in ourselves, we spoke to the security guard and I asked him how many people he's expecting for this mass prayer, of which he said to be honest, he's not sure because the influx of people just in general over the last couple of days has been very small. People are nervous not only just to leave their houses in Jerusalem, despite the fact that at least the rocket fire has been, Jerusalem has been pretty spared from the majority of those targets towards the center of the country. But because of the fact as well that there's always just an uptick in violence in Jerusalem near the West Bank. It is a volatile region. We've known this for a while and people are nervous. People are anxious. You were discussing it there in studio. And so we don't have the numbers as of just yet. We know that it is about to start in a couple of minutes. And again, we're hoping to see what we normally see, the unity of the Jewish people gathered in a circle here to do what they know best, which is to be together, whether that's praying to a higher power or just being amongst themselves for a sense of unity. That's what we are expecting a little later for both those that are captive in the Gaza Strip, but also for the safety and security of the Israel defense forces that have been put on both borders of the state of Israel. And speaking of the sense of togetherness of brotherhood of unity about 11th all, thank you very much for this. Not just Israeli security forces are as on as it gets Israeli ease themselves all across the country, giving their all to help those on the front lines. And as we speak, volunteers cooking hundreds of meals every single day for soldiers and many displaced Israelis, hundreds of thousands of them. And this group, one of many, consists almost all from foreigners from all around the world, much more than just cooking meals. That's for certain. So we want to speak now to Elia Fassman, founder and operations manager of a Citizen's Kitchen joining us live from Tel Aviv. Elia, thank you very much for joining us. So tell me tell us more about your operation there. It's been hectic, but the good kind of hectic. I don't even know if it's a good kind of hectic. It's just the kind of inertia that all of us have, especially because so many of us are far from our original home countries that we just feel like we have to stay busy to be able to help Israel. Israel has given us so much. And now it's time for us to give back. So we're here in Tel Aviv cooking as much as we can to help displaced families and soldiers. Yeah. And then, you know, we've been talking a lot about the self, the sense of helplessness. Many of us feel these days and and this anger and this sadness and this rage and utilizing it into action is a great relief. Obviously, helping others also, you know, hits back. It is helping helping us to I think that aside from giving hot meals and we've been able to send out 5228 since the start of the war, we are trying to give morale. We're trying to give morale to our soldiers, both with a hot meal and with handwritten notes and every box. We're trying to give a community to only and we do not have family here who need a place to go. Many of us who aren't even able to experience emotion right now. We're so horrified. We've also started different services like Shabbat dinners and group therapy for people who need a place to be. So we're trying to be much more than a hot meal. But of course, comfort first and foremost comes from food as we are born out of a cooking studio and and perhaps this is the epitome of of israel in this if you will this sense of recruitment, whenever there is need. We're all in it together and this is unique in that sense and the group that you're leading because it consists of mostly foreigners. That if they needed any kosher stem for their israel in this there you go. Yeah, absolutely. Really the day after the war started, I realized that I have the privilege of understanding Hebrew. I was in the army, but many of my community members don't. So I started the WhatsApp group and within a few hours, we have hundreds of people. And the next morning we had meal operations already happening. I wasn't sure if it was for me, whether it was my own therapy, virtue signaling just to be able to do something, but it's manifested to be something much greater than I could have imagined. Yeah, and this is a classic Jewish Yiddish mama Jewish mother recipe for strength, for getting better good food. So keep spreading the love. I have been bringing my two children to the studio also. Yeah, yeah. So this is how we spread love. This is how we stay resilient through our stomach, through our kishke. Thank you very much, Elia, for what you're doing and for this conversation. Thank you. Back here in studio with Colonel Grisha Yakubovich and our very own guys real Colonel Yakubovich. Before we conclude what is currently unfolding on the northern front, which is an alarming development, I do want us to talk about what's happening down south. The forces are still readying for the ground operation. We still don't know when will the order be given. But what are they doing now? What does it mean to prepare for a ground operation? First of all, many things are happening at the same time. Okay, so a ground operation. I believe that it's not necessarily what we used to see in the past, you know, the big denies moving in tanks behind it and soldiers behind them and then attacking. Okay, there are other ways to do it. Especially when we're talking about an underground infrastructure there. So the visibility of such an operation might be different. There is underground, underground in the air, see other abilities, other technologies. Okay, Israel has prepared itself for a multi arena war for the last almost 10 years. Yes, we Israel failed, the idea failed, the intelligence failed at October 7th. But from that failure, I believe that the response will be different. Now too many things are happening at the same time. There's a meeting between Assisi and Abdullah today. We need to see what will happen there. There are the people who were kidnapped in Gaza. We need to see what will be their destiny or what will happen to them. There is this tense in the north. From what I understand, the rocket will launch from 30 over 30, 27 rockets from it's all. Okay, it's a big, big city inside deeper in Lebanon. Israel sent a message to Lebanon that a war with Hezbollah. It means a destruction in Lebanon is this is Colonel Yacobovich may I be blunt here? It doesn't seem that this message is being heard properly on Hezbollah's side. So probably they will have to pay a terrible price because of that. They need to understand that Hezbollah brought poverty into Lebanon. Hezbollah are the ones who are responsible to the crisis in Lebanon. And Hezbollah will be blamed like in after 2006 as the one who because of them, I don't know, Lebanon will not be a country anymore like Iraq, for example. Okay, that is already three countries in the south. The IDF is preparing the so we are preparing the soldiers. It will take time. Okay, and it's not a five star war. Yeah, it will be according to the IDF conditions and not how much conditions they slaughtered 1400 Israelis. Okay, we will deal with them step by step. On that note, Colonel Grisha Yacobovich guys real thank you very much for this before we wrap up this broadcast heading up to the north. Once again, I 24 news correspondent Hamda still who to Hamda heavy, heavy barrages of rockets, not a good sign. Right, we're talking about about 30 rockets that have been launched from Lebanese territory. The Lebanese Prime Minister now saying that he's considering an emergency plan facing the possibility of war heading towards dividing Lebanon into three relief zones. A red area near the border for shelters and two separate areas. One near the Malin, then one near Beirut. Remember the United States and Saudi Arabia issuing evacuation warnings for their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. Lebanon's official air carrier even moving some of their planes to Turkey in case this will break out into an all out war. This is the most activity we've seen on the Lebanese border and indication that the conflict is heating up. I 24 news Hamda still who to up north. Thank you very much for this alarming developments on all fronts. This is it from us, but at the top of the hour we continue our rolling coverage day 13 of the war here in Israel. Thanks for watching. Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel. Visit Israel bonds dot com and invest now 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside school on what's going on only on I 24 news. Yes. Come to the special broadcast here on I 24 news. We continue our rolling coverage on day 13 of Israel's war against Hamas and is a ground operation in the Gaza Strip seems not to be an if but a pending when it is the northern border that is flaring up these hours several heavy barrages of rockets being launched from southern Lebanon, sending tens of thousands of northern residents to shelter his ball and not resting whatsoever renewed Hamas rocket fire from the south as well. For the first time since the beginning of the war Israeli defense minister you have gone on taking responsibility for the failures that led to October 7 but also vowing it is my responsibility to bring about a clear cut victory. Meanwhile, the diplomatic train of support continues after the German Chancellor, the American President, now the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is visiting Israel telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a friend in need a friend indeed. We're a buyer side and we'll stay right there. Hamas are the new Nazis. They're the new Isis and we have to fight them together just as the world the civilized world united to fight the Nazis and united to fight Hamas. It must together now stand with Israel as we fight and defeat defeat Hamas. This is not merely our battle. It's the battle of the entire civilized world and I want to share the deep condolences of the British people and stress that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law to go after Hamas to take back hostages, deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term. Now I know that you are taking every precaution to avoid harming civilians in direct contrast to the terrorists of Hamas which seek to put civilians in harm's way. You describe this as Israel's darker style. Well then it's for me to say I'm proud to stand here with you in Israel's darker style as your friend. We will stand with you in solidarity. We will stand with your people and we also want you to win. Thank you. We begin the broadcast by heading down south at 24 news correspondent Robert Swift standing by there. Robert as we speak a fresh barrage of a rocket from rockets plural of course from the scholarship towards Israeli southern cities. That's correct. We've just heard interceptions around six interceptions of rockets fired from Gaza. These were directed northwards with the city of Ashkelon just to the north of Gaza targeted. Also around 30 minutes ago there was a barrage that was in the direction of the southern Israeli city of Bersheva and the sound of various combat signs continue around us and there's the sound of jets overhead and intermittently we are hearing Israeli artillery likely targeting positions inside the Gaza Strip as well as that just to stress the fact that this is also an area which is very much in preparation for more war to come. We've around about an hour ago we started hearing a large amount of small arms fire and there was a little bit of let's not say panic but there was interest in what was going on here when it was realized that this is likely the Israeli army training. They've just deployed a large number of reserve forces and many of these are soldiers that need to get trained up quickly and so that was the sound of a firing range and the troops they're training most likely. So Robert talk to us a bit more about the preparations that we're saying on behalf of Israeli forces mobilized ready to act not if but rather when the order will be given down south and meanwhile the preparation of the air force ahead of ground operation continue as well not just terror infrastructure but our terrorists that are being eliminated. That's right in these days as the Israeli ground forces get prepared for the time where they go in if that is what they what they do the air forces is working concurrently striking targets inside Gaza doing as much damage as it can to essentially to reduce the capabilities of Hamas. They'll be targeting rocket launching sites targeting anti-tank teams and any other observation posts or defensive positions that they can see along the border between Gaza and Israel proper. Now this preparation that these strikes will go on until the Israeli military considers itself ready to go in. They could go on for a long time for days or even weeks until the Israeli military considers it has done sufficient damage to Hamas that they're in a position to then begin ground operations. And Robert briefly before we let you go the IDF spokesperson earlier today in his morning briefing updating that a Hamas terrorist was captured in Israeli territory trying to make his way back to the Gaza Strip and that means that the the land down south Israeli territory is not yet liberated not yet clear or or neutralized of terror threats there practically still a war zone. That's correct I mean the majority you know the vast majority of the combatants that crossed into Israel they have been captured or killed by the Israeli military but they cannot rule out the possibility that there are one or two sleeper agents that have remained and that's what happened in this instance. I-24 News correspondent Robert Swift thank you very much for this much more from Robert and the I-24 News team later on in the day of course and moving from south to north I-24 News correspondent Hamda Selhout standing by their Hamda in the span of several minutes we're talking about 20 launches of missiles from south Lebanon towards Israel an escalation and a very evident one. Right Ellie so just in the last few minutes 24 different alerts for northern communities here along the Lebanese border the Israeli military said it was retaliating by using artillery shells on Lebanese positions inside of Lebanon on the other side of the border now their helicopters flying overhead this is the most activity that's been happening in terms of the cross fire along the border since the war began now we also saw several interceptions a lot of booms in the distance a lot of different activities we're going to maybe pan to show you some of the activities here you can see these Apache helicopters these are attack helicopters that can launch missiles onto different positions from an aerial view and they are flying here constantly overhead along Lebanese territory and back here so the Israeli military on high alert as this conflict now on the northern border seems to be escalating and Hamda many of the northern communities in the immediate proximity to to the border with Lebanon either been evacuated by state order and many others have you know engaged in self evacuation what is the situation there in terms of the presence of Israeli civilians and this buffer zone so to speak right so the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for communities within five kilometers of the Lebanese border for their safety out of fears out of this conflict intensifying the Israelis are prepared to deploying several reinforcements and all other types of military equipment to the reinforce this front that could prove to be a new part of the war I-24 news correspond Hamda Salhut up on the northern border between Israel and Lebanon thank you very much for this Hamda and just this afternoon Israeli Defense Minister you have gone on for the first time since the beginning of the war claiming responsibility for the failures that led to October 7th but also taking responsibility of what we are about to see next vowing complete clear cut victory for Israel let's take a listen I am in charge of the security establishment I am responsible for it in the past two weeks even in the difficult events I am responsible to bring it to victory in the battle we will be precise deadly and sharp and we'll continue until we complete our mission joining now us here in a studio colonel and the result during the reserves rather Mr. Agresha Yakubovich former head of the civilian department of Kogut and our very very I-24 news senior correspondent guys real thank you gentlemen very much for joining us let's do begin up north because this is definitely an alarming development Colonel Yakubovich what is the difference between poking provoking and more than that there's no difference it's some sort of some sort of a game if I may say so Hezbollah are obligated to support their allies in Gaza Hamas although it's weird because it's Shia and Sunna that slaughter each other in Syria but this is you know we all know that Iran is behind it let's not forget until today 13 Hezbollah terrorists were killed by the IDF during the last few days the there was a funeral okay to bury them all and immediately after the funeral they launch anti-tank missiles I'm not sure about the rocket I think this is the the the line that distinguish between Hezbollah activity and Hamas or Pij Placid Islamic Jihad activity in Lebanon so from what I understand the Hezbollah respond to the funeral was anti-tank missiles two paces and Hamas and Pij the rockets into Manara or somewhere else that were intercepted in the air and yet in this volatile climate you know tit for tat for tit for tat this ping pong what would be considered more than just this so to speak game you're saying if I'll take myself into the shoes of the decision makers I'm sure that on the table there's a huge pressure to respond in Lebanon okay and not to wait to the escalation to reach to a certain let's say event that will be a good reason to stop I believe that this is actually this is this is this is the problem Hamas are teasing the IDF okay launching here launching there they are targeting only the bases and Israel is waiting for the event that will actually be a good reason to start a clean Hezbollah from the border but you know this policy of containment so to speak that was very evident both on the northern front and on the southern front in the north with this notorious tent that's tents two of them and then one tent that has been there for four months we've been talking about it what does it mean that the Israel is not reacting or yes reacting and in the south the southern residents are alerting day in day out something boiling over the other side the other side so this policy of containment didn't it collapse to an extent alongside the collapse of the conception absolutely did it has been proven that when murderous Islamist radical terror groups nuts with a Nazi ideology as we saw by Hamas have both the will and the means to slaughter Jews they will do so at the time that's right for them and we saw that at Israel's toughest hour as Netanyahu put it on Saturday I can just also remind our viewers because we're seeing this retaliation from Hezbollah over the past several days at least six Israelis killed so far in those scrimmages in those rockets and anti-tank missiles fired that back in 2006 the second Lebanon wars it is known here was started with the killing of several IDF soldiers and the kidnapping of just two we're seeing much more serious incidents over this past week and Israel is waiting Israel is waiting because it fears war on two fronts for now it seems like it is engaged or preparing for that wide escalation against Hamas in Gaza still waiting to see what happens with Lebanon reports that Israel promised or at least the US asked Israel not to start a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon but waiting too long may also be a mistake all the defense concepts of Israel are being re-examined and I certainly hope that after the colossal failure of the intelligence 13 days ago people are thinking about the alternatives about what's happening and and I sincerely hope that the defense establishment particularly that of the intelligence is weighing all the risks that are involved now and guys are speaking of the intelligence failure and the lack of readiness or alertness before we go down south again to discuss what is to be expected there in central Israel in the past 24 hours or so an alarming trend of Israelis many of them again in central cities at the very center at the heart of the country flooding both social media and police with videos documenting people taking pictures and videos of buildings of entrances of houses uh police is saying it might be something that is orchestrated by foreign forces but before I ask you to clarify what what is this phenomenon it is clear that this is the epitome of terror absolutely so terrorizing uh society civilians absolutely so and it touches on the point that we spoke about just a little earlier but the fact that this war unlike all previous campaigns and wars that Israel had with its enemies this war is much closer to home this is a war in which Israeli civilians were targeted in the place that is supposed to be the safest for them in their homes in these communities both on the Gaza border but also in towns like of a king which is 15 to 20 kilometers away from the border so for a very good reason Israeli civilians are are paranoid and and and but just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean that no one is chasing you right well absolutely and Israeli police says that yet to find a connection between this and terror they're asking to for the public to remain vigilant but not to draw panic on social media obviously that is pretty difficult to do when the personal security is harmed to such an extent and another consequence of this is the fact that we're seeing so many Israeli civilians now looking to get armed looking to defend their families in fear that these terrorists might be targeting their homes not just on the borders but also much deeper inside Israel in Tel Aviv in other cities long way ahead not just in terms of the unfolding events in the Gaza Strip we want to head now to Jerusalem my 24 news political correspondent Batya Levinthal standing by their Batya there's a mass prayer that will soon be underway with the masses praying for the release for the return home of hundreds of Israelis being still held captive hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip right Ellie but not just for the hostages that are being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip also for the safety and security of the Israel defense forces I have to say Ellie I've been doing this for a while now and more so than that I used to live in Jerusalem the scenes behind me are just depressing to put it plain and simple this is normally an area that is bustling all throughout the day whether it's the morning the afternoon or the evening there are thousands of people that come out to pray and it is just desolate it is absolutely absolutely desolate when we were coming in ourselves we spoke to the security guard and I asked him how many people he's expecting for this mass prayer of which he said to be honest he's not sure because the influx of people just in general over the last couple of days has been very small people are nervous not only just to leave their houses in Jerusalem despite the fact that at least the rocket fire has been Jerusalem has been pretty spared from the majority of those targets towards the center of the country but because of the fact as well that there's always just an uptick in violence in Jerusalem near the West Bank it is a volatile region we've known this for a while and people are nervous people are anxious you were discussing it there in studio and so we don't have the numbers as of just yet we know that it is about to start in a couple of minutes and again we're hoping to see what we normally see the unity of the Jewish people gathered in a circle here to do what they know best which is to be together whether that's praying to a higher power or just being amongst themselves for a sense of unity that's what we are expecting a little later for both those that are captive in the Gaza Strip but also for the safety and security of the Israel defense forces that have been put on both borders of the state of Israel and speaking of the sense of togetherness of brotherhood of unity about 11th all thank you very much for this not just Israeli security forces are as on as it gets Israelis themselves all across the country giving their all to help those on the front lines and as we speak volunteers cooking hundreds of meals every single day for soldiers and many displaced Israelis hundreds of thousands of them and this group one of many consists almost all from foreigners from all around the world much more than just cooking meals meals that's for certain so we want to speak now to elia fastman founder and operations manager of a citizen's kitchen joining us live from Tel Aviv elia thank you very much for joining us so tell me tell us more about your operation there it's been hectic but the good kind of hectic I don't even know if it's a good kind of hectic it's just the kind of you know inertia that all of us have especially because so many of us are far from our original home countries that we just feel like we have to stay busy to be able to help Israel Israel has given us so much and now it's time for us to give back so we're here in Tel Aviv cooking as much as we can to help displaced families and soldiers yeah and then you know we've been talking a lot about the self the sense of helplessness many of us feel these days and and this anger and this sadness and this rage and utilizing it into action is a great relief obviously helping others also you know hits back it is helping helping us too I think that aside from giving hot meals and we've been able to send out 5228 since the start of the war we are trying to give morale we're trying to give morale to our soldiers both with the hot meal and with handwritten notes in every box we're trying to give a community to Ali who do not have family here we need a place to go many of us who aren't even able to experience emotion right now we're so horrified we've also started different services like Shabbat dinners and group therapy for people who need a place to be so we're trying to be much more than a hot meal but of course comfort first and foremost comes from food as we are born out of a cooking studio and perhaps this is the epitome of israeli this if you will this sense of recruitment whenever there is need we're all in it together and this is unique in that sense and in the group that you're leading because it consists of mostly foreigners that if they needed any kosher stem for their israeli this there you go yeah absolutely really the day after the war started I realized that I have the privilege of understanding Hebrew I was in the army but many of my community members don't so I started the WhatsApp group and within a few hours we have hundreds of people and the next morning we had meal operations already happening I wasn't sure if it was for me whether it was my own therapy virtue signaling just to be able to do something but it's manifested to be something much greater than I could have imagined yeah and this is a you know a classic Jewish Yiddish mama Jewish mother recipe for strength for you know getting better good food so keep spreading the love I have been bringing my two children to the studio also yeah yeah so this is how we spread love this is how we stay resilient through our stomach through our kishka thank you very much elia fastman for what you're doing for this conversation thank you back here in studio with their colonel grisha akubovich and our very own guys real colonel akubovich before we conclude what is currently unfolding on the northern front which is an alarming development I do want us to talk about what's happening down south the forces are still ready for the ground operation we still don't know when will the order be given but what are they doing now what does it mean to prepare for a ground operation and the first of all many things are happening at the same time okay so a ground operation I believe that it's not necessarily what we used to see in the past you know the big denies moving in tanks behind it and soldiers behind them and then attacking okay there are other ways to do it especially when we're talking about an underground infrastructure there so the visibility of such an operation might be different there's underground underground in the air see other abilities other technologies okay israel has prepared itself for a multi arena war for the last almost 10 years yes we israel failed the idea failed the intelligence failed at october 7th but from that failure I believe that the response will be different now too many things are happening at the same time there's a meeting between assisi and Abdullah today we need to see what will happen there there are the people who were kidnapped in Gaza we need to see what will be their destiny or what will happen to them there is this stance in the north or from what I understand the rocket will launch from over 30 over 30 27 rockets from it's all okay it's a big big city inside deeper in lebanon israel sent a message to lebanon that a war with hezbollah it means a destruction in lebanon is this is colonel yakubovich may I be blunt here it doesn't seem that this message is is being heard properly on on on the hezbollah's side so probably they will have to pay a terrible price because of that they need to understand that hezbollah brought poverty into lebanon hezbollah are the ones who are responsible to the crisis in lebanon and hezbollah will be blamed like in after 2006 as the one who because of them i don't know lebanon will not be a country anymore like emak for example okay that is already three countries in the south the idf is preparing the so we are preparing the soldiers it will take time okay and it's not a five star war it will be or according to the idf conditions and not how much conditions they slaughtered 1400 israelis okay we will deal with them step by step on that note colonel grisha akubovich guys real thank you very much for this before we wrap up this broadcast heading up to the north once again i-24 news correspondent hamda silhut hamda heavy heavy barrages of rockets not a good sign right we're talking about about 30 rockets that have been launched from lebanese territory the lebanese prime minister now is saying that he's considering an emergency plan facing the possibility of war heading towards dividing lebanon into three relief zones a red area near the border for shelters and two separate areas one near the melons and one near beirut remember the united states and saudi arabia issuing evacuation warnings for their citizens to leave lebanon immediately lebanon's official air carrier even moving some of their planes to turkey in case this will break out into an all-out war this is the most activity we've seen on the lebanese border an indication that the conflict is heating up i-24 news hamda silhuta up north thank you very much for this alarming developments on all fronts this is it from us but at the top of the hour we continue our rolling coverage day 13 of the war here in israel thanks for watching israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year salido aquí donde nos ven para clamar por la lluvia si en verdad en estos momentos el calentamiento global está afectando a bolivia y no sólo a bolivia sino a todo el mundo entero y nosotros necesitamos lluvia para los sembradíos reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job that the faquita can be protected joining us you're watching i24 news we're coming to you live from televiv on this day 13 of israel's war with hamas the british prime minister rishi sunak is here in israel and says britain stands with the country in its darkest hour at least 1400 people were murdered by hamas terrorists on october 7th and in the last hour police say that the bodies of 742 civilians have now been identified as work continues the idf has confirmed that 204 hostages are being held in gaza meanwhile the if continues to pound the gaza strip it's confirmed the deaths of three more senior hamas commanders a ground offensive though yet to materialize egypt and israel have agreed that the raffa crossing with egypt will be opened to let in limited humanitarian aid meanwhile a barrage of rockets simultaneously from the north and the south fired at central northern and southern israel at hamas has just claimed responsibility for rocket fire from lebanon two people were moderately wounded in the town of qiyad shmona in the north when a nine-story building got a direct hit from one of those missiles well we'll be going to north lebanon later in the program but now let's go to the border with gaza our correspondent robert swift is there a rob hi there rob still no sign of a ground offensive and the rockets continue to be fired from gaza yeah for now it's the waiting game the rockets do continue it's been relatively quiet here for the last hour but you know that's very much a relative term so there was a barrage of rockets about half an hour ago towards communities in the nega around the city of versheva but there is still plenty of activity here we've just heard israeli jets overhead and now that it is a little bit quiet here we took a minute to have to look around the city a bit further further and it's noticeable how empty the streets are there's one or two people here and you know the vast majority of people that you see here are either security forces or other journalists and rob how is the operation going so far three more senior hamas commanders confirmed kills today yes so for now the israeli military seems happy to you know say a distance and drop ordinance from the air if they are happy with the the numbers of casualties that they're inflicting on humas on the the capabilities that they're degrading from humas is arsenal and you know in some ways they have time on their on their side it's unclear if and when the ground offensive will begin but you can be sure that the israeli military will want to do as much damage from the air before it goes in as possible and the other development in gaza rob is of course that egypt and israel have agreed that the rafa crossing will be temporarily opened to let in humanitarian aid that's correct the israeli military obviously has instructed civilians to move towards the south and just earlier today it was announced that 20 lorries would begin being able to move through the rafa crossing into into gaza to deal with the humanitarian crisis which is unfolding there but it's worth bearing in mind that before this conflict even began gaza was heavily dependent on on humanitarian aid and there was around 100 lorries would routinely going on a daily basis to to the gaza strip so the fact that now in a time of heightened humanitarian crisis there's only 20 going in that shows you the how serious the situation is there but for the population of gaza that are down there in the southern end of the gaza strip this will be you know aid that is very much appreciated and there is a concern isn't there rob that the aid will not go to civilians and it will in fact end up in the hands of hamas terrorists is there any way for the world to stop that happening there absolutely is is there absolutely is that concern i should say israel has said that if it sees that this aid is going to hamas that it may remove its consent from from the the aid going into the into the gaza strip hamas themselves are essentially the rulers the government of the gaza strip so it is extremely difficult for outside forces be the western governments or israel itself or the egyptian government to to insist that that aid goes to purely civilian measures they will do their their best to monitor that but there is limited that they can do a very unique situation rob thank you rob a swift there well with me in the studio lieutenant colonel dohan avitalis former commander of the special forces for the idf dohan welcome um just to to recap then what what we've been looking at in the last hour or so a huge barrage of rockets fired from hamas in gaza and hamas in the north your reaction i think the situation is still in some kind of a standstill though we're still pounding the gaza targets very carefully chosen targets and with some successes of targeting a few leaders of hamas in the high command i think we had this week of an end we had all the support that can be shown from foreign leaders was expressed but right now there we're all waiting for the the next stage of the right and why do you think there is that delay of course we had president biden here yesterday the british prime minister is here today do you think that might have something to do with it or or are there other considerations i think to be in sync with the americans was very important in fact we saw president biden actually sitting with the work cabinet of visual this is unprecedented and to see him actually saying that this is a very complicated field to navigate so the israeli idf has to navigate within some boundaries i think the boundaries are i don't think we want to take gaza strip i think some limited when you say we don't want to take it you mean that is what doesn't want to go in to conquer to conquer gaza strip as a whole and i think even biden was outlining this is not this shouldn't be the objective of any a military incursion but military incursion that dismantle the military infrastructure some kind of incursion like this is expected and of course you know when you plan things in the dam you have to plan ahead you have to see that you have all the resources in place the plans are in the the forces are trained well so i think right now the time is in our hands but in a certain moment we'll have to act what about the military aid we saw images earlier of the no the military that's coming from the united states we saw armored cars being delivered it's crucial of course we have it's crucial of course the interceptors the iron dome interceptors and other faculty but i think the israeli idea right now is well in terms of equipment though there was some an outcry in the beginning i feel they're restocking everything and the point is more the planning the training the forces to see that everything is sink and i think it was important to be in sync with the u.s with the military echelon and the political echelon the u.s and i think this was done this week uh so what about the humanitarian aid then going into essential i was never in the opinion as some generals were thinking that we can just put those these two million people under siege and not let humanitarian aid introduce i think also our american allies were very amident about it so it's clearly it was it has to be done it's done we have to monitor it of course we have to make sure it doesn't come to the wrong hands but this is part of the game we play in gaza it was an ongoing game how much play it to its advantage i'm not sure it's advantage i mean it's an essence just to be clear that there is no fuel going in i understand it will just be food and water essential supplies and medicine of course yes there's such and things for the civilians i mean we don't want to create any return crisis it wouldn't work in our advantage in the end it would limit our ability to operate or to of course a lot of innocent people of course put up in this so israelis is taking every precaution to make sure of course and i think it for me it was clear from the beginning there were few people that didn't get it right i mean in the heat of the shock from the effects people were reacting but this is part of the way we play this terrible terrible game of war in gaza okay well uh as we've been reporting the british prime minister rishi sunak uh in jerusalem today his visit a day after the u.s president joe biden jetted in two unprecedented meetings with world leaders jetting into israel in the middle of war and rishi sunak meeting today with both prime minister net and yahoo and israel's president isaac heltshaw our senior diplomatic correspondent owin altman explains why this war is so important to european countries the hebrew expression is rakevet avirit air train as another foreign leader lands in televieve thursday rishi sunak british prime minister here stepping off a military cargo plane another visit from a strong western ally to show support in israel's trying our above all i'm here to express my solidarity with israeli people you have suffered an unspeakable horrific act of terrorism and i want you to know that the united kingdom and i stand with you sunak will stay the night for a two-day visit demonstrating not only a partnership with israel and a desire to stop the war's expansion but also a britain taking its traditional geopolitical place beside the united states sunak of course is only the latest even before u.s president joe biden german chancellor olaf schultz came to show his support for post holocaust germany the relationship with israel has added emotional meaning we feel the terrible grief of all israelis whose parents siblings and children were killed in this barbaric attack we share the unbearable worry of all those whose family members were taken from the everyday lives and brutally abducted france has indicated that president manuel macron will also soon come to israel rounding out visits from europe's three most powerful countries as a group europe's powers have reason to get engaged for them this is a fight in a global frame mobilizing in defense of a western ally to proclaim solidarity that echoes all the way to the front lines of eastern ukraine to show russia that the west stands united globally for the security of israel and of europe itself so don a number of european leaders diplomats we had the head of the e u s you live on the lion the german foreign minister all kinds of leaders really making it clear that they want to stand with israel coming here physically to support israel this is unprecedented isn't it israelis never before had this kind of international support when it comes to fighting on us yeah i think we found out and it's also a good working call for the israelis that we have an alliance that we are part of an alliance which is the european alliance nato and the u.s of course is our best strategic friend and they came to our aid in show of support but also i think in limiting the game or the war game if we can call the war game and i think they all of them indicated that ground incursion dismantling military infrastructure of hamas is necessary i didn't hear any voice of because it wasn't pressure early on that it wasn't necessarily desirable that is rush again to garland there's always a caution and of course it's part also of our consideration not to not to cause damage to civilian there was this event in the hospital that was associated was a try there was an attempt to attribute it to israel and i think israel and the idea of behave very responsibly even waited a little bit to make sure that fact fact wise they managed to get the fact exactly it should be clear and it took some time but it was necessary to get the facts right and to know that it's not us and i think there's a there's a support for a military operation with a with targets that are carefully chosen trying to dismantle the military infrastructure of hamas bigger bigger in the bigger picture i don't think anybody wants to see as well taking the gaza strip right now and i don't think we want right now all right don't stay with us because the the full extent of the atrocities committed by hamas terrorists on october 7th are still being revealed many israelis burying their loved ones others going through the agony of knowing that their family members are being held by hamas in gaza and some just don't know what has happened at all ahal bezorai was born in kibbutz berri he later moved to the uk and then the philippines but his sister her husband and their two children are missing they haven't been identified either as hostages or confirmed dead ahal is with us now ahal thank you very much for being with us please tell us your story um i think you said the gist of which you know that's really my sister her husband and two of the children a boy with 15 and a daughter with 13 our kidnap we believe from israel they were seen pulled out of a burning of the burning home on saturday october the seventh in the morning and been led out of the house uh so the first assumption was that they uh taken hostage because in other instances in kibbutz berri they basically just shot uh civilians on site and here they were they dragged them out uh i went through all the hamas uh horrible videos you know in the hope that i can find any glimpse of them of the children uh i couldn't i only uh witnessed further atrocities an unbelievable cruelty um and then on friday the idea informed us that my sister mobile phone was traced together which in a way reinforced our belief that there might be there but we have no further evidence uh no we know the staves with health situation or whether they are all there you know so it's really um hope i say is a very good story teller um so this is the story that we tell us that you know that they are there and they are alive and one day they will be reunited with us and come home safe i'm so sorry to hear what you're going through it's it's horrific um you haven't been given information then from the authorities you're not one of the uh relatives of the 202 people who have been confirmed being held in Gaza i think we are but not confirmed in the sense that um there is evidence you know they found the phone there therefore they work on the same assumption as we do that uh they are there um so i believe we are part of this 202 uh captured but i think it's very very difficult with an organization uh like Hamas you know to get any information you know so we just need to work on the assumptions uh uh israel pulled i think 120 bodies out of bearing uh they've not yet identified all of them but the one that they identify so far you know my family are not uh part of this uh of this body some of them are extremely difficult to identify you know they are burnt to the bone uh utilitated the heads off you know etc um so it's just very very difficult the process uh so you know i don't blame the Israeli government you know because it's just very very difficult to of course find information you know um can you uh can you tell us a bit about your family about your sister and her family so you know when my sister was born i was 10 uh and i cried for half a day you know because i wanted a brother uh so and then you know i got her such a beautiful gift you know because she's such a wonderful person looking always to develop herself very spiritual very kind very caring for her family and for her children um so i cannot even start to imagine what she might be going through she married a girl who is such a wonderful wonderful person is like a son to my dad you know was also on the keyboards on that day and was uh uh evacuated to safety after 13 hours he hiding in the mammoth um and you know these two children are some beautiful children you know noam is 15 is sporty excelling any sports that he ever think of joining from football to running to jumping to basketball and Alma is just a sweet little girl just had a bat mitzvah in june she's 13 sweet little girl she has an amazing relationship with my dad uh she's only grand child you know i have two boys and you're not in drawer of two boys and a girl uh one of the boys of you're not you know was not you're not his name of my sister was not with them in uh in on the keyboard because he's volunteering to do some work in the north and he was spared by all this but you know obviously he's distorted alone and uh alone i mean no he's the immediate family is missing obviously he's surrounded with love my dad my other sister and the parents of his uh of of draw your not brother you're not your not husband but it's difficult time you know really difficult time for him and you know such beautiful people you know i'm to anyone you know having to be subjected to this type of atrocities it's it's really hard and words cannot express how much you know everyone is with you how painful this is it's awful um you're so strong ahal thank you for talking to us beautiful beautiful family yet another beautiful family ripped apart by hamas terror thank you so much ahal we wish you all the best really thank you very much for having me and for showing the photos and maybe someone can find some information and help us bring them home safe thank you of course of course bless you thank you uh dawn it's hard to it's hard to move on it doesn't get any easier hearing these stories another beautiful family kids a mom the hostage dilemma is maybe the greatest dilemma right now on the table of the government and the military echelon and i'm sure apart from thinking in military terms and what would happen whether we go to ground incursion to this dilemma i think there may there must have been there must be some diplomatic attempts underneath trying to bring katar into the to the subject because the stories of their kids that are elderly they have to be something should be done so it's part of the process right now some of the hostages families um said that they did not want any humanitarian aid to go into Gaza until some of the hostages were released yeah but i don't we can understand their rage of course but it's not like this effectively will help us to get the hostage back if no humanitarian aid because in the end it also reaches in some sense them so i don't think this is a this is a move that can help us in this scenario so the two moves that are possible yeah just to just to interrupt you sorry uh the defense minister uh yov galant has just said that the idf ground offensive in gaza will be coming soon he said it he's just said that well i'm not sure we should announce to the enemy right if he said it so why do you think he's making those comments interesting i uh i have to think about it i'm not sure it's it's the wisest of the most but maybe it's also to tell to tell the soon is a pretty vague uh yeah it's a very expression there's no timetable i mean we announced that we are going to do it in general interesting in what context did he say it and yeah we'll try and get some more information on that okay well um we're talking about gaza um the west bank is also volatile uh the idf deployed a suicide mini drone to neutralize the terror cell in the town of tulkaram today that resulted in the deaths of nine harm us linked terrorists and there were some 80 arrests last night at least half of the suspects suspects again affiliated with hamas our middle east correspondent ariel osiran reports on the concerns about a third front opening up in this war with most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict in gaza also to the west bank overnight israeli forces arrested at least 80 terror suspects 63 of them belonging to hamas this includes senior hamas official and co-founder hasan yusef we're walking very hard in the west bank massive forces are there securing the routes making arrests and 14 terror attacks together with shin bet and israeli police anyone who tries to challenge us in the west bank will find a significant force ready to engage at the same time clashes between israeli forces and armed palestinians occurred in multiple areas in the west bank the palestinian health ministry said that five palestinians were killed by idf forces overnight that brings the death toll in the west bank since last week's hamas terror attacks to 67 the crime committed by israel and the western patronage and american support must be stopped the bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in gaza are being exposed as civilians children and women to this unprecedented killing recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the west bank cities in support of hamas's military wing and its spokesmen recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by israeli settlers in the west bank some incidents leading to the death of multiple palestinians the idf is investigating those incidents and so with a ground invasion in gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi-front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay left tenet curl adon avitalis to with us adon israel was heavily criticized over the past year for sending in troops special forces to break up terrorist cells and to confiscate weapons and we can see now that that prevented these groups from amassing weapons i think we will forget giving those horrible events that we had a constant mini war in the west bank in the last year so every night there was this raid there were a terror attempt shootings and so on and right now we have and this was also it's part of our part of the setback that we had is that all our attention went to this front and the two and hamas was as if playing its hand in the west bank while preparing this this attack in the south so we'll have to investigate it of course so right now we really have to contain the west bank because when we go to the north we have our forces set we have the rule we know that it's a form that we know but the surprise in the in the central commander surprise is it out of control do you think i think since this we're talking about the population and cells and terrorists so one act of provocation one act terror act can create havoc in the in the west bank in the northern samaria for sure and we have to be very careful there that hamas doesn't play its hand there we don't have to be very careful that nobody infiltrates into the state of Israel from the west bank as we had it there before so while in the north we are really ready prepared we have the planned set the forces are set in the north we are but is the intelligence solid now in the west bank because of course people are shocked by the intelligence failure is it solid when it comes to i think it was very solid before the war but right now the attention is spread in the end it's something that's how to say to people that the army the intelligence infrastructure they have limited capabilities and they have to have their attention spread on all those three fronts so it's not easy but we are doing some preventive moves that many people were arrested many hamas operatives were arrested 350 arrests i think so far i think this is this is the right tactic right now we are trying we don't want to see the west bank waking up and this is really frightening all right so just to remind uh three uh light casualties after a direct hit on a building in kiria shmona a rocket fired from the north that hasn't been claimed by hamas the defense minister says a ground offensive in gaza will be coming soon we'll have all the latest for you after the break don't go away this is i-24 news all right very short break because we are back so that is what is happening this hour the defense minister you have gallant said telling the givati brigade who are deployed close to the border with gaza gallant saying you now see gaza from afar soon you will see it from the inside i'd like to bring in uh ruth wasma lands now she's on the line with us she's a former nk and former israeli envoy to egypt thanks for being with us ruth um uh a lot of a lot of developments today um israel fighting the war in gaza rockets have been fired from both gaza and the north we've got a situation in the west bank i mean where do you start okay so first of all i heard what um was said before in the studio regarding the surprise or the unexpected uh events in the west bank and i and i really i catch my head and i try to uh understand i said again and again uh in every uh tv studio that i've been to uh since two weeks and i've been to quite a few that the hamas had said clearly loudly in arabic that they have a master plan the master plan masterminded by iran is hamas in the south the second step would be the west bank where iran has been systematically working uh with local uh youngsters particularly uh specifically over the disillusionment over the corrupt fatah government and trying to raise its uh power uh in the west bank and that's where the second um front will be and the third front will be the northern one and uh they're also calling on operatives from iraq shiites from iraq to join the fight uh not only against the united states in iraq but against um israel as well and they are calling upon their own citizens iranian citizens to take arms and join the holy war they're also calling on muslims all over the world to kill jews first and non-jews next and we can see in several capitals in europe that in sweden in brussels etc not only attacks against jews and that has gone way higher than it was before against synagogues and jewish institutions but also against forces that are french swedish english and so on so this is again important to listen to what they are saying in arabic and they say things pretty clearly stay with us uh yes what they are saying the point how prepared we are to what they are saying and of course the front of the west bank is the front that we must contain in every possible way not to say it wake ups okay all right well uh israel at its northern border there have been reports of three light casualties in the town of kiri at shmona in the in the gallery after a rocket hit a building our handa sarhout is at the northern border handa what's the latest where you are well or the israeli military says around 20 rockets were fired from inside lebanon hamesis of qasembergades operating in the south of the country taking responsibility for that the israeli military is also telling us that there was a direct hit um just a little bit far from where we are here but in that village of qiri at shmona where there were three people lightly injured the exchanges of fire continue here this is the most activity on the northern border we have seen in the two weeks we have been covering this conflict the exchanges of fire are constant the booms in the distance continuously get louder there've been helicopters flying overhead attack helicopters not just normal ones surveilling the perimeter the israeli military is on high alert here fearing that a new front could open in this war they've evacuated communities up to five kilometers from the border hoping to save civilians from any line of fire if the conflict would it happen and if it were to expand really to this northern front now the united states has been pressuring israel not to strike targets inside of lebanese territory preemptively but they are offering them reassurances should hezbollah strike first telling them that they will assist militarily in that war on the front but the israeli military is saying that they will fight hard and they will meet hezbollah with deadly force if they choose to escalate the situation in the north hamdah thank you very much hamdah salakhote she's at the northern border close to lebanon uh ruth um if you'd like to to join us again on what we're seeing in the north we've had this um ongoing tit for tat um the occasional rocket fires israel strikes back um hamas claiming responsibility for the latest barrage of rockets from the north again one needs to uh point at the mastermind of this entire roadmap and man um it's very clear to me and to others uh here but it needs to be very clear to the international arena as well um the main role player in this war is iran iran must be stopped it's the mastermind it's the instigator and it's not only against how can iran how can iran be stopped through very easily first of all absolutely continue to freeze those six billion dollars that were promised in exchange for prisoners um promised by the us and of course uh continue and i know that the us did this today and uh make even harsher the sanctions um on all kinds of um uh military artillery um armament uh dealings with iran in general sanctions need to be strengthened and all options are open depending on the next steps of iran but they are saying very plainly and we need to read and listen to what they're saying they are opening a holy war or rather what we understand um as an unholy war everything is legitimate in this unholy war we saw the nazi like aina's crimes and atrocities committed in the south there's no reason to believe that they will not perpetrate such horrors elsewhere and they are calling for the arena to be not only an Israeli one but an international one we need to listen to the enemy and if anybody has any qualms about who the enemy really is that i'm very glad to point out that it's iran uh doran would you like to respond i think what we have to realize we're in a war so and in a war you have also to check with your alliance and our alliance is the us in europe if i have some kind of criticism of the way we handle the situation until now is the fact that we were thinking that we're pushing this war on our behalf by ourselves i think the biden visit makes it clear this is a this is a a grand scheme of things of course iran is the is the player but we don't do it alone so we have to work out all the consideration together and play our party in the war our party is the world is gaza our party is the worst to make sure the west bank is under control our party in the war is to make sure that his balai is either deterred or being attacked the moment it crosses some threshold every element has to play its its role in this war step by step step by step and we're doing it with our you're speaking as a military man that is a military man because if i had some criticism of bibi in the past the way you was trying to stand against the american regime and not working with the american regime and i was calling biden to itself i think this was a mistake we do it with our alliance our alliance is the us your europe nato and of course there's a grand scheme of things of course iran is behind this thing everybody knows it but we have to do our role in the game all right well talking about the the current israeli leadership of course as israel is fighting this war with hamas it's also coming to terms with the biggest security failure in its history and the defense minister yoav galant said earlier today that he accepts full responsibility for failing to protect civilians against that hamas terrorist onslaught i am in charge of the security establishment i am responsible for it in the past two weeks even in the difficult events i am responsible to bring it to victory in the battle we will be precise deadly and sharp and we'll continue until we complete our mission and ruth i mean israeli is suffering not only with the with the horrific atrocities inflicted on its civilians 1400 dead and counting uh an unprecedented hostage situation it's also reeling psychologically from this assault it was always uh thought to be a strong nation it knew how to handle its neighbors it had won all of the wars albeit some wars more costly than others um this time israeli is really reeling from these failures and really trying to come to terms with what what happened so lora first of all there are two elements to your question one there was a failure and it needs to be investigated two now is not the time uh we are extremely united uh which is something that we had not seen in uh recent months on the contrary we had been very divided in this country and not only are we united but uh you say we've won all our wars and we are strong you know the um resilience of the israeli society uh the giving and the unity that has been displayed in the last two weeks is profound this is something that is almost um unseen and unheard of in other places it is very touching very moving very empathetic it is um unbelievable and this is a huge strength i'd also dare say that the country itself the idf and all the forces that uh we have technological economic uh state oriented etc they are all on their tip toes and extremely strong and i say this despite the failure that is undoubted and needs to be investigated now the country is very strong and please god shall win don um israeli strong uh it has a very strong army but and people are resilient as roose that's pointed out people are volunteering everybody in this country is on a war footing and like never before no question but we have to prove it in the battlefield if there's something as a military man i say i would have said i would say to my troops and i think the command is right and trying to say to the troops okay pr diplomatic show support in the end if you don't show your hand in the battlefield then uh boots on the ground showing your strength then of course the enemy would not be impressed so this is the moment and we have to show it and i hope the army has the capability the army has the capability you hope the army has the capability i always i think you have to have more you have to be modest when you go to the battlefield if you're too arrogant arrogance you all the time who uses and and we are waking up from some kind of ubris according to our omni powers and i think we have to prove it in the battlefield i know the generals i know they can do it i know the troops my nephew is in the as a paratrooper in the south i trust them that they can do it it has to be proven all right don well talking about the psychological warfare multiple international news outlets have walked back the claim that israel bombed a hospital in gaza Tuesday night the idf declassified information to show that the explosion was in fact caused by a misfire islamic jihad rocket the united states says its intelligence backs israel's position but not before the false headline went global sparking angry protests on the streets of arab capitals independent military experts have also been lining up to confirm israel's evidence joining me now joel rayburn is a former us army officer and the former us special envoy for syria he's now the director of the american center for levant studies thank you very much for being with us joel and first of all um i see that you have been speaking to some international news outlets with your expertise tell us what is your conclusion as to what happened on tuesday night i think the the physical uh evidence that that we've seen from video and photographs of the of the scene of the impact it just does not make plausible the idea that this was a munition delivered from an aircraft in an air strike it shows there's a very small impact crater if it had been a bomb dropped by an aircraft that the crater would have been massive it's not uh it's not plausible that that number of casualties would have been taken um at that site by a blast radius which would have been relatively small if there had actually been 471 killed and and i'm not disputing that maybe there were some there were people killed there uh then there would have been a there would have been a huge mass of corpses presumably hamas and uh and others would have would have seen an interest in displaying those for the international media but i also think that there couldn't have been that kind of of death toll without a building collapse with bodies buried under the rubble and then there would have been video or photographs of bodies being there would have been a massive recovery uh type of effort that would presumably have been shared with the international media and there would be some evidence of it but given given the size of the of the impact crater and and the limited damage around it there's just no way uh that it could have resulted in such a death toll or that kind of destruction and the buildings around the the site are practically right well because there's i mean the photograph that we've seen of uh of after the bombing is a bombed out car park lots of destroyed burned cars but the building appears to be fully intact and i've spoken to people here who know that hospital who've been to that hospital yeah and they say that is the structure it is still standing yeah it just doesn't match with what for example the u.s. military and the rocky in our rocky security forces became all too familiar with in terms of massive bombings with large death tolls in Baghdad or Mosul or elsewhere in Iraq just the the impact crater would have been enormous and in Gaza and in Gaza we see destroyed buildings and it doesn't yeah so yeah yeah so i think it's a pretty straightforward question so i i think actually probably then the the getting the story out there and i'm and i'm not trying to minimize damage to civilian infrastructure in Gaza or anything like that that's not my place to judge it does appear to me though it it it has the feel to me of an information operation that probably the Iranian regime and in Hamas were were ready to exploit and looking for an opportunity and i think it's probably part of a broader war strategy a campaign strategy by the Iranian regime as part of their strategy to escalate the conflict beyond Gaza as they're potentially showing that they have the the potential capability to do in Lebanon in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere well i mean the u.s. supplies military aid to an awful lot of countries in the region Egypt Jordan and others the u.s. has said that its own intelligence suggests that this was was a misfire rocket it corroborates israel's version of events i mean do you do you think there's any way that the united states will be able to get its allies in the region to admit that it is promoting a falsehood well probably not because i think you know the political currents are are very much in the Arab capitals i think are very much in the opposite direction and the Iranian regime and its and its proxies are helping them to are helping to push them in that direction and making it very very dangerous i think for regional governments to sort of to be clearer about the facts of what happened however i also think that it that it this conflict has a very high risk of expanding far beyond Gaza and becoming a regional conflict that that draws others in and it could be that in a week or two uh that that the the uh the provenance of what happened at the hospital is a distant memory anyway because we'll all be facing a broader war that the supreme leader of Iran has decided to launch right now and i firmly believe that he has taken a decision uh to to escalate a regional conflict right now first by using the Hamas assault into southern Israel as as the opening salvo in that conflict well quite and i wanted to ask you job because you are the former envoy to Syria there there has been some reports in the last 24 hours of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria by Iranian proxies do you have any information on that well only what's out there in the media but i'm not surprised i think you see the supreme leader and the irgc the revolutionary guards are are displaying the the the tools that they have at their disposal all around the region they were able to deploy a Hezbollah organized uh riot outside the gates of the US embassy in Beirut they they fired that uh suicide drones at our troops in iraq and probably in Syria uh they're they're they're uh turning out mobs in in many places and i think that they are showing they are showing okay uh united states okay israel if you are not going to do what we demand and and uh slow down or halt the offensive into into Gaza uh then this is where we're prepared to act act next as as well as the of course the strikes that are coming across the border uh from Lebanon into into Israel for the past several days so are you pleased with the US response so far sending enormous military support to the eastern Mediterranean already can we see some of that going to uh closer to iran perhaps going to the straits of hormones uh that that i don't know i mean that that that's a that's a place of direct confrontation you know the the supreme leader and the irgc uh tend to shy away from direct confrontation so far they they've used militia proxies everywhere so it would be quite dangerous for them to try to challenge the us navy in the strait of hormones i think they know that so i think they'd be less inclined to do that uh because they want to have some deniable uh proxy sock puppet that they can use and hope that the sock puppet then will absorb the any retaliation as opposed to them but but yes it was it was an essential move for secretary of the men's austin to send the two carrier strike groups to eastern Mediterranean that's essential because it needs there needed to be a signal to the iranian regime the united states would be willing to respond if there were further iranian directed attacks against us interests and expanding the conflict to places like like the us embassy in beirut or our troops in in syria so so it was essential to try to restore that deterrent a very volatile situation joel raven we appreciate it thank you very much yep my pleasure well as you heard there along with the uh real fighting that's happening on israel's southern border there is an information war happening abroad and that was seen most clearly on tuesday night when headlines around the world accused israel of bombing a hospital in gaza sparking protests in arab and european cities around the world that claim are quickly debunked by the idf which released a series of evidence that then later backed up by the united states so we can take a listen now to the opposition leader yaya lapid who has addressed the media about the harmful consequences of misinformation during times of war it is interesting and shocking how quickly the world has moved on israel was giving barely a week of sympathy and global shock and then the world went back to attacking us for defending ourselves i've got one question to you all and that question is really the reason we're here do you think an organization which has no problem butchering babies butchering pregnant women and butchering a 13 year old autistic girl with an 80 year old grandmother has any problem lying yaya lapid they're speaking earlier about the dangers of spreading misinformation during times of war ruth wasman lander is with us i mean ruth i saw one commentator put it somewhat darkly uh he said the world will never forgive israel for not bombing that hospital i'm answering you laura with a lot of pain you know uh uh very very significant uh media outlets like the bbc and others was so quick to take um things as they were almost spoken by hamas it was quite unreal because almost minutes after the bombing these headlines appeared and this misinformation or disinformation or whatever one wants to call it uh psychological warfare and uh a campaign an iranian-led campaign to uh uh smear israel it was embraced with both arms with open arms and somehow miraculously within minutes three minutes of this tragedy it is a tragedy it's a human tragedy that people in hospital were killed but the wakil by the islamic jihad and by the war that hamas has begun and in three minutes somehow miraculously the hamas managed to count 500 tragedies it takes a little bit longer than two three minutes to count i mean here in israel they've only identified in israel they've just identified 742 bodies i think 742 uh bodies have have have been identified here and that's two weeks in but the hamas has unbelievable powers to count one by one 500 no less bodies in two three minutes this is what can i tell you riz you've seen these these news outlets you mentioned the bbc but there are others um and instead of issuing retractions or corrections or anything like that they've slowly changed the language it began as an airstrike and then the word used was explosion or blast and and then uh it it was the arab world blames israel and then it you know they've slowly walked it back until uh here we are today it very very difficult circumstances for israel to fight a war when it when it has this kind of pressure and this kind of misinformation we know that the truth is on our side very often i'm being asked why do you agree to go to any interview with any outlets tough as it may be and i answer very straightforwardly the truth is on our side i'm not afraid of any question is it an optimal situation of course not do we want to be in the situation no we didn't want to be gang raped murdered massacred and carnage no but if any other country wants to try and suggest some people suggest to me that they must be peace negotiations you know i offer to them to think uh amongst themselves what kind of peace negotiations can be held with uh people who do those kind of hyenas atrocities to other human beings these are not main acts this is a war not against israel i repeat that and this is very important it is a war against humanity and israel is just the first step okay it's very important that the world comprehends that dawn um it's going to be tough there will be significant civilian casualties in gaza um it's almost impossible for uh israel to avoid that um just that they have agreed egyptian tv is reporting that the wrap across it will now open tomorrow um that of course will ease ease civilian suffering in gaza won't it so that in fact could help israel in the long run i think as i said earlier it's original conflict we play with our alliances but we have to also remember the allies that we have in this region and i would call them allies i would call egypt whatever it's positioning is jordan pa we have to work with those three elements even though there we are sometimes of course we have disagreement and the question of egypt and the rafa crossing is essential we have very close intelligence ties during the public sphere you can hear a statement that we of course don't like so we have to work it as a whole i think the any attempt to to block humanitarian aid won't work in our interest in our behalf and i'm not okay even pr wise even in the context of the war we have to fight the war on one hand on the other trying not to hurt israel is a democratic state which is part of our values i think even i heard israel would not be the same country i heard the chief of staff her tea somebody i appreciate very much said we are going to fight the war according to our values within our values we are not going to be like them it should be clear we were always like this we shouldn't change our ways even in face of those terrible atrocities this is part of what we are it's part of the alliance that we are part of but it is going to be very difficult for israel if every five minutes it has to justify if we i mean i've i've been comparing it to the international coalition going to war against isis there were significant civilian casualties in raka sadly in syria many many innocent people were killed there wasn't the same kind of international crisis well israel always is in of course of course they always is they stand alone sometimes of course in this context the israeli Arab conflict is a long conflict the palestinian conflict is a long conflict here this is a a terrible enemy the sort of which i don't know we witnessed before we'll have to crash them it will take time it wouldn't take weeks or months it's a long road ahead we have to do it but we have to stand up by our values and do what's right and then hope the world will recognize for it for what it is ruther you encouraged to see the british prime minister here today the american president was here yesterday israel feels less alone this terrible war rusa can you hear me we've lost race okay we're gonna take a short break uh do stay with us our live coverage of this day 13 of israel's war with hamas continues you're watching i-20 point you stay with us ten hundred people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survive and all the records of the atrocities by hamas follow us as israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i-24 news this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year we have to write ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job that the faquita can be protected made for me a unique concept in israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i-24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen tonight 24 news we're coming to you live from televieve on this day 13 of israel's war with hamas the british prime minister rishi sunak is here in israel he says britain stands with the country in its darkest hour and the full horrors of the hamas atrocities still being revealed at least 1400 people were murdered by hamas terrorists on october 7th and the idf has confirmed that 204 hostages are being held in gaza the if continues to pound the gaza strip and today confirmed the deaths of three more senior hamas commanders the defense minister you have gallant says a ground offensive into gaza will happen soon the prime minister benjamin netanyahu has told soldiers near gaza in the last hour we're going to win and egypt and israel have agreed that the rafa crossing the crossing into egypt will be opened to let in limited humanitarian aid there's been a barrage of rockets fired from both gaza and lebanon into central and northern israel and hamas claiming responsibility for the rocket fire from the north of course israel is on high alert there amid fears that the iranian backed terrorist group hezbollah could also join the conflict let me introduce my guest colonel richard kent is a retired british commanding officer who served in afghanistan good evening welcome good evening and we're also joined by brigadier general amir avivi thank you for being with us as well colonel richard kent you flew in to israel on just a few days ago while all of this is going on let me ask you about the ground invasion into gaza should israel go in sooner rather than later and what do you think is causing this delay well the judgment as to whether israel should go in obviously is with the chief of staff of the idf and the prime minister and the factors that are affecting the decision are numerous but predominantly when i think the idf judge that they have done sufficient damage to hamas from the air and the other terrorists there and of course they want to do the maximum damage to them before they send ground troops in because it makes the job of the ground troops easier if there are fewer enemy for them to face so that's obviously a a key factor and at the point that is arrived at then they will probably go in the other factor i think that's important is what's happening up in the north because of course if israel is on the verge for example of getting involved in a conflict in the north it might want to make make that influence when and in what strength they go into gaza so i think those factors are primary the other factor i think that comes into play is the movement of the civilian population from the north of gaza down to the south of course the fewer civilians are there when the idea of attack again it makes their job easier and it also reduces the prospect of killing innocent civilians the danger of that of course is that many hamas fighters will go down with the civilians and leave that area so they can fight Israel from elsewhere and Brigadier General Amir do you agree with that assessment well yes there's also other factors we're talking about mobilizing hundreds of thousands of reservists which we need to train we need to equip we they need to really learn the missions we have no rush we want to bring in the ground forces whether they're ready completely with everything needed to to do the job we have to remember that this attack is going to take a long time it will take months to clean the old gaza strip why do you think there is a delay sort of delay you think that this was well well we have a plan we're moving along this plan and there are many preparations you don't send troops so fast sure we need to really see that they're ready and this attack when it will start it will have two phases according by the way to the way you conduct an offense first one is very very strong arrows that go to centers of gravity that the army analyzes and says this is places we want to go straight to to deal with them and then after dealing with centers of gravity the second phase which is the long one is really cleaning street by street house by house going all over the gaza street to destroy completely all the infrastructure the leaders all the terrorists the rocket launchers the tunnels the headquarters it's it's a lot of work and it will take a long time it's going to be a long war and of course we've got the hostage situation which complicates this as well I mean the the the the nightmare scenario is that Iran will push ahead with its plan to open this war on three fronts in Gaza in the east in the west bank and also from from the north is there any risk I'll ask both of you this that Israel could be walking into a trap by sending troops into Gaza I don't think it's a trap because Israel is well aware of this and Israel has prepared and planned and trained for fighting on multiple fronts so it's not so much a trap but of course it makes everything very much more complicated and then you mentioned the hostages having the hostages there is a is an enormous complication and I've no doubt at all that the idea has been working furiously since the hostages were taken to find some way of getting them back and that will be I think a priority among among the commanders conducting this operation sorry Richard let me interrupt you briefly because we need to go to the north our reporter Hamda Salhout is at the border close to Lebanon Hamda any more developments in the last hour hey Laura it's been about an hour since we last saw any rocket fire but we have heard booms in the distance indicating still an exchange of fire between the Israelis and whoever is firing at perhaps Hezbollah on the Lebanese side now the United States has issued a warning for its citizens really raising the alert levels because of the tensions that this war has brought on to the rest of the world indicating that there have been demonstrations outside of US consulates everywhere specifically in Beirut there have been constant protests not only in Beirut but in southern Lebanon where a lot of Palestinian factions operate I'll remind you the 20 rockets we saw earlier was claimed by Hamas who operates out of southern Lebanon they have been eager to join the fight but they have been waiting for the go ahead from Hezbollah for perhaps a larger conflict the United States telling Israel not to strike them preemptively but the Israel saying that they will defeat Hezbollah they will strike them back with brute force it will be deadly and it will be catastrophic so really a tense tense situation along the northern border as the conflict continues to escalate when the war cabinet meets this evening you can rest assured that the situation here in the north will be on the agenda there Laura Hamda thank you very much Hamda Salahut there Amir Avivi I mean Hezbollah is a different animal to Hamas isn't it it is said to have I think 80 000 fighters 160 000 missiles some of them precision guided missiles this would be a significantly different conflict to the one that we're seeing right now in Gaza indeed but you know when we are talking about Hamas and Hezbollah we have to understand it in the Iranian context there are Iranian proxies Iran is managing everything if they wanted a multi-front war they should have done that Saturday morning surprise us from the north from inside Israel from Gaza they didn't do that and when I look at what is happening I think that what happened here is an Iranian decision to try to disrupt the build up of a coalition of an American Israeli Sunni coalition who are moving fast to normalization with Saudi Arabia this is not just about making more peace agreements this is about building an alliance to counter the Russian Iranian Chinese front that has emerged in the Middle East and in Africa Iran sees that as a grave danger to their national security and they decided to do the following to launch a Hamas on an offensive to try to disrupt this process while keeping Hezbollah intact have they have they have they succeeded in destroying that cooperation I don't think so I think they did exactly the opposite and I think that what's happening now is it's completely different from what they thought would happen they wanted to keep Hezbollah intact because without Hezbollah and without Hamas Iran is completely exposed to Israel and to the US so it came to not I wasn't surprised that Hezbollah wasn't attacking us in the north but things are changing and now they are unclear because nobody could have thought that the decision of Israel will be to eliminate completely Hamas to destroy you know conquer completely Gaza and and and destroy Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Iran couldn't even dream about something like that and now they on one hand you have four reasons why Hezbollah won't start a war one is Iran the second one is Lebanon itself many fractions that want to keep it safe the fact that we have mobilized the whole army and US ships and US determinants to really pause the threat on Iran and Hezbollah and I wanted to ask you about that Richard Kemp because you were part of the the international coalition in Afghanistan tell us about the significant military aid that we've seen sent from the United States yeah I think I think the to reinforce what the general says here in terms of Hamas Iran's intention of destroying the the coalition between the US Saudi Arabia and Israel it's kind of backfired on them in a way because the US has been so strong in its support of Israel in this situation sending two carrier strike groups into the eastern Mediterranean the world's largest aircraft carrier we keep hearing right and re-engage you know effectively re-engaging in the Middle East which is the opposite of what Iran wanted to achieve and now they've so they found that their grand strategic plan has fallen to pieces do you think Iran underestimated the US response I think I think it's interesting really because I think Iran underestimated the US response in the same way as Putin underestimated the US response to Ukraine and you know both of these things were driven by the the the inglorious American and NATO retreat from Afghanistan which I think provoked Putin Putin did not expect the level of support that he that Ukraine got from the US and equally I think Iran but don't forget the Iranian Russian access that exists here with with Iran supplying drones to Russia thousands of drones I was in Kiev a couple of weeks ago when Iranian drones attacked Kiev I was in Tel Aviv last night when Iranian supplied rockets attacked Tel Aviv so it's this is a this is a basically an alliance against the US and against of course US allies like Israel okay well let's take a listen thank you Richard let's take a quick listen to the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who of course was in Jerusalem earlier today let's know what in the last two weeks this country has gone through something that no country no people should have to endure least of all Israel which has lived through some of the most awful scenes the specter of violence and terrorism every day of its existence and stressed that we absolutely support Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law to go after Hamas to take back hostages deter further incursions and to strengthen your security for the long term that was the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak he is in Israel tonight he'll be heading off across the region in the next couple of days I'd like to welcome to the studio General Eitan Dango thank you for being with us your thoughts on the very fast moving developments today we've heard the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister saying that an incursion into Gaza will happen soon we've got more international support in the form of the British Prime Minister and where are we on this day 13 I think we have to start at the war this is the main important thing what is around is very important what you mentioned but it's still there are thousands of soldiers in the area and there is a lot of things to reach and to do concerning the goal of the target of the war I think that today or from afternoon we are very narrow to a scenario while we identify that the north arena is reacting by his Bala under the Iranian umbrella they claim up and are reacting in a different way than it was before by the United States president visit yesterday what does it mean if you are looking the kind of the attacks are now moving from a place while I identify it as a circle exit point it's a message between each other the both sides it has a kind of escalation but now it's moved to a strip to a zone now I can identify for example the west part of the north as a scenario while you have integration of something that is more planned more reaction it means the figures of his Bala now taking the leadership and those kind of their claim besides the fact that we're acting against his Bala means now we are coming that they are still not in a full war with Israel with full showing their capacities and what they can do but they move towards the opportunity of interfere or opening the main area or the main escalation in the north more than yesterday and it has to be from the fact that Israel is more close to enter with their ground forces inside Gaza concerning the timing of entering to Gaza I heard a lot of it on the Israeli news today or I was asked questions I think that people are not understanding the full story of this event because when you enter to Gaza from military point of view you have to take on account many things that have impact of your activities and I think we should not hurry we should use more fire we should prepare more the area for entering to Gaza because Hamas is waiting for us from Saturday to enter to Gaza right I want to I want to get the ladies on that stay with us stay with us A-10 let's go to the south then our Rob Swift is close to the border with Gaza Rob what's happening just in the last few minutes there's been some news coming out of AFP where a EU official has said that it is their understanding that the number of casualties that occurred at the explosion in the hospital in Gaza and that this number may have been widely exaggerated by Hamas this is something that Israel has been saying for some time now they're saying that they understand that the casualties are somewhere in the round of a dozen to around 50 obviously we don't have confirmation of this number but it is far smaller than the hundreds that Hamas was talking about now yesterday when we attended a briefing given by the IDF about the this explosion they refused to give us a number so at the minute this is the first time that we've heard of any specific casualty figure other than that one that has been floated by Hamas if this is the case obviously this would be good news for all parties involved if civilian casualties concerned are much reduced but whether that is the case or not the preparations for the ground offensive in Gaza and the airstrikes that are part of that offensive continue at pace just in just recently the Defence Minister of Israel has said that he believes that ground operations will begin soon there's you know there's speculation as to whether this means in days or in weeks and everybody is on tender hooks to see if that when that does begin all right thank you Rob Robert Swift there at the border with Gaza well Rob just pointing out there that casualties at the bombing of the hospital in Gaza on Tuesday night appear to have been significantly overblown no confirmation of how many people died in that attack but of course Hamas was very quick to come out and say 500 people were killed and that seems to have been walked back very quickly while the reverberations of that false accusation that Israel bombed a Gaza hospital are being felt across the world there have been massive spikes in anti-Semitic attacks and of course angry protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and on the streets of other Arab capitals in Tunisia hundreds of people were filmed setting fire to an historic synagogue in the city of Al-Hamma in the hours after the explosion police did not intervene Alisa Pavia is Associate Director at the North Africa program at the Atlantic Council Alisa what happened well as you rightly mentioned after the false accusations that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza hundreds of mobsters took to the streets and set on fire the synagogue in the city of Al-Hamma in the Gabes region of Tunisia that synagogue is not in use anymore because there are no longer Jews living in Al-Hamma but it is a sacred place for Jews worldwide because it is the tomb of the 16th century Kabbalist Rabbi Yusuf Marawi and unfortunately that synagogue was desecrated set on fire as you can see from the images on screen mobsters took to the synagogue and kind of chanted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli slogans and as a consequence desecrated this holy site for Jews worldwide. And that is tragic and outrageous in itself but there are Jews living in Tunisia today Alisa are they in danger right now? Well anti-Semitism has been on the rise in Tunisia most notably we might remember the attack that happened on Derba the city that's a that is a city of pilgrimage for thousands of Jews worldwide and earlier this year in May it was attacked by a terrorist and five people five people were killed. The president, President Kaysayed, did not denounce it as an anti-Semitic attack but just as a criminal act and shortly thereafter the the professor Habib Karzagli who has been studying Jews in Tunisia for a long time was stripped of his title as professor of merit juice after he spoke at a conference with Israeli professors. So anti-Semitism is definitely on the rise in Tunisia unfortunately. And anti-Israel sentiment is kind of baked in to Tunisian cultures to a certain extent isn't it Alisa? I mean correct me if I'm wrong but I think the first article of the Tunisian constitution refers to the Palestinians. Well that is correct so the there is a long history in Tunisia of supporting the Palestinian cause we might remember that between 83 and 85 the headquarters of the PLO were actually based in Tunisia in Tunis. There is a strong you know pro-Palestinian sentiment among you know your local Tunisians which oftentimes also includes being unfortunately very pro-Hamas as well. So that that becomes an issue for the Jews living there. In fact we've seen that since the creation of the state of Israel until today there used to be a hundred thousand Jews living in Tunisia and now they are down to less than 2,000 Jews and the Tunisian population in and the Tunisian Jewish population in Tunisia dates back to 2,000 years ago and they were largely they largely felt safe and did not felt the need to emigrate up until 1948. Okay Alisa thank you very much Alisa Pavia there at the Atlantic Council. Colonel Richard Kemp a reminder of why the world needs Israel why Jews need Israel? Certainly a reminder of that but also a reminder of the grosser responsibility of so much western media and political commentators who helped to incite the violence that we saw in Tunisia and we're seeing in the UK, in Europe, around the world against Jews because organisations like for example the BBC they automatically assumed Israel was responsible for the hospital attack that occurred. There wasn't a question there wasn't a doubt it was their responsibility and secondly the the Gaza health ministry spewed out 500-800 which is which is... I know just the some outlets have started saying that now they weren't 20 days ago but they are now reporting that out and and it's it's it's blatantly irresponsible journalism these people these people who do it they don't do it because they kind of misjudge it they do it because they want to have a go at Israel they wanted Israel to be responsible for that and that's that's the biggest problem I think of so much of the western media which incites this violence and this anti-Jew hatred. Eitan Dango another sign of the significant pressure that Israel is under as it tries to eliminate a very well-armed dangerous terrorist organisation it is also has to justify every single civilian casualty. Tragically there will be innocent life lost in Gaza there's very little Israel can do to to prevent any civilian. Yes and unfortunately we faced it in former operation that during my time at the IDF there was some occasions in the second Lebanon war and also in some other kind of escalation that we faced in this case I think it's different the reason or the justice and what we are looking to achieve and declare about it put us in a scenario of a war while we will of course we will fulfill the international law concerning wars but it's quite different what we did already for a few days we want the population for example to live from the center till the end part of the north part of Gaza Strip to move to the south area while there we declare zones that can be or can use as a shelter and it depends also on the international movements like UNR and the others. Secondly I would like just to add for what they call my colleague General here and you asked me at the beginning concerning the international support I think that the visits of the President of the United States the Council of Germany and the Prime Minister of the UK they are the main figures which are signals the West world but what happened with the event of the hospital it's something that unfortunately I can tell you from my experience very openly that it's it's the beginning it's a lost case if you are looking as a military that you would like to say only the truth and in a military way when you have such kind of event and strikes you have to check it very carefully before you release your SS at the beginning I was here what when it happened at the another channel of view of the Arabic and I said we have to be careful because I know for example the jihad islamic are shooting 20% with my experience that always failing inside Gaza and I said to everybody we lost a dead case we succeed to stop it by the support of the Western world but of course that the Arabic world will not accept it because of the street because it's running but at the end I think it reduced and what was remanded by the general the beginning they declare between five to eight andres people who were killed now you don't hear even about some thousands maybe all right hold that hold that thought Etan because I want to go to Jerusalem the finance minister has just put forth an emergency aid package is that right Batia Levintali is in Jerusalem for us Batia right Laura apart from the politics and the economics I want to move out of the frame I'm not sure if you guys can hear at the moment but there is the the Muslim call to prayer at the moment obviously a city that is holy and spiritual to three of the Abrahamic fates I want to just move out of the frame for a second so you can see the western wall compound the Kotel as it's known in Hebrew is an area that sees hundreds if not thousands of worshipers usually on a daily basis it is the site is actually just devastating as someone who used to live in Jerusalem it's it's completely desolate there's been a couple of worshipers that have come sort of trickling in the security at the entrance is relatively high as well quite a lot of internal police but also border policemen as well in the area and it really is just it just goes to show it's it's the exact picture of what's happening in Israel at the moment from the perspective of some of the people that are downstairs that I spoke to are saying that they're nervous to leave their house not necessarily because of the rockets that have been targeting Jerusalem albeit Jerusalem has been largely spared compared to other areas in the center like Tel Aviv but they're nervous to leave their house because they know that Jerusalem the West Bank are volatile areas and with where the situation is at the moment they are nervous to come outside also the Jerusalem municipality and the home front command have put out gathering restrictions again it's it's similar to COVID that the scenes that we're seeing almost look reminiscent of the same month but just in 2020 of the restrictions only 300 people are allowed indoors and outdoors just 30 people so we know that there has been somewhat exceptions being made throughout the day because evidently more than 30 people here but again people just sort of trickling in very very very slowly to an area that is supposed to be a vibrant holy place earlier in the day there was a prayer session here and again with a group of people that came many of them wearing shirts that resembled the the kidnap and the captive movements are we talking about people who have relatives family friends that have been taken into the Gaza Strip that number now over 200 but also they came to do a joint prayer session for the Israel Defense Forces making sure that those that are protecting our borders both on the north and the south are safe and protected as well yeah it's really sad to see the holy city Israel's capital quiet tonight just at the the hotel there i've never seen it like that either just a few people there but yeah thank you very much but you live in town there in Jerusalem and Israel is fighting a war it is also reeling from the worst atrocities perpetrated against the people of this country in history 1400 people now confirmed dead and 202 hostages being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza among them children babies and elderly people many nationalities are among them including Americans French Italians many other nationalities the death toll is high only i think just over 700 dead bodies have now been identified 1400 people at least murdered by terrorists and among them 21 year old adi maizelle and her mother ahuva is with us now ahuva thank you for being with us we're sorry for your loss tell us tell us what happened wow it seems like it was two years ago but it was only two weeks ago and a week and a half actually um last saturday and on october 7th we received the last call from our daughter she went to a party she went to a festival in the south of israel and it was a authorized a facility everything was okay and she didn't come back from them from there and it took five days to find and recognize her and identify her what's left of her and until this moment even after her funeral we still don't know anything about what happened there what happened to her how it happened um she suffered this she didn't suffer did anyone touched her harm her while she was alive you know what were what was her last what were her last thoughts um many many really go on go on ahuva bad bad thoughts even after um after five days they they let me know that they found her and i i smile and i say it was the best day of my life that i heard that my daughter is dead and chamas doesn't have my daughter in his hands she's at peace now she's at peace he's in peace she doesn't suffer anymore we will never know what happened in her last moment and moments but she was such a great kid such a great girl she was so perfect since the day that she was born she was a perfect girl yeah and we see how beautiful she was and how how shining what a beautiful smile what a a beautiful person you can see that she was yes she was so energetic and everywhere she was she would go she she brought light with her and it was very exciting to to see what people all over from all and you know circles of of society of in israel knew her and and adored her and this is some consolation maybe if i'm trying to find something you know that gives you some hope in in this situation and i know that there are mothers and fathers that are envy me yeah they still don't know what happened to their beloved ones they don't know what happened to their girls and they see everything that runs in the net and then everywhere and i can tell you that this is something that a human soul a human brain cannot contain cannot perceive cannot express this feeling that i i never never imagined myself yeah thinking that i i rather my daughter will be dead than alive yeah i i just something i completely understand i completely understand because you you at least is as awful as devastating as it is it's the worst thing to happen to a parent but at least you know what happened you have some closure you you know i'm sorry not closure but you have you know that she's at peace now i'm sorry that your daughter was taken from her closure will be for me that something will really really happen now and everybody in the world around the globe every person every private person will understand that hamas is not only our problem hamas and such you know isis and etc we there's a lot of organizations like this that believes that they they can have the the the privilege to take lives of other people in the name of their beliefs god religion i think that humanity should stop now and really really consider everything that happens now because this is yeah it would be another stain in our human history you know this is not the first time it brings up many dark and and um aching memories for all humanity not for us only they say i believe you sorry finish your sentence no that's what i'm saying it's not in the level of politician or or um international relations or anything like this it comes to to the level of the private person yeah everywhere yeah so it's that's what i wanted to say because my daughter she doesn't suffer now i'm suffering but there are a lot of other hundreds of people and families that are not going through hell yeah i i hear your unbearable pain no mother should should have to go through this this is this is awful um you know we're so sorry for the loss of your daughter um adi maizelle who was who was taken from you we're so sorry may her memory be a blessing thank you thank you very much thank you bye bye there we are a mother um relieved that her daughter was murdered because it means that she's not being held by Hamas terrorists i mean story after story like this is it it's horrendous it's a reminder of what exactly is where this fighting for here the the right to live it's a it's an absolutely it doesn't need me to say absolutely horrific situation i was in kafar arza yesterday and i've been in starot a few days ago and i've seen the scenes of this disgusting violence that have been visited on the people there and one thing that struck me actually in kafar arza is that um the when the Hamas terrorists came in and killed everything they could find and blew buildings up and set fire to them behind them came looters from gaza they stole everything they could find televisions fridges any anything of value they took it back with them to gaza and we shouldn't forget that because we shouldn't just say the problem is solved when you get rid of Hamas it isn't there's a there's a huge level of support in gaza for Hamas and that shouldn't be forgotten i think the israelis the israeli people i've been to israel many times and i know that most israelis many israelis understood this face of Hamas they knew what an evil machine it was and an evil organization and the rest of the western world did not they didn't believe it they just saw it as another palatine faction you can these yeah these are people who are enraged by the oppression they suffer you can you can find some solution some peaceful solution to this problem the reality is you can't i've heard people try to compare it to ireland yeah of course and it's utterly different and and i think that that's something that the world is going to have to address because as that lady said just now this is not a problem just for israel this is a problem that faces the whole world and we've seen the extent to which this violence the weekend before last and violence since then has inspired hatred and attacks in in europe killings in europe as we saw with islamic state when islamic state was on the rise in its heyday that inspired attacks across the world in support of of the violent got together and defeated ices also certainly struck it a fake yes but i would just say one thing i don't think we should be overconfident that the world's going to be on israel's side now i think yes the memory of the weekend before last remains fresh but it's not going to take very much we've already seen signs of the world turning on israel again and i think that's something that the israeli government needs to be well aware of yeah can i just say um because on the point richard made about ordinary gardens coming in profiting from the massacre they found the permits didn't they because 15 000 guards and residents were allowed and 18 500 and it was heading before the only day 1500 and it was here like a feeling that we had that 1500 this is the miracle that chamas is quiet i from the beginning as the coordinator of the government activities was against in my time to to allowed one guy from gaza to enter to israel without getting back humanitarian for humanitarian and i said it very loudly to bibi netanyahu when i was in duty and to the others and also the shabbat inter security was against it because of some security reasons i think that i i'm agreed very much what was erased here by the general because it's very important we are talking about chamas state not about chamas radical organization and the people of gaza the division between chamas and the people of gaza has been uh from ended and why chamas is from 2007 so if you are taking now the age of 16 to 30 in gaza these are children and youth or a young generation that absolutely looks as chamas as the model of entity and what happened by entering by the population to the israeli places it's not only by taking a refrigerator and the tv and others they murder not less in a terrible way the people that were at home after they were killed by chamas people they came and made terrible things so it's something packaged together and i i think that it's not enough raised about it and the the mistake of israel for many years was that the division between chamas and the population because it was very clear to those who understand the culture of chamas their concept their ideologic they didn't care that the population were in the fourth place they doesn't care for them look today they are not allowing them to move from the north to the south because they need them to be as a human defender to their activities so this is one of the main things we have to emphasize concerning about it i'm still think from my experience can i just interrupt i mean is it possible to make a comparison with nazi germany there were of course with nazi germany obviously germans embraced nazi ideology but then they were completely i'm not agree to comparison also to call them nazis because this is the the the the killers of the my point is germany was was rebuilt and the the the german people are nothing like the german people were in the 1930s is that possible with gaza can there be a complete overhaul of the of the mindset i thought till saturday that basically there is a chance to make people in a different way by trying to develop economy education infrastructure etc my state of mind when i was in duty was economy is a security and security is economy on the west bank this model is working i think much more that you can identify who are the terrorists and what is the reaction of the population i think that here there is no understanding the culture of gaza people people from gaza are not the same as from the west bank you see the eight why the palestinian authorities in my opinion will ever appoint someone from gaza is the head of the pa it will not work there is different of mentality different of culture between the characteristics in the west bank yes i know but you can make the manage with the fact that many in the west bank are supporting a different way in gaza the majority of the population not from now when i was a young battalion commander and i have faced a very difficult time in the first intifada and after that in gaza with my battalion i in my opinion i identify the difference between west bank and gaza in their mentality this behavior should not not surprise many who were close to this population and it become worse as kamas came to the authorities and this is the purpose of the war okay we cannot allow ourselves for the future tomorrow to call families to return to their kibbutz if from their window will be again people from kamas as authority it will not work we will lose our okay places near the around gaza okay all right one moment thank you atan well egypt and israel have agreed today that the raffa border crossing with egypt will be opened to let in some 20 trucks of humanitarian aid convoys of aid and aid workers are lined up on the other side of the crossing take a listen we're on the way to the airport to to go to cairo and then from cairo we hope to get to the border with gaza the egyptian border at raffa hopefully as soon as possible in the next couple of days i hope and then of course it's not up to us to you know open or close the border but as soon as as soon as we are able to we will get across that border to to help our colleagues i think they're going to be huge challenges and one is of course first of all we have to get into gaza that in itself is a challenge there's a lot of infrastructure that has been destroyed obviously the lack of fuel the lack of water the lack of food is going to compound the situation the difficulties with moving around due to security but also just to blockages from from from rubble etc and unexploded munitions so there will be huge huge challenges to try and help these people so that's the situation just outside gaza aid waiting to get in via the raffa crossing well hi sam hasa nine is a junk fellow at the foundation for the defense of democracy thanks for being with us hi sam um let's talk first of all then about the decision to open raffa and send in aid does this take some pressure of cairo a little thanks for having me laura and not much egypt is still having three major concerns since the war started one prevent a refugee crisis that could spill over its territory and and in the egyptian view could liquidate the palestinian issue egyptians have long believed that israel wants to resettle palestinians in the senai peninsula as an alternative to the two state solution to cairo also worries that host hosting the palestinian refugees could pose a national security threat to worry the operatives from amas and other gaza interior groups would infiltrate by posing as refugees and then start launching attacks inside egyptian territory which could hurt the egyptian tourism sector which provides lots of hard currency to the government also the look at history around them in the region of palestinian refugee camps and the in countries such as jordan and lebanon and this doesn't inspire confidence due to the bloody clashes they got involved with them three lastly in the egyptian mindset if the palestinian refugees were to attack could attack israel from egyptian territory as well and this could strain egypt to israel relations in the future but because it would invite Israeli military actions within egyptian territories and this is the last thing egyptians wanted to to see and this is what actually president sisi even mentioned yesterday in a in a press conference and hi tam i mean egypt was was quick to blame israel for the hospital explosion and saying it was israel we we know now that that is false and it was a misfire the islamic jihad rocket and president sisi himself is calling for more protests against israel tomorrow and to what extent is this kind of mixed in with egypt's political situation basically the cc regime is trying to boost the president's popularity at the time as you may know it's election season so all of a sudden when the public starts to see the president and all over the international media global leaders are coming to meet with him and discuss what's happening in the region makes the public proud and it makes them confident it actually restores their confidence in him so they want to capitalize on that especially in the past 10 years the country didn't have much of a regional role because it was so busy with its internal issues two i would argue also it's a way to entertain the egyptan public because there has been no politics in the country there has been no cause to mobilize the public around because the president used to give long speeches and everybody listens now everybody could go out in the street mobilize around one cause chanting slogans which is seen by the regime as a way to distract them from social economic crisis obviously the regime is trying to be careful not to let it be stretched you know so they are telling the protesters to go to certain streets or certain neighborhoods and this is also trying to contain it one last point also they try to compete with the cataris and the iranians when it comes to the narrative of palestine in the region age which kair wants to depict itself regionally as a defender of the palestinian people and past wars the cc regime didn't do much because it was so busy fighting the muslim brotherhood and hamas which labeled them as terrorists so whenever they used to be wars with israel they used not to be mobilized and the media didn't discuss that much now they see it as an opportunity since they're taking care of all this as an opportunity to reinvent their public image and the out of work interesting well hi sam another point i think is that egypt and israel did share strong security cooperation prior to this there were even reports that egypt passed on information about the potential for this attack by hamas to israel i mean is that security cooperation still feasible given what's happened and given the level of public anger in israel against israel in egypt let's put it this way the level of trust that was developed in the past 10 years between both sides is likely to sustain that no doubt about that and the cc regime is wise enough not to sympathize with hamas because they understand it's a terrorist organization and they have no respect to it and they fought it for many years but as i said earlier they worry about palestinian refugees coming to syni so this is why they are trying to mobilize the public to send the message to the whole international community not even to think about the idea all right haas haas and at the fdd thank you very much indeed we appreciate it is running me hi i'm there uh kennel richard kemp security cooperation between countries in the region is is very important for israel it is on the significant strain now it appears to be on the face of it i'm not sure i would agree that um it this is a kind of irreparably damaged it damaged that and when you look at for example saudi arabia's relationship with israel there's a talk of normalization public normalization but of course israel and saudi arabia have cooperated below the radar on security for a long time and the same applies to countries like jordan and egypt as well and i don't think that's going to be shattered by this whatever the public statements are i think that the need for the countries in the region to to to work with israel remains strong and as your correspondent there suggested the arab countries are afraid of organizations like hamas hamas is as he said is part of the muslim brotherhood it's there are links to islamic jihadists around the world they don't want this spreading and infecting their country so i think they will they will be very they'll be extremely wary of of the risk of that happening and and and you know i think they do need israel for that to that extent as well so i i don't i don't see this as destroying relations between israel and arab countries it may set some of it back for some time but but not destroying it major general i don't think i think that the main issue for egypt is the fact that hamas is spread for the egyptian interior national security strategic concept and of course they remain buried from 2013 even at morsy time in the revolution he is a brother of the muslim brothers and hamas behave immediately like they are the ownership of egypt and he closed the fence because i was invited to car around my job to morsy people to open the islamist yes yes to open with them relationship at that case i think that egypt as as it was describing and i agree two main goal first of all they have their street the square in caro tomorrow is the prayers and they don't need any kind of what happened years ago and the street is very sensitive and the street is supporting many of them the muslim brothers secondly egypt i think is really angry concerning the fact that even in israel was some thinking or doubts about opportunity to move people from gaza to saini and to create a zone yeah that was a instead of no what's going on it's not it's something that maybe it has even with the present government that that cc is not satisfied from what i think only scotland is the only country which is offered to take in gaza refugees comes to yourself the first minister of scotland but above it doesn't have the authority to do that but he doesn't and also how is he going to check who is there you know what there will be the will be jihadists among them so bringing in refugees from gaza is going to be a threat to scotland and the whole of the i think they will be sorrow in two minutes after they came there but and the third issue and i think the relationship the strategic relation between israelis egypt is a very important thing to continue the moderate area of the middle east and i think that this is above all you ask about cooperation and coordination between both countries it come to a top that we never see it years before i think that is really worth to it cc is worth to it and i'm sure that it will be stabilized in circumstances that will i want to go i want to go back to pick up on something you were talking about earlier about gaza about what it might look like um after this long war is over i mean uh two day after the day after two million people uh live in gaza uh just a few miles from israeli citizens i mean is there any border in the world any physical barrier what i mean what what what will it look like we will not be able first of all to live in such a way again there and it will be a great mistake if it will give up so there are some opportunities and alternatives i think that it's a process what will be the day after the day after as already started and will move on i think that at the beginning i'll give you what is my thinking we will have to base about civil and military uh let's say leadership that are and to be based on people from the pa who are working in gaza on international uh movement like red cross and umrah that will be operative but i but can israel outsource that i mean we've seen the complete failure of unifil uh in lebanon for example israel should not outsource it i think that israel should not take responsibility on gaza that has to be a principle and on the other end hamas will not be there is a principle the third is principle is that the pa will not come together in immediate timetable as i see it so meanwhile there should be any kind of a unity of some arab modern countries that will give the money and the local some local civilian people will take responsibility it's something that is a process and we cannot plan it now because i'm very worried concerning the fact that if we are dealing with it too deeply now even you have to think in a war about the day after you will lose the main goal and the main goal is to destroy hamas and jihad islamic as door movement with that will be continue to exist in gaza and control the people this is something that is well will pay a big price concerning the area of civil area around gaza i don't know how many will return i don't know who will agree to come there it's really something that will be on the state of mind of israel four generations what can i can i just uh ten seconds rishid just to add to that we we shouldn't forget yes john's absolutely right focus must be on destroying hamas but we shouldn't forget what happened in iraq enough thinking and planning was not given to the day after and we saw the disaster that followed all right rishik and ethan thank you very much to you both that's it this hour do you say with us kelev ben david will be with you next as our coverage continues on this day 13 of israel's war with hamas thanks for watching israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and then if we have the right ingredients and we do the job that the vikita can be protected last two weeks this country has gone through something that no country no people should have to endure least of all israel which has lived through some of the most awful scenes the specter of violence and terrorism every day welcome to this special broadcast on i24 news i'm kelev ben david it's day 13 of israel's war against hamas and the idf continues to pound military targets in gaza with results killing at least three senior terror commanders there rockets continue to be launched from gaza into israel while fire also intensified across the northern border from hamas and his bullet terror cells in lebanon during return fire from israel the west bank also heating up with violent clashes throughout the day between palestinian militants and idf troops foreign political figures such as uk prime minister rishi sunak and the new york state governor kathy huckle touched down in israel on visits of support and as the country and the world await the next phase of the conflict an israeli ground invasion into gaza to rescue the over 200 hostages held there and to wipe out hamas's military capabilities prime minister benjamin netanyahu paid a visit to the troops down south to give these words of encouragement i am here with galani fighters they come from all parts of the country they fought like lions they will fight like lions are you ready to continue we are going to win with all our might the entire nation of israel stands behind you and we will deal a hard blow to our enemies to achieve victory for victory ready well let's go now to israel's north and our correspondent hamda sahut she's in the city of nahariya just south of the lebanese border and hamda really felt like an intensification of the of the uh so cross-border fire there in the north today right colev this is the most intense cross-border fire fire we've seen since the conflict began hamas operating out of southern lebanon claiming responsibility for the 20 rockets that were fired into israeli territory one of them making a direct hit in kiti at shmona injuring three people the iron dome intercepting the rest and as well as some falling in open areas as per interception protocol now this is an indication that the conflict is intensifying it is getting more heated but we also have some news in just a few minutes ago the u.s. military base in southern syria has been attacked by drones troops maintaining a presence there to train as part of a broader campaign but one of the drones shot down another causing minor injuries that's one of the officials who spoke to the associated press on the scene so the conflict is intensifying in more than one realm the israeli military afraid that this conflict will expand to the northern front here the united states telling israel not to preemptively strike hezbollah to cause a wider conflict and in exchange should hezbollah strike first they will assist them militarily in that war but first israel's main priority is securing the southern part of the country a ground operation it could happen at any moment and that is when we've been hearing from hezbollah and the iranians saying that all bets are off once the ground invasion starts and nothing can be guaranteed as to who will be involved so all eyes are on both fronts at this hour all right hams al-khut there in the north of israel thank you for that and if this in studio we have retired idf colonel amit asa he's a former official with the israeli security agency or shabak shin betters it's better known in our gai israeli our correspondent amit again his hamas taking credit for the firing from the north clearly again trying to hope that a perhaps a multi-front war will in some way by them sometime perhaps in the south yes hamas is dependent on the war will spread to the north also so they're dependent on that because they think that hezbollah and the iran will be getting into the to this war and it's by them time and also force they know that if we will need to go to two places like north and south it will be easier for them but i don't think that it's going to happen it's not something that that iranian wants to do and it's in my opinion of course but we have to be careful that it will happen all right then gai let's look at the south down in gaza a couple of updates there on the border situation there around gaza but also on the story of that gaza hospital that of course israelis presented evidence was bombed by palestinian islamic jihad misfire yes quite incredible and i think another incredible example of the reporting that we're getting from the hamas-based health ministry in gaza just a few days ago the world was outraged over the news of that failed launch that hamas attempted to claim was in actually an israeli strike well hamas claimed to have 471 victims in that failed right it actually 500 was the initial fit around the sort of general figure that we heard initially obviously a number that raises eyebrows and and and and and uproar across the world well in the most recent development a senior european intelligence official estimated in an interview to the french news agency afp that the number of dead was in fact a few dozens right just another example of the credibility or incredibility of hamas in gaza and a lesson for all of us and for the world whenever we get news out of hamas in gaza but what the facts really are speaking of gaza and the situation there we are hearing that the rafa crossing will be open tomorrow finally for the entrance of humanitarian aid between 20 and 30 trucks that will make their way from egypt into gaza with that aid and that is of course following that agreement that we heard about yesterday between israeli prime minister benjamin etaniao and u.s president joe biden right now and of course that agreement angering many of the parents of the israelis who are being held hostage there uh that feel that that aid should have been used in leverage to get some concessions from hamas regarding the hostage situation it's frustrating because uh people need to hear from the government that it's uh one by one eye by eye if you are getting some aid or humanitarian you need something from the other side something in reserve yeah well we've been focused as you can see so far on israel south and it's northern border but there is another front in this conflict as well in a well wide-scale arrest operation in the west bank israeli forces nabbed overnight some 80 terror suspects at least half of them from hamas and there were 10 soldiers injured in ongoing clashes now since last week's hamas terror onslaught israel has ramped up its activities in the west bank as palestinians report dozens of death at least 10 of them today most of them in ongoing confrontations with israeli forces middle east correspondent arry also and has more on the third front that has israel increasingly concerned most of its attention focused on the southern and northern borders israel is witnessing a spillover of the conflict in gaza also to the west bank overnight israeli forces arrested at least 80 terror suspects 63 of them belonging to hamas this includes senior hamas official and co-founder hasan yusef we're walking very hard in the west bank massive forces are there securing the routes making arrests and 14 terror attacks together with shin bet and israeli police anyone who tries to challenge us in the west bank will find a significant force ready to engage at the same time clashes between israeli forces and armed palestinians occurred in multiple areas in the west bank the palestinian health ministry said that five palestinians were killed by idea forces overnight that brings the death toll in the west bank since last week's hamas terror attacks to 67 the crime committed by israel under western patronage and american support must be stopped the bloodshed that has been going on for over 12 days must be stopped because our people in gaza are being exposed as civilians children and women to this unprecedented killing recent days have also seen mass protests spread across the west bank cities in support of hamas's military wing and its spokesman recent days have also seen a rise in attacks by israeli settlers in the west bank some incidents leading to the death of multiple palestinians the idf is investigating those incidents and so with a ground invasion in gaza on the immediate horizon and a rapidly escalating northern border israeli forces are working tirelessly to prevent a multi front scenario from happening and to keep the different fronts at bay and i mean as i said these are ongoing conflicts and hamas looking to the up the ante calling for a another day of of a ray a extra rage i don't know how you want to say it tomorrow trying to heat up the west bank yeah it's not just to heat up it's to get the support of the west bank palestinian to what they're doing to suffer and to have the connection between activities that we will see in the west bank against the military against the people of israel that is lead by the hamas and by your estimation how far how far could this go i mean how far could these it's depends on the ability not not for the uh willing because they will to do it but they have no ability because they are we are there we are there to control it we are there to stop them before it's easier for us to control in the west bank activities than in gaza all right i want to go to uh uh next guest i yell at cha ked is of course the former Israeli justice minister has had a long list of political positions and i yell at i see you're looking on just even on your social media that you've been active now speaking out speaking out on behalf of israel's case in the international arena and against some of the distortions that have been seen there yes unfortunately as usual the global media present distort picture and it's very important to tell the world the truth and the truth is that the hamas did a horrible massacre last saturday and that israel has of course the right to defend itself and to eliminate hamas what hamas did is like the nazis you know that on on on the black saturday more jesus more jesus were killed since the holocaust they like murder children they murder babies you know they murder young woman she was pregnant and they slit open her belly horrible things you know you know atrocities that you can't imagine and the people in israel is now united and we all agree it either us or them well let me ask you about that united because you know as more as well as anybody how divisive the political landscape in israel is uh including at the highest levels of government the people united do you feel this government is in that is in places ready to conduct this war uh with with the united israel behind it this is currently the government and this is you know the reality yes the people united and we all understand it doesn't matter if you are left or right secular or religious we all understand that the hamas is an enemy that should be eliminated and i think you know that all the soldiers and the commanders of the hamas they're like a dead men working they should all be dead since they you know they did the atrocities and crimes against humanity that we didn't see since the holocaust right now uh of course we had president biden here yesterday and we saw him with really unprecedented expressions of support but at the same time talking about the need for israel to follow the rules of of of war uh the the uh request for a humanitarian aid to be put in the Gaza Strip which not everybody in israel is happy about the families of the hostages not happy that nothing was given uh in return for that uh do you think that israel is going to and this government be able to stand up to some of the international pressure that we're surely going to see once the ground operation begins so as the former minister of justice i can assure you that we all follow the international law however we should not give them humanitarian support because they are not allowing the red cross to visit the hostages the hostages you know that we have their small babies and children and little girls and young women and they are not letting them them see see them so no as long as the red cross or representative from the international community don't see our hostages we should not give them humanitarian aid all right i'll let your former Israeli minister of justice thank you for joining us on i24 news thank you bye bye and guy as as we can hear we said it in the studio but we can hear a fairly prominent political figure there even though calling for unity uh not entirely happy about some of the steps the government has taken now as you can imagine obviously Ayala Chakir now arrival of Netanyahu and this current government of course Ayala Chakir who went with Naftali Bennett to establish that previous government but i think in the the bottom line is the fact that the Israeli public is very much united in the goals of this war the fact that Netanyahu was able to bring in Benny Gantz even if that took a few days that were unnecessary the fact that he did so really represents the fact that the consensus in the Israeli public that whatever was allowed until now cannot carry on living side by side next to a terror group like Hamas well the Israeli public will not accept that the Israeli public i'm hearing from many that Israel has no right to exist if it doesn't ensure the safety of its citizens as happened on that Saturday as a result of that that consensus that coming together of all these political officials our rivals coming together for this goal as Israel really has to unite now facing such threats that are existential threats right and I mean I want to ask you Israel's air campaign scoring some hits today some senior figures in both Hamas and some of the other terror groups in the Gaza Strip how much does that weaken at least it's sort of the command structure of a group like Hamas and some of these other groups going into a possible ground invasion and certainly hitting that command structure has got to be one of the goals of this this air campaign yeah I think that the air attack is just to put them down and not getting them any option to get up but we all know that everything is underground and when we will have to go inside Gaza it will have to be like a surgery it will have to be very very precise very very close to to intelligence all the time and we will have in our mind two major missions one is to bring safe all our hostages out safe and alive and the other to kill every single Hamas member under the ground and the both of them we know that they're in the same place in the same shelters but let me ask you and I'm not not always even so comfortable asking that question but how much are those two missions those particular two missions compatible with each other that is a question that is also being asked it's a question that we will have to ask ourselves every step every step and we will need the the information the exact information for every single man that is the one of us one of our babies one of our kids the and this will be the mission a very difficult task that becomes even more complicated with the fact that of those 200 over 200 Israelis that were kidnapped that are Israel knows are there and their signs that they have been kidnapped into Gaza well we don't first of all we don't know where they are whether they're together or not in how many places around Gaza but beyond that the fact that not all of them are being held by Hamas several dozens are assumed to be held by Palestinian Islamic jihad and by other groups right we should know that the army did release sort of updated figure right today was 203 I believe yeah correct and more information that the idea for even though some people have been saying they believe or some of the other figures from Hamas itself has said we have about 200 but there are other terror groups that could have as many as 50 to 100 yes so the idea for releases the following information just a short while ago saying up to 30 children up to the age of 18 are among those kidnapped in Gaza and we can remind our viewers as young as nine months old is young as a nine months old baby in the hands of this murderous terror group also talking about between 10 and 20 elderly people these are all estimates because there is so much uncertainty about what actually transpired there and they are saying and listen to this number there are another 100 to 200 missing persons whose faith is still unknown they may have been murdered and their bodies may not have been located yet but they could have been in Hamas's hand there's just no concrete proof in terms of footage as to whether they are alive or dead these are insane numbers 13 days after the incident still not been able to determine that I just want to go Israeli defense minister you have garland today visited IDF troops also in the south and in his comments there for the first time publicly took some responsibility for the failure to prevent that murderous Hamas incursion here's a bit some of what he said I am in charge of the security establishment I am responsible for it in the past two weeks even in the difficult events I am responsible to bring it to victory in the battle we will be precise deadly and sharp and we'll continue until we complete our mission what we should know to meet it was the head of your former agency you're on a bar who actually was the first I think really government official at that level to take responsibility saying it was a failure of the Shabbat the Shin Bet to have the intelligence you just spoke a minute ago about Israel needing that proper intelligence before they go in where the hostages could be where Hamas the Hamas leadership is how confident can we be yeah we lost that's how confident can we be when when when they when even the leader of the of the Shin Bet said he could he could he's he's on his responsibility was to know about this incursion and he failed in that yeah it's it's a it's a problem for all of us to understand that the Shin Bet the Mossad Amman has the capability to have this information but we need to be sure that this is the best that we have and we will work very hard and people there is working hard and all employees of Shabbat and members of Amman and Mossad are the best best intelligence people that we can have and we will have the intelligence I think you understand the confidence of the public in that yeah of course we've been shaken somewhat yeah as we say in the idea if these are lessons learned with blood unfortunately so much Jewish blood as a Ayel Shakeda attempted to say this is the deadliest day in Jewish history the highest number of Jewish victims since the Holocaust over 1400 we've seen other officials like Ronan Bar also the national security advisor Tachi Hanegbi we've seen the heads of the IDF intelligence two colossal failures not just in terms of the intelligence also in terms of the operation on how so many thousands of Hamas operatives and regular civilians were able to infiltrate Israel to take over military bases to take over entire communities and therefore there are a lot of people that need to claim their responsibility for that when we speak about the political level obviously the political level it feeds off the recommendations of the intelligence when they know that there is a concrete threat they need to abide by it this is the story of the Yom Kippur war when the political level received the warning saying ignored them having said that the political level has a large degree of responsibility for the fact that for so many years we have let Hamas thrive in Gaza and that is the failure of this Netanyahu government and all the governments that proceeded it since 2005 right now i want to go over now anyone who's been traveling the streets of Israel know that how empty they look in fact there's a home front command ruling regulation not to have a gathering of over the 30 people there was a special prayer service that was supposed to be held earlier today at the western wall shrine in Jerusalem let's go to our botch 11th wall who's there and botch i could just see behind you and see how empty the western wall the cocktail plaza looks this evening Caleb I'm going to move out of the frame so the images just speak for themselves it's absolutely devastating this is an area that seems hundreds if not thousands of people a day to come and pray at the western wall at the cocktail as it's called in Hebrew and not even that but also on the way in the streets just empty we pass the church of the holy seplica very spiritual and holy to christians empty and we were also told by some of the border police that have been deployed to the area that the same situation occurs on the al-aksa compound which you can see just above the western wall we did see the prayer group that arrived earlier but as you mentioned only around 30 people are allowed outside so evidently some restrictions were put in place but some of them were also ignored because of the fact that these were family members of some of those kidnapped again those numbers being more than 200 people now confirmed possibly kidnapped into the Gaza Strip or their details at the moment missing or unknown whether they're alive or dead in captivity with Hamas again not even knowing whether in fact Hamas themselves are holding them or whether some of the civilians in Gaza as there's been reports on numerous reports have them as well but there's a very eerie feeling in the city I remember reporting here during the times of COVID and while the situation may look the same the feeling is very different there's an eerie sense of a state that is most certainly in war and not even that but some of the residents that at least came out today for the prayer session as well but also just in general to be here said that they are petrified to leave their homes and not necessarily because of the rocket barrages again Jerusalem has been largely spared by the rockets coming from the Gaza Strip compared to more central areas like Tel Aviv and evidently the south and the north but saying that they are worried because Jerusalem in the west bank of volatile areas and in a time of war they are absolutely nervous to come outside right and of course tomorrow Hamas calling for a day of extreme rage and of course the Jerusalem could be a center of that botch 11th oh thank you for that and stay with us on i24 news we're going out for a brief break but we'll be back with more in three minutes Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israel bonds dot com and invest now made for me a unique concept in Israel custom made men's fashion to your measurements made for me designer of all your events schedule your appointment at www.madeforme.co.il made for me official dresser of i24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen 100 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news we have seven thousand first responders you like switch i never could have prepared for my life thank you for the son president supporting the Jewish colors with the party and what brought us a little thing the U.S. is a great warrior on a court each of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking but in a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity welcome back to the special broadcast on i24 news well even now nearly two weeks since Hamas terrorists crossed the Gaza border into southern Israel new accounts are emerging of what exactly happened at that nova music festival and with at which hundreds were killed and dozens kidnapped here's a first-hand account from one of the survivors of that horrible massacre the They started to scream, they started to kick me out of my ear, that's the sound of a gunshot, they started to tear my friends out of my ears. They heard a gunshot from all the directions, they started to shout, they shot me from the head. We put the gun out of the door. I didn't take anything, I took the phone in my hand, I was in a hurry, I was in a hurry, We didn't take anything, I took my phone in my hand and there were people there. They were crying, crying, crying, crying, crying. They didn't know how to get out of there. On the other side of the church there was a church for a certain purpose. We went down to the church of Jesus. We left, we went to the first church that we saw. Father Vohal, who is our son, told us that we had to go to the church because we needed to go. He gave us a lot of money. We didn't want to go to the church, we didn't want to go to the church. And I was also told to go to the church. We didn't want to go to church, we didn't want to go to the church. We didn't know what to do with the people, we didn't want to go to church. People who think it's not possible. We were told to go and listen to the stories and the images in the sky and in the clouds. And I saw people who had integral parts in their lives. We were told to go and see the church and the pictures in the street. But to hear the stories that were heard on the phone. That the picture of the Father of God was taken from the picture. He said to me, I don't think it's possible. To be a human being and to say that something like that doesn't happen is like taking a picture. We are still talking about God and God. I don't think it's possible, but they are alive and they will come back. The IDF struck the area where the rockets came from and took down a squad of terrorists. The firing took place with the permission of Hezbollah. And like all Palestinian actions we've seen since the start of this war that emerged out of Lebanon. As part of the support of Hezbollah to Hamas, including hitting Israeli civilians, Hezbollah will carry the consequences. The IDF is in full readiness in the northern front. As for Gaza, the IDF and the Shin Bet took down the commander of the national security forces in Gaza. All the buildings that we see devastated in Gaza are based on operational needs where we know there was a terror infrastructure. Tens of thousands of IDF troops in reserves and mandatory service continue to prepare and practice, follow the regulations, prepare their equipment and ready. In the West Bank, IDF fighters and Shin Bet are operating against Hamas. Since the start of the war we've arrested over 330 wanted Hamas operatives and 70 over the past 24 days. The IDF chief has visited the home front command and witnessed the behavior of the Israeli civilians in accordance to the home front command instructions. This is what enables the IDF to fight in the front. In addition, the IDF chief emphasized the importance to maintain regular life during war as well as strengthening the security of civilians by the IDF, the police and security forces in communities and in towns with regards to publication and social media about suspected individuals in Israeli towns. Israeli forces continue to examine every event that is reported about so far. There has been no suspicion of a terror threat. The public is requested to continue to pass the information to the Israeli police. IDF is in full coordination with the Shin Bet and will know to respond to every such case for the number of kidnapped and so far we have information about 203 kidnapped and over 100 currently missing information and has been given to the families. The IDF hugs the families and is operating with the authorities and working around the clock to identify their identity and their whereabouts. So far, 304 fallen IDF have been informed to their families from all over the country, from the south, from the center, from the north, from towns and from kibbutzes, from settlements and from villages. Since Saturday, 7th of October, tens of thousands of fighters are fighting, Jews, Druze, Bedouins, Christians, women and men. The common dominator, they are all Israelis. They all love this country and they all know what they're fighting for. Any questions? Yesterday, US President Joe Biden met with a number of Israelis who have either lost loved ones or had them kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. One of those he met with is Professor Yifat Pitton, a noted educator here, who has lost two brothers-in-law over the past week. Here's a little bit of her speaking with President Biden. I lost two of my brothers-in-law. One of them is the citizen of the US as well, a great warrior. One, a colonel, who had died in the first day of the war. The other one is the son of a woman, my mother-in-law, who has lost her husband 50 years ago on the same date in the Yom Kippur war. Both of them were heroes who were fighting on Israeli land in the cities and villages to save civilians. And Professor Pitton is here with us to speak about Sgt. Mehta Khan-Nachmias and Colonel Roy Levy. Thank you for joining us, Professor Pitton. Tell us about your brothers-in-law. My brothers-in-law. Both of them were real warriors, true believers in our right to live in this state, but at the same time were people who loved other people, who took their power as a means to raise a generation of those who believe in our right to live here in a democratic and Jewish state, but at the same time be always ready to a threat that might come and surprise us at any given time. And unfortunately, this is exactly what happened. You know, at some stage you would think that after 75 years of existence, Israel would be settled with the constant worry of being somehow conquered, attacked. And the fact that people like Ken and Roy were there always ready, determined to give their lives away, to protect us as civilians is exactly what allowed us to be able to eventually fight back and stop the horrors of this bitter Saturday. Can I ask you, without getting into personal details, how is a family coping with something like this in the course of one week? This is very challenging for us. So first of all, you know, the whole family, our family is very close. So it's to have it from both sides. So have two of our most beloved ones killed at the same day, and both of them being so, you know, having families with kids, Ken had four children, Roy had five children, both have the youngest child at the age of a year and two months old, like really tiny babies that are now left as orphans with their mothers who are both, you know, amazing women, but at the same time women that are dealing with great pain. And also when it comes to Ken, for example, the brother of my husband, this is a really, you know, in a way a typical story of Israeli suffering and the unrest that were enduring for so many years. As I said to the president, his mother, the mother of Ken, lost her husband in Yom Kippur exactly 50 years ago. So it was the 7th of October, 73, that she lost her husband. And now 50 years later she loses her son from the guy that she married after she lost her husband again. This is unbearable. And also Tal, his wife, she herself lost her dad in the Lebanon war in 82. So she's an orphan herself. And now she has to raise their children as orphans as well. So the pain is really enormous in that respect and is, you know, intergenerational. But at the same time I think it says something about the bravery of Israelis and the way they cope with his suffering determined to keep on protecting our country. And Roye as well. Roye was critically injured in Tuketan in 2016. He almost lost his life. He was, you know, coming back from the death. And he insisted on going back to the army. And he commanded one of the elite squads of the IDF and still was, you know, rushing to save lives of others. Both of them were. Right. Let me ask you, President Biden, what did he have to say to you when you spoke with them? Well, you know, it touched him on a very personal level. So it was amazing how he shared with us the loss that he endured of his, of two of his sons and his wife. And he really, his condolences were so truthful, so sincere. And we really felt uplifted by the way he was treating us as humans, you know, first and foremost and the way he communicated with us on such a personal level. So what we saw now was me talking to him in a way in a more official manner. And then after he spoke to each one of us, he asked the press to go out. And we had another 30-minute talk about how he coped with his own grieving and how... Right. He lost his son and a wife. Two sons and a wife. He lost his son and a wife. And then Bo a few years ago. Right, of course. And you know, like he came into tears at one moment. I wouldn't imagine that someone who's at that high rank of position and leadership would be so intimate with people just due to his, you know, humanitarian aspect and... Right. If I... Thank you so much for coming in, talking to us about Hanarowe. They sound like remarkable men. And that heritage will lead us in the way. May their memories be a blessing to you. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. Well, we continue to focus on the latest developments. We're also still learning more about the events that have folded on October 7th and the acts of heroism that we just heard about that saved countless lives. Yamee and Naomi Weisor are the parents of Roy Weisor, who was an American-Israeli soldier. And they earlier spoke with I-24 News about how their son's bravery saved dozens of other soldiers from Hamas terrorists. Obviously, we all know that Hamas decided to come and attack Israel. And they came through the border. And my son was stationed there at the arrows crossing in one of the... Sophie, one of the... One of the stations. One of the stations there. I'm sorry, I lost it. One of the stations there. They came right in to their base. That's where I was looking for the base and started shooting and shooting at everybody. And whoever was still alive, they captured and they were taking back their Gaza. At one point, my son saw that there were many of the Hamas terrorists. Whereas they were few soldiers. There were not more than 20, 25 soldiers at the time there. And so this is fruitless. We're being outnumbered. We need to do something about it. And my son told this officer that it's time to do something. Go on the offensive instead of the defensive. And the officer said, what do you have in mind? Obviously they were under gunfire the whole time. And my son said it's time to flank them. We have to go around the building, obviously under fire. Okay. We'll go meet you and we'll take three other soldiers. We'll flank. We'll go around the building and we'll go and we'll put down... We'll go with crossfire in both ways. Okay. And that should do it. That should put us on the offensive. And that's what they did that morning. And because of that initiative that my son took, at least 12 soldiers were alive to tell the story today. If there's anything that's consoling me, but then this whole thing is that my son was a hero all the way to the end. He was a good soldier, a great soldier, and a hero. As far as he had been, he had the sense and the brains to stop while being shot at to take a bigger, look at the bigger picture of the solution to a problem. And I admire him for his quick thinking, his bravery, and running into the fire, you know? So we're very proud. All right. Very moving story there. Amitas, I want to ask you, we heard this incredible story, the heroism, but also these men lost their lives. The blow that the military served. We talked about the blows, maybe shaking some confidence in the Shabbat, but also in the military. The issue of morale, as Israel is about to embark on what could be maybe since the Yom Kippur War, maybe it's its riskiest battle. How does it deal with the question of morale with the soldiers after the kind of losses that have suffered in all the services? As we can see in the border, or near the border now, the morale of the soldiers are very high. And it all depends on the back that they are getting from all the society, from all Israelis. They are putting everything in it. They are giving them all the aid, all the support, all the moral support from the back. So you can see it on the border. You can see it on the camps. You can see it in training. The morale is very, very high. Nothing that happened is affecting them. They are willing to go in and to do what we need to do, is destroying the Hamas. And you can hear it every corner. Right now, of course, yeah, sure, go ahead. I think that the whole state of Israel was in shock and in mourning following that deadly Saturday. I personally lost people that I know, friends and friends of my family as well. So the devastation was immense for the whole nation. It took quite a few days. It would maybe take us quite a few years to really comprehend what has transpired. But I think that following what Amit just said, over the past couple of weeks, the coming together of the state of Israel has been something that I have not seen in all the years that I've been covering Israel as a journalist, but all the years that I've been living here since I was born. And that is something that is so heartwarming, just driving through the highway here on Tel Aviv, seeing so many signs of unity at the Israeli flags. And the coming together, the volunteering, I've spent time with the communities that were evacuated from those Gaza border Kibbutzes that were devastated. The amount of love that they're getting from the people of Israel is insane. There are countless volunteers, gifts, people that come to sing for them, to play for them, to psychologists, and just so many people from all walks of life giving these people so much love. I think if Hamas was mistaken to think that Israel is divided and this is a difficult time for Israel and a good time to hit it, well, the opposite has happened because the result was that Israel is much stronger and united right now. All right, gentlemen, I want to go down to our correspondent Rob Swift, in the town of Sterot in the south. Rob, because we are seeing alerts just over the last 10 minutes there, air raid sirens in the Gaza border area. What can you tell us? What are you seeing down there in Sterot? Just a short time ago, about 10 minutes ago, we had some interceptions just to the south of us. We could see some of them from where we're stationed. These have been just some of the many rockets that have been fired today. Pretty frequent bombardments emanating from the Gaza Strip, targeting the towns of Sterot and some of the communities around the Gaza envelope, as well as targeting Ashkelon and Ashdod. Also a little earlier in the day, during the afternoon, there was a launch towards Tel Aviv. And these bombardments have been, you know, every half an hour or sometimes every hour. For the last hour and a half, there was a short break until that barge that we just saw just a few minutes ago. We've seen the Defense Minister, Defense Minister Galant down south today. We saw the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, going down south to speak to the troops. I think a sense of really building of something going to happen here. What have you been seeing there in terms of maybe troop movements, perhaps, preparations for what many believe very soon will be the next stage of this war? Indeed, there's a lot of speculation as to when the ground offensive will begin with the Defense Minister Galant. He said basically that it would happen soon. He didn't put a time frame on that. But there's speculation, whether he's talking about days or weeks. It's understood that the IDF may wish to continue its air campaign against targets in Gaza, and that may take it some time. As well as the fact that there are still reservist soldiers who are being equipped, trained up, being retrained, essentially, because many of these are people that have come from ordinary walks of life. And so these are also parts of the process of the ground forces getting ready to make those moves into Gaza. In terms of troop movements here on the ground, there's a lot of activity. There's a lot of checkpoints, as well as mobile patrols moving around the area. And there are quite a lot of vehicles stationed in and around the area. But obviously the IDF doesn't want to give too much information regarding these away. Of course, Robert Swift down instead wrote the Brighton of the Gaza border, thank you for that. I mean, of course the IDF wants to prepare as much as it could, and you talked early about gathering intelligence. But we have to be honest here, the issue of the hostages, the issue of international pressure. We saw Israel with that episode with the hospital yesterday, you kind of dodged a missile, you might say to some degree. Clearly though, there has to be a military but the political echelon to move to the next stage of the war. Yeah, we know that our time is short. Always. Always is short because the diplomatic pressure will come. And things will happen. And humanitarian things will happen and it will be bad and it will look bad because this is kind of war. When you are getting into it, you can never know how it will look like. We have a short time. But still, I think Israel have their ability from one hand and from another hand we have the support of all nations of the western world to do what we have to do. So the matter of time now is less important. Well, you say that they have the support of the world to do what it has to do but one wonders if how that support will be providing and what we actually see civilian casualties and even casualties on the Israeli side increase. It will be very difficult. It will be very difficult for us and as I said it's a matter of time and we have to use the time very, very accurate. All right, Amidas. Thank you for joining us on I-24 News, Guy Azrael. You're going to be staying with us. We're going into a second hour of this particular broadcast. Let me just update you about 10 minutes ago we did have sirens, rockets fired into the Gaza border area in the south as we heard, interceptions, no reports of casualties or damage. We'll be back we're going out for a brief break of a few minutes but we'll be back at the top of the hour with more of our continuing coverage on I-24 News of Israel's war against Hamas as day 13 of the conflict begins to draw to a close It's no surprise the transition to parenthood can be transformative for anyone with a new baby but what kind of mark is it leaving on the brains of new parents? There are dramatic physiological, hormonal and neuronal changes in the body and the brain that accompanies parenthood. Much like the changes that happen in the brain when picking up any new skill like learning a new language or mastering a new musical instrument, the brain also changes when becoming a parent it's what scientists call experience-induced brain plasticity and Professor Adi Masrachi is doing some of his own digging into this at the Hebrew University's Edmund and Lily Safry Centre for Brain Sciences The region of the brain called the amygdala it becomes more sensitive in the mothers when they hear baby sounds In short all these senses get a boost to help a mother interact with her baby and to help her grow to a very strong stimuli are the areas Professor Masrachi is focused on in his lab. But does fatherhood have the same impact on the brain and bodies of men? The levels of testosterone which is the male hormone which is correlated with male-like behaviors like aggressiveness and things of that sort it goes down when the male becomes parents As Professor Masrachi says if you are a parent or two parents most of us will become parents one day and as any new parent knows having a baby provides opportunities for enrichment, learning and stress experiences known to transform the adult brain 1,200 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues We bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived records of the atrocities by Hamas Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north Get the inside scoop on what's going on Only on I-24 News Last two weeks this country has gone through something that no country no people should have to endure least of all Israel which has lived through some of the most awful scenes, the specter of violence and terrorism every day Welcome to or back to this special broadcast on I-24 News I'm Khaled Bindavid Just a quick update, we do have air raid sirens growing out from communities just north of the Gaza Strip from the T of Asura until Ashkelon will bring you updates on that as we have Now it is day 13 of Israel's war against Hamas and the IDF continues to pound military targets in Gaza and your terror command is there rockets continue to be launched from Gaza into Israel just apparently in the last few minutes also intensified across the northern border from Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups in Lebanon drawing return fire from Israel the West Bank also heating up with violent clashes throughout the day between Palestinian militants and IDF troops a foreign political figure such as the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the New York State Governor and the local touchdown in Israel on visits of support and as the country and the world await the next phase of the conflict and Israeli ground invasion into Gaza to rescue the over 200 hostages held there and to wipe out Hamas's military capability Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit to the troops down south to offer these words of encouragement I am here with Galani fighters they come from all parts of the country they will fight like lions are you ready to continue? we are going to win with all our might the entire nation of Israel stands behind you and we will deal a hard blow to our enemies to achieve victory for victory ready? now the death toll of Israelis is at some 1400 and everyone is a hard wrenching story but some of those are out especially so one of those is that of Noia Dan a 12 year old autistic girl who was originally believed to have been from Kibbutz near Oz together with her 80 year old grandmother Carmella a photo of Noia holding a Paris Potter book and wearing a Hogwarts school outfit spurred the author JK Rowling to tweet about her plight and call for her safe return but last night the bodies of Noia and Carmella were unidentified the family released a tape of the last phone call Noia made to her mother while her home was under attack by Hamas terrorists here is a bit of that mom I have a big stomach I have a big stomach I have a big stomach I have a big stomach but breaking made the memories of Noia and Carmella be a blessing among those other Israelis who have found tragedy in the south including at that Nova music festival massacre was the uncuppy couple war and a novel levy war was kidnapped into Gaza by Hamas terrorists who killed a novel leaving behind the 2 year old son Al Mogue also left behind his own brother Michael who was mourning his sister in law and left in limbo over the fate of his siblings thank you for joining us well first we'll tell us Michael about just tell us some a little bit about them all in a now one of those couples that will always together always happy traveling Al Mogue was born 2 years ago it was the whole world they loved him they did everything with him well tell us when you and the family first heard the news about what was happening and how it reacted how you found out about a novel and what have information you have about or so we first found out about the situation on Saturday morning around 6 30 when the alarms from the missile attack started and then my mother contacted all and he told her that he they are heading back they just arrived to the party and decided to head back after a few minutes when they understood that the missile attack is still going on they decided to stop in a bomb shelter next to the load which unfortunately became that way they managed to call or managed to call my mother and told her that they are inside the shelter my mother asked what's going on wanted to see if he's okay but his only response was mom you don't want to know and that was the last thing we heard from him and and then probably 20 or 30 minutes later the terrorist arrived and started shooting into the shelter killing, murdering Ainov and probably kidnapping my brother leaving Almog without his mom and with kidnapped father that's devastating to hear that I want to ask you Michael take the forum first of all what would you have to say to the government the government of Israel and of course the international news channel what would you have to say using this forum to the to the international community first of all I think that the international community needs to understand that Hamas is ISIS this is crime against humanity you cannot kill and slaughter and kidnap civilians from parties I mean Ainov's only crime was that they came to celebrate peace and love in a party and Ainov got murdered and all got kidnapped just because they are Jewish and Israelis and I think the world should respond to it and make sure that those things won't happen again and that all of the hostages civilians will be safe at home with their families and Almog will have a father all right well Michael we join in the morning of Ainov may her memory be a blessing and of course we wish a safe return for Levy to his family and to his son as you said so he will have a father thank you Michael Levy for joining us on I-24 news thank you kind of devastating to hear that testimony with us in studio Daniel Shek the former Israeli ambassador to France a political commentator and still with us in studio our correspondent guy Ezra Daniel here that story is heartbreaking the question is how much these stories the stories which have been told and have been told to some degree in the media and of course we continue to present them and others and they are presented on social media are making a lasting impact in terms of how people are viewing this conflict how people are viewing Hamas and how people are viewing what Israel will have to do or Levy returned if possible you know Kalev I spend my days at the forum of the families of the abducted and missing persons it's a civil society based initiative with hundreds of of people who came there as volunteers to help from all sorts of disciplines and there's a little group of former diplomats who are making sure that ambassadors that are stationed here meet families of abducted people so you spend your days listening to their stories and it's heartbreaking and I think it does make an impact it does leave a mark how can it not leave a mark because we're not talking about victims hopefully they will all be safely returned but we are talking about this generic term of hostages but actually that's not the right term the term is human beings from the age of 9 months to the age of 87 years old men, women, sick people infants and I think it does leave a mark and I don't know if it will immediately lead to the return to the safe return of these people but it definitely serves to keep this story alive in the minds of these people they report back to their governments and I think when you see the reactions of the leaders who come and go here in the last few days and will continue in the coming week I'm sure it leaves an impact the personal stories have a huge impact and it's very important that here on I-24 news you keep showing them because that is what keeps what will keep this in the minds of people around the world right, yes I'm sorry go ahead speaking about that impact will the European Parliament today passed I think an unprecedented resolution condemning Hamas Hamas's quote despicable terrorist attack against Israel also expressing their support for Israel and underlining the need to eliminate the terrorist organization Hamas also calls for the immediate release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas and recognizes Israel's right to self defense as enshrined and constrained by international law so a very strong message and that is the impact of that human tragedy and the work that is in a forum that is not traditionally very friendly very much so and on it's staying on this on this topic a day after the visit of President Joe Biden here Western leaders continue coming to Israel with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Jerusalem today for meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman explains why this war has become so important especially to those European powers the Hebrew expression is air train as another foreign leader lands in Tel Aviv Thursday Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister here stepping off a military cargo plane another visit from a strong western ally to show support in Israel's trying hour above all I'm here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people you have suffered an unspeakable horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you Sunak will stay the night for a two day visit demonstrating not only a partnership with Israel and a desire to stop the war's expansion but also a Britain taking its traditional geopolitical place beside the United States Sunak of course is only the latest even before US President Joe Biden German Chancellor Olaf Schultz came to show his support for post holocaust Germany the relationship with Israel has added emotional meaning we feel the terrible grief of all Israelis whose parents, siblings and children were killed in this barbaric attack we share the unbearable worry of all those whose family members were taken from their everyday lives and brutally abducted France has indicated that President Emmanuel Macron will also soon come to Israel rounding out visits from Europe's three most powerful countries as a group Europe's powers have reason to get engaged for them this is a fight in a global frame mobilizing in defense of a western ally to proclaim solidarity that echoes all the way to the front lines of eastern Ukraine to show Russia that the West stands united globally for the security of Israel and of Europe itself well let's go now to our UK correspondent Jonathan Sachadotti in London and Jonathan we see strong support them from the British foreign minister James Cleverly but there are other voices in the UK give us a sense of some of the discourse about the conflict some of those other viewpoints that unfortunately that we have been hearing there in the UK So Kalev we are expecting tomorrow another massive protest against Israel on the streets of London and I think that that really draws into focus the gulf between the government's very strong position backing up Israel and then a certainly a sizable minority let's say who are passionately and vocally against Israel and I think that's unnecessarily something which is easy to explain because after the horrific visions that everybody saw on the 7th of October in the massacre it's difficult to understand how even the most died in the wall supporters of the Palestinian cause could pick that moment to be protesting so passionately against Israel defending itself that Rishi Sunak finds himself in in being a passionate and strong supporter of Israel he perhaps has the benefit of knowing he's very unlikely to win the next general election next year and maybe that's giving him the sense that he can actually stand up for what he perhaps believes in here without too much fear of what it might do to him at the polls because either it's going to strengthen his core who will be pleased that he's behaving this way or it's not going to do any more damage than he was going to suffer anyway right now I do also want to talk a little about British media and I have to I think Jonathan particularly the BBC we reporting here citing a European source saying a European intelligence source the casualties from that explosion in the hospital which is your presented strong evidence that it was a Palestinian Islamic jihad rocket misfire the actual casualties maybe somewhere between 10 maybe up to 50 nowhere near the 500 400 that was cited a lot of criticism at least coming here from Israel to the BBC in particular particularly some of its editorial policies yes I mean that story I suppose is a textbook case of what seems to happen in terms of coverage especially here in Great Britain but across the world generally presented with something that looks very telegenic a hospital destroyed masses of casualties catastrophic deaths those were the reports that were put out in the beginning because that's what the Palestinian health authority said of course controlled by Hamas too many including the BBC seemed unquestioningly to accept that of course looked at after not very long with the footage that started to come out it looked like well more of an explosion or a fire in a car park outside a hospital very small crater quite hard to understand how such a small hospital with an explosion outside it could have had quite so many deaths and of course all the people more used to covering those stories more critically were not surprised when broadcasters had got it wrong it's still not considered a settled case here people aren't necessarily certain they know what happened but as you say I think some of the early reports and even some of the ones lingering now rather stubbornly and pickheadedly on the part of some broadcasters and media outlets are still reporting this incorrectly and time will tell but as you know the damage is done early on and the effect that those sorts of reports had around the world especially in the Middle East region have been very difficult with even that quadrilateral meeting for Joe Biden cancelled because of those early reports the BBC still coming under a lot of criticism for refusing to refer to Hamas as terrorists even though Hamas is a prescribed terror group within the UK so it's a legal position that would be easy to defend they say that they try not to take sides in disputes around the world and try not to use the word terrorism except reporting it as somebody else's judgment of course they've broken that rule so many times including recently with the attack that happened in Brussels and they went back and corrected that rather than correcting their failure to use the word in terms of Hamas Alright Jonathan such a dirty there in London thank you for that Jonathan I want to go back to our Bacchia Levin though she's in Jerusalem there at the western world plaza we've been talking about the concerns the security concerns Bacchia of course tomorrow Hamas has called for another I don't know how you want it day of extreme rage or have you want to say it of course in such times concerns rise especially there in Jerusalem particularly even in that area you're in behind you you have the Temple Mount area compound with the El Aqsa mosque there so certainly even though Jerusalem not been a center of of rocket fire at all the security concerns are rising in the capital well it may be largely spared from rocket fire but Jerusalem being a still disputed territory to many people around the world including here in Israel of course is not saved from the fire that is likely to come and normally Hamas calls for these day of rages as you mentioned the El Aqsa mosque compound just above the western world plaza where we're currently standing and usually those are the images that are seen and broadcast around the world of clashes atop that compound between many Palestinians some of whom actually bring up Hamas flags and our Hamas supporters and the Israeli defense forces and the border police that tend to be there as well at the moment I can tell you that the situation in Jerusalem is the same for many holy sites including the El Aqsa mosque including the Golden Dome and including the church of the Holy Sepulchre it is almost as if we've reverted back to the days of COVID when restrictions were heavily implemented but a different sense in the feeling of the atmosphere being that it's not one of concern for getting sick but it's one of concern for necessarily your lives ending or violence breaking out in the region that you're in and so Hamas calling for this day of rage again we did see a lot of people walking up a couple of times during these days of rages but in particular now during the violence that and the war that's happening on Israel's southern border and the escalation that's appearing on the northern border it's likely that the security presence and we've seen that is going to be even stronger and stepped up even further in Jerusalem and the West Bank as why there haven't been so many reports of incidents and the incidents that are reported are normally like in the West Bank that have been arrested and the violence tends to be kept relatively on the low but again it all depends on what unfolds tomorrow with this day of rage we now on day 13 tomorrow will be day 14 of the war and each day as this progresses Israel seems to be losing more and more international sympathy more and more international support as Jonathan Sasha Dadi was pointing out as well but more so than that it's starting to fear up and spark a lot of anger and a lot of Palestinian group Israeli residents here in the country as well. Alright and we see that certainly in the West Bank Batch 11th I'll thank you for that and let me ask you about that Daniel the we like you said we should soon act Emmanuel Macron President Biden himself certainly taking these strong suspicious positions of support for Israel but there are constituencies in each of their countries some in even in their own political camps that are starting to turn in another country as Israel and the question is how much can Israel bank on that kind of support especially when if and when when we see ground operation begin and presumably civilian casualties real civilian casualties start being reported. Well you know it's difficult to calculate when such an event begins Israel is received sort of a credit line if you'll excuse the comparison and the size of that credit line depends on the events on the first few days in this case the credit line was extremely large for the worst and most tragic reasons but I think that with a few exceptions it was really across the board of the political elite and even in large portions of public opinions. This is slowly beginning to erode because it began with one extremely brutal and spectacular event but the days that followed despite the rocket firing and despite occasional casualties which for us Israelis of course mean a lot but in comparison to the images that now are coming out of Gaza are dwarfed in a certain sense so that is beginning to be eroded and the more the credit line is eroded the more you hear the voices that you just mentioned of people who are switching sides and saying that you know Israel is the culprit in all sorts of ways and it takes that again. I mean we spoke about this just a few minutes earlier to repeat the personal stories and to remind how this originated it has an importance now even for the battle over the image that Israel is fighting now in parallel to the real battle. Right and we still have the reports of that battle just in the last 48 hours where all that happened with the hospital for sure. Absolutely, absolutely but even you know Le Monde isn't in any way the way he read an analysis that they have made which didn't give a 100% conclusion but it was quite clear that they had big doubts about the original numbers and the original story of the Israeli Israel bombarding the hospital. The evidence, the idea for presenters is pretty convincing. On this regards by the way I just note there was just a release from the United Nations, Antonio Guterres Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Hassan Shukri Selim again condemning Hamas condemning the terrorist actions pretty unequivocally but calling for and calling for immediate unconditional release of the hostages but calling for immediate unrestricted access of humanitarian aid to respond to the most basic needs of the people of Gaza and that is going to be an issue in the coming days. The issue of the humanitarian aid does not want to get in the hands of Hamas. Yes as we just reported a short while ago we know that the Rafa crossing from Egypt to Gaza will be reopened tomorrow for the transfer of humanitarian aid. We're expecting between 20 to 30 trucks of that aid coming from Egypt into Gaza and that is following that the agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden that is if you made the pill that Netanyahu had to swallow for in exchange for the American support obviously a move that is not seeing with kind eyes among the families of the Israeli public in general but in particular the families of the kidnapped the message that they're sending through is no aid to Gaza until we get our loved ones back. Right and certainly that we heard that in the studio even this evening. We're going out for a break Ambassador Sheik stay with us. Guy Azrael also stay with us. We're just going to be going back for about a 3 minute break but stay with us for our continuing coverage of Israel's battle against Hamas Day 13. We'll be right back. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. State of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking. Within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Tell us we don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awakened by the people of Gaza. Everyone is showing up. This is the unicycle. This is the one that was signed by the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She was in touch with the attack on the Amia in 1994 leaving a murder of 85 dead and more than 100 injured. The material we work with daily is the 18th of January 2015 an impactant event took place. The Albrato Nisman is found dead in the bathroom of his apartment with a shot in the head of a suicide or an homicide. The Supreme Court dictated that it was a murder. The only solution is to bring them here. What is behind this so interesting story? Terrorists, international conspiracies, search for the truth. Will we ever know the truth? In the last 7 years for the magazine News24 in Spanish News 24, I received more than 40 reports related to the topic Amian Nisman Iran. A topic that has all the conditions so that an international channel of news such as A24 News continues to investigate until one day the truth is clarified. Let's go to Salchut there and Hamda. We have this was a day of intensified conflict there in the north and one has to wonder going into the weekend tomorrow we heard Hamas calling for a day of intense rage whether we're going to even see that nor the front also intensify in the coming days. We're actually hearing from the Israeli military spokesperson at this hour who said Hizballah will bear all the consequences for operations carried out on the northern border by Hamas of Lebanon with its approval. So remember the same way that the Israeli military treats the Gaza strip it punishes Hamas for anything happening out of the enclave. It will punish Hizballah for any military activity that happens out of Lebanon when it comes to Palestinian factions. The Israeli military has been increasingly on high alert today. Has been the most activity when it comes to the northern border a barrages of rockets quite heavy exchanges of mortar fire helicopters flying all around a lot of countries like the United States the UK Germany Saudi Arabia have all warned their citizens to evacuate Lebanon immediately to get on commercial flights as soon as they can and leave the Lebanese government is saying that they're not interested in war they want the situation at the northern border to remain calm however it wouldn't really be in their hands it would be up to Hizballah and the other factions that are operating in the southern parts of their countries who've been eager to join this fight since the beginning. Now in terms of the day of rage tomorrow this has been expected from Hamas they've been distributing flyers sending them around to four people to protest in cities across the world specifically in Beirut we've been seeing these demonstrations for days they have been happening they've been raising Palestinian flags Hizballah flags as an indication that the people want Hizballah to get involved so the Israeli military on high alert on the northern border Alright Hamas al-Hut there just south of that border in the Israeli city of Nahari Hamda thank you for that well of course this conflict is also playing we saw earlier London is playing out in several of the world's capitals especially Washington DC now Israel is enjoying some broad bipartisan political support in Washington and its battle against Hamas but that does not mean the partisan bickering between Democrats and Republicans about other aspects of MIDI's policy has stopped let's go to our senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim Mike there in New York I should say back in New York and Mike well of course one of the issues right now is the question of the U.S.'s next ambassador to Israel the Biden administration's nominee Jack Lew not getting a particularly warm reception among Republicans No not at all he is seen as one senator told me yesterday as the embodiment of all that was wrong with the Obama administration and now the Biden administration's appeasement of Iran we welcome by Democrats in a nomination hearing in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill yesterday but Republicans on that committee staunchly opposed to Lew he was the chief of staff for Obama later the treasury secretary was a strong advocate of the Iran nuclear accord Republicans say he misled Congress on statements regarding the accord and outright lied in some instances that's the accusation that was put in front of him yesterday we spoke with several Republican members of that Senate Foreign Relations Committee including Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton to get their thoughts on the hearing that took place yesterday let's give it a listen No I opposed Jack Lew's nomination it would be bad for the United States I think it would be bad for Israel to have a man who has misled the Congress and the American people about the nuclear deal with Iran remember when he was secretary of the treasury he promised that Iran would not have access to the US financial system and that was not required under that terribly flawed nuclear deal just a few months later he gave them exactly that asset access to convert almost six billion dollars worth of Iranian assets into US dollars and then he lied to the Congress about it Jack Lew unfortunately cannot be trusted by the members of Congress by the American people or the people of Israel Jack Lew was a pivotal person in the Obama administration's agenda of appeasement towards Iran he played an integral part in flowing over 100 billion dollars to the Ayatollah to the radical mullahs who are profoundly anti-Semitic the Ayatollah leads chance of death to America and death to Israel and that failed policy under Obama has only been expanded under Biden now Senator Ted Cruz 24 news there Mike while they're making their views of Jack Lew pretty clear there what about the visit of Joe Biden's visit to Israel of course here in Israel he got more or less rave reviews we even heard from a woman who's had two brothers in law killed over the past week and talking about how she spoke with a half an hour for President Biden how warm he was what about Republicans what are they saying about the visit the basic consensus I gathered from speaking with Republicans in the Senate yesterday was essentially listen he said the right things but is he doing the right things and again it comes back to the policies and the posture toward Iran which is the principal sponsor of Hamas and essentially the more the money that the US let's slip through the cracks with lax enforcement of sanctions with essentially the hostage money ransom money in exchange for American hostages the more seeps through to Hamas for use in their terror activity so while the words are good the actions aren't let's give a listen once again to Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz well I'm pleased that President Biden expressed his support for the prime minister and the government of Israel as they undertake this war to destroy Hamas I worry that much of his rhetoric though sounds the notes of caution and restraint and proportionality when Israel just suffered the most savage attack against the Jewish people since American GIs liberated the concentration camps in 1945 the last thing we should be doing is putting any pressure on the government of Israel or imposing timelines or holding them to a higher standard than any other nation would face when they've been attacked so brutally the American people would not have tolerated calls for restraint on December 8th 1941 or September 12th 2001 we should not be imposing those demands on the people of Israel as they undertake what will be no doubt a very challenging war against Hamas where we are now is the Biden administration is daily undermining the government of Israel by making comments like Israel must comply with the international law and the rule of law which of course Israel does and always has and that's part of a left-wing effort to delegitimize Israel and prevent Israel from following through on its right to defend itself and in particular its right and responsibility to utterly eliminate Hamas those are Republican senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton at the start and essentially that was the consensus I spoke with Tim Scott as well by the way another senator on the foreign relations committee he said listen Jack Lou and essentially by extension Joe Biden's heart is in the right place when it comes to Israel but the policies just don't match up and just don't make it a good fit for the broader American Israeli relationship so while there is broad bipartisan support right now for Israel more than there has been in a long time it seems like when it comes to Jack Lou specifically that that support dovetails into left and right. Right in the Iran policy in general I just also want to make a note Mike as you know New York State Governor Kathy Huckle in Israel today making a solidarity visit there was a just sort of announcement that California Governor Gavin Newsom is planning to make a solidarity visit we should note the two states in the United States with the largest Jewish populations there was a report Donald Trump can thinking about it so certainly certainly some politicians and those I'm not going to be cynical about it have a political interest visit Israel certainly seems to be a bit in fashion right now Mike Wagenheim there in New York thank you for that and I do want to ask you Danny about the U.S. support for Israel it's strong as I said and I've mentioned early in this program there are constituencies within the Democratic Party that it's not so popular stance is taking you have to wonder if a war breaks out if we're talking about the possibility of U.S. involvement at least in the north with his baller A to Israel whether this even in the United States if the kind of support we're seeing will hold no of course I can't predict and the system might be might complicate things but you know with the very few exceptions by and large these guys are competing who is more pro Israel so for the moment yes but again if you look at the general block of support for Israel you have a solid support from the Republican Party and still a very large majority of the Democratic Party mainstream of the Democratic Party mainstream and you have a president who really has nothing to prove anymore about his commitment so I think we're probably safe for now I mean maybe most crucially Jonathan is the military support U.S. is given not just rhetorical but in those planes that have already started to come bringing military gear related military gear to Israel which it may need once a ground operation gets going yes and I should say a Jonathan Regervaugh defense correspondent that you would come in these things have landed already and for years and years there's talk of how Israel fell in love with attacks from the air and intelligence and basically put aside the ground army and generals from within the Israeli establishment current and mostly former generals that they said that this on D-Day this will lead for disaster and it did the Israeli ground army was clearly not ready for what came on October 7th and is it ready for a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip possibly in Lebanon not so sure and a lot of gaps there which the Americans are helping us close right we just saw some actually footage of these armored vehicles that the United States supplied that did arrive today actually speaking of the ground operation who did prepare a report looking at the preparations for the ground invasion into Gaza but it's been almost two weeks now and so Jonathan Regev looks at why the operation hasn't begun yet and when it may get underway let's take a look at that for nearly two weeks Israelis have been waiting to see the promises of their leaders to crush Hamas come true there is a clear understanding it cannot happen without a ground offensive which has so far been delayed why for various reasons people in every corner of Israel are moved by the unwavering support expressed by the president of the United States Joe Biden as well as all the other western leaders touching down here but that support comes with a price Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well we mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives like the entire world the last thing Israel needed is a global leader landing here as images of a catastrophe emerge from Gaza Hamas almost achieved that with the manipulative reports about the Gaza hospital bombing just ahead of Biden's visit Israel exposing that lie just on time international legitimacy is one reason the combat readiness of the troops is another for years the warnings about the poor condition of the ground forces were ignored like so many other things it all crashed down on that terrible Saturday morning the time since then was used to close the very big gaps that were in the needed equipment the gap is now almost closed the constant shelling of areas in the northern Gaza Strip along with a call for residents to head south are meant to create a safer passage for ground forces entering but that is also a process taking time by the weekend the equipment will be in the field the northern Gaza Strip will be empty here and the foreign leaders will be back home will this be the time for the ground offensive to begin maybe so the war cabinet is set to convene on Thursday evening will this be the time they make the decision to send the troops we will find out soon enough for reasons intelligence the air campaign etc but at the same time there's only just so much time but over 300,000 troops that you can sustain troops out in the field like that before it starts taxing the resources that are available to the army there's so much time that the reservists can stay in place there's so much time that support will come from the United States and Germany and France and the UK it's still there we saw it this week President Biden was here yesterday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was here today German leaders, French leaders but it was very close just two nights ago of all this I'll go in a way without a very manipulative report by Hamas which was also erred by many international media outlets it was almost gone Israel also did a very good and extensive work at exposing the lies put out by Hamas and not only by Hamas by other international media outlets as well but all this will end soon because the images are coming out of Gaza we cannot ignore it they're difficult images and the rage here that we feel in Israel perhaps is not always shared by people abroad they see bad images coming out of Gaza as they are the bad images coming out of Gaza they do not connect them with what would happen here on that Saturday morning therefore Israel does not have a lot of time having said all that Israel wants to make sure that it's ready and making all the possible preparations everything is indicating that a ground offensive will come but will it really come we simply do not know right there is a report this evening from command and preparing in the government an evacuation at least a part of Ashkelon 27,000 civilians unprecedented in Israeli history so is the evacuation of Steroop Ashkelon is a much bigger city and again those people also let me just put it this way Danny there is a political component to this too we have people who are living away from their homes tens of thousands of Israelis who have to be relocated we have the families of the hostages demanding action Prime Minister Netanyahu under pressure he's got his own coalition he has people already saying angry in his own coalition in his own government allowing the humanitarian aid corridor to be opened from Egypt so there is a political component here that we have to reckon to to get this ground operation going yeah that definitely is the border villages are mostly Kibbutzim and the Kibbutz movement sort of takes care of its own and they absorb them you're talking about Steroop it's already a town, a sizable town and Ashkelon is a city tens of thousands what you do with all these people you can't just count on them having relatives in Tel Aviv or in Netanyahu you have to offer some kind of solution and it might not be a solution for a week, it might be for months as far as we know now so there's a human component above all there's an economic component and there is as you say another one although I suspect or I hope that this is not a major consideration no I didn't say a major you're right that it doesn't exist I just hope that in the balance it's not the main consideration it's the security of Israelis and the goals that the government and the war cabinet has set for the war with Hamas which we, you know people say eradicating Hamas flattening Gaza these are not operational plans these are political statements so it remains to be known and maybe Jonathan Regev knows a little bit more about that what the exact objectives of a ground operation would be so the answer is no we do not know no one's telling us anything the only thing I do know is that many of our leaders have put themselves in the corner Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu we've heard defense minister Yav Galant and others are saying we will eradicate Hamas we will flatten Gaza can we eradicate Hamas all together? I don't know yes maybe Israelis I would put it like this Islamic State, ISIS still exists there were ourselves there the achievement was to take away its ability to control I would say cripple Hamas would be probably so we can't control control territory it will still exist there's Hamas operation there are Hamas cells outside of Gaza we know the Lebanon there's in the Gulf in Turkey so no I would say I can only I can't speak for the government that operationally Hamas's ability to control the Gaza Strip would be maybe they're going to free the hostages or at least determining their fate as much as possible well speaking of that let's go down to our Robert Swift who is down in Steroat Robert that's a city that's already been largely evacuated but again this is a city we're talking about I think it was something between 10 and 15,000 but now we're talking a town now we're talking we're hearing about Ashkelon an evacuation there are tens of thousands of people clearly a major major operation maybe a sign of things advancing towards the next phase of this conflict that's right Ashkelon is one of the cities which is the most most targeted with rockets its geographic position means that it is being inundated on a daily basis hourly basis sometimes with rockets and that's likely why the reports regarding these these evacuations and those people that are living without shelters has been taken by the government it's worth noting that the population there is already reduced slightly we don't have exact numbers on how many people are living there currently but many people have chosen to move to other parts of the countries without the government having to tell them to do so those who can have moved in with friends and families elsewhere due to the amount of havoc that these barrages are causing just to illustrate your point we did have a siren earlier this evening in Ashkelon yet again in effect in all that area a little north of from where you are in the Gaza Strip just maybe a final word of your your sensing of the move down in the south because a lot of people are speculating free even this weekend and I don't pretend to have any inside knowledge of it that the next phase of the war could be coming yeah these these launches are happening frequently just between between now and the last time that I spoke to you we took cover where we are due to the fact that the launch going on over our heads and so you can imagine how that is for the residents in cities like Ashkelon in terms of the mood there's a lot of movement of military vehicles going on here there's also been comments from the Prime Minister and from the Defence Minister today and so some people are looking at that you know thinking that that might be a sign that the ground operation is about to begin it may be that people will look at this the reports of these evacuations in Ashkelon as yet another sign another piece of evidence that perhaps that ground operation is imminent all right Robert Swift there in Stiro thank you for that just a word Denny once Israel puts its boots on the ground in Gaza the whole picture changes and also people then are going to start talking and maybe even demanding I'm talking about the international community maybe voices in Israel about what it's going to be after yes I think I actually hope that Israel is thinking about the day after I presume somebody is discussing it because you don't start a war if you don't know how you want to end it and what you want the end result to be and you do want to have somebody still standing who can take control you don't want to create another Iraq a territory with two and a half million people with nobody to control it so I hope people are thinking about that ground operation a lengthy one will also have an impact on morale inside Israel these are difficult moments we're talking about morale let's look at a little report that has to deal with that now graffiti art some see it as vandalism but let's look at an initiative that has an important message a group of local artists joined together and called for their release of their friend Inbar Haiman who was also a graffiti artist abducted at that Nova Rave on October 7th Thorey Shapira took a look at this initiative huge graffiti with the words free pink on a highway close to Tel Aviv this is not just an artistic expression but a direct message to Hamas by the graffiti artist community which is trying to save one of its members it's so big it's huge and so many cars are passing by there it's coming into your eyes to your soul to your heart and you take it with you to the rest of the day and you think about it and you talk about it with others so it's like when you want to raise awareness to something good or something that's important it's a great place to do it this artwork was created by several members of the graffiti community who wanted to raise awareness of the abduction of their friend Inbar Haiman during the Hamas onslaught on October 7th she's now supposed to start her fourth year of studying art she's really creative and she's really sweet such a nice young woman really This is not the first tribute of the graffiti artist community in Israel ever since the Hamas massacre there have been different gestures such as this wall painting of Joe Biden or one dedicated to Rachel from Ofakim one of the heroes of the current crisis The entire graffiti scene in Israel enlisted for this mission and we are going to create more and more graffiti which will raise awareness and call for the release of all abducted Israelis The situation here is very difficult even speaking in front of the camera is very unusual for me we call on all the graffiti artists in the world to join forces in one message to bring back all the abducted people Members of the graffiti scene say they are aware of the power of their artwork on social media One example is the famous British artist Banksy whose graffiti art is worth millions of dollars Over the years Banksy has shown his support for the Palestinians I like Banksy and I like his work but I feel right now it's a different situation and if I could meet Banksy I would try to talk to him and kind of just explain that this situation that we have right now as I said before it's different than the actual conflict I feel like it's a separate thing now it's like terror against the rest of the world Friends of Inbao also made t-shirts and other items bearing her nickname they all hope for her fast return until then they'll continue to spread the word an important message there I want to thank Ambassador Danny Shack or Jonathan Reghev I want to leave you with this image this is a project that was done at Tel Aviv University they took their auditorium their student auditorium they filled each one of the seats a thousand seats with pictures of the people who have been either killed or are missing since that terrible day on October 7th so let's leave you with those images as we end this broadcast on I-24 News thank you for joining us Israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity a particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year Vakita reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job Vakita can be protected and Britain's Rishi Sunak showing his support in person earlier today now the southern communities are used to Hamas rocket fire out of the Gaza Strip today Hamas claiming responsibility for rocket launches at northern Israel admitting that its branch in Lebanon fired around 30 rockets at Naharia and Shlomi in recent hours so when will the IDF ground invasion of the Gaza Strip happen speculation continues to mount amidst ongoing calls for the Hamas terror group to be eradicated following its killing rampage on Saturday the 7th of October the death toll is at more than 1400 with more and more people being identified that identification process taking time given the brutality of some of the attacks Minister Joab Gallant telling troops of the Givati Brigade on the border that the order to enter the Gaza Strip will come soon an IDF leader saying the expected ground offensive will be long and intense meanwhile reports out of Egypt suggest the rougher border crossing will open tomorrow hundreds of trucks full of supplies are still waiting on the Egyptian side of the border after President Joe Biden struck that deal with Cairo and Jerusalem to allow relief into Gaza via Egypt hundreds and thousands of Palestinians are fleeing the northern part of the Strip ahead of the imminent ground invasion Jordan's King Abdullah II saying earlier in the week no refugees will be accepted in Jordan or in Egypt so for the latest let's go up north we're joined by our correspondent Alhouchi's close to the Israel-Lebanon border. So Hamdo rocket sirens sounding earlier in the north, Roshan-e-Kras I understand there were some injuries Hamas saying its branch in Lebanon is behind that rocket fire what update can you share right now? Right Benita, so Hamas operating out of southern Lebanon saying that they fired about 30 rockets into Israeli territory the Israeli military saying it was more along the number of 20 a direct hit in the city at Shmone where three people were lightly injured the rest of the rockets were either intercepted or fell into open areas as per military protocol now there has been heavy exchanges of fire along the northern border a lot of anti-tank missiles and other mortars fired between Lebanon and Israel in a continued tit-for-tat type of exchange we've been hearing from the Israeli military spokesperson who released a statement in the last hour saying Hisbullah will bear the consequences for all operations carried out by the northern branch of Hamas and Lebanon with its approval. Remember that Palestinian factions have been saying that they were eager to join the fight since the war began but they needed to go ahead from Hisbullah meaning that Hisbullah has the authority to either let or deny these other factions to have rockets coming out of Lebanese territory so the Israeli military is on high alert but other countries are as well countries like the US, the UK Germany and Saudi Arabia all issuing alerts for their citizens to immediately leave Lebanon. The Lebanese government is not interested in a war but it is in the hands of Hisbullah who they cannot control so a lot of continued activity along the northern border as the Israeli military, the Americans, the Lebanese and everyone alike is bracing for the new front to open. Thank you so much. Stay safe that's our correspondent Hamd al-Sahut in the north close to the Israel Lebanon border. Thanks Hamd al-Sahut. So now for more on the latest security developments we welcome to studio. Major general in the reserves Eitan Dungott, former military secretary to three ministers of defence and former coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories in the IDF. Eitan thank you so much for being here in studio. So rocket fire in the north as we heard there from Hamd al-Sahut, rocket fire in the south all happening around the same time on the same day at the same time still their major concern remains about the potential around Hezbollah getting fully involved. Talk us through your assessment of the situation on the ground across the region right now. I think that after the visits of President Biden, the German Chancellor and also the Prime Minister of the UK, I think it is like ended of this circle of diplomatic activities by the main countries that came to visit Israel and from now both sides and when I mean both sides it's Israel and on the other side it's Hamas and Hezbollah and above them it's Iran are looking for the continuating. What we can see that in Gaza we continue on the route that Israel declare it should achieve its main goal for this war because Israel after the 7th of October is not the same Israel after the 7th of October cannot continue to live side by side with such radical murdering butchers entity in Gaza and we have to continue in order to break and to destroy the structure of Hamas as a organization with Jihad Islamic. The main question and where we are going the same way I think the same escalation is continues now it means mainly using fire and strike from Israel especially by air force and launching rockets from Hamas but I believe and I see that the strikes from the air is coming to use opportunity of ground maneuvering but on the other end what we see in the north and that in my opinion it was the main part of the discussion with the United States because above the flow of Hezbollah and Lebanon there is a flow of Iran Russia that United States is very bothered and this is the main reason that United States sent to the area here a carriers and the Marines soldiers and other kind of things in order to make signs of Russia and the others that they will not agreed for such interrupt by the Russia but on the level of Israel and Hezbollah I see it deeply escalation that is running towards let's say a war because till now till today afternoon Iran used some attacks on the area on the border between Israel and Lebanon but in a closed circle it means exit points reaction of Israel and continue on today we see a strip among the border especially on the west area between Russia, Nicaragua, Shlomi main cities in these places you see already attack and also on the other side on Kiryat because if Hezbollah is going to climb up and to create the escalation it will be much more heavy with their activities the question in my opinion is not whether it will come the question will be when because it's a strategic decision by Iran and Hezbollah and they know the lost of price for them if they are doing it but Eitan is that when not inextricably linked to the ground invasion which we are hearing is going to be happening soon according to reports and we're also hearing from a senior IDF spokesman that that invasion is going to be long and it's going to be intense is that the red line that is going to spark potential involvement from Hezbollah on a full scale? In any kind of activities by Israel Hezbollah has to show its participation towards his partner Hamas whether it will be short or not if something is going to risk the continuation of Hamas as a structure it means that they oblige to interrupt especially now while we are talking about the ground activities and I'm not belong to those who are standing and say where is the ground forces we need time the rapid is not a blessing you have to be careful because Hamas from the moment they murdered and attack they are on readiness inside Gaza with their tunnels with their deployment with their charges with their anti-tank missiles so Israel has to prepare its entrance inside with a heavy strike from the air with a very direct intelligence concerning what happened so the long way is the short way to achieve what you need and Hezbollah if it's as it looks to me that will participate in this occasion are risking the independence of Lebanon as a country and that will be the main payment Eitan stay with us there's lots more to discuss including of course the hostages who are being held in Gaza still by Hamas it's 13 days in and scores of families still waiting for word on their loved ones who are being held hostage by the terror group the IDF saying just a short while ago that at least 203 hostages are being held in Gaza 30 of them are children now this is a picture of Eitan he was at the music festival on Saturday the 7th of October when Hamas struck all part of its massive killing rampage in the southern communities and so we now welcome Omri Shtivi Eitan's brother and he joins us from Tel Aviv Omri thank you so much for speaking to us we so appreciate it I can't imagine what you and your family are going through right now we know Eitan was at the music festival and I understand that he had offered to take photographs at the yoga workshops and at the music workshops there tell us more what is the last that you know of Eitan on Saturday 7th of October yes so as you say Eitan went to the party just went there to celebrate to dance and he was a photographer as a volunteer to take photos of yoga lessons and etc and he tried to escape around 7am to his girlfriend told her that the party stopped because of the rockets and shooting and I'm coming back to Tel Aviv and then he just you know he took responsibility and took with him another guy that couldn't drive and another another gear and he was from the first to go out and tried to go to the north back to Tel Aviv but Hamas waited there and start shooting their car and then he turned to the other side and drove around 4km from the exit of the party and Hamas also waited there and shoot their car again and this is the last location that we have from him and like we saw the location through Find My iPhone and after that we saw the car in that location and so the army the soldier found the car and after few days we got message from the parents of the two guys, the girl and the guy that he picked up and tried to save they are killed, they murdered by Hamas and no sign to and we saw the shooting signs on the car, we saw blood and the blood you know, all over the car and as I say, no sign to be done tomorrow will be 14 days and that we didn't heard from him and Omri tell us about authorities being in touch in terms of updates, you say it's all this time, it's thinking, waiting to find out if there is any word what are you hearing from authorities what kinds of updates and contact are you having from people who are trying to track down where survivors might be Yes, so first of all Idan has a Portuguese citizenship so we are in contact with the embassy in Portugal and we are in contact with some authorities in Israel that they are responsible from the police and some of them responsible from the army on all this situation in that point we have just information that we we bring the information to these authorities, no one telling us what's going on what is the status and where he is all the professional people that we work with saying that he is in like hostage right now but we don't really know So tell us a little bit about you Dan we are looking at pictures of him on the screen we can see very bright vibrance and full of life and he certainly likes dogs we can see that in the photographs tell us a little bit about him Yes, so Dan is the is the light of the family is very very wonderful guy someone that you can trust you know if I would say to myself if I can imagine to pick up someone to be with him in that kind of situation I would pick him and I believe and know that everyone will say it's only Dan he is 28 he is a student for sustainability he just started a volunteer in an organization that helped children in Africa and he adopted a dog from a village in the north Arab village like one week ago one week before the October 7 he had a girlfriend they just found a place to like a home to move together after 6 months of searching and he is a wonderful guy a lot of friends everyone loves him and well we so appreciate you sharing Dan's story and we hope for good news his girlfriend is in our thoughts you and your family are in our thoughts as well thank you very much for speaking to us our hearts are with you and we hope for good news thank you heartbreak and this is being felt by so many right now across the country back to developments on the ground that highly anticipated Israeli ground offensive has yet to start in the Gaza Strip as we were discussing here in studio just a short while ago our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev has the details in this report for nearly two weeks Israelis have been waiting to see the promises of their leaders to crush Hamas come true there is a clear understanding it cannot happen without a ground offensive which has so far been delayed why for various reasons people in every corner of Israel are moved by the unwavering support expressed by the president of the United States Joe Biden as well as all the other Western leaders touching down here but that support comes with a price Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well we mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives like the entire world the last thing Israel needed is a global leader landing here with images of a catastrophe emerged from Gaza Hamas almost achieved that with manipulative reports about the Gaza hospital bombing just ahead of Biden's visit Israel exposing that lie just on time based on the information we've seen today it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group on Gaza international legitimacy is one reason the combat readiness of the troops is another for years the warnings about the condition of the ground forces were ignored like so many other things it all crashed down on that terrible Saturday morning the time since then was used to close the very big gaps that were in the needed equipment the gap is now almost closed the constant shelling of areas in the northern Gaza Strip along with a call for residents to head south are meant to create a safer passage for ground forces entering but that is also a process taking time by the weekend the equipment will be in the field the northern Gaza Strip will be emptier and the foreign leaders will be back home will this be the time for the ground offensive to begin maybe so now the maneuver will bring the war to the enemy's territory we will defeat them in their territory the war cabinet is set to convene on Thursday evening will this be the time they make the decision to send the troops we will find out yes now for the latest on the ground let's go to our correspondent Robert Swift he's in Ashkelon in the south so Robert rocket sirens sounding just a short while ago in the Tiv Haas Aray near Yitzchak as well earlier Bershiba in Zikim what is the latest where you are what update can you share? that's right we've been having rocket alerts throughout various communities here in the south it started with Tel Aviv earlier in the day but mostly it's been around Ashkelon, Ashdod, Bershiba and also Stroth now it was reported just about half an hour ago that as many as 27,000 residents from the city of Ashkelon those living without sufficient bomb shelters may be evacuated and this is information coming in if this were to be the case this along with the the large build up of the military vehicles that we're seeing in the area could add weight to those that are speculating that the ground offensive may begin shortly the prime minister and the defence minister were meeting with troops and they had some strong words to say the prime minister making a sort of motivational pitch to the soldiers that he was speaking with and the defence minister saying that the operation would begin soon this coming at the same time as the reports of these evacuations suggests that things may be heating up here down in the south of the country Thank you so much that is our correspondent Robert Swift live from Ashkelon in the south we'll be coming back to Robert for more updates throughout our broadcast and now still with me in studio Major General in the Reserves Eitan Dungots I want to pick up on that heartbreaking story we just heard yet another family for word on whether or not their relatives are okay if they're being held captive in Gaza by the Hamas terror group what their fate is and they're still waiting and we're hearing from the IDF earlier on in the day that there are 30 children of the 203 known people who are being held right now what can you share about the efforts to try and get hostages home safely and how they are impacted by this potential ground invasion which is likely to be happening very soon first of all there is also I think almost number of approximately 20 elder people with the 30 children you have already 50 that besides women and families the stories are tragic when you listen to it on the press during the day it's unbelievable it's like being under the establishment of Israel as a state another interior holocaust that it will be I believe in our memory for generations about this day now concerning your question I think that with this kind of kidnap or hostages that are kept by Hamas first of all unfortunately we know how Hamas is treated them secondly in tunnels in some places that are not even for animals sometimes they are putting these people and also divide between them the question whether they put children with their mothers the elders with their people helping them in the treatment it's a lot of questions there are babies being held hostage by a terror organization today I heard about a mother which was taken with her three children and by under they were with two motorbike on the way one of it cannot move so he released the mother and two daughters and the son was continued this is not human behavior Eitan this is not human behavior so what is the response the response should be and as we declare first of all for the Israel future security and the continuing in living in this country you have to destroy Hamas as a structure of the organization we will not be able to call people to return to live around Gaza while from their window they will see Hamas post anymore so it's also something that in Israel will have to do but the results should be as it was declared on the moving country concerning these kind of activities I think that the fact that some there are some thousands who have another nationality it's bring to a sit with the effect of babies and the thing can bring opportunity of a first release of prisoners and you ask me what Israel should demand Israel should demand any humanitarian what called humanitarian step towards Gaza need from the Hamas to release and to move back but it's not done today when it was opening the gate in Rafa secondly you should understand that there is under the radar secret intelligence working by special teams in Israel in order to identify to find out places to see what is going and the third is will be involvement of some Arab like a mother country to Hamas unfortunately especially Qatar which sponsored the terror which played a double game with Israel a multi-game concerning on one end humanitarian on the other end gave money to Hamas to build its forces and in Qatar in a very rich area are leaving Hamas outside leaders like Nia or Mashal etc. so if you ask me whether it is under the state mind of the Israeli commanders to see whether you can connect for sure but will it stop the main goal of breaking Hamas I believe it will be done as on the same time will be a different treatment to the hostages I'm not saying it as a declaration but it's complicated and we will have to put in our mind that the release of these people are very important to the Israeli nations and civilians Certainly every single life here matters and it is a priority for the safe return of those hostages a heartbreaking situation hearing all these stories of people waiting for answers thank you so much as always for being with us stay with us we've got much more to discuss right now though we're taking a very quick break our breaking news coverage continues in just two minutes stay tuned back in a bit 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news we want to know from where are you watching us all you have to do is prepare the phone to point to the QR and there opens a brief questionnaire very easy to complete another option is to enter in the link that appears on the screen we wait for your answers our breaking news coverage continues thank you very much for staying with us so western leaders continue to bring solidarity with Israel British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak touching down in Tel Aviv earlier on Thursday a day after President Joe Biden's Blitz visit and historic one during war time the British leader meeting today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog expressing his horror over the Hamas terror attack our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman explains why this war is so important to European powers true expression is air train as another foreign leader lands in Tel Aviv Rishi Sunak British Prime Minister stepping off a military cargo plane another visit from a strong western ally to show support in Israel's trying hour above all I'm here to express my solidarity with Israeli people who have suffered an unspeakable horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you Sunak will stay the night for a two day visit demonstrating not only a partnership with Israel and a desire to stop the war's expansion but also a Britain taking its traditional geopolitical place beside the United States Sunak of course is only the latest even before US President Joe Biden German Chancellor Olaf Schultz came to show his support for post holocaust Germany the relationship with Israel has added emotional meaning we feel the terrible grief of all Israelis whose parents, siblings and children were killed in this barbaric attack we share the unbearable worry of all those whose family members were taken from their everyday lives and brutally abducted France has indicated that President Emmanuel Macron will also soon come to Israel rounding out visits from Europe's three most powerful countries as a group Europe's powers have reason to get engaged for them this is a fight in a global frame mobilizing in defense of a western ally to proclaim solidarity that echoes all the way to the front lines of Eastern Ukraine to show Russia that the West stands united globally for the security of Israel and of Europe itself so for more let's go to London we bring in our UK correspondent Jonathan Sachadotti good to see you Jonathan so Rishi Sunak says the UK stands with Israel he's reiterating that Hamas should be called terrorists talk us through the significance of this trip right now one day after Joe Biden the West is clearly standing together right now I think there are three main aims potentially for Rishi Sunak the British government in this trip that is to get the hostages out to get aid in and to contain the war they don't want as do all the allies around the world this war spreading in the region more than it needs to but Rishi Sunak was keen to start the visit his diplomatic tour of the Middle East in Israel very visibly so and to state there that he wants Israel to win so all of those aims are there to provide though that Britain is standing next to Israel in its battle and that if this is Israel's darkest hour as Benjamin Netanyahu said to him he said well he's proud to stand here with Israel in that darkest hour as Israel's friend so those could be the three aims but all of them with that view to Israel winning Jonathan President Isaac Herzog is blasting the BBC for not calling Hamas terrorists and it's not often one hears a blistering response like that from the Israeli president is the BBC sticking to this narrative its definition or maybe rather a lack of definition around terror what is the latest on that front the BBC is no stranger to criticism over its coverage of Israel in the Middle East indeed some years back Israel decided to stop cooperating with the BBC and that is when it undertook what has become the infamous Balan report an internal investigation on how the broadcaster was covering issues to do with Israel that report was never revealed to the public in fact the BBC spent 300,000 pounds in legal fees stopping it from being revealed but now I think the same fears are being reawakened in people because with this insistence on not using the word terrorists to describe Hamas and what happened on the 7th of October the BBC has made many people question their independence and impartiality they say that the reason they won't use the term terrorist is precisely to make sure they don't look like they are taking sides but many in the British Government many important religious figures many important legal figures have all said Hamas is a prescribed terror organization in the UK and therefore legally it's correct to call it terrorist and moreover they all say what happened on the 7th of October was such a brutal and savage attack designed and aimed to kill, maim and torture civilians that there can be no other word to describe it than terrorist the BBC though is sticking to its guns and they say in their style guide that they only use the word terrorist or terrorism in quotes from other people so they may say that Israel calls Hamas terrorists or calls the attacks on the 7th of October terrorist attacks but they resist saying it themselves however it's been noted that they've often broken that rule themselves particularly for domestic terrorist occurrences in the UK or even in Europe. I would employ if they had to look at the footage when you hear the accounts people being butchered in their beds in their own homes perhaps they could recount their term and take a look at it it certainly looks like terrorism regardless of anybody's political views absolutely. Protests on the streets of London broadly speaking Jonathan what is public sentiment like there now and how worried are Jewish communities over a potential uptick in anti-Semitic incidents as this war progresses? Well there is a lot of fear among the Jewish community as is often the case when there's tensions in the Middle East or Israel is at war because what happens is that large protests seem to take place against Israel even in this case when it suffered such a brutal and horrible attack on the 7th of October more and more people take to the streets in these protests and during those protests there are plenty of scary moments for Jewish people and generally for Britons who aren't let's say as animated by the pro-Palestinian cause there are anti-Semitic chants there were indeed jihadi flags waved at the last major protest there'll be another protest tomorrow and Robin Simcox who is the president's commissioner for countering extremism has warned the Britain really is providing a permissive environment for anti-Semitism pointing in part to these protests saying that there really is a problem that needs to be dealt with in these so I think we're going to be looking forward as well as these protests become more frequent to the police force and the home secretary trying to pressure the police force into policing them in such a way that they maybe will be more arrested they'll maybe be looking harder for moments or incidents of anti-Semitism and they might be redefining what they consider to be support for Hamas and for terrorism for example there's been a lot of discussion over the chant from the river to the sea which is heard very often at pro-Palestinian protests and of course what it indicates is a desire to erase the whole of Israel from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean sea so I think that there'll be plenty more there may be more arrests and then indeed we'll have to wait and see in the courts if this is backed up and if this is a test really for seeing how anti-Semitic those sorts of protests really are. Thank you so much live from London our UK correspondent Jonathan Sachadotti thanks Jonathan and now for more in studio we welcome Ben Jorjimini senior journalist at the Yiddiot Ahronot Daily and still with as major general in the reserves thank God so thank you very much for joining us Ben Jorjimini I want to pick up on what we just heard from my colleague Jonathan in London Rishi Sunak here today of course on the back of President Joe Biden this historic wartime visit the message from Western allies right now how important it is not only for Israel but for Israel's enemies. It's quite interesting what we are facing right now because from one hand we have much of leaders who are coming to Israel in order to give us a lot of sympathy because of this kind of work from the other side we have in each country those minorities of Muslims who are marching in the street of London in the street of Oxford University in the street of Ivy League universities and shouting and shouting from the river to the sea Palestine will be free which mean in support of Hamas in favor of the extermination of Israel which is quite embarrassing we are speaking we are sitting here something like 22 years after the 9-11 and we have to ask ourselves who won who won it could not be heard 22 years ago something of that kind it was clear who is bad and who is good right now not anymore so many scholars in the west actually are siding with the Hamas it's a shame it's a shame there is a problem in the west and we have to admit it there is a problem don't you understand what you are doing I mean we are speaking about people carrying children and babies and you are siding with them it's not only that this has happened it's the fat and it's something we've repeated many times in the last 13 days this was caught on film Hamas videoed this brutal rampage because they wanted the world to see and yet the world has seen and still these protests are happening in support of it I mean if we will look at the polls the majority in the united states in Europe siding with Israel they are supporting Israel and so but I'm not speaking about the majority I'm speaking about a very strong minority coalition of islamists and scholars it's called many times the green, red coalition but it's a shame I mean they are gaining power they are not becoming they are becoming powerful and we have a problem we have a problem in the not only in the media and you spoke now about the BBC and the way the BBC is behaving but mainly in the academia we have a real problem I mean it's what I mean actually identifying with who, with what with brutal killers it has nothing to do with the Israeli-Arab conflict it has nothing to do with legitimate criticism because of the policies of Israel it is legitimate it's not the point the point is that we are speaking about something else global jihad is not is not against Israel bear it in mind it has nothing to do with Israel I mean always say who Israeli-Arab conflict no it has nothing to do with it most of the victims of the global jihad, something like 98% are Muslims and you are siding with them with who? with who, what are you doing but this is the reality that we are facing to that point Joe Biden is said to address the nation in the coming hours he also needs to get the green tick for the assistance that is hopefully going to be coming Israel's way as well as Ukraine and other nations as well what message he needs to send after this trip seen as hugely successful within Israel the last day his visit, his meetings and his message but what does he need to say to the American people in the coming hours just what he said to the Israelis I mean anyway we are living in a global village so he cannot say something different to the American audience because what he said to the Israelis what he said when he met the families of the hostages exactly what he is going to say and he said already in the United States so in a way yes he is totally involved two carriers came to the Mediterranean Sea we cannot forget it so he is here not only with words but also with deeds I think that besides I would like to add few points first of all Biden shows leadership and it's something that in my opinion was for the American people it's something that their president go and did steps immediately in order to keep democracy in this kind of complicated area but there is another thing he planned and he would like to be with it tonight but it will not be there the fact that was cancelling the meeting between Biden Abdullah and Sisi and Abu Mazen it was something to show balance but he brought something it's a principle for the American the humanitarian step that Israel confirmed to start from Rafah area it's something that is like a principle for the American on one end creating powerful two words Iran, Russia supporting Israel supporting democracy on the other end Israel that I think that it was a right step by Israel but and then we have to balance it too as the man from the Israeli government opened the gate with Rafah entered humanitarian so he brought it as something that all the principles the United States are a flag for all the world with them Eitan Bindro stay with us we're going to discuss this a little bit further but right now a new development just in the United States confirming just a short while ago that the Navy has intercepted missiles from Yemen the US confirming the Navy has intercepted missiles from Yemen our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev joins us from our studios in Tel Aviv Jonathan what update can you share so the reports are that we've heard reports earlier today about attacks against American ships in the Red Sea what we're now learning from this report is that those attacks and maybe the UAVs which were sent from Yemen were not directed at the American ships in the Red Sea but actually towards Israel and this is a possibility that has been brought in the past about when we're speaking of this multi arena war it was not only Gaza and Lebanon or Syria which are right on Israel's borders but even places further away like Iraq or even Yemen so the report states that possibly UAVs were sent from Iran what was their destination what was their target this report doesn't conclude but they were seen in the Red Sea heading north of course in the direction of Israel those UAVs and drones were brought down by American missiles from American ships sailing in the Red Sea even perhaps possibly from Saudi Territory Saudi Arabia of course is a very long coast on the Red Sea but there is a possibility according to this report a realistic possibility that drones UAVs maybe even possibly rockets were fired from Yemen towards Israel it is quite far Yemen on the southern tip of the Red Sea and this is one of Iran's goals let's put it this way when we speak of multi arena a war coming on Israel from multiple fronts Gaza being one of them Lebanon Syria and even places further away like Yemen this could have happened today this happened roughly 11 hours ago or something like that the interceptions happening way before these missiles rockets UAVs whatever they were way before they reached these really close they were taken down perhaps even by electronic warfare and by interceptors but this is the report we're now hearing possibly another arena in this front being a rockets UAVs something fired from Yemen possibly towards Israel Senior defense correspondent Jonathan Reggae thank you very much for that update and luckily we have with us in studio Major General in the Reserves Eitan Dangat another front is it too soon it's just a report what do you make of it of all the Houthis or the young man they're declared already that they will share with the Iranian and Hezbollah what they need to help the Palestinian in Israel but there is the main story I think that the a vessel of the Americans there it's a powerful first of all to prevent any attack about in my opinion much more chance that it was towards American targets can be in Syria can be in this in Qatar or other places I'm not running that it was towards Israel it must be checked and analyze about it but it's really something that already was treated Israel for few months already especially to use UAVs from the area of the let's call it the southeast of Israel that can become as a attack from this kind of direction but I think much more is important to see that the Middle East divided to two forces the force that is leadered by Iran as radical as coming to destroy all the modern Arab countries and the other countries as well in order to bring the message of radicalism to this area and secondly you have the wing that is by the United States with countries like Saudi Arabia UAE the Arab countries Bahrain and the others and of course Israel it make it very clear and it bring us to what's going here now in these days the hours that we have not to allow this wing of these butchers to have any kind of achievements especially of course in Israel anymore and Israeli source has just told I-24 news that there is Israeli confirmation Israel was informed of the launch around noon today and that at least one of the interceptions was carried out by the Saudis 15 drones were identified and that source we are also just hearing now as well that report also confirmed now by the Pentagon so what do you make of what could unfold after this kind of development right now they confirm that it was towards Israel no they're confirming that at noon today that at least one of the interceptions was carried out by the Saudis 15 drones were identified so it means that nowadays we see more and more terror activities organized by Iran from the for the east towards the west I mean the wing that is going Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus Beirut with the wing that is going from Tehran to Yemen is operational reorganized well are going to be planned and it looks like a real threat not only to the Israeli area and around us to the Gulf countries and to the others it's escalation that we didn't expect and that is also explanation to us why Biden and his main leadership came here about what they already probably identified that is planning to be in the Middle East stay with us we're going to discuss this a little bit further but right now I want to turn to the use of something we've discussed a little bit earlier on in the show the use of social media as a tool in this war we welcome Ken Mazig, senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute Ken, thank you so much for your time we've been discussing here in studio how Hamas wants the world to see the carnage the violence the evil that unfolded on the 7th of October filming it's killing Spree one would think this would see a major boost in support for Israel when people understand the extent of gravity what terror actually looks like what are you seeing on social media platforms we have received support for about 24 hours and then the narrative shifted completely and it's really interesting to see how Hamas can play such a monstrous role in this conversation about the war and on the same time be the ultimate victim we've seen it's the media that has been responding in a way that is really reckless with the hospital bombing and then as you reported the numbers of casualties has been reduced to less than 10% of what they claim it was we don't know how many Palestinians they're saying that thousands of Palestinians babies were killed we now need to challenge that as well I think that our side people that understand and support Israel's right to exist were well aware of what Hamas was doing but it was very hard to convince the world to support us and I think that the larger problem is not just the conversation about Israel and Hamas online it's what it does to Jews around the world the way that people speak about Israel right now really affects our synagogues our Jewish centers it affects if Jews are being attacked in the streets or not then that's why we have to speak up and make sure that the narrative doesn't go to a place that is more terrifying than it is right now and you yourself have been very active on social media in recent days what is your strategy as such to help get the Israeli perspective across yeah my content reached over 100 million people in the last week which is really on the one hand it's really good I wish I didn't have to do it but I'm really glad that I was able to offer an alternative to what we're hearing on social media and what we're seeing on social media my approach is to speak up and to share what I think and what I feel and what I think a lot of other people are feeling and I want to encourage your viewers and everyone around the world to speak up because the truth is that Jews are an extreme minority not only in Israel but around the world really really tiny minority and we really need all the support that we need and it's very important that we speak up and that we encourage others to speak up we're thinking about the heroes of the Jewish people from our history like the Maccabees and the Jews that fought in the Warsaw ghetto they were amazing heroes that we can draw inspiration from but we are the heroes of today every one of us can speak up and make a difference not only for the state of Israel but for Jews around the world but when one talks about the response to haters and anti-Semitic rhetoric online what is the best way for this in the social media space respond or some would say sometimes it's better to ignore your thoughts I would say often to ignore I think 9 out of 10 times I would probably say ignore people that are attacking you and people that are fighting with you but make sure that you're saying what needed to be said I think that if it's a person with some platform or some capital like a congressperson or congresswoman spreading lies like we've seen congresswoman from America doing that in the last couple of days then call them out but don't engage in the conversation with the haters I don't think I've ever had a conversation with a troll online that I felt that was time well spent so I would say speak up and share the truth but try and avoid the noise from around I've got about 30 seconds left are there enough high profile personalities celebrities so-called influences getting involved in the social media battles so to speak up against the canyons of the world very briefly absolutely we have people like Debra Messing and Amy Schumer and a lot of proud Jews out there Jessica Seinfeld and Jerry Seinfeld I think that it's really important the last word is that Jewish people remember that we can't be ashamed for speaking up for ourselves and we can't be ashamed for we can't be ashamed of demanding some damn justice Senor Fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute thank you very much for speaking to us appreciate your time well we're taking a quick break our breaking news coverage continues in just two minutes our team of panelists remains here in studio lots more to unpack this is breaking news edition stay with us officially in a state of war this is a very active scene we need to get in the car as we're talking more than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity this particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year we came out here where they see us to claim for the rain in these moments global warming is affecting Bolivia and not only Bolivia but all over the world and we need rain for the embryos at Keto reserve we have the right ingredients and we have to do the job and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job the vaquita can be protected if you're just joining us now it's breaking news and there are rocket sirens sounding right now in Tel Aviv and that might explain the short break that we had in this broadcast our control room had gone through to the shelter those rocket sirens sounding just moments ago in Tel Aviv, Kholon and Rishon Litzion those are indicating that rockets are heading towards those cities but the iron dome missile defense system very likely intercepting those rockets heading towards civilian cities once again still with me in studio Ben Joriumini and Etan Dangat so let's start with what is just transpired right now this isn't the first time you've been in studio here rocket sirens have gone off while we were talking in studio it's a third time this week three times, once maybe I'm brilliant with me I don't know what's happening now listen speaking about the drones coming from it's very interesting because today for the first time it was Saudi prince Durkir bin Faisal that declared something very harsh against the Hamas before at the beginning they were a kind of balanced condemning the violence now they did condemn for the first time the Hamas and they even criticized Israel because Israel enabled to transfer the money from Qatar to the Gaza Strip to the Hamas actually so maybe he knew because it did not happen now because according to the news if it's correct what we hear that actually Saudi Arabia intercepted some of the drones it means they are becoming involved in the war just think about the meaning of what we hear now if it's true and now we have to emphasize it's not a war of Israel against the Hamas it's a war of the global jihad against whoever is not a global jihad and Muslim brothers to remind us all are outlawed in Saudi Arabia and in many other Arab most of the Arab countries not including Qatar so altogether maybe maybe just maybe it means something Aytan your insight into what we are talking about this is the US confirming that the Navy has intercepted missiles four hours ago already the confirmation coming through a short while ago the implications right now It shows a signs that the area of the Middle East is under a big threat that is leading by Iran but on the other hand I might tell you let's come to a proportion our goal in Israel is to continue to destroy the threat that came from Hamas Israel of the 7th of October in a different country and we have to create a safe area for the Israeli civilians first of all Hamas then according to what we develop at the North area with Hezbollah as the main proxy of Iran we live in impact but Benita we don't have to forget like what happened today early evening or before it in the West Bank West Bank is still bubbling and signals both towards the Palestinian authorities and towards Israel tomorrow don't forget it's Friday Friday there is the prayers of the Muslim and is an opportunity to try to use it to create propaganda especially by radical muftis in the masks and it can create kind of escalations in some places in West Bank or in the others so we have to look on the whole area as well and I would also pay attention to what will be in Jordan tomorrow especially concerning the fact there was the demonstration according to the situation that Hamas tried to use the big lie of what happened in Gaza in the hospital at the beginning and succeed to create escalation in the street of Hamas Aitan and Ben Dror stay with us we've got more to discuss if you're just joining us now Siren sounding just a short while ago in the cities parts of Tel Aviv, Kholon and Rishon Litzion people running to shelters and waiting for the all clear to be told that they can leave those shelters of course earlier if you were listening to our broadcast also Siren sounding in several parts of the south and earlier in the day as well in the north we continue with our coverage right now and we bring you a personal account of that terror attack in the south of Israel on Saturday the 7th of October we now welcome Yotam Farber who survived the massacre in Kibbutz near Yitzhak Yotam thank you so much for speaking to us I cannot imagine what you have been through it's 13 days if you can take us back to Saturday the 7th of October your recollections okay so we woke up with the sound of sirens and alarms which we're quite used to but this time it sound different the intensity of it was from 0 velocity to 100 in minutes and very quickly we were told to get inside our security rooms and lock ourselves inside which is already out of standard out of normal and slowly slowly we can see in the media what's going on next to us in a neighboring community and we're a bit in the dark and what's happening in our own community but the hours pass and the stories start to arrive and we all the time question ourselves where our friends who are now protecting us in the local community squad the whole day the question rises and we don't get an answer and in the evening of course we pass a lot of time in security room with two small children and a dog and with all the tension that and luckily we managed to keep them calm and luckily there was no one in our local neighborhood that came and entered the door because yes we were not protected and the hours pass by and at some point the army comes and secures the house and we're evacuated from our own home to the kindergarten and that is a result of a decision by the army that it's much more safer to protect everyone in a few organized areas rather than each one in their own home because also the perimeter of the Kibbutz our community is broken and also the perimeter of the border is reached so it's much more efficient to protect us that way and after around 12 hours in the security room we're evacuated to the kindergarten and there we spend another 24 hours 100 people in a small room everyone together which is a bit of a relief because you can start to share your feelings and your experiences and a little bit to catch up what's going on next to us and for the kids it's much more better because they have their friends and it's much more relaxing that everyone's together at that point Yotsam what did you tell the children you've got 100 people crammed into a space you know that terror attacks are happening in the vicinity what are you saying to the younger people of your community at that point Okay so sadly we are kind of used to this scenario our community is 4 km from the border that means that every time there is tension and bombings we are evacuated within hours to a hotel or some kind of organized place that the government is already used to take care of us so all the time I promise my daughter don't worry after this it will be a long vacation and how is the community doing right now talk to us about members living nearby you your neighbors talk to us about where they are and how a community recovers after this imagineable hotel typical for anyone to comprehend what you have all been through so my community has suffered the loss of the members of the local security squad that protected us with their bodies and souls and they're the miracle that happened to Niritzchak because if they were not there the same massacre that happened in Deirik and Iroh and Kfaraza would happen in Niritzchak so first of all all of our thanks and gratitude and the blessings and wishes for the ones that are still in captivity that they will come back so first of all in our local community that's our thanks and oath to now in our neighbor community we grieve and we heard of friends and their families and the horror stories and the massacres and the words and Maidanek from the horror that's what you imagine whole community erased erased there's no more community and there's no more to come back so our pain is with them and today there will already be funerals and to understand they can't even vary at their debuts they're all the funerals in other communities that are not in the front line so we have their pain and we feel their heart and the only thing we can offer is hugs and love and optimism for the future your term we can't even imagine what you are all going through we so appreciate you speaking to us very briefly what do you want to see happen next what do you want Israel to do in response to what has happened on the 7th of October it's difficult questions because I think civilian lives in both sides should not be part of the casualties I would like to see the regime of Hamas gone because there are threats to us that we cannot bear anymore and I would like to see peace between the nations where our borders are not defensive I want peace in the end that's my hope your time Farber we so appreciate you speaking to us our hearts are with you our hearts are with Kibbutz near Yitzchak and all the surrounding areas thank you very much for your time thank you for speaking to us thank you your time Ben Droyamini Eitan Dangot these stories do not get easier to hear the number of communities that have been shattered Eitan your thoughts I'm thinking about the Holocaust the establishment of Israel as a country and I'm not finding the world just to say how it's today how can it be that our country after 75 years faced such a big massacre that will be I think in our mind for the coming generations you cannot also when you hear all the evidence now that are coming more and more you cannot even imagine in your mind that something like this and I'm a military guy I faced some occasions and lost friends but to hear what these people each one of them is a hero each one of them was fighting for his and family's life alone and the enemy was human without any kind of anything that human being should have in his mind and is out and it's something that give not only a red line a double red line for us for our future plans here in this country to change and to create a country which will fight first of all to defend ourselves how can we ask these people to return back as I think that I told you to live back in this Kibbutzim by opening their window a few hundred meters from the window again Hamas post should it be done how can we live there while the generation that was lived under Hamas from 2007 age of young children till age of 30 is now coming to you and they are part of this radicalism it's something that give us first of all to complete our goal to complete our mission to to be to bring our deaths to their funerals and to create a country which will supply to apologize to these people where the front of Israel in the south and didn't succeed to get the defending of the IDF and that we will be checked later on for all the lessons that we have and now the last point is the small babies the small children the elders people that are keeping with these human animals in Gaza without being released families and nowadays at the end you find that there is not a cabin of a family that was not almost damaged or destroyed individual or half of them completely Vendora the scale of this depravity is difficult 13 days later to even process like we're just hearing right now two accounts two different accounts of just sheer terror and sheer pain for the young and for the old a whole personal sense of security just shattered you know I was I paid a visit Friday less than a week after and the devastation and what I saw it was not easy and I thought about the very fact that immediately after the 9-11 so many so many headlines saying something like the world is going to change nothing is going to be the same and we have to be very cautious because we say it now again we say it it's not going to be the same the Hamas now we have to learn from the mistakes and there were many mistakes of the West because the jihad the extreme most times I mean they are stronger now they are stronger so how not to repeat the mistakes the free world from one head from the other hand the free world should bear in mind that Israel is now in the front but Israel is actually not representing only the West Israel is representing in this battle also a lot of Muslims who are victims of this global jihad so we are not alone we don't have to be alone and this march of leaders that are coming to Israel understand that they have a problem and they have a problem in their own states because we see the demonstration we see what is going on in the universities in the United States we see what is happening in the streets of London when people support this kind of massacre the new Nazis actually and we have to call them by their name we see it and we have to learn the West failed the free world failed we cannot allow ourselves to fail again Vendor Yomini, Eitan Dengar thank you both so much we look to a time of change we look to a time of resilience and we look to a time of healing but no doubt it's certainly going to take a very very long time we so appreciate you both being here in studio and right now we want to welcome from Herzliya here in Israel Paul Chani from London Chani director Paul you were born here in Israel I understand but living in the UK for two decades you heard the war had broken out you were in London and I hear you went to Heathrow airport why well actually I was born in South Africa but yes I lived in Israel for many years and I served as an officer in the Syrian about 30 years ago and moved to London but felt I needed to be here now why did you need to be here right now there are a few reasons few major reasons number one it's time for not just Israelis but Jews around the world to unite we've had a struggle for the last eight nine months of total separation and infighting between Jews and now it's time to unite so what better way to unite than to come here number two we owe a huge not just apology but responsibility to all those that have been affected in this war all those Israelis and Jews that were murdered and slayed and kidnapped and missing it's our responsibility we let them down we cannot do that again and finally I have to set an example to my children when I teach them never again well this is never again so we need to be here to make sure that those lessons are taught not just to Israeli children but to all Jewish children around the world and I'm here to make sure they learn that example so how did your family respond when they heard that you were getting on a plane from London and coming here to a war zone well they weren't happy as you can imagine it was difficult for them to understand my wife felt and she's slightly disconnected lives in London her whole life and my children live in London their whole lives and they haven't bring brought up like Israeli children knowing that their fathers and they themselves and sisters are going to serve in the Israeli army that's a way of life in Israel it's not a way of life overseas so it's very hard for them to process that and understand that and that's why it was so important for me to make that personal example to help them understand now you're involved in this now you have a part to say in what happens because your father is going and now you'll sit up and take notice but you're not happy at all but they understand and they are fully supportive so give us an understanding what kind of role can you be playing right now the war is in day 13 we're hearing here in studio that this is likely to last for a long period and intense period as well what kind of role are you hoping to play here realistically I want to be a health not to hindrance so I've presented myself to the army to say allow me to come back and serve in any position in any role any way in the country it's for you to decide where you want me I'm happy to serve in any way and to help so I have been allowed to return back to reserve duty within the army I'm just awaiting final orders to find out where they want to use me I have built up certainly a huge amount of other skills since I've left the army