 From the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv, day 40 of the war against Hamas news coming in fast and here's what you need to know. Number one, the IDF is inside the Al-Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. There has been some active fire. You're looking at video from inside Al-Shifa Hospital video coming in moments ago, a firefight between IDF and Hamas terrorists at the entrance of the hospital and number of Hamas terrorists were killed. The IDF tells I-24 News that it is a specialized operation with medical teams and Arabic speaking personnel going room to room to minimize injuries to civilians. Civilian men, non-medical aged 16 to 40 are being questioned and matched with face recognition software. No Israeli hostages have been found and there's no word yet on whether Israeli troops have been able to enter the basement of Al-Shifa. The American intelligence services say that their independent information is that Hamas has a command node underneath the hospital. The second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States, citing an Israeli source, says that there has been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages. It may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan network, Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar in the United States. Now the idea here is that Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian children and youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources, though, emphasizes that the talks are still ongoing and that there's no final conclusion. Number three thing you need to know, fuel shipments have come into Gaza now from the humanitarian operations. It is the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the territory since October the 7th. Kogat, the Israeli defense body that's responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that 6,200 gallons of fuel have crossed through Rafa. The United States pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings the death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David, 27 years old from Karmiel, a deputy company commander in the Nega Brigade 9217 Battalion. And Captain Yedidia Asher Lev, 26 years old from Tal Minashah, a deputy company commander in the Gavati Brigade Shackad Battalion. I'm joined now in studio by Lieutenant Colonel Duran Avital. He's a former commander from the Special Forces IDF. Thank you very much for joining us. The IDF was given pretty much an unbelievable challenge to go into a hospital in the middle of a war, a civilian hospital that's being militarized. And explain to us why they're doing a surgical room by room floor by floor. Well, first of all, to have such an operation, it requires really a very special kind of forces. I think I know who are the forces that are involved. They are specialized in also following intelligence, identifying combat, combatants and civilians. And of course, there's also medical staff with them. And of course, there are big speaking professionals. And this requires a lot of preparation. And I think, as well, from the offsets, they were the point of general, it's an alone. It was also a commander of the unit that I commanded, the famous Seyot Mitkal, to command all this kind of operation, special operation in Gaza. And this is one of the most important one that was conducted until now. And to be under the scrutiny of the world, I mean, every single, you can't go through any website, BBC, CNN, whatever, with their eyes on what's happening. So I'm sure this is part of the way they was instructed, those special forces soldiers, they know, they take it into account, they know that this is the case. And there was a lot of preparation done by the spokesman of the IDF, Daniel Agari, which was the sort of a buildup into this operation. But until now, it's conducted, I think, very methodically and very clean. And only when you identify terrorists, then there's a gunfire, there's some exchange of fire. And I think we're doing it well. What's the aim? What's like, when do we know that it's done? So I think it's only in the end, in those special hopes, everything is based on intel. So intelligence, this is the key to the story. So we think there's this infrastructure of headquarters underneath. We believe that for a while, at least, hostages were in the compound of the hospital. This is a big hospital, of course. It's not only one building, you have to understand this. And we also know that Hamas terrorists were exchanging fire from the hospital. So taking into account the whole complexity of the issue, the point is, of course, if there are hostages or residues or some testimony evident to the fact that they were there, if there are Hamas operative in the hospital to have them killed, and if there's a way to go into the infrastructure, check it, map it and see what to do next, then this will be the next mission of the hospital. In your experience, do you suspect that Hamas is holding down the fort as best to describe it, or have they all scoured out of the area? There's a feeling that there might not be the, already, I mean, the campaign is already a 40 days campaign. So they might have been taken to another places, I hope not to the south through the influx of civilians. They might have done this, they have the tunnels, of course. So as we make progress, we're trying to get more intelligent and to know where they are, and to know what, if there's a possibility, of course, the greatest option, if there's a possibility for a venue for operation, a military operation, a rescue operation, something of this sort. In the meantime, the only success we had with this is single woman soldier. But even so, though, the pressure can force Hamas to negotiate, Hamas is confused without control. Maybe it will force them to negotiate a deal that we can go along with. Now, how do we know in this hospital, we just saw some videos, some firefights inside the hospital emergency room, inside the floors, that the person in the bed is not a terrorist? How do you not know that? Well, there's always an answer to the battlefield, but of course, those are very experienced soldiers and there was a lot of intelligence gathered. And of course, there's also the facial recognition, we already have a database of many of the Hamas operative that we are fighting with, some of them participated in the 7th of October, some of them or not. And you can do this, this is what technology enters the game, and there's a lot of technology involved here. This is the kind of technology that was, now was only in the provision of very special elite unit. And now it's scattered around the Army in general, and it's used in this case. Of course, technology that has to do with the tunnel, it can be optical, it can be whatever. I'm going to speak, Martin Griffiths, who's the UN chief humanitarian affairs has put a very large statement on Twitter basically screaming and saying that the protection of newborns must override all of the concerns, that hospitals aren't battlegrounds. Is this hospital a battleground only because it was used as a military base, or is there a point where that switched over from being a civilian to a military? I think we have enough intel to prove to show, and it will be also shown in the operation, that this was sort of a place where there is this infrastructure underneath, and the militant was operating from the... Just by virtue of the firefight between the firemen. Yeah, exactly. This is, somebody has to shoot back. So this is clear, okay. But we took, I think, all the precautions possible, and I think even negotiating with the manager of the hospital itself, and bringing medical equipment in order to facilitate what's needed. We can evacuate some of the patient outside of the hospital, and also the citizens that are locked in the hospital. This will be part of the objective of this operation. Now we're not, not all of the IDF forces are just focused on this hospital, the entire Gaza Strip, the entire Gaza City. This is the specialized units that do this thing. So what are the other troops doing right now while this is happening? Are they going street by street, block by block? What happens? So right now the northern Gaza is encircled, of course, and of course we allow still an influx outside to the south. But now we have to clean the area, because as you see, a few of our soldiers got killed in the last night. This is part of those attempts of the Hezbollah, of the, sorry, God forbid the Hezbollah, the Hamas terrorists sneaking from those tunnels, shooting at our forces, so you have to be very careful, very alert, but still clean from house to house the whole area and make sure that we sit very well and we then do search operation for weaponry, for missiles, whatever is in the area. So this is part of the operation. One last question, which is a horrible question to ask, but is it possible that this hospital is booby trapped? That this is a big trap? But I think, as I said from the offset, a major dimension of this operation is the engineering, our engineering forces, and I know some of them personally. So the whole idea of, of course, those traps, those explosive, this is part of the, one of the things that we were prepared to from the beginning of this operation, and until now it's conducted pretty well, but for sure, we have to be, this way, entering the tunnel will be the last resort. We will do any technological means to prevent us to enter the tunnels unless it's necessary. Right, now you're looking, viewers around the world, you're looking now, this is a video of humanitarian aid being brought to the hospital. These are newborns, these are incubators for newborns. This is food, this is relief brought into the hospital. This is a video we're just getting into, I-24 right now. This is an important- Of course. Not just a show for the world. No, no, no, it's part of the value of the idea, if we have no idea to hit patients there and the newborns, of course, this is part of the whole companion, the intel that we gathered along those lines that enabled us to know exactly what to bring in. This way doctors and medical staff is part of those forces for sure. Great, don't know if you'll tell it, stay with us just a moment, we're going to keep going now. There's a lot going on, there's a second theater of war here, of course, and we're continuing our live team coverage. Let's go first now to our correspondent, Pierre Costacobac, she's at the Israeli Lebanon border, she filed this report just moments ago. What you can see behind me is southern Lebanon, where one of the closest locations that are still somewhat accessible to the Lebanese border, as this region here in northern Israel has been widely closed off, and as you can see, the army has put up those meter high concrete walls here to shut up the area, to protect this area from both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles, because this is what we've been seeing really throughout this war, that this is what has been coming out of southern Lebanon, both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles heavily endangering these communities located here on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border. Now, the army has declared this as a closed military zone, and the movement is very, very restricted, and this is the case with many communities here also in the north, in the proximity of about five kilometers to the Lebanese border. Communities have been evacuated, residents have left their homes without knowing when they will be able to come back, and this is also what has been now addressed in the Israeli security and political establishment, how to deal with the threat on the southern border here posed by Hisbola and other proxies. Residents are asking themselves, how will they be able to come back here and live in safety? So also Benjamin Netanyahu, Jovgal and Benny Gantz, they all have spoken about the northern border here yesterday, saying that they want to restore security in the north as well, how that will translate into military action. That is the big question here being posed. This is Piyash Chakrabah reporting from the Israel-Lebanon border for I-24 News. For those of you just joining us here on I-24 News, Israeli troops have entered the Al-Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. It's a hospital center that a few several blocks long. Pierre Klushander is our I-24 News correspondent. He is on the southern end of Israel on the border with Gaza. Pierre, we just saw moments ago some video being brought in of incubators being brought to the hospital center, also some food and humanitarian aid. What is the aim here? Right, the Israeli army has published some videos of those incubators and medical supplies and baby food brought to the doorstep of one of the hospital buildings, because this is a large complex, but nothing from what's going on inside, because there is a fog of war even inside an hospital. What we've seen earlier is the commotion created by some shots ringing out outside the hospital, from inside where you see people just panicking because of the shots which are probably at close range. We know that when the IDF entered the hospital there was some sort of ambush, but by Hamas terrorists throwing IEDs on them, shooting at them, and we know that five of these terrorists were annihilated. We know that around the hospital there's been ongoing fighting for days already, since the hospital was basically encircled. Now inside the hospital what we know is from Palestinian reports and Western media reports who have Palestinian freelancers inside the Gaza Strip who are saying that the army, these elite units are just coming one or two of the buildings room after room, floor after floor. The IDF has said that they found weapon caches, they found Hamas assets. I don't know exactly what that means. It's very vague, but at the same time they said that there is no indication up until now of any hostage presence in the vicinity or in the compound of the hospital. What we know though from an Israeli security official who required anonymity is that the operation will most probably enlarge to other buildings in the complex in order to carry out that mission of neutralizing any sign of Hamas presence inside the hospital compound. Pierre, thank you very much for joining us again. Pierre Kloschender who's live at the border with Gaza. Thanks again. We'll keep in touch with you throughout the day. Daron, let me ask you a question in terms of how many Hamas soldiers are we talking about? Do we have any estimate? I mean right now we hear of Hamas annihilation. He mentioned five at the hospital. Do we know how many? How many in general in Gaza or in the Schiff Hospital? I mean we are talking about it depends whether you count the policeman, but if you take a fighting force, so you maybe 20,000 numbers like this or maybe more. Just think that the attack was conducted by three 3,000 commander, the Nukhbader commander elite terrorist force. So we are talking about many people, but there are many people on the sideline that it's not clear how to count them. They can carry a weapon one day and the other day where civilian clothes and disappear. But we have the intelligence gathering or forcing and really documented everyone that we think belongs to Hamas. And in the end we'll have this database and we'll follow this database forward. Even if there will be some deal, it's not like we'll forget what had happened. Right, I mean the question some people will ask is how do you what do you count as a combatant? Who is an enemy combatant? If I ate the candy on October 7th, am I combatant? Of course there are civilians, but in the other hand there is a military structure of regiment commanders, division commanders, those that are responsible for the launching of the missiles that are responsible for the Navy SEAL operation. So there is a structure that they created the military power. Of course they would not be able to operate in the fashion they operate in the 7th of October. There was no such a structure. And in terms of destruction, we know the structure and we know many of the, we have a good vision of how it works. And I think everyone who is a real combatant, a real terrorist, we would know, identify and I think in the end, hunt down. There's no question about that. Well, the question I have then will become as if though the top leader, the super top leader, Sinwad, he's in cover. So don't worry about that part, right? We assume he's in cover. So there's a second mid-level and lower level that are the commanders that are would be eliminated. So you have the lower level street fighters, if you will. Exactly. That's what we find. That's where we're fighting probably at the hospital right now. So they get eliminated. But then is the concern by the IDF is that those civilians, if you will, called civilians, then take up arms themselves. I think we did, by the way, I'm a veteran of the 82 war in Beirut and this is exactly what happened because after the PLO left Beirut, we were the suburb of Shatila. So now you remember the massacre of the Christians and whatever. So there were many combatants that were not officially members of the PLO that left on the boats to Tunisia and they were fighting us. And they really, we had quite a guerrilla fighting prior to the events of the massacre. So this might be the case and of course but whoever raises a gun against us is an enemy and whoever wants to surrender in the end will surrender. And then we'll have, after we control the field, we'll have to identify everybody and go down and check exactly what was his affiliation, whether he participate in what kind of capacity, whether he was a civilian or whether he was a combat terrorist fighter. Okay, John, stay by one second. I'm going to move on to another story that's part of this connected somewhat. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet today in an undisclosed location near San Francisco. The war against Hamas will no doubt be high on the agenda. This is high stakes. The US and New York have lined up against Russia, China and Iran. So joining me now is Karis Witte. She's the founder and executive director for Signal, which is the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Karis, let's talk a little bit about this. Now, we have in Israel have always said that Iran was behind Hamas with Russia as well. A lot of the armaments that were found at the Hamas zones were from China. So it's not as though China is 100% clear out of this, is it? China has a variety of roles in the background. The fact that Hamas has Chinese defense or military equipment is likely not a direct result of the official government. It could have been sold to Iran. It could have been sold to other parties and transferred by third parties unintentionally or by arms dealers that the government is not necessarily tracking. I am relatively confident that there was no direct sales from Chinese government to Hamas. They don't even use the term Hamas in China now since the war broke out. They don't say Hamas. They don't say Hamas is a terrorist organization. I don't think they want to be affiliated directly with Hamas. What is the Chinese interest in the area in this conflict? Do they gain anything out of this? Well, there is the side benefit that the US is somewhat distracted, is sending material to Israel and on top of Ukraine, which they actively know keeps the US less focused on the Indo-Pacific, South China Sea, and issues that are more core to China's interests. Right, so this is pretty much what the summit, if you will call it, between Biden and Xi Jinping will be today. What do you think is number one on the agenda? Is it Taiwan? Is it economics? Is it the world's geopolitics? What goes first? Yeah, definitely the Hamas-Israel war is not. And I do want to add another side benefit is that China has taken a stance that the US is the cause of all the problems in the Middle East. And by being anti-Israel, relatively speaking, and very pro-Palestinian without saying pro-Hamas, and urging Israel repeatedly to engage in a ceasefire, China is capitalizing on both pushing the narrative that the US is the cause of all of the instability in the Middle East and also standing up as a leader for the Global South. This is a core, I would say, battleground between the US and China where China sees many of the majority of votes are in the Global South. So it allows China to take the lead in places like the United Nations. Now, right now, the economy in China is weak. I was just there two weeks ago for about eight days meeting with a lot of high-level officials, both from the party and government, and different think tanks, and at the Beijing Shenzhen Forum, which is China's answer to Shangri-La Defense Conference. And the economic situation reveals itself to be weak and that there are very few foreigners. I flew from Beijing to Tokyo in order to talk to Japan about how they manage the US-China divide, and the plane was less than half full. So overall, China, I think, will focus on economy, perhaps indirectly, but the number one thing is definitely military-to-military understanding and communication. Avoiding war is at the top of the list, I think, of both countries. Right. What is the relationship right now between China and Israel after October the 7th? Has it frosted? Has it cooled? Or is it still somewhat cordial? It's pretty frosty, I would say. The Chinese that we came across were actively against Israel the fact that we suffered a savage and barbaric attack on October 7th. For them, has been completely sidelined with the photos of bombings that are taking place in Gaza. And they are really stuck on the idea of proportionality. I did not see a lot of flexibility there. However, the importance of the United States to China revealed itself when the massive vitriol online against Israel, which was a main topic of discussion when I was there, was actively reduced a week before this meeting and seemingly intended to create a better atmosphere for the U.S.-China summit, so to speak. And that would indicate that China still believes that, first of all, the U.S. is very important to China and that getting along with the U.S. right now matters. And secondly, that Israel is a key into the United States. It is still clearly one of the top assessments of China's influential policy experts. So, Carice, what you're basically saying is that a lot of the vitriol that you saw on TikTok or social media that were done by bots from China, from what's been described as bots from China, that was lowered? Yes, exactly. Actively lowered, notably by Chinese and foreigners tracking it. And where do you think the temperature is right now for China to take what's happening here in Israel and what's happening in Ukraine for that instance? And there was a lot of discussion as to saying that China was taking a look at all of that happening, saying, well, you know what, maybe Taiwan is in our scope right now. Let's try to do that now. I do not see China at all assessing that because of the wars here and in Ukraine, that they would have a greater tendency to have a kinetic interaction with Taiwan at all. In fact, for a variety of reasons, including the weak economy, including the many massive domestic issues that China has to face. I don't see Taiwan an aggressive takeover of Taiwan happening in the coming years at all. I know that there are some experts who disagree with that, but based on my up close and distant observation, I don't think that is a top concern. And I think we need to support Biden in his effort to have more communication with China to increase the military-to-military understandings to open up people-to-people communication. I was impressed by how many Chinese experts were on their way to the United States as I was meeting with them. They were telling me about their upcoming trips, which is another good sign that China is softening its position on the United States a bit. And I think out of recognition that China is not exactly where it expected to be at this moment. And it needs to rein in some of the sort of wolf warrior approach that we've seen over the last couple of years. Chris, my final question has to do with Joe Biden. What does Joe Biden need to get out of this meeting with Xi Jinping to describe it as a victory for him? Well, I think, first of all, the success of having the meeting, which I know that's a low bar, but that matters. It's expected that there will be a fentanyl agreement. That will be very productive and will probably take place. I do also believe that the military agreements and communications will open up. One question is whether journalists will be allowed to be posted in each other's countries. I'm not as confident about that. But I think that if the fentanyl and military agreements can come through, that overall it will be considered a success. And America still remains the global superpower, and China recognizes that. Great. Thank you so much, Chris. We have signaled the Sinona Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership. Thanks so much for joining us. We are looking at live pictures coming out of Gaza City right now, lots of smoke coming out. There is a bombing campaign going on right now. It seems we'll have more details right after the break here on I-24 News. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. 24 Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and the information of the events of the war, Iron Spades. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone. The reaction of Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only medium in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. News 24, only on I-24 News. From the I-24 News headquarters in Tel Aviv. Day 40 of the war against Hamas. News coming in fast and here's what you need to know. Number one, the IDF is inside the Al-Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. There has been some active fire. You're looking at video from inside Al-Shifa Hospital. Video coming in moments ago. A firefight between IDF and Hamas terrorists at the entrance of the hospital. A number of Hamas terrorists were killed. The IDF tells I-24 News that it is a specialized operation with medical teams and Arabic-speaking personnel going room to room to minimize injuries to civilians. Civilian men, non-medical, aged 16 to 40 are being questioned and matched with face recognition software. No Israeli hostages have been found and there's no word yet on whether Israeli troops have been able to enter the basement of Al-Shifa. The American intelligence services say that their independent information is that Hamas has a command node underneath the hospital. The second thing you need to know, ABC News in the United States citing an Israeli source says that there has been a breakthrough in the deal for the release of hostages. It may happen in 48 to 72 hours. Another report from the Khan Network, Israel and Hamas are negotiating a child for child deal. It's being mediated by Qatar in the United States. Now the idea here is that Israeli children kidnapped to Gaza will be released in exchange for Palestinian children and youngsters that are imprisoned in Israel. One of the sources, though, emphasizes that the talks are still ongoing and that there's no final conclusion. Number three thing you need to know, fuel shipments have come into Gaza now from the humanitarian operations. It is the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the territory since October the 7th. Kogat, the Israeli defense body that's responsible for Palestinian affairs, says that 6,200 gallons of fuel have crossed through Rafa. The United States pushed hard for this. And the number four thing you need to know, two IDF soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. This brings the death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas to 48. They are Captain Omri Yosef David, 27 years old from Karmiel, a deputy company commander in the negative Brigade 9217 Battalion. And Captain Yedidia Asher Lev, 26 years old from Tal Minasheh, a deputy company commander in the Gavati Brigade Shakad Battalion. I'm joined now in studio by Lieutenant Colonel former commander for the Special Forces IDF. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. The IDF was given pretty much an unbelievable challenge to go into a hospital in the middle of a war. A civilian hospital is being militarized. Explain to us why they're doing a surgical room by room floor by floor. Well, first of all, to have such an operation, it requires really a very special kind of forces. I think I know who are the forces that are involved. They are specialized in also following intelligence, identifying combatants and civilians. And, of course, there's also medical staff with them and, of course, the Arabic-speaking professionals. And this requires a lot of preparation and I think, as well, from the offsets, there was a point in general, in San Alon, who was also a commander of the unit that I commanded, the famous Serpent God, to command all this kind of operation, special operation in Gaza. And this is one of the most important one that was conducted in Tantin now. And to be under the scrutiny of the world. I mean, every single, you can't go through any website, BBC, CNN, whatever, with their eyes on what's happening. So I'm sure this is part of the way they was instructed, those Special Forces soldiers. They know, they take it into account, they know that this is the case and there was a lot of preparation done by the spokesman of the IDF, Daniel Agari, which was the sort of a build-up into this operation. But until now it's conducted, I think, very methodically and very clean and only when you identify terrorists then there's a gunfire, there's some exchange of fire and I think we're doing it well. What's the aim? What's like, when do we know that it's done? No, so I think it's only in the end in the Special Ops, everything is based on intel, so intelligence, this is the key to the story. So we think there's this infrastructure of headquarters underneath. We believe that for a while, at least, hostages were in the compound of the hospital. This is a big hospital, of course. It's not only one building, you have to understand this. And we also know that Hamas terrorists were exchanging fire from the hospital. So taking into account the whole complexity of the issue, the point is of course if there are hostages or residues or some testimony evident to the fact that they were there. If there are Hamas operative in the hospital to have them killed and if there's a way to go into the infrastructure, check it, map it and see what to do next, then this will be the next mission of the hospital. In your experience, do you suspect that Hamas is holding down the fort as best to describe it or have they all scoured out of the area? There's a feeling that they might not be there already. I mean, the campaign is already a 40-day campaign. So they might have been taken to another places. I hope not to the south through the influx of civilians. They might have done this. They have the tunnels, of course. So as we make progress, we're trying to get more intelligent and to know where they are and to know what, if there's a possibility, of course, the greatest option is there is a possibility for a venue for operational, military, operational rescue operation, something of this sort. In the meantime, the only success we had with this single woman soldier. But even so, though, the pressure can force Hamas to negotiate. Hamas is confused without control. Maybe it will force him to negotiate a deal that we can go along with. Now, how do we know in this hospital, we just saw some videos, some firefights inside the hospital emergency room, inside the floors that the person in the bed is not a terrorist. I mean, how do you not know that? Well, there's always answer to the battlefield. But of course, those are very experienced soldiers and there was a lot of intelligence gathered. And of course, there's also the facial recognition. We already have a database of many of the Hamas operative that we are fighting with. Some of them participated in the 7th of October, some of them or not. And you can do this. This is where technology enters the game and there's a lot of technology involved here. This is the kind of technology that was, now was only in the provision of very special elite unit. And now it's scattered around the army in general and it's used in this case. Of course, technology is attested with the tunnel. It can be optical. It can be whatever. I'm going to speak, Martin Griffiths, who's the UN chief humanitarian affairs has put a very large statement on Twitter, basically screaming and saying that the protection of newborns must override all of the concerns. The hospitals aren't battlegrounds. Is this hospital a battleground only because it was used as a military base or is there a point where that's switched over from being a civilian to a military? I think we have enough intel to prove to show and it will be also shown in the operation that this was sort of a place where there is this infrastructure underneath and the militant was operating from the... Just by virtue of the firefight. Yeah, exactly. Somebody has to shoot back. So this is clear. We took, I think, all the precautions possible and I think even negotiating with the manager of the hospital itself and bringing medical equipment in order to facilitate what's needed and if we can evacuate some of the patient outside of the hospital and also the citizens that are locked in the hospital. This will be part of the objective of this operation. Now, not all of the IDF forces are just focused on this hospital. This is the specialized units that do this thing. So what are the other troops doing right now while this is happening? Are they going street by street, block by block? What happens? So right now the northern Gaza is encircled, of course, and of course we allow still an influx outside to the south but now we have to clean the area because as you see a few soldiers got killed in the last night. This is part of those attempts of the, sorry, God forbid, the Hamas terrorists sneaking from those tunnels, shooting at our forces so you have to be very careful, very alert but still clean from house to house the whole area and make sure that we sit very well and we then do search operation for weaponry for missiles, whatever is in the area. So this is part of the operation. One last question, which is a horrible question to ask but is it possible that this hospital is booby trapped? But I think, as I said from the offset, a major dimension of this operation is our engineering forces and I know some of them personally so the whole idea of, of course, those traps, those explosives, this is part of the... One of the things that we were prepared to from the beginning of this operation and until now it's conducted pretty well but for sure we have to be... This way entering the tunnel would be the last resort. We would do any technological means to prevent us to enter the tunnels unless it's necessary. Right now you're looking, viewers around the world, you're looking now, this is a video of humanitarian aid being brought to the hospital. These are newborn, these are incubators for newborns. This is food, this is relief brought into the hospital. This is a video we're just getting into I-24 right now. This is an important... Of course. Not just a show for the world that... No, no, it's part of the value of the idea if we have no idea to hit patients there and the newborns, of course. This is part of the whole campaign and the intel that we gathered along those lines enabled us to know exactly what to bring in. This way doctors and medical staff is part of those forces for sure. Great. Don't know if you're tired. Stay with us just a moment. We're going to keep going now. There's a lot going on. There's a second theater of war here. Of course, and we're continuing our live team coverage. Let's go first now to our correspondent, Piazza Stackelbach. She's at the Israeli Lebanon border. She filed this report just moments ago. What you can see behind me is southern Lebanon, where one of the closest locations that are still somewhat accessible to the Lebanese border as this region here in northern Israel has been widely closed off. And as you can see, the army has put up those meter high concrete walls here to shut up the area, to protect this area from both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles. Because this is what we've been seeing really throughout this war, that this is what has been coming out of southern Lebanon both mortar shells and anti-tank missiles heavily endangering these communities located here on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border. Now, the army has declared this as a closed military zone and the movement is very, very restricted. And this is the case with many communities here also in the north in the proximity of about five kilometers to the Lebanese border. Communities have been evacuated. Residents have left their homes without knowing when they will be able to come back. And this is also what has been now addressed in the Israeli security and political establishment. How to deal with the threat on the southern border here posed by Hezbollah and other proxies. Residents are asking themselves how will they be able to come back here and live in safety. So also Benjamin Netanyahu, Yav Gal and Benny Gantz, they all have spoken about the northern border here yesterday saying that they want to restore security in the north as well. How that will translate into military action. That is the big question here being posed. This is Piyash Chakrabah reporting from the Israel-Lebanon border for I-24 News. For those of you just joining us here on I-24 News, Israeli troops have entered the Al-Shifa Hospital Center in Gaza City. It's a hospital center that's a few several blocks long. Pierre Kloschender is our I-24 News correspondent. He is on the southern end of Israel on the border with Gaza. Pierre, we just saw moments ago some video being brought in of incubators being brought to the hospital center. Also some food and humanitarian aid. What is the aim here? Right. The Israeli army has published some videos of those incubators and medical supplies and baby food brought to the doorstep of one of the hospital buildings because this is a large complex. But nothing from what's going on inside because there is a fog of war even inside an hospital. What we've seen earlier is the commotion created by some shots ringing out outside the hospital from inside where you see people just panicking because of the shots which are probably at close range. We know that when the IDF entered the hospital there was some sort of ambush but by Hamas terrorists throwing IEDs on them, shooting at them. And we know that five of these terrorists were annihilated. We know that around the hospital there's been ongoing fighting for days already since the hospital was basically encircled. Now inside the hospital what we know is from Palestinian reports and Western media reports who have Palestinian freelancers inside the Gaza Strip who are saying that the army, these elite units are just combing one or two of the buildings room after room, floor after floor. The IDF has said that they found weapon caches. They found Hamas assets. I don't know exactly what that means. It's very vague but at the same time they said that there is no indication up until now of any hostage presence in the vicinity or in the compound of the hospital what we know though from an Israeli security official who required anonymity is that the operation will most probably enlarge to other buildings in the complex in order to carry out that mission of neutralizing any sign of Hamas presence inside the hospital compound. Pierre, thank you very much for joining us again. Pierre Kloschender who's live at the border with Gaza. Thanks again. We'll keep in touch with you throughout the day. Doron Avital, let me ask you a question in terms of how many Hamas soldiers are we talking about? Do we have any estimate? I mean right now we hear of Hamas annihilation. He mentioned five at the hospital. Do we know how many? How many in general in Gaza or in the Schiff Hospital? I mean we are talking about it depends whether you count the policeman but if you take a fighting force so you may be 20,000 numbers like this or maybe more just think that the attack was conducted by 3,000 commando, Nukhba, their commando elite terrorist force. So we are talking about many people but there are many people on the sideline it's not clear how to count them. They can carry a weapon one day and the other day where civilians close and disappear. But we have the intelligence gathering or forcing and really documented everyone that we think belongs to Hamas and in the end we'll have this database and we'll follow this database forward. And there will be some deal. It's not like we'll forget what had happened. Right, I mean the question some people will ask is how do you, what do you count as a combatant? Who is an enemy combatant? If I ate the candy on October 7th, am I combatant? No, of course that's the reason but in the other hand there is a military structure of regiment commanders, division commanders, those that are responsible for the launching of the missile that are responsible for the Navy SEAL operation. So there is a structure that they created, the military power of course, they would not be able to operate in the fashion, they operate in the 7th of October there was no such structure. And in terms of structure we know the structure and we know many of the, we have a good vision of how it works and I think everyone who is a real combatant, a real terrorist we would know, identify and I think in the end hunt down there's no question about that. Well the question I have then will become as if though the top of leader, or Tsinghua, he's in cutter so don't worry about that part, right? We assume he's in cutter. So there's a second mid-level and lower level that are commanders that would be eliminated. So you have the lower level street fighters if you will. Exactly, that's what we find. That's where we're fighting probably at the hospital right now. So they get eliminated but then is the concern by the IDF is that those civilians if you will called civilians then take up arms themselves. I think we did, by the way, I'm a veteran of 82 war in Beirut and this is exactly what happened because after the PLO left Beirut we were the suburb of Shatila, Sena you remember the massacre of the Christians and whatever so there were many combatants that were not officially members of the PLO that left on the boats to Tunisia and they were fighting us and really we had quite a guerrilla fighting prior to the events of the massacre. So this might be the case and of course but whoever raises a gun against us is an enemy and whoever wants to surrender in the end will surrender and then we'll have after we control the field we'll have to identify everybody and go down and check exactly what was his affiliation where did he participate in what kind of capacity whether he was a civilian or whether he was a combat terrorist fighter. John, stay by in one second I'm going to move on to another story that's part of this connected somewhat. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet today in an undisclosed location near San Francisco the war against Hamas will no doubt be high on the agenda. This is high stakes. The US and New York have lined up against Russia, China and Iran. So joining me now is Kareem Switis. She's the founder and executive director for Signal which is the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Kareem, let's talk a little bit about this. Now, we have in Israel have always said that Iran was behind Hamas with Russia as well. A lot of the armaments that were found at the Hamas zones were from China. So it's not as though China is 100% clear out of this, is it? China has a variety of roles in the background. The fact that Hamas has Chinese defense or military equipment is likely not a direct result of the official government. It could have been sold to Iran. It could have been sold to other parties and transferred by third parties unintentionally or by arms dealers that the government is not necessarily tracking. I am relatively confident that there was no direct sales from Chinese government to Hamas. They don't even use the term Hamas in China now since the war broke out. They don't say Hamas. They don't say Hamas is a terrorist organization. I don't think they want to be affiliated directly with Hamas. What is the Chinese interest in the area in this conflict? Did they gain anything out of this? Well, there is the side benefit that the US is somewhat distracted, is sending material to Israel and on top of Ukraine, which they actively know keeps the US less focused on the Indo-Pacific, South China Sea, and issues that are more core to China's interests. Right, so this is pretty much what the summit, if you will call it, between Biden and Xi Jinping will be today. What do you think is number one on the agenda? Is it Taiwan? Is it economics? Is it the world's geopolitics? What goes first? Yeah, definitely the Hamas Israel war is not, and I do want to add another side benefit is that China has taken a stance that the US is the cause of all the problems in the Middle East. And by being anti-Israel, relatively speaking, and very pro-Palestinian without saying pro Hamas, and urging Israel repeatedly to engage in a ceasefire, China is capitalizing on both pushing the, it's narrative that the US is the cause of all of the instability in the Middle East and also standing up as a leader for the global south. This is a core, I would say, battleground between the US and China, where China sees many of the majority of votes are in the global south. So it allows China to take the lead in places like the United Nations. Now, right now, the economy in China is weak. I was just there two weeks ago for about eight days, meeting with a lot of high-level officials, both from the party and government in different think tanks, and at the Beijing Shenzhen Forum, which is China's answer to Shangri-La Defense Conference, and the economic situation reveals itself to be weak and that there are very few foreigners. I flew from Beijing to Tokyo in order to talk to Japan about how they manage the US-China divide, and the plane was less than half full. So overall, China, I think it will focus on economy, perhaps indirectly, but the number one thing is definitely military-to-military understanding and communication. Avoiding war is at the top of the list, I think, of both countries. Right, what is the relationship right now between China and Israel after October the 7th? Has it frosted? Has it cooled? Or is it still somewhat cordial? It's pretty frosty, I would say. The Chinese that we came across were actively against Israel, the fact that we suffered a savage and barbaric attack on October 7th for them has been completely sidelined with the photos of bombings that are taking place in Gaza. And they are really stuck on the idea of proportionality. I did not see a lot of flexibility there. However, the importance of the United States to China revealed itself when the massive vitriol online against Israel, which was a main topic of discussion when I was there, was actively reduced a week before this meeting and seemingly intended to create a better atmosphere for the U.S.-China summit, so to speak. And that would indicate that China still believes that, first of all, the U.S. is very important to China and that getting along with the U.S. right now matters. And secondly, that Israel is a key into the United States. It is still clearly one of the top assessments of China's influential policy experts. So, Carice, what you're basically saying is that a lot of the vitriol that you saw on TikTok or social media that were done by bots from China, from what's been described as bots from China, that was lowered? Yes, exactly. Actively lowered, notably by Chinese and foreigners tracking it. I think the temperature is right now for China to take what's happening here in Israel and what's happening in Ukraine for that instance. And there was a lot of discussion as to saying that China was taking a look at all of that happening, saying, well, you know what? Maybe Taiwan is in our scope right now. Let's try to do that now. I do not see China at all assessing that because of the wars here and in Ukraine that they would have a greater tendency to have a kinetic interaction with Taiwan at all. In fact, for a variety of reasons, including the weak economy, including the many massive domestic issues that China has to face. I don't see Taiwan an aggressive takeover of Taiwan happening in the coming years at all. I know that there are some experts who disagree with that, but based on my up close and distant observation, I don't think that is a top concern. And I think we need to support Biden in his effort to have more communication with China to increase the military to military understandings to open up people-to-people communication. I was impressed by how many Chinese experts were on their way to the United States as I was meeting with them. They were telling me about their upcoming trips, that China is softening its position on the United States a bit. And I think out of recognition that China is not exactly where it expected to be at this moment. And it needs to rein in some of the sort of wolf warrior approach that we've seen over the last couple of years. Chris, my final question has to do with Joe Biden. What does Joe Biden need to get out of this meeting with Xi Jinping to describe it as a victory for him? I think, first of all, the success of having the meeting which I know that's a low bar, but that matters. It's expected that there will be a fentanyl agreement. That will be very productive and will probably take place. I do also believe that the military agreements and communications will open up. One question is whether journalists will be allowed to be posted in each other's countries. I'm not as confident about that but I think that if the fentanyl and military agreements can come through, that overall it will be considered a success. And America still remains the global superpower and China recognizes that. Great. Thank you so much, Chris, Rita of Signal, the Sinona Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership. Thanks so much for joining us. We are looking at live pictures coming out of Gaza City right now, lots of smoke coming out. There is a bombing campaign going on right now. It seems we'll have more details right after the break here on I-24 News. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv on this day 40 of Israel's war with Hamas. The UN says it's appalled by an ongoing IDF operation inside the Sheifa hospital in Gaza City. The Red Cross and the World Health Organization say they're deeply concerned this hospital has been identified as a Hamas command center by Israel, a claim supported by the United States. You look forward to that. The IDF has also released this footage showing its troops bringing humanitarian aid to Sheifa. The IDF says it is mounting a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area within the hospital search zone. The IDF says Hamas has been identified as a Hamas command center by Israel, a claim supported by the United States looking at footage of a Hamas in the hospital searching for Hamas infrastructure and weapons. Let's get the very latest on that now. We can go to southern Israel. We're joined by our correspondent Pierre Kloschen. Pierre, what is the latest? Well, an official security source told I-24 News that there are no battles inside that specified location on the western side of the compound of Sheifa hospital. No battle, but the soldiers are calming the area room after room floor after floor in order to find weapons caches and Hamas assets. That's the terminology that they employ. Hamas assets and it seems they found some of the weapons, some of those assets, but no traces of the hostages and they're still looking for it. Now, another security source, Israeli security source said earlier that if need be this targeted operation will be expanded to other buildings in the compound. This is a very large compound. It's one of probably the largest hospital in the whole Gaza Strip. So because they're working surgically so to speak and calming the area that will take time and it's in a sense a mirror image of the whole ground offensive during which the IDF forces advanced, progressed very carefully in a very measured way in order to save IDF soldiers' lives and also in order to prevent too many non-involved population casualties. So at the hospital which is really a symbol of the humanitarian predicament of the Palestinians they're taking really a lot of precautions in order not to have any casualties. There are probably something like 500 medical personnel inside the hospital 1000 to 1500 displaced Palestinians that seek refuge in the hospital compound as well as about 650 patients amongst them 37 newborn, premature newborns who desperately need incubator because Egypt is undertaking an effort to transfer those babies to Egyptian territory and thus these incubators will be very, very important for the babies to stay alive and be sent to Egypt to a safe haven. Apart from that there is still heavy bombing in the northern part of the Gaza Strip but there are humanitarian poses at the same time in two of the Jebalia refugee camp quarters as Salam and Al Noor there are humanitarian poses from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in an hour from now the same humanitarian corridor, Salahadin access crossing east of Gaza City towards the south is open for 7 hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the residents of many of Gaza City are urged by the IDF and by the coordinator of activities vis-à-vis the Palestinians to leave the areas where they live and to join the cohort of displaced Palestinians that are looking for a safe haven for themselves. Thank you very much indeed with the very latest on what is happening inside Gaza this hour. With me in the studio, Gwisha Yakubovic is the former head of the civilian department at Kogat. He's an expert in Israeli-Palestinian relations as well. Thank you very much for being with us. Gwisha, good to see you again. All of the actions today very much centered on the she-for hospital command center, but this is a very complicated, sensitive operation given the number of civilians who are still inside. I was trying to seek the right word how to define it and I found it. It's incomprehensible. That's the right word. Just imagine. What would any other country what would any other army do when 239 civilians will be kidnapped? Let's say it's their fathers, their sons, their daughters that the enemy would kidnap. After brutally murder in 1400 with that massacre holding them on the ground in Gaza the IDF is entering and fighting terror well it's their known arena it's their home so they are familiar with the I would say the obstacles on the ground and you know the IDF should be prepared with surprises so instead of being focused only as an as an army operationally instead of being focused only on the operational needs strategy tactics the IDF is dealing with fighting the enemy, sending aid talking to people sending warnings, walking tiptoes on eggs you know it's like it's a fragile war that's how I would define it and it's incomprehensible to do things like that in a battle zone it's a war that we are facing okay it's an it's a brutal enemy that we are trying to eliminate and to release our civilians and yet because of this unfortunate reality of the state of Israel that we suffer from the legitimacy from all over the world and people do not understand I believe the reality not all of them some of them we need to to do all those things and it's like dancing between drops of rockets well let's hear it from a Palestinian himself because the Al Jazeera network on its Arab channel did a live interview inside one of the hospitals with a Palestinian man you can take a listen to that now these are the testimonies from the citizens because of as they he was referring to Hamas he called them the resistance which is the translation of Hamas so there we hear it from the Palestinians themselves they know that Hamas embeds itself within the civilian infrastructure not the case for the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths tweeting this morning that he's appalled by the operation inside Shifa the Red Cross the World Health Organization have also condemned Israel for what's going on there the United States though it has to be said and also the EU has accepted that Hamas does use hospitals as a place to base their operations well I know Shifa personally I've been there I've been there in my past my past career I helped them even to build hospitals many many places many many departments and yes during the years of my service at the IDF we always dealt with this we've been getting this intelligence this information that Hamas are building their headquarters underneath hospitals and especially Shifa and it's not something new and it's like you know the feeling is that we need to justify our credibility again and again and again even after only yesterday or two days ago the IDF spokesman personally entered Turantisi hospital and the whole world show so that they are using the hospital as a military okay base or a base of operations so what else do we need to prove to the world well do you think that the IDF is doing enough to get the information out to the world we saw of course yesterday all the night before yesterday Daniel Higari went in with cameras underground the Rantisi hospital which Israel now controls showing not only weapons but also possibly evidence of where the hostages were held well the problem is with the reality that the IDF or the government of Israel is facing now let's look at it from an operational perspective let's go back to the management of Shifa that we are about to surround them we announced them yesterday that we are about to enter so what do you think that Hamas would do if they know that the goal that the mission of the IDF is to surround Shifa to enter I'm sure that for the last two weeks they cleaned whatever they could clean underground number two there are certain informations that I believe the IDF can share information you cannot share because then you will expose your sources so it's a building dilemma so on one hand you want to show everybody the truth and the reality on the other hand if you do some of those things you will expose yourself are you encouraged by the fact Egypt is now offering to help with the evacuation of some of the patients and the babies inside the hospital it's not in Egypt there is another country Dubai also sending a field hospital Qatar is also sending a field hospital they understand they understand pragmatically that eventually the IDF will enter the patients will leave the IDF will have to fight with Hamas we will need to release the people who are kidnapped and the patients will be treated on field hospitals as simple as it is so this will be a long and complicated battle how long do you think it will be of course going to be long only in Shifa or I believe it's going to take at least two years that's not forget the information that the IDF holds that are five stores on the ground so it's quite a large one this is the major head water the IDF already has detailed information about the tunnels underneath about the plan of the building etc well there was a previous operation before the IDF surrounded the Shifa let's not forget there is a round Shifa there is some sort of a dahya if I may use this term from Lebanon so all the neighborhood around Shifa was the neighborhood full of head water so the IDF entered for the last two weeks and cleaned all those places of many tunnels now when you hear sometimes that there is a explosives and they sound like a belt or you see it like a belt it's to make sure that the tunnels that connect the areas that you want to enter are collapsing so they will not be able to smuggle the thing that they want to smuggle so it's an operation that started I believe three weeks ago the moment the IDF entered in a purpose or in advance knowing that that would be the situation talk to me about the humanitarian corridors that Israel has been supervising and overseeing for three or four hours daily they've been kind of guarding a route so that civilians in northern Gaza in some places it's four hours in some places it's eight hours and six hours but it started with just a few dozen people it started at the beginning at the beginning when the IDF entered to Gaza it started with few dozens so I cannot more than that that had to cross on the major road it's called Salahadin Road or if I will connect it to Israel it's road number four it's the same road it's from Naharia and down to Al-Alish okay crossing the Gaza Strip it's called Salahadin and there is a junction there that we used to name it Nasserim junction a little bit to the north this is actually the place or the line that the people were supposed or they've been asked to cross from the north to the south so the IDF will minimize casualties or civilians were not involved at the beginning of course not many cross because Hamas targeted them Hamas launched motor shells on those people I've seen a video of Hamas snipers killing some of those civilians kids and women and only after the IDF took control over that junction and control over that road only then people felt secure enough or that they will be safe enough to cross because they know that the IDF will not open fire on them so do you think that's the situation for people inside the hospital now that some of them just will be too scared to leave this is what is happening right now actually the IDF is freeing the people that were obligated to I don't know maybe it was their will or Hamas forced them to stay in Shifa so they will be their human shield and what the IDF is doing now is entering from room to room and forcing those people the civilians to leave Shifa to the south all right Grisha thank you you stay with us we're gonna go to the north now the water remains watchful and on high alert at its northern border amid the threat from the Iranian back terrorist group Hezbollah our Pia Stechelback is there for us now Pia what's happening well Laura it has been a relatively quiet last 24 hours it's quiet as it can be and the current situation here at the Israel Lebanon border very tense very volatile situation however we do know that there are reports of Israeli shelling in some countries on the southern Lebanese side of the border there the communities of Ayat Hashab and Yareen which are located at the center west part of the Israel Lebanon border on the Lebanese side there we've heard some of that shelling earlier today as well when it comes to the constant shelling coming from southern Lebanon is mortar shells and anti-tank missiles there were several of them launched towards the Israeli communities of Magaliot and Metula in the upper eastern part of the Galilee region again is more towards the center western part of the Israel Lebanese border and these are threats that are constantly in place here we're speaking about dozens of communities that have been evacuated exactly because of that and this issue has to be addressed also on the level of politics as well and this is what we've been seeing yesterday both the defense minister addressing that in his speech but also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been speaking to local municipal leaders here in the north and also Benny Gantz the leader of the national unity party and the current member of the war cabinet and the former defense minister he toured the communities of Kieraj Mona and Metula yesterday and he said that the mission is to restore security here in the north as well and that the country cannot go back to a situation that has been in place on October the 6th the day before the breakout of the current war but the issue is there is no current suggestions in terms of how that can be translated or if that will be translated into military action and I do know that thousands of people here in the north have been evacuated without knowing when they will be able to go back to their homes and we know that many of them are fearful to do so because the threat that Hezbollah poses sitting right on the Israeli Lebanon border is going to be there even after the war with Gaza is going to end and this is a threat that has been there also way before and this has been something that these residents here had to take into account also before and many of them now demand that there will be some kind of threat that will be the case and what exactly is going to be done in order to restore that security here on the northern front that is a big question mark right now Laura Pia, thank you very much, Pia Steppleback there at Israel's northern border while Israel is at war in the south in the north and the leader of the Iranian backs Houthis in Yemen has found to continue attacks on Israel Abdul Malik Al-Houthi also condemned what he called the weak balance of the Muslim world with regard to the conflict in Gaza, the Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks at Israel including on the port of Elat and the Red Sea and are now threatening to sink Israeli ships. Well with us now Dr. Elizabeth Kendall Middle East expert at Gerton College at Cambridge University thank you very much indeed for being with us Dr. Kendall, first of all to what extent would you say the Houthis are attacking Israel out of their own condition and to what extent are they being instructed directly by Iran attacking Israel does accord with the slogan the rationale the commitment that the Houthis have always publicised about themselves of course their great motto is God is great death to America death to Israel curse on the Jews and victory to Islam so it fits very neatly with that now of course the Houthis are working directly with Iran but that doesn't mean that they're a complete direct proxy of Iran this is very much something that will gain them great credibility inside Yemen oddly enough inside Yemen there is strong evidence that there isn't a great liking for America or for Israel and there is huge sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians so this is something that in a war that's dragged out inside Yemen more than eight years could win them back some broader credibility beyond their own natural base and of course there has as you point out been eight years of war in Yemen the country was already one of the poorest in the Arab worlds a nation really impoverished I mean just how much do these drone and missile attacks cost the country well it's difficult to say because the Houthis have been running well we let's put it bluntly a corrupt regime for the last eight years so there's not exactly accountability but what I can say is that in a country that has already if you include the northern regions themselves suffered war for almost 20 years since 2004 with a bit of a pause for the Arab Spring and United Nations led national dialogue then it's just a way of life this doesn't really impact ordinary people because they're already suffering so much and of course if you think about someone who's in their 20s early 20s in the Houthi regions all they've known is war for the past two decades with a couple of brief pauses so it doesn't really make that much of a difference to ordinary people they've also launched attacks of course against the Saudis and the Emiratis and the Bahrainis as well and we actually saw Saudi Arabia intercept a missile that was headed for Israel a couple of weeks ago I mean are the Houthis trying to provoke the Saudis and the Emiratis are they trying to push them more onto the side of Israel No I'm not sure that that's how I would see it I think what's happening is that the Houthis are increasing their own leverage in talks which have been ongoing between the Saudis and the Houthis because of course the more a spoiler role they play and the more popularity they gain inside Yemen and the greater the results that they can get out of the ongoing talks to try to make peace in their own war with the Saudi led coalition and the Saudis and it is in terms of the weapons that the Houthis have managed to stockpile over the years I mean just how much of a threat are they to Israel and to general stability in the region The weapons that the Houthis are using at the moment and by the way we should note that the weaponry has become increasingly sophisticated as the war has dragged on which is strong evidence that Iran has been supplying them this is right at the edge now of Houthi capabilities it's clear that the Houthis do have missile capacity that can reach a range of up to around 2000 kilometers so Israel allowed just about within reach but it's unlikely that they can do too much damage because of the distance between them what I would say is that it's just an extra front for Israel to watch out for so it has some role in taking up bandwidth of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the international community Alright Dr Elizabeth Kendall we appreciate it thank you very much Well Robert Swift has more now on the Houthis and their efforts to enter the war with Israel Yemen's Houthis attacked Israel on Tuesday targeting the southern city of Elat with surface to surface missiles not for the first time With the help of Allah the Almighty our armed forces have launched ballistic missiles at various targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Palestinian territories including targets in Elat It has used drones and missiles to target Israel as an act of support to Hamas with its weapons falling short and reportedly landing in Egypt and Jordan at times a Shiite organization with Yemen's Houthi tribe at its core it is backed and armed by Iran for around a decade it has fought for control of Yemen It is designated as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia the UAE and Malaysia but not in the US which temporarily labeled it as such for a month in 2021 On top of the threat of long range attacks against Israeli cities the Houthis are threatening Israeli shipping In the Red Sea particularly in Babel Mandab and its adjacent Yemeni territorial waters our eyes are constantly monitoring for Israeli ships which rely on communication and disguise in their movements not daring to raise the Israeli flag The Houthis have formed in attacking ships Yemen's strategic location offering them ample targets in the past they have struck Saudi Navy ships and commercial cargo vessels for this reason the US is deploying an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea enhancing air defenses off Israel's south coast and beefing up deterrence a move that could either dampen down the Houthi threat or risk tipping Israel's war into a wider regional conflict Well Grisha Yakubovich is with me in the studio just how much of a threat do the Houthis pose to Israel and specifically Israel's shipping industry Well first of all about the Houthis history told us that when they threat they mean what they say so it's one of the Arab countries that I can say for sure that they mean the threats and when they promise something they deliver as they promise that they will join the efforts they joined they promise that they will launch aircraft missiles to Israel to a lot and they deliver the game now they are promising that they will hit any Israeli ship I think that the test will be at Babel Mandab it's the narrow place there in the moment they will know that there is an Israeli ship they will target it it depends on what the information this ship will have and what the intelligence Israel will be able to collect before one of those ships will cross there or the decision will be that no Israeli ships cross through Babel Mandab they will go to the Mediterranean this is a blatant declaration of war should Israel respond? Israel could have or should have respond to Hezbollah before they respond to the hoods because what is happening in the north what is that? it's a game it's a war but I just read this morning that the Americans some official information that Americans are satisfied from the fact that Hezbollah did not escalate the the north some American officials said that they don't want to they don't want to that the US politicians are satisfied from the fact that after Amos Hoshtein been in Lebanon and threatened them so they are satisfied that Hezbollah are not escalating the northern this is a level of violence they expect Israel to live with if you ask me personally it's a joke there is a war on the northern border that the IDF and the state of Israel is facing but what I can say according to half an hour ago the equation is still the same equation it means Hezbollah is dealing with the IDF harassing the IDF we call it ping-pong and Hamas Lebanon can launch rockets we're going to take a short break we'll be back in a second stay with us is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she is our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well Welcome back now from October 7th denial to claims that the IDF is deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza Israel is battling disinformation campaigns on social media and often in the mainstream media too just when Israel needs Hezbollah or explanation ministry the unit has been shut down due to a lack of funding the finance minister rejected a budget plan which would prioritize emergency assistance to refugees at the same time a new poll out today shows just 4% of Israelis believe Prime Minister Netanyahu is a credible source of information on the war we'll talk more about that with the diplomatic correspondent at the newspaper Israel Hayyom thank you very much Cindy for being with us well part of this war is an information war isn't it yet the people who are supposed to be getting the message out about what the IDF is doing have been fired or lost their jobs due to a lack of funding me so I'm not familiar with people who lost their jobs regarding the Hassabahab as you mentioned there was a problem yesterday with the budget as far as I understand it was solved money what I get from officials is when it comes to the war every aspect of the war so there are no limits of budgets that's what at least the finance minister is more to say that's what I heard earlier this week from the foreign minister Eli Cohen so maybe you have some little problems along the way but there is a very serious effort by the government to find this battle of actually getting or keep getting legitimacy from the western world for this war of Israel those actions includes delegation of families of people who work together as they were yesterday as you know in Washington they were also in the Red Cross Headquarter in Geneva so many many efforts are being taken including in the social networks and sometimes there are problems along the way but again as far as I understand it was solved well why did it take so long day 14 so it's a war you are right and because it's a war and because there are not regular procedures so maybe sometimes it takes a little bit longer to solve the problem but I think generally speaking at least from my humble opinion I would say it seems that Israel generally I mean it took few weeks but all in all the government is at least trying to solve a lot of problems you have a hundred thousand even two hundred thousand people who are out of their homes a lot of businesses were closed and you had to find solutions for so many people in so short time so doing an effort you know bureaucracy it never goes easy or quickly but there is an effort taking place and I did hear from people who were evacuated from their places and from people in the business community that the government is solving the problem again it's always should be better and quicker but at least trying. Okay what about the report from the Bank of Israel then it says that the government's war time budget falls short and that the money that's supposed to go to the coalition should be going to the refugees so I'm not familiar with this report of the Bank of Israel I'm sorry and look again it is taking time for the government again I'm not saying it goes quickly but what I do hear at least from the finance minister and finance ministry and I get their information and their notes to the public and few times every day you have billions millions of millions of shekels from the government going to all all aspects that are needed and I'm talking about civilians aspect not about the military effort so the outrank to solve the problem and again you know always we are going through is not the Bank of Israel says that the finance minister's plan to shave 4 billion shekels from the 2023 budget to fund war expenses is not enough there should be another 8 to 10 billion cut from next year's budget including coalition funds so they're quite short aren't they yeah okay I hear you now sorry the ministry of finance have a very long history you know they have to keep the budget so they have a very long history of trying not to put out money as much as they can you always had those fights in regular times and in war times so probably that's what we see now again I believe and that's what happened when I was 6 weeks of the war in the end you will have the full money that is needed for civilian purposes you will have it they say 8 billion government is saying 4 billion maybe you know they will find the compromise on 6 I'm not sure about that about the coalition and money that you mentioned that is a debate which is taking place between the best model issues that we now see and many others he is claiming that at least some part of the coalition budget are unnecessary for the serrated community because those are arguments he already signed it goes to teachers that's 14 billion shekels in discretionary funding and a large chunk of that has gone to educational programs for the ultra orthodox community do you think that that should remain or do you think that given that we are now in a war with tens of thousands of refugees that should be changed it's not my opinion I'm just trying to describe the facts but as far as I know most of those 14 billion shekels were already spent before the war because you know it's actually it's 2023 budget but now when it comes to 2023-2024 budget for next year's budget so 2024 budget will be a new one that's for sure because of the war everything is going to change will we see cuts to the haredeem educational spending then I have no doubt about that I think we already saw some of what was left from those 14 billion some of it were moved to change to the war effort that's what I heard from many officials during those last weeks and when it comes to 2024 we definitely see a very different budget because everything is going to change alright, well I'll ask you about another poll that's out today just 4% of Israelis trust Prime Minister Netanyahu when it comes to information about the war is there going to be an election look, there is no question that most of Israelis are seeing Netanyahu as responsible to what happened he's a prime minister naturally he would have to take the responsibility I think there is no question about that whether we will go to a new elections or no, I think it's very early to say first and foremost we have to finish the first part of the war the first part of the military effort inside Gaza we still don't know of course what's going to happen with the North I believe that just after we will see the release of the massive reserve forces which are now actually leading the war just after that the political discussions, the political debate will be open, now people are talking about politics a little but just when we will see those hundreds of thousands of soldiers going back to their homes then we will see a real political fight of course for Netanyahu but not only for him Aria Kahana at Israel Hayam thank you very much well in the early days of the war the European Commission lit up its building in Brussels with the blue and white of the Israeli flag even then there was quiet dissent in Brussels and that dissent has grown our diplomatic correspondent Owen Altamann says Israel does retain strong support from key players in Europe from Germany for Israel the word from Brussels is tempered with the 27 European Union member states clawing their way in recent days to a careful compromise on the Gaza war I am asking for an immediate pauses I am saying that in plural but it is an adjective it is immediate pauses and humanitarian corridors that focus on humanitarian pauses is a kind of center of gravity that positions the EU in line with the Biden administration that tackles the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and most important between Israel's supporters and critics in Europe I understand the impulse for a ceasefire but impulses are not enough to help people to really guarantee security and peace it is unacceptable that Hamas should again have the opportunity to re-establish itself gather weapons and attack Israel and so Germany leads the camp in Europe against calling for a full-on ceasefire another testament to the special relationship between a post-Holocaust Germany and Israel now pitting Berlin against Paris in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron's fiery interview last week with the BBC so the two European powers are divided with Austria and Hungary and Belgium and Ireland also again taking different tax on Israel as long as Israel keeps the support from a core camp the European Union as a whole will not call for a ceasefire although the tone from Brussels could change alright so varying levels of support for Israel from the Europeans but the Germans I should say are top of the list so far Grisha Yakubovich is with me in the studio Grisha we were just talking about the threat from Hezbollah because as you say this is a war this is no longer just a game or tip-attack clashes that we have seen in escalation several Israeli civilians have been killed and what should Israel do does Israel need to strike more decisively well strategically and operationally thinking as long as Hezbollah continue with the equation the I would say the ping-pong game it's good for the idea if it means we can continue meaning the northern part of the Gaza Strip from terrorists we can secure the southern part of the state of Israel because we all succeeded the idea actually succeeded to lower the launches from Gaza and as deeper as the idea will enter it means we will be able to minimize the threat from Gaza until the idea will reach to the goal given by the government it means to make sure that Hamas will collapse it takes time so as long as we are only bothered in the north it's okay so we are bothered with thousands of people away from their homes yes there is a price in the world unfortunately when a country declares a war situation so can we expect all those civilians to go back to their homes when Hezbollah is still sitting across the border pointing I don't think that people will go back back to their houses when they know that Hezbollah is still there watching their houses so well I don't want to be, I'm not a prophet but I would say logically and operationally that there is no chance that the idea for the state of Israel will keep the situation at the southern part of Lebanon as it is so you predict an escalation I think that it's a but again logically when it comes from a military perspective there is no other way all right let me just bring this in the BBC has apologised once again for false reporting regarding Israel it made a false claim that the IDF was targeting medical staff and Arabic speakers in Gaza they say that was an incorrect and misquoted Reuters report this is the second or is it the third time the BBC has had to apologise for false reporting on Israel I think it's the second time the first time was with the Lahli Mama Danny Hospital and they jumped quite fast and saying yes 400 people were killed in Lahli and now it's the second time but it's not something new but it's important isn't it because millions of people watch the BBC and if they hear that Israel is deliberately targeting Arabic speakers it's important even though many of the IDF soldiers are indeed Arabic speakers even the Russian ones yes it's very important but I think it's way more important to show the Arab world the truth and the reality inside Gaza and I think that it's a wake up I think that the message is getting through yes and yes CNN nobody is excited from CNN I think that what the Israeli is saying is the best response to BBC the first time they were amazing the second time is wow and that's the way to deal with them I think this is why they also apologised possibly they are just apologising this is what I think they incorrectly reported something let's find out what is going on inside Gaza we can go to the south is there Pierre have you got an update for us well more or less the same the same is going on the IDF is combing one of the buildings in the western side of the hospital complex of Shifa which contains about 10 or maybe more buildings and a few annexes and they are combing room after room floor after floor they are calling the young people amongst the displaced medical personnel to come up and be interrogated because obviously there is a suspicion by the IDF that some of the Hamas terrorists would be dressed as medical personnel or would be dressed in civilian clothes so it's going on but there is absolutely no battle inside you remember the warning of the US administration overnight saying we don't want any bombing on shooting inside Shifa hospital the army is just doing that Pierre sorry to interrupt you can you explain to us what is the footage that we are looking at which appears to show gunfights inside the hospital what is that it's not inside you can clearly hear that the shots are ringing out inside but they come from outside you see an opening on the wall you see people in commotion obviously because the shots are very near but we know in the morning that there were battles between the IDF forces entering Shifa hospital and terrorists trying to prevent them and in that firefight we know that four or five terrorists were killed so this is probably what we see in that video clip but the IDF ensures that there is no battle absolutely and I read some Palestinian reports that there is no shots fired inside the hospital from their point of view that means there is no Hamas in the hospital but the fact that they acknowledge that there is no shots fired inside Shifa hospital is exactly what the army is trying to prevent no battle inside and they are working very prudently in a very measured way because they realize that Shifa is probably the humanitarian lightning rod of the whole war it's become a symbol the IDF made it a symbol in the sense that three weeks ago they called it the most important operational and command center and the Nisti hospital so when you fight a war in a hospital you need to be very careful and actually if a disaster happened inside Shifa that would probably bring about the end of the whole war against Hamas now Adam Schumann is just signaling me that there is some explosions in Beth Hanun you can maybe see it in the haze it's been going on now for hours with some intensity and sometimes less intensity targets are being annihilated we can hear the roar of an Israeli jet that's probably a target that was bombed by an Israeli jet with guided missiles this is what you see commonly in that particular sector of the northern Gaza Strip from here you cannot see Shifa you cannot see Gaza city you can see Beth Hanun, Beth Lahiya part of Jebalia village near Jebalia refugee camp but you cannot see where the focus is this is actually the only place for the media to see Gaza the rest of the 40 km long border is a closed military area so the fog of war persists and we rely on what the IDF is telling us and on what we can gather from Palestinian reports and other points about Palestinian reports I spoke to you earlier about the humanitarian corridor and each time that the humanitarian corridor opens and it's daily actually you have warning by Palestinian reporters saying that these are killing fields but they're not but you have this battle of information and although the IDF spokesperson in Arabic Avichai Edri sends messages on telegram on Twitter on any social platform to urge the residents to leave the battleground you have those reports emanating from Palestinian media which is basically affiliated to Hamas saying that don't, don't, don't do that this is a killing field all right Pierre, thank you very much Pierre Koshender there the latest on what's happening inside Gaza Gwishi Yakubovic is with me in the studio and that presents a very difficult situation for the civilians who are in the hospital or elsewhere should they leave when they're hearing Hamas telling them that no this is very dangerous for you I don't help you on the people in Gaza I know they're in difficult situation I've heard many, many stories I've been talking to people in Gaza also and they are terrified not from the IDF by the way but from Hamas so the moment the IDF takes control on a certain area they're willingly or unwillingly immediately evacuate that place because they know they know that they also remember when we've been in Gaza that the IDF will not open fire just like that only on targets that are open in fire or somebody that is a terrorist it's part of this information what we've been speaking about and it does actually is a life or death matter in some cases Pia Stechelback is there Pia what's happening where you are Right Laura, we've been receiving reports Lebanese reports of a shelling coming from Israel towards communities in southern Lebanon which is at the central west region of the Israel Lebanon border there in southern Lebanon this comes after and nothing out of the ordinary has been happening in the past 24 hours the ordinary meaning and they tank missiles and motor shells being fired from southern Lebanon into Israel there are a lot of stories of Mar Galiot and Mitura on the Israeli side being targeted yesterday in the very eastern part of the upper Galilee region also the community of Arab Al Aram towards the center western part being targeted yesterday and this is basically an image of this regular skirmishes between Israel and his Bala that we've been seeing really throughout this war but what also needs to be addressed is the fact that there are thousands of residents evacuated in northern Israel and they are able to come back and this is of course something that also needs to be addressed in the political establishment we saw that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a meeting with municipal leadership in the north yesterday the defense minister Joav Galan spoke about the northern front in his speech that he gave yesterday evening saying that the lives of residents in the north are no less important than the lives of those residents in the south there and Benny Gantz, former defense minister the leader of the national unity party and also a member of the current war cabinet he toured some of those northern communities yesterday specifically the city of Kiryat Shmona a relatively big city in the north, 20,000 people the vast majority of them having been evacuated and he was also visiting Metula community that is sitting really right on the border with Lebanon and he said that the country will not get back to a situation that was in place that October the 6th of course referring to the reality that was already in place before the war meaning that his Bala has been posing a threat and it will also pose a threat after the current war with Gaza will end so the question here really is how can you cater to the concerns of the residents here who first of all do not know when they will be able to go back to their homes see at the northern border but also how will they be able to fearlessly come back when they still know that his Bala is still sitting on the border so this is something that also will be addressed in military establishment how that will be implicated if there will be a military offensive possibly that is all very much in the dark as of now Laura Pia, thank you very much. Pia Stechel back there at Israel's northern border skirmishes with the terrorist group Hezbollah continue while some people have decided to stay in their communities around the Gaza envelope that includes one elderly furniture maker he decided to stay in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, here's this report by Uri Shapiro 80 year old Benny Gamarov lives alone and dedicates his life to restoring furniture perhaps not an unusual life story but Benny lives in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai close to the Gaza border ever since the Hamas onslaught on October 7th most members of the Kibbutz have left it but Benny refuses to evacuate I stayed here because I didn't want to give them the satisfaction I've been through two wars here already and not easy wars I'm not afraid of the bombs Born in Cape Town South Africa Benny came to Israel in the 1960s and opened the furniture factory close to the Gaza border some of his employees were Palestinians from Gaza he tells the story which reflects the fragile relations in this conflict zone It just so happens that one of the people working for me had a daughter who tried for so many years to have a child that had many problems physical problems I went to the hospital in Tel Aviv and I told them about the case and so they said bring the girl over I paid in the end I paid the 5000 shekels they cured the girl and then she had a baby the baby also had problems and this baby was taken to the fence if you remember when all the garzans were coming to the fence and making a lot of problems there the mother brought this other girl the one that had been born from the mother that had the treatment in Israel because she also had problems and she may have even brought her there not alive and it then turned out that we had killed this little baby Ben's family says it is worried about his safety but he refuses to leave his home here which has taken several direct hits from rockets in the last few weeks meanwhile he is offered to repair broken furniture from the Gaza envelope perhaps a symbolic gesture in this time and place That report from well let's bring this in Gaza this hour the IDF says it is carrying out a limited operation in a specific area of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City that operation began last night a senior military official has been reported as saying that the IDF has concrete evidence how much uses the hospital as a military facility and the IDF says that the current military activity does not involve any friction with patients or