 news edition, I'm Benisa Levine. The United States is bringing out its big guns, so to speak, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrives in Israel later today to meet with Israel's war cabinet at the defense headquarters in Tel Aviv. He'll be in the country as a guest of his Israeli counterpart, Sachi Hanekbi, and will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Joav Gallant, and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on day 69 of the war. There are a range of pressing issues on the table, including the lightly duration of the ground operation to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, plans for the day after the war, and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the Hezbollah threat out of southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lloyd Austin is slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel as the U.S. ramps up its rhetoric against the Lebanese terror group. The U.S. Defense Secretary speaking to his Israeli counterpart Joav Gallant about the threat from southern Lebanon ahead of his visit to this region next week. Now, Jake Sullivan is believed to be stopping off in Saudi Arabia first before touching down here in Israel. Here's the latest from National Security Spokesperson John Kirby. It is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be going to Israel. We'll have more to say about that when we can. And his message, again, I don't want to get ahead of him. I certainly want to do that. He'll have a chance to talk publicly while he's in the region. But clearly, he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield, how it's going. He's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm. He's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out. He's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance, keep that flowing. It has been flowing even when the pause stopped. And I think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that. Again, possibly, hopefully through Karim Shalom. Now, let's find out exactly what is happening on the ground. We start in the north. Let's go live to our correspondent, Zach Anders. He joins us from northern Israel. Good morning to you, Zach. So tensions across the northern border persist. Throughout this war, there have been regular Hezbollah attacks from southern Lebanon and Israel responding, striking Hezbollah targets. What is the latest up north? What can you tell us? Yeah, we saw very few alarms yesterday in comparison to the days prior. And that's not to say there wasn't activity here. We potentially had a strike onto Kyriot Shemona with no red alert, no alarm that was triggered by it. We heard the outgoing artillery once again this morning in this area, targeting the hills above the city. There was a considerable amount of smoke that was seen north of Haifa. This was strikes that were taking place in southern Lebanon and the three, four o'clock hour yesterday as Hezbollah was striking a community on the coast north of Haifa inside Israeli territory. And the IDF retaliated with very heavy strikes that apparently killed multiple Hezbollah fighters. The Hezbollah announcement that came late last night was that there are 103 Hezbollah fighters that have been killed since October 7th. This is a figure that hasn't been independently confirmed. It's just what Hezbollah claims. But it was all in all relatively a smaller day of activity, a quieter day of activity than the day before when we saw as many as four Hezbollah strikes and strikes from Syria as well. Talking about those strikes, the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel. Talk us through the latest on Israel's moves to push Hezbollah back from that northern front and create a buffer zone so communities can return there and can feel safe down the line. And perhaps this is that element of international pressure that we've been speaking about for the last few days with this buffer zone. The United Nations 1701 agreement would be a 30 mile buffer zone, but perhaps in the short term, that's something that could be much smaller. The goal here might be pushing Hezbollah back maybe just a few miles for now and seeing if something like that can hold. Thank you so much. Live from northern Israel, correspondent Zach Anders, more to come from Zach in the coming hours. Thank you. Meanwhile, confirmation that yet another soldier has been killed during the Israeli ground operation in Gaza, 38-year-old master sergeant in the reserves, Elisha Levenstone from Kharish, was killed in southern Gaza, bringing to 116 the number of soldiers killed in the retaliatory incursion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating Israel has to continue with its operation until Hamas is eliminated. This war is going to be difficult, but I recognize surely you also see it the beginning of a break. I see the beginning of their understanding that we are determined to continue to the end and eliminate Hamas. I don't think there is another alternative here. I know you don't think so either. So let's go now live to our correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler. He joins us from southern Israel. Good morning to you, Pierre. An early morning red alert siren in the southern Israeli community of Sufa also continued fighting inside the Gaza Strip overnight as we just heard the IDF death toll since the start of the ground operation is in 116. What is the latest there? What can you tell us? Well, the soldier that is death was authorized for publication after being, after his family was being informed, was fighting in the Hanyunas area, which is the area now of the make or break of Hamas, according to the IDF. Another soldier from his tank battalion was severely wounded. And fighting is going on on three areas, basically for the past 12 days. The Jebalia refugee camp on the northern outskirts of Gaza City, where there's been tens of Hamas terrorists surrendering. And it seems that the Jebalia refugee camp, the most dense in the whole of the Gaza Strip, is on the verge maybe of breaking down because their terrorists are working as cells and not as a battalion. But in Sejaia, it's a different story on the southeastern outskirts of Gaza City. There were nine soldiers killed just in one incident the day before yesterday. And there, the battalion seems to be working without any breaking of chain of command. And they seem to be working as a battalion. They seem to be working as a battalion in spite of the fact that the head of the battalion was eliminated about a week and a half ago. But yet, this is a structure, a military structure of Hamas, which is very determined to fight to the last terrorist. And thus, the combat there is much more difficult. And then you move south from Sejaia to the Hanyones area, which is a wide area, where there's fighting on one of the main access roads that cuts across the Gaza Strip from north to south. The Salahadin access on the northern segment of that access, it was used as a humanitarian corridor for the population of the northern Gaza Strip. But in the segment between Gaza City and further south to Hanyones, this is a place, this is an access road to Hanyones. And the IDF is fighting hard to get control over the segment. Also on the eastern outskirts of Hanyones, although the IDF, as it seems, partial operational control over the area of Abbasan, Al-Qarara, they're still fighting and combing the areas in search for tunnel shafts. And in Hanyones itself, the Givati Brigade with the Commando Division, the 98 Division, are fighting in the heart of Hanyones. So it's not over. We've heard the head of the General Security Services, the Shin Beton and Bar, a couple of days ago saying that this war is basically a war of tunnel shafts, because even when Israel has control over the upper ground, over the ground in Gaza City, for instance, and in the northern Gaza Strip behind me, and the ground Hamas is still active. There are tunnel shafts from which they can pop up and ambush the Israeli forces. And this is what's happening. Rear Admiral Daniel Agari, the IDF spokesperson, said yesterday, the more control we have above ground and the more clashes there will be with Hamas. And we seem to have lost our connection there, but we do thank our correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler, for that update from Southern Israel. Much more to come from Pierre, of course, in the coming hours. And now for more insight. We welcome retired Colonel Miri Eisen, the director at the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichman University. And she joins us from Herzliya. Good morning to you, Miri. Thank you so much for your time. As you well know, the past day was a tough one for Israel. Several funerals were held for soldiers killed in that ambush in Gaza. Pierre was just describing what unfolded. The death toll for Israeli soldiers since the ground operation started to eliminate Hamas is at 116. The cost is high. Your thoughts? I keep thinking, first of all, of my own children, all three are immobilized. Anybody we know are backstories inside Israel. Remember, as you're watching us, you inside, as Pierre is down south, all of us have our backstories. Having said that, I very much reiterate, both what the prime minister said, what the head of the Shin Bet says, at this stage along the way, I do not see an alternative to destroying Hamas' terror capabilities. And the type of action, when you are proactive, when you're going in an operation into urban areas with that subterranean arena, there are going to be battles and casualties. And we have amazing soldiers, incredibly grave, heroic, and capable. And on the other side, you have Hamas' terror fighters that built a system to protect themselves, that built a system which destroys the civilians of the Gaza Strip, the structures above the ground. They are the ones who put the booby traps to take down buildings. And in that sense, as we go along, my heart goes out to every single person, individual, inside all of Israel and around the world. And we are going to be on with this battle. It's not just a determination because of what Hamas did. This is about what Hamas could do if they continue to exist with these capabilities. So my heart goes out, but we're going to continue to fight and we'll do so with full strength as we can do it. And while the fighting continues, Mary, the pressure is on Israel to minimize civilian deaths during this fight against a terror organization. What is the idea of doing to do exactly that, to make sure that civilians aren't harmed during this battle? Every single time we hear, not just of casualties on the Israeli side for that matter, when you are fighting inside a dense urban area, Israel from October 7th, 8th, has been telling Gazans to go to safe areas. The safe areas are not easy and nice, but they are safe. They save lives. In the time being, Hamas have been firing rockets out of those safe areas. So first and foremost is that we have consistently every single day and all of the time telling the people in the Gaza Strip, leave these buildings that you're living in, leave the areas that have been be trapped that are positioned. That's where the anti-tank weapons are being fired off because Hamas don't care to protect you, they are using you to protect themselves. And so that's the first and foremost. And it's an incredibly important aspect, including today, to go to those safe areas. The ground operation itself entirely is about saving civilians lives. If Israel just wanted to crush, in that sense, Hamas' capabilities and to do so with no care about any cost, bomb it from the air, as other countries may have done in other places, we're not doing that. We've gone in a ground operation. We're going building by building. We're trying to make sure as much as possible that in these different structures, above ground, there are no civilians. The underground arena is where Hamas feels safe. Pierre described that excellently before. That's where they built that upfront, both for their own protection, defense, to be able to use it as their offense to go out and attack forces from these shafts that come up into the buildings, that come up into the roads. And all of these are the ways that we're trying systematically to slowly go in. That's systematic, slowly go in, saves civilian lives of endangers, Israeli soldiers' lives, but it's saving civilian lives. And Mary, as you well know, Jake Sullivan meets with Israel's war cabinet later in the day. What do you expect the U.S. National Security Advisor will be prioritizing in their meetings? There is much on the cards right now. There certainly is. And President Biden himself has been very clear about really a few different aspects. First of all, the president himself, Jake Sullivan himself, have all said clearly that they agree with Israel's main objectives, and I'm saying both of them. The first is we need to get back the hostages. The second on the same equal ground is that we need to destroy Hamas. In this case, I think that how you destroy Hamas is not a question of for a difference between us. They absolutely agree on that, and that's not going to be the issue. The issue is how do you do so with saving lives? And I say sadly, as a military person, with somebody who looks at it from every single different way, there is no nice way to destroy the Hamas terror capabilities. And the way that we're doing so at the cost of Israeli soldiers' lives, and yes, civilian lives that are cost right now, there's no question, is because of the way Hamas built itself over the last 15 years. So we're doing it slow, systematic, careful, targeting, trying to be as exact as we can. But as you can see, it's going into apartment buildings, into structures. It's inside the urban area of Gaza. That's where the Hamas terror organization is. So I don't think that there's going to be a lot of disagreement on that. At the end, it's about the challenge of how do you battle inside an urban and subterranean area against a terror organization? And they'll be discussing that. No doubt about that. And obviously also top of mind for everyone involved right now is the fate of the hostages. Mary, stay with us. We've got more to unpack because the families of the 135 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for nearly 10 weeks want answers amid conflicting reports around a possible new hostage deal. Channel 30 News is reporting the families want to know why the war cabinet reportedly decided against sending Mossad head David Bonnaya to Qatar to speed up negotiations on a new deal. The Red Cross has yet to gain access to the hostages. It's not clear how many of them are alive. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 20 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence from troops on the ground. Authorities confirming overnight that another two hostages have been killed by Hamas, Tal Khayimi, a resident of Kibbutz near Yitzhak, and Joshua Mollal, an agricultural intern from Tanzania in Africa, who was staying at Kibbutz Nachal Oz. Here's more from some of the families. We appreciate, we are thankful to the president and to his team because we know that they are working 24 hours a day and they are going to work through the holidays and they are going to do everything they can to make sure that all of our loved ones, real people, come home to us and to the families across the world and in Israel. A terrific, terrific meeting and conversation. I think we all came away feeling that as families of hostages, of American Israeli hostages, which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages, we felt that, and we felt before and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden himself and his administration. Families of the hostages speaking after their meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Still with me, retired Colonel Mary Eisen and Mary, the heart of the whole nation is with the 135 hostages still held captive. It's nearly 10 weeks now, unimaginable and we're hearing more and more accounts from those who have been released about the conditions in captivity as well. Talk to us about the efforts right now as the IDF continues fighting inside Gaza how it does so making sure that the hostages who may be hidden in those tunnels we were talking about are kept safe and can hopefully be brought home soon as soon as possible. It's going to be what you're going to call a kind of effort which is done parallel to the fighting. There is the most immense intelligence effort using every capability that we can think of. This isn't in the movies, this isn't real life. The assumption is that the bulk of those hostages if not all of them are in that subterranean tunnel arena. These are the hostages in the eyes of the Hamas. And I say this with such a heavy heart that that's the way that they look at it. They're a bargaining card. They are also the safety defense system or as I'll put it, the get out of jail card free get out of jail free card for those top terrorists. So the assumption is that they are with very top terrorists not necessarily they're in the same room but they're held nearby to be part of the defense system for them. And the IDF is very aware of that. So you're going to have intelligence effort to try to find out the information both from the immense amount of Hamas terrorists that have surrendered over the last few days. Find information from them. That's one of the things that you're doing a pinpointed ground operation as opposed to overall type of bombings where you don't want to inadvertently kill hostages when you're targeting the different Hamas terrorists. And all of this hand in hand with negotiations that may not be going on in Qatar openly but I am sure that everybody is still behind the scenes reaching out trying to find out to get to that stage where we can bring back those hostages alive. That certainly is the most pressing issue and in the hearts and minds of all Israelis watching developments unfold right now. Mary, there is a lot of concern about tensions boiling over in the West Bank specifically in Jenin. What more can you tell us about the concerns, the threats of some kind of escalation from the West Bank at this juncture? The radicalization of the West Bank is something that we've all been living in for the last few years not the last two months. One of the aspects of the side aspect and I can't call it side aspect of the war has been a much more active action of Israeli defense forces together with police forces and of course the Shin Bet in the entire West Bank Judea and Samaria area and specifically in Jenin. Why is Jenin the focal point in the Northern West Bank? Because Jenin is an area that is area A, it's under the authority of the Palestinian Authority but for many years the Palestinian Authority's security forces have not done almost anything against the involvement both of the radicalization of the youth and from that into terror organizations it's both Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a lot of local ones and even Fatah, which is part of the Palestinian Authority ruling party you have there Fatah people who have weapons as part of the Palestinian Authority who have joined into terror activities. So these are the defense forces have gone on the action they are actively going in finding the cache of weapons arresting the terrorists themselves. It's focused both on the Jenin refugee camp which has always been one of those areas but it's throughout that city if somebody else does not do the security we do that anti-terror counter-terror action ourselves and that's what's going on there it can be expected in other places in the West Bank as well. And talking about the concerns out of the West Bank there was a wartime opinion poll amongst Palestinians and it shows a dramatic rise in support for Hamas in the West Bank and an overwhelming rejection of PA President Mahmoud Abbas with nearly 90% saying that he must resign. What do you make of the growing support for Hamas out of Ramallah right now and the concerns around that growing support? Let's talk about the impact of today's day in age and social media. So you and I probably are not in the same kind of social media different age groups but both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip half the population is under the age of 25. There's an enormous young population that have for years now viewed the Palestinian Authority leadership with Mahmoud Abbas included as being irrelevant out of context very much similar to other governments and again it's not an independent state but it's a governing action inside the West Bank that the Palestinian Authority itself has not brought jobs, prosperity, anything that they can look to the future for and in that same social media and here is my heart as it goes out to teach this to the world the last two months have been depicted in a completely different way in Arabic and in the Islamic telegram social media arena meaning this is about resistance this is about pride this is about power and from their point of view what Hamas did in the Gaza Strip from the Gaza Strip both on October 7th and the continuation of their actions is showing pride is showing resistance that gap is something that we will need to address after the war right now the important aspect is to make sure that weapons cash of weapons training different type capabilities are taken care of both in the Judea and Samaria and West Bank cities as they're being taken care of in the Gaza Strip so that support is coming out of a horrific narrative that has come out not just in the West Bank which shows Hamas as being heroic resistance capable we're showing right now that they're not and I think that that tune will change but slowly this is a very difficult question to put on you but this poll shows that 72% of respondents believe Hamas was correct and I repeat the word correct to launch its October 7th onslaught with 82% in the West Bank and 57% in Gaza backing it Mary the question is how do you make peace if there are people who believe it was correct to conduct a terror rampage against civilians inside Israel what does that look like so I always have said that peace is not about Kumbaya sitting around the table this is something you do with the enemies and in this case I've always thought that with the Palestinians I talk about a resolution it's not about peace and we all agree with each other it's not about peace and we love and hug each other it's about resolution and in that sense I don't have any kind of resolution right now it's going to work what I do know is that the enormous existence of weapons of caches that the radicalization itself is about alternatives if you don't give youth an alternative then they're going to go to this one I'm going to say the worst part for me at the end it's all about education you know when you teach people to hate they hate and that younger generation has been taught to hate for a full generation both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank and that needs to change right you can't come from Israel but it can come from the world certainly a long road ahead retired colonel Mary Eisen the director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichman University always appreciate your insights here on i24 news live from Herzliya thank you so much as always thank you and that is where we wrap up this edition of our breaking news coverage but our rolling coverage continues I'm Benita Levine back in a bit stay tuned thank you for watching Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well in news 24 israel bajo ataque news 24 in espanol trail analysis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra espadas de hierro entrevistas exclusivas report es desde la zona de guerra la reacción de los países hispano parlantes news 24 el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en i24 news making news edition i'm benita levine the united states is bringing out its big gun so to speak national security advisor jake salivan arrives in israel later today to meet with israel's war cabinet at the defense headquarters in tel aviv he'll be in the country as a guest of his israeli counterpart sachi hanek b and will meet with prime minister benjamin netanyahu president isaac herzog defense minister joav gallant and war cabinet minister benny gants on day 69 of the war there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate hamas in gaza plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the hezbollah threat out of southern lebanon meanwhile leud austin is slamming hezbollah for threatening communities in israel as the us ramps up its rhetoric against the lebanese terror group the us defense secretary speaking to his israeli counterpart joav gallant about the threat from southern lebanon ahead of his visit to this region next week now jake salivan is believed to be stopping off in saudi arabia first before touching down here in israel he has the latest from national security spokesperson john curbie it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to israel we'll have more to say about that when we can uh and his message again i don't want to get ahead of him i certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped and i think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through carom shalom now let's find out exactly what is happening on the ground we start in the north let's go live to our correspondent zack andes he joins us from northern israel good morning to you zack so tensions across the northern border persist throughout this war they've been regular hezbollah attacks from southern lebanon and israel responding striking hezbollah targets what is the latest up north what can you tell us yeah we saw very few alarms yesterday in comparison to the days prior and that's not to say there wasn't activity here we potentially had a strike onto kyrie at shamona with no red alert no alarm that was triggered by it we heard the outgoing artillery once again this morning in this area targeting the hills above the city there was a considerable amount of smoke that was seen north of hypha this was strikes that were taking place in southern lebanon and the three four o'clock hour yesterday as hezbollah was striking a community on the coast north of hypha inside israeli territory and the idf retaliated with very heavy strikes that apparently killed multiple hezbollah fighters the hezbollah announcement that came late last night was that there are 103 hezbollah fighters that have been killed since october 7th this is a figure that hasn't been independently confirmed it's just what hezbollah claims but it was all all in all relatively a smaller day of activity a quieter day of activity than the day before when we saw as many as four hezbollah strikes and strikes from syria as well talking about those strikes the u.s defense secretary loyte austin slamming hezbollah for threatening communities in israel talk us through the latest on israel's moves to push hezbollah back from that northern front and create a buffer zone so communities can return there and can feel safe down the line and perhaps this is that element of international pressure that we've been speaking about for the last few days with this buffer zone the united nations 1701 agreement would be a 30 mile buffer buffer zone but perhaps in the short term that's something that could be much smaller the the goal here might be pushing hezbollah back maybe just a few miles for now and seeing if something like that can hold thank you so much live from northern israel correspondent zack and is more to come from zack in the coming hours thank you meanwhile confirmation that yet another soldier has been killed during the israeli ground operation in gaza 38 year old master sergeant in the reserves elicia levin stern from harish was killed in southern gaza bringing to 116 the number of soldiers killed in the retaliatory incursion prime minister benjamin netanyahu reiterating israel has to continue with its operation until hamas is eliminated this war is going to be difficult but i recognize surely you also see it the beginning of a break i see the beginning of their understanding that we are determined to continue to the end and eliminate hamas i don't think there is another alternative here i know you don't think so either so let's go now live to our correspondent pia clush and let he joins us from southern israel good morning to you pia an early morning red alert siren in the southern israeli community of sufa also continued fighting inside the gaza strip overnight as we just heard the idf death toll since the start of the ground operation is at 116 what is the latest there what can you tell us well the soldier that uh is death was authorized for publication after being uh after his family was being informed uh was fighting in the hanunas area which is the the area now of the make or break of hamas according to the idf another soldier from his tank battalion was severely wounded and fighting is going on on three areas basically for the past 12 days the jibalia refugee camp on the northern outskirts of gaza city where there's been uh tens of hamas terrorist surrendering and it seems that the jibalia refugee camp the most dense in in in the whole of the gaza strip is uh is on the verge maybe of breaking down because their terrorists are working as cells and not as a battalion but in sejai it's a different story on the southeastern outskirts of gaza city there we we there was there were nine soldiers killed just in one incident the day before yesterday and there the battalion seems to be working without any breaking of chain of command and they seem to be working as a battalion they seem to be working as a battalion in spite of the fact that the head of the battalion was eliminated about a week and a half ago but yet this is a structure a military structure of hamas which is very determined to fight to the last terrorist and thus uh the combat there is much more difficult and then you move south from sejai to the hanyones area which is a wide area where there's fighting on one of the main access roads that cuts across the gaza strip from north to south the salah hadin access on the northern segment of that access it was used as a humanitarian corridor for the population of the northern gaza strip but in the segment between gaza city and further south to hanyones this is a place this is an access road to hanyones and the idf is fighting hard to get control over over that segment also on the eastern outskirts of hanyones although the idf as it seems partial operational control over the area of abasan al karara they're still fighting and combing the areas in search for tunnel shafts and in hanyones itself the givati brigade with the commando division the 98 division are fighting in the heart of hanyones so it's not over we've heard the head of the general security services the shin betron and bar a couple of days ago saying that this war is basically a war of tunnel shafts because even when israel has control over the upper ground over the ground in gaza city for instance and in the northern gaza strip behind me and the ground hamas is still active there are tunnel shafts from which they can pop up and ambush the israeli forces and this is what's happening rira admiral daniel agari the idf spokesperson said yesterday the more control we have above ground and the more clashes there will be with hamas and we seem to have lost our connection there but we do thank our correspondent pia kloschendler for that update from southern israel much more to come from pier of course in the coming hours and now for more insight we welcome retired colonel mary isan the director at the international institute for counterterrorism at reichmann university and she joins us from herds leer good morning to mary thank you so much for your time as you well know the past day was a tough one for israel several funerals were held for soldiers killed in that ambush in gaza pier was just describing what unfolded the death toll for israeli soldiers since the ground operation started to eliminate hamas is at 116 the cost is high your thoughts we keep thinking first of all of my own children all three are immobilized anybody we know our back stories inside israel remember as you're watching us you inside as pier is down south all of us have our back stories having said that i very much reiterate both what the prime minister said what the head of the shin bet says at this stage along the way i do not see an alternative to destroying hamas's terror capabilities and the type of action when you are proactive you're going in an operation into urban areas with that subterranean arena there are going to be battles and casualties and we have amazing soldiers incredibly grave heroic and capable and on the other side you have hamas terror fighters that built a system to protect themselves the built a system which destroys the civilians of the gaza strip the structures above the ground they are the ones who put the booby traps to take down buildings and in that sense as we go along my heart goes out to every single person individual inside all of israel and around the world and we are going to be on with this battle it's not just a determination because of what hamas did this is about what hamas could do if they continue to exist with these capabilities so my heart goes out but we're going to continue to fight and we'll do so with full strength as we can do it and while the fighting continues mary the pressure is on israel to minimize civilian deaths during this fight against a terror organization what is the idea of doing to do exactly that to make sure that civilians aren't harmed during this battle every single time we hear not just casualties on the israelis side for that matter when you are fighting inside a dense urban area israel from october 7th 8 has been telling gossums to go to safe areas the safe areas are not easy and nice but they are safe they save lives in the time being hamas have been firing rockets out of those safe areas so first and foremost is that we have consistently every single day and all of the time telling the people in the gaza strip leave these buildings that you're living in leave the areas that have been booby trapped that are positioned that's where the anti-tank weapons are being fired off because hamas don't care to protect you they are using you to protect themselves and so that's the person for most and it's an incredibly important aspect including today to go to those safe areas the ground operation itself entirely is about saving civilians lives if israel just wanted to crush in that sense hamas's capabilities and to do so with no care about any cost vomit from the air as other countries may have done in other places we're not doing that we've gone in in a ground operation we're going building by building we're trying to make sure as much as possible that in these different structures above ground there are no civilians the underground arena is where hamas feels the safe it's to pier describe that excellently before that's where they they built that upfront both for their own protection defense to be able to use it as their offense to go out and attack forces from these shafts that come up into the buildings that come up into the roads and all of these are the ways that we're trying systematically to slowly go in that systematic slowly go in saves civilian lives of endangers Israeli soldiers lives but it's saving civilian lives and mary as you well know jake salavin meets with israel's war cabinet later in the day what do you expect the u.s national security advisor will be prioritizing in their meetings there is much on the cards right now there certainly is and president biden himself has been very clear about really you know a few different aspects first of all the president himself jake salavin himself have all said clearly that they agree with israel's main objectives and i'm saying both of them the first is we need to get back the hostages the second on the same equal ground is that we need to destroy hamas in this case i think that how you destroy hamas is not a question of um for a difference between us they absolutely agree on that and that's not going to be the issue the issue is how do you do so with saving lives and i say sadly as a military person with somebody who looks at it from every single different way there is no nice way to destroy the hamas terror capabilities and the way that we're doing so at the cost of israeli soldiers lives and yes civilian lives that are cost right now there's no question is because of the way hamas built itself over the last 15 years so we're doing it slow systematic careful targeting trying to be as exact as we can but as you can see it's going into apartment buildings into structures it's inside the urban area of gaza that's where the hamas terror organization is so i don't think that there's going to be a lot of disagreement on that at the end it's about the challenge of how do you battle inside an urban and subterranean area against a terror organization and they'll be discussing that no doubt about that and obviously also top of mind for everyone involved right now is the fate of the hostages mary stay with us we've got more to unpack because the families of the 135 hostages held by hamas terrorists in gaza for nearly 10 weeks want answers amidst conflicting reports around a possible new hostage deal channel 30 news is reporting the families want to know why the war cabinet reportedly decided against sending more side head david barnaya to katar to speed up negotiations on a new deal the red cross has yet to gain access to the hostages it's not clear how many of them are alive the idf has confirmed the deaths of 20 of those still held by hamas citing new intelligence from troops on the ground authorities confirming overnight that another two hostages have been killed by hamas tal haimi a resident of kibbutz near yitzchak and joshua mollel an agricultural intern from tanzania in africa who was staying at kibbutz nachal az he has more from some of the families we appreciate we are thankful to the president and to his team because we know that they are working 24 hours a day and they are going to work through the holidays and they are going to do everything they can to make sure that all of our loved ones real people come home to us and to the families across the world and in israel a terrific terrific meeting and conversation i think we all came away feeling that as families of hostages of american israeli hostages which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages we felt that and we felt before and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing that we could have no better friend in washington or in the white house than president biden himself and his administration families of the hostages speaking after their meeting with president joe biden at the white house still with me retired colonel mary eisen and mary the heart of the whole nation is with the 135 hostages still held captive it's nearly 10 weeks now unimaginable and we're hearing more and more accounts from those who have been released about the conditions in captivity as well talk to us about the efforts right now is the idea of continuous fighting inside gaza how it does so making sure that the hostages who may be hidden in those tunnels we were talking about are kept safe and can hopefully be brought home soon as soon as possible it's going to be what you're going to call a kind of effort which is done parallel to the fighting there is the most immense intelligence effort using every capability that we can think of this isn't you know in the movies this is in real life the assumption is that the bulk of those hostages if not all of them are in that subterranean tunnel arena these are the hostages in the eyes of the humas and i say this with such a heavy heart that that's the way that they look at it they're a bargaining card they are also the safety defense system or as i'll put it the get out of jail card free get out of jail free card for those top terrorists so the assumption is that they are with very top terrorists not necessarily they're in the same room that they're held nearby to be part of defense system for them and the idea is very aware of that so you're going to have intelligence effort to try to find out the information both from the immense amount of humas terrorists that have surrendered over the last few days find information from men that's one of the things that you're doing a pinpointed ground operation as opposed to overall type of bombings where you don't want to inadvertently kill hostages when you're targeting the different humas terrorists and all of this hand in hand with negotiations that may not be going on in Qatar openly but i am sure that everybody is still behind the scenes reaching out trying to find out to get to that stage where we can bring back those hostages alive it certainly is the most pressing issue and in the hearts and minds of all israelis watching developments unfold right now mary there's a lot of concern about tensions boiling over in the west bank specifically engine in what more can you tell us about the concerns the threats of some kind of escalation from the west bank at this juncture the radicalization of the west bank is something that we've all been living in for the last few years not the last two months one of the aspects of the side aspect and i can't call it side aspect of the war has been a much more active action of the israeli defense forces together with police forces and of course the shin bet in the entire west bank judei and samaria area and specifically on junean why is junean the focal point in the northern west bank because junean is an area that is area a it's under the authority of the palestinian authority but for many years the palestinian authority security forces have not done almost anything against the involvement both of the radicalization of the youth and from that into terror organizations it's both hamas palestinian islamic jihad and a lot of local ones and even fatah which is part of the palestinian authority ruling party you have there fatah people who have weapons as part of the palestinian authority who have joined into terror activities so these are the defense forces have gone on the action they are actively going in finding the cache of weapons arresting the terrorists themselves it's focused both on the junean refugee camp which has always been one of those areas but it's throughout that city if somebody else does not do the security we do that um anti-terror counter-terror action ourselves and that's what's going on there it can be expected in other places in the west bank as well and talking about the concerns out of the west bank there was a wartime opinion poll amongst palestinians and it shows a dramatic rise in support for hamas in the west bank and an overwhelming rejection of pa president mahmoud abbas with nearly 90 saying that he must resign what do you make of the growing support for hamas out of ramallah right now and the concerns around that growing support let's talk about the impact of today's day and age and social media so you and i probably are not in the same kind of social media different age groups but both in the west bank and in the gaza strip half the population is under the age of 25 there's an enormous young population that have for years now viewed the palestinian authority leadership with mahmoud abbas included as being irrelevant out of context very much similar to other governments and again it's not an independent state but it's a governing action inside the west bank that they that that the palestinian authority itself has not brought jobs prosperity anything that they can look to the future for and in that same social media and here is my heart as it goes out to teach this to the world um the last two months have been depicted in a completely different way in arabic and in the islamic telegram social media arena meaning this is about resistance this is about pride this is about power and from their point of view what hamas did in the gaza strip from the gaza strip both on october 7 and the continuation of their actions is showing pride is showing resistance that gap is something that we will need to address after the war right now the important aspect is to make sure that weapons cashier weapons training different type capabilities are taken care of both in the judean samaria and west bank cities as they're being taken care of in the gaza strip so that support is coming out of a horrific narrative that has come out not just in the west bank which shows hamas as being heroic resistance capable we're showing right now that they're not and i think that that tune will change but slowly this is a very difficult question to put on you but this poll shows that 72 of respondents believe hamas was correct and i repeat the word correct to launch its october 7th onslaught with 82 in the west bank and 57 in gaza backing it mary the question is how do you make peace if there are people who believe it was correct to conduct a terror rampage against civilians inside israel what does that look like so i always have said that peace is not about kumbaya sitting around the table this is something you do with the enemies and in this case i've always thought that with the palestinians i talk about a resolution it's not about peace and we all agree with each other it's not about peace and we love and hug each other it's about resolution and in that sense i don't have any kind of resolution right now it's going to work what i do know is that the enormous existence of weapons of caches um that the radicalization itself is about alternatives if you don't give youth an alternative then they're going to go to this one i'm going to say the worst part for me at the end it's all about education you know when you teach people to to hate they hate and that younger generation has been taught to hate for a full generation both in the gaza strip and in the west bank and that needs to change right can't come from israel but it can come from the world certainly a long road ahead retired colonel mary eisen the director of the international institute for counterterrorism at reichmann university always appreciate your insights here on i24 news live from herzlia thank you so much as always thank you and that is where we wrap up this edition of our breaking news coverage but our rolling coverage continues i'm benice levine back in a bit stay tuned thank you for watching access to our website rechargas.tis.com.b or select rechargas and type the number that you want to place the recharge in addition they receive the double balance in rechargas of eight dollars or more the global network of the dominicans is in a state of war families completely gone down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be far as well and i'm benice levine coming to you live from tel aviv the united states is bringing out its big guns so to speak national security advisor jake salivan arrives in israel later today to meet with israel's war cabinet at the defense headquarters in tel aviv he'll be in the country as a guest of his israeli counterpart sachi hanabi and we'll meet with prime minister benjamin president isaac herzog defense minister yoav gallant and war cabinet minister benny gants on day 69 of the war there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate hamas in gaza plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the hezbollah threat out of southern lebanon meanwhile leud austin is slamming hezbollah for threatening communities in israel as the us ramps up its rhetoric against the lebanese terror group the us defense secretary speaking to his israeli counterpart yoav gallant about the threat there ahead of his visit to the region next week now jake salivan is believed to be stopping off in saudi arabia first before touching down here in israel here's the latest from national security spokesperson john curbie it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to israel we'll have more to say about that when we can uh and his message again i don't want to get ahead of him i certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped um and i think he'll explore opportunities uh to see if we can't increase that again possibly hopefully through carom shalom meanwhile here in this region confirmation that yet another soldier has been killed during the israeli ground operation in gaza bringing to 116 the number of soldiers killed in the retaliatory incursion so for more we now go live to our correspondent pier clausian glenn he joins us from southern israel and pier day 69 of the war 135 hostages remain in captivity at the hands of hamas inside gaza fighting continues what is the latest palestine media reports emanating from gaza and affiliated to hamas obviously and that shows you that hamas hasn't lost control over the gaza strip uh say mention heavy pounding of presumed terror targets not just in jubalia and uh sejaya but also in the altoufah and daraj neighborhood which are north and east of sejaya because uh according to the idf uh during the the incident the deadly incident in which nine soldiers were killed the day before yesterday there were terrorists from to fah and al daraj that came to join the terrorists in sejaya and give them support now to fah and daraj are under operational control of the idf but that's above ground and the ground is still active tunnels which allow the terrorists to move freely from one stronghold to the other and this is apparently what happened when the terrorists in daraj and to fah went to offer their support to sejaya now what we know is that sejaya is probably the heaviest 45 stronghold of hamas there is there is probably the most battle-hardened battalion of hamas and hence the rate of casualties inside that fortified place because um the in spite of the fact that the head of the battalion was annihilated already a week and a half ago this is a very tight-knit community based on clans that have uh some sort of affiliation to hamas but not total affiliation but they're also very involved very much involved in criminal activity such as smuggling and hence that uh that stronghold is very difficult to break down jebalia is already on the verge of being break down we know of tens of hamas terrorists that have surrendered in the past days to the idf forces but in sejaya it's a different ballgame now south of sejaya in the hanyuness area where the the ground offensive started on december 2nd there's also heavy fighting and pounding of presumed hamas target the soldier whose death was announced uh this morning fort in a tank battalion in the hanyuness area we know that the givati brigade is fighting inside the heart of the city of hanyuness and they've demolished something like 100 buildings that were hosting hamas probably hamas depots of weapons and ammunition or probably also houses belonging to some officials of hamas and at the same time the idf says that over 100 terrorists have been killed in this area in sejaya the estimate is that 300 terrorists were killed in the battle that has been going on for 12 days and it's not over yet certainly isn't over yet thank you so much correspondent pia kloshendler live from southern israel more to come from pia in the coming hours thank you and now we welcome to studio security analyst raffael urushalmi former senior intelligence officer in the idf and our senior diplomatic correspondent oan ultiman good morning to both of you thank you so much for being here in studio raffael i'm going to come straight to you because we now know that the death toll on the israeli side in terms of soldiers killed during this ground operation is at 116 it's been a tough week for israel what is your take your assessment on what is unfolding right now what we just heard from pier on the ground well it's going to get tougher because by now we do not use as much the artillery and the air force to bomb the places that we attack for two reasons one is the american request to avoid collateral damage so it's of course better to have surgical operations on the ground rather than heavy bombing from the sky for instance over gaza the second is also tactical there are places that you cannot just pound with the artillery you have to enter with ground forces you have to go into tunnels or houses to destroy to attack the enemy so this means that things are going to get tougher and rougher especially that with time you have the deserters you have the people who surrender and then you're left with the hot nuts and these these ones are the fighters that are more fanatical willing to to sacrifice their lives for for the cause so that's also a harsher fight to put up with so we see also that the time lamps that was planned is getting longer and longer it takes longer and then we saw at first the first like very violent push of the israeli offensive we went faster than expected but now the cleanup is going slower than expected we think that sejaya will will be cleaned up jebalia is already more or less finished sejaya will be cleaned up in two or three days we will finish the job there as well but then we have so many other places that we have to do that same job over and over again and of course the difficult one will be khanunis and after khanunis rafah so there's a lot a lot of work ahead when mr selivan will arrive he will be informed of the timetable that the idea foresees in the coming months we gather that in a couple of months we will have some kind of general control of the gaza strip and that the hamas will not be in charge anymore but still kicking and then there will be a few months most of next year 2024 will be the cleanup and of all the pockets here in there with a lot of danger still for our troops and booby traps and so on so forth and only towards the end of next year we will address the third phase the what they call the day after and how the hell do we ensure security in order in this destroyed gaza area so you see that we have to brace ourselves and they keep our cool because it's we're in for the long run it certainly sounds like a long road ahead and obviously it's going to be one of the top questions when jake selivan meets with the israeli war cabinet on we know that's happening later in the day there are many pressing issues talk to us about the us pressure on israel right now what does it look like well listen i mean we heard a lot of hints of that from that saber from john kerby right again a spokesperson with really full-throated support for israel's we've seen time after time but again sketching out exactly what it is jake selvan wants to achieve and the need of the usual suspects are there right humanitarian aid civilian casualties wants to hear more about the plans talk about the hostages so there's not really anything new on the american agenda but as it progresses i suspect rafael's right the americans are going to want more of a sense of timing and certainly if the idea is that this is going to go well into next year there is at least the possibility that it could materially have a political impact on joe biden i've been saying that this would presumably this would presumably be in the rearview mirror by november of 2024 but if israeli troops are still actively fighting in the gaza strip come summer of next year early fall of next year when americans start to go and vote again because the voting period can start as early as september i think it would be more of a political concern for joe biden for the administration and that's going to be something that the israeli government's going to have to take into account and also in terms of the humanitarian situation i mean i feel it's right that the day after proper may only start once that second phase as the israeli military and government describe it has been completed but in the meantime people need to eat people need shelter people need to make it through the winter and so the humanitarian issues are going to continue to be very pressing and again we heard john kerby say something interesting that the carom shalom crossing from israel to gaza could actually be opened john kerby said that netanyahu said for the direct access of trucks not just trucks getting checked for security there and then going through the rafa crossing on the egyptian border but actually crossing directly from israel to gaza but you know that's been a no no in israel since october 7th the idea of aid crossing from israel to gaza directly but maybe concession israel's willing to make to the by the administration certainly something also on the table when that meeting happens rafael there's still a chance a slight chance but still there that the ramas will give up that will they will abandon the military fight why because first of all even though we have a lot of work ahead a lot is happening desertions people surrendering the mafia being against the all of a sudden the mafia is against the ramas they used to work with them because you know it's money but now they're not getting money from the ramas so they're not working with them anymore they're working with us with the shin bet many things are happening and it's also a huge divide inside the ramas itself mr sin war wants to keep fighting wants to fight on but really mr honey and mr mashallah already saying maybe we can be in some kind of a unity government in ramallah with the plo the thinking of a non-military solution to this problem seeing that really on the ground that they're not going to win it doesn't look good so they're ready so so there might be a chance with maybe some pressure from god knows where that mr sin war will order his troops to surrender in which case it's a completely different ball game than he can also have a political future and they don't be they won't be arrested or killed because we would count on them to god you know this is still a possibility even though it's very slight and even though we don't really want these guys to keep going in any form whether political or military we want to finish them off talking about the exact issue of a the humanitarian aid needing to come in and be what it will look like the day after who would be involved what do you make of the fact that Saudi Arabia is the stop for jake salivan en route to israel later on in the day yes i think it's a very good move from the part of the americans to start with Saudi Arabia before they come here and see what sound they hear there you know in riyadh and obviously the sound they're gonna hear is that Saudi Arabia is the normalization is on hold but not dead and it can be revived at some point and there will be some conditions we'll see also how much the arabic countries are willing to be involved in this humanitarian assistance to the people of gaza and risk construction of gaza they don't look to be so enthusiastic about it nobody nobody nobody wants gaza that's it so we might be left with it on our plates because not the egyptians nobody wants them the jordanian king was so loud about you know humanitarian needs and he doesn't want to have anything to do with these guys they don't even trying to get some refugees and really the guilt lies with the international community it's not just us who have to help these people the whole world has to help them and the first thing they should have done and they should still be doing to help them is to open the border with egypt and have these people leave the combat zone and be there in a huge refugee camp in egypt that's the humanitarian things to do and of course the egyptians will fight that very hard because they're so afraid of having palestinians on their soil that might never want to go back together who would like to go and go back to a destroyed destroyed place yeah listen you're absolutely right you need to bring up this issue of saudi arabia at least one report in cnn actually named us official saying that the normalization will actually be on the agenda in this visit in some form and we should be absolutely very optimistic to hear that and that's obviously very very good news from israel's perspective not that it's going to happen in the immediate term and again it's not in a sense that's surprising since we've heard from the saudi themselves from saudi minister himself at a conference a month or two ago in riyadh that they are still interested in moving forward on this but the fact that there are at least talks at some level at an official level right even if behind closed doors on this is obviously very very good news for israel and i agree with our people i think the trick for israel diplomatically is to convince the saudi's somehow that it's in their interest their interest to have influence in the gaza strip it's a hard sell but again this is a piece of land that's part of historic palestine that's on the Mediterranean there's a symbolism in an iranian proxy being replaced by in a sense a saudi proxy so maybe we can convince the saudi somehow to see some value in investing in gaza and getting some influence there but again obviously it's it's not an easy sell there are reports the biden administration is delaying the sale of more than 20 000 us made rifles to israel over concerns reportedly about potential attacks by israeli settlers on palestinians in the west bank your thoughts on that the implications here it's got to be negotiated listen the israeli government's going to have to negotiate this it's tricky obviously because of the domestic politics and all of the sensitivities around settlers in the west bank and their activities and the leverage that power that political parties that represent broadly speaking this constituency not just the core of people who are actually themselves engage in violence but the concentric circles if you will of fellow travelers uh so that's to be negotiated i mean it's important to get rifles into the hands of border communities and people around the country it's also a controversial policy here in israel right the idea of of of having so many such a huge amount of weaponry flow into the civilian populations it's obviously been debated here there are advantages there are risks but i think it's going to have to be negotiated with the biden administration and internally in the coalition to find some solution certainly lots on the agenda when that meeting happens later on in the day stay with us gentlemen there's much more to discuss but right now talking about the day after the war a new poll conducted by the palestinian center for policy and survey research has spoken to palestinians in the west bank and in gaza since the war started with some staggering findings when asked if the hamas decision to attack israel on the 7th of october was correct or incorrect in the west bank 82 percent said it was correct and in the gaza strip 57 percent were in favor of the terror rampage so for more we now go to ramalla and we welcome palestinian security analyst mohammed naji mohammed thank you so much for your time there's so much focus on the day after the war what gaza will look like who will run gaza if so many palestinians are supportive of the hamas terror rampage who are viable partners for peace in the region what do you make of this poll yeah it's known that anyone targeted any palestinian targeted by israel will get support by the palestinians the neighbor hamas or other groups and despite this increase in the hamas popularity and support among the palestinians in the west bank and in gaza what it's a limited support a limited increase and this is a temporary actually after the end of the war then hamas popularity and support will decrease and return to the situation as it was before but the question was before the 7 october the palestinians think that the israelis were cracking down on the palestinians in the west bank deducting the palestinian authority money ridding the west bank cities and towns killing palestinians arresting them so they said that the palestinian authority that security coordinate with israel and committed to these it banished by israel so then think that israel uh understand the language of force that hamas represented on 7 october and usually against israel and that was the wrong message that's there israel is attacking a laxamos giving various statements as well as this mortgage so the palestinians understood that they are targeted on all by all means and uh from all fronts and the west bank and they found that hamas is defending them when they raised the slogan they want to defend a laxamos and is that the reason that this poll shows the overwhelming rejection of palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas with nearly 90 percent saying he must resign also 75 percent of palestinians in the west bank see hamas as the one who should rule gaza is that why the ball also shows that marwan bargouthi who is a fatih leader says spend the life sentence in the israeli jail if there is elections you could win against male haneer the leader of hamas so it's not like unlimited or absolute support for hamas but the situation in the west bank make that happens in this way and abbas expected to take more role and to be more active and to do more actions to relieve the civilians in gaza as he did in briggs rounds of my israeli military operations but palestinians don't understand why this silence and that he doesn't do anything to help some just shying statements he made and some meetings and calls he conducted but the palestinians are sympathized with the sufferance of the 2.3 million palestinians in gaza not with hamas as the fighters they supported and sympathize with the people in gaza some have relatives in gaza others see the shocking footage and another issue that in previous military operations israel kept the crossing borders between gaza and israel open as well as with egypt so the palestinians in the west bank were able to donate and to collect food supplies medical supplies drinkable water send it to gaza they feel they do something to support them to help them this time israeli closed the borders from the first day so the palestinians here feel are helpless expect their leadership to do something and it doesn't do therefore the ability of abbas decreased as well as 60% for the dismantle of the palestino authority that is become useless in this crisis as you say the most popular politician for palestinians remains marwan barghouti from fatah and just to be clear he is serving multiple life terms in an israeli prison for his role in several deadly terror attacks during the second interfaith he's ahead of ishmael khania the political leader of hamas who is conveniently in qatar and ahead of mahmoud abbas what do you make of that a fatah leader being so popular right now someone in jail someone convicted of terror attacks multiple terror attacks your thoughts uh actually the palestinians see the things not from israeli eyes i tell you why that marwan barghouti is not involved in corruption so this is a palestinian issue is not an israeli issue it's the palestinians want to their leader to be uh not involved in corruption and he can make reconciliation between all palestinian factions fatah hamas so marwan barghouti enjoys a good relationship with all palestinian factions so he can make palestinian unity this is important for the palestinians he is not corrupt and they want a non-corrupt leader and to clean the current palestinian authority and this is important for the palestinians and marwan barghouti also believed in peace he was also uh participated in some peace negotiations and talks with the israelis and with the other with americans so he's not acceptable by even the international community as well as by the palestinians well maybe he's not involved in corruption but he certainly has been involved in killing israeli civilians many of them we're going to have to leave it there palestinian security analyst muhammad nagib live from ramallah thank you for your time raffael how do you make peace well it makes me smile because the barghouti family is one of the most corrupt families mafia uh operating families in the west bank they are known for their money laundering activities all these terrorist activities that the barghoutis have been leading it was with dirty money so we'll leave it at that uh i also want to just point out that the palestinians of the west banks were not exposed like everybody else in the world to the true picture of what happened on the 7th of october they do not understand the scope of what happened the ferocity they are fed with propaganda they are fed with fake news so their answers are also influenced by that they we have to understand that they do not have all the data that we have to answer the questions that are being asked and also and the last thing about this is this poll is that the mentality the loser is is never is losing also with the palestinian popularity so if the hamas will lose this war there will be no sympathy from the palestinians they will only be sympathy so far that the hamas is perceived as strong fighting on killing israelis as soon as they see that we prevail all this popularity will just slide down so this is uh this is one thing now the the problem of course of the day after is that there's absolutely no question about the fact that we cannot have neither barghouti nor hamas people sitting in any palestinian government and neither should be mr abu mazen because we also have to speak of white color terrorists people who encourage terrorism by finance terrorism loud terrorism so these people have no no no place there it's no grudge it's just if we do want to rebuild and if you do want to consider some kind of a peace negotiation or approach to a peace negotiation we have to change all these guys all this old guard has to be changed maybe also some of our people in on the israelis has have to be changed to get a fresher generation of politicians and leaders that are a little more open to dialogue and maybe have a different agenda than those that we have are right now in charge and i'm saying not only in the palestinian probably also in the israeli side and we don't have the right guys for a serene rebuild and peace negotiation process oh and we don't have much time left your thoughts on the findings of that poll and what it means for exactly that the day after who could be a peace partner realistically well listen i i think what rafael some of the things you say are interesting it could be interesting for example to ask people not just globally or in general what they think about october 7 but what would you think if you knew x what would you think if you knew women were raped but you think if you knew this and see if the if the findings changed but i do think on the other hand we can't fight the hypothetical we have to take seriously the fact that this is what palestinians say and this is how palestinians feel and we can't ignore that we can't look away we have to take seriously this is how people feel just living just kilometers just miles from where we're sitting and what that means deeply for the prospects of peace and two-state solution oh and ultimate rafael you're a shelmy thank you so much a long road ahead and that is where we wrap up this edition of our breaking news coverage i'm benisa levine back in a bit stay tuned thank you for watching israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be far as well this edition i'm benisa levine coming to you live from tell aviv the united states is bringing out its big guns so to speak national security advisor jake salavan arrives in israel later today to meet with israel's war cabinet at the defense headquarters in tell aviv he'll be in the country as a guest of his israeli counterpart sachi hanek b and will meet with prime minister benjamin it and yahoo president isaac herzog defense minister yoah gallant and war cabinet minister benny gants on day 69 of the war there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate hamas in gaza plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the hezbollah threat out of southern lebanon meanwhile loyde austin is slamming hezbollah for threatening communities in israel as the us ramps up its rhetoric against the lebanese terror group the us defense secretary speaking to his israeli counterpart yoah gallant about the threat there ahead of his visit to the region next week now jake salavan is believed to be stopping off in saudi arabia first before touching down here in israel here's the latest from national security spokesperson john kirby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to israel we'll have more to say about that when we can uh and his message again i don't want to get ahead of him i certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped um and i think he'll explore opportunities uh to see if we can't increase that again possibly hopefully through carom shalom meanwhile here in this region confirmation that yet another soldier has been killed during the israeli ground operation in gaza bringing to 116 the number of soldiers killed in the retaliatory incursion so for more we now go live to our correspondent pia kloschendler he joins us from southern israel and pia day 69 of the war 135 hostages remain in captivity at the hands of hamas inside gaza fighting continues what is the latest palestine media reports emanating from gaza and affiliated to hamas obviously and that shows you that hamas hasn't lost control over the gaza strip uh say mention heavy pounding of presumed terror targets not just in jubalia and sejaya but also in the al-tufakh and daraj neighborhood which are north and east of sejaya because uh according to the idf uh during the the incident the deadly incident in which nine soldiers were killed the day before yesterday there were terrorists from tufakh and al daraj that came to join the terrorists in sejaya and give them support now tufakh and daraj are under operational control of the idf but that's above ground underground they're still active tunnels which allow the terrorists to move freely from one stronghold to the other and this is apparently what happened when the terrorists in se in daraj and tufakh went to offer their support to sejaya now what we know uh is that sejaya is probably the heaviest 45 stronghold of hamas there is there is probably the most battle-hardened battalion of hamas and hence the rate of casualties inside that fortified place because um the in spite of the fact that the head of the battalion was annihilated already a week and a half ago this is a very tight-knit community based on clans that have uh some sort of affiliation to hamas but not total affiliation but they're also very involved very much involved in criminal activity such as smuggling and hence that uh that stronghold is very difficult to break down jubalia is already on the verge of being break down we know of tens of hamas terrorists that have surrendered in the past days to the idf forces but in sejaya it's a different ballgame now south of sejaya in the hanune s area where the the ground offensive started on december 2nd there's also heavy fighting and pounding of presumed hamas target the soldier whose death was announced this morning 14 tank battalion in the hanune s area we know that the givati brigade is fighting inside the heart of the city of hanune s and they've demolished something like a hundred buildings that we're hosting hamas probably hamas depots of weapons and ammunition or probably also houses belonging to some officials of hamas and at the same time the idf says that over a hundred terrorists have been killed in this area in sejaya the estimate is that 300 terrorists were killed in the battle that has been going on for 12 days and it's not over yet certainly isn't over yet thank you so much correspondent pia kloschendler live from southern israel more to come from pia in the coming hours thank you and now we welcome to studio security analyst raffael urushalmi former senior intelligence officer in the idf and our senior diplomatic correspondent oan ultiman good morning to both of you thank you so much for being here in studio raffael i'm going to come straight to you because we now know that the death toll on the israeli side in terms of soldiers killed during this ground operation is at 116 it's been a tough week for israel what is your take your assessment on what is unfolding right now what we just heard from pier on the ground well it's going to get tougher because by now we do not use as much the artillery and the air force to bomb the places that we attack for two reasons one is the american request to avoid collateral damage so it's of course better to have surgical operations on the ground rather than heavy bombing from the sky for instance over gaza the second is also tactical there are places that you cannot just pound with the artillery you have to enter with ground forces you have to go into tunnels or houses to destroy to attack the enemy so this means that things are going to get tougher and rougher especially that with time you have the deserters you have the people who surrender and then you're left with the hard nuts and these these ones are the fighters that are more fanatical willing to to sacrifice their lives for the cause so that's also a harsher fight to put up with so we see also that the time lapse that was planned is getting longer and longer it takes longer and then we saw at first the first like very violent push of the israeli offensive we went faster than expected but now the cleanup is going slower than expected we think that sejaya will will be cleaned up jebalia is already more or less finished sejaya will be cleaned up in two or three days we will finish the job there as well but then we have so many other places that we have to do that same job over and over again and of course the difficult one will be khanunis and after khanunis rafah so there's a lot a lot of work ahead when mr selvan will arrive he will be informed of the timetable that the idea foresees in the coming months we gather that in a couple of months we will have some kind of general control of the gaza strip and that the hamas will not be in charge anymore but still kicking and then there will be a few months most of next year 2024 will be the cleanup and of all the pockets they're here in there with a lot of danger still for our troops and booby traps and so on so forth and only towards the end of next year we will address the third phase what they call the day after and how the hell do we ensure security in order in this destroyed gaza area so you see that we have to brace ourselves and they keep uh our cool because it's uh we're in for the long run it certainly sounds like a long road ahead and obviously it's going to be one of the top questions when jake selavan meets with the israeli war cabinet own we know that's happening later in the day there are many pressing issues talk to us about the us pressure on israel right now what does it look like well listen i mean we heard a lot of hints of that from that saber from john curbie right again a spokesperson with really full-throated support for israel's we've seen time after time but again uh sketching out exactly what it is jake selvan wants to achieve and the need of the usual suspects are there right humanitarian aid civilian casualties wants to hear more about the plans talk about the hostages so there's not really anything new on the american agenda but as it progresses i suspect obvious right the americans are going to want more of a sense of timing and certainly if the idea is that this is going to go well into next year there is at least the possibility that it could materially have a political impact on joe biden i've been saying that this would presumably this would presumably be in the rearview mirror by november of 2024 but if israeli troops are still actively fighting in the gaza strip come summer of next year early fall of next year when americans start to go and vote again because the voting period can start as early as september i think it will be more of a political concern for joe biden for the administration and that's going to be something that the israeli government's going to have to take into account and also in terms of the humanitarian situation i mean i feel it's right that the day after proper may only start once that second phase as the israeli military and government describe it has been completed but in the meantime people need to eat people need shelter people need to make it through the winter and so the humanitarian issues are going to continue to be very pressing and again we heard john kirby say something interesting that the carom shalom crossing from israel to gaza could actually be opened john kirby said that netanyahu said for the direct access of trucks not just trucks getting checked for security there and then going through the rafa crossing on the egyptian border but actually crossing directly from israel to gaza but you know that's been a no no in israel since october 7th the idea of aid crossing from israel to gaza directly but maybe concession israel is willing to make to the by-demonstration certainly something also on the table when that meeting happens rafael there's still a chance slight chance but still there that the ramas will give up that all they will abandon the military fight why because first of all even though we have a lot of work ahead a lot is happening desertions people surrendering the mafia being against the all of a sudden the mafia is against the ramas they used to work with them because you know it's money but now they're not getting money from the ramas so they're not working with them anymore they're working with us with with the shin bet many things are happening and it's also a huge divide inside the ramas itself mr sinwar wants to keep fighting wants to fight on but really mr haney and mr mashah already saying maybe we can be in some kind of a unity government in ramallah with the plo the thinking of a non-military solution to this problem seeing that really on the ground that they're not gonna win it doesn't look good so they're ready so so there might be a chance with maybe some pressure from our god knows where that mr sinwar will order his troops to surrender in which case it's a completely different ballgame then he can also have a political future and they don't be there won't be arrested or killed because we will count on them to god you know this is still a possibility even though it's it's very slight and even though we don't really want these guys to keep going in any form whether political or military we want to finish them off talking about the exact issue of a the humanitarian aid needing to come in and be what it will look like the day after who would be involved what do you make of the fact that Saudi Arabia is the stop for jake salivan en route to israel later on in the day yes i think it's a very good move from the part of the americans to start with Saudi Arabia before they come here and see what sound they hear there you know in riyadh and obviously the sound they're gonna hear is that Saudi Arabia is the normalization is on hold but not dead and it can be revived at some point and there will be some conditions we'll see also how much the arabic countries are willing to be involved in this humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza and the rest concentration of Gaza they don't look to be so enthusiastic about it nobody nobody nobody wants Gaza that's it so it we might be left who is it on our plates because not the egyptians nobody wants them the Jordanian king who is so loud about you know humanitarian needs and he doesn't want to have anything to do with these guys they don't even try to get some refugees and really the guilt lies with the international community it's not just us who have to help these people the whole world has to help them and the first thing they should have done and they should still be doing to help them is to open the border with Egypt and have these people leave the combat zone and be there in the huge refugee camp in Egypt that's the humanitarian things to do and of course the egyptians will fight that very hard because they're so afraid of having palestinians on their soul that might never want to go back together who would like to go on go back to a destroyed destroyed place yeah listen you're absolutely right to bring up this issue of Saudi Arabia at least one report in cnn actually named us officials saying that the normalization will actually be on the agenda in this visit in some form and we should be absolutely very optimistic to hear that and that's obviously very very good news from israel's perspective not that it's going to happen in the immediate term and again it's not in a sense that surprising since we've heard from the Saudis themselves from Saudi minister himself at a conference a month or two ago in riyadh that they are still interested in moving forward on this but the fact that there are at least talks at some level at an official level right even if behind closed doors on this is obviously very very good news for israel and i agree with you i think the trick for israel diplomatically is to convince the Saudis somehow that it's in their interest their interest to have influence in the Gaza it's a hard sell but again this is a piece of land that's part of historic Palestine that's on the Mediterranean there's a symbolism in an Iranian proxy being replaced by in a sense a Saudi proxy so maybe we can convince the Saudis somehow to see some value in investing in Gaza and getting some influence there but again obviously it's it's not an easy sell there are reports the Biden administration is delaying the sale of more than 20 000 US made rifles to Israel over concerns reportedly about potential attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the west bank your thoughts on that the implications here it's got to be negotiated listen the Israeli government's going to have to negotiate this it's tricky obviously because of the domestic politics and all the sensitivities around settlers in the west bank and their activities and the leverage that power that political parties that represent broadly speaking this constituency not just the the core of people who are actually themselves engaged in violence but the concentric circles if you will of fellow travelers uh so to ask them to negotiate it i mean it's important to get rifles into the hands of border communities and people around the country it's also a controversial policy here in israel right the idea of of having so many such a huge amount of weaponry flow into the civilian populations it's obviously been debated here there are advantages there are risks but i think it's going to have to be negotiated with the Biden administration and internally in the coalition to find some solution certainly lots on the agenda when that meeting happens later on in the day stay with us gentlemen there's much more to discuss but right now talking about the day after the war a new poll conducted by the palestinian center for policy and survey research has spoken to Palestinians in the west bank and in Gaza since the war started with some staggering findings when asked if the Hamas decision to attack Israel on the 7th of October was correct or incorrect in the west bank 82 percent said it was correct and in the Gaza strip 57 percent were in favor of the terror rampage so for more we now go to Ramallah and we welcome Palestinian security analyst Mohammed Najib Mohammed thank you so much for your time there's so much focus on the day after the war what Gaza will look like who will run Gaza if so many Palestinians are supportive of the Hamas terror rampage who are viable partners for peace in the region what do you make of this poll yeah it's known that anyone targeted any Palestinian targeted by Israel will get support by the Palestinians the neighbor Hamas or other groups and despite this increase in Hamas popularity and support among the Palestinians in the west bank and in Gaza what it's a limited support a limited increase and this is a temporary actually after the end of the war then Hamas popularity and support will increase decrease and return to the situation as it was before but the question was before the 7th of October the Palestinians think that the Israelis were cracking down on the Palestinians in the west bank deducting the Palestinian authority money reading the west bank cities and towns killing Palestinians arresting them so they said that the mostly authority that security coordinate with Israel and committed to these it banished by Israel so then think that Israel understand the language of force that Hamas represented on 7 October and usually against Israel and that was the wrong message that's the Israelis attacking a lax mosque giving various statements as well as this mortgage so the Palestinians understood that they are targeted on all by all means and from all fronts and the west bank and they found that Hamas is defending them when she they raised the slogan they want to defend the lax mosque and is that the reason that this poll shows the overwhelming rejection of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with nearly 90% saying he must resign also 75% of Palestinians in the west bank see Hamas as the one who should rule Gaza is that why the ball also shows that Marwan Bargouthi who is a Fatih leader says they spend the life sentence in the Israeli jail if there is elections you could win against Smail Hani the leader of Hamas so it's not like unlimited or absolute support for Hamas but the situation in those bank make that happens in this way and Abbas expected to take more role and to be more active and to do more actions to relieve the civilians in Gaza as he did in previous rounds of my Israeli military operations but the Palestinians don't understand why this silence and that he doesn't do anything to help some just statements he made and some meetings and calls he conducted but the Palestinians are sympathized with the sufferance of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza not with Hamas as the fighters they supported and sympathized with the people in Gaza some relatives in Gaza others see the shocking footage and another issue that in previous military operations Israel kept the crossing borders between Gaza and Israel open as well as with Egypt so the Palestinians in those banks were able to donate and to collect food supplies medical supplies drinkable water send it to Gaza they feel they do something to support them to help them this time Israel closed the borders from the first day so the Palestinians here feel are helpless expect their leadership to do something and it doesn't do therefore the ability of Abbas decreased as well as 60% for the dismantle of the Palestinian Authority that is become useless in this crisis as you say the most popular politician for Palestinians remains Marwan Barghouti from Fatah and just to be clear he is serving multiple life terms in an Israeli prison for his role in several deadly terror attacks during the second interfaith he's ahead of Ishmael Khania the political leader of Hamas who is conveniently in Qatar and the head of Mahmoud Abbas what do you make of that a Fatah leader being so popular right now someone in jail someone convicted of terror attacks multiple terror attacks your thoughts actually the Palestinians see the things not from Israeli eyes I tell you why that Marwan Barghouti is not involved in corruption so this is a Palestinian issues not an Israeli issue it's a the Palestinians want to their leader to be not involved in corruption and he can make reconciliation between all Palestinian factions Fatah Hamas so Marwan Barghouti enjoys a good relationship with all Palestinian factions so he can make Palestinian unity this is important for the Palestinians he is not corrupt and they want a non corrupt leader and to clean the current Palestinian Authority and this is important for the Palestinians and Marwan Barghouti also believed in peace he was also participated in some peace negotiations and talks with the Israelis and with the other with Americans so he's not acceptable by even the international community as well as by the Palestinians well maybe he's not involved in corruption but he certainly has been involved in killing Israeli civilians many of them we're going to have to leave it there Palestinian security analyst Muhammad Najib live from Ramallah thank you for your time Raphael how do you make peace well it makes me smile because the Barghouti family is one of the most corrupt families mafia operating families in the west bank they are known for their money laundering activities all these terrorist activities that the Barghoutis have been leading it was with dirty money so we'll leave it at that I also want to just point out that the Palestinians of the west banks were not exposed like everybody else in the world to the true picture of what happened on the 7th of October they do not understand the scope of what happened the ferocity they are fed with propaganda they are fed with fake news so their answers are also influenced by that we have to understand that they do not have all the data that we have to answer the questions they're being asked and also and the last thing about this is this poll is that the mentality the loser is never is losing also with the Palestinian popularity so if the Hamas will lose this war there will be no sympathy from the Palestinians they will only be sympathy so far as the Hamas is perceived as strong fighting on killing Israelis as soon as they see that we prevail all this popularity will just slide down so this is this is one thing now the problem of course of the day after is that there's absolutely no question about the fact that we cannot have neither Barghouti nor Hamas people sitting in any Palestinian government and neither should be Mr Abu Mazen because we also have to speak of white color terrorists people who encourage terrorism by finance terrorism loud terrorism so these people have no no no place there it's no grudge it's just if we do want to rebuild and if we do want to consider some kind of a peace negotiation or approach to a peace negotiation we have to change all these guys all this old guard has to be changed maybe also some of our people in on the Israeli cells have to be changed and to get a fresher generation of politicians and leaders that are a little more open to dialogue and maybe have a different agenda than those that we have right now in charge and I'm saying not only in the Palestinian side probably also in the Israeli side and we don't have the right guys for a serene rebuild and peace negotiation process oh and we don't have much time left your thoughts on the findings of that poll and what it means for exactly that the day after who could be a peace partner realistically well listen I think with Raphael some of the things you say are interesting it could be interesting for example to ask people not just globally or in general what they think about October 7th but what would you think if you knew X what would you think if you knew women were raped what you think if you knew this and see if the findings changed but I do think on the other hand we can't fight the hypothetical we have to take seriously the fact that this is what Palestinians say and this is how Palestinians feel and we can't ignore that we can't look away we have to take seriously this is how people feel just living just kilometers just miles from where we're sitting and what that means deeply for the prospects of peace and two-state solution oh and ultimate Raphael you're a show me thank you so much a long road ahead and that is where we wrap up this edition of our breaking news coverage I'm Vanessa Levine back in a bit stay tuned thank you Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well 24 in espanol trial analysis and the information de los acontecimientos de la guerra espadas de hierro entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra la reacción de los países hispano parlantes news 24 el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en i24 news news edition i'm venita levine the united states is bringing out its big guns so to speak on their way to israel after stopping off in saudi arabia national security advisor jake salavan arrives in tel aviv later today to meet with israel's war cabinet at the country's defense headquarters he'll be here as a guest of his israeli counterpart sachi hanek b and we'll meet with prime minister benjamin it and yahoo president isek hertso defense minister you are gallant and war cabinet minister benny gants on day 69 of the war nearly 10 weeks since the chamas terror onslaught in southern israel on the 7th of october there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate chamas plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the hezbollah threat out of southern lebanon here's the latest from national security spokesperson john curby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to israel we'll have more to say about that when we can uh and his message again i don't want to get ahead of him i certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped um and i think he'll explore opportunities uh to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through carom shalom so let's find out exactly what is happening on the ground right now for more we start in the north we go to our correspondent zack andes and he joins us from northern israel so zack us defense secretary leud austin is slamming his bullet for threatening communities in israel talk us through the latest moves israel's efforts to push his bullet back from that northern front and create a buffer zone what is the latest there yeah that buffer zone is the key point as reports are coming out of the us the uk and france that uh their negotiators the teams of diplomats have been meeting in lebanon attempting to push this to the the front of the debate this buffer zone that is the result of a 2006 united nation security council vote attempting to create a space between the latani river and the northern israel border uh you'll have to remember in the deeper context of this this border is not like other borders it's a united nations agreed upon line that is the result of conflict and so lebanon still thinks they have a claim to some of the territory that is currently held by northern israel and this is where it really becomes tricky the movement with some of the the attempts to create this buffer zone uh involves instilling the the laf that lebanon armed forces as the security force in this buffer zone in this territory in southern lebanon removing hezbollah from the equation but there are reports that this is going to be a bit of a challenge because the couldn't really come at a worse time in lebanon with the economic situation being as as miserable and as terrible as it is the laf is having problems paying even its soldiers so to put the laf in charge of this territory and say to the hezbollah fighters that they must be north of this position to to leave this area would be a bit of a challenge and and especially in some of these southern communities in lebanon when uh hezbollah is saying well you're asking for our members to leave this area this is where some of our our people live the they live in these southern communities the the men and the heads of household are in these communities and you're asking them to leave it sounds like the the sticking point here is that uh israel and the international cooperation is saying no just lay down your arms and uh not have any ability to fire on israeli positions from this buffer zone you'll note that the buffer zone is just large enough just wide enough to be out of range of the atgm fire the anti-tank guided missile which we've seen repeatedly fired on northern israel throughout this conflict certainly one of the many issues on the table where national security advisor jake salavan meets with the war cabinet later on on this day thank you so much correspondent zack anders lie from northern israel more to come from zack in the coming hours meanwhile confirmation that yet another soldier has been killed during the israeli ground operation in gaza bringing to 116 the number of soldiers killed in the retaliatory incursion prime minister benjamin atonyahu reiterating israel has to continue with its operation until khamas is eliminated so let's find out how that operation is going we cross live to our correspondent pia clausenler he joins us from southern israel and pierce some big meetings on the cards here in israel later in the day but what is the latest on the ground as fighting continues inside the gaza strip well we hear from palestinian media affiliated to khamas from gaza that there's heavy pounding by artillery and a strikes in the jebalia refugee camp and the shejai atown southeast of gaza city and these are two strongholds of khamas that have been holding on since december 1st since the pose in the fighting was over and israel resumed its ground offensive the two strongholds were encircled before december 2nd and the forces have been fighting house to house room to room in those places that are very densely that we're very densely populated but that are very densely established in the sense that there are a lot of buildings a lot of alleyways and it is very difficult to operate there especially for tanks in alleyways tanks cannot penetrate so this is why you've had such a tragic incident for the idf forces the golani infantry brigade two days ago in sejai where nine soldiers were killed in one single event further south in hanyuness also fierce fighting 100 buildings have been demolished it seems that they were presumed terror targets 120 palestinians killed according to the idf estimates in the area of hanyuness in sejai we're talking about 250 300 terrorists killed but you gotta remember and the army is very aware of that even if the army has operational control above ground especially in the northern sector of the gaza strip including in gaza city there are still a lot of fighters ramas fighters that are underneath the ground's internal and that can move and maneuver and ambush israeli soldiers from any place that's why for instance we know there's been overnight pounding of presumed terror targets in neighborhoods that have been already taken over such as zaytun and al daraj because we know that two days ago in that tragic event in which the nine soldiers of the idf were killed terrorists from daraj and to far came in support to the terrorists in sejai so the ground above ground it's okay the israeli army is calming the area behind me in the northern sector of the gaza strip in order to identify and neutralize tunnel shafts tunnels weapons depots workshops of manufacturing rockets and other ammunition but given that there's a lot of work to be done because there are thousands and thousands of tunnel shafts uh strewn uh all across the 360 kilo square kilometers of the gaza strip and that takes a lot of time now in hanyuness of course there is an intensive fight because the leadership both political and military is believed to be in hanyuness according to the idf estimates because uh they are originated from hanyuness and as a result the loyalty of the residents of hanyuness might be greater and this is why those uh chief terrorists you could say are still probably underground underneath hanyuness and for the israeli army this is a make or break test of hamas's capability to control the gaza strip especially the southern half of the gaza strip which is still under uh controlled by the hamas thank you so much correspondent pier clausian le lie from southern israel more updates from pier in the coming hours thank you and now we welcome to studio retired colonel amit as a former member of the israeli security agency and our senior defense correspondent jonathan reggae thank you both so much for being here in studio jonathan i want to pick up on what we just heard from pier and the focus right now on khan yunus and who might be hiding somewhere in tunnels underneath the significance of what it would mean for moral for israeli troops and frankly for israel as well to catch up with yahya sinwar mohammed death and others talk to us about the significance of what is unfolding at that stronghold yahya sinwar and muhamad deffer both natives of hanyuness and and and we can assume that they were before this operation began they may have been operating out of gaza city but once the operation began clearly when the israeli army entered into northern gaza they moved into southern gaza so the assumption is that they are hiding there along with many of the of the hostages let's remember kibbutz near us for example which which many of its residents have been kidnapped sits right on on the israeli side of the border right in front of hanyuness so again the assumption is that many of the hostages are still held somewhere in the hanyuness area that is why it is it is important for israel to gain to to gain a stronghold there as it did in the northern gaza strip having said all that even in the northern gaza strip or we just heard pierre speaking about jibalia speaking about sajaya all these places they're not in hanyuness they're further to the north so so there's still work to be done there and they're both in the north and in the south in the north obviously where the the ground operation is more advanced we have seen many more images those are mass surrenders of hundreds and hundreds of terrorist surrendering if if if we look perhaps at a move that could because there's always there's there's currently a feeling of sort of a stalemate things not really moving but if if you see hundreds and hundreds of terrorist surrendering that that could perhaps show the beginning of a collapse if you see that in the south as we see that in the north clearly for morale on both sides it has a major effect because this operation and it is coming at a huge risk and a huge cost the death toll in terms of israeli soldiers is at 116 the fighting continues as we heard pierre describing right now 135 hostages are somewhere in this region as well certainly exacerbating the way the fighting is unfolding talk to us about your assessment of what is happening on the ground right now so what I think my point of view is about morale okay this will be the breakpoint that we hope but in both sides we have points that every side is earning when we are talking about morale we can see a lot of videos that Hamas is putting out for press for his soldiers to see almond underneath a ability to get bombs under a Israeli troops to get missiles to tanks and this is one side in the other side Israel is working on the side of morale like showing a lot of surrender the Hamas members and a lot of activity up the ground so it's more a moral now a point that if we will break down this point it will be a change of all reality in in the regards to repenting also in the south and you can gather the south and the north and it can be some kind of a breakpoint for that kind of issue given your intelligence background give us an understanding we see those images that Jonathan was describing scores of people surrendering scores of Hamas terrorists what kind of information is being gleaned from them to help future operations and of course to help hopefully find hostages who are hidden somewhere in the Gaza Strip as we speak yeah for my point of view when I see this kind of a group standing and waiting for arrest and getting into interrogation meaning a lot of work because our interrogation system have to put out all the information that they have and first we have to know who are they because who are they is very important for us for knowing if their information is important for us in two aspects of course one is the operational system of Hamas downstair and then the other one of course is the hostages but it's a lot of work it's it's not some kind of work that we can do in a minute we have to put every one of them into a deep interrogation and to put out all the information that we need tactically and also for all these two aims of system and hostages inside the Gaza and as you say time is of the essence I made Jonathan stay with us more to discuss because as we have been highlighting it's been a devastating week for the Israeli military in Gaza with 10 soldiers killed in one day nine of them in that ambush in Shajjia neighborhood the death toll in the retaliatory ground operation is at 116 corresponding Robert Swift has more in this report four soldiers from the Israeli infantry's Gulani brigade became isolated when ambushed in Shajjia east of Gaza city attacked with grenades explosives and small arms fire the trapped soldiers were wounded fearing a kidnap attempt the IDF flooded fighters into the area including from the Air Force's specialist rescue unit 669 troops who found themselves similarly attacked when the fighting ended nine Israeli soldiers were dead among them the four initially trapped making it one of the deadliest clashes for the IDF since it entered Gaza nearly two months ago among those killed were several officers including a battalion commander and a colonel there was a point in the war when I asked you when it will be over you said that for you it is over when all the hostages return and the last of the terrorists are eliminated you meant every word you said yesterday you proved in practice that after me is not a slogan but an order for us commanders to lead the troops forward even when there is a heavy very heavy price the bloody incident deepens the Gulani brigade's connection to Shajjia where it suffered losses in 2014 Israeli commanders did not comment on how many Hamas were killed in the fight but the use of a complex and coordinated ambush might show an adaptation in its tactics with Hamas previously focusing on hit-and-run attacks with small anti-tank teams it might also suggest Hamas is less broken than images apparently showing surrenders would imply and still in studio retired colonel Amit Asa and our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev and Amit something I want to pick up on here is as devastating as the situation was this blow the number of soldiers killed in one day in that ambush it's abundantly clear that the senior officers went in first as leaders do as opposed to something we were discussing earlier in the broadcast other leaders and other parts who are hiding under tunnels what does that say about the methodology the strategy of the IDF right now as it fights this war day 69 I think again we have a very complicated area to deal with it's an area that the tanks are not able to to get in sometimes and also airstrike like drones have a disability and the only way to move on and cap this area is by foot uh street by street uh building by building and room by room and this is what IDF know how to do but it cause us casualties and it's very sad but it's the only way to move in this kind of an area and Jonathan I want to bring you in here because over and above the tensions that are obviously unfolding inside the Gaza Strip as fighting continues there's the West Bank as well and tensions in Jenin developments in Jenin as well talk to us about the IDF's ability to handle that front at the same time as a war that is unfolding and the fighting continues in the Gaza Strip not to mention Lebanon too there's I think we can call it a second war now in in in Jenin let's remember there's a big operation in in July in Jenin it gained the major major headlines the operation we're seeing now in Jenin I think is even bigger it is not gaining even it is not gaining as much attention as headline simply because our attention is obviously focused on Gaza now but what we're seeing in Jenin as as as far as the way that Israel is is acting is is is even bigger than what we saw back in July a major force coming in with drones from the air there were five I think five Palestinian terrorists that were killed on the first day report so far speak of three terrorists killed on the second day we've already learned these things they do not happen without Israeli casualties so we have under five Israeli soldiers injured in hospital none of them is in life-threatening condition but there are also injuries among the the Israeli army Jenin we've been speaking about it for about two years now the focal point of terrorism in the the West Bank not necessarily Hamas itself it's sort of local militants criminals everybody joining in into into just local gangs local terror gangs which Israel has to to point again and again and again because they we've seen attempts a unsuccessful attempt so far to fire rockets also in the Jenin area unsuccessful at the beginning but this was also the case in Gaza at the beginning these things can develop if Israel I think Israel learned the very hard way that if you don't deal with terrorism when it's small it grows into something bigger like Hamas in Gaza like like Hezbollah in Lebanon and therefore Israel is dealing harshly with with with those cells growing in the area of Jenin forcefully to make sure that whatever we saw in in in Gaza doesn't happen in the West Bank the West Bank of course is a different story because there's constant presence and constant activity of Israeli forces the only reason why Hamas is not taken over the West Bank is not because of the Palestinian Authority they have nothing to do with it it is only because of the presence of the Israeli forces maybe this will be the model that we see in Gaza eventually sort of a area A plus of the West Bank meaning it is in Palestinian control but there's there's constant constant Israeli activity to make sure that whatever we saw in in Gaza before October 7th these these terrorist state does not develop again to that exact point I met the growing support for Hamas inside the West Bank since the 7th of October is staggering there's a new poll out outlining exactly that talk to us about given exactly what Jonathan is describing the tension that already exists and has existed in the West Bank for years now what does it mean now post 7th of October what are the threats right now I think that at the West Bank people are watching what happens now in in Gaza Strip they're watching and waiting and Israeli have to be very very strong in what happens in in the south because it's a symbol and it's a sign for the West Bank people don't as Biden said this is the way we have to treat and if you will you will raise your head as we can see in Janine as you can see in the camp in Tulkarem in any place that the IDF is working now very deeply is signing and Janine of course it's a symbol they are signing don't don't raise your head and if Hamas will raise the head in the West Bank it will happen again like what you see in Gaza and we can deal with these two front lines at the same time because we have very good kept in the West Bank and a lot of activity there inside and we can deal with two kind of and also it's a sign and a symbol for Hezbollah look we can deal with two front lines we will be able to deal with you also at the same time don't was the very strong message from the US from the start from President Joe Biden and of course we know Jake Sullivan on his way to Israel as we speak Jonathan and stopping off interestingly enough in Saudi Arabia on route to Tel Aviv what do you make of that what is expected out of the meetings later in the day the United States is just as concerned as Israel of what is happening in Yemen and the fact that the commercial routes there are are are blocked by Yemen and by the Houthis in Yemen which get their other orders just like just like all the other proxies they get their orders from Tehran is a concerning development from for the United States and of course just to the north of Yemen stands Saudi Arabia they have tried to deal with the Houthis that they created a coalition and they failed and we see what happens now Yemen basically controls the entrance to the Red Sea causing a problem for any ship sailing towards the Suez Canal it's a problem for Israel of course it is also a problem for for for for the United States that I think is at least one of the reasons why I why why Jake Sullivan is will also make a stop in Saudi Arabia let's remember one thing Benita I was in 1967 one of the reasons that Israel went to war was because the roads to the Elat port were blocked by Egypt back then a bit further to the north just on the southern edge of the Sinai Peninsula now someone is trying to do the same block the the the routes towards the Red Sea to Israel I'm sure that plans Israeli plans to attack Yemen are there I'm not sure the United States would want Israel to act by itself maybe some kind of a coalition we're hearing retaliatory messages from Iran a coalition against the Houthis in Yemen that's something you do not want to do we're speaking of a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza this is sort of a global thing much bigger than just the local conflict here and talking about the so called local conflict here as you put it red alert siren sounding as we speak in several southern communities right now in the rim and in HaShloshah right now Amit this is happening as we are expecting in a short while later on in the day Jake Sullivan to be landing here what does it mean to have first-hand experience in other words the US officials get here and they see first-hand what is happening on the ground rocket siren still happening day 69 of this war even though this operation continues inside the Gaza Strip your thoughts I think cooperation with the American is very important you know important in the in way of making them to believe and understand what situation we are every second in the war that's why communicate with them in the cabinet of war it's very important and to make sure that they will be with us so this is a way that that I think will work and even if he is coming from a meeting from with Saudi and also we know that there is negotiation at the north of Lebanon they want to control everything and we we have to put them inside our decisions and to make the leaf that they know what is the situation here exactly retired colonel Amit as a senior defense correspondent Jonathan reggae appreciate your insights on all these developments on this day and that is a wrap for now I'm Benita Levine back in a bit stay tuned thank you for watching Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well the news edition I'm Benita Levine the United States is bringing out its big guns so to speak on their way to Israel after stopping off in Saudi Arabia national security advisor Jake Sullivan arrives in Tel Aviv later today to meet with Israel's war cabinet at the country's defense headquarters he'll be here as a guest of his Israeli counterpart Sachi Hanegbi and we'll meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu President Isaac Herzog Defense Minister Joachim Gallant and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz on day 69 of the war nearly 10 weeks since the Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate Hamas plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the Hezbollah threat out of southern Lebanon here's the latest from national security spokesperson John Kirby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to Israel we'll have more to say about that when we can and his message again I don't want to get ahead of him I certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped and I think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through Karim Shalom so let's find out exactly what is happening on the ground right now for more we start in the north we go to our correspondent Zach Anders and he joins us from northern Israel so Zach US defense secretary Lloyd Austin is slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel talk us through the latest moves Israel's efforts to push Hezbollah back from that northern front and create a buffer zone what is the latest there yeah that buffer zone is the key point as reports are coming out of the US the UK and France that their negotiators the teams of diplomats have been meeting in Lebanon attempting to push this to the the front of the debate this buffer zone that is the result of a 2006 United Nations Security Council vote attempting to create a space between the Latani River and the northern Israel border you'll have to remember in the deeper context of this this border is not like other borders it's a United Nations agreed upon line that is the result of conflict and so Lebanon still thinks they have a claim to some of the territory that is currently held by northern Israel and this is where it really becomes tricky the movement with some of the the attempts to create this buffer zone involves instilling the the LAF the Lebanon armed forces as the security force in this buffer zone in this territory in southern Lebanon removing Hezbollah from the equation but there are reports that this is going to be a bit of a challenge because the couldn't really come at a worse time in Lebanon with the economic situation being as as miserable and as terrible as it is the LAF is having problems paying even its soldiers so to put the LAF in charge of this territory and say to the Hezbollah fighters that they must be north of this position to to leave this area would be a bit of a challenge and especially in some of these southern communities in Lebanon when Hezbollah is saying well you're asking for our members to leave this area this is where some of our our people live the they live in these southern communities the the men and the heads of household are in these communities and you're asking them to leave it sounds like the the sticking point here is that Israel and the international cooperation is saying no just lay down your arms and not have any ability to fire on Israeli positions from this buffer zone you'll note that the buffer zone is just large enough just wide enough to be out of range of the ATGM fire the anti-tank guided missile which we've seen repeatedly fired on northern Israel throughout this conflict certainly one of the many issues on the table where national security advisor Jake Sullivan meets with the war cabinet later on on this day thank you so much correspondent Zach Anders live from northern Israel more to come from Zach in the coming hours meanwhile confirmation that yet another soldier has been killed during the Israeli ground operation in Gaza bringing to 116 the number of soldiers killed in the retaliatory incursion prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating Israel has to continue with its operation until Hamas is eliminated so let's find out how that operation is going we cross live to our correspondent Pierre Kloschender he joins us from southern Israel and pierce some big meetings on the cards here in Israel later in the day but what is the latest on the ground as fighting continues inside the Gaza Strip well we hear from Palestinian media affiliated to Hamas from Gaza that there's heavy pounding by artillery and a strikes in the Jebalia refugee camp and the Shejai town southeast of Gaza city and these are two strongholds of Hamas that have been holding on since December 1st since the pose in the fighting was over and Israel resumed its ground offensive the two strongholds were encircled before December 2nd and the forces have been fighting house to house room to room in those places that are very densely that we're very densely populated but that are very densely established in the sense that there are a lot of buildings a lot of alleyways and it is very difficult to operate there especially for tanks in alleyways tanks cannot penetrate so this is why you've had such a tragic incident for the IDF forces the Golani Infantry Brigade two days ago in Sejai where nine soldiers were killed in one single event further south in Hanyunas also fierce fighting 100 buildings have been demolished it seems that they were presumed terror targets 120 Palestinian killed according to the IDF estimates in the area of Hanyunas in Shejai we're talking about 250 300 terrorist kills but you gotta remember and the army is very aware that even if the army has operational control above ground especially in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip including in Gaza city there are still a lot of fighters Hamas fighters that are underneath the grounds internal and that can move and maneuver and ambush Israeli soldiers from any place that's why for instance we know there's a there's been overnight pounding of presumed terror targets in neighborhoods that have been already taken over such as Zeytun and Aldaraj because we know that two days ago in that tragic event in which the nine soldiers of the IDF were killed terrorists from Daraj and Tufar came in support to the terrorists in Shejai so the ground above ground it's okay the Israeli army is calming the area behind me in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip in order to identify and neutralize tunnel shafts tunnels weapons depots workshops of manufacturing rockets and other ammunition but given that there's a lot of work to be done because there are thousands and thousands of tunnel shafts strewn all across the 360 kilo square kilometers of the Gaza Strip and that takes a lot of time now in Hanyun as of course there is an intensive fight because the leadership both political and military is believed to be in Hanyun as according to the IDF estimates because they are originated from Hanyun as and as a result the loyalty of the residents of Hanyun as might be greater and this is why those chief terrorists you could say are still probably underground underneath Hanyun as and for the Israeli army this is a make-or-break test of Hamas's capability to control the Gaza Strip especially the southern half of the Gaza Strip which is still under control by the Hamas. Thank you so much correspondent Pia Kloschendler live from southern Israel more updates from Pia in the coming hours thank you and now we welcome to studio retired colonel Amit Assa a former member of the Israeli security agency and our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev thank you both so much for being here in studio Jonathan I want to pick up on what we just heard from Pia and the focus right now on Khan Yunus and who might be hiding somewhere in tunnels underneath the significance of what it would mean for morale for Israeli troops and frankly for Israel as well to catch up with Yahya Sinwar Muhammad Def and others talk to us about the significance of what is unfolding at that strong hold. Yahya Sinwar and Mohamed Def are both natives of Hanyun and we can assume that they were before this operation began they may have been operating out of Gaza city but once the operation began clearly when the Israeli army entered into northern Gaza they moved into southern Gaza so the assumption is that they are hiding there along with many of the hostages let's remember Kibbutz near Oz for example which many of its residents have been kidnapped sits right on the Israeli side of the border right in front of Hanyun so again the assumption is that many of the hostages are still held somewhere in the Hanyunist area that is why it is it is important for Israel to gain to gain a strong hold there as it did in the northern Gaza Strip having said all that even in the northern Gaza Strip or we just heard Pierre speaking about Jabalia speaking about Sajaya all these places they're not in Hanyunist they're further to the north so there's still work to be done there and there both in the north and in the south and the north obviously where the the ground operation is more advanced we have seen many more images those amassed as surrenders of hundreds and hundreds of terrorist surrendering if if if we look perhaps at a move that could because there's always there's there's currently a feeling of sort of a stalemate things not really moving but if if you see hundreds and hundreds of terrorist surrendering that that could perhaps show the beginning of a collapse if you see that in the south as we see that in the north clearly for morale on both sides it has a a major effect because this operation admit is coming at a huge risk and a huge cost the death toll in terms of Israeli soldiers is at 116 the fighting continues as we heard Pierre describing right now 135 hostages are somewhere in this region as well certainly exacerbating the way the fighting is unfolding talk to us about your assessment of what is happening on the ground right now so what I think my point of view is about morale okay this will be the breakpoint that we hope but in both sides we have points that every side is earning when we are talking about morale we can see a lot of videos that Hamas is putting out for press for his soldiers to see armed underneath a ability to get bombs under Israeli troops to get missiles to tanks and this is one side in the other side Israel is working on the side of morale like the showing girl a lot of surrender the Hamas members and a lot of activity up the ground so it's more a moral now point that if we will break down this point it will be a change of all reality in in the regards to repenting also in the south and you can gather the south and the north and it can be some kind of a breakpoint for that kind of issue given your intelligence background give us an understanding we see those images that Jonathan was describing scores of people surrendering scores of Hamas terrorists what kind of information is being gleaned from them to help future operations and of course to help hopefully find hostages who are hidden somewhere in the Gaza Strip as we speak yeah from my point of view when I see this kind of a group standing and waiting for arrest and getting into interrogation meaning a lot of work because our interrogation system have to put out all the information that they have and first we have to know who are they because who are they is very important for us for knowing if their information is important for us in two aspects of course one is the operational system of Hamas downstair and then the other one of course is the hostages but it's a lot of work it's it's not some kind of work that we can do in a minute we have to put every one of them into a deep interrogation and to put out all the information that we need tactically and also for all these two aims of system and hostages inside the Gaza and as you say time is of the essence I make Jonathan stay with us more to discuss because as we have been highlighting it's been a devastating week for the Israeli military in Gaza with 10 soldiers killed in one day nine of them in that ambush in Shajjia neighborhood the death toll in the retaliatory ground operation is at 116 corresponding Robert Swift has more in this report four soldiers from the Israeli infantry's Gulani brigade became isolated when ambushed in Shajjia east of Gaza city attacked with grenades explosives and small arms fire the trapped soldiers were wounded fearing a kidnap attempt the IDF flooded fighters into the area including from the Air Force's specialist rescue unit 669 troops who found themselves similarly attacked when the fighting ended nine Israeli soldiers were dead among them the four initially trapped making it one of the deadliest clashes for the IDF since it entered Gaza nearly two months ago among those killed were several officers including a battalion commander and a colonel there was a point in the war when I asked you when it will be over you said that for you it is over when all the hostages return and the last of the terrorists are eliminated you meant every word you said yesterday you proved in practice that after me is not a slogan but an order for us commanders to lead the troops forward even when there is a heavy very heavy price the covid mode the bloody incident deepens the Gulani brigade's connection to Shajjia where it suffered losses in 2014 Israeli commanders did not comment on how many Hamas were killed in the fight but the use of a complex and coordinated ambush might show an adaptation in its tactics with Hamas previously focusing on hit-and-run attacks with small anti-tank teams it might also suggest Hamas is less broken than images apparently showing surrenders would imply and still in studio retired Colonel Amit Assar and our senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev and Amit something I want to pick up on here is as devastating as the situation was this blow the number of soldiers killed in one day in that ambush it's abundantly clear that the senior officers went in first as leaders do as opposed to something we were discussing earlier in the broadcast other leaders and other parts who are hiding under tunnels what does that say about the methodology the strategy of the IDF right now as it fights this war day 69 I think again we have a very complicated area to deal with it's an area that the tanks are not able to to get in sometimes and also airstrike like drones have a disability and the only way to move on and cap this area is by foot street by street building by building and room by room and this is what IDF know how to do but it cause us casualties and it's very sad but it's the only way to move in this kind of an area and Jonathan I want to bring you in here because over and above the tensions that are obviously unfolding inside the Gaza Strip as fighting continues there's the West Bank as well and tensions in Genin developments in Genin as well talk to us about the IDF's ability to handle that front at the same time as a war that is unfolding and the fighting continues in the Gaza Strip not to mention Lebanon too there's I think we can call it a second war now in in in Genin let's remember there was a big operation in in July in Genin it gained major major headlines the operation we're seeing now in Genin I think is even bigger it is not gaining even it is not gaining as much attention as headlines simply because our attention is obviously focused on Gaza now but what we're seeing in Genin as far as the way that Israel is acting is even bigger than what we saw back in July a major force coming in with drones from the air there were five I think five Palestinian terrorists that were killed on the first day reports so far speak of three terrorists killed on the second day we've already learned these things they do not happen without Israeli casualties so we have under five Israeli soldiers injured in hospital none of them is in life threatening condition but there are also injuries among the the Israeli army Genin we've been speaking about it for about two years now the focal point of terrorism in the the West Bank not necessarily Hamas itself it's sort of local militants criminals everybody joining in into into just local gangs local terror gangs which Israel has to to point again and again and again because they we've seen attempts a unsuccessful attempt so far to fire rockets also in the Genin area unsuccessful at the beginning but this was also the case in Gaza at the beginning these things can develop if Israel I think Israel learned the very hard way that if you don't deal with terrorism when it's small it grows into something bigger like Hamas in Gaza like like Hezbollah in Lebanon and therefore Israel is dealing harshly with those cells growing in the area of Genin forcefully to make sure that whatever we saw in Gaza doesn't happen in the West Bank the West Bank of course is a different story because there's constant presence and constant activity of Israeli forces the only reason why Hamas is not taken over the West Bank is not because of the Palestinian authority they have nothing to do with it it is only because of the presence of the Israeli forces maybe this will be the model that we see in Gaza eventually is sort of a area A plus of the West Bank meaning it is in Palestinian control but there's there's constant constant Israeli activity to make sure that whatever we saw in Gaza before October 7th these these terrorist state does not develop again to that exact point I met the growing support for Hamas inside the West Bank since the 7th of October is staggering there's a new poll out outlining exactly that talk to us about given exactly what Jonathan is describing the tension that already exists and has existed in the West Bank for years now what does it mean now post 7th of October what are the threats right now I think that at the West Bank people are watching what happens now in the in Gaza Strip they are watching and waiting and Israeli have to be very very strong in what happens in the in the south because it's a symbol and it's a sign for the West Bank people don't as Biden said this is the way we have to treat and if you will you will raise your head as we can see in Janine as we can see in the camp in Tulkarem in any place that the IDF is working now very deeply is signing and Janine of course it's a symbol they are signing don't don't raise your head and if Hamas will raise the head in the West Bank it will happen again like what you see in Gaza and we can deal with these two front lines at the same time because we have very good kept in the West Bank and a lot of activity there inside and we can deal with two kind of and also it's a sign and it's a symbol for Hezbollah look we can deal with two front lines we will be able to deal with you also at the same time don't was the very strong message from the US from the start from President Joe Biden and of course we know Jake Sullivan on his way to Israel as we speak Jonathan and stopping off interestingly enough in Saudi Arabia on route to Tel Aviv what do you make of that what is expected out of the meetings later in the day the United States is just as concerned as Israel of what is happening in Yemen and the fact that the commercial routes there are are are blocked by Yemen and by the Houthis in Yemen which get their orders just like just like all the other proxies they get their orders from Tehran is a concerning development from for the United States and of course just to the north of Yemen stands Saudi Arabia they have tried to deal with the Houthis that they created a coalition and they failed and and we see what happens now Yemen basically controls the entrance to the Red Sea causing a problem for any ship sailing towards the Suez Canal it's a problem for Israel of course it is also a problem for for for for the United States that I think is at least one of the reasons why I why Jake Sullivan is will also make a stop in Saudi Arabia let's remember one thing Benita I was in 1967 one of the reasons that Israel went to war was because the the roads to the Elat port were blocked by by Egypt back then a bit further to the north just on the southern edge of the Sinai peninsula now someone is trying to do the same block the the routes towards the Red Sea to Israel I'm sure that plans Israeli plans to attack Yemen are there I'm not sure the United States would want Israel to act by itself maybe some kind of a coalition we're hearing retaliatory messages from Iran is a coalition against the Houthis in Yemen that's something you do not want to do we're speaking of a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza this is sort of a global thing much bigger than just the local conflict here and talking about the so-called local conflict here as you put it red alert siren sounding as we speak in several southern communities right now in near Rim and in HaShloshah right now amid this is happening as we are expecting in a short while later on in the day Jake Sullivan to be landing here what does it mean to have firsthand experience in other words the US officials get here and they see firsthand what is happening on the ground rocket siren still happening day 69 of this war even though this operation continues inside the Gaza Strip your thoughts I think cooperation with the American is very important you know important in the in way of making them to believe and understand what situation we are every second in the war that's why communicate with them in the cabinet of war it's very important and to make sure that they will be with us so this is a way that that I think will work and even if he is coming from a meeting from with Saudi and also we know that there is negotiation at the north of Lebanon they want to control everything and we we have to put them inside our decisions and to make believe that they know what is the situation here exactly retired colonel Amit as a senior defense correspondent Jonathan reggae appreciate your insights on all these developments on this day and that is a wrap for now I'm Benita Levine back in a bit stay tuned thank you for watching Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well news edition I'm Benita Levine the United States is bringing out its big guns on their way to Israel after stopping off in Saudi Arabia national security advisor Jake Sullivan arrives in Tel Aviv later to meet with Israel's war cabinet at the country's defense headquarters he'll be here as a guest of his Israeli counterpart and we'll meet with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu president Isaac Herzog defense minister you are gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on day 69 of the war nearly 10 weeks since the Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate Hamas plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the Hezbollah threat out of southern Lebanon here's the latest from national security spokesperson John Kirby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region it won't just be just be going to Israel we'll have more to say about that when we can and his message again I don't want to get ahead of him I certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped and I think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through Karim Shalom now for the latest on the ground we start in the south let's go to our correspondent Pierre Kloschendler he joins us from southern Israel and Pierre red alert siren sounding in the past hour in Nireem and Ayn HaShloshah earlier in the morning in Sufa and ongoing fighting inside the Gaza Strip what update have you got this hour right in Ayn HaShloshah for instance this is a community that has been evacuated after the october 7 massacre because it was also one of the sites of the massacres and it's very close to the uh gaza israel border and it's basically facing the Hanyunas area where the ground offensive has been going on since december 2nd that means that it's probably also one of the staging grounds of the IDF forces entering the area of Hanyunas and as such this is a target for Hamas terrorists and they're probably lobbying uh mortar shells instead of rockets which are not easily intercepted because the iron dome cannot intercept mortar shells it can only intercept rocket fire so that's you know an occurrence that has happened more and more has the rocket fire is decreasing all over the communities facing the Gaza Strip now regarding inside you know you spoke about addressing the day after but there's few stages in the day after and what we witness in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip behind me is probably one of those stages a lower intensity fighting right now in the area of Bet Hanyun the forces are just calming the area in order to neutralize every tunnel shaft every tunnel ammunition depot sniper nest rocket launching pad you name it but at the same time they are still from time to time clashes with terrorists that have been hiding underground in spite of the ground offensive that has started in october 27 further south at the Jibalia refugee camp on the northern outskirts of Gaza city there is still fighting although it seems that the Hamas battalion in charge of the defense of the Jibalia refugee camp has been basically dismantled and what is the only Hamas squads small squads are operating not at the company level but simply at the squad level there's a heavy pounding there in southeast Gaza in Shejai it's a different ball game there the Hamas battalion seems to be operating operating as a battalion and not just as squads and hence this deadly ambush on Israeli soldiers two days ago in which nine soldiers were killed in this ambush further south in Hanyuness heavy fighting every bombardment also of presumed terror targets the fighting focuses not only inside the city but outside on the Salahadine axis for instance which is an access road in that particular segment between Gaza city and Hanyuness an access road to the central Gaza city of Hanyuness because it's believed according to the IDF estimates that both the political and military leader of Hamas originated from Hanyuness as probably seek shelter and the ground in the tunnels of this city thank you so much correspondent pia kloschendla live from southern Israel more to come from pia in the coming hours thank you and now for more we take a deeper look at some of the security developments happening right now and we welcome to studio military and strategic affairs analyst Yaakov Lappin analyst at Jewish news syndicate and Miriam Institute thank you so much Yaakov for being here in studio the death toll for Israeli soldiers is at 116 since the start of this operation the cost is high and the fighting continues as we just heard there from pia your assessment of the way things are going from the IDF perspective right now day 69 of the war I think the casualty rate which is horrendous and very sad for all of Israel is a result of this war entering the stage where ground forces are having to conduct close quarter combat scanning of structures the IDF is saying it cannot fight this war from the air alone it cannot use tanks or artillery alone in order to make sure that terrorists don't return to places like Shajia Shajia which is a you know how much stronghold and one of the largest battalions they have to go in there and make sure that the terrorists are out that the underground infrastructure and tunnels have been destroyed and that requires sending ground forces in now what the ground forces are supposed to have a supporting envelope of firepower I mean there was you know the incident in which we lost 10 soldiers from the Golanian units 669 that came about because for a certain moment there was an isolation of that unit and then forces came in to rescue it and those forces came under fire in a kind of ambush explosives and small arms fire and that is a terrible you know turn of events and it is seen by the IDF as part of the risk of this war close quarter combat scanning of neighborhoods to make sure that Nakhalo's residents can come back to their homes in the future and to know that hundreds of meters just a few hundred meters away the terrorists in Shajia will not be there waiting for them again it certainly is difficult to assess but any understanding at this juncture of how long this ground operation inside Gaza is likely to take is it longer than originally anticipated your thoughts I think you know even going in the IDF was you know talking about months and I don't think that that assessment has changed this is going to take months the question is of what intensity and the Americans you know we're seeing this stream of visitors now coming in from Washington I think they're going to push for an earlier rather than a later end to the high intensity phase of this but I think the stress has to be high intensity phase that doesn't mean that the war is going to end the IDF can switch to medium intensity operations lower intensity and when you look at it all as one package it's going to last many many months in the Gaza Strip but the high intensity phase you know they will probably try to wrap that up within about a month and a half two months at the maximum in line with this pressure that Israel is facing from the US I would say and we'll be talking more about that pressure from the US a little bit later on in the broadcast but right now stay with us we're going to go to our correspondent Zach Anders and he joins us now from northern Israel Zach what's the latest there what can you share we've heard outgoing artillery and some heavy thumps characteristic with potentially firing back at Hezbollah here just across the border in southern Lebanon no official confirmation from the IDF of the activity this morning so we're just going to have to go off what we're hearing and what we're seeing Hezbollah has said that they initiated an attack earlier this morning targeting an IDF outpost again there's still no word as to any damage or injuries so we're still waiting on confirmation and trying to sift through some of the social media posts and the independent reports that are coming out of southern Lebanon but so far again the activity this morning does appear to be picking up here once again and we know that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel he said to visit here next week talk us through the latest on Israel's moves to push Hezbollah back from that northern front and create a buffer zone of sorts and that's probably one of the greatest challenges for the US the UK all of the stakeholders involved here in trying to convince not only Hezbollah to honor a 2006 United Nations Security Council vote but creating an ultimatum to a population of Hezbollah upwards of 80,000 fighters throughout Lebanon to have them get up and move leave not all 80,000 are located beneath the Latani River of course which is this buffer zone that's the talking point here that they're trying to create but the big challenge is going to be creating that future for this zone this area between the river and the blue line the border between Lebanon and Israel that was born out of conflict and mediated by the United Nations to begin with Lebanon believes that some of Israeli territory is still theirs so there's a lot of history a lot of challenges to overcome to begin with but one of the the main sticking points here and perhaps one of the greatest challenges for Defense Secretary Austin in his visit is going to be what does that future like if the LAF the Lebanon Armed Forces is the only security force allowed to operate in this buffer zone when we're seeing reports that Lebanon is having trouble even paying these soldiers because of the dire financial situation economic situation inside Lebanon and that Hezbollah some of these fighters these are their homes they live in these southern communities and they won't just get up and leave and move and take their families someplace else so it is a herculean effort here and one that will certainly take a lot of time weeks months potentially and and tell apparently this is resolved the IDF says that evacuation notice will stay in place for these communities here in the north thank you so much live from northern Israel that's our correspondent Zach Anders thank you Zach more to come from him of course in the coming hours Yaakov Lappin you heard the tensions they exist across the border and communities affected on both sides right now your assessment when these meetings happen later in the day when Jake Sullivan gets here and meets with the war cabinet what kind of outcome is likely to come when it's particularly focusing on the northern front right now okay so the Americans of course want to avert a northern war they don't want the Israel Hamas war currently raging in the south to expand into a regional war that's the American interest they have various reasons for that they don't want to be bogged down into another Middle Eastern conflict they want to prioritize the Chinese challenge and the Far Eastern arena and they have all kinds of superpower considerations that go far wider than the Middle East so that's that's where they're coming from now on the other side of this equation are Israeli interests and Israel has made it very clear that it is not going to accept a Hezbollah presence on that border in the post-September 7th reality northern residents will not come back to their homes rightly so nobody would expect them to come back when you have this monster death squads broad one elite units and other kinds of Hezbollah units that pepper the border the entire Hamas invasion of the south and the mass murder attack was a copy paste of what Hezbollah was planning to do and advertised that it would do to the galley of region of northern Israel so having said all of that you know what we know is that Israel will not accept this we know that the Americans are trying to prevent a war and we what we don't know is how Hezbollah is going to react so these are the knowns these are the unknowns it seems to be heading towards an escalation what's unknown is the scope of it when it will happen those are the great unknowns the great question marks but I believe that as of now there is an alignment between Israeli and American interests and that alignment is temporary when it comes to the north Israel does not want to settle this northern dilemma now it wants to prioritize completion of the southern war first so that's why these American led diplomatic efforts are actually in Israel's interest once the south is stabilized and military resources become free I think they'll start moving north and then Israel will have to start you know providing solid answers to its northern residents about the future of that entire region and that's we'll we'll know where things are going in a more definite way residents in the north and in the south still waiting for that green light to know when they can realistically and safely go back to their homes Yaakov another development and it's just coming through right now it's a report that a top Hamas official Musa Abu Marzok says the group is seeking to join the line of the PLO and is floating wait for it recognition of Israel now this is just coming through as a report and he was speaking in an interview to our monitor what do you make of that sentiment right now obviously many questions existing right now particularly with this meeting about to happen later in the day about the Hamas role the PLO role and of course the Palestinian authority role down the line your thoughts some kind of desperate feeler perhaps being sent by the Hamas leadership in Qatar they know that their time is running out this is a sign of distress their entire jihadist mass murder strategy is failing they see that it's failing they see that you know time is running out for the entire Hamas leadership both in Gaza and outside and this is nothing more but a desperate attempt at deception to try and save themselves and it should be dismissed by anybody who knows what Hamas are and what they believe in does that speak to the claims that Hamas is falling right now inside Gaza when you see that kind of rhetoric absolutely this is a sign of distress I think that they you know the political leadership of Hamas in Qatar which you know spend weeks justifying the greatest war crime that the Jewish people sustained since the Holocaust now suddenly is talking about you know what it needs to do to join the PLO government and recognition of Israel they became Zionists overnight this is total desperate you know distress signal and it's all designed to save their own neck that's how it should be viewed it should be dismissed out of hand and I hope that nobody will be naive enough to fall for it and talking about reports coming through and we are hearing that Israel is reaching out to Egypt when it comes to some kind of hostage deal we know of course the Qataris have been front and center of that although no outcome at this stage we're still sitting with 135 hostages inside Gaza right now and no deal that we know about but there are reports that Egypt could be brought in on a stronger level what do you make of that it certainly you know makes sense that Israel is trying to keep that option open to try and save as many hostages as possible to convert its military achievements into new hostage deals to save as many civilians as possible that are in Hamas's hands it makes sense it should be done and you know it's one of a range of options that Israel has to try and save its hostages the other option is to try and conduct direct in the future direct negotiations with the hostage holders if the wider Hamas leadership is dismantled then perhaps Israel can hold negotiations directly with the hostage holders and offer them some sort of you know exit safe safe exit in exchange for releasing the people that they're holding or rescue operations so those are the three main options and it makes sense that Israel is constantly trying to preserve and expand each one as it moves forward to try and find any way possible to save hostages that's an official war aim and it's absolutely necessary but Yaakov is there some kind of tension or competition as such between Cairo and Doha to be the saviour here for want of a better word to be the mediator to get some kind of successful outcome specifically when it comes to hostages I don't know if there's competition necessarily but I think that they they're each driven by different interests the Egyptians want to secure their status as a leading error power and a power that has great influence over what happens both in the Gaza Strip and in the region and and it's right for them to do that they are a leading error power they're a very important country both for Israel and the region and I think that their role is a welcome one ultimately the Qataris are completely different story I think they are playing basically what we could we could call damage control mode and that is designed essentially to try and rescue their reputation in the eyes of the United States and the West as being a country that gives a safe space for Hamas's leadership genocidal leadership and this is all about damage control I think that's what's leading the Qataris here and it should be viewed you know it should be used anything that could be used to bring back the hostages should be used from a practical standpoint but we shouldn't forget for a moment that the Qataris have been one of Hamas's largest backers and hosting many of the leaders as we speak right now talking of which the families of the 135 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for nearly 10 weeks now want answers amidst conflicting reports which we're just discussing around a possible new hostage deal channel 13 news is reporting the families want to know why the war cabinet reportedly decided against sending Mossad head David Barnaya to Qatar to speed up negotiations on a new deal the Red Cross has yet to gain access to any of the hostages it's not clear how many of them are alive the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 20 of those still held by Hamas citing new intelligence from troops on the ground authorities confirming overnight that another two hostages have been killed by Hamas, Tsar Chhaimi a resident of Kibbutz near Yitzhak and Joshua Mollell an agricultural intern from Tanzania in Africa who was staying at Kibbutz nach Al Oz he has more from some of the families after their meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington we appreciate we are thankful to the president and to his team because we know that they are working 24 hours a day and they are going to work through the holidays and they are going to do everything they can to make sure that all of our loved ones real people come home to us and to the families across the world and in Israel a terrific terrific meeting and conversation I think we all came away feeling that as families of hostages of American Israeli hostages which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages we felt that and we felt before and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden himself and his administration it's just unimaginable to think that families are waiting so long for word on their loved ones 135 people still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip at the hand of terrorists at the hands of Hamas still in studio Yaakov Leppen and Jake Sullivan arrives in the coming hours he meets with the war cabinet and presumably that urgent appeal from families for answers is top of the agenda talk to us about the options on the table right now in terms of the US and Israel throw in Egypt throw in Qatar what is it going to take realistically as winter approaches as it gets colder and colder each night what is it going to take to get these people home safely all of them enhanced military pressure on Hamas leadership once they feel that the sword is on their neck they will be keen to buy themselves a day two days three days and that's when these future hostage exchange deals in exchange for terrorist prisoners we should say will become more realistic that's Israel's hope and strategy going forward and the Americans are essential part of that as mediators as facilitators as applying pressure on Qatar which applies pressure on the Hamas leadership that it hosts in Qatar and that all goes back to the Hamas military leadership in the tunnels these are the main decision makers so that's one very important role but the Americans are here also to talk about the region they are concerned about the regional war and they're here to talk about the Yemenite threat which is now starting to affect international regional and Israeli shipping they're trying to create a blockade of the Red Sea this is very very serious and Israel has made it clear I think to the whole international community that if something isn't done then military action will be taken against the Houthis to clear up the Red Sea channel just remind of viewers that 25% of Israel's trade is with the Far East and out of that about 7% comes in through a lot port so this is a real economic threat and of course you know the elephant in the room which is will this or will not will this not broaden into a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with possibly Iran itself Iran has the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East they could become involved in this war even though they prefer proxy warfare and I think you know this whole regional dimension is actually at the top of the discussion agenda as well as all the other things we've mentioned what kind of role does Saudi Arabia have and everything you're discussing right now we know Jake Sullivan is stopping off there on his way to Israel an important player in all these factors talking about Yemen talking about influence across the Middle East your sense of what could be coming out of Riyadh I think the Saudis have a very important role to play right now I think it's a little bit behind the scenes but in terms of the pressure that they're applying I would imagine that they are helping everybody who needs to understand including the Americans the threat that the Houthis pose let's remind the viewers that the United States pressured Saudi Arabia to end its military campaign against the Houthis and now we see that they've reemerged as a threat so that turned out to be some sort of strategic mistake because the Houthis cannot be left alone it's another one of these Iranian-backed terror armies that had terrorized Saudi cities with missile attacks and military installations and now they're doing it they're trying to do it to Israel and they're doing it to international shipping so I think the Saudis first of all have a lot to say about the Houthis and the world should listen and second of all I think you know under the leadership of Muhammad bin Salman the crown prince the Saudis are very aware of the need to eliminate Islamist jihadist Iranian-backed terror armies from the map this is not in line with Saudi's view of the region a prosperous sane and quiet region I think that's what the Saudis want but they also have to worry about their domestic legitimacy so they're going to talk about the need you know for a Palestinian state they've been talking about this a lot but I think that's not their real top concern their real top concern is keeping the Iranians and all their proxies the Houthis Hamas Hezbollah in check because that threatens both Saudi's security and their vision for the for the future and when you talk about the vision for the future obviously top of the agenda as well in this meeting later on the day with Jake Sullivan is the day after the war and the latest poll suggesting the most popular politician for Palestinians is Marwan Barghouti from Fatah talk to us about the significance of that right now well you know there's further evidence of addiction by too many Palestinians to mass murdering terrorists that he's serving multiple life sentences for a reason and I hope that maybe in the Gaza Strip at least the population will start to think about a different type of leadership after they see where you know jihadist supremacists lead them to disaster after disaster and I think Barghouti is no different really you know he's absolutely in that camp so you know I hope that the reckoning will begin from Gaza because according to the polls that we're seeing in the West Bank there doesn't seem to be any lesson learning there unlike for to differentiate by the way from Israeli Arabs where according to a recent poll half of them believe that the IDF's war effort was justified which is an amazing figure Jacob Leppin always appreciate your insights on all these developments all happening at once and that is a wrap for now I'm Bernice Levine back in a bit stay tuned 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 to be fought as well. In this moment I'm Bernice Levine the United States is bringing out its big guns on their way to Israel after stopping off in Saudi Arabia National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrives in Tel Aviv later to meet with Israel's war cabinet at the country's defense headquarters he'll be here as a guest of his Israeli counterpart Sachi Hanegbi and we'll meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu President Isaac Herzog Defense Minister Joab Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on day 69 of the war nearly 10 weeks since the Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the Hezbollah threat out of southern Lebanon here's the latest from national security spokesperson John Kirby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to Israel we'll have more to say about that when we can and his message again I don't want to get ahead of him I certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped and I think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through Karim Shalom Now for the latest on the ground we start in the south let's go to our correspondent Pierre Klossendler he joins us from southern Israel and Pierre Red alert siren sounding in the past hour in Nirem and Ayn HaShloshah earlier in the morning in Sufa and ongoing fighting inside the Gaza Strip what update have you got this hour right in Ayn HaShloshah for instance this is a community that has been evacuated after the October 7 massacre because it was also one of the sites of the massacres and it's very close to the Gaza-Israel border and it's basically facing the Hanyunas area where the ground offensive has been going on since December 2nd that means that it's probably also one of the staging grounds of the IDF forces entering the area of Hanyunas and as such this is a target for Hamas terrorists and they're probably lobbing mortar shells instead of rockets which are not easily intercepted because the iron dome cannot intercept mortar shells it can only intercept rocket fire so that's you know an occurrence that has happened more and more has the rocket fire is decreasing all over the communities facing the Gaza Strip now regarding inside you know you spoke about addressing the day after but there's few stages in the day after and what we witness in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip behind me is probably one of those stages a lower intensity fighting right now in the area of Bet Hanyun the forces are just calming the area in order to neutralize every tunnel shaft every tunnel ammunition depot sniper nest rocket launching pad you name it but at the same time they are still from time to time clashes with terrorists that have been hiding underground in spite of the ground offensive that has started in October 27 further south at the Jebalia refugee camp on the northern outskirts of Gaza city there is still fighting although it seems that the Hamas battalion in charge of the defense of the Jebalia refugee camp has been basically dismantled and what is the only Hamas squads small squads are operating not at the company level but simply at the squad level there's heavy pounding there in southeast Gaza in Sheja it's a different ballgame there the Hamas battalion seems to be operating operating as a battalion and not just as squads and hence this deadly ambush on Israeli soldiers two days ago in which nine soldiers were killed in this ambush further south in Hanyuness heavy fighting every bombardment also of presumed terror targets the fighting focuses not only inside the city but outside on the Salahadine axis for instance which is an access road in that particular segment between Gaza city and Hanyuness an access road to the central Gaza city of Hanyuness because it's believed according to the IDF estimates that both the political and military leader of Hamas originated from Hanyuness as probably seek shelter and the ground in the tunnels of this city thank you so much correspondent Pia Kloshendler live from southern Israel more to come from Pia in the coming hours thank you and now for more we take a deeper look at some of the security developments happening right now and we welcome to studio military and strategic affairs analyst Jacob Lappin analyst at Jewish New Syndicate and Miriam Institute thank you so much Jacob for being here in studio the death toll for Israeli soldiers is at 116 since the start of this operation the cost is high and the fighting continues as we just heard there from Pia your assessment of the way things are going from the IDF perspective right now day 69 of the war I think the casualty rate which is horrendous and very sad for all of Israel is a result of this war entering the stage where ground forces are having to conduct close-quarter combat scanning of structures the IDF is saying it cannot fight this war from the air alone it cannot use tanks or artillery alone in order to make sure that terrorists don't return to places like Shadjia Shadjia which is a you know Hama stronghold and one of the largest battalions they have to go in there and make sure that the terrorists are out that the underground infrastructure and tunnels have been destroyed and that requires sending ground forces in now what the ground forces are supposed to have an supporting envelope of firepower I mean there was you know the incident in which we lost 10 soldiers from the Golanian units 669 that came about because for a certain moment there was an isolation of that unit and then forces came in to rescue it and those forces came under fire in a kind of ambush explosives and small arms fire and that is a terrible you know turn of events and it is seen by the IDF as part of the risk of this war close-quarter combat scanning of neighborhoods to make sure that Nakhalo's residents can come back to their homes in the future and to know that hundreds of meters just a few hundred meters away the terrorists in Shadjia will not be there waiting for them again it certainly is difficult to assess but any understanding at this juncture of how long this ground operation inside Gaza is likely to take is it longer than originally anticipated your thoughts I think you know even going in the IDF was you know talking about months and I don't think that that assessment has changed this is going to take months the question is of what intensity and the Americans you know we're seeing this stream of visitors now coming in from Washington I think they're going to push for an earlier rather than a later end to the high intensity phase of this but I think the stress has to be high intensity phase that doesn't mean that the war is going to end the IDF can switch to medium intensity operations lower intensity and when you look at it all as one package it's going to last many many months in the Gaza Strip but the high intensity phase you know they will probably try to wrap that up within about a month and a half two months at the maximum in line with this pressure that Israel is facing from the U.S. I would say and we'll be talking more about that pressure from the U.S. a little bit later on in the broadcast but right now stay with us Yaakov we're going to go to our correspondent Zach Anders and he joins us now from northern Israel Zach what's the latest there what can you share we've heard outgoing artillery and some heavy thumps characteristic with potentially firing back at Hezbollah here just across the border in southern Lebanon no official confirmation from the IDF of the activity this morning so we're just going to have to go off what we're hearing and what we're seeing Hezbollah has said that they initiated an attack earlier this morning targeting an IDF outpost again there's still no word as to any damage or injury so we're still waiting on confirmation and trying to sift through some of the social media posts and the independent reports that are coming out of southern Lebanon but so far again the activity this morning does appear to be picking up here once again and we know that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel he's said to visit here next week talk us through the latest on Israel's moves to push Hezbollah back from that northern front and create a buffer zone of sorts and that's probably one of the greatest challenges for the U.S. the UK all of the stakeholders involved here in trying to convince not only Hezbollah to honor a 2006 United Nations Security Council vote but creating an ultimatum to a population of Hezbollah upwards of 80,000 fighters throughout Lebanon to have them get up and move leave not all 80,000 are located beneath the Latani River of course which is this buffer zone that's the talking point here that they're trying to create but the big challenge is going to be creating that future for this zone this this area between the the river and the blue line the border between Lebanon and Israel that was born out of conflict and mediated by the United Nations to begin with Lebanon believes that some of Israeli territory is still theirs so there's a lot of history a lot of challenges to overcome to begin with but one of the the main sticking points here and perhaps one of the greatest challenges for for Defense Secretary Austin in his visit is going to be what does that future like if the LAF the Lebanon Armed Forces is the only security force allowed to operate in this buffer zone when we're seeing reports that Lebanon is having trouble even paying these soldiers because of the dire financial situation economic situation inside Lebanon and that Hezbollah some of these fighters these are their homes they live in these southern communities and they won't just get up and leave and move and take their families someplace else so it is a herculean effort here and one that will certainly take a lot of time weeks months potentially and until apparently this is resolved the IDF says that evacuation notice will stay in place for these communities here in the north thank you so much live from northern Israel that's our correspondent Zach Anders thank you Zach more to come from him of course in the coming hours Yaakov Lappin you heard the tensions they exist across the border and communities affected on both sides right now your assessment when these meetings happen later in the day when Jake Sullivan gets here and meets with the war cabinet what kind of outcome is likely to come when it's particularly focusing on the northern front right now okay so the Americans of course want to avert a northern war they don't want the Israel Hamas war currently raging in the south to expand into a regional war that's the American interest they have various reasons for that they don't want to be bogged down into another Middle Eastern conflict they want to prioritize the Chinese challenge and the far eastern arena and they have all kinds of superpower considerations that go far wider than the Middle East so that's that's where they're coming from now on the other side of this equation are Israeli interests and Israel has made it very clear that it is not going to accept a Hezbollah presence on that border in the post-September 7th reality northern residents will not come back to their homes rightly so nobody would expect them to come back when you have this monster death squads broad one elite units and other kinds of Hezbollah units that pepper the border the entire Hamas invasion of the south and the mass murder attack was a copy paste of what Hezbollah was planning to do and advertised that it would do to the gala of a region of northern Israel so having said all of that you know what we know is that Israel will not accept this we know that the Americans are trying to prevent a war and we what we don't know is how Hezbollah is going to react so these are the knowns these these are the unknowns it seems to be heading towards an escalation what's unknown is the scope of it when it will happen those are the great unknowns the great question marks but I believe that as of now there is an alignment between Israeli and American interests and that alignment is temporary when it comes to the north Israel does not want to settle this northern dilemma now it wants to prioritize completion of the southern war first so that's why these American led diplomatic efforts are actually in Israel's interest once the south is stabilized and military resources become free I think they'll start moving north and then Israel will have to start you know providing solid answers to its northern residents about the future of that entire region and that's we'll we'll know where things are going in a more definite way residents in the north and in the south still waiting for that green light to know when they can realistically and safely go back to their homes Yaakov another development and it's just coming through right now it's a report that a top Hamas official Musa Abu Marzok says the group is seeking to join the line of the PLO and is floating wait for it recognition of Israel now this is just coming through as a report and he was speaking in an interview to our monitor what do you make of that sentiment right now obviously many questions existing right now particularly with this meeting about to happen later in the day about the Hamas role the PLO role and of course the Palestinian Authority role down the line your thoughts some kind of desperate feeler perhaps being sent by the Hamas leadership in Qatar they know that their time is running out this is a sign of distress their entire jihadist mass murder strategy is failing they see that it's failing they see that you know time is running out for the entire Hamas leadership both in Gaza and outside and this is nothing more but a desperate attempt at deception to try and save themselves and it should be dismissed by anybody who knows what Hamas are and what they believe in does that speak to the claims that Hamas is falling right now inside Gaza when you see that kind of rhetoric absolutely this is a sign of distress I think that the you know the political leadership of Hamas in Qatar which you know spend weeks justifying the greatest war crime that the Jewish people sustained since the Holocaust now suddenly is talking about you know what it needs to do to join the PLO government and recognition of Israel they became Zionists overnight this is total desperate you know distress signal and it's all designed to save their own neck that's how it should be viewed should be dismissed out of hand and I hope that nobody will be naive enough to fall for it and talking about reports coming through and we are hearing that Israel is reaching out to Egypt when it comes to some kind of hostage deal we know of course the Qataris have been front and center of that although no outcome at this stage we're still sitting with 135 hostages inside Gaza right now and no deal that we know about but there are reports that Egypt could be brought in on a stronger level what do you make of that it's certainly you know makes sense that Israel is trying to keep that option open to try and save as many hostages as possible to convert its military achievements into new hostage deals to save as many civilians as possible that are in Hamas hands it makes sense it should be done and you know it's one of a range of options that Israel has to try and save its hostages the other option is to try and conduct direct in the future direct negotiations with the hostage holders if the wider Hamas leadership is dismantled then perhaps Israel can hold negotiations directly with the hostage holders and offer them some sort of you know exit safe safe exit in exchange for releasing the people that they're holding or rescue operations so those are the three main options and it makes sense that Israel is constantly trying to preserve and expand each one as it moves forward to try and find any way possible to save hostages that's an official war aim and it's absolutely necessary but Yaakov is there some kind of tension or competition as such between Cairo and Doha to be the saviour here for want of a better word to be the mediator to get some kind of successful outcome specifically when it comes to hostages I don't know if there's competition necessarily but I think that they they're each driven by different interests the Egyptians want to secure their status as a leading error power and a power that has great influence over what happens both in the Gaza Strip and in the region and and it's right for them to do that they are a leading error power they're a very important country both for Israel and the region and I think that their role is a welcome one ultimately the Qataris are completely different story I think they are playing basically what we could we could call damage control mode and that is designed essentially to try and rescue their reputation in the eyes of the United States and the West as being a country that gives a safe space for Hamas's leadership genocidal leadership and this is all about damage control I think that's what's leading the Qataris here and it should be viewed you know it should be used anything that could be used to bring back the hostages should be used from a practical standpoint but we shouldn't forget for a moment that the Qataris have been one of Hamas's largest backers and hosting many of the leaders as we speak right now talking of which the families of the 135 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for nearly 10 weeks now want answers amidst conflicting reports which we're just discussing around a possible new hostage deal channel 30 news is reporting the families want to know why the war cabinet reportedly decided against sending more side head David Barnaya to Qatar to speed up negotiations on a new deal the Red Cross has yet to gain access to any of the hostages it's not clear how many of them are alive the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 20 of those still held by Hamas citing new intelligence from troops on the ground authorities confirming overnight that another two hostages have been killed by Hamas Tarl Chahimi a resident of Kibbutz near Yitzhak and Joshua Mollal an agricultural intern from Tanzania in Africa who was staying at Kibbutz Nakhal Oz he has more from some of the families after their meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington we appreciate we are thankful to the president and to his team because we know that they are working 24 hours a day and they are going to work through the holidays and they are going to do everything they can to make sure that all of our loved ones real people come home to us and to the families across the world and in Israel a terrific terrific meeting and conversation I think we all came away feeling that as families of hostages of American Israeli hostages which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages we felt that and we felt before and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden himself and his administration it's just unimaginable to think that families are waiting so long for word on their loved ones 135 people still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip at the hand of terrorists at the hands of Hamas still in studio Yaakov Lappin and Jake Sullivan arrives in the coming hours he meets with the war cabinet and presumably that urgent appeal from families for answers is top of the agenda talk to us about the options on the table right now in terms of the US and Israel throw an Egypt throw and Qatar what is it going to take realistically as winter approaches as it gets colder and colder each night what is it going to take to get these people home safely all of them enhanced military pressure on Hamas leadership once they feel that the sword is on their neck they will be keen to buy themselves a day two days three days and that's when these future hostage exchange deals in exchange for terrorist prisoners we should say will become more realistic that's Israel's hope and strategy going forward and the Americans are essential part of that as mediators as facilitators as applying pressure on Qatar which applies pressure on the Hamas leadership that it hosts in Qatar and that all goes back to the Hamas military leadership in the tunnels these are the main decision makers so that's one very important role but the Americans are here also to talk about the region they are concerned about the regional war and they're here to talk about the Yemenite threat which is now starting to affect international regional and Israeli shipping they're trying to create a blockade of the Red Sea this is very very serious and Israel has made it clear I think to the whole international community that if something isn't done then military action will be taken against the Houthis to clear up the Red Sea channel just remind of viewers that 25 percent of Israel's trade is with the Far East and out of that about 7 percent comes in through a lot port so this is a real economic threat and of course you know the elephant in the room which is will this or will not will this not broaden into a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with possibly Iran itself Iran has the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East they could become involved in this war even though they prefer proxy warfare and I think you know this whole regional dimension is actually at the at the top of the discussion agenda as well as all the other things we've mentioned what kind of role does Saudi Arabia have and everything you're discussing right now we know Jake Sullivan is stopping off there on his way to Israel an important player in all these factors talking about Yemen talking about influence across the Middle East your sense of what could be coming out of Riyadh I think the Saudis have a very important role to play right now I think it's a little bit behind the scenes but in terms of the pressure that they're applying I would imagine that they are helping everybody who needs to understand including the Americans the threat that the Houthis pose let's remind the viewers that the United States pressured Saudi Arabia to end its military campaign against the Houthis and now we see that they've reemerged as a threat so that turned out to be some sort of strategic mistake because the Houthis cannot be left alone it's another one of these Iranian backed terror armies that had terrorized Saudi cities with missile attacks and military installations and now they're doing it they're trying to do it to Israel and they're doing it to international shipping so I think the Saudis first of all have a lot to say about the Houthis and the world should listen and second of all I think you know under the leadership of Muhammad Ben Salman the crown prince the Saudis are very aware of the need to eliminate Islamist jihadist Iranian backed terror armies from the map this is not in line with Saudi's view of the region a prosperous sane and quiet region I think that's what the Saudis want but they also have to worry about their domestic legitimacy so they're going to talk about the need you know for a Palestinian state they've been talking about this a lot but I think that's not their real top concern their real top concern is keeping the Iranians and all their proxies the Houthis Hamas Hezbollah in check because that threatens both Saudi's security and their vision for the for the future and when you talk about the vision for the future obviously top of the agenda as well in this meeting later on the day with Jake Sullivan is the day after the war and the latest polls suggesting the most popular politician for Palestinians is Marwan Barghouti from Fatah talk to us about the significance of that right now well you know there's further evidence of addiction by too many Palestinians to mass murdering terrorists that he's serving multiple life sentences for a reason and I hope that maybe in the Gaza Strip at least the population will start to think about a different type of leadership after they see where you know jihadist supremacists lead them to disaster after disaster and I think Barghouti is no different really you know he's absolutely in that camp um so you know I I hope that the reckoning will begin from Gaza because according to the polls that we're seeing in the West Bank there doesn't seem to be any lesson learning there unlike for to differentiate by the way from Israeli Arabs where according to a recent poll half of them believe that the IDF's war effort was justified which is an amazing figure Yaakov Lepin always appreciate your insights on all these developments all happening at once and that is a wrap for now I'm Bernice Levine back in a bit stay tuned Israel is in a state of war families completely gunned down in their beds we have no idea where you see as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well news edition I'm Bernice Levine the United States is bringing out its big guns so to speak on their way to Israel after stopping off in Saudi Arabia National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrives in Tel Aviv later today to meet with Israel's war cabinet at the country's defense headquarters he'll be here as a guest of his Israeli counterpart Sachi Hanegbi and we'll meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu President Isaac Herzog Defense Minister Joab Gallant and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz on day 69 of the war nearly 10 weeks since the Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel on the 7th of October there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate Hamas plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the Hezbollah threat out of southern Lebanon here's the latest from national security spokesperson John Kirby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to Israel we'll have more to say about that when we can and his message again I don't want to get ahead of him I certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped and I think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through Karam Shalom so for the latest let's go straight to our correspondent Zach Anders he joins us from northern Israel and tensions across that northern border have been persisting throughout this war there have been regular Hezbollah attacks from southern Lebanon and then Israel responding striking specific targets what is the latest say what update this hour well we're still waiting for confirmation from the IDF for some of the outgoing artillery that we heard earlier in the area in direction of Kirat Shemona this is characteristic with what we've been seeing over the last several weeks as Hezbollah attempts to get as close to this border as possible fire with mortars ATGMs and then retreat quickly before the IDF retaliatory strikes we have not received confirmation of strikes this morning from the IDF but it would not be a surprise if some of the noise and commotion that we heard earlier was related to Hezbollah activity near to our location this is characteristic of what we've experienced here in the last several days in fact last several weeks meanwhile US defense secretary Lloyd Austin slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel we know big meetings will be taking place later on in the day with Jake Sullivan Lloyd Austin gets here next week talk to us about efforts to create a buffer zone up north right now well the goal is to create a multi-mile buffer zone between the Latani river and the blue line the border between northern Israel and southern Lebanon this is a border that was born out of conflict and needed to necessitated the United Nations involvement to create this situation this reality here Lebanon and of course Hezbollah the the Shia militants are still claiming that some of this currently held Israeli territory is theirs so you've already started at this point of disagreement the Hezbollah faction the fighters thousands of fighters that could be located all throughout southern Lebanon already below this river to move them north of the river that involves what's going to be a herculean effort because it hasn't even been a reality under the agreement since 2006 since the 1701 security council vote that was that agreed on Hezbollah removing themselves from this area and being north of the river leaving just the laf the Lebanon armed forces to control the security situation on the ground what we do see are reports that Hezbollah fighters or those aligned with Hezbollah live in some of these villages and communities in southern Lebanon below the river and when called upon they join arms and they exhibit their their military activity with Hezbollah so it's a it's a tremendous herculean challenge here thank you so much live from northern Israel that's our correspondent Zach Anders thank you Zach and now for more insight we welcome to studio Danny Ayalan former Israeli ambassador to the US former Israeli deputy foreign minister and the chairman of silver road capital and Owen Ultiman our senior diplomatic correspondent gentlemen thank you both so much for being here Danny I'm going to start with you because Jake Sullivan has been in Saudi Arabia on his way to Israel he's meeting with the war cabinet in the coming hours before we get to that meeting what do you make the significance of him stopping off in Riyadh right now it's a scouting mission and it's very much of um Americans interest is first of all to keep the coalition together whatever you know it's a it's not it's a it's a loosely held coalition remember just before the war they have been trying Biden himself was very uh actually busy trying to make a new arrangement here with Saudi Arabia and Israel an economic corridor from India to to Europe a real new architecture and there is a more than a just thinking that the timing of the attack was partly to scuttle this this this mission or or this arrangement so you keep still the Iranians interest and the Chinese and the Russians so we are here still in a in a war which is not just between Israel and the and the Palestinians or Israel in Gaza it's much larger and in that context we see a um original tour by Jack Sullivan who is the closest to the president in terms of strategic thinking and this is the first mission secondly is more solidarity and support for Israel and the thirdly is to understand where Israel is going from here to the near future something we will unpack in a few moments but right now first we're going to go to our correspondent Pierre Kloschendler he joins us right now from southern Israel earlier in the morning some red alert siren sounding in Nireem and Hashloshah as well earlier before that in Sufa too and then of course ongoing fighting inside the Gaza Strip what update have you got this hour Pierre? Well the calm uh prevails on the uh communities that are facing the Gaza Strip for the past hour and a half or so and there is really a decrease in rocket fire in the past week or so and this is noticeable even here there is mainly a mortar fire probably on the communities that are closest to the Gaza Strip and a mortar fire cannot be intercepted by the iron dome which intercepts only rockets now behind me it's probably what you would say what you would qualify as a low-intensity warfare right now here in the area of Betchanun, Betlahia there are still pockets of resilience on behalf of the Hamas terrorists because not all the tunnels have been neutralized and not all the tunnel shafts have been neutralized the task of the army behind me is to calm the area and to discover all the tunnel shafts the tunnels the weapons depot the workshop of manufacturing weapons etc etc and some of the terror cells that are already operating on their own without a real chain of command but they're still in the tunnels might pop up from a tunnel shaft that has been identified and then there is a clash with the Israeli army this is low-intensity warfare right now here further further south in Jebalia refugee camp and Chejaia which is on the southeastern outskirts of the Gaza Strip there are battles there are battles but in Jebalia the the battalion the Hamas battalion is on the verge of collapsing all the all the heads of the chain of command in Jebalia have been annihilated and in Jebalia the the terrorists are operating as squads and not as a battalion or as a company in Chejaia it's a different ballgame the battalion still works as a battalion you can see you can see it in their tactics the ambush that was laid down on the nine soldiers that were killed the day before yesterday that was very sophisticated and in places like Jebalia and Chejaia the idea doesn't have the quality edge over Hamas because we're talking about small alley ways in which tanks cannot enter and thus it's ground forces versus ground forces and it's much more difficult south of there Hanyuness is the ground offensive of the make or break of Hamas appreciate the update thank you so much for all the latest developments on the ground as they unfold correspond in Pierre Closhendler live from southern Israel thank you Pierre and back in studio now Danny Ayalon and Owen Ultiman and Owen I want to pick up on what we were talking about before we went to our team on the ground and that is Jake Sullivan meeting with the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on his way to his meetings here in Tel Aviv what is known about what they discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so to speak was high on the agenda obviously central to the agenda Benita he wasn't there by accident CNN is reported though that on the agenda US official has said that they actually discussed about the normalization negotiations right further proof that what was true in September in New York at the UN General Assembly and on the sidelines way back when is still true sitting here in December right I've said that all along I said then the opening days of the war the Saudis themselves said it about a month after that and it's still clearly true that if a goal of the October 7th massacre geopolitically was to torpedo the normalization it seems that that will not work although of course it has raised the cost for Saudi Arabia but of course Hamas has paid a potentially existential cost so you wonder whether the cost-benefit analysis for the Iranian axis works out right on the one hand increasing the cost but not derailing literally because we're talking about train lines going back to that famous map with Benjamin Netanyahu's famous red marker at the UN not derailing the normalization while potentially costing Hamas its control over this territory of the Gaza Strip it is obviously encouraging from Israel's perspective that not only is normalization on the horizon but is actually being discussed in the room how to keep those talks moving forward presumably with the more sophisticated and detailed component about the Israeli Palestinian conflict itself and of course this new issue of potential Saudi involvement in Gaza as I said earlier on in our broadcast Benita I think Israel's game plan diplomatically has to be to try to convince the Saudis that it's in their own interest to invest in the Gaza Strip to get influence there it's not an easy sell but maybe just maybe the geography of the Gaza Strip as part of historic Palestine and the prestige that it offers the fact that it's along the Mediterranean Sea a stride Egypt in a stride Israel and the symbolism of an Iranian cuttery proxy being replaced they let's say a Saudi proxy maybe just maybe that'll be enough to convince the Saudis again still a very very tough sell to convince someone to invest in the Gaza Strip and take some responsibility over it but it seems to me that's the best pitch that the Israelis and maybe the Biden administration can offer a tough sell indeed Danny I along your thoughts yes and I think it shows also how deeply the interests in the region between Israel and the moderate Sunni countries how they all converge and of course all under the umbrella and the auspices of the United States so I think that could be a real coup for the US and the region if as a result of this horrible war a new reality will emerge and the new reality will be that Iran and its proxies are actually losing ground and actually the moderate forces will gain and just what Owen said I agree with everything he elaborated here except I would like to add one more thing in order to kind of tempt they or make it easy for the Saudis to invest in Gaza you have to show some kind of a political horizon with the Palestinians and I think this is something that is very hard for maybe for smart rich to to swallow or to be be to swallow but this will have also to be addressed because at the end of the day it's Israel's strategic interest and we cannot continue with small politicking as we have seen so far and this is also what upsets Biden himself said something unprecedented that the Israeli government should have a change so what exactly does the day after look like given what you are outlining right now in your mind what does it look like who's involved okay so there are two layers the first one is security Israel will have to continue security responsibility there is no other force that can do it in the interim and if you break it down it will be some buffer zone it will have some hot pursuit but Israel will be actually will be able to go in and out like they do in Jenin and the West Bank area this is number one secondly this will allow stability will have to steal a lot of mop up and clean up to do of Hamas sales at Hamas infrastructure it's very formidable it may take a year but during this year a new structure administratively economically and and from a let's say regime point of view will have to be built it cannot be the Palestinian Authority as it is now because they are not up to the job in any way and meanwhile maybe some kind of a Saudi money Egyptian administration Israeli security this would be in my mind the best formula for the future the most popular politician for Palestinians right now according to the latest poll is Marwan Barghouti a man convicted for killing Israeli civilians many of them back in the second into fire actually he he's sitting for five murder cases so he has five life sentences I don't think that anyone he would like to see him free out of jail also he's close to Hamas so I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Hamas would put him at the top of the list for their released prisoners however he has the authority he has the political trust and political support of the Palestinians but he is very extreme to the extent that you can do business with him this is something else but I'm not sure that he will be the guy we may need a new generation of the Palestinians and do away with this entire generation that they have now Abu Mazen of course is on his way out you know just because of age but all his underlings and anyone right now that holds any post of authority in the Palestinian Authority or in their parliament or their national parliament is not capable how do you do it time it will take time and here we should insist what we have not done you know people talk about the Oslo part of the Oslo commitment of the Palestinians was to do away with this nefarious curriculum that they had of incitement against Israel and the Jews this has to be changed and we have not enforced it only with this a new generation of leaders may emerge but again time it will take 20-25 years maybe we don't have that kind of time and when I say we am in the region yeah it's a real flaw in the theory and obviously this entire war has changed a lot of perceptions and opinions and understandings in Israel about what to do to the extent that Benjamin Netanyahu coming out against the Oslo Accords coming out against the two-state solution coming out against the Palestinian Authority ruling in Gaza gets traction beyond his natural base it's simply a reality even if as Danny alone was I think implying the price that Israel might be actually asked to pay in practice for potential normalization with Saudi Arabia let's say isn't all that big of a price talk about a political horizon and talk about a two-state solution and concept should be frog the government can swallow and the Israeli public can swallow we've swallowed it many times before let's be honest over the course of the last number of decades for diplomatic gains and clearly the benefits here would outweigh the cost and obviously there can be conditions placed on Israel's acceptance of this that one will imagine that the Palestinians may not meet so again it may be a promise and a commitment about a political horizon that may in the end be more rhetorical than anything else of course the Israeli center can hold out hope that it won't be just rhetorical that the conditions actually wouldn't materialize one way or another for there to be some kind of political resolution of the conflict we talk about time being of the essence very briefly the main issue right now the pressing issue is 135 hostages still being held inside Gaza reports that Israel is turning to Egypt to help with mediating some kind of deal your thoughts very briefly well I think as Israel is pushing south towards the Egyptian border this is probably where the hostages are and this is where the Egyptians come in mind because they have now more leverage over the Hamas this is the idea now thank you so much as always Owen Altman appreciate your insights thank you both for being here in studio and talking of which 135 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza held by terrorists since the 7th of October here's more from the fathers of some of the Israelis taken hostage waiting for word on their children more in this report it's now Hanukkah and we are still stuck in Simchat Torah when Guy went to the party he said to me dad tomorrow I'm coming back from the party I'll help you dismantle the sucker he didn't come back from the party and I didn't dismantle the sucker and it's still standing here waiting for him to come back so he can help me dismantle it Guy is 22 years old the charming boy such a Sharma everywhere he goes people fall in love with him in the second he has lots and lots of friends and he's missing we miss him very much I went to a party one day four friends went and none of them came home two were murdered and two were kidnapped at noon I already saw a video of Guy who was inside Gaza they look frightened there scared actually from the moment the negotiation stopped and the fighting restarted how did you feel I knew that Guy was not supposed to be released in that round because they only talked about women and children but I hope that when that round was completed they would go let's say to the older people and after that to the young people and it would continue like this until they released everyone I mean that's what I imagined and once they returned to fighting it was a very big blow with a lot of help not sleeping not eating in short not functioning my wife and I would work two jobs each we just left everything we are currently 100% busy getting Guy back nothing else matters what I want to hear is that my child is coming home I want to see a slide on tv that says the kidnapped have returned this is what I want to wake up to in the morning tomorrow while we keep imagining him coming back to us imagining the phone call we get in the middle of the night telling us I don't know the IDF suddenly found him they found a room with some prisoners and they call us and the officer tells me there is someone who wants to talk to you and I hear Guy he says dad and we shout Guy to him and run there and we become a family again my son's name is Alon Shamariz we have no new information about him our Alon is the third son in the family 26 years old a cheerful happy kind-hearted boy Alon along with Ido and Yonatan they were a trio those three did everything together spent time together traveled together we miss him very much how does your every day look like during the day I am busy with public needs and at night the sadness comes and my wife sat and cried during the day slowly we managed to get her out of it she started doing interviews started public activities and that's how we spend the day do you have a message that is important for you to convey we are kibbutz which pursued peace we're the people who came to the border and took their patience and drove them to the hospitals in Israel we employed Palestinian citizens and our kibbutz in our factory and we took care of all their needs we gave them equal treatment like any other worker we don't deserve what they did to us do you feel that there is someone else there to talk to you on the other side I have no doubt not everyone is Yaya Sinwar I want to task of the return of the hostages during the pause if it gives you something to hope for or is it a different matter look first of all I am happy for everyone who returned on the other hand I am very very angry with the decision makers in our government everyone should have been released already yes do you feel that the government is not doing everything to bring them back in our government I don't trust anyone in our government no one Ace's son is sitting in the tunnel my son is sitting in the tunnel my son has no oxygen my son has half a pizza a day I want my child here tomorrow Doron is a veterinary nurse she is a good girl with friends many friends the only thing we know since she was kidnapped is the voice message we got four days later from her friends we were also in Doron's room and saw what condition it was in compared to the other rooms remained relatively intact it was a mess because they turned it over and searched and rummaged it but its condition and the voice message she left gave us some sort of hope to hold on to what does everyday life look like now every day we wake up to a new hope with every message on the phone we jump up maybe there is some news good news that maybe Doron will come back and what is the hope now in this round it will happen because if it doesn't we don't know how to go on we have an important message to pass on when Doron returns we have to take care of her we need to help her recover we have a mission as a family as a society to help her as much as possible heartbreaking indeed thank you for watching is in a state of war families completely gone down in their beds we have no idea where she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well seman in news 24 israel bajo ataque news 24 en español trail analysis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra espadas de hierro entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra la reacción de los países hispanoparlantes news 24 el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en i-24 news breaking news edition i'm venice levine the united states is bringing out its big guns so to speak on their way to israel after stopping off in saudi arabia national security advisor jake salivan arrives in tel aviv later today to meet with israel's war cabinet at the country's defense headquarters he'll be here as a guest of his israeli counterpart sachi hanek b and will meet with prime minister benjamin itanya who president isaac herzog defense minister you are gallant and war cabinet minister benny gants on day 69 of the war nearly 10 weeks since the chamas terror onslaught in southern israel on the 7th of october there are a range of pressing issues on the table including the likely duration of the ground operation to eliminate chamas plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in the north to push back the hezbollah threat out of southern lebanon here's the latest from national security spokesperson john coby it is likely that he will make other stops in the region that won't just be just be going to israel we'll have more to say about that when we can and his message again i don't want to get ahead of him i certainly want to want to do that he'll have a chance to to talk publicly while he's in the region but but clearly he's going to talk to them about progress on the battlefield how it's going he's going to talk to them about reductions in civilian harm he's going to talk to them about trying to get another pause in place so that we can get more hostages out he's going to talk to them about the need to get humanitarian assistance keep that flowing it has been flowing even when the pause stopped um and i think he'll explore opportunities to see if we can increase that again possibly hopefully through carom shalom so for the latest let's go straight to our correspondent zack and as he joins us from northern israel and tensions across that northern border have been persisting throughout this war there have been regular hezbollah attacks from southern lebanon and then israel responding striking specific targets what is the latest there what update this hour well we're still waiting for confirmation from the idf for some of the outgoing artillery that we heard earlier in the area in direction of kirat shemona this is characteristic with what we've been seeing over the last several weeks as hezbollah attempts to get as close to this border as possible fire with mortars atgm's and then retreat quickly before the idf retaliatory strikes we have not received confirmation of strikes this morning from the idf but it would not be a surprise if some of the noise and commotion that we heard earlier was related to hezbollah activity near to our location this is characteristic of what we've experienced here in the last several days in fact the last several weeks meanwhile u.s defense secretary leud austin slamming hezbollah for threatening communities in israel we know big meetings will be taking place later on in the day with jake salivan leud austin gets here next week talk to us about efforts to create a buffer zone up north right now well the goal is to create a multi-mile buffer zone between the latani river and the blue line the border between northern israel and southern lebanon this is a border that was born out of conflict and needed to necessitated the united nations involvement to create this situation this reality here lebanon and of course hezbollah the the shia militants are still claiming that some of this currently held israeli territory is theirs so you've already started at this point of disagreement the hezbollah faction the fighters thousands of fighters that could be located all throughout southern lebanon already below this river to move them north of the river that involves what's going to be a herculean effort because it hasn't even been a reality under the agreement since 2006 since the 1701 security council vote that was that agreed on hezbollah removing themselves from this area and being north of the river leaving just the laf the lebanon armed forces to control the security situation on the ground well we do see our reports that hezbollah fighters or those aligned with hezbollah live in some of these villages and communities in southern lebanon below the river and when called upon they join arms and they exhibit their their military activity with hezbollah so it's a it's a tremendous herculean challenge here thank you so much live from northern israel that's our correspondent zack anders thank you zack and now for more insight we welcome to studio daniel on former israeli ambassador to the us former israeli deputy foreign minister and the chairman of silver road capital and oan ultiman our senior diplomatic correspondent gentlemen thank you both so much for being here daniel i'm going to start with you because jake salivan has been in saudi arabia on his way to israel he's meeting with the war cabinet in the coming hours before we get to that meeting what do you make the significance of him stopping off in riyadh right now it's a scouting mission and it's very much of americans interest is first of all to keep the coalition together whatever you know it's a it's not of it's a loosely held coalition remember just before the war they have been trying biding himself was very actually busy trying to make a new arrangement here with saudi arabia and israel an economic corridor from india to to europe a real new architecture and there is a more than a just thinking that the timing of the attack was partly to scuttle this this this mission or or this arrangement so you keep still the iranians interest and the chinese and the russians so we are here still in a in a war which is not just between israel and the and the palestinians or israel and gaza it's much larger and in that context we see a original tour by jake salivan who is the closest to the president in terms of strategic thinking and this is the first mission secondly is more solidarity and support for israel and the thirdly is to understand where is israel is going from here to the near future something we will unpack in a few moments but right now first we're going to go to our correspondent pia kloschendler he joins us right now from southern israel earlier in the morning some red alert siren sounding in nirim a and hashlosh as well earlier before that in sufa too and then of course ongoing fighting inside the gaza strip what update have you got this hour pia well the calm prevails on the communities that are facing the gaza strip for the past hour and a half or so and there is really a decrease in rocket fire in the past week or so and this is noticeable even here there is mainly a mortar fire probably on the communities that are closest to the gaza strip and mortar fire cannot be intercepted by the iron dome which intercepts only rockets now behind me it's probably what you would say what you would qualify as a low intensity warfare right now here in the area of bethanon betlaya there are still pockets of resilience on behalf of the hamas terrorists because not all the tunnels have been neutralized and not all the tunnel shafts have been neutralized the task of the army behind me is to calm the area and to discover all the tunnel shafts the tunnels the weapons depot the workshop of manufacturing weapons etc etc and some of the terror cells that are already operating on their own without a real chain of command but they're still in the tunnels might pop up from a tunnel shaft that has been identified and then there is a clash with the israeli army this is low intensity warfare right now here further further south in jebalia refugee camp and chejaya which is on the southeastern outskirts of the gaza strip there are battles there are battles but in jebalia the the battalion the hamas battalion as is on the verge of collapsing all the all the heads of the chain of command in jebalia have been annihilated and in jebalia the the terrorists are operating as squads and not as a battalion or as a company in sejaya it's a different ballgame the battalion still works as a battalion you can see you can see it in their tactics the ambush that was laid down on the nine soldiers that were killed the day before yesterday that was very sophisticated and in places like jebalia and sejaya the idea doesn't have the quality edge over hamas because we're talking about small alley ways in which tanks cannot enter and thus it's ground forces versus ground forces and it's much more difficult south of there ha newness is the ground offensive of the make or break of hamas appreciate the update thank you so much for all the latest developments on the ground as they unfold corresponding pia kloschandler live from southern israel thank you pia and back in studio now dania lon and oan ultiman and oan i want to pick up on what we were talking about before we went to our team on the ground and that is jake salavan meeting with the crown prince mohammed bin salman in riyadh on his way to his meetings here in tel aviv what is known about what they discussed the israeli palestinian conflict so to speak was high on the agenda obviously central to the agenda benita he wasn't there by accident a sinan is reported though that on the agenda us official has said that they actually discussed about the normal normalization negotiations right further proof that what was true in september in new york at the un general assembly and on the sidelines way back when is still true sitting here in december right i've said that all along i said then the opening days of the war the saudi's themselves said it about a month after that and it's still clearly true that if a goal of the october 7 massacre geopolitically was to torpedo the normalization it seems that that will not work although of course it has raised the cost for saudi arabia but of course hamas has paid a potentially existential cost so you wonder whether the cost benefit analysis for the iranian axis works out right on the one hand increasing the cost but not derailing literally because we're talking about train lines going back to that famous map with benedit in yahou's famous red marker at the un not derailing the normalization while potentially costing hamas its control over this territory of the gaza strip it is obviously encouraging from israel's perspective that not only is normalization on the horizon but it's actually being discussed in the room how to keep those talks moving forward presumably with the more sophisticated and detailed component about the israeli palestinian conflict itself and of course this new issue of potential saudi involvement in gaza as i said earlier on our broadcast benita i think israel's game plan diplomatically has to be to try to convince the saudis that it's in their own interest to invest in the gaza strip to get influence there it's not an easy sell but maybe just maybe the geography of the gaza strip as part of historic palestinian the prestige that it offers the fact that it's along the mediterranean sea astride egypt and astride israel and the symbolism of an iranian cuttery proxy being replaced they let's say a saudi proxy maybe just maybe that'll be enough to convince the saudis again still a very very tough sell to convince someone to invest in the gaza strip and take some responsibility over it but it seems to me that's the best pitch that the israelis and maybe the biden administration can offer a tough sell indeed any i along your thoughts yes and i think it shows also how deeply the interests in the region between israel and the moderate suni countries how how they all converge and of course all under the umbrella and the auspices of the united states so i think that could be a real coup for the us and the region if as a result of this horrible war a new reality will emerge and the new reality will be that iran and its proxies are actually losing ground and actually the moderate forces will gain and just what owens said i agree with everything he uh he elaborated here except i would like to add one more thing in order to kind of tempt they or make it easy for the saudis to invest in gaza you have to show some kind of a political horizon with the palestinians and i think this is something that is very hard for maybe for smotridge to uh to to swallow or to bibi to swallow but this will have also to be addressed because at the end of the day it's israel's strategic interest and we cannot continue with small politicking as we have seen so far and this is also what upsets biden himself said something unprecedented that the israeli government should have a change so what exactly does the day after look like given what you are outlining right now in your mind what does it look like who's involved okay so there are two layers the first one is security israel will have to continue security responsibility there is no other uh force that can do it in the interim and if you break it down it will be some buffer zone it will have a sort of hot pursuit but israel will be uh actually will be able to go in and out like they do in janin and the west bank area this is number one secondly this will allow stability will have to steal a lot of mop up and clean up to do of hamas sale that hamas infrastructure it's very formidable it may take a year but during this year a new structure administratively economically and and from a um let's say um regime point of view will have to be built it cannot be the palestine authority as it is now because they are not up to the job in any way and meanwhile maybe some kind of a Saudi money egyptian administration israeli security this would be in my mind the best formula for the future the most popular politician for palestinians right now according to the latest poll is marwan barghouti a man convicted for killing israeli civilians many of them back in the second interfera actually um he um he's sitting for five murder cases so he has five life sentences i don't think that anyone he would like to see him free out of jail also he's close to hamas so i wouldn't be a bit surprised if hamas would put him at the top of the list for their released prisoners however he has the authority he has the political trust and political support of the palestinians but he is very extreme to the extent that you can do business with him this is something else but i'm not sure that he will be the guy we may need a new generation uh of the palestinians and do away with this entire generation that they have now abu masan of course is on his way out you know just because of age but all his underlings and anyone right now that holds any post of authority in the palestin authority or in their parliament or their national parliament is not capable how do you do it time it will take time and here we should insist what we have not done you know people talk about the oslo part of the oslo commitment of the palestinian was to do away with this nefarious curriculum that they had of incitement against israel and the jews this has to be changed and we have not enforced it only with this a new generation of leaders may emerge but again time it will take 20 25 years maybe we don't have that kind of time and when i say we i mean the region yeah it's a real flaw in the theory um and obviously this entire war has changed a lot of perceptions and opinions and understandings in israel about what to do to the extent that benjamin it's now coming out against the oslo chords coming out against the two state solution coming out against the palestinian authority ruling in gaza gets traction beyond his natural base it's simply a reality even if as daniel alone was i think implying the price that israel might be actually asked to pay in practice for potential normalization of saudi arabia let's say isn't all that big of a price talk about a political horizon and talk about a two state solution and concept should be frog the government can swallow and the israeli public can swallow we've swallowed it many times before let's be honest over the course of the last number of decades for diplomatic gains and clearly the benefits here would outweigh the cost and obviously there can be conditions placed on israel's acceptance of this that one will imagine that the palestinians may not meet so again it may be a promise and a commitment about a political horizon that may in the end be more rhetorical than anything also of course the israeli center can hold out hope that it won't be just rhetorical that the conditions actually would materialize one way or another for there to be some kind of political resolution of the conflict we talk about time being of the essence very briefly the main issue right now the pressing issue is 135 hostages still being held inside gaza reports that israel is turning to egypt to help with mediating some kind of deal your thoughts very briefly well i think as israeli is israeli is pushing south towards the egyptian border this is probably where the hostages are and this is where the egyptians come in mind because they have now more leverage over the the hamas this is the idea now thank you so much as always oh and ultimate appreciate your insights thank you both for being here in studio and talking of which 135 hostages remain in captivity in gaza held by terrorists since the 7th of october here's more from the fathers of some of the israelis taken hostage waiting for word on their children more in this report it's now hanukkah and we are still stuck in simchatura when guy went to the party he said to me dad tomorrow i'm coming back from the party i'll help you dismantle the sucker he didn't come back from the party and i didn't dismantle the sucker and it's still standing here waiting for him to come back so he can help me dismantle it guy is 22 years old the charming boy such a charmer everywhere he goes people fall in love with him in the second he has lots and lots of friends and he's missing we miss him very much i went to a party one day four friends went and none of them came home two were murdered and two were kidnapped at noon i already saw a video of guy who was inside gaza they look frightened there scared actually from the moment the negotiation stopped and the fighting restarted how did you feel i knew that guy was not supposed to be released in that round because they only talked about women and children but i hope that when that round was completed they would go let's say to the older people and after that to the young people and it will continue like this until they released everyone i mean that's what i imagined and once they returned to fighting it was a very big blow how do you manage to function on a daily basis with a lot of help not sleeping not eating in short not functioning my wife and i would work two jobs each we just left everything we are currently 100 busy getting guy back nothing else matters what i want to hear is that my child is coming home i want to see a slide on tv that says the kidnapped have returned this is what i want to wake up to in the morning tomorrow we keep imagining him coming back to us imagining the phone call we get in the middle of the night telling us i don't know the idf suddenly found him they found a room with some prisoners and they call us and the officer tells me there is someone who wants to talk to you and i hear guy he says dad and we shout guy to him and run there and we become a family again my son's name is alon Shamariz we have no new information about him our alon is the third son in the family 26 years old a cheerful happy kind-hearted boy alon along with the idu and yonatan they were our trio those three did everything together spent time together traveled together we miss him very much how does your every day look like during the day i am busy with public needs and at night the sadness comes and my wife sat and cried during the day slowly we managed to get her out of it she started doing interviews started public activities and that's how we spend the day do you have a message that is important for you to convey we are kibbutz which pursued peace we're the people who came to the border and took their patience and drove them to the hospitals in israel we employed palestinian citizens in our kibbutz in our factory and we took care of all their needs we gave them equal treatment like any other worker we don't deserve what they did to us do you feel that there is someone else there to talk to you on the other side i have no doubt not everyone is yaya sinwar i want to ask if the return of the hostages during the pause if it gives you something to hope for or is it a different matter look first of all i am happy for everyone who returned on the other hand i am very very angry with the decision makers in our government everyone should have been released already yes do you feel that the government is not doing everything to bring them back i don't trust anyone in our government no one is his son sitting in the tunnel my son is sitting in the tunnel my son has no oxygen my son has half a pita a day i want my child here tomorrow i want my child here tomorrow daron is a veterinary nurse she is a good girl with friends many friends the only thing we know since she was kidnapped is the voice message we got four days later from her friends we were also in daron's room and saw what condition it was in compared to the other rooms remained relatively intact it was a mess because they turned it over and searched and rummaged it but its condition and the voice message she left gave us some sort of hope to hold on to what does every day of life look like now every day we wake up to a new hope with every message on the phone we jump up maybe there is some news good news that maybe daron will come back and what is the hope now in this round it will happen because if it doesn't we don't know how to go on we have an important message to pass on