 hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. They have completely gunned down in their beds. De la frontière de ces parisels, the state of emergency and war in Israel. Bringing Israel's story to the world. I-24 News Channels. Sarah Martinez and you're watching I-24 News live from Tel Aviv. Today marks the 69th day of the war. IDF ground offensive in Gaza to dismantle Hamas rages on. The army announcing this morning the death of another soldier during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. 38-year-old master sergeant in the reserves, Elisha Lohenstern, bringing the toll of slain Israeli troops to 116. After meeting Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan is slated to arrive in Israel later today to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Dutiniahou and other members of the war cabinet, IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. 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 has the last threat out of southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, families of hostages are demanding an immediate explanation from Netanyahu following a report that the Israeli war cabinet decided against sending the head of Mossad, David Arnea to Qatar to advance negotiations on a new deal to release the remaining 135 hostages still held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This is Katari Media reporting Israel has turned to Egypt instead to media a hostage release deal. On Wednesday, two hostages, Tal Haimi, a resident of Kibbutz, Niri Traken, Joshua Luito-Molel, a resident of Kibbutz, Nahal Oz were confirmed murdered while in Hamas custody. Their bodies are still being held by Hamas. And for more, let's cross over to our correspondent, Pierre Klochenler. He's in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Pierre, fighting continues inside the Gaza enclave. What's the latest there? Well, behind me is the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. And from bird's eye view, you could sense that maybe the next stage of the war from high-intensity warfare to low-intensity warfare is just happening here behind us because we haven't seen any real strike on this particular area of Beth-Hannon, Beth-Lahiyah. We hear seldom artillery outgoing shells, but I don't think they're targeting this area. They're targeting the northern sector of Gaza City, the Jebalia refugee camp, and the southeast sector of Gaza City, the Shejaiya town, where nine Israeli soldiers were killed in a ambush two days ago. Here it looks very much like what would look like the low-intensity warfare once the army has completed its ground offensive, which means combing the area, neutralizing every infrastructure of Hamas, that is tunnels, tunnel shafts, weapons depots, ammunition depots, workshop for manufacturing weapons, sniper nests, launching pads of rockets, et cetera, et cetera. Now the thing is, from time to time, there's still clashes occurring here because some of the terrorists that are operating, not as battalions, but as cells, are still hiding, buried themselves in the tunnels, and the operational control of the above ground does not mean necessarily an operational control within the tunnels, and therefore there's still minor clashes going on here. Now in Jebalia, the battalion of Hamas is on the verge of collapsing. We've seen these pictures of scores of Hamas terrorists surrendering to the Israeli ground forces. The chain of command has been completely broken, but in Shejaiya, in the north-eastern outskirts of Gaza City, it's a different ball game. There, the battalion functions as a battalion, and hence that's a very deadly ambush the day before yesterday. Hanyunas, the operation is going on in full force, but because most of the population of the Gaza Strip is now located in the southern sector of the Gaza Strip, that makes the operation a challenge. Pia Klochender, thank you very much for that update from Sderot. From the south, let's cross over to the northern border our correspondent, Zach Anders is standing by. Zach, tensions across the northern border persist throughout this war. There have been regular Hezbollah attacks from southern Lebanon and Israel, responding, striking those Hezbollah targets and retaliation. What's the latest where you are? Well, nothing confirmed to speak of this morning, although we are seeing activity both in southern Lebanon and here in northern Israel in the 11 o'clock hour. We heard the sounds of outgoing artillery, which has not been followed by any sort of statement or post from the IDF. So we're still working to find out what exactly was happening earlier this morning. We did not see any red alerts here in the north, but that's not to say that there's not activity because there was a strikes yesterday that did not trigger the red alert, the red alarm here in a northern community here at Shemona, where we were as we watched some of the events unfold. So it is a very fluid situation. You'll have to remember that thousands of people have evacuated these villages and towns here in the northern area of Israel. And Zach, meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel. Talk to us through the latest on Israel's moves to push Hezbollah back from that northern front. Yeah, strong statements, strong words coming from the US, the UK, France as their negotiators attempt to uphold Hezbollah to the standards of an agreement from the United Nations back in 2006 that they have violated. Hezbollah claims Israel has violated that same United Nations Security Council vote as well. So there's really no agreement here. And the difficult task ahead for the US if it's going to involve itself as the mediator in resolving the northern conflict is how do you get Hezbollah to adhere to this agreement to push themselves back beyond the Lattani River? One of the big things that's starting to stand out as a sticking point, an area of contention, is the fact that even if Hezbollah was to lay down its arms and leave this buffer zone, some of its fighters still live in the buffer zone, live in the southern areas of Lebanon in these communities and towns below the Lattani River, which the agreement would call for having all Hezbollah remove itself and go above the Lattani River. Hezbollah is saying we have our families and some of the men who are a part of Hezbollah, this Shia militant group, they live in these areas. So what does that look like? Do they lay down their arms? Do they renounce Hezbollah? That's unlikely. These are all things that are still being worked out, but there's 10 years plus of a failed agreement that did not get anywhere. So perhaps in the meantime, what the US, some sources in Washington seem to allude to is creating an even smaller buffer zone to start pushing Hezbollah back, maybe a mile or two beyond this northern border, the blue line, again, another UN agreed to border, and then starting there, starting this process there, which you don't get any sort of action or statement out of Hezbollah saying that they'd be willing or open to this sort of thing, but it does seem like this is where the US and its partners are starting. You should know that even if it was a mile or two mile buffer from the northern community, that wouldn't end the evacuation notices here because an ATGM, which has been launched countless times here in the north, has a range of several miles from positions with the elevation that Hezbollah has to its advantage in southern Lebanon could still be firing on Israel from these positions. You increase the distance, it's less accurate, and it does become more difficult to strike targets, but still, it's a major concern and a major sticking point here. Absolutely, and you spoke of the United States, how much impact could this visit by a national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, have on this issue? You know, it's a flurry of multiple US officials that are going to be in the mid-east this week, but notably absent are any stops to Beirut, and that could be telling that perhaps there's high level talks happening elsewhere, but you would have to think that the most important element of a deal here is going to involve the Lebanon government, the LAF, the Lebanon Armed Forces, because they are the ones that are going to be responsible for the security situation in this buffer zone. That's what the original UN agreement calls for at least. Maybe something different is worked out, but the challenge that the US has is trying to involve Lebanon and its current government, which right now has very little faith inside multiple sects and factions in Lebanon. There's rampant corruption within this government. Even the soldiers that they're asking to fill this buffer zone aren't reporting that they're getting paid regularly, and the economic situation there is so dire. So it does seem like you have to start there. However, in some instances, the US, the UK, France, they hold the purse strings to some of the aid that flows into Lebanon. So it does seem like that's where they're starting with and they're negotiating based on the current and present aid that is flowing into the country as the starting point. Zach Anders, thank you for that update from the Israel-Lebanon border. Only hours after the deadly incident in Sejajuah and the Gaza Strip fighting is ongoing and the Gaza neighborhood of Jabalia a bit further north. Take a look. Only hours after the deadly incident in Sejajuah and the Gaza Strip fighting is ongoing in the Gaza neighborhood of Jabalia, a bit further north. These soldiers knew way before the Sejajuah incident how dangerous street fighting is, but also understand the importance of searching every house. This is what is found in one of them, a seemingly residential home, which is also a terror compound. In Sejajuah, Qanunis, Ramal and Jabalia are troops found large weapons depots and tunnels in multiple schools. There was even a sniper rifle hidden inside a teddy bear. We found an RPG training facility inside a mosque in Jabalia. To name only a few. The danger awaits in every corner. Here is a Hamas terrorist hiding behind the bricks waiting for the right moment to act. Just before he does, a helicopter is called in for the hit. Despite the dangers, there's no replacement for boots on the ground. That is why the forces keep entering these compounds, understanding the intelligence gathered here may lead them to more terror cells or possibly even to hostages. Most of the residents may have left, but there are still some civilians here posing a challenge for the IDF, which aims to reach every terrorist, but not the civilian population. We are devoting vast resources to minimizing harm to the civilians that Hamas has forced into the role of human shield. Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. And that is perhaps the story of this war. Israel hopes to minimize civilian casualties, even creating safe passages for them. But for Hamas, every civilian getting killed, Israeli or Palestinian is part of its strategy. News just in, the IDF reporting that 70 Hamas operatives terrorists have surrendered. You can see those images right there on your screen, brazing their weapons above their heads, outside the Hamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, surrendering themselves to IDF troops. Those are Hamas operatives turning themselves in. And David Shimoni, former intelligence official for the Commanders for Israel's Security, joins me here in studio. Thank you very much. We just saw those images of those Hamas operatives surrendering their arms and handing themselves over to the IDF. Are we seeing the first signs of Hamas folding to Israel's military pressure? I was seeing more than the first signs because for some time now, we noticed that Gaza civilians are opposing Hamas, are trying to keep Hamas away from their neighborhoods. So there's a general sense that Hamas is weakening. I would say that Hamas has been very resilient for over two months. They're still firing rockets at Israel. They still maintain some sort of control of their forces. But yes, we are seeing something cracking there. And it's already the third day, I think, that we see mass surrender by Hamas operatives. They're being detained. They're being interrogated. They supply very valuable intelligence. And I believe it will become more and more of a flow of Hamas operatives who surrender. Israel has been broadcasting to them from the beginning. You have to make a choice between being killed in action or surrender. And now I think more and more are electing to surrender. Alternatively, some experts argue that the IDF is still far from toppling Hamas, that many of Hamas's fighters are still alive and Israel only has 40% control of the Gaza Strip, mainly in the northern part. And that there's still a threat that remains a very large threat underground with Hamas's tunnel network. There's still a huge threat. A lot of fighters there, a lot of supplies there, a lot of ammunition there. And very, very delicate operation against the tunnels. We heard stories that Israel was planning to flood the tunnels with sea water. The problem is that we don't know exactly in which tunnels our hostages kept. And this will hold down any decisive, big offensive on the tunnels. So yes, these experts are right. A lot of the Hamas abilities are still existing in the tunnels. They still have their supplies. They still have fresh air. We know that Gaza is getting a lot of water and fuel and food. So yeah, that is a problem. And that's why we see that a lot of the operations now are done by infantry units, not by the Air Force because it's very delicate and we have to be very, very cautious when we're approaching and attacking these tunnels. We know that from day to day, more and more tunnels or shafts are being destroyed or shut down by the IDF, but it's a long operation. Absolutely. And the IDF is facing a difficult and complicated urban warfare landscape forcing soldiers, as you said, to fight in direct confrontations with Hamas terrorists. Talk to us about the challenges it's facing with Hamas who still has its strongest stronghold in Hanyunas. It's much more complicated than Gaza because the southern part of the Gaza Strip now is flooded with refugees who fled from Gaza City and from the northern part over a million refugees. So you have to make sure that they can survive, that they can eat, that they have shelter against the weather. And it's indirectly our responsibility. Makes fighting much more difficult. Of course, major airstrikes are very limited by the presence of so many civilians. Israel does not want to hit civilians or to minimize damage to civilian population. So yes, Hanyunas is still, and we know that there's a lot of fighting in Hanyunas and Hanyunas area. There's a belief that the Hamas leadership is under the ground in Hanyunas in the tunnels and the big infrastructure under the ground. Yes, Hanyunas is still an obstacle. I think we see also attempts to try to drive as many civilians to the west towards the sea and to prevent them from going down to Rafa, which is the border with Egypt. Because we will try to minimize friction with Egypt and challenges to Egypt by hundreds of thousands of people joining forces together on the border with Egypt. So there's an attempt to try to drive all of the civilians to the west towards the sea, to the Muassi area. Yeah, Hanyunas is a big challenge. David, I want to get your take on a new wartime opinion poll among Palestinians published Wednesday, the first since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. It's revealing shocking backing of Hamas's October 7th massacre and a dramatic rise in Palestinian support for the terror group, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. So according to this poll, 72% of respondents believe Hamas was correct to launch its attack on October 7th against Israel, which brutally slaughtered, raped, and dismembered approximately 1200 people, civilians, and took 240 hostages in Gaza. And that's 82% support for Hamas in the West Bank and 57% in Gaza backing it. Now, only 10% said Hamas had committed war crimes. A large majority said they had not seen the videos showing the atrocities. At the same time, 44% in the West Bank said they supported Hamas in general, that's up from just 12% in September. In Gaza, the terror group received 42%, up slightly from 38% three months ago. And finally, the poll revealed an overwhelmingly rejection of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with nearly 90% saying he must resign. Given those facts, that poses certainly a challenge for the US division of Gaza after the war, doesn't it? First of all, it's one poll. I haven't seen the questions. So I don't know what the choice the people who responded had between the questions and different possible answers. We know that for the Palestinian population in the West Bank and in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority is a big disappointment. They did not deliver. We also know that maybe one of the reasons that the Hamas started this attack on October 7 was the process between Israel and Saudi Arabia by the United States trying to make some peace reinvent or normal relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia. And the Palestinians felt that they're being out of this equation. And so the Hamas, in a way, served the purpose of the Palestinian cause, bringing it back to the center of the stage. So many people are disappointed with the Palestinian Authority. Also we know it's infested with corruption and it doesn't deliver. So I can understand the sentiment saying, let's get rid of Abu Mazen. But I think the United States, they believe that the solution to the Palestinians is by the Palestinian Authority. And their idea is to try to strengthen the authority, maybe make major changes in the government of the Palestinian Authority, but rely on it as the solution to the Palestinian issue, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. Personally, I agree with that sentiment. I believe we should allow a Palestinian, a Palestinian Authority to take over eventually in the West Bank and in Gaza. And at the same time, top Hamas official is saying that the terror group is potentially seeking to join the PLO as a step towards that Palestinian unity that you mentioned, and has even floated their idea the terror group could recognize Israel for the first time. But also getting reports here that Israel is reportedly turning to Egypt to mediate a new hostage release deal according to Qatari-owned newspaper, Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, citing Egyptian sources. Israel is turning to Egypt to mediate a new deal with Hamas for the release of hostages in exchange for a ceasefire. A member of Hamas' political bureau, Bassem Naim, told the newspaper in response that the organization's official position is that as long as the fighting continues, there will be no negotiations on any deal. I want to bring in Ambassador Itzhak Levamanon, former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. Thank you very much for joining me today. Good evening. One more do we know about this potential hostage deal. Well, the publication and Al-Arabi Al-Jadid is nothing new. I mean, there is no breakthrough. There is no, let's say, a plan for the release of the hostages. We have been in touch with Egypt all the time and in a minor way with Qatar also in order to explore what are the possibilities in order that we can release all the hostages at once and to give them back in Israel at home. So far, the position of the Hamas, you are talking about the Palestinians, but we are talking about Hamas because this is the position of the Hamas' terrorist organization is that Israel should first stop all fighting. What would they say? You know, it is a genuine, strong and mandated the ceasefire. The meaning of that, if we will go for a ceasefire at this time, it means that we are going to save Hamas and to let him continue to be on the ground and even controlling the Gaza Strip. I don't think that this is the idea in Israel nor in the United States or in Europe, but you are still. Okay, it looks like we've lost ambassador, Itzhak Levanon. Still with me here in studio is David Shimoni, former intelligence official with the Commanders for Israel Security. We just spoke to the ambassador there who was speaking about this report that Israel is potentially turning to Egypt instead. This is on the back of a Channel 13 report from last night saying that the war cabinet was split over a decision and decided to vote against sending Mossad chief and David Bernier to Qatar in order to potentially initiate a new hostage talks here. Is this a question of trust here for Israel? That they trust more the Egyptians and the Qataris? What's happening here? First of all, I think we have far more interest with Egypt than we have with Qatar. Egypt has a peace agreement with Israel for many, many years. It's stable. Egypt is the biggest neighbor we have. It's a big country. It is affiliated with the West with modern states. It is opposed to Iran and we have a big border with them. And I think we witnessed that also in the previous arrangements to release hostages. Egypt was not only instrumental facilitating it, but they were also very important in confirming and allowing the conditions for the release of hostages. Right, but those negotiations were also done with the help of Qatar. Does Egypt have the same influence as Qatar over Hamas? Not necessarily. I think Egypt in a way shares our goal to destroy the Hamas, which puts them in a weird position against the Hamas. You asked about the refusal to send the chief of the Mossad to Qatar. I believe that our leadership now are operating under a theory that the more military pressure we exert on Hamas, the easier it will be to negotiate later when Hamas feels weaker. Eventually, Hamas leaders, this is the theory, will be fighting for their lives for their survival, and not only for getting their prisoners out of prisons in Israel. Unfortunately, this is at the expense of those hostages that are still held there 69 days later in conditions that we're assuming are dire, some of which are reporting sexual violence against both men and women. Is Israel making the right move here, in your opinion? We don't know. It's a calculated guess, unfortunately, because, you know, I said they have a theory that if we exert a lot of pressure, military, then it would be easier to release the hostages. We didn't test the opposite. We didn't test something that we say we offer you. All of your prisoners will hold the war, will get our troops stationary out of Gaza. We didn't try that. We're only trying this one theory. We know that time is against our hostages, for sure. Absolutely, and let's hope we do manage to bring those hostages home safe and sound. Davichi Moni, thank you very much. Thank you. We're going out for a quick break. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after a three minute break with more coverage of the war here in Israel. Don't go anywhere. This is I-24 News. Is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. This week on News 24, Israel under attack. News 24 in Spanish brings the analysis and the information of the events of the war, iron swords. Exclusive interviews and reports from the war zone. The reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. News 24, the only medium in Spanish that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. Unicamente en I-24 News. Welcome back and thanks for staying with us here on I-24 News. Looks like White House National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby is doing some damage control following President Biden's comments earlier this week that Israel is quote indiscriminately bombing the Palestinian enclave. Kirby highlighted the steps the Israeli military has taken to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza, adding it goes further than what the US would do if it were in Israel's place. Take a listen. They moved into Northern Gaza on the ground in a way that was much smaller than they had previously planned to do. And we think that that was an outgrowth of some of the advice and counsel that we provided them about urban warfare. They have reduced the number of airstrikes that they're conducting right now as they pursue Amos terrorists in the South. They have published online maps of places where people can go or not to go. That's basically telegraphing your punches. And there's very few modern militaries in the world that would do that. I don't know that we would do that to put a map out there and say, hey, here's where you can go where it's safe and here's where you shouldn't go because we might be striking there. Those are all good examples. And I would also add, as I said in my opening statement, even when they were operating in the North, they added humanitarian corridors to allow people to leave. They are now talking about additional corridors in the South as well as the possibility of more daily humanitarian pauses in the fighting so that people can get access to assistance. Joining me now is Ambassador Dania Yalon, former Israeli ambassador to the United States. Ambassador, always a pleasure having you here in studio. Who's speaking to Sarah? We're seeing John Kirby appearing to soften critique of Israel after Biden's comments. Is this internal difference within the Biden administration sort of a reflection of the Democratic Party? In a way, yes. By the way, it is unprecedented to hear what John Kirby just said. Actually, not only he was commanding Israel for the care we take and the precision in terms of trying to help as much as possible the humanitarian situation and of course to minimize any collateral damage. He said that we are even doing things that the Americans would not do. And you know that from the start of the war the US have sent here some military personnel. Actually, they said that they could give us some advice based on their experience in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Fallujah, in Mosul. Basically, they came away with a feeling that they can learn a lot from us. IDF is the most professional, precise military in the world. And we see it's any other military in such circumstances which are the most complex in warfare, in urban warfare. But here we have a double urban warfare because we have also the underground. Any other military would have had so much devastation in terms of collateral damage on the one hand and many more casualties for themselves. I mean, every casualty is a whole world and we pain and grief about it but it could have been 10 times worse. And I think the Americans also and the results of their appreciation of what we do is what we hear in Kirby's words. I'm totally understanding the complexities of the battlefield there, urban warfare. National security advisor Jake Sullivan is visiting Israel today. There's many things to discuss but one of them is this rift between Israel and the United States over the future of the Gaza Strip after the war. Is Israel doing correctly when it clashes with Biden in regards to the day after? I don't think so, not because we should not have difference of opinions with the Americans when it comes to our own national security but because of what is our, the Israeli interest. The Israeli interest in the future calls for a new architecture in the Middle East at large not just in Gaza. And in order to have the Iranians retreat politically, militarily, strategically in the region, everybody understands that we must take out Hamas and we're doing that. But the day after we should collaborate in a coalition here with the Sunni countries that are the allies of the United States. I mean, we have Egypt and Jordan, of course but also the Abrahamic Accords countries like the Bahrain, Morocco and the Emirates and the Saudis in order to bring the Saudis in which is very, very important not just to America, it's also to us. We need to show some kind of a political horizon for the Palestinians. It doesn't mean that we're going to bring a Palestinian state, doesn't mean that we're going to bring the Palestinian Authority as is to Gaza but we have to do something to show diplomatically that we're moving ahead and this is the cover that the Saudis and other Muslim countries need in order to really cement cooperation with us in a regional architecture network against Iran. You just mentioned the Saudis there. Jake Sullivan was in Saudi Arabia yesterday where he met MBS before coming to Israel today. What do you imagine were some of those discussions? Are we having some sort of wider discussion of an alternate plan, a third option for Gaza? It's not the American version and it's not the Israeli version? Well, I think in an ideal world, given the situation in Gaza now and what will happen in the immediate future is that you need three elements for governing Gaza. You need security, you need economic plan and you need administration, right, administrative regime. Right. Israel is the only one who can really give the security and this will have to be the case but the money could come from the Gulf countries and if the Saudis money will come in, it's better than the Qatari money in terms of really making sure that extreme elements or Hamas, Islamic Jihad will not spring up again. We saw Qatari money went a lot also into these terror organizations. Saudis may be better. So if John Sullivan in the US can preside over a new structure, Israel's security, Saudi money and Egyptian administration. I think this is a way that can work until we find some Palestinian entity that can take over and govern themselves. There is no doubt that Gaza should not be a next to Israel. We don't need this kind of war. Right, absolutely. And that goes further to that poll that we just spoke about earlier of Palestinians, 90% overwhelmingly rejecting Abbas both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. That signals more difficulties for the Biden administration and their post war vision for Gaza. Are the Americans perhaps their vision a bit disillusioned? Well, it is disillusioned depending on the time scope. If you talk about a viable Palestinian state, which will be actually a state which could live side by side with Israel in real coexistence, they'll have to do away with terror. They'll have to do with incitement. They'll have to change their political culture. They'll have to change all the curriculum and what they teach their children in school. This cannot happen overnight. This may take a generation. So this is, I think the art of diplomacy is to say, not to say no to everything, but to say yes, but yes, we can think of as President Biden called a revitalized Palestinian authority, but a revitalized Palestinian authority in the real sense means that you have to invest for the next many years in order to change it all together and make the Palestinians a Switzerland, if you will. Because nothing less than that, Israel cannot afford having a terroristic entity on its borders. As we saw what happened on the 7th of October, this we should never allow and it will never happen again. And speaking of diplomacy, I wanna discuss with you a little bit about the hostage negotiations Israel voted against sending Mossad chief David Bernad to Qatar. Instead, now we're hearing reports that it's turning towards Egypt for negotiations. What's happening here? Well, I think the Qataris have kind of used exhausted all their leverage over Hamas today. The Egyptians have more leverage given the fact that Israel is pushing now into the southern part of Gaza, which is close to the Egyptian border. That means that today Hamas and the Palestinians need the Egyptians much more for simple humanitarian issues, but also for some political, let's say, assistance in the future. So today, it seems like Egypt holds the bigger key, I would say, than the Qatari at this point. Russian President Putin compared the war in Ukraine to the war in Gaza earlier today. I wanna take a listen to that cell bite from earlier today. Look at the special military operation what's happening in Gaza and see the difference. Nothing compared to that is happening in Ukraine. You mentioned the deaths of thousands of women and children. The UN Secretary General called Gaza today the biggest children's cemetery in the world. This speaks volumes. This is an objective definition. So obviously, this solutionary words from Putin, but I wanna discuss this comparison between the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza because we're hearing this rhetoric abroad a lot. How misleading is that comparison? Because indeed, there is a difference. It's totally misleading. First of all, the concept. The concept of our war is cell defense after the 7th of October massacre. In Ukraine, it was a downright invasion, unprovoked invasion by Russia to a neighboring state, the Ukraine. And then when you talk about the warfare, you see the difference between the Russian military and the Israeli military. The Israeli military is precise, is much more professional than the Russians are. Not just in the battlefield, but also in an indiscriminate hitting of civilian population. We're doing everything. And we saw what John Kirby said about what Israel does more than any other country in the world, including, he mentioned the United States. Now, the Russians are the last ones to be talking about it. When they had an issue with Islamic terrorists in Chechnya, back in the turn of the century, they flattened Grozny, which is the capital city of Chechnya, totally flattened it. So the Russians are the last ones to be able to lecture Israel about warfare and how to... And they also used Chechen fighters to attack the Ukrainians. And if we're just looking in terms of the alliances between Russia, who's very much tied to Iran, who's tied to China, versus Israel having very good ties with the Ukrainians. Yes, and I think that also calls into attention Israel's relationship with the Ukraine. We have been walking a very fine line of neutrality because we needed the cooperation with the Russians on the Northern border with Syria. But given the new strategic situation in the ground here in the Middle East and the fact that Russia is not a friend, the Russians are supporting Iran without Russia's political and military aid to Iran. Iran wouldn't be able to do what they do vis-a-vis the... Not just vis-a-vis the proxies here that they support the terrorists all around, you know, in the Hamas, Hezbollah, Houdis and all that, but also they wouldn't be as advanced as they are today vis-a-vis the nuclear file. So I think it's time that we speak in a different way with the Russians, and we have to understand. We are in the block of the United States. Today there are two blocks here in the Middle East. One is the United States and the Western world, which of course we are a central point here, but also the Sunni Arab countries. And on the other hand, we have Iran, China and Russia. Absolutely, Ambassador Dania Elon, thank you very much for your insight today. 69 days since October 7th and 135 hostages, that's men, women and children, still remain in Hamas captivity in dire circumstances. Their families are desperate for answers. Take a look. 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 charmer. Everywhere he goes, people fall in love with him in a second. He has lots and lots of friends. And he's missing. We miss him very much. Guy 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 negotiations 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 hoped 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. 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 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 everyday look like? I usually do it in the morning. 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 a kibbutz which pursued peace. We're the people who came to the border and took their patients 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 Yahya Sinwar. I wanted 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. 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, it 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. Do you have an important message to pass on? When Doron returns, we have to take care of her. Help her recover. We have a mission as a family, as a society to help her as much as possible. To Guy, if you happen to hear me, I want to tell you that we love you very much. We miss you very, very much. And we are doing everything to bring you home. We will never give up on you, and soon we will be together. I'm your award-winning actor, director, and filmmaker and activist, Yval David. Joins me in studio. Thank you very much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. So you're an actor, director, filmmaker. But since October 7th, your role as an activist has become a lot more important. Tell me a little bit about the work you've been doing. Jewish activism and advocacy has been part of my life throughout my adult life, but truly it started when I was a kid, when I was taught to be a Zionist, to be a proud Jew, and what it means that my life isn't my own. My life is for my family, my community, and of my people. That has continued to increase. Maybe the snowball effects, the more you do, the more you get done. Since October 7th, all of the battles that I've done previously against anti-Semitism and towards Jewish representation have significantly increased. In fact, everything I've worked for in entertainment and media as an actor, as a filmmaker, as a news commentator are basically 100% dedicated to Jewish and Israeli advocacy. We're seeing an alarming spike in anti-Semitism around the world, in the United States in particular. In your eyes, is the government and public institutions, are they doing enough to fight it? No, they're not doing enough to fight it when people are expressing this double standard that faces Jewish people. If the same things that are being said about Jews, including the demonstrations, including the riots, including what's happening on campuses and the hearings that so many people spoke about when you saw the presidents of multiple top leading universities in the United States speaking about anti-Semitism, if the same things were being said about women, LGBTQ people, people of color, refugees, or Muslims, I don't think it would have been received the same way. There's an absolute double standard when it comes to the Jewish people, and I am shocked but not surprised that this is happening right now. A double standard and perhaps also a misunderstanding of the reality we face here. And just a quick update here, I'm reporting that there were rocket siren alerts in the south on the Gaza border. I want to ask you, what's your response to the queers for Palestine movement? That's my first response. Queers for Palestine is such a ridiculous organization. In fact, I'm familiar with them to the point that I'm not calling it, I shouldn't even call them an organization because they're terribly disorganized. Queers for Palestine, along with BDS, has been coming for me for years. Anytime I speak out, and I do a lot of public speaking and lead workshops across the United States, Canada, and internationally. Not just about Jewish and Israeli issues, but about civil rights, social justice, human rights. These organizations come for me and have accused me of being obviously Zionist and openly Jewish. And what do you say to that? What would you say to that? What would you say if somebody says you're openly Jewish or openly a woman or openly a journalist? What is openly Jewish? As an LGBTQ person, I've heard openly gay and I can understand that. But what it means is they believe that I need to hide or change my Jewishness. The fact is the vast majority of Jews are Zionists because the vast majority of Jews believe in the self-actualization of the Jewish people. We are facing a time where Jews are being rebranded where people are trying not just to practice erasure, they're trying to change our narrative and that is why I'm doing what I'm doing. That is why I'm dedicating my life to advocacy for the Jewish people and Israel, reminding people that not only is this Hasbra not only are we relaying a message, you are the message. Who are you as a Jew in this world? You are the message that represents our people and your intersectional identity. And perhaps also we're seeing these pro-Palestinian protesters chanting almost as an insult, it seems that it's a misunderstanding of the term Zionism, correct? It's an absolute misunderstanding of the term Zionism because other people since the 1960s in the United States in the liberal, progressive and in the collegiate environments have been practicing this rebranding of Zionism, of Judaism, painting it as a white supremacist, apartheid, ultra-nationalist, fascist, authoritarian movement, which it is not. Now, not only are we hearing chants about Zionist, Zionist pigs and all kinds of epithets that I'm not going to say on air, even though I hear them every week, when I was one of the keynote speakers at the Jewish National Fund Global Conference which was held in Denver, every time that we'd walk from the hotel to the conference, there were these fences with so much police to protect us. And on the other side of those fences were people who were screaming at us, the worst thing that was said to me, the worst thing that was said to me were groups of people with anger in their eyes, yelled at me, and all they had to say was, Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew, the fact that they didn't have to add anything else to that and that they believed that that was condemnation enough completely shows the state of the world that we're in, the double standard that is facing us as a marginalized victimized minority. Now, why is that happening? We do have to go out for a break. Yuval, David, thank you very much for joining me. Thank you. There are phrases that you know from where they come from. Is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Welcome back and thanks for staying with us here in I-24 News. If you're just joining us, today marks the 69th day of the war here in Israel as the IDF ground offensive in Gaza to dismantle Hamas rages on. Just earlier today, dozens of Hamas operatives were arrested by the IDF in the Gaza Strip. Around 70 fighters, that's Hamas terrorists, laid down their arms and surrendered to Israeli forces. They have now been taken in by Israeli authorities for questioning. This is the latest in a series of surrenders. Last week scores of Hamas operatives already gave themselves up to the IDF. Here's the latest on the incident. Over the last two days, fighters from the 460th Brigade have been evacuating from the Kamal Adwan hospital. The hospital had been used as a stronghold for terrorists. Terrorists had come out of here to harm our forces. During the evacuation, many weapons were removed from the hospital. A lot of terrorists were taken out of the hospital and are currently in custody in Israel. Over the last two days, we have evacuated thousands of civilians from the hospital in order not to harm innocent people. This is the latest on the incident. What's the latest where you are? Well, we still have yet to see a official red alert come in here in the North. That's not to say there hasn't been activity, but from what we can tell, there has nothing, there has not been anything major. We do hear activity throughout the morning hours with outgoing artillery, which in this environment, you know, it could also be just exercises and training. This is something that happens frequently here as they target Hezbollah, so it also very well could be that this is ongoing deterrence or activities to push Hezbollah further into southern Lebanon. We have seen in the last 24 hours, multiple strikes that Hezbollah took credit for. They've also announced that 103 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since 2007. That's a number that has not been independently confirmed. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is slamming Hezbollah for threatening communities in Israel. Talk us through the latest on Israel's move to push Hezbollah back from the northern front and create a sort of buffer zone. So those Israeli northern communities can return there and can feel safe. It's really coming down to two options. It's this buffer zone or Hezbollah back beyond the river by force. That is something that at least is being used as the rhetoric here to make it clear that to Hezbollah, make it clear to Hezbollah that the IDF is serious enough about this point that there will be stability here or only be some sort of agreement to have peace on this northern border unless they are moved above that river. Where do you start the negotiations? Perhaps what we're hearing out of Washington and out of London is that there is negotiations on place to just start with several miles worth of distance Hezbollah operating no closer than two, three miles to the blue line, the UN-agreed border between Lebanon and Israel. If that is to take place that doesn't mean that Hezbollah still would be out of range but what we're hearing on is really positions. The equipment that they have as I'm hearing some outgoing artillery now, the equipment that they have has the capability to reach several miles like these ATGMs, the antitank guided missiles and their mortars from these positions two, three miles away can still fire on northern Israel. They become less accurate but it's still dangerous. To rain in Hezbollah in the north perhaps from France are we seeing anything from them? Well the conversations are taking place at behind closed doors and high levels. We continue to hear this outgoing artillery this is new in the last hour and another one there too. What it does appear is that the really difficult part of this exchange, this deal that they're trying to broker is getting the LAF involved Lebanon Armed Forces because they will need to take over the security situation here but even the LAF's own soldiers are complaining that they're not getting paid the economic situation inside Lebanon is so dire and the leadership in Beirut is corrupt for all the purposes it's not a functioning government that's split between major religious sects families even in some parts of the city it's a very difficult situation so how do you involve a dis disoriented fragmented government inside a security process that is the main challenge here Zach Anders thank you very much for that update from the northern border from the north to the south I want to cross over to our correspondent Pierre Klochenler he's in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Pierre fighting continues inside the Gaza enclave what's the latest there we saw some images of Hamas fighters surrendering to the IDF right there's two developments in the past hour first of all the hospital Kamal Adwan which is in the northeast sector of the Gaza Strip where the fighting is at a low intensity level compared to other zones of fighting there was a siege of the hospital for a few days already as it was reported by the Palestinian media affiliated to Hamas and that siege comes to an end the medical personnel the patients are being evacuated as well as something like over 70 Hamas terrorists fully armed that came out where extracted of the hospital surrendered you can see them in the video with their with their hands left high carrying their AK-47 assault rifle and bare chest in order to make sure that they do not carry suicide explosive vests and their surrendering and that's the end of one of the sensitive chapters of the northern sector of the Gaza Strip hospital where Hamas terrorists were seeking refuge in another development the Israeli army has airdropped leaflets fliers the area of Hanyunas where the fighting is in full intensity the the fliers offer the population of Gaza to think about their future and offer them considerable sums of money to give any indications of the whereabouts of major political and military leaders of Hamas that the army believes are hiding underground tunnels of Hanyunas because they come from Hanyunas and therefore the population might be more loyal to them that's Yechie Sinois is whereabouts for $400,000 the chief of his brother Mohammed Sinois who is a military commander for $2,000 or $300,000 the head of the Hanyunas regiment also for the same kind of money dubiously legendary military leader of Hamas Mohammed Def for his whereabouts the population is being offered $100,000 that's more psychological than operational because I doubt that the non-involved Palestinian population want to take the risk to contact the Israeli forces and tell them if they know anything about the whereabouts of Yechie Sinois, Mohammed Def and the other military leaders And Pierre, as we speak rocket siren alerts ringing out in Israel's northern border in Kiryat Shmonar Meanwhile, where you are, Pierre Israel has allowed humanitarian aid to Gaza through the Kerm Shalom crossing this despite videos of Hamas violently taking control of aid in Gaza talk us through the concerns that humanitarian aid will end up in Hamas hands and not in civilian hands Well, that's no secret that Israel from the onset of the war that Hamas waged on Israel in October 7 as always said that humanitarian aid would be captated by Hamas terrorists on the way to reach the UNRWA shelters where the food is supposedly distributed and we've seen instances in video of Hamas terrorists on top of trucks with their weapons even shooting at potential Palestinians who would want to have a share of that humanitarian aid but that aid goes on nonetheless because of humanitarian pressures because of US pressure and as a result today we've reached the level of about 200 trucks carrying food, water medical aid material to erect dance in the safe zones as well as 4 trucks of fuel and 2 trucks of cooking gas for the Palestinian non-involved population the problem is that the Rafa crossing through which the aid is going into Gaza has a better capacity of 100 trucks and the coordinator of activity on behalf of the Israeli Defense Ministry has said repeatedly please become more efficient to the UN the way out of that conundrum could be to open the Karen Shalom crossing not to Egypt but to Gaza that would shorten the transfer of humanitarian aid on one hand and would pour the aid straight into Gaza in another crossing that would alleviate the congestions at the Rafa Terminal but we're not there yet Thank you very much for that update I want to bring into the conversation Ravid Minashe from the women's rights movement she joins me now Ravid thank you very much for joining me Ravid are you with us? Yes hi Ravid thank you very much for joining me I'm sure the southern Israeli border communities that were the hardest hit by Hamas's attack on October 7 that killed 1200 people I want to get your impression of your tour Well actually our team went to the tour I actually didn't go but I can tell you what they have been sharing with the rest of the team ongoing and after you think that because we lived through this we'd be I don't know used to or you know prepared but the rest of my team just told me that it was one of the most difficult things they had done the past two months we've all of us have been advocating you know for cognition, for women for everything that happened but being there is a totally different experience Absolutely and you mentioned your advocacy efforts you are part of the women's rights movement tell me a little bit about the work that you have done to bring awareness to the violence specifically the gender violence that Israeli women faced on October 7th with Hamas terrorists brutally raping torturing and killing women both men and women True but I'll tell Nativa first of all to give some context is a women's organization that was established to actually after a case of brutal gang rape so this is has always been at the forefront of our mission and the first few days after October 7th as an organization that aids all the civil society first of all aided the immediate needs of women, children and families but I can tell you that from the first hours of the attack when we started seeing the images on social media by Hamas of women abducted to Gaza anyone with our background would know immediately what had happened and what happens to women in captivity but we have always been and the most important thing for us is to protect the privacy of the victims alongside with trying to be their voice so our advocacy has been through letters and webinars and protests all around the world we have more than 100,000 volunteers around the world so we had a lot of demonstrations in front of the UN women offices and in Geneva and Munich and really all around the world to raise awareness to what happened because I think the most troubling thing for me as a woman is that we have come so far as a society as a feminist movement I consider myself a feminist from childhood is that we believe all women and all of a sudden we face this unbearable reaction that all of a sudden women in Israel have to prove and you don't believe all women anymore so this is also on a personal level devastating so what we try to do is advocacy and activism and policy this is something ongoing to raise awareness and you know what we want is for the global institutions not only to recognize what happened but also to bring forth best practices and standards that are used around the world in such matters I love you Menache very important work you're doing there with that the women's rights movement thank you very much for joining us today thank you for having us more incredible stories from the October 7th massacres are coming out every day the hero of our next story is not a police man or a soldier but rather a civilian who in a moment of clarity ran for his life from Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz you're going to be shocked when you hear this next story I came to Kfar Azza to meet Yuri Yuri managed to escape Hamas after he was captured by the terrorists he had one second to decide what to do take left to Gaza and be captured or try to escape let's see what happens let's go meet him peace be upon you it's really crazy I was in the parking lot right now and for me before I came here it looked normal almost normal but then you come here and you see the atrocities what happened on the 7th of October you saw everything I saw, hear feel everything that happened here to all of my community, to all of my friends can you take me to the point where it all began where were you where is your house? let's go this is the neighborhood it's called the Dorcair the younger generation of the people of the Kibbutz so this is my was my house it's completely destroyed 7th of October what time we start 6 in the morning I need to go to run with my friend to a gym I don't know why all the people that was running into the road was killed, was murdered but where are we right now are we inside my house this is the kitchen that's the kitchen here is the place that I was cooking and everything is destroyed that's the bathroom here right? that's the bathroom shower this is one of my corner I was here couch, TV look at this look how many bullets I have in my door wow and they shoot in my door when I was inside my bedroom I was here the shooting all over the place in my window and my friends in my neighborhood and the street outside I hear also civilians screaming and this moment I was in the stand that they kidnapped the people from our Kibbutz the most scary situation that I was in my life because it's very scary and very dangerous so I go down below my bed I was under the bed towards here some basket and some couple of bags you covered yourself? I saw all of the messages all the people and they house Hamas terrorist and they screaming to help from somebody and nobody answer and nobody coming and I'm texting also come to help me and after couple seconds they spilled something into my house and I started to hear my house going on fire I cannot breathe and when I started to understand that I cannot breathe I take this pillow and I take the sheets from the pillow I rape that and I do a mask to myself because I cannot breathe they throw grenades inside my house so the grenade broke the door and the fire go inside to my bedroom I decided that I'm not dying in the fire so if the fire will go inside to my bedroom I will jump out I try to open this window and it doesn't open and I will go out like that and I saw three terrorists and I have only a box and I'm taking my hands up to show them that I'm not coming to fight with them one put into my face Kalachnikov another one, where are you standing now with a knife, big knife doing like that with the hand and screaming at me after one moment they just push me out from the window like this down to the ground they just pushing me in a brutality way did they hit you they just pushing me to here they screwing between themselves I think that was they talk about what to do with me and then they understand that they decided that they kidnapped me they just take me like that with the hands and pushing me in a very fast way in this moment they understand that I don't doing nothing so they go back to my neighborhood to continue killing they take him in my hand here one hand like that and the other hand he was I have a shovel I'm understood in this moment that if he taking me outside of the border I'm going to be kidnapped so this is the moment that I understand that I don't have a chance 90% that they will kill me when I trying to do something but I have maybe 10% that I will survive so I take in my hand doing like that and start running you're barefoot you don't have shoes on nothing you have only your underwear and you're running like crazy he start to run after me and start to yell to the terrorist with the gun to come shoot me you understand I think that you don't have a chance to catch me because I want like you said I want a knife I need to save myself and I need to listen more civilians around me I can smell all the way death this is the situation like in any moment I can be the next one any moment they can shoot me so in this moment I saw this Bosch I decide that this is the place that I can escape to him so I just go inside here and sit like that inside and you hide like this for three hours what happened after three hours so after three hours I go out like that with my hands because I hear Hebrew from this corner so I was going just like that and yelling to them her tzavaa that I'm Jew soldier and they almost shoot me they didn't understand what I'm doing in the middle of the kibbutz because they saw me with underwear so they understand that this moment that I'm not coming to do nothing and then I tell them that I have a friend that live upstairs and I tell them take me up I will stay with them and the safe room so three soldiers going with guns cleaning the building I'm in the middle and two more behind me like that like you see here they close it but everything was glass broken here the door was open like you see in the world you can see everything here with a lot of them look inside look inside the houses they managed to put you in the safe room with your friend and they went back to fight and all the time you hear everything 8pm when the soldier come to this building and they knock on the door they talk with us in Hebrew so we understood that this soldier of us but it's only the beginning because between 8pm to 8 in the morning they was shooting all over the place and they was take people downstairs to our apartment to be together and 8am they telling us 5 minutes we going out from the Kibbutz that's more than 24 hours 6am to 8am and the moment that I will feel safety outside of the Kibbutz I called to my brother and I start to cry on the phone and I tell them one thing I'm alive I want you to know that we have to consider that we have just chilling testimonies to come out of the residents of the Gaza border communities that were attacked by Hamas on October 7th showing bravery in the face of extreme fear of having to survive in those moments We are going out for a quick break but do not go anywhere we will be right back after a 3 minute break with more coverage of the war here in Israel This is I-24 News. A state of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. What I saw today was unbelievable. The devastation on the homes, the destruction, the scene still that you could imagine of what happened. It was like something out of a movie and still also the smell, the overpowering. It was an important day for me and to show the viewers of I-24 News, but it was a difficult, challenging day. This was the home of Yaniv Ohana to see basically a modern-day pogrom and to feel the vulnerability. We live in Israel. We are so dependent on the army and the government and authorities to provide security, to see how all of that can be overturned in the course of one day. I think it really makes us understand how fragile our lives are and how much we're going to have to fight for our existence, our very existence in this corner of the world. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Khaled Bendevi. This month marks the 38 years since I started as a journalist in Israel and nothing was like the last two months. This has been the most challenging, most emotional, most heartbreaking and in some ways, most complex story that I've had to cover during that time and never I felt the kind of responsibility that I had to present this story to the world in the right context with the right facts and to really speak truth to power in this situation. Welcome back and thanks for staying with us here on I-24 News. In Washington, aid to Ukraine is still held up with Republican legislators asking both for a look forward at how Ukraine can make progress in the war and also for concessions from Democrats on the U.S. Southern border. The story of Ukraine is important in itself. Senior diplomatic correspondent Oana Altman tells us why it also has lessons for Israel. Ukraine had a concept, a concept, until it fell apart. That the case for U.S. aid to Kiev for Ukraine's defense against Russia was so convincing that the flow would not stop. All true until it wasn't. What the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win and none of the answers that I think the American people are owed. And so Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found himself in Washington this week not just hat in hand, but with a worn-out hat and a tired hand as Republican legislators continued to hold up funding. Zelensky had staked his country's staying power on American money, maybe by necessity, but still in Israeli terms, a concepsia, an unquestioned set of assumptions. So a cautionary tale about the danger, staking a country's national security to the whims of American politics. We aim to win the air battle, crashing Russian air dominance. This will intensify our ground adventures in 2024 with our control of the skies. Who controls the skies, controls the worst duration. And yes, for another country fighting wars while assuming American support, Ukraine's story is a warning. A warning of what happens when current swirl in American politics, when that swirl is met with complacency, and when the assumption is that change will be gradual and not sudden. Of course in important ways Israel is not Ukraine. The U.S.-Israel bond goes back decades. A passionate American Jewish community works hard to build the relationship. And Israel does not need as much money as Ukraine does. But loud signs of erosion on the American street are out there. The assumption is that erosion will be gradual. That may be a concepsia. And with being studio as I-24 News, senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman. Owen, should Israel be concerned that it will face the same fate as Ukraine? Maybe, and that was the theme of the report. I mean, just a quick word, a background. This is, as far as I remember, the first report I have done since October 7th, that is not about the war. And when I was pitching it to our team yesterday, we had discussions of whether we should do this, because obviously viewers are not necessarily coming to I-24 News to hear about Ukraine, right? People logically are coming to us to hear about what's going on here and all of the pressing issues here and all the pressing issues that surround us. But we decided to go with it for two reasons. Number one, it's a huge story in and of itself and almost can't be ignored in itself. And second, obviously, because I think it has a lot of relevance for us and a lot of lessons. I mean, look, Volodymyr Zelensky, right, over the course of almost the last two years, has come to the United States, has gone to European capitals on the back, at least at the very beginning of the huge successes and surprising and from the perspective of the West inspiring successes that Ukraine had on the battlefield and coming and saying, give us money, we need it. By defending Ukraine, you're defending Europe, your own alliance system and yourself. And time after time, with their huge sums of money that he was asking for, that argument carried the day and it was almost taboo to oppose it. And then just over the last few months, you started to see that erosion in the United States among Republicans. And again, getting to the point where Republicans feel they have the political space and the backing of some of their constituents to hold this funding up, right? By the way, Israel funding as well as part of this package in exchange for those concessions on the border. And I think while there's a consensus that one way or another, Israel's going to get its funding, even if it's delayed, obviously the funding to Ukraine remains an open question. And again, I think the issues are connected, of course, legislatively, right? They're both part of the same package, the funding for Israel and the funding for Ukraine. But even more than that, Sarah, they're connected conceptually, right? Joe Biden seeing both support for Israel and support for Ukraine is supporting the American alliance system and the same dynamics that played out in the erosion of support for Ukraine funding. The specter of those same kinds of forces one day playing out in eroding the support for funding for Israel. Now, well, and before we get into the numbers games here, I want to ask you, the Republicans are criticizing Biden of funding Ukraine with no clear timeline, no oversight whatsoever. Is him placing a sort of timeline for the war in Gaza have anything to do with that at all? I think they're different. But again, the wars are very different, right? Right. The war in Gaza obviously had a very, very clear beginning, horrendous beginning, as we all remember. It has a sort of sense of middle and it is expected to have an end, right? And there may be a long tail towards the end, right? The part, the phase of high intensity fighting might be followed by a phase of low intensity fighting as we continue to talk about. But there is that tail. There is a military objective that seems achievable even if it's at a high cost and takes time. In the case of Ukraine, the question that's being asked here is that the front line essentially hasn't moved for months. What is the game plan for Ukraine to achieve its stated aims of taking back all of its territory, right? How much money, how much time, and what's the plan? That's essentially what Mike Johnson is asking, right? The Speaker of the House. We heard in that piece, what is the plan to get there? And if there is no plan, if there is no plan, what is plan B, give us a sense of horizon. So I think the issues for Ukraine are different than the issues for Israel in that sense. And of course, the Republicans here, Sarah, are holding up the Ukraine aid on two separate points. One is holding it up and conditioning it on the Ukraine issue itself, as we just talked about, right? Show us a plan and then we'll be willing to free up the money and then second tying it to the issue of the southern border and saying to Democrats and to the Biden administration, make concessions on that issue in order for us to be able to set the Ukraine aid free. Okay, now let's get down to the numbers. Owen, how much aid does the U.S. provide to Israel? About $3 billion plus a year. It was under that memorandum of Obama administration. The request right now is for $14 plus billion of supplemental aid and for Ukraine, $50 billion. The numbers to Ukraine, Sarah, are in terms of American foreign aid off the charts, right? Again, it's not intended to be a long-term, multi-year, decades-long commitment, right? The way aid to Israel has been or aid to Egypt or aid to other countries. It's meant to be there for the emergency of the war, right? And of course, the question that's being asked is how long does that emergency go? There is an issue of how much money Ukraine is asking for, but obviously there are also differences as we talked about in the piece between the U.S.-Israel relationship and the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship. That said, a new poll just out from PBS and from NPR shows that when you actually ask the American public how they feel about the funding for Ukraine and for Israel, support levels are just about the same, right? 32% of the public saying we support both, and then about 15% of the public saying only Ukraine and about the same for Israel. So for all that we talk about how strong the U.S.-Israel bond is, how many decades it goes back, how strong of a kernel of support you have in the American Jewish community. But also the criticism that we've seen from the other side of the aisle, right? Right, and there's also that common thread. Joe Biden here is playing, in a sense, the same role in the debate in Ukraine as he is in Israel, right? And I think consciously so because he's doing it for the same reason. He's trying to hold the American political center, right? And the debate in Ukraine, he's doing it now against pushback from the right, from the Republicans. In the debate around Israel, he's holding the political center against pushback from the left, the far left, from his own party. But he's doing it for the same reason because he sees high stakes in both wars, strengthening the American Alliance Network against competition from China primarily, but also, of course, from Russia. And a kind of forward defense of the United States in these two countries, and potentially also in Taiwan. He sees them all as connected. There's obviously a base of support for that among foreign policy national security specialists in the United States. So even there it's disputed and certainly among part of the American public. But Sarah, you certainly do see pushback on each issue with separate constituencies. But in both cases, Joe Biden, in a sense, holding the political center with that common argument that he makes in both cases. So again, those are the contours of the political debate. I think from Israel's perspective, again, we have this conceptia, right, a kind of illusion. It's Israeli speak for what happened in 1973 and for what happened on October 7th, right? A set of assumptions that was so deeply held that it wasn't questioned. And one of those assumptions is continued American support for Israel. We obviously talk a lot about American public opinion. We take a microscope to every pole. It's not that this issue isn't discussed here and dissected. It's not that people here aren't conscious of the changes in American society. But there's a sense that those changes, because they have in the past and in the present, continue to play out gradually that that gradual process will continue in the future and we will have time to adjust. I think the story of Ukraine shows that maybe that's a conceptia and maybe not. And maybe at some point there is a kind of cliff edge and we at least have to be conscious of that scenario as part of our planning and as part of our mental thinking. Maybe it won't come to pass, but we have to be questioning ourselves and aware of the fact that it might come to pass. Oh, and Ultraman, thank you very much for that very thorough breakdown. And in response to the devastating situation in Israel, a leading Jewish international support network, Hyde Lifeline, has opened a 24-hour crisis hotline, where more than 200 volunteers and trauma specialists provide critical support to those impacted by the war both in Israel and in Jewish communities abroad. One phone call at a time. And joining me now is Rabbi Dr. David Fox. He's the director of Hyde Lifeline. Rabbi, thank you very much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. Tell me a little bit about some of the concerns and trauma your team has responded to in recent weeks through its hotline. Sure, we've made a designated hotline, as you mentioned specifically, for people either living in Israel or people who have family living in Israel, mostly Anglo-English speaking. And we've had a very unfortunate tragic spectrum of calls. Those who have family members, loved ones who are hostages, those who've lost family members in the fighting or in the massacres, those are concerned about the welfare and the status of their children who may be attending seminaries or schools in Israel, what to do with it to bring them home. And then the range of emotional reactions, fear, worry, dread, sadness, rage that typically are triggered any time people are living in intimidation and threats. We are fielding these phone calls and trying to guide people. And we certainly are facing a sort of collective trauma here. Tell me, how does your team prepare to support the variety of crisis calls, as you mentioned, victims of anti-Semitic assault, parents of IDF soldiers, Holocaust survivors with resurfaced trauma? Yeah. Well, our team members have gone through a very rigorous training, in essence, trying to anticipate virtually every type of crisis or trauma that might show up affecting the Jewish people, whether they're natural disasters, whether they're assaults, whether it's anti-Semitic events, whether it's acts of terrorism, kidnapping, hostage situations. And unfortunately, even in the diaspora, we have had to deal with these numerous times, many, many times. We've dealt with shootings at Jewish community centers. We've dealt with massacres in big Jewish cities. We've dealt with, as we said, sort of natural disasters, whether they're volcanoes or earthquakes or buildings collapsing like in Surfside, Florida. So we train them well. We have hundreds of pages of archived guidelines so that when we are summoned, we can very rapidly pre-brief our team members on how they can orient to the situation at hand what tools they need to bring in, what they might anticipate, and ways of intervening, whether it's with victims or survivors or witnesses to trauma or the family members, the neighbors, the co-workers, the classmates, and so on. So, unfortunately, they are very well prepared and they are very well experienced. And aside from the 24-hour hotline, High Lifeline has also helped relocate Israeli families with children under active cancer treatment out of high-risk areas. Tell us a little bit more about that. Sure. The foundation of the High Lifeline network begins with and began with case management and healthcare support initially for children with life-threatening or terminal illnesses, and then for children with chronic conditions and then for people in general who have any of a range of medical emergencies. And our case managers will work with them, facilitate hospitalization, give them access to healthcare, to expert healthcare. And we do have a number of clients, patients, and their families living in Israel, and those who are in areas of disease or under threat and whose family member desperately needs medical care. So we've been very active in making sure they get that care wherever they need to be transported. And for our viewers, if you or anyone you know during these difficult times, need support, High Lifeline's hotline is 8553-CRISIS. Bye-bye. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you. Take care. Changing gears now as we turn to the football pitch for a special match between children evacuated from the towns of Steroz and the south and Kirchmonna in the north up against a team of Israeli artists, Fabio Shapiro and Emma Oliver have the story. Amida Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, a spark of happiness for the displaced Israeli communities from the south and the north. The central town of Herzliya became the stage of a special game for children of Steroz and Kirchmonna, both facing the effects of Israel's war with Hamas. And the daily provocations from the Lebanese Hezbollah group, the kids' adversaries, the Israel football artists' team formed by Israeli singers, actors and influencers, including Guy Mazig, Tomer Cohen, Bard Sabari and Oshry Cohen. We have the privilege to bring smiles into their faces, beautiful young kids that get out of their homes and their life, in a way, is now stuck. And if we can do that to them and if we can help in any way, we are more than happy to do that. I hug them, I love them, and I'm happy for what we did here today. Across the country, the war brought up the best people can offer to help the affected communities. Israelis are making a big effort to provide not only food and clothes, but entertainment to the thousands of displaced. The biggest thing that I feel in this war is that the people of Israel come together in so many ways. And for me, when they asked me to come here and play, I didn't even think twice. I was just, yeah, of course, let's do it. In my neighborhood, I live in Tel Aviv, in the center of Tel Aviv, and I see so many people from the north and from the south, and I meet them and I talk to them and I try to help as much as I can. And from here, I want to hug them and tell them that hopefully we'll be all right and we are here for them. Though it was only a friendly match, the children offered a challenge to the artists. The game ended up tied at 10-10, leaving both the kids and the artists excited for a rematch, hopefully in better times. Since October 7th, over 300,000 IDF troops have been mobilized and deployed to the Gaza and Lebanese border. These brave men and women left their families and their jobs behind at a moment's notice to protect their country. After weeks on the battlefront, many have yet to go home. So a team of volunteer physical therapists from the Tikva units decided to bring their services to them free of charge. And joining me here in studio is Bianca Brower. She's a sports massage therapist and Arielle Weinstein. She's an acupuncturist and they're both part of the Tikva unit. Thank you both for joining me today. Thank you for having us. Thank you. So tell me a little bit about some of the therapy your team uses to treat these IDF soldiers. So we've got an amazing team of therapists together. We've got everything from sports massage therapists to acupuncturists, physiotherapists, breast workers. It's just anybody that's in the therapy world has jumped on board to try to give our soldiers as much support as possible. It's been incredible. Definitely support that's very much needed both for soldiers and also civilians because we really are facing this collective trauma and it's so important to take care of your health and your well-being. What has been the most common type of injury or issue that you guys have seen in these soldiers? I would say about 98% of the soldiers that we treat come in with either severe neck pain or back pain both on their upper back and their lower back. Occasionally there's knee pain, but these soldiers are lifting heavy equipment all day long. They have their gun straps to them all day long. So we pretty much see the same types of pain that come in from the time we start to the time we end. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of trauma while they're in active combat. Obviously you guys are giving physical therapy, but physical therapy also has an effect on mental well-being. Absolutely. We actually had a discussion about this last night and some of the soldiers completely shut down. They just want to be there for therapy. Some of the soldiers want to talk. They want to share their stories from home. They want to share their stories from what they've seen in Gaza on the Lebanese border in the towns, wherever they may be. And I think just having a safe space and a different set of ears and a different face to share that with is really therapeutic for them. What for you guys, having toured so many military bases around the country and treated so many soldiers, what has been the most shocking or surprising thing that you guys have experienced on this journey of bringing therapy to these soldiers? I think the amount of sacrifice that I have seen the soldiers have to make, I think that the world sees what's happening on the news and we catch up with it, but then we're able to move on with our lives. But at the bases, these soldiers are there for weeks and months on end and the sacrifices that they make are everything from having to pause going to university for their studies to missing babies being born to weddings, whether it's their friends or their own, or all of the little things in life and all of the big things in life. So I think that really seeing at first hand the sacrifice that these soldiers are making, it makes me appreciate everything that they're doing even more and it makes me very grateful that I have the opportunity to help them and to do my part in helping the soldiers and Jews around the world so that the soldiers can keep on fighting this war. Yeah, it certainly puts things into perspective. Bianca, what's it been like for you? It's been incredible. Firstly, I'm fascinated by the fact that there is always shocker at the bases. I love shocker. That's my weakness. So I'm very pleased that there's always been shocker, but the humility of the guys and girls has been incredible. They're just normal people. They are normal people that are out there saving the world. Absolutely. Normal people with normal jobs. 100%. Become combat soldiers the very next day. Yeah. You guys have had to travel to these military bases around the country. Some of them are in not the safest areas, close to both the Gaza border, the Lebanese border. Tell me a little bit about the coordination. How do you guys get there? Who is anybody in touch with you? How does that work? So we get there ourselves, whether it's by bus or train or cars, sometimes we're going up north to the bases by Lebanon. There was an instance where a rocket hit about half a mile from the base that we were at. We walked outside and you could see the fire, but every single base we have been at, the soldiers have made sure 100% from the moment we get there to the moment that we leave that we are safe. And I have never felt unsafe when I'm at the bases because I know that the soldiers are there and they're monitoring everything and they're taking care of us. They tell us where to go and what to do and we listen 100% to them. And so you guys provide these services to these soldiers for free, which is very admirable. And I understand that you guys have a GoFundMe page because this is your livelihood. So tell me a little bit about that. So the third masketeer, Aubrey Thomas, who's keeping the economy going while we're here, she has set up a pay box account where people can donate to and basically that funding would go towards fuel, hiring of vehicles. And if there's anything left to replenish any supplies that we need to get in order to treat the guys. But up until this point, it's been completely self-funded and I think we're also just sort of taking a page out of the soldiers' books and that them going out there, they're sacrificing a lot and this is what we sacrifice. We're giving of our time and our skill and putting it to good use and we're doing it with absolute greatest pleasure. That's really beautiful. In general, there's really a collective trauma that we've been speaking about. So the post-traumatic, PTSD after October 7th and that we're feeling both here in Israel and in Jewish communities as a whole. What advice do you give to the general public as therapists, even though physical, but this does have an effect obviously mentally? What advice do you give for people to be able to get through these days? To be able to stay calm through, let's say, a siren, as we've had to unfortunately experience very often here? I think that everybody processes in their own way and everybody has that thing that helps them to move through this in their own way. For us, that thing that helps us move through this war is treating the soldiers and it doesn't need to be something like going to the bases that you can do to get your mind off of all the negative and start focusing on something positive. It can be something like helping to coordinate a base for us to go to. It can be something like going to a local volunteer shelter that is helping to organize supplies to send over to Israel. I know that there are tons of people that are waiting at the airport with huge suitcases to bring over and even helping to do that can really put your mind onto something positive and when your brain is focused and wired to think in a positive note, I think that it really helps to put faith in humanity and to help move on and it doesn't mean that you can't process all of the bad and you should process all of the bad but once you find that thing that's going to help you you focus on it and you just keep moving. Absolutely and giving back to the community sometimes can also help you help yourself. Bianca Brower, Arielle Weinstein really beautiful work you're doing. Thank you for joining me. Thank you. And before we wrap up just a quick wrap up of today's event 69th day of the war here the IDF ground offensive in Gaza against Minal Hamas rages on the army announcing this morning the death of another soldier during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday 38 year old master sergeant in the reserves Elisha Lowenstern bringing in the toll of slain Israeli troops to 116. Now after meeting Mohammed bin Salman the crown prince in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is slated to arrive in Israel later today to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the war cabinet at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile to discuss obviously a range of pressing issues on the table including the duration of the ground operation to eliminate Hamas plans for the day after the war and what steps can be taken in order to push back the Hezbollah threat. And that wraps this hours in.