 Welcome to I-24 News, I'm Sivana Rave, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas, as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Attani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Then he told the family's talks with Hamas were now more complicated following last week's killing of Hamas' deputy leader Salih al-Aroori in a strike that has widely been attributed to Israel. Following the assassination, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatar and Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to the relatives of hostages that talks for their return were still ongoing. The idea responded to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera and an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Sunday, saying that the two were traveling in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East, holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to part of what he had to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible, they're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza, with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Klochendler. Pierre, an Israeli woman was lightly wounded yesterday as a result of a rocket hit in one of the communities near the Gaza border. You're there right now. What can you tell us about that? Right. This is an agricultural village, a farming community village of 500 inhabitants, but only 70 now remain after the October 7th massacre. Yesterday at 6.15 p.m., a rocket hit and wounded a woman who was on her way to the protective room that you see as an addition to the house. And you can maybe distinguish the shrapnel that flew over that house. The woman was basically lightly wounded, she's 73, she was lightly wounded by a stone shrapnel. Because actually the house wasn't hit, the house that was hit, I'm going to show you behind that police red tape that you see here, this house wasn't hit either. But this is the house that was hit and you can see the hole in the house that was hit here by the rocket. The shrapnels flew quite far, as you can see, and wounded that woman. The inhabitants of that house were in their protective shelter, and that's why they were in hit. But we'll show you the extent of the damage. Now you can see the extent of the damage that Dean Barenboim is showing you. The family of that 73-year-old woman that was wounded are here, you can see them. And we'll show you the damage inside the house. And you can see the destruction from one rocket. Now only 70 people remain here. During the October 7th massacre, seven people were butchered here. And one border police woman was also killed in the fighting trying to repel the terrorists. And now the Ministry of Education and the government are considering allowing the return of the people that live in the communities on the Israeli Gaza border by February 4th and reopen the schools to the anger of the residents because they say that nobody is prepared for a return in less than a month from now, especially regarding the security of the community villages here and the community towns here, especially that there's still rockets flying, although it's facing the northern sector of the Gaza Strip which is under full Israeli operational control, yet rockets are still flying from time to time. Sivan? Thank you, Pierre. We do know that residents of the south are upset and opposed to this decision. We'll keep up with you a bit later. Thank you, Pierre. Okay. Joining us now is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Professor Kobe Michael. Thank you for joining. Good morning. Good morning. We are three months to this war, the war that began on October 7th after Israel was attacked by Hamas, and now three months in. What can you tell us that the IDF has accomplished so far? I think that we saw in Herod yesterday the IDF spokesman who explained what actually has happened there in the Gaza Strip since three months ago, how complex is the battle zone, and I think that the tactical and operational achievements of the IDF are pretty impressive and the accumulation of these achievements eventually will create a strategic impact. We have to be patient. We have to understand that it takes time, and I think that Hamas is losing its military capacities although from time to time we can see that they are still able to launch a rocket here and there, but generally speaking they are losing their command and control capacities, which means that they cannot operate anymore in a big frames of battalions or even companies, and I think that we are getting closer and closer to the main center of gravity in Hanoones, and we will remain with the last challenge, which is the Philadelphia corridor on the border with Egypt, but I assume that we are in our way towards the accomplishment of the main goals of this war with regard to Hamas capacities. Now the IDF says it's shifting into a third stage of fighting, moving towards a more strategic kind of fighting. What does that mean exactly? It means that it will be something which is similar in a way to the reality that we are witnessing in the West Bank, which means that most of the IDF forces will be outside of the Gaza Strip, and we will see raids and incursions based on accurate intelligence, and some forces will remain in the Gaza Strip in order to continue cleaning Hamas compounds and Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip, but it will be in a much lower intensity in comparison to the intensity of the first two phases in the north and in the center areas of the Gaza Strip, including Hanoones. But we have to understand, and it's very important to emphasize it, that the terror will not be finalized as well as the terror was not finalized in the West Bank after five years of the Second IDF, but it will be contained in a level that it will be tolerated and it will enable the residents of the south to come back to their communities and to live safely there. Now you mentioned that terror will not go away, certainly not overnight. We also know that Hamas is not just their operatives, it's an ideology. So how is it that the IDF aims to abolish, to eliminate Hamas? The IDF doesn't intend to eliminate Hamas as an ideological movement, okay? The ideology is deeply embedded and rooted in the minds and the hearts of the people, and you cannot eliminate ideology by using kinetic means, okay? But you are talking actually about the Hamasification effort. This is something that will last years, and it requires other means. Part of that might be achieved by the reconstruction process of the Gaza Strip and by running the Gaza Strip by a different government or authority that will deal with the educational system and with the poisoning process that the Gazels went through for the last three decades and in a more intensified manner since 2007 when Hamas actually gained the full control over the Gaza Strip. This is the responsibility, first of all, of the Palestinian society, the new Palestinian leadership. But this is as well the responsibility of the international community, including the regional players, that will have to have the responsibility with regard to the educational system, incitement, the delegitization, and all the things that characterize the poisoning process that this constituency went through over the years. Now, there was mention of the return of Gazels to the northern part of the Strip. Will Israel allow this, and how can this even be achieved during war? I think that Israel has to prevent that, and I think that the IDF makes efforts in order to prevent the returning of people from the south and the north, because we are still in war in the northern parts, although it is in a different level of intensity, but we are at war, and there is also an option that some of the people that were abducted, the hostages are still there. And I think that citizens are not allowed or should not be allowed to return. First of all, it's something that risks their life, and secondly, it's something that complicates the situation, the war situation in the northern part, and I think that Israel has all the authorities, even according to the international law of warfare, to prevent them from returning to these areas, and I assume that this is what is done. Professor Kobe Michael, stay with us. It was a deadly day in the West Bank after a roadside bomb killed an Israeli police officer and injured three others during an overnight raid in Janine. Seven Palestinians were killed in a retaliatory airstrike, not long after an East Jerusalem man was killed in a terror attack in Ramallah, and in the evening a Palestinian toddler was accidentally shot and killed during attempts to shoot a terrorist who rammed into Israeli border police officers at a checkpoint. Our correspondent, Nicole Zedek, breaks down the turbulent developments unfolding on Israel's third border. The border police can be seen nearly every night conducting counterterrorism operations in the northern West Bank city of Janine, but Saturday night it turned deadly as a roadside explosive hit one of their vehicles, killing 19-year-old Shai Grimai and injuring three others. The wounded were air evac to the hospital, while the IDF carried out an airstrike killing seven Palestinian gunmen who hurled explosives at troops, four of them brothers, according to family members. I never imagined that they would die all at once. I was thinking that maybe Hazar and Rami were the most likely to be killed, but Allah and Ahmed, I never thought that they would be martyred, especially all together at one time. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the deadly roadside bomb, near hours after the attack in Janine, an Arab-Israeli man was shot dead near Ramallah. 33-year-old Ammar Mansour was killed in his car. The woman driving behind him also injured in serious condition. It's the first deadly shooting attack in the West Bank since November, showing terrorism is still boiling over in the area. Even as Israel has arrested more than 2,600 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, trying to gain a stronghold on the third front of the war. And still with us is Professor Kobi Michael. Kobi, we're seeing what is happening now in the West Bank. We see the things are heating up. Is this indeed a third front for Israel? Yes, of course. Israel is already engaged in six active fronts where the West Bank is one of them. And actually, we are in a war of terror in the West Bank since March 22. This war was intensified because of the events of October 7th, but it is not something new. And the Iranians and Hezbollah are making their utmost efforts in order to continue igniting and fueling this terror campaign or terror war by smuggling weapons. Fortunately, we are succeeding in preventing most of the smuggling efforts, but in some cases we are failing to prevent it and the weapons continue entering the West Bank. And this is the reason that we see the level of the collisions and the events in the Jenin area in Kukarev, where laboratories for production of standard explosives are there. And we have to understand that the standard explosives reach to the West Bank mostly from Syria, from Lebanon through Syria, Jordan, and then to Jenin area and to the other districts in the West Bank. So this is a third war. This is another front. And we have to understand that it will continue, but fortunately, our presence there and our good intelligence there enable us to twirl most of the threats. And from time to time, we see that we have also some casualties, unfortunately. Now should we be expecting more lone wolf attacks or perhaps something more organized? First of all, it's very well organized. Secondly, I don't think that the idea of lone wolves is a valid idea these days, because even when individuals are committing a terror attack, they do it under the inspiration of the terror organizations in the West Bank, and with weapons and money that are provided by the terror organizations. So therefore, I think that we are talking about a very organized campaign of terrorism, which is run mostly by Hamas in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but by Al-Aqsa Brigade that belongs to the FATA as well, and from time to time, even the official personnel of the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank. Professor Kobe Michayev, thank you very much for joining us. As the tensions intensify between Hezbollah and Israel, the IDF says it struck numerous Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight, with Israeli fighter jets hitting a Hezbollah military compound, along with a rocket launcher and terror infrastructure. Over the weekend, Hezbollah launched over 40 rockets and missiles at a sensitive Israeli air traffic control base near the Lebanon border, causing damage to two radar domes. The IDF stated that the base's damage would be repaired and investigations are ongoing to prevent similar attacks. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for nine attacks on northern Israel yesterday, as daily cross-border clashes continue. The situation remains highly volatile, with fears of a broader conflict in sight. Here's some of what IDF chief Hritya Levy said on this. In the north, Hezbollah decided to enter this war. We are exerting an increasing cost from Hezbollah all the time. They paid yesterday with seven killed. They paid yesterday with two very, very important targets struck, and we are increasing the price that they are paying. It will end with us having a responsibility, a duty, to return the residents of the north in security, not under duress, safely to their homes. It will come either by the pressure we are now applying, which is rising, and will do the job, and we will create a completely different reality, or we will get to another war. We will do it. We will do it with excellency. Even though we are after a long battle already, and have had challenges in many arenas, we will know how to do it properly. To achieve the war goals, we have a long way to go, and therefore this will take time. Joining us in studio is our I-24 News senior editor, Guy Azriel. Guy, thank you for joining. We're hearing IDF chief Hritya Levy is saying that if Israel should begin, or if Israel should engage in war or intensifying conflict with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, they are ready, and they will excel. Is that so? Look, Israel, not just the IDF, of course, is the operational branch of the Israeli government, is not looking for full-scale war with Hezbollah, Israel, and Lebanon know very well what would be the consequences of such a war, complete devastation both in Lebanon and very heavy damage in Israel as well. This is something that Israel is not looking to see. However, should Hezbollah continue its strikes on the border and continue to pose a threat to the citizens of Israel, continue to create a situation in which dozens of thousands of Israelis are displaced from their homes, Israel will not have any other choice but to engage in a wider conflict with Hezbollah that would enable to push the radical forces of Hezbollah away from the border with Israel over the Littani River in Lebanon. And of course, Secretary Blinken is here, among other things, also to try and find a diplomatic solution to this conflict. Obviously, both Israel and Lebanon are concerned about the prospect of such a wide conflict, but so are the Americans and other nations in the region with interest here. Like in many other wars we see in the world sometimes, it's a war that nobody wants, but it could still be inevitable unless things change dramatically and for now they're not changing. The IDF chief, Herzi Alevi, saying that the whole of 2024 will be a war, a year of fighting. And he's referring to the fact that not only in Gaza will IDF forces will continue to be stationed but also the threat of Hezbollah is still imminent and the forces are ready for it. And when we speak about a war or fighting that goes on for a whole year, obviously that concerns the IDF because the amount of troops that you have engaged in fighting is immense when it comes to the fighting in Gaza. And this is why we already saw many of the reservists being sent home so they can get their proper rest, perhaps ahead of more challenges that await them in the north. Getting rest is perhaps the quiet before the storm. We hope not, but that is certainly one of the possibilities. Now we know Hezbollah said that one of their reactions or retaliations for the Al-Arouri assassination was hitting the compound in Miron, the IDF Air Force base. What can you tell us about that? Right, so on Saturday morning Hezbollah launched over 40 projectiles towards Israel. The most significant hit was that air traffic control base in Mount Miron, that base is just under 10 kilometers away from the Lebanon border, a very strategic point for the Israeli Air Force. The interesting or perhaps warring part for Israel was the fact that this site was struck despite its relative distance from the border. And what the IDF assesses now is that it was struck actually by anti-tank missiles, the Kornet EM type that is the most advanced anti-tank missile at the hands of Hezbollah that is able to reach that distance. It is laser guided and we saw those very precise hits on those two radar domes. The IDF says the base is still operational, but that hit is significant both because it is a strategic point for Israel and beyond that because Hezbollah is concerned about the freedom of aerial activity of Israel in Lebanon that concerns both intelligence, of course Israeli fighter jets, but also drones fly over southern Lebanon on a regular basis to collect information, intelligence about the forces of Hezbollah also in terms of operational means. As we saw, someone, maybe Israel, maybe someone else, has struck Salah al-Rouri in the heart of Beirut last week. That is a major concern for Hezbollah, of course. Families of hostages held in Gaza just returned from Qatar where they met with officials. Speaking out on their meetings there, they said they found the Qataris to be very attentive and sympathetic. Speaking at a presser with US Secretary of State Blinken, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul-Rahman al-Thani said that despite the challenges faced regarding hostage talks and humanitarian truce, they were not giving up. Of course, having one of the senior leader of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process. Yet, we are not giving up. We are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring a ceasefire and humanitarian relief and the release of hostages. Guy, what is the stance right now on the hostage talks? Unfortunately, we don't hear much new about possible hostage release deal. And that is because Hamas still stands to his gun. The IDF continues its attempts to put pressure on Hamas, trying to reach the heads of Hamas in Hanyunas in order for them to go ahead with another future deal. We saw in previous cases Israel only halted the war for several weeks. In this case, Hamas wants the war to end altogether. This is something that Israel, of course, will not be able to accept. So it operates both in terms of intelligence, trying to locate the heads of Hamas and also the Israeli hostages underground also to exhort as much pressure as possible on them so that they would come to the front themselves and offer some sort of a deal that would see the Israeli hostages being released. Guys, thank you very much for your input. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage, providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website, i-24news.tv, and across our social media platforms. I'm Steve Underaviv. Thank you for watching. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where we see us. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. News 24 en español trae el análisis y la información de los acontecimientos de la guerra, espadas de hierro. Entrevistas exclusivas reportes desde la zona de guerra. La reacción de los países hispanoparlantes. News 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. News 24, únicamente en I-24 News. Welcome to I-24 News. I'm Steve Underaviv. And these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas, as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Attani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Then he told the family's talks with Hamas were now more complicated following last week's killing of Hamas' deputy leader Salih al-Aroori in a strike that has widely been attributed to Israel. Following the assassination, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatar and Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to the relatives of hostages that talks for the return were still ongoing. The IDF responded to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for al-Jazeera and an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Sunday, saying that the two were traveling in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East, holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to part of what he had to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible, they're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kloschendler. Pierre, an Israeli woman was lightly wounded yesterday as a result of a rocket hit in one of the communities near the Gaza border. You're there right now, what can you tell us about that? Right, this is an agricultural village, a farming community village of 500 inhabitants, but only 17 now remain after the October 7th massacre. Yesterday at 6.15 p.m., a rocket hit and wounded a woman who was on her way to the protective room that you see as an addition to the house. And you can maybe distinguish the shrapnel that flew over that house. The woman was basically lightly wounded, she's 73, she was lightly wounded by a stone shrapnel because actually the house wasn't hit the house that was hit, I'm gonna show you, behind that police red tape that you see here. This house wasn't hit either, but this is the house that was hit and you can see the hole in the house that was hit here by the rocket. The shrapnels flew quite far as you can see and wounded that woman, the inhabitants of that house were in their protective shelter and that's why they were in hit, but we'll show you the extent of the damage. Now you can see the extent of the damage that Dean Barenboim is showing you. The family of that 73-year-old woman that was wounded are here, you can see them and we'll show you the damage inside the house. Now you can see the destruction from one rocket. Now only 70 people remain here. During the October 7th massacre, seven people were butchered here and one border police woman was also killed in the fighting trying to repel the terrorists. And now the Ministry of Education and the government are considering allowing the return of the people that live in the communities on the Israeli Gaza border by February 4th and reopen the schools to the anger of the residents because they say that nobody is prepared for a return in less than a month from now, especially regarding the security of the community villages here and the community towns here, especially that there's still rockets flying, although it's facing the northern sector of the Gaza Strip which is under full Israeli operational control, yet rockets are still flying from time to time. Sivan. Thank you, Pierre. Yes, we do know that residents of the South are upset and opposed to this decision. We'll keep up with you a bit later. Thank you, Pierre. Okay. Joining us now is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Professor Kobe Mikhail. Thank you for joining. Good morning. Good morning. We are three months to this war, the war that began on October 7th after Israel was attacked by Hamas and now three months and what can you tell us that the IDF has accomplished so far? I think that we saw in her yesterday the IDF spokesman who explained what actually has happened there in the Gaza Strip since three months ago. How complex is the battle zone? And I think that the tactical and the operational achievements of the IDF are pretty impressive and the accumulation of these achievements eventually will create a strategic impact. We have to be patient. We have to understand that it takes time. And I think that Hamas is losing its military capacities although from time to time we can see that they are still able to launch a rocket here and there, but generally speaking, they are losing their command and control capacities, which means that they cannot operate anymore in a big frames of battalions or even companies. And I think that we are getting closer and closer to the main center of gravity in Chalunis and we will remain with the last challenge, which is the Philadelphia corridor on the border with Egypt. But I assume that we are in our way towards the accomplishment of the main goals of this war with regard to Hamas capacities. Now the IDF says it's shifting into a third stage of fighting, moving towards a more strategic kind of fighting. What does that mean exactly? It means that it will be something which is similar in a way to the reality that we are witnessing in the West Bank, which means that most of the IDF forces will be outside of the Gaza Strip and we will see raids and incursions based on accurate intelligence and some forces will remain in the Gaza Strip in order to continue cleaning Hamas compounds and Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip, but it will be in a much lower intensity in comparison to the intensity of the first two phases in the north and in the center areas of the Gaza Strip, including Chalunis. But we have to understand, and it's very important to emphasize it, that the terror will not be finalized, okay, as well as the terror was not finalized in the West Bank after five years of the Second Intifada, but it will be contained in a level that it will be tolerated and it will enable the residents of the south to come back to their communities and to live safely there. Now you mentioned that terror will not go away, certainly not overnight. We also know that Hamas is not just their operatives, it's an ideology. So how is it that the IDF aims to abolish, to eliminate Hamas? The IDF doesn't intend to eliminate Hamas as a ideological movement, okay? The ideology is deeply embedded and rooted in the minds and the hearts of the people and you cannot eliminate ideology by using a kinetic means, okay? But you are talking actually about the Hamasification, the Hamasification effort. This is something that will last years and it requires other means. Part of that might be achieved by the reconstruction process of the Gaza Strip and by running the Gaza Strip by a different government or authority that will deal with the educational system and with the poisoning process that the Gazels went through for the last three decades and in a more intensified manner since 2007 when Hamas actually gained the full control over the Gaza Strip. This is the responsibility, first of all, of the Palestinian society, the new Palestinian leadership, but this is as well the responsibility of the international community, including the regional players that will have to have the responsibility with regard to the educational system, incitement, the delegitization and all the things that characterize the poisoning process that this constituency went through over the years. Now there was mention of the return of Gazels to the northern part of the Strip. Will Israel allow this and how can this even be achieved during war? I think that Israel has to prevent that and I think that the IDF makes efforts in order to prevent the returning of people from the south and the north because we are still in war in the northern parts, although it is in a different level of intensity about that we are at war and that there is also an option that some of the people that were abducted, the hostages are still there and I think that citizens are not allowed or should not be allowed to return. First of all, it's something that risks their life and secondly, it's something that complicates the situation, the war situation in the northern part and I think that Israel has all the authorities even according to the international law of warfare to prevent them from returning to these areas and I assume that this is what is done. Professor Kobe Michael, stay with us. It was a deadly day in the West Bank after a roadside bomb killed an Israeli police officer and injured three others during an overnight raid in Jenin. Seven Palestinians were killed in a retaliatory airstrike not long after an East Jerusalem man was killed in a terror attack in Ramallah and in the evening, a Palestinian toddler was accidentally shot and killed during attempts to shoot a terrorist who rammed into Israeli border police officers at a checkpoint. Our correspondent, Nicole Cedric, breaks down the turbulent developments unfolding on Israel's third border. Israeli border police can be seen nearly every night conducting counterterrorism operations in the northern West Bank city of Jenin but Saturday night, it turned deadly as a roadside explosive hit one of their vehicles killing 19 year old Shai Grimai and injuring three others. The wounded were air evac to the hospital while the IDF carried out an airstrike killing seven Palestinian gunmen who hurled explosives at troops, four of them brothers, according to family members. I never imagined that they would die all at once. I was thinking that maybe Haza and Rami were the most likely to be killed but Allah and Ahmed, I never thought that they would be martyred, especially all together at one time. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the deadly roadside bomb. After the attack in Jenin, an Arab-Israeli man was shot dead near Ramallah. 33 year old Ammar Mansour was killed in his car. The woman driving behind him also injured in serious condition. It's the first deadly shooting attack in the West Bank since November, showing terrorism is still boiling over in the area. Even as Israel has arrested more than 2,600 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, trying to gain a stronghold on the third front of the war. And still with us is Professor Kobe Michael. Kobe, we're seeing what is happening now in the West Bank. We see the things are heating up. Is this indeed a third front for Israel? Yes, of course. Israel is already engaged in six active fronts where the West Bank is one of them. And actually we are in a war of terror in the West Bank since March 22. This war was intensified because of the events of October 7th, but it is not something new. And the Iranians and Hezbollah are making their efforts in order to continue igniting and fueling this terror campaign or terror war by smuggling weapons. Fortunately, we are succeeding in preventing most of the smuggling efforts, but in some cases we are failing to prevent it and the weapons continue entering the West Bank. And this is the reason that we see the level of the collisions and the events in Jenin area, in Kukarev, where laboratories for production of standard explosives are there. And we have to understand that the standard explosives reach to the West Bank mostly from Syria, from Lebanon through Syria, Jordan, and then to Jenin area and to the other districts in the West Bank. So this is a third war. This is another front. And we have to understand that it will continue, but fortunately our presence there and our good intelligence there enable us to twirl most of the threats and from time to time, we see that we have also some casualties, unfortunately. Now should we be expecting more lone wolf attacks or perhaps something more organized? First of all, it's very well organized. Secondly, I don't think that the idea of lone wolves is a valid idea these days because even when individuals are committing a terror attack, they do it under the inspiration of the terror organizations in the West Bank and with weapons and money that are provided by the terror organizations. So therefore, I think that we are talking about a very organized campaign of terrorism, which is run mostly by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic jihad, but by a lack of a brigade that belongs to the Fatah as well. And from time to time, even the official personnel of the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank. Professor Kobe Michayo, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. As the tensions intensify between Hezbollah and Israel, the IDF says it struck numerous Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight with Israeli fighter jets hitting a Hezbollah military compound, along with a rocket launcher and terror infrastructure. Over the weekend, Hezbollah launched over 40 rockets and missiles at a sensitive Israeli air traffic control base near the Lebanon border, causing damage to two radar domes. The IDF stated that the base's damage would be repaired and investigations are ongoing to prevent similar attacks. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for nine attacks on northern Israel yesterday, as daily cross-border clashes continue. The situation remains highly volatile with fears of a broader conflict in sight. Here's some of what IDF Chief Hrtsialevi said on this. In the North, Hezbollah decided to enter this war. We are exerting an increasing cost from Hezbollah all the time. They paid yesterday with seven killed. They paid yesterday with two very, very important targets struck, and we are increasing the price that they are paying. It will end with us having a responsibility, a duty, to return the residents of the North in security, not under duress, safely to their homes. It will come either by the pressure we are now applying, which is rising, and will do the job, and we will create a completely different reality, or we will get to another war. We will do it. We will do it with excellency, even though we're after a long battle already and have had challenges in many arenas, we will know how to do it properly. To achieve the war goals, we have a long way to go, and therefore this will take time. Joining us in studio is our I-24 News senior editor, Guy Azriel. Guy, thank you for joining. We're hearing IDF Chief Hrtsialevi is saying that if Israel should begin, or if Israel should engage in war or intensifying conflict with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, they are ready, and they will excel. Is that so? Look, Israel, not just the IDF, of course, is the operational branch of the Israeli government, is not looking for full-scale war with Hezbollah, Israel, and Lebanon know very well what would be the consequences of such a war, complete devastation, both in Lebanon and very heavy damage in Israel as well. This is something that Israel is not looking to see. However, should Hezbollah continue its strikes on the border and continue to pose a threat to the citizens of Israel, continue to create a situation in which dozens of thousands of Israelis are displaced from their homes, Israel will not have any other choice but to engage in a wider conflict with Hezbollah that would enable to push the radical forces of Hezbollah away from the border with Israel over the Littani River in Lebanon. And of course, Secretary Blinken is here, among other things, also to try and find a diplomatic solution to this conflict, obviously, both Israel and Lebanon are concerned about the prospect of such a wide conflict but so are the Americans and other nations in the region with interest here. Like in many other wars that we see in the world, sometimes it's a war that nobody wants but it could still be inevitable unless things change dramatically and for now they're not changing. The IDF chief Herzi Alevi saying that the whole of 2024 will be a year of fighting and he's referring to the fact that not only in Gaza will IDF forces will continue to be stationed but also the threat of Hezbollah is still imminent and the forces are ready for it. And when we speak about a war or fighting that goes on for a whole year, obviously that concerns the IDF because the amount of troops that you have engaged in fighting is immense when it comes to the fighting in Gaza and this is why we already saw many of the reservists being sent home so they can get their proper rest, perhaps ahead of more challenges that await them in the north. Getting rest is perhaps the quiet before the storm. We hope not but that is certainly one of the possibilities. Now we know Hezbollah said that one of their reactions or retaliations for the Al-Arouri assassination was hitting the compound in Mehron, the IDF air force base. What can you tell us about that? Right, so on Saturday morning Hezbollah launched over 40 projectiles towards Israel. The most significant hit was that air traffic control base in Mount Mehron, that base is just under 10 kilometers away from the Lebanon border, a very strategic point for the Israeli air force. The interesting or perhaps warring part for Israel was the fact that this site was struck despite its relative distance from the border and what the IDF assesses now is that it was struck actually by anti-tank missiles, the Kornet EM type that is the most advanced anti-tank missile at the hands of Hezbollah that is able to reach that distance. It is laser guided and we saw this very precise hits on those two radar domes. The IDF says the base is still operational but that hit is significant both because it is a strategic point for Israel and beyond that because Hezbollah is concerned about the freedom of aerial activity of Israel in Lebanon. That concerns both intelligence, of course Israeli fighter jets, but also drones fly over southern Lebanon on a regular basis to collect information, intelligence about the forces of Hezbollah, also in terms of operational means. As we saw someone, maybe Israel, maybe someone else has struck Salah al-Rurri in the heart of Beirut last week. That is a major concern for Hezbollah, of course. Families of hostages held in Gaza just returned from Qatar where they met with officials. Speaking out on their meetings there, they said they found the Qataris to be very attentive and sympathetic. Speaking at a presser with US Secretary of State, Blinken, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani said that despite the challenges faced regarding hostage talks and humanitarian truce, they were not giving up. Of course, having one of the senior leader of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process. Yet, we are not giving up. We are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring a ceasefire and humanitarian relief and the release of hostages. Guy, what is the stance right now on the hostage talks? Unfortunately, we don't hear much new about possible hostage release deal. And that is because Hamas still stands to his gun. The IDF continues its attempts to put pressure on Hamas trying to reach the heads of Hamas in hanunas in order for them to go ahead with another future deal. We saw in previous cases Israel only halted the war for several weeks. In this case, Hamas wants the war to end altogether. This is something that Israel, of course, will not be able to accept. So it operates both in terms of intelligence trying to locate the heads of Hamas and also the Israeli hostages underground also to exhort as much pressure as possible on them so that they would come to the front themselves and offer some sort of a deal that would see the Israeli hostages being released. Guy Azriel, thank you very much for your input. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website, i-24news.tv and across our social media platforms. I'm Sivan Rafeev. Thank you for watching. Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land. Well, now, 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African-American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African-Americans. I-24 News. I'm Sivan Rafeev. And these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed Adhani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Then he told the families talks with Hamas were more complicated now following last week's killing of Hamas deputy leader Salih al-Arruwi in a strike that has widely been attributed to Israel. Following the assassination, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatar and Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed to the relatives of hostages that talks for their return were still ongoing. The IDF responded to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for al-Jazeera and an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Sunday saying the two were traveling in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East holding talks between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to part of what he had to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible. They're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us now in studio is former Israeli ambassador to France and director of diplomacy at the hostage and missing families of former U.S. Foreign Minister Daniel Schick. Thank you for joining us. We're seeing Anthony Blinken coming in later today. What are the objectives of this visit? Well, since the United States is so heavily involved in what is happening here, there is, how should I put it, sort of a maintenance to be done over time with regular visits by the Secretary of State, by the National Security Advisor, American personalities. In this case, this is probably the regular objective, but there is one main issue, and that is the growing fragility of what is happening on the northern border of Israel and the very, how should I put it, very determined efforts by the United States to avoid a widening of the war in Gaza into a full-fledged war on the northern side with Hezbollah, transforming this into something that is, I beg your pardon, something much closer to what you would call a regional war, something that the United States from day one has made very clear that it is trying to avoid. They're absolutely not interested in this escalation. We're seeing them make commentary about that, and they are trying to halt this further escalation of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, but we are seeing a lot of crossfire between the two. Correct, so obviously they don't control everything that's happening on the ground. They can just go through serious military presence and mostly very strong diplomatic and political presence with other allies, by the way, other Western allies like France and other European powers. None of them would like to see this escalate into a regional war, so the efforts continue, but things get out of hand in these kinds of exchanges, and although even despite the small escalation of the last few days after the targeted killing of the Hamas operative, Al-Aroori, it's still contained. It's still under control on both sides, and clearly still both Hezbollah and Israel have not done this major step forward into a real war, but the closer you get to this boundary, the more difficult it is to keep on the right side of it, so things can easily escalate, things can get out of hand, a little mistake from one side or the other, and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of the war that nobody really wanted. Now, families of hostages held in Gaza just returned from Qatar, where they met with officials speaking out on their meetings there. They said they found the Qataris to be very attentive and sympathetic. Speaking at a presser with US Secretary of State Blinken, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohamed Attani said that despite the challenges faced regarding hostage talks and humanitarian truce, they were not giving up. Of course, having one of the senior readers of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process, yet we are not giving up. We are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring a ceasefire and humanitarian relief and the release of hostages. Now, Daniel, you're working with the Hostagena Missing Families Forum, and you're hearing the Qatari Prime Minister speak. What do you think about this? First of all, I have to say that this visit is a really big deal. It's the fruit of a very long effort by families, with the support, obviously, of the professionals volunteering at the forum. But this has been ongoing for weeks, these efforts, in order to finally achieve this visit to Qatar and the very high-level meetings that these families had. There, it's really not a given for the Qatari officials and dignitaries to agree, to meet face-to-face with the people who are directly concerned by the tragedy that the Qataris are trying to be helpful in resolving. Now, clearly, the families can negotiate with Qatar or with Hamas through Qatar. But they can sort of hate the level of motivation that the Qataris will have in trying to mediate the next exchange. I think it's very important that they heard directly from these people who are living a tragic period of their lives and speak up for their loved ones who are still held in Gaza. We're nearing the 100th day of their detention. So that is really a big achievement. I can only hope that it will achieve some kind of tangible goal, meaning the renewal of a serious negotiation in order to reach an exchange very fast. Daniel Shah, please stay with us. We'll be back to you shortly. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Klischendler. Pierre and Israeli woman was lightly wounded yesterday as a result of a rocket that hid in one of the communities near the Gaza border. You're there right now. What can you tell us about what happened? Right. We're in Moshev-Yakhine, which used to number about 500 residents before the massacres of October 7. Now only 70 of those residents have returned. And Rebecca Maccabiah, Reibi, 72-year-old, was lightly wounded from a stone shrapnel. You can see the addition to the house, which is the protected shelter. You can see also maybe an impact of some of the shrapnels that hid the external wall of their living room. And she was going toward the shelter when suddenly she felt something war on her chest. Let's hear how she explains what happened to her yesterday at 6.15 PM. We heard the alarm. And my daughter called me to enter the security room. We all ran, and I was behind. It was very fast. It hid very fast. I didn't have time to get there. And then we heard the boom. The shrapnel hit me right here. I said, oh, I got burned. I felt the shard. I threw it out the window. Then I saw my neighbor's house was on fire. We left the protected space and saw all the damage. I'll show you now where the impact occurred, because it's across the street, actually. And she got a stone shrapnel. These are the ribbons that the police have set up here. I let Dean Byron Boymore, cameraman, pass. And you will see the direct impact that provoked a fire on the external wall of this house. You can see the hole in the house. And people usually think that rockets is nothing. There's no casualties. It's easy to intercept with the iron dome, but not always, as you can see. And we'll show you the extent of the damage inside the living room of this house, which has been hit. Luckily, the residents of this house were in their protective shelter or were out of the house. And this is the damage that you can see in this living room with all the crap on the floor. Now, there's no electricity, and the electricians are already repairing the electricity that was hit by a shrapnel. Now, this is a moshaw that endured the massacre here. Seven of the residents were killed by terror squads that came to this village. One border police female soldier was killed as well, trying to defend the village. And Rebekah Raibi decided to return to the village a month ago with her family, because as an elderly woman, she felt uncomfortable being in a hotel far away from her house. So she decided to come back. And as a result, her family was dragged here with her, because they didn't want to leave her alone here in the moshaw. A double trauma for this woman, October 7, and then January 7, three months after. And yet this woman is very strong. And you saw, she told you she took out the stone that was encrusted in her chest and just threw it out of the window. And she's already back home today, barely 12 hours or a bit more after she was hospitalized for very, for a short and brief moment. And she's back home. She won't leave. Do we know what happened to this family on October 7? They were in a private shelter of one of her sons. There were 15 people altogether crammed into a private shelter, because her shelter, the window, does not close properly. And she called the Homefront Command many times, telling her you've got to fix that window before October 7. And the Homefront Command said it's not our responsibility. One of those red tape problems that Israel has been facing for a long, long time, especially the residents of the south. So they crammed themselves into the son's shelter. Luckily, the shelter was new and there was a locker inside the shelter. So when the terrorists came, they tried to open the shelter. They didn't manage. So they left and killed all the residents. Now, they stayed for over 12 hours in that shelter from October 7 at 6.30 or 7 AM when the rockets started falling like a flood. And then, until the next morning. Pierre Kloschendler, thank you very much. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced yesterday that Germany is prepared to permit the sale of Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia, signaling a shift from years of blocking arms deals with the Gulf's Kingdom. The Eurofighter is a collaborative effort among Germany, Britain, Italy, and Spain. And each country holds the power to veto such transactions. The German Foreign Minister highlighted that Saudi Arabia and Israel had not renounced their policy of normalization since the outbreak of the war with Hamas on October 7, when thousands of terrorists killed 1,200 people across southern Israel amid shocking atrocities and took 240 hostages. And back with us. Ria's effort for a better future for the region are a significant contribution by Saudi Arabia towards Israel's security. It also contributes towards limiting the danger of a large-scale escalation of the situation. For that reason, we did not see the German government opposing British considerations for more Eurofighters for Saudi Arabia. And back with us in studio is Daniel Scheck. Daniel, we just heard the German Foreign Minister on her visit to Israel stating their agreement to sell the Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Could this be part of a still ongoing and larger normalization agreement between Israel and the Saudis? Well, I don't know. By the way, incidentally, she's going to meet with families of hostages this afternoon. But that has to do with our previous discussion. But it's important to say that foreign dignitaries continue to show interest in the plight of these people. Now, I'm not sure that this is part of the greater deal that was discussed before the October 7th massacre. But it's sort of in the wake of it, in the sense that it seems that Israel is not opposed to providing a highly sophisticated weaponry to Saudi Arabia in the general idea of normalization. If Israel has agreed, in principle, for the United States to deliver F-35s and possibly nuclear capabilities to Saudi Arabia, then obviously Israel should not be opposed to this deal. It has to be said, though, that the German veto had nothing to do with Israel. The German veto was around the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi on human rights issues. That was the main reason. But she did care to mention the change of heart here in Israel just to make sure that Israelis understand that this is not something that will create opposition in Israel. And it's sort of in the general spirit of normalization between Israel and the Gulf states. Now, is there hope for this normalization to go back? We know Blinken was in Saudi Arabia. Could this be one of the talking points that they are discussing? Well, I'm sure the fact that it's still on the table and everybody, even if it's sort of on hold and in sort of a deep freezer for the moment, nobody has taken it off the table. And that is very encouraging. And it might have an importance also in this famous discussion about the day after. The day after is not just what will happen in Chanyunas and in this or that refugee camp. The day after in the Gaza Strip. The day after has to do with much broader vision of the Middle East, including the involvement of the United States and certainly the involvement of Saudi Arabia. So the fact that the normalization deal is not off the table means that we will be able to resume these talks once things calm down. Obviously, what might sort of take it off the table is a serious escalation in this region, which we all hope will not happen. I want to go back to the hostages. We discussed before that the families returned from Qatar and they've met with the Qatari prime minister. Netanyahu said the talks are still ongoing. Do we know what the status of the talks are? No, I mean, I don't know more than you do. The forum is not involved in the talks. It is not our impression that there is a serious discussion going on for the moment. It doesn't mean that talks have broken off. There might be some kind of contact. But there doesn't seem to be a serious deal in reaching distance. And that is something extremely frustrating. We are, as I mentioned earlier, we are very close to the 100th day. By the way, I'm sure I24 News will cover this extensively. Around the world, there will be events to mark the 100th day of captivity. And Israel obviously will be the center point of it. But we all hope that we will reach that day. It's difficult to imagine that we won't reach it. But we will reach that day with a clear option of a exchange deal, a serious exchange deal for a large number of hostages already at hand. Hopefully so. We hear the hostage forum is meant to up the pressure on the government as we near the 100 days. Well, you know, we have the voice of the families. We work for the families, not the other way around. And the families, yes, they feel more and more frustrated and helpless. And if there needs to be pressure on the Israeli government, there will be pressure on the Israeli government. And if there needs to be pressure on international figures, there will be pressure on international figures, or international media, or international public opinion. We're here to help them have a voice, both in Israel and worldwide. OK, Danielle Shek, thank you very much for coming in and discussing this with us. Many hostages still in Gaza were taken from the Nova Music Festival, Nira'im. The hostages in missing family form arranged an event at the site of the massacre. And our correspondent, Ariel Osaran, was there and spoke with family members, some still hoping for their loved ones to return, others grieving their death, but fighting on for the return of those still alive. Take a look. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different. I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Michail Levi, visiting this beautiful wood outside Kibbutzra'im near the Gaza border is an emotional rollercoaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival. And on October 7, his brother Ol and sister-in-law Enav arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything as he describes it led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Enav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw their grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter. But I can imagine. I can understand from the stories. He was, she was in front of him. They saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Michail has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Enav arrived in the morning of the party and not the night before when it began was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Almog, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Ra'im at dawn. Now, Almog is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He calls them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the word, the words, dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand, but he understands that they are not here with him. Michail is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage who came to this now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped, and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on a dreadful October 7th. The area here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here now. These are their faces. Most of them are gone for good, but for some, there's still hope to return home, but time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground, and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itai Regan, who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken from the party remain in captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days, and every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive, very hard. The hostages cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. A soft-posniac lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hodaya and Tahir, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hodaya and Tahir. They were at my wedding in June, and I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Mikhail remain optimistic that the hostages will return and soon. I'm hopeful I wake up every morning with that hope, even when there are more difficult days in which we hear the terrible news of another hostage killed in captivity. Close to 20 hostages murdered by Hamas and the brave soldiers who risked their lives to bring back the hostages. We expect from the government to present an Israeli initiative to bring back all of the hostages and not to play by Hamas' dune. It's not hope. I know he will be back. It's just a matter of time. That's it. I know he'll be back, and like I said on stage, I will do everything to bring him back, even if it means to turn the world upside down. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website i-24news.tv and across our social media platforms. I'm Sivana Rave. Thank you for watching. Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land. Well now, 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African Americans. 24 News. I'm Sivana Rave. And these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Atani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Then he told the family's talks with Hamas were more complicated now following last week's killing of Hamas Deputy Leader Salih al-Aroui in a strike that has widely been attributed to Israel. Following the assassination, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatar in Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed to the relatives of hostages that talks for their return were still ongoing. The IDF responded to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera and an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Sunday, saying the two were traveling in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to part of what he had to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible. They're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us now in studio is former Israeli Ambassador to France and Director of Diplomacy at the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, Danielle Sheik. Thank you for joining us. We're seeing Anthony Blinken coming in later today. What are the objectives of this visit? Well, since the United States is so heavily involved in what is happening here, there is, how should I put it, sort of a maintenance to be done over time with regular visits by Secretary of State, by the National Security Advisor, and by other American personalities. In this case, this is probably the regular objective, but there is one main issue, and that is the growing fragility of what is happening on the northern border of Israel and the very, how should I put it, very determined efforts by the United States to avoid a widening of the war in Gaza into a full-fledged war on the northern side with the Gisbala, transforming this into something much closer to what you would call a regional war, something that the United States from day one has made very clear that it is trying to avoid. They're absolutely not interested in this escalation. We're seeing them make commentary about that, and they are trying to halt this further escalation of the conflict between Gisbala and Israel, but we are seeing a lot of crossfire between the two. Correct. Obviously, they don't control everything that's happening on the ground. They can just go through serious military presence and mostly a very strong diplomatic and political presence with other allies, by the way, other Western allies like France and other European powers. None of them would like to see this escalate into a regional war, so the efforts continue, but things get out of hand in these kinds of exchanges, and although even despite the small escalation of the last few days after the targeted killing of the Hamas operative Al-Aroori, it's still contained. It's still under control on both sides, and clearly still both Gisbala and Israel have not done this major step forward into a real war, but the closer you get to this boundary, the more difficult it is to keep on the right side of it, so things can easily escalate, so things can get out of hand, a little mistake from one side or the other, and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of the war that nobody really wanted. Now families of hostages held in Gaza just returned from Qatar, where they met with officials speaking out on their meetings there. They said they found the Qataris to be very attentive and sympathetic. Speaking at a presser with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed Attani said that despite the challenges faced regarding hostage talks and humanitarian truce, they were not giving up. Of course, having one of the senior leaders of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process, yet we are not giving up. We are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring a ceasefire and humanitarian relief and the release of hostages. Now, Daniel, you're working with the Hostagen Missing Families Forum and you're hearing the Qatari Prime Minister speak. What do you think about this? First of all, I have to say that this visit is a really big deal. It's the fruit of a very long effort by families with the support obviously of the professionals volunteering at the forum, but this has been ongoing for weeks. These efforts in order to finally achieve this visit to Qatar and the very high-level meetings that these families had there, it's really not a given for the Qatari officials and dignitaries to agree to meet face-to-face with the people who are directly concerned by the tragedy that the Qataris are trying to be helpful in resolving. Now, clearly, the families can negotiate with Qatar with Hamas through Qatar, but they can sort of hate the level of motivation that the Qataris will have in trying to mediate the next exchange. I think it's very important that they heard directly from these people who are living a tragic period of their lives and speak up for their loved ones who are still held in Gaza. We're nearing the 100th day of their detention, so that is really a big achievement. I can only hope that it will achieve some kind of tangible goal, meaning the renewal of a serious negotiation in order to reach an exchange very fast. Daniel Shaykh, please stay with us. We'll be back to you shortly. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kluschendler. Pierre and Israeli woman was lightly wounded yesterday as a result of a rocket that hid in one of the communities near the Gaza border. You're there right now. What can you tell us about what happened? Right, we're in Moshev-Yakhini, which used to number about 500 residents before the massacres of October 7. Now only 70 of those residents have returned. And Rebecca Maccabiah, Reibi, 72-year-old, was likely wounded from a stone shrapnel. You can see the addition to the house, which is the protected shelter. You can see also maybe an impact of some of the shrapnels that hid the external wall of their living room, and she was going toward the shelter when suddenly she felt something warm on her chest. Let's hear how she explains what happened to her yesterday at 6.15 p.m. We heard the alarm, and my daughter called to me to enter the security room. We all ran, and I was behind. It was very fast. It hid very fast. I didn't have time to get there. And then we heard the boom. The shrapnel hit me right here. I said, oh, I got burned. I felt the shard. I threw it out the window. Then I saw my neighbor's house was on fire. We left the protected space and saw all the damage. I'll show you now where the impact occurred because it's across the street actually, and she got a stone shrapnel. These are the ribbons that the police have set up here. I let Dean Barenboim, our cameraman, pass, and you will see the direct impact that provoked a fire on the external wall of this house. You can see the hole in the house, and people usually think that rockets is nothing. There's no casualties. It's easy to intercept with the iron dome, but not always, as you can see. And we'll show you the extent of the damage inside the living room of this house, which has been hit, luckily, the residents of this house were in their protective shelter or were out of the house. And this is the damage that you can see in this living room with all the crap on the floor. Now, there's no electricity, and the electricians are already repairing the electricity that was hit by a shrapnel. Now, this is a moshaw that endured the massacre here. Seven of the residents were killed by terror squads that came to this village. One border police female soldier was killed as well, trying to defend the village. And Rebekah Raibi, Makabya Raibi, sorry, decided to return to the village a month ago with her family because, as an elderly woman, she felt uncomfortable being in a hotel far away from her house. So she decided to come back, and as a result, her family was dragged here with her because they didn't want to leave her alone here in the moshaw. So she had a double trauma for this woman, October 7th, and then January 7th, three months after. And yet this woman is very strong, and you saw, she told you she took out the stone that was encrusted in her chest and just threw it out of the window. And she's already back home today, barely 12 hours or a bit more after she was hospitalized for very, for a short and brief moment, and she's back home. She won't leave. Do we know what happened to this family on October 7th? They were in a private shelter of one of her sons. There were 15 people all together, crammed into a private shelter because her shelter, the window does not close properly. And she called the Homefront Command many times, telling her you got to fix that window before October 7th. And the Homefront Command said it sought our responsibility. One of those red tape problems that Israel has been facing for a long, long time, especially the residents of the south. So they crammed themselves into the son's shelter. Luckily, the shelter was new and there was a locker inside the shelter. So when the terrorists came, they tried to open the shelter. They didn't manage. So they left and killed all the residents. Now they stayed for over 12 hours in that shelter. From October 7th at 6.30 or 7 AM when the rockets started falling like a flood. And then until the next morning. Pierre Kluschenler, thank you very much. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced yesterday that Germany is prepared to permit the sale of Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia, signaling a shift from years of blocking arms deals with the Gulf's kingdom. The Eurofighter is a collaborative effort among Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain. And each country holds the power to veto such transactions. The German Foreign Minister highlighted that Saudi Arabia and Israel had not renounced their policy of normalization since the outbreak of the war with Hamas on October 7th, when thousands of terrorists killed 1200 people across southern Israel amid shocking atrocities and took 240 hostages. And back with us. Riyadh's effort for a better future for the region are a significant contribution by Saudi Arabia towards Israel's security. It also contributes towards limiting the danger of a large-scale escalation of the situation. For that reason, we did not see the German government opposing British considerations for more Eurofighters for Saudi Arabia. And back with us in studio is Danielle Schick. Danielle, we just heard the German Foreign Minister on her visit to Israel stating their agreement to sell the Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Could this be part of a still ongoing and larger normalization agreement between Israel and the Saudis? Well, I don't know. By the way, incidentally, she's going to meet with families of hostages this afternoon. But that has to do with our previous discussion. But it's important to say that foreign dignitaries continue to show interest in the plight of these people. Now, I'm not sure that this is part of the greater deal that was discussed before the October 7th massacre. But it's sort of in the wake of it, in the sense that it seems that Israel is not opposed to providing highly sophisticated weaponry to Saudi Arabia in the general idea of normalization. If Israel has agreed in principle for the United States to deliver F-35s and possibly nuclear capabilities to Saudi Arabia, then obviously Israel should not be opposed to this deal. It has to be said, though, that the German veto had nothing to do with Israel. The German veto was around the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi on human rights issues. That was the main reason. But she did care to mention the change of heart here in Israel just to make sure that Israelis understand that this is not something that will create opposition in Israel. And it's sort of in the general spirit of normalization between Israel and the Gulf States. Now, is there hope for this normalization to go back? We know Blinken was in Saudi Arabia. Could this be one of the talking points that they're discussing? Well, I'm sure, you know, the fact that it's still on the table and everybody, even if it's sort of on hold and in sort of a deep freezer for the moment, nobody has taken it off the table. And that is very encouraging. And it might have an importance also in this famous discussion about the day after. The day after is not just what will happen in Chanyunas and in this or that refugee camp. In the Gaza Strip. In the Gaza Strip. The day after has to do with much broader vision of the Middle East, including the involvement of the United States and including certainly the involvement of Saudi Arabia. So the fact that the normalization deal is not off the table means that we will be able to resume these talks once things calm down. Obviously, what might sort of take it off the table is a serious escalation in this region, which we all hope will not happen. I want to go back to the hostages. We discussed before that the families return from Qatar and they've met with the Qatari Prime Minister. Netanyahu said the talks are still ongoing. Do we know what the status of the talks are? Well, no. I mean, I don't know more than you do. The forum is not involved in the talks. It is not our impression that there is a serious discussion going on for the moment. It doesn't mean that talks have broken off. There might be some kind of contact. But there doesn't seem to be a serious deal in sort of in reaching distance. And that is something extremely frustrating. We are, as I mentioned earlier, we are very close to the 100th day. By the way, I'm sure I24 News will cover this extensively. Around the world, there will be events to mark the 100th day of captivity. And Israel obviously will be the center point of it. But we all hope that we will reach that day. It's difficult to imagine that we won't reach it. But we will reach that day with a clear option of a exchange deal, a serious exchange deal for a large number of hostages already at hand. Hopefully. So we hear the hostage forum is meant to up the pressure. On the government as we near the 100 days. Well, you know, we have the voice of the families. We work for the families, not the other way around. And the families, yes, they feel more and more frustrated and helpless. And we will, if there needs to be pressure on the Israeli government, there will be pressure on the Israeli government. And if there needs to be pressure on international figures, there will be pressure on international figures or international media or international public opinion. We're here to help them have a voice, both in Israel and worldwide. Okay, Danielle Shek. Thank you very much for coming in and discussing this with us. Many hostages still in Gaza. We're taking from the Nova Music Festival, Niraim. The hostages in missing family form arranged an event at the site of the massacre. And our correspondent, Ariel Osiron, was there and spoke with family members, some still hoping for their loved ones to return. Others grieving their death, but fighting on for the return of those still alive. Take a look. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different, but I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Michail Levi, visiting this beautiful wood outside Kibbutz Reim near the Gaza border is an emotional roller coaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival. And on October 7th, his brother Ol and sister in La'einav arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything as he describes it led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Inav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw the grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter, but I can imagine, I can understand from the stories. He was, she was in front of him. They saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Michail has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Inav arrived in the morning of the party and not the night before when it began was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Al Mugh, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Reim at dawn. Now, Al Mugh is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He calls them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the words, the words, dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand, but he understands that they are not here with him. Michail is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage who came to this now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival, where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped, and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on that dreadful October 7th. The area here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here now. These are their faces. Most of them are gone for good, but for some, there's still hope to return home, but time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground, and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itai Regev, who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken from the party remain in captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days, and every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive, very hard. The hostages cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. Asaf Pozniak lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hodaya and Ta'ir, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hodaya and Ta'ir. They were at my wedding in June, and I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Mikhail remain optimistic that the hostages will return and soon. I'm hopeful I wake up every morning with that hope, even when there are more difficult days in which we hear the terrible news of another hostage killed in captivity. Close to 20 hostages murdered by Hamas and the brave soldiers who risked their lives to bring back the hostages. We expect from the government to present an Israeli initiative to bring back all of the hostages and not to play by Hamas' dune. I know it will be back. It's just a matter of time. That's it. I know it will be back, and like I said on stage, I will do everything to bring him back, even if it means to turn the world upside down. Thank you. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website, i-24news.tv, and across our social media platforms. I'm Sivana Raviv. Thank you for watching. A state of war family is completely gone 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. News, I'm Sivana Raviv, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed Attani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Tani told that the family's talks with Hamas were more complicated now, following last week's killing of Hamas deputy leader Salih Al-Arouri in a strike that has widely been attributed to Israel. Following the targeted killing, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatari in Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed to the relatives that host the talks for their return were still ongoing. The IDF responded to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera and an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Sunday, saying the two were traveling in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East, holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to part of what he has to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible. They're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza, with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 News Correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler. Pierre, you're on scene at Moshev-Yikhin in southern Israel, which took a direct hit by a rocket. Could you share details or information about the incident? Sure. This is a house which has been barely hit, actually. You can see the protected room, which is an addition to the house on the right. And you can see maybe the impact of some shrapnels just underneath the window of the living room of Makkabiah Reibi, 72-year-old, who was lightly wounded by a stone shrapnel. And she told us her story. Let's listen to it. We heard the alarm, and my daughter called to me to enter the security room. We all ran, and I was behind. It was very fast. It hit very fast. I didn't have time to get there. And then we heard the boom. The shrapnel hit me right here. I said, oh, I got burned. I felt the shard. I threw it out the window. Then I saw my neighbor's house was on fire. We left the protected space and saw all the damage. She's quite a woman. You know, she was in a hotel. She was evacuated after October 7, but a month and a half ago, she decided to return because she didn't want to stay in an hotel room. She wanted to be back home. She's an elderly woman. And she even cooked some sandwiches with omelettes for us. And I'll show you now the impact of the rocket because it's across the street, actually. This is the tape of the police. Dean Barenbaum is going to enter and show you the direct impact on the house, which is just here. It provoked a small fire. You can see the impact. Luckily, the residents of this house were either in their protective shelter, and there's a few because there is also a stable for the cows, and there are two protective shelters. There came the rocket heat, and you'll see the damage inside the living room of that house, a modest living room. It was an M107, the type of rocket that was launched here. It's less than 10 minutes. After you hear the alert for the rocket launching, it's less than 10 seconds before it hits the ground. And the residents of this house told me earlier that there is no iron dome here because most of the village has been evacuated. Only 70 people remain here on enough out of a population of 500 because most have been evacuated. And thus, the iron dome is not here. It's been transferred to the northern front toward Lebanon. So this is the situation now. Makabi Araibi, she had two traumas. She had the October 7 trauma because seven people were killed here and a border police officer, a female soldier, was also killed defending the Moshev, the community village. And now the rocket and the rocket impact and the strapline, the stone strapline. She was hospitalized only for a few hours and decided to return home. That shows you the resilience of this woman. She's very tough and she endures. Pierre Kleschenler, thank you very much for this update and this special story down south. With us in studio is retired colonel and former deputy head of assessment at the Israeli military intelligence, Dr. Jacques Neria. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for coming in. We are seeing our correspondent, Pierre, discuss the aftermath of a rocket attack, a direct hit. How is Hamas still able to launch rockets? No, this is the big surprise for the IDF. I mean, after three months of waging a war, full war in Gaza, we only have control of the northern part of Gaza, meaning from the border with Israel including Gaza city. And still there are pockets of resistance, pockets of terrorists who just come out from tunnels hidden in their tunnels and hit us. And even there are places where they prepare rockets in order to launch them at Israel. This is very surprising. I mean, even though we knew that there was an underground city, an underground strip under the strip, and it seems that the reality is much more bigger than we ever thought. And the fact is that Hamas, after three months, facing a huge army has not broken. And the command and control of Hamas is still working even though in the north maybe those isolated pockets who are just doing what they want independently. But basically, Hamas is still holding the ground. It's still fighting back. And I think that the more we advance, the more we know that it will cost us more casualties. And even if we will take control of the surface of Gaza, the entire surface, which is unlikely because of the fact that almost two million Palestinians are just concentrated in the Rafa, the Dir el-Balach area. What to do there? This is a big question. If Hamas is still inside those concentrations and if he is using those as a human shield, this would be a very difficult task for Israel to continue. So we are in fact reaching the third stage. The third stage that we have been talking about all the time, meaning that we are just withdrawing troops from the northern part of Gaza. Some of them are going to rest. Some of them are going to train again. They will come back two months later, three months later. Then we will concentrate on the Hanyunist area, more or less according to the scenario that the Americans have pictured us from the very beginning, meaning the punctual raids, operations, definitely on targets, and not a huge movement of armies. This is what the Americans expect us. And basically, Blinken is bringing with him a ladder. And this ladder is very simple. I mean, everybody has realized that ceasefire in Gaza draws also a ceasefire on the Lebanese border. So the offer must be the following. Let us go and try to seek, I mean, a pose in the war, not a ceasefire, a pose in the war in Gaza. We will convince Hezbollah not to shoot again, not to fire on the border. And then this is what Hezbollah has understood. He said in his last speech, there is an occasion right now, the opportunity for us to settle the border question with Israel. How come when there will be a ceasefire, then we will be ready to talk about the 13 points. This is the 13 points on the border. Israel will have to give those 13 points in order for Hezbollah to withdraw to the Litani or whatever, to just be far from the localities on the border. So to allow all the inhabitants to go back to their houses. And this is actually what IDF chief Alevi, he was saying that there's an opportunity to change the landscape here. Definitely. I mean, he believes that it should be done by the force of arms and because he doesn't believe that the diplomatic efforts would bring anything positive for Israel and that only after a campaign against Hezbollah and reducing all the positions and eliminating the presence of Hezbollah and at least in a belt of six to seven kilometers deep inside Lebanon, this would allow the inhabitants to go back. But I mean, this means for us to wage a full war with Hezbollah, which is not exactly, I mean, the kind of thing that the Americans would like. They have been asking us time and again not to begin a war with Hezbollah because they are not interested in the regional war and they are not interested to be engulfed in such a war. So they have enough on their mind with what's happening in Iraq. They have enough on their mind with what's happening in Babel Mandib with the Houthis. They don't need another conflict in the area, which will definitely draw us, draw the Americans into this conflict bearing in mind the fact that they are very much worried about the future of Lebanon and any destruction of Lebanon would just definitely be a big problem for the Americans who are trying to build up a country there based on the Lebanese army. So they don't want that. And this is what Blinken is bringing us as a present from Qatar. On his shuttle diplomacy trip in the Middle East, he's been to several countries. He's going to be arriving to Israel later today and tomorrow as well. And like you mentioned, the U.S. does not want another front in the north here. But we do see continuous crossfire between Hezbollah and Hezbollah. Well, let us analyze what happened with Hezbollah. From the 8th of October till the week ago, till the assassination of Salah Lahoury, Hezbollah had embarked on an attrition war. This was, it was enough for him, meaning that he had, and his accomplishments were several. First, he had forced the IDF to deploy, according to him, 120,000 soldiers on the border. Second, he has provoked the evacuation of, he says, 300,000 inhabitants along the border. We know about 60,000 to 70,000. This is the second accomplishment. Third accomplishment, he said, we have been firing, exchanging fire with Israel with all sorts of weapons. And this is what happened until then. And the idea was that Hezbollah, together with the Iranian militias in the Golan, and together with the Iraqi militias in Iraq, who fired at Eilat, and the Houthis, would exert pressure on Israel in order to relieve Hamas and allow Hamas to survive the war with Israel. Now, what happened is that suddenly Israel does intervene, according to them, presumably, intervene according to all the information, and hit inside the sanctuary, the stronghold of Hezbollah. He was, I mean, the situation that he could not bear, and he had to respond. And this is why we are right now on the verge of a total clash with Hezbollah. Dr. Zakneria, thank you very much for this input. Former Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, came to Israel to show his support on a tour to Kibbutz-Kvarr-Aza and the city of Zderot. Pence met with families of the hostages. He promised them he would push the Red Cross to visit those who are still being held by Hamas. He's calling on the Biden administration to always stand with Israel. Let's take a look. Sir, we're standing right very close to the camera right now. Over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday. Ever since, dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel. But only a few of them have reached this point. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stood here, overlooking the Gaza Strip. This is the safe room. Her brother and sister, Mithra Nanamali, were hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours. Not far from here was the house of the Dan family. The parents, Roy and Smodar, were murdered. The older brother and sister hid in a closet, and Zlitalavi Gael was kidnapped to Gaza and later released. Pence, who received a full update about what happened that morning, has one clear message to the world regarding the abductees. I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message, not just to Hamas, but to Iran. The United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released. Pence served as Vice President of Donald Trump, a conservative Republican, a great friend of Israel. He came here not only to express his support, but also to offer help. It's not a secret that there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration. Do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration? I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel. But I think any message other than that, we will support the decisions that are made. By the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation, to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza. That needs to be the message from the United States. The tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station, where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism, penciled a candle in the memory of the victims. Accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament, he met with the abductees' families. They asked him for help to put pressure on the Red Cross. To kill Jews, and I know of no other definition of genocide than to target a people because of who they are. Next week we are being drugged by South Africa to the International Court of Justice, blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian. I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action to use the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of Hamas on the Jewish people with Israel's actions in self-defense. If Israel was in the business of genocide on October 8th, there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip. So what we do now is to eradicate Hamas, eradicate Hamas's military and governmental capabilities. This is what the IDF is doing. Pence also called on the international community to stop using a double standard regarding Israel. Now, the unbelievable story of Danielle Aloni, who happened to spend the weekend with her family on October 7th in southern Israel and found herself in a horror movie along with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia. More in this next report. She wasn't supposed to be there at all, but the family insisted that she come for the holiday. And so on that black Sabbath, Danielle Aloni found herself in a safe room in Kibbutz, Niroz, together with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia, and her sister, Sharon Aloni Cuneo, and her husband, David, and their two twins, Yuli and Emma. When the terrorists closed in on their house and set it on fire, David escaped through the window together with little Yuli. Danielle, Sharon, and the two girls remained in the smoke in the safe room. In the safe room, we realized that the house was being burned down. My sister left a message that we were being burned, and we probably wouldn't make it out. We accepted our fate that we would die here by inhaling smoke or fire depending on which came first. Just an understanding? Understanding, fear, there are no words. What can you do? Will you be scared you'll be dead in a second? You won't feel anything anymore? After I covered my daughter with a blanket, I don't even know why. Maybe the smoke wouldn't penetrate or penetrate it more slowly, and they hugged her tightly and I told her, I'm sorry, we're going to die. We no longer had much strength in our bodies. We had been in the safe room for six hours. My sister helped me open the window. There were a number of terrorists standing in front of us with guns drawn. I closed my eyes waiting for the barrage. We heard shots outside. Then I opened my eyes because they weren't shooting, and they just pointed at us, told us like that and signaled we should get out. And we're already exhausted. They literally pulled us out. It was a relief when you suddenly realized that you weren't being shot at, that after all you were being taken somewhere, or that it would be a lie to say otherwise. Yes, yes, because we were waiting for it. And you realized at that moment that from that point you have to live moment by moment. Absolutely. At this point we were being taken and I didn't know anything. This cart they were waiting for arrived. They picked us up, started driving. What's going on here? It's a horror that cannot be explained in words. I think there are still no words in Hebrew that can describe this horror, that new words need to be invented to describe what happened there that day. I was sure it was a lynching. They just kept giving me blows from behind, the head and the back. We arrived in Gaza, they told me to get up, and they took the girl from my hands, Emma. They took the girl from her mother's hands. It's that they didn't know that I'm not her mother. I'm just her mother for there. Do they just physically take her from you? Yes, and that was the moment I managed to open my mouth and start shouting, no, no, my daughter, my daughter, no. He made out like this, and here a curtain fell over my eyes. There's some mechanism at work, a mechanism that represses what I saw because I don't remember who the girl was handed over to. I don't know which direction they went in. I failed to protect my daughter. She's like my daughter, she's my girl. I don't wish for any mother to have to go through this test. You said it was a horror movie, imprisonment. They took us down the tunnels. They took you straight down to the tunnels. Yes, a prison anyone can understand, imagine. You saw in the movie, you saw articles in Israel about people sitting inside prison facilities. But if I were to ask you how you imagine tunnels, first of all, it's total darkness. They have infrastructure, electricity, water, in places meant to house people. The passages are total darkness. What, it's hot, it's humid, no air? It's not hot, it's insanely humid. The clothes wet all the time, smelly, no air, no air. What, is it hard to breathe? Yes, we got to the first tunnel, which was probably some sort of stopover where I saw people. There I saw adults, ties, a handcuffed boy. I think I saw a few more handcuffs there. What did you see on their faces? Shock, fear, this unknown, this situation that... This reality that we were thrown into from one moment to the next. When we entered the next tunnel and I saw the injuries, people who were so shocked, but the truth is, they were so shocked. They were so shocked, they were so shocked, they were so shocked, they were so shocked, people who were so bruised with open wounds, with bruised faces. People who had already seen their loved ones murdered outside were there. And all these things my daughter also saw. There was someone who came once that I saw to collect a list of medicines. Real medical treatment? Never. The situation is not good there. The situation is that there are, especially when many people are crammed together. What do you mean crammed together? Take me to this room. Imagine a room roughly this width, mattresses like for refugees, one next to the other, close together. That means everyone with their own breasts and their injuries and everyone is crammed next to each other, and the snoring and the voices and the diseases. What did you do there all the time? You were the mother of a six-year-old girl. What did you do? First of all, lots of dead hours. Telling stories? It beautifies the painful reality. I told her that we are here. But why are we here? I told her because they took all the most special children and put them in this place to protect them from these booms outside. You see, booms happen outside, but they don't happen here. We're safe here. I would tell her that every day we are here brings us closer to getting out. We would choose a gift for each day we were there. And I had everything. And you ate everything? Yes, all the gifts. Every day, every day, I would take a moment in the day, sit Amelia next to me, and I would start praying to God, listen to the voice of a girl, and praying for our return, for our release, for everyone's health. And I would ask my daughter to repeat every sentence after me. And when she would go to sleep, Shuli ran song, lament, would play in my head a lot. Shuli ran song? The song? It's like a prayer, like a call to the Holy One. Blessed be He, be here for me. As a mother, you mobilize forces that I'm not sure were even there before. You stay in captivity. I will do everything, everything, so that my girl will get through this trauma in the most gentle way, in the most quote-unquote gentle way that a child can have. And you do everything. You beg for food sometimes. You beg to shower her. Even if we can't shower, you find the strength for her. What a test of parenthood. This is the test of my life. It was a test of my life. And I marked everything with a tick, everything. Just one of the many stories that hostages who have returned have told. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website, i-24news.tv, and across our social media platforms. I'm Sivan Raviv. Thank you for watching. Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land. Well now, 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African American women took a journey of a lifetime to the holy land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African Americans. For news, I'm Sivan Raviv. And these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Muhammad Attani in Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Attani told that the family talks with Hamas were more complicated now following last week's killing of Hamas deputy leader Salih al-Arouri in a strike that has widely been attributed to Israel. Following the targeted killing, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatari in Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed to the relatives that host the talks for their return were still ongoing. The idea responded to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera and an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier Sunday, saying the two were traveling in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to part of what he has to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible. They're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 News Correspondent, Pierre Klosendler. Pierre, you're on scene at Mosheb Yechini in southern Israel, which took a direct hit by a rocket. Could you share details or information about the incident? Sure. This is a house which has been barely hit, actually. You can see the protected room, which is an addition to the house on the right. And you can see maybe the impact of some shrapnels just underneath the window of the living room of Makabia Reibi, 72-year-old, who was lightly wounded by a stone shrapnel. And she told us her story. Let's listen to it. We heard the alarm, and my daughter called to me to enter the security room. We all ran, and I was behind. It was very fast. It hit very fast. I didn't have time to get there, and then we heard the boom. The shrapnel hit me right here. I said, oh, I got burned. I felt the shard. I threw it out the window. Then I saw my neighbor's house was on fire. We left the protected space and saw all the damage. She's quite a woman. She was in a hotel. She was evacuated after October 7, but a month and a half ago she decided to return because she didn't want to stay in a hotel room. She wanted to be back home. She's an elderly woman. And she even cooked some sandwiches with omelettes for us. And I'll show you now the impact of the rocket because it's across the street, actually. This is the tape of the police. Dean Barrenbaum is going to enter and show you the direct impact on the house, which is just here. It provoked a small fire. You can see the impact. Luckily, the residents of this house were either in their protective shelter, and there's a few because there is also a stable for the cows and their two protective shelters. They came, the rocket hit, and you'll see the damage inside the living room of that house, a modest living room. It was an M107, the type of rocket that was launched here. It's less than 10 minutes. After you hear the alert for the rocket launching, it's less than 10 seconds before it hits the ground. And the residents of this house told me earlier that there is no iron dome here because most of the village has been evacuated. Only 70 people remain here on and off out of a population of 500 because most have been evacuated. And thus, the iron dome is not here. It's been transferred to the northern front toward Lebanon. So this is the situation now. Maccabi Araibi, she had two traumas. She had the October 7 trauma because seven people were killed here. And a border police officer, a female soldier, was also killed defending the Moschad, the community village. And now the rocket and the rocket impact and the strapline, the stone strapline. She was hospitalized only for a few hours and decided to return home. That shows you the resilience of this woman. She's very tough and she endures. Pierre Kleschenler, thank you very much for this update and this special story down south. With us in studio is retired colonel and former deputy head of assessment at the Israeli military intelligence, Dr. Jacques Neria. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for coming in. We are seeing our correspondent, Pierre, discuss the aftermath of a rocket attack, a direct hit. How is Hamas still able to launch rockets? No, this is the big surprise for the IDF. I mean, after three months of waging a war, full war in Gaza, we only have control of the northern part of Gaza, meaning from the border with Israel including Gaza city. And still there are pockets of resistance, pockets of terrorists who just come out from tunnels hidden in their tunnels and hit us. And even there are places where they prepare rockets in order to launch them at Israel. This is very surprising. I mean, even though we knew that there was an underground city, an underground strip under the strip, and it seems that the reality is much more bigger than we ever thought. And the fact is that Hamas, after three months, facing a huge army has not broken. And the command and control of Hamas is still working, even though in the north maybe those isolated pockets who are just doing what they want independently. But basically, Hamas is still holding the ground, is still fighting back. And I think that the more we advance, the more we know that it will cost us more casualties. And even if we will take control of the surface of Gaza, the entire server, which is unlikely because of the fact that almost two million Palestinians are just concentrated in the Rafah, the Dir el-Barak area, what to do there. This is a big question if Hamas is still inside those concentrations. And if he is using those as a human shield, this would be a very difficult task for Israel to continue. So we are, in fact, reaching the third stage, the third stage that we have been talking about all the time, meaning that we are just withdrawing troops from the northern part of Gaza. Some of them are going to rest. Some of them are going to train again. They will come back two months later, three months later. Then we will concentrate on the Hanunist area, more or less according to the scenario that the Americans have pictured us from the very beginning, meaning the punctual raids, operations, definitely on targets, and not a huge movement of armies. This is what the Americans expect us. And basically, Blinken is bringing with him a ladder. And this ladder is very simple. I mean, everybody has realized that a ceasefire in Gaza draws also a ceasefire on the Lebanese border. So the offer must be the following. Let us go and try to seek, I mean, a pose in the war, not a ceasefire, a pose in the war in Gaza. We will convince Hezbollah not to shoot again, not to fire on the border. And then this is what Hezbollah has understood. It's he said in his last speech, this there is an occasion right now, the opportunity for us to settle the border question with Israel. How come when there'll be a ceasefire, then we will be ready to talk about the 13 points. This is the 13 points on the border. Israel will have to give those 13 points in order for Hezbollah to withdraw to the Littani or whatever, to just be far from the localities on the border so to allow all the inhabitants to go back to their houses. And this is actually with IDF Chief Alevi. He was saying that there's an opportunity to change the landscape here. Definitely. I mean, he believes that it should be done by the by the force of arms. And because he doesn't believe that the diplomatic efforts would bring anything positive for Israel, and that only after a campaign against Hezbollah and reducing all the positions and eliminating the presence of Hezbollah at least in a belt of six to seven kilometers deep inside Lebanon, this would allow the inhabitants to go back. But I mean, this means for us to wage a full war with Hezbollah, which is not exactly, I mean, the kind of thing that the Americans would like. They have been asking us, timing and again, not to begin a war with Hezbollah because they are not interested in a regional war and they are not interested to be engulfed in such a war. So they have enough on their mind with what's happening in Iraq. They have enough on their mind with what's happening in Babel Mandib with the Houthis. They don't need another conflict in the area which will definitely draw us, draw the Americans into this conflict bearing in mind the fact that they are very much worried about how the future of Lebanon and any destruction of Lebanon would just definitely be a big problem for the Americans who are trying to build up a country there based on the Lebanese Army. So they don't want that. And this is what Blinken is bringing us as a present from Qatar. On his shuttle diplomacy trip in the Middle East, he's been to several countries. He's going to be arriving to Israel later today and tomorrow as well. And like you mentioned, the U.S. does not want another front in the north here but we do see continuous crossfire between Hezbollah and Hezbollah. Well, let us analyze what happened with Hezbollah. From the 8th of October till a week ago, till the assassination of Salah Lahouri, Hezbollah had embarked on an attrition war. This was, it was enough for him, meaning that he had, and his accomplishments were several. First, he had forced the IDF to deploy according to him, 120,000 soldiers on the border. Second, he has provoked the evacuation of, he says, 300,000 inhabitants along the border. We know about 60,000 to 70,000. This is the second accomplishment. Third accomplishment, he said, we have been firing, exchanging fire with Israel with all sorts of weapons. And this is what happened until then. And the idea was that Hezbollah, together with the Iranian militias in the Golan and together with the Iraqi militias in Iraq who found that a lot. And the Houthis would exert pressure on Israel in order to relieve, to relieve Hamas and allow Hamas to survive the war with Israel. Now what happened is that suddenly Israel does intervene according to them, presumably, intervene according to all the information and hit inside the sanctuary, the stronghold of Hezbollah. He was, I mean, the situation that he could not bear and he had to respond. And this is why we are right now on the verge of a total clash with Hezbollah. Dr. Zakneria, thank you very much for this input. Former vice president of the United States, Mike Pence, came to Israel to show his support. On a tour to Kibbutz-Kfar-Aza and the city of Zderot, Pence met with families of the hostages. He promised them he would push the Red Cross to visit those who are still being held by Hamas. He's calling on the Biden administration to always stand with Israel. Let's take a look. Sir, we're standing right very close as close as we can right now. Here's the Gaza Strip. Over 90 days have passed since the terrible Black Saturday. Ever since, dozens of world leaders have arrived to show support and solidarity with Israel. But only a few of them have reached this point. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stood here, overlooking the Gaza Strip. This is a safe room. Her brother and sister, Mitha and Anamali, were hiding inside this cupboard for 14 hours. Not far from here was the house of the Idan family. The parents, Roy and Smodar, were murdered. The older brother and sister hid in a closet, and Zlitalavi Gael was kidnapped to Gaza and later released. Pence, who received a full update about what happened that morning, has one clear message to the world regarding the abductees. I think the time has come for the United States of America to send a very clear message, not just to Hamas, but to Iran. The United States and our allies will hold Iran accountable until the hostages are released. Pence served as Vice President of Donald Trump, a conservative Republican, a great friend of Israel. He came here not only to express his support, but also to offer help. It's not a secret that there are some disagreements between the Israeli government and the Biden administration. Do you think it would have been different if it would have been a Republican administration? I'm pleased that our administration has continued to provide resources to Israel. But I think any message other than that we will support the decisions that are made by the elected leadership and by the military here in Israel to secure this nation, to end the terrorist threat of Hamas from Gaza. That needs to be the message from the United States. It's our flag that will come back and everything will go back. What's happened before 6 October. The tour in Sterot started at the destroyed police station, where the battle that took place became one of the city's symbols of heroism, penciled a candle in the memory of the victims. Accompanied by the speaker of the Israeli parliament, he met with the abductees' families. They asked him for help to put pressure on the Red Cross. After seeing what you have seen here, does it meet the criteria of genocide? Hamas came through that fence line to kill Jews. And I know of no other definition of genocide than to target a people because of who they are. Next week we are being drugged by South Africa to the International Court of Justice, blaming us for committing genocide over Palestinian. I think Israel and the United States should denounce any action to use the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, to equate the unprovoked genocidal attack of Hamas on the Jewish people with Israel's actions in self-defense. If Israel was in the business of genocide, on October 8th, there was not a single person in the Gaza Strip. So what we do now is to eradicate Hamas, eradicate Hamas's military and governmental capabilities. This is what the IDF is doing. Pence also called on the international community to stop using a double standard regarding Israel. Now, the unbelievable story of Danielle Aloni who happened to spend the weekend with her family on October 7th in southern Israel and found herself in a horror movie along with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia. More in this next report. She wasn't supposed to be there at all, but the family insisted that she come for the holiday. And so on that black Sabbath, Danielle Aloni found herself in a safe room in Kibbutz Niroz together with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia and her sister, Sharon Aloni Cunio and her husband, David, and their two twins, Yuli and Emma. When the terrorists closed in on their house and set it on fire, David escaped through the window together with little Yuli. Danielle, Sharon and the two girls remained in the smoke in the safe room. In the safe room, we realized that the house was being burned down. My sister left a message that we were being burned and we probably wouldn't make it out. We accepted our fate that we would die here by inhaling smoke or fire depending on which came first. Just an understanding? Understanding, fear, there are no words. What can you do? Will you be scared you'll be dead in a second? You won't feel anything anymore? After I covered my daughter with a blanket, I don't even know why. Maybe the smoke wouldn't penetrate or penetrate it more slowly. And I hugged her tightly and I told her, I'm sorry, we're going to die. We no longer had much strength in our bodies. We had been in the safe room for six hours. My sister helped me open the window. There were a number of terrorists standing in front of us with guns drawn. I closed my eyes waiting for the barrage. We heard shots outside. Then I opened my eyes because they weren't shooting and they just pointed at us. Told us like that and signaled we should get out. And we're already exhausted. They literally pulled us out. It was a relief when you suddenly realized that you weren't being shot at, that after all you were being taken somewhere or that... It would be a lie to say otherwise. Yes, yes, because we were waiting for it. And you realized at that moment, that from that point you have to live moment by moment. Absolutely. At this point we were being taken and I didn't know anything. This cart they were waiting for arrived. They picked us up, started driving. What's going on here? It's a horror that cannot be explained in words. I think there are still no words in Hebrew that can describe this horror that new words need to be invented to describe what happened there that day. I was sure it was a lynching. They just kept giving me blows from behind, the head and the back. We arrived in Gaza, they told me to get up and they took the girl from my hands, Emma. They took the girl from her mother's hands. It's that they didn't know that I'm not her mother. I'm just her mother for there. Do they just physically take her from you? Yes, and that was the moment I managed to open my mouth and start shouting, no, no, my daughter, my daughter, no. He made out like this and here a curtain fell over my eyes. There's some mechanism at work, a mechanism that represses what I saw because I don't remember who the girl was handed over to. I don't know which direction they went in. I failed to protect my daughter. She's like my daughter, she's my girl. I don't wish for any mother to have to go through this test. You said it was a horror movie, imprisonment. They took us down the tunnels. They took you straight down to the tunnels. Yes, a prison anyone can understand. Imagine, you saw in the movie, you saw articles in Israel about people sitting inside prison facilities. But if I were to ask you how you imagine tunnels, first of all, it's total darkness. They have infrastructure, electricity, water in places meant to house people. The passages are total darkness. What, it's hot, it's humid, no air? It's not hot, it's insanely humid. The clothes wet all the time, smelly, no air, no air. What, is it hard to breathe? Yes, we got to the first tunnel, which was probably some sort of stopover where I saw people. There I saw adults, ties, a handcuffed boy. I think I saw a few more handcuffs there. What did you see on their faces? Shock, fear, this unknown, this situation that this reality that we were thrown into from one moment to the next. When we entered the next tunnel and I saw the injuries, people who were so bruised with open wounds, with bruised faces, people who had already seen their loved ones murdered outside were there. And all these things my daughter also saw. There was someone who came once that I saw to collect a list of medicines. Real medical treatment, never. The situation is not good there. The situation is that there are, especially when many people are crammed together. What do you mean crammed together? Take me to this room. Imagine a room, roughly this width, mattresses like for refugees, one next to the other, close together. That means everyone with their own breasts and their injuries and everyone is crammed next to each other and the snoring and the voices and the diseases. What did you do there all the time? You are the mother of a six-year-old girl. What did you do? First of all, lots of dead hours. Telling stories, it beautifies the painful reality. I told her that we are here, but why are we here? I told her because they took all the most special children and put them in this place to protect them from these booms outside. You see, booms happen outside, but they don't happen here. We're safe here. I would tell her that every day we are here brings us closer to getting out. We would choose a gift for each day we were there, and I had everything. Yes, all the gifts. Every day, every day, I would take a moment in the day, sit Amelia next to me, and I would start praying to God, listen to the voice of a girl and praying for our return, for our release, for everyone's health. And I would ask my daughter to repeat every sentence after me. And when she would go to sleep, Shuliran's song, lament, would play in my head a lot. Which is like such a prayer, like a call to the Holy One. Blessed be He, be here for me. As a mother, you mobilize forces that I'm not sure were even there before. You stay in captivity. I will do everything, so that my girl will get through this trauma in the most gentle way, in the most quote-unquote gentle way that a child can have. And you do everything. You beg for food sometimes. You beg to shower her. Even if we can't shower, you find the strength for her. What a test of parenthood. This is the test of my life. It was a test of my life. And I marked everything with a tick, everything. And I'm not sure where I'm going to go. To the cold. Just one of the many stories that hostages who have returned have told. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. We'll be back at the top of the hour for more news and updates. Be sure to follow us on our website, i-24news.tv, and across our social media platforms. I'm Sivan Raveeth. Thank you for watching. A state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. I'm Sivan Raveeth, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Earlier in the day, a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. The municipality said there were no reports of casualties or damage. The IDF struck a series of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon this morning. IDF Air Force jets hit a Hezbollah military compound in Mawahin and targeted rocket launchers and tear infrastructure in Ait al-Shaab. The IDF also reported that a drone attacked a rocket-firing position while a combat helicopter struck a site from where an anti-tank missile was fired at Israel. This morning, Hamas posted photos of women taking the day they were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. All of these women are 18 to 19 years old, going clockwise. Their names are Karina Ariyev, Agam Berger, Danielle Gilboa, and Liri al-Bagh. Meanwhile, families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas returned from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Muhammad Dutani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Following the targeted killing of Al-Arruri allegedly attributed to Israel, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatar and Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed to the relatives of hostages the talks for their return were still ongoing. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East, holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to what he has to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible, they're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza, with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us in studio is former Shin Bet agent, Gunnen Ben-Itschak. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me. We're seeing horrific photos of these female hostages, only 18 or 19 years old. These images are now published all over. And they're still in there, almost 100 days in, three months to the war, three months to October 7th, and three months to the day that they were abducted and taken into captivity by Hamas. You know, it's terrible to see the pictures. This is the first time I see the pictures here in the studio. But I see something, I can't say positive, but something maybe a little optimistic. The fact that Hamas is releasing those pictures means that the military pressure now is maybe effective, and Hamas is trying to find a solution. And now I think it's the turn of the Israeli government to give them some solution, because as long as Iche Sinouar and the leaders of Hamas are still kept in the tunnels of Gaza Hanyunas or wherever underneath the Gaza Strip. And they don't have any solution. This is a very dangerous situation for the Israeli hostages. I say again and again, I'll say it today again. I think that the first goal of this war is to bring back the 136 hostages that are still held in Gaza. Later on, Israel has the ability to enmasse, destroy Hamas, or at least the ability of Hamas to rule Gaza. And this is, of course, not in debate. But the first thing is to bring back our women and men back home. And I hope that now diplomacy and the fact that Secretary Blinken is in the region and the fact that in other countries, maybe Arab countries, will take part in the diplomacy that has to do with releasing the hostages. Maybe this will bring a solution to their terrible situation. Now, the Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, sorry, Galant, said to families of hostages that military activity will continue until these hostages are released. But we know a lot of them are hidden in underground tunnels. And so how is that to be executed? Sivan, I think it's obvious that it will be almost impossible to release them by using military force or by military operation. I think military pressure will and I think that the release of the pictures shows that the military pressure is effective. But the only thing that will bring them back home is diplomacy. And I know it because the only time, when or almost the only time when we got our hostages back, it was through diplomacy. And right now Israel doesn't have any other option. I think that the Israeli government is a bit confused about the goals of the war because again, again, they say we keep fighting. The goals are to destroy Hamas and to bring the hostages back. No, the goal is to bring them back home and then everything, all the options are on the table. Families of these hostages are saying, be upfront with us. Tell us, is this really your first priority to release the hostages? Or is it to destroy Hamas and then release the hostages? And unfortunately, I hear all the leadership of Israel talking about it saying always, first to destroy Hamas, then to bring back the hostages and for the future of the state of Israel, for the confidence that we as Israeli citizens need to feel toward our government. Those people were neglected on October 7th. The reason, most of them, were citizens that lived their lives in the area of Fegaza. The real Zionists that lived there and they knew how dangerous it is to live by the fence of Fegaza. They lived for years under the attack of rockets from Fegaza and they kept living there. And this is our obligation, all of us, to say out loud to the government, bring them back home first and then do whatever you need to do. Gonan, please stay with us. We'll be back to you in a moment. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Colochandler. Pierre, what's the latest on the ground? Well, we are just about six kilometers away from the border with the Gaza Strip, facing the refugee camp of El Borej and Dean Barenboim. Our cameraman is zooming in on that camp. Which is actually the siege of intensive fighting against the 36th division of combined combat teams that are operating in the three refugee camps of the Direl-Balach area, where there are four battalions of Hamas located in the central sector of the Gaza Strip, further south. You have also four battalions of Hamas who are fighting the IDF-98 division of combined combat teams in and outside of Hanyunes. The two battalions on the north and the east of that sector are being gradually eliminated, but two battalions, the one on the west and the south of Hanyunes, are still maybe bruised by an intact operationally. Further south, you have four battalions of Hamas in the border town of Rafar, which is on the border with Egypt. And there, there's a problem. It's a sensitive side, because first of all, something like 1.3 million Palestinians displaced are cramming the area. It's on the border with Egypt with which Israel has a peace treaty. And therefore, if you want to operate in Rafar, you need, first of all, to coordinate that, probably with the Egyptian government and with the U.S. administration. Now, Anthony Blinken is coming tomorrow. The Secretary of State has put pressure on Israel to move to phase three of low-intensity warfare. And the Minister of Defense of Israel, Joav Galant, spoke on the Wall Street Journal and said that Israel is moving gradually to that low-intensity warfare, but not in the sector that we're facing, in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip with Gaza City. There, there were 12 battalions of Hamas, half of the whole military structure of the whole Gaza Strip. Now, they've been decimated. 8,500 of the terrorists have been killed. Others are still operating in the northern sector as isolated guerrilla cells. And the rest probably went down to the northern and to the southern and central sector of the Gaza Strip to support the other battalions of Hamas. Now, what means low-intensity warfare? The IDF now is operating in the northern sector on a brigade level, not on a division level. And many of the places that were invested by the Israeli army are now evacuated toward the Israeli Gaza border. They are still brigade-level activity against terrorist cells. What Israel is trying to achieve right now, with the Division 99, is to cut the northern sector from the central and southern sector in order to prevent the million or so Palestinians who displaced themselves from the battleground in the northern sector to save the zone to return to the northern sector. The IDF at this point, and it's probably a political decision, does not allow the Palestinian displaced population to return back to the northern sector. But there are still 100 to 200,000 Palestinians that remain stranded in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. Now, the Israeli government announced yesterday the deadline for the residents of the southern communities in Israel to come back to their homes. When will this be exactly, and what's the reaction, the sentiment from the locals? Right now, it's only a consideration. There's been no formal directives by the Israeli government, but the target date would be February 4th. Now, that's to the tantamount of most of the residents of the community villages and of the towns around the security border with the Gaza Strip who suffered so heavily from the October 7th massacre. People are in trauma, although they've been used to sporadic rocket fire for the past 23 years. And today, we're talking about a level which is lower than in the northern front with Lebanon. Still, people are not ready to return. They're not ready to return unless there is full protection by the IDF. That would mean installing battalions in Zderot, for instance, a city of 30,000 inhabitants which has been hard hit by rocket fire and by the October 7th massacre. Over 44 people died there. But also in the other community villages, they want real security. And they believe that security can only be achieved if the IDF will have a plan of action regarding the northern sector of the Gaza Strip where most of the communities are located, which means allowing division-level army structure on the border with the Gaza Strip. And that's something that the IDF is not doing at this moment. So February 4th could be a dream that won't come to fruition in the next three weeks unless there is a dramatic change of situation in the Gaza Strip. Pierkel Schindler, thank you very much. And back with us in studio is Gonen Ben-Itschak. So we're hearing about what's happening in Gaza, but I'd like to speak about another front, the West Bank. We heard about, we're seeing a stabbing attack, we're seeing a car ramming attack. There is the sentiment that this is another front to be dealt with continuously while dealing with Gaza and the north. And there's a lot going on here. Yes, no doubt that West Bank is another front. The IDF since October 7th and before, of course, but since October 7th is having every night operations in the different cities and villages of the West Bank. Hamas is trying hard to inflame violence in the West Bank. And sometimes, as we saw yesterday in the area of Givadzeev and in the area of Benjamin, there were some terror attacks. A shooting attack. A shooting attack. Israeli, Arab-Israeli that was killed, another that was wounded. So they are trying hard to actually inflame this front. Until now, I think that IDF was successfully lowering the fire in the West Bank. But of course, it's a concern all the time because this is something that once it inflames, it will affect our cities, the cities in Israel. And this is a big concern. And the IDF arrested suspects. We're hearing now for the shooting attack yesterday. We heard that they also arrested two doctors and a nurse who were allegedly the terrorists. And what does this signify? I think it shows that Hamas is trying to bring more and more people into the circle of violence. And as the war in Gaza is going on, of course, the feelings and I'll say the motivation of Hamas members in the West Bank is going. And this is something that Israel is trying all the time to stop. Now, how volatile is this front, would you say? Say that we don't want to get to the point where we're fighting Gaza, the northern border, and the West Bank. Of course, the IDF can handle it, but I don't think this is the ideal way of having a war in Gaza and in the north. Basically, Israel has the ability, both military and intelligence, to lower the flames. And until now, I see that in most cases Israel is doing it successfully. Now, moving on to Gaza, we are hearing about this third phase, third stage of fighting with a more strategic and pinpointed kind of fighting. What does that mean exactly? Okay, I think that what basically the IDF did was to map the Gaza Strip and start working in a very precise way against the different battalions and the areas in the beginning in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and then in the south. Right now, I'll say that the main fighting that we saw is not needed anymore. Right now, we understand that many of the militians are hiding underneath the ground. And it will be a very diligent work to go from tunnel to tunnel, from the entrance of tunnels to destroy the tunnels to get them to push them to a certain point in order to either get them out of the ground, underneath the ground, or to kill them in the tunnels. And again, all the time, we have the big issue of the hostages that are still held there and Israel needs to find also a solution how to bring them back. And this also means that I would guess that maybe Israel knows where the leaders of Hamas are. But you understand that there is, I'll say, a safety belt of hostages around the leaders of Hamas. So of course Israel can't now, even if Israel knows where they're hiding, we can't just drop their bombs on the tunnels where they're hiding because we have inside the hostages. I mean, it feels like everything is intertwined. There's an entire underground tunnel system all over Gaza underground. And we know that some, if not all of the hostages are located in these tunnels, how is this tunnel threat to be dealt with? If you know that if there are several solutions to how to deal with tunnels, but they will likely hurt the hostages. Diplomacy. And this is why Israel now is on an intersection of deciding what to do. You can't have now a high-scale war because this situation. And you need somehow to speed up diplomacy. I guess that this government doesn't want to release Palestinian prisoners, but eventually I guess that part of the solution will be releasing prisoners. And the decision now is in the hands of the Israeli government to decide where and how to go. And then the cycle begins all over again. You release these prisoners who are essentially terrorists and the terrorist cycles begins. There are terrorist murderers and we need to fight them. And I'll say again, we need to bring back our people. And then these people, from my point of view, the terrorists shouldn't stay alive in the future. So you're saying it's about prioritizing, bring back the hostages and then take care of the terrorists slash prisoners? Yes. Okay, definitely. I mean, the hostage families are saying this. They're saying it to the government. They're saying it to everyone who can listen. Just be upfront with us. Are you trying to eliminate Hamas first or are you trying to bring home the hostages first? And that remains a question to be answered. Yeah, and, you know, for the last 10 years, maybe more always involved in demonstrations and protests in Israel. And I think when I look at what they do, it's amazing. They're going all over the world, meeting international leaders. But I think that inside in Israel, they should somehow speed up or be more, I'll say, aggressive towards the government. Gonan Ben-Itschak, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Many hostages still in Gaza were taken from the Nova Music Festival near Ra'im. The hostages and missing family form arranged an event at the site of the massacre. And our correspondent Ariel Ossaran was there and spoke with family members, some still hoping for their loved ones to return, others grieving their death, but fighting on for the return of those still alive. Take a look. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different, but I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Mikhael Levi, visiting this beautiful wood outside Kibbutz Ra'im near the Gaza border is an emotional roller coaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival. And on October 7th, his brother Ol and sister in La'Anav arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything as he describes it led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Inav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw the grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter. But I can imagine, I can understand from the stories. He was, she was in front of him. He saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Mikhael has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day, exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Inav arrived in the morning of the party, and not the night before when it began, was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Al Mugh, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Ra'im at dawn. Now, Al Mugh is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He calls them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the words, the words, dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand, but he understands that they are not here with him. Mikhael is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage who came to this now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival, where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on that dreadful October 7th. The area here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here now. These are their faces. Most of them are gone for good, but for some, there's still hope to return home. But time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itaire Gev, who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken from the party remain in captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days, and every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive. The hostages cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. Asaf Pozniak lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hodaya and Itaire, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hodaya and Itaire. They were at my wedding in June, and I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Michael remain optimistic that the hostages will return and soon. I'm hopeful I wake up every morning with that hope, even when there are more difficult days in which we hear the terrible news of another hostage killed in captivity. Close to 20 hostages murdered by Hamas and the brave soldiers who risked their lives to bring back the hostages. We expect from the government to present an Israeli initiative to bring back all of the hostages, and not to play by Hamas' dune. It's not hope. I know he will be back. It's just a matter of time. That's it. I know he will be back, and like I said on stage, I will do everything to bring him back, even if it means to turn the world upside down. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. I'm Savannah Raveave. Thank you for watching. Did you know that Martin Luther King's famous 1968 mountaintop speech was based on his trip to the Promised Land? Well now, 55 years later, his prophetic words are coming true. Hundreds of African American women took a journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land. We'll introduce you to the amazing female spiritual and religious leaders who are infusing new energy into the next generation of African Americans. This is MC Savannah Raveave, and these are the latest developments coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Today is Day 94 of Israel's war with Hamas, as fighting continues in southern Gaza. Earlier in the day, a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. The municipality said there were no reports of casualties or damage. The IDF struck a series of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon this morning. IDF Air Force jets hit a Hezbollah military compound in Marwahine and targeted rocket launchers and tear infrastructure in Ait al-Sha'ab. The IDF also reported that a drone attacked a rocket-firing position while a combat helicopter struck a site from where an anti-tank missile was fired at Israel. This morning, Hamas posted photos of women taking the day they were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. All of these women are 18 to 19 years old, going clockwise. Their names are Karina Ariyev, Agam Berger, Danielle Gilboa, and Liri al-Bagh. Meanwhile, families of hostages held in captivity by Hamas return from a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Atani and Doha in an effort to revive talks to return their loved ones from the Gaza Strip. Following the targeted killing of al-Arouri allegedly attributed to Israel, Hamas reportedly froze negotiations via Qatar and Egypt, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed to the relatives of hostages that talks for their return were still ongoing. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic mission across the Middle East, holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel later today. The primary focus of the trip is addressing the aftermath of the Gaza conflict and trying to prevent a broader regional escalation. As tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, Blinken emphasizes the urgency of averting further conflict. Blinken also stressed that the conflict in Gaza could easily metastasize. Let's take a listen to what he has to say. They cannot. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible, they're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of Palestinian-led Gaza. With Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security. Joining us in studio is former Shin Bet agent Gonen Ben-Itschak. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me. We're seeing horrific photos of these female hostages, only 18 or 19 years old. These images are now published all over. And they're still in there, almost 100 days in, three months to the war, three months to October 7th, and three months to the day that they were abducted and taken into captivity by Hamas. You know, it's terrible to see the pictures. This is the first time I see the pictures here in the studio. But I see something, I can't say positive, but something maybe a little optimistic. The fact that Hamas is releasing those pictures means that the military pressure now is maybe effective, and Hamas is trying to find a solution. And now I think it's the turn of the Israeli government to give them some solution, because as long as Iche Sinuah and the leaders of Hamas are still kept in the tunnels of Gaza, Chaneunas, or wherever underneath the Gaza Strip, and they don't have any solution, this is a very dangerous situation for the Israeli hostages. I say again and again, I'll say it today again. I think that the first goal of this war is to bring back the 136 hostages that are still held in Gaza. Later on, Israel has the ability to enmasse, destroy Hamas, or at least the ability of Hamas to rule Gaza, and this is, of course, not in debate. But the first thing is to bring back our women and men back home. And I hope that now diplomacy, and the fact that Secretary Blinken is in the region, and the fact that in other countries, maybe Arab countries, will take part in the diplomacy that has to do with releasing the hostages. Maybe this will bring a solution to their terrible situation. Now, the Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, sorry, Galant, said to families of hostages that military activity will continue until these hostages are released, but we know a lot of them are hidden in underground tunnels. And so how is that to be executed? Sivan, I think it's obvious that it will be almost impossible to release them by using military force, or by military operation. I think the military pressure will, and I think that the release of the pictures shows that the military pressure is effective, but the only thing that will bring them back home is diplomacy, and I know it, because the only time, or almost the only time, when we got our hostages back, it was through diplomacy. And right now, Israel doesn't have any other option. I think that the Israeli government is a bit confused about the goals of the war, because again, again, they say we keep fighting. The goals are to destroy Hamas and to bring the hostages back. No, the goal is to bring them back home, and then everything, all the options are on the table. Families of these hostages are saying, be upfront with us. Tell us, is this really your first priority to release the hostages, or is it to destroy Hamas and then release the hostages? And unfortunately, I hear all the leadership of Israel talking about it, saying always, first to destroy Hamas, then to bring back the hostages and for the future of the state of Israel, for the confidence that we as Israeli citizens need to feel toward our government. Those people were neglected on October 7th. The reason, most of them were citizens that lived their lives in the area of Fegaza. The real Zionists that lived there, and they knew how dangerous it is to live by the fence of Fegaza. They lived for years under the attack of rockets from Fegaza, and they kept living there. And this is our obligation, all of us, to say out loud to the government, bring them back home first, and then do whatever you need to do. Gonan, please stay with us. We'll be back to you in a moment. Joining us now from Israel's southern border is our I-24 news correspondent, Pierre Kloshendler. Pierre, what's the latest on the ground? Well, we are just about six kilometers away from the border with the Gaza Strip, facing the refugee camp of El Borej and Dean Barenboim. Our cameraman is zooming in on that camp. Which is actually the siege of intensive fighting against the 36th division of combined combat teams that are operating in the three refugee camps of the Direl-Balach area, where there are four battalions of Hamas located in the central sector of the Gaza Strip, further south. You have also four battalions of Hamas who are fighting the IDF-98 division of combined combat teams in and outside of Hanyunes. The two battalions on the north and the east of that sector are being gradually eliminated, but two battalions, the one on the west and the south of Hanyunes, are still maybe bruised by an intact operationally. Further south, you have four battalions of Hamas in the border town of Rafar, which is on the border with Egypt. And there, there's a problem. It's a sensitive side, because first of all, something like 1.3 million Palestinians displaced are cramming the area. It's on the border with Egypt, with which Israel has a peace treaty. And therefore, if you want to operate in Rafar, you need first of all to coordinate that, probably with the Egyptian government and with the U.S. administration. Now, Anthony Blinken is coming tomorrow. The Secretary of State has put pressure on Israel to move to phase three of low-intensity warfare. And the Minister of Defense of Israel, Joav Galant, spoke on the Wall Street Journal and said that Israel is moving gradually to that low-intensity warfare, but not in the sector that we're facing, in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, with Gaza City. There, there were 12 battalions of Hamas, half of the whole military structure of the whole Gaza Strip. Now, they've been decimated. 8,500 of the terrorists have been killed. Others are still operating in the northern sector as isolated guerrilla cells. And the rest probably went down to the northern and to the southern and central sector of the Gaza Strip to support the other battalions of Hamas. Now, what means low-intensity warfare? The IDF now is operating in the northern sector on a brigade level, not on a division level. And many of the places that were invested by the Israeli army are now evacuated toward the Israeli Gaza border. They are still brigade-level activity against terrorist cells. What Israel is trying to achieve right now with the Division 99 is to cut the northern sector from the central and southern sector in order to prevent the million or so Palestinians who displaced themselves from the battleground in the northern sector to save a zone to return to the northern sector. The IDF at this point, and it's probably a political decision, does not allow the Palestinian displaced population to return back to the northern sector. But there are still 100 to 200,000 Palestinians that remain stranded in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip. Now, the Israeli government announced yesterday the deadline for the residents of the southern communities in Israel to come back to their homes. When will this be exactly? And what's the reaction, the sentiment from the locals? Right now, it's only a consideration. There's been no formal directives by the Israeli government, but the target date would be February 4th. Now, that's to the tantamount of most of the residents of the community villages and of the towns around the security border with the Gaza Strip who suffered so heavily from the October 7th massacre. People are in trauma. Although they've been used to sporadic rocket fire for the past 23 years, and today we're talking about a level which is lower than in the northern front with Lebanon. Still, people are not ready to return. They're not ready to return unless there is full protection by the IDF. That would mean installing battalions in Sderot, for instance, a city of 30,000 inhabitants which has been hard hit by rocket fire, and by the October 7th massacre, over 44 people died there. But also in the other community villages, they want real security, and they believe that security can only be achieved if the IDF will have a plan of action regarding the northern sector of the Gaza Strip where most of the communities are located, which means allowing division-level army structure on the border with the Gaza Strip. And that's something that the IDF is not doing at this moment. So February 4th could be a dream that won't come to fruition in the next three weeks unless there is a dramatic change of situation in the Gaza Strip. Pierkel Schindler, thank you very much. And back with us in studio is Gonen Ben-Itschak. So we're hearing about what's happening in Gaza, but I'd like to speak about another front, the West Bank. We heard about, we're seeing a stabbing attack, we're seeing a car ramming attack. There is the sentiment that this is another front to be dealt with continuously while dealing with Gaza and the north. And there's a lot going on here. Yes, no doubt that West Bank is another front. The IDF since October 7th and before, of course, but since October 7th is having every night operations in the different cities and villages of the West Bank. Hamas is trying hard to inflame violence in the West Bank. And sometimes, as we saw yesterday in the area of Givadzeev and in the area of Benjamin, there were some terror attacks. A shooting attack. A shooting attack, Israeli, Arab-Israeli that was killed, another that was wounded. So they are trying hard to actually inflame this front. Until now, I think that the IDF was successfully lowering the fire in the West Bank. But of course, it's a concern all the time because this is something that once it inflames, it will affect our cities, the cities in Israel. And this is a big concern. And the IDF arrested suspects. We're hearing now for the shooting attack yesterday. We heard that they also arrested two doctors and a nurse who were allegedly the terrorists. And what does this signify? I think it shows that Hamas is trying to bring more and more people into the circle of violence. And as the war in Gaza is going on, of course, the feelings and I'll say the motivation of Hamas members in the West Bank is growing. And this is something that Israel is trying all the time to stop. Now, how volatile is this front, would you say? Say that we don't want to get to the point where we're fighting Gaza, the northern border and the West Bank. Of course, the IDF can handle it. But I don't think this is the ideal way of having a war in Gaza and in the north. Basically, Israel has the ability, both military and intelligence, to lower the flames. And until now, I see that in most cases Israel is doing it successfully. Now, moving on to Gaza, we are hearing about this third phase, third stage of fighting with a more strategic and pinpointed kind of fighting. What does that mean exactly? Okay, I think that what basically the IDF did was to map the Gaza Strip and start working in a very precise way against the different battalions and the areas in the beginning in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and then in the south. Right now, I'll say that the main fighting that we saw is not needed anymore. Right now, we understand that many of the militians are hiding underneath the ground. And it will be a very diligent work to go from tunnel to tunnel, from the entrance of tunnels to destroy the tunnels to get them, to push them to a certain point in order to either get them out of the ground, underneath the ground or to kill them in the tunnels. And again, all the time, we have the big issue of the hostages that are still held there. And Israel needs to find also a solution how to bring them back. And this also means that I would guess that maybe Israel knows where the leaders of Hamas are. But you understand that there is, I'll say, a safety belt of hostages around the leaders of Hamas. Of course, Israel can't now, even if Israel knows where they're hiding, we can't just drop their bombs on the tunnels where they're hiding because we have inside the hostages. I mean, it feels like everything is intertwined. There's an entire underground tunnel system all over Gaza underground. And we know that some, if not all of the hostages, are located in these tunnels. How is this tunnel threat to be dealt with? If you know that if there are several solutions to how to deal with tunnels, but they will likely hurt the hostages. Diplomacy. And this is why Israel now is on an intersection of deciding what to do. You can't have now a high-scale war because this situation. And you need somehow to speed up diplomacy. I guess that this government doesn't want to release Palestinian prisoners. But eventually, I guess that part of the solution will be releasing prisoners. And the decision now is in the hands of the Israeli government to decide where and how to go. And then the cycle begins all over again. You release these prisoners who are essentially terrorists and the terrorist cycles begins. There are terrorist murderers and we need to fight them. And I'll say again, we need to bring back our people. And then these people, from my point of view, the terrorists shouldn't stay alive in the future. So you're saying it's about prioritizing bring back the hostages and then take care of the terrorists slash prisoners. Yes. Okay, definitely. I mean, the hostage families are saying this. They're saying it to the government. They're saying it to everyone who can listen. Just be upfront with us. Are you trying to eliminate Hamas first or are you trying to bring home the hostages first? And that remains a question to be answered. Yeah, and you know, for the last 10 years, maybe more always involved in demonstrations and protests in Israel. And I think when I look at what they do, it's amazing, you know, they're going all over the world, meeting international leaders. But I think that inside in Israel, they should somehow speed up or be more, I'll say, aggressive towards the government. Gonen Ben-Itschak, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Many hostages still in Gaza were taken from the Nova Music Festival near Ra'im. The hostages and missing family form arranged an event at the site of the massacre. And our correspondent Ariel Osaran was there and spoke with family members, some still hoping for their loved ones to return, others grieving their death, but fighting on for the return of those still alive. Take a look. I tried to imagine the feeling that I'll have when I'll be here. I thought it would be different, but I thought it would be easier because I feel like I know everything here. I saw so many videos and so many pictures and had so many stories that it almost felt like I know everything. But the second I just stepped into this area felt different. For Mikhael Levi, visiting this beautiful wood outside Kibbutz Ra'im near the Gaza border is an emotional roller coaster. It's the site of the deadly Nova Music Festival. And on October 7th, his brother Ol and sister-in-law Enav arrived just minutes before it was stormed by dozens of Hamas terrorists. Part of his need to know everything as he describes it, led him to find a video that depicts Ol and Enav's last moments together. They stood close to the wall inside a bomb shelter. I didn't see what happened inside when those monsters threw the grenades and sprayed bullets into the shelter, but I can imagine, I can understand from the stories. He was, she was in front of him. They saw it. He saw his wife being murdered in front of him. And then taken to Gaza. And then taken to Gaza. Mikhael has not heard a word regarding his brother's condition since that day, exactly three months ago. All he knows is that Ol was taken alive and uninjured. The reason Ol and Enav arrived in the morning of the party and not the night before when it began was because they wanted to spend the night with their two-year-old son, Almog, who they left at his grandparents before heading out to Ra'im at dawn. Now, Almog is essentially an orphan, not knowing if and when his father will return. He misses them. He calls them all the time. He wants to go home. He starts crying when someone mentioned the word, the word's dad or mom. It's as simple as that. He can understand that they are not here. I'm not sure how much of this he can understand, but he understands that they are not here with him. Mikhael is just one sibling of a kidnapped hostage who came to this now hollowed ground for an event arranged by the Hostage Family Forum. This was the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival where 364 partygoers were murdered, raped, and mutilated by Hamas terrorists and Gaza locals on that dreadful October 7th. The area here is thicker. It's genuinely harder to breathe walking through here now. These are their faces. Most of them are gone for good, but for some there's still hope to return home, but time is running out. Besides a mock bar, bullet shells on the ground, and the playlist from that day blaring in the background, the event also included a speech by 18-year-old Itaire Gev, who was taken hostage with his sister Maya from the festival. Both were freed after more than 50 days in the tunnels of Gaza. Some of his friends who were taken from the party remain in captivity. I was in captivity for 45 days, and every day there is like forever. The conditions there are very, very hard to survive, very hard. The hostages cannot stay there for one more second. They all have to return home now. Asaf Pozniak lost two of his relatives at the Nova Festival. His sister-in-law's two sisters, Hodaia and Itaire, were initially believed missing following October 7th. Their burnt bodies were found six days later in the nearby woods. Since then, Asaf has been very active in the family's forum. From the first week, I've been working like crazy to try and bring Hodaia and Itaire. They were at my wedding in June, and I remember thinking how amazing it would be to attend their weddings. Unfortunately, that dream has died. With negotiations over a second phase of hostage release faltering, both Asaf and Mikhail remain optimistic that the hostages will return and soon. I'm hopeful I wake up every morning with that hope, even when there are more difficult days in which we hear the terrible news of another hostage killed in captivity. Close to 20 hostages murdered by Hamas and the brave soldiers who risked their lives to bring back the hostages. We expect from the government to present an Israeli initiative to bring back all of the hostages and not to play by Hamas' dune. I know he will be back. It's just a matter of time. That's it. I know he will be back, and like I said on stage, I will do everything to bring him back, even if it means to turn the world upside down. That's all for this edition of I-24 News. We have rolling coverage providing you with the latest from Israel. I'm Savannah Raviv. Thank you for watching. Is in 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. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman explains the administration's envoy is on his way to the region. Let's take a look. America's Point Man on Lebanon. Trying to do on land what he did at sea. With Amos Hoxstein reportedly set to fly back into Beirut this week to try to broker a deal that would bring quiet to the land border between Lebanon and Israel. The way he did last year with the border between zones at sea. The most important piece of this agreement is that it is entirely in the interest of each country to not violate it and to move forward. The background now of course is the war and the element of it on the Israel-Lebanon border where the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has been firing for months at communities on the Israeli side and the Israeli military has responded by firing at Hezbollah targets. The Biden administration wants the situation contained below the threshold of a wider war as does the French government. Israel has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters. Israeli attacks have intensified and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a warning. We have approved operational plans for the continuation of the fighting. If Hezbollah expands the war it will absorb blows that it has not dreamed of and Iran as well. Hoxstein's apparent plan to incentivize Hezbollah to move its troops away from the Israeli border in exchange for apparent Israeli concessions on marking that border in at least some of the 13 points of dispute. The Biden administration does not want a full-scale war. Israel's plan A is not to have a full-scale war and the Lebanese public does not want a full-scale war which all point to the sides getting to a deal that forestalls a full-scale war at least for now. Until October 7th there were high hopes for big changes in the Middle East. Talk of U.S. mediated peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia which in turn would spread to other Arab countries created much anticipation. But then after thousands of Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israeli communities and IDF bases slaughtering, burning and kidnapping everything in their path the delicate house of cards collapsed. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms its categorical rejection of the continuation of aggression, occupation and the forced displacement of Gaza's population. The Kingdom holds the occupation authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people and their properties. We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation siege and settlements. But sidelining Israel's Saudi normalization for the unforeseeable future was only one of the effects of that dark October 7th on the region. It also saw the solidification of the Iranian axis of proxies from Iraq to Lebanon all the way to Yemen. Tehran's branches all began to attack Israel. We're in a multi-Arena war. We are being attacked from seven different sectors Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. We have already responded and taken action. And I say here in the most explicit way anyone who acts against us is a potential target. There is no immunity for anyone. In an attempt to get a better understanding of how the region as a whole was affected by the October 7th attacks, I-24 News reached out to journalists in the region to give their perspective. One of them is a journalist from Yemen. We blurred his face and distorted his voice for his safety, speaking with an Israeli-based news outlet. Perhaps the most surprising front to many has been the continuous drone and missile attacks by the Houthis in Yemen towards Israeli territory and then at international commercial ships navigating through the Red Sea. The Yemeni armed forces affirmed their continued support for the Palestinian people as part of the religious, moral and humanitarian duty and confirmed the continuation of operations in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea against Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine until the food and medicine needed by the Gaza Strip are brought in. But according to the journalist in Yemen, the Houthis are simply the ones pulling the trigger in service of their patrons. The Iranian people are taking advantage of Iran's interests in the region. Therefore, we are aware that Iran is not the weapon of peace. Iran is fighting for freedom. It is fighting for peace. You can see what is happening. And what is still happening in our country, Yemen, is fighting for freedom with the Israelis. Beyond emboldening the Iranian access, the October 7th attacks also seem to have affected the streets in many of the region's capitals in support of the Palestinians. I see a lot of change among the awareness of ordinary people who never really paid attention to political issues of the Palestinian situation. I've seen, especially in Arab countries, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, many of the countries are really much more involved now. And I think we've seen also progressives and young people around the world taking up the Palestinian cause in a much more powerful way than we've ever seen before. Like the journalist in Yemen, Qutb 2 believes that the war in Gaza has put a strain on Israel's existing peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt. The both peace treaties have held on so far. But on a very thin ice, I think that there is strong opposition in both countries to their countries continuing the peace agreements. But more importantly, I think people want civilian lives to be saved. Besides threats, there are some silver linings that have emerged from the horrific attacks on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza. Not only the American-led Maritime Coalition aimed at ensuring the safe navigation in the Red Sea, but that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan all intercepted Houthi drones and missiles over their territories on their way to Israel. An indication that Jerusalem does have shared strategic interests in the balance of power in the Middle East. Well, I think Arab countries are trying to be peacemakers as much as they can. They're trying to provide material support to people who are in terrible need. And I don't think we've seen a major shift, especially in countries that have had normalization relations with Israel. Their leaders are still insisting on keeping some form of relationship, even though public opinion has changed. And so, with the war in Gaza in full steam and further escalation with his balloon to horizon, the October 7th attacks seem to have changed not only Israel, but the region as a whole. Now, Israel finds itself at a critical juncture, a regional war or increased regional cooperation. Whether or not it's up to Israel to decide what the outcome will be, that still remains to be seen. There was no official statement to mark the beginning of the ground operation in Gaza. Neither should we expect one regarding the completion of one stage and the move to the next one, but even without a statement, that move is probably coming. Some of the reserve soldiers will return to their families and to their jobs this week. This will allow a significant relief to the economy and will allow them to gather strength ahead of the coming activities the next year as the fighting will continue and we will need them. The reservists are the backbone of the IDF, more than 300,000 of them were recruited during the current war, giving a major boost to the army as in size and strength. No one will say it openly, but if reservists are being released, the meaning is less massive incursions such as the ones seen until now and more surgical operations that demand more precision, but probably less firepower. We will need to show plenty of resilience and determination. We will try to release the reservists and bring them back during the coming year for specific periods to carry the burden of what is expected here. A more focused activity on terror enclaves carried out by units operating from Israeli territory and not from Gaza. More airstrikes and artillery and fewer large units inside Gaza who many times are sitting ducks for Hamas terrorists. This is probably where we're heading as 2024 dawns. Hello, my name is Mia Shem. I'm 21 years old from Shoham. At the moment, I'm in Gaza. They have operated on my hand here at the hospital. They've taken care of me. They're giving me medicine. Everything is okay. The only thing I'm asking is that you bring me home as soon as possible to my family. Mia Shem became the hostage every Israeli knew. She was in the thoughts of every Israeli soldier before going into war. She was held in Hamas captivity for weeks, injured in a small room with no daylight, sitting on a mattress while a guard was across from her, watching her 24 seven. I can see his face in my mind. His eyes are burned into my memory. Sitting in front of him, she decided she will come back. She will survive this. And for the first time, she's speaking candidly on the isolation and the brutality. I was not allowed to cry. Why? Because if you will cry, we'll send you to the tunnels. I was in a tiny room, eight feet by eight feet. Two people were in it, me and a terrorist, looking at me 24 seven, examining me. I was afraid he would rape me. There's a fear of him taking his weapon and putting a bullet in my head with no warning. The room was closed. They would throw food once a day. Some days there was no food. The kids would open the door, look inside, talk about me, laugh about me. They looked at me as if I was an animal. I was afraid anything could happen at any moment. He could touch me. Shh. Did he ever do something like that? No, only because his wife was outside the door. If we were there alone, something was bound to happen. In this small room, there were rules. Mia wasn't allowed to talk or move or even cry. Once I was choked up with tears, he looked at me and said in Arabic, enough, stop crying or I'll send you to the tunnel. I'm telling myself, say strong, don't fall apart here. You'll be back home soon. That's what I was telling myself all the time. Mia understood that in order to survive, she needed to pretend to play the cruel game of the terrorists that were sitting across from her. Once he lost it, he started crying and took his Kalashnikov. I was sure he was about to put a bullet in my head. I got close to him and sat down and asked, what's wrong? What's wrong? Why are you crying? He told me that two of his friends died in an Israeli attack. Secretly, I was elated. But I was like that, playing the game, you know? I didn't see daylight for 54 days. I also didn't move. So I was barely walking. My legs were shaking. Were you able to sleep there? Maybe for an hour? You can't really sleep when a Hamas terrorist is sitting and staring at you. I can hear the strikes, heavy strikes, massive strikes. The windows shattered on me. There were a few days when I lost my hearing. I wasn't scared from the strikes for a moment. It cheered me up. And then one day, it was completely silent. And I told myself something is happening. The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect. When the exchange of prisoners and hostages started, Mia was moved to another location. There, after almost 50 days alone, she met other hostages. We were all in the same boat. And then what? They tell people daily who was getting released? It was a Russian roulette. It was the most difficult thing. That some are released and some others are not? She was released in the final exchange. At the moment, she said goodbye to the hostages and Gaza does not leave her. On her way home, Hamas shot this video. People are very good, very kind to me. All the kindness and everything. You know your second's away from going back home and Hamas terrorist is shoving a camera on your face. He told me, say the people of Gaza, are nice, say good things. What can I say? Your crap? Karen, Mia's mom, did everything she could for this moment. They are together again. But her best friend, Elia, that was with her at the party and was kidnapped right next to her, was killed. The IDF extracted his body from Gaza. Mentally, she is still in Gaza. And no one knows how long it will take until she'll return. But physically, she's here. Exactly like she dreamed all those nights in captivity. This was my dream. I can't believe I'm here at home. Two months into the IDF's ground operation in Gaza, questions are rising as to the end strategy of the current high intensity phase and a move on to the next phase. On one hand, there are still constant firefights with Hamas terrorists, especially in the area of Chanyones. We found here plenty of enemy infrastructure. There was a terrorist here with a Kalachnikov that tried to shoot at our soldiers. We killed him and caught another terrorist and took him for interrogation. Along with that, Hamas officials are also being killed. One of them is Abdel Fattah Mahali, the closest associate of Ichiya Ayash, who was known as the engineer and responsible for various terror attacks in the 1990s. On the other hand, there's a feeling that in the current phase, the IDF is not able to reach the hostages or the Hamas senior leadership, and some other way is now needed. When will Israel head for that other way? The prime minister may have set the goal for that. The Philadelphia corridor, or to put it more correctly, the southern end of Gaza, must be in our hands. No other solution can ensure the demilitarization we seek. The Philadelphia corridor separates Gaza from Egypt, and the assumption is that huge amounts of weapons were, and maybe still are, smuggled to Gaza in tunnels running under it. On paper, Egypt seems to refuse any such move. And Israel needs Egyptian backing for another crucial move, a hostage deal. Families and protesters believe the government is not doing enough in that field. I'm afraid that the government of Israel has prioritized otherwise its political ambitions, and the hostages is not on the top priorities. A possible hostage deal, the control of the Philadelphia corridor, the effectiveness of the IDF's current tactics, many critical issues for the future of this war, but none of them with a concrete solution at hand. Compacting trash, with a smile, this is a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. It's true, we're doing this in service to the country. Absolutely. Well, great weather, great people, and a great cause. Has never been more gratifying. We're preparing pallets of snacks. I think we do about 50 pallets a day, and the snacks go right to the front of the troops in Gaza, and our incredibly important job, really a matter of national security, is compacting these boxes. It's an assembly line of hundreds of volunteers from dozens of countries around the world. It's one thing to give money, it's another thing to go to rallies and support, but it's something entirely different just to be here and lend physical support, doing whatever we can. And whatever they can involves packing boxes and doing the heavy lifting, all with the goal of providing supplies for soldiers fighting the war in Gaza, and fighting the war of public opinion against the Jewish people. My feeling is, world opinion never saved one Israeli life, so a lot of us just don't care. We feel that Israel has to do what Israel has to do to protect its own people, and if the world doesn't like it, well, too bad. The world doesn't like it when Jews fight back. The nonprofit organization SAR-L, Service for Israel, has existed for decades. But since October 7th, the volunteer program has been overflowing with people of all ages, wanting to pitch in no matter what the cost. Since I started coming to the bases, I just feel so relaxed. I feel like my blood pressure is down, my temperature is down. I feel like I'm just walking on a cloud and there's never a sense of anything negative. It's all positive. And I haven't heard a complaint from 80 Jews in a week, which is unbelievable. This one is for the Red Cross, and this one is for the UN, and they deserve it. Even 82-year-old New Yorker, Rochelle Marshall, suited up for her 18th SAR-L mission. They thought I was too old to come here this year, and let me tell you, they made a mistake thinking that. And I'm so honored to be able to help these people that when somebody thanks me, I feel silly because these are the people who are making it possible for me to come here. I'm going home. I'm going to be away from this, and they're going to stay here. With young soldiers in Gaza for months, fighting for their lives and for the existence of Israel, every little bit of love and support helps. Especially now when we're getting bombarded with all kinds of messages outside and our kids are being attacked, I thought for lone soldier parents it would be really important to come together. We are packaging this week. It sounds silly, but different treat bags so that every day the soldiers would get something extra to eat versus their tuna fish or whatever the average food is. And what makes this particular SAR-L mission so fulfilling and comforting is that mothers of lone soldiers fighting the war in Gaza are also volunteering and getting moral and emotional support in the process. I have a son in the army today, right now in Gaza. He was 10 years old. He came in about a year ago to join the army. What we're packing here happens to be Shabbat bags for soldiers, and I know one of them is going to go to Gaza. When you are alone in your country and you hear the news, you listen to the news, and you're far away from your son, your mind cannot understand what's happening, and it's really tough. You really feel lonely. Nobody can feel what you what you go through. So now we are a bunch of strong women and we are all mothers and we are all together and every time somebody is down we come and see her and yeah, it's amazing. It's something I've never lived before. I have two former lone soldiers, ones in reserves, one came back to America and I have a daughter drafting. I'm sorry, next week. And she feels really confident about her decision. So coming back and having a physical way, like just, I know it doesn't seem like a lot. There's some snacks, but it's so important to physically be here in Israel to show support, to show my kids that I'm proud of them. I have three lone soldiers. One has severe PTSD from his service and it doesn't matter if they're my three soldiers or they're somebody's else, they're all my children and I got to hug them and send them in and just, I mean we can be the last people they see, it just kills me, it kills me and I love them all. Everyone's mom. My son is in the Mishmar Ghul, the border police. He's been dreaming of joining Sahal since he was 14, if they would have taken him he is absolutely built for this. He knows he's built for this. He's living his best life, just living his dream, living his destiny. One son, he's actually been here for 18 years. That's when he did his main service and he's been doing Miliouim ever since and he was called up on day one and he's been he has had days off in between but he's basically still at it. He's in the north. He's new, he had just drafted before the war broke out. I am just really, really, really proud. You know, you want your child to do what's in their soul and in their heart. He is so passionate about Israel. He is very confident in his wanting to be here, which brings me confidence and my husband confidence and I really, as a mother believe it's all going to be okay and I send that from across the ocean every day. Hello everyone. Hello. On this particular day the moms and volunteers also got a morale boost by the president of the World Zionist Organization. We need to remember that what happened on October 7th was not a war against Israel but a war against the Jewish nation. We are one nation, one people. This is our home. We have to stay united and fight against anti-Semitism. You look at it, it's just it's horrific. You know, anybody with any moral integrity or anything should stand up and come here and help. And also on this Sorrel mission the Jewish people have American Christian police officer Nick Jones to thank for taking a stand against the hypocrisy and anti-Semitic vitriol that is sweeping the globe. I have friends that are Jewish of course and I'm part of the IDF every morning I get a briefing with them and I hear and I see the videos of everything that's going on here and if it were happening in America we would do just like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan we would stand up, we would go take care of business and it would be over with. Here it doesn't exist. There's a farmer I live by who says good people remain silent bad things happen to him. So as Americans we need to I don't care what your religious background is everybody needs to stand behind Israel and stand up for it. At the Hotsiri military base in the Negev, Emily Francis 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 lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. This is a war area. Excusive interviews reports from the war zone the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries. In the 24th the only Spanish media that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel. In the 24th Hosterges are still not home. There are angry anti-Israel protests going on all around the world. It could all feel pretty hopeless. So it is reassuring that Israel's good friends are showing up to lend support. Among them the American actor and comedian Michael Rappaport. He's been here almost two weeks and he does seem very much at home. In this place and to know the story and to hear the story we've seen so much on social media and on the news but when you're actually in here and you know that people were hiding in these safe places which are for bombs while I'm hearing explosions and this is like takes your fucking breath away and to just know like the horror and the fear that these are like regular regular Joe Schmoe regular people hiding for their lives in this whole little neighborhood like this is like a small little like the only thing I could compare is like something like Northern California neighborhood or upstate New York type of neighborhood just terrorized by motherfuckers who came in here with the intent to kill. And I'm delighted to say Michael is with me in the studio now. Welcome. Thank you for being with us. Glad to be here and I appreciate you having me and I told you I watched the channel so That's good to hear. That's great to hear. We just saw footage of you there visiting the carnage in Kibbutz Berry you've been visiting the Kibbutzim you've also been with the families and some of the hostages it seems as though this atrocity has really affected you personally, is that right? It has affected me personally the entire situation the massacre the fact that it's 75 days and there's still so many hostages and there's so many people so many people dealing with the heartbreak of what's already happened the soldiers that are fighting and the soldiers that are going down and just the whole the whole incident and all the aftermath of it is upsetting and and of course to me it's a separate situation but the sort of anti not the sort of the anti-Jewish sentiment the anti-Israel sentiment just saying my country and in my city is very very upsetting well right yeah I want to ask you about that because you grew up Jewish in New York did you ever experience anti-Semitism growing up and how do you feel about the scenes that we're seeing in the city now I mean in Penn Station yesterday we've seen Jewish businesses being targeting people who are visibly Jewish being physically attacked I mean how has the city changed? I experienced anti-Semitism in my life growing up in New York spending a lot of time in Brooklyn and you know went to high you know my whole young adult until I was 19 and I never had face to face to be to be honest with you I really started to hear and see a lot of anti-Semitism on social media in the last I say nine years blatant you know anti-Semitism I don't like the anti-Semitism in New York I don't like Jewish people feeling uncomfortable I don't like Jewish businesses being harassed and attacked and vandalized and I don't like the the poster rippers this whole sort of it was like a it was this adding insult to injury the incident itself was one thing and then you're like this unimaginable anti-Jewish sentiment the moment the same day and certainly the 8th October 8th celebrating and invigorating and all these words and quotes and these rallies it's been I think a surprise to a lot of people it's very been surprising to me and I don't like it I'm not comfortable with it I don't like it I don't support it and it makes me angry makes me upset it makes me scared for all Jewish people I don't like it especially in Manhattan and it's young people isn't it a lot of the time we've just had this poll out that says you know the majority of young people see Jews as an oppressive class and a lot of people also saying the best solution to the conflict here would be to just hand the country over to Hamas I mean what's happening to the young people they're so uneducated and so misinformed and all the participation trophies that we've been talking about the jokes the Gen Z the interviewing their feelings the bathrooms the pronouns all of that the Kanye West all of it has been a stew and now we're eating that stew with the young people it's turned into anti-Jewishness anti-Semitism anti-Israel and it's blatant and it's in the open and only with Jewish people would it be accepted it wouldn't be accepted with black people Chinese people Puerto Rican people Asian people gay lesbian any any other to be openly like that is only with Jewish people kind of a blind spot for progressive politics yeah it is and and and you know I have my thoughts as to why but only would it only be accepted so openly again with Jewish people in Israel well I mean you're a successful comedian let's talk a bit about Hollywood because this issue seems to have kind of divided Hollywood a little bit we early on we had this letter 700 artists signed it condemning Hamas very strongly and then there was a bit of a scuffle with the writer's guild wasn't there and they didn't want to condemn Hamas and someone else pointed out what you you know you've stood with me too and you stood with Black Lives Matter why can't you stand with Jews I mean what do you think is the future for Hollywood and do you think a lot of relationships are going to be broken but how do you think about it I can say I can say I think some relationships will be broken I think Hollywood will eventually figure out what makes money at the end of the day you know like business and it's my business and it's a great business it's a flawed business like any other business but they'll figure out what makes money what sells you know they have been sort of pushing agendas and stereotypes of best friends and you know all these kinds of sort of they being these stereotypical characters for the last four or five years they'll figure out what needs to happen what sells what doesn't sell and you know as far as the support you know people are taking people paying attention I can say Jewish people in Hollywood are paying attention and people that are you know that are understand the situation and have spent a little time to educate themselves are paying attention and again you know you can be not agree with the politics of Israel you cannot agree with this war you could not agree a bunch of things the anti-Jewishness and the blatant anti-Zionist and the blatant anti-Semitism is when it it's not okay that's one of the arguments that people on the progressive side use they say oh we're not anti-Semitic we have nothing against Jews we just don't want Israel to exist it's Zionism that we don't want this is all that fancy slick cute way of you're full of shit we stop saying you're full of shit we stop doing that and this is why we're hearing too many opinions and opinions are great but doesn't mean they're necessarily valid it's bullshit I know you're bleeping this the bleeper button I'm only cursing I'm only cursing because they're bleeping I know they're bleeping I'm in control of what I'm doing or I'm alive I wouldn't curse we appreciate it it's difficult to offend our audience you have Ashkenazi Heritage full your grandparents came from Eastern Europe so obviously they escaped the holocaust no they didn't they wouldn't have been targeted of course just two generations ago they had to deal with anti-Semitism now it is back rearing its ugly head again Do you think America is safe for the Jews going forward? I think America is safe for the Jews in the big picture. Do I like what's going on? Does it make me comfortable? No. Am I conscious of where I'm walking in New York City? Yes. Am I aware of my surroundings more since October 7th? Yes. But we're not going anywhere, Israel is not going anywhere, Jewish people are not going anywhere. So am I saying it's the best time to be Jewish in terms of safety in America, in New York City, in cities? But also, it's a lot of what we see on the media, the clips, they're more frightening The clips of people being harassed. It sucks, it's real, but it's not like every single corner, we're not at that point, we're far from that point. And I urge people to remind themselves, especially in New York, and other people that are seeing that, we see all these horrible things in the clips, and the clips are making all of us crazy in every way, shape and form. I could say for New York, I'm walking comfortably, I'm paying attention, but I'm walking comfortably. You're such a strong advocate for Israel. I'm surprised to hear that this is your first visit. Why did you never come here before? Well I never came here before, because I haven't been to a lot of places. If you went over my travel, my travel of resume, it's not very impressive. Not a big traveler. No. I've never been to London. So I'm not a big traveler. As far as Israel, and there's a lot of places, I just, I don't know why. I don't like flying. Is it what you imagined? It's, well, I'm here in a very unique time. And so many people talk about their trips to Israel, and their first trips to Israel being this magical thing. And although my trip, my first trip to Israel, this trip to Israel is not like the normal first trip to Israel coming during a war. It has been magical beyond belief. And I say that seeing everything, the heartbreak, the devastation, seeing the resilience, seeing the sparkle that people still have in their eyes, seeing the city, seeing the pride that people have in Israel, even though people are critical, seeing the pride that people have in being Jewish, seeing the people together, all sorts of people. And all those things, the emotional journey of this trip has been magical. It hasn't been a, I went to the Dead Sea trip. I'm not going to the Dead Sea this trip because my wife already made a promise to come back. But I'm so glad that I'm here. And we've extended our trip twice, and I couldn't be just, I couldn't be more happy that we came. A lot of Jews who come here say they feel like they came home. They feel like they're with the family. It's like being part of a big family. It is like being part of a big family. And the Israeli people, the people that live here are so warm and so, just have a spirit. It's like this, people, it's like a world, it's like a sort of a stereotypical thing. You hear about these people's spirit of Israel. It's a parent as soon as you hit the ground. Have you been to Jerusalem? I've been to Jerusalem. And I just, I was, I did some tourist stuff. I was at the market during the day. I was at the market last night on a Tuesday night and walking around. And I was, I made a fake reproposal to my wife. Just the emotion of that place and the beauty of that place and the history of that place took my breath away. That was one of the more positive sort of things from the trip, because a lot of what I've seen has been horrible. It's been horrible. And it's taken my breath away and not a good way. It's been horrible to see Kibbutz Berry, to be at Kafar Asa and talk to families that are still waiting for their kids, their fathers to come home. And that's, that has been horrible. It's been horrible and heartbreaking and so frustrating. Do you feel like it's important what you're doing, you're bearing witness? You can carry the message, you can tell people what happened because there are a lot of people trying to deny that it ever happened at all. It's 150 percent, 150 percent. The fact that people are trying to deny what happened is, again, it's only with Jewish people in Israel. Only would they even, that would come out of their mouth. We see a lot of terrible things, a destruction in Gaza. No one would say this is fake, this isn't happening. Nobody would say that. Only with Jewish people would you deny what happened 75 days ago and continue to deny it. It's crazy. How's your Hebrew? Horrible. Next, next to nothing. It's not an easy language. I have a couple of words, but I don't want to embarrass myself or offend anybody. So it's, it's, it's next to nothing. It's next to nothing. It's terrible. Any plans to learn? Yes. We want to come back and like, you know, learn, yeah, 100 percent. I would, I would love that. Have you been to the north of Israel yet? I've been to the north, I can't remember the name of the city, but I had a great experience. Hyper? Further than that. And I can't remember, it's, it's, it's, oh, I don't know. You know, I'm not saying. You've got the other fight, of course, in the north. That's concerning. Yeah. Very concerning. Israel has to fight. Israel has to fight and United States has to stand and continue to stand by. Are you proud of how the US government has stood by Israel? I love a lot of what Joe Biden has said. I don't love the sort of good cop, bad cop of Kamala Harris. I don't like it. And we see it come out, Kamala. We see the good cop, bad cop. We're not stupid. We see, you know, the good, the old good, it's like the same name, YPD blue, okay? We've seen that routine for years. I don't like the squad and their bullshit. I haven't liked them to begin with. I think they're totally full of shit. I like what, you know, Bernie has. Wow, yeah. That was unexpected. Yeah. That was unexpected. I like what Hillary has said. Yeah. And it's funny, say it again, Fetterman's good too. And the funny thing is, is because Bernie and Hillary, when you talk about Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Z, they're like, they have Bernie and Hillary. And Hillary tattooed on their body. And now they're like, Bernie and Hillary. Yeah. Wow. We're out of time, Michael. But you've given a lot of people a lot of comfort coming to see us here in Israel. Thank you so much. I came for, for people. Michael Rappaport. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. The lovely Michael Rappaport there. Now, a new initiative, which is raising awareness of the plight of the 129 hostages who are still being held in Gaza 75 days after the Hamas attacks on Israel. A bouquet of yellow flowers has become a new symbol of hope and resilience. Well, with me in the studio, Noah O'Venie, with her yellow bouquet, and you're part of this new initiative to kind of bring awareness to the horrible situation of the hostages and their families. And of course, this is personal for you. You've got two good friends who are still being held, Ziv and Gali. They're twin brothers. Tell us a bit about them. What happened? So Ziv and Gali are 26-year-old twin brothers who live in Khoraza. They've lived their entire lives. I've known them from school, and Ziv has become the closest friend to me, the closest person to me. And on October 7th, they were both taken hostage, kidnapped from their homes, just innocent civilians. To this day, we don't know their whereabouts. We know they're kidnapped. We don't know their health situation, and we're very worried about them, or worried about the fact that the Red Cross hasn't visited them. Any of the hostages are giving them any medical care or any medicine at all. And this initiative is a huge part of raising awareness of the fact that there are still, to this day, 129 people, innocent civilians, being held hostage in Gaza, some of which are elderly men, women, a baby as well, people who could be my grandparents, my brothers, my sisters. And it's been 75 days. I'll repeat that number, because it is a shocking number, and it should shock everybody. 75 days that we don't know where our loved ones are and how they're doing it and what situation they are in. All we know is that they're held by a terrorist organization. And so this initiative of a bouquet of hope, of yellow flowers by the Qadar Foundation of Culture and Education by Dr. Avram Qadar is, you know, they've so generously donated these beautiful yellow flowers that yellow symbolizes the symbol of the hostages and people kept in captivity to raise this awareness and to keep this on the topic of the day that there are still hostages there, as we're speaking. And every single day, every single second, their time is running out. And it's not just a slogan. Their time is running out. We've heard that from testimonies of people who came back from captivity. We know about somewhat of what their conditions are, and it's not good to say the least. And this initiative is to remind us and to have some hope and to fight for them to come back to us, to bring every single one of those 129 people back home. Are you worried people are forgetting about them? Yeah, I'm 100% worried about it. I am feeling like they're starting to be forgotten now that a ceasefire isn't really on the table and now that most of the children have been released and most of the women in Israel, it's still on the topic, but I'll say outside in the outdoors world, it's not. And we started spreading outdoors last week. We also have this initiative other than in Tel Aviv in the hostage square every single Friday from 10 to around 12. We also had it in New York and in Florida and we're planning to continue and grow as much as we can so that people will remember. Every single Friday I come back home with a bouquet of yellow flowers and every single week it stays on my table and my house and they die. And then another week comes by another Friday and I come back home with another bouquet of flowers. It's like a symbol of hope for you. It is a symbol of hope because I do believe with all my heart, we have hope. That's all we can really hold on to and I do believe that what we're doing and raising awareness, that's what can help to bring them back to us. Right, and as you say, some of the hostages thankfully are back with their families and we've been hearing kind of more and more about the conditions they were held in. And aside from the, you know, the physical horrors, the lack of food, the physical violence, one theme that keeps, you know, you keep hearing is that one of the worst things was to think that you've been forgotten, that no one was trying to get you home. Yeah. That's something really heartbreaking to think about, isn't it? 100% and I always try to put myself in their shoes as much as I can and I would want to know that my country and my family and friends are doing everything in their power to bring me back, which is what Gali and Ziv's family is doing and all of the amazing families of the Forum of the Hostages and Missing, that's what they're doing. That's their, their lives have stopped. That's all they're doing is trying to bring their loved ones back. Other than the amazing symbolization of the yellow flowers, another thing is that all of the income from the flowers goes directly to the Forum of the Hostages and Missing families. So that's another thing. It's a horrible situation to be in, isn't it? Because it's so tragic to see the funerals on the news day after day, isn't it? People burying their sons, their brothers, their loved ones, you know. So many people were murdered by the terrorists, but these people, you know, they're still alive. There's still hope. There's still hope, but how do you, you know, people can't move on. As you say, like their families frozen, they can't move on with their lives. You were telling me, you're a student. I mean, how can, do you feel like you can ever open a book and get back to your studies again? You know, life is frozen, isn't it? It's exactly that. Life is frozen. For me, for 129 people's families, behind every single person of the 129, there's family and friends and relatives. There are so many people whose lives have completely stopped. Each person is an entire world. And life can't go on until they get back to us. Tell us about your friends, about Zivengali. What kind of guys are they? Zivengali are really, really funny. That's what everybody would say about them. And they have the kindest heart. I always told Ziv that he has the biggest heart I've ever seen. He's the nicest person that I know. He always puts himself before others. They both do. They take care of their disabled father. They're very, very loving towards their family and their nephews. And they love playing soccer. They love watching soccer. They love traveling together. They do everything together. They work together as well. They're identical twins? No. No? But there is so much similarity in between them, especially about their hobbies. They like to hang out together. Yeah. Yes. And they have a lot of mutual friends. And they work together. And just in general, for me it's really heartbreaking to think of how such good people, like how does this happen to someone that good? How does it happen to anyone and that they shouldn't be there and that it's so real for me to see them on a poster and not in real life? Did they grow up in the acrobots? Yes, in Kvaraza. Wow. And Kvaraza, of course, was one of the worst hit. Yeah. Specifically, their neighborhood. The neighborhood of the young people was one who was struck really, really hard. And it would mean so much to, of course, the families, but also the communities to have those boys back, wouldn't it? Of course. Wow. A yellow bouquet of flowers, I can't think of a nicer gesture, a nicer symbol. So if you want to show your support for the 129 hostages who are still being held in Gaza. And of course, we are talking about a potential ceasefire, just reports, but it would be up to 40 hostages. And we know that the priority would be elderly people, women. I mean, it's horrible, but they would be quite far down the list, wouldn't they? They would, but at least there would be a list. At least some people will get back to us. And that's a start. So we need to get that number down. All right. We'll know. I hope that you'll be reunited with your friends very much. We're hoping and praying for that as we are for all the hostages. Now, Real Vinnie, thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And again, if you want to show your support for the 129 hostages still being held by terrorists in Gaza, you can take part in this initiative. Remind me of the name of the... Zaltikvah. Zaltikvah. It's Hope. Yes. Zaltikvah. All right. So when do you stay with us? We'll have all the very latest for you after this. Don't go away. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines. But the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well.