 Israel es en un estado de guerra. Las familias son completamente abiertas en sus caballos. No tenemos idea de lo que es lo que los soldados están combatiendo en la línea del frente, pero la percepción general es algo que también necesita ser tomado. Esta semana, en el 24, Israel bajo ataque. El 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. El 24, el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en Israel. El 24, únicamente en I-24 News. To destroy the terror movements hold over Gaza. Israel's military saying today it has struck over 22,000 targets in Gaza. Since the start of its offensive there and killed some 7,000 Hamas fighters. Now as Israel secures its control over the northern part of the Gaza and extends its reach in the southern half. Reports that dozens of Hamas fighters have surrendered to IDF forces. Well, for more, let's go to our correspondent who is down on the Israel-Gaza border. Pia Steckobach, in the town of Sterot. Pia, let's talk about what's happening just a kilometer or two across the border there. Especially in northern Gaza where we've been seeing these somewhat dramatic pictures of these rows and rows of Hamas fighters appearing or seeming to appear to surrender. Some of them not Hamas fighters apparently, but certainly surrendering to the IDF forces there. Recalable, these images, the Israeli military is saying that their Hamas fighters surrendering civilians in Gaza have said that they recognize family members and civilians among them. What we can say is that the fighting in the northern part of the Gaza strip has continued throughout the afternoon. Also in the evening you could see piles of smoke arising from different locations here in Bed Hanon and Bed Lahia. Those are the two neighborhoods that are located at the very northern tip of the Gaza strip. You could hear outgoing Israeli artillery as well as airstrikes going on in the late afternoon and early evening hours. In parallel the fighting in the Gaza city areas continuing specifically in the Shuzhaiya area, the Israeli military just published that they assassinated the commander of the Shuzhaiya battalion Imad Krika. He was responsible for training anti-tank missile launchers and launching those anti-tank missiles himself and that comes after his predecessor has also been assassinated by the Israeli military in an airstrike before in an earlier stage of this war. En addition to that the fighting very much centers on Khan Yunus which is the major city in the southern part of the Gaza strip which really shows you that the Israeli army is trying to penetrate basically all of the Gaza strip. The fighting in the south is very much going on in a fierce matter because the Israeli round troops are advancing there. They expect that major Hamas leaders are still hiding in that area possibly in the tunnels as well as the 137 hostages that are possibly being kept there and the Israeli army is still convinced to follow its goals to of course return those 137 hostages, all of them, but also to completely dismantle Hamas both militarily but also politically that comes amid. There is more and increased criticism in terms of the humanitarian situation that is decreasing with time the World Food program saying it is not able to do its job anymore. The World Health Organization saying that the conditions are right for the perfect for the spread of diseases there in the Gaza strip but it doesn't seem like the Israeli military or political establishment is ready to end this war anytime soon before its main goals are achieved which is to completely dismantle Hamas. Yes and of course free the hostages Piestak Obach, thank you for that. And on the subject of the hostages on October 7th I spoke for the first time with one of the many Israelis concerned about the fate of their loved ones living in the Gaza border communities that were attacked that day by Hamas terrorists. Now Ella Moore was desperately seeking information about her nieces and nephews, nieces and nephews after their parents Roi and Smodar Idan were murdered at their home in Kibbutz, Kfar Azar and Ella's nine-year-old nephew Michael Michael called her to say that quote, terrorists came to the house and they killed daddy then they killed mommy. Well Ella then lost touch with the boy who was with his sisters, six-year-old Amalia and then the then three-year-old Avigail who were trying to hold from the terrorists. Now as it turned out Michael, Michael and Amalia were rescued later that day after hiding in a closet but Avigail who was given to neighbors for protection was in fact taken captive into Gaza become one of the youngest hostages there. Avigail was finally released on November 26th after turning four years old, her fourth birthday taking place while she was in captivity. Of course, freed in that deal mediated by the US and Qatar. Here is a snippet of the conversation that I had with Ella Moore about her family down on the Gaza border on October 7th. I hope my nephews are alive, I hope they're okay. I try to talk to the police to the army. Nobody's helping me. I mean, nobody's getting to these children and have to be saved because they're alone for 12 hours inside of the house with the parents dead. This is a terrible situation. But I don't know what to do. And joining us now is Ella Moore. Of course, I have to release Tasej Avigail Idan joining us from Cologne. Ella, I don't know if you remember that conversation I do. That was the first one I had during my entire coverage speaking to someone concerned about what may have been their fate of it. As it turned out, your nephew and the old Denise was saved. Of course, concern over the fate of Avigail. The whole country did. She became one of the best known faces there in captivity. How is your family doing now that there is a, of course still the death of their parents, the tragedy that we also have to keep in mind. But how is the family doing with maybe some kind of closure after release of Avigail? Well, of course, we've been waiting for her for 52 days to be released from the terrorists of Hamas. And it was very long, 52 days. It was very hard for us, for the family, because we rescued, they were rescued, the two children were rescued and the baby sister was kidnapped and so hard. But now we can just be happy that she's with us and she's okay and she's been saved. And I've been very grateful for that. But it's still very hard for the family. We've been through something so hard as you heard on the seventh. I didn't even remember, I spoke to you that day because it was the most, I think most horrible day in my life. I was begging for people to help me to get, can somebody just save the children? And yeah, but we're very happy that she's back and we can start to heal the family, can start to try to heal the family. Right, and that's something that we should mention, the older, your nephew and the older sister were spent hours in a closet hiding, somehow managed to survive through the day, of course. Let me ask, because the US did get involved in this case, Avigail, yes, the parts of the family have American citizenship, I believe, there was a call with President Biden if I'm correct, and some members of the family, I don't know if you were on it, we spoke with that. Was there a role with the US, contact with the US throughout this process? Well, she, Avigail had an American citizenship so I know that a lot of people tried to help us. I'm sorry, I wasn't involved in that. You were telling me about it, but I know the world and we can't thank enough the US for helping and President Biden for doing all this amazing things for us because I don't know if she would be saved if not, but I wasn't involved with what is going on about that. Right, unless the hostages were still there, unfortunately, children, very young children, we don't know, could be even someone younger than Avigail, than Avigail, we're not sure about that and I don't wanna, right, I don't wanna speculate because we don't, there's been a lot of misinformation. Let's talk about that, the need to still do whatever it takes both in messages to the international community and also here in Israel to see that those hostages are returned. Yeah, it's exactly what I feel. I mean, Avigail is back and it's amazing, but so many people are still there in the hands of Hamas, in Hamas or ISIS. There are cruel, cruel people and they kidnapped babies and women and they killed and they slaughtered and they did terrible things to innocent people. And there are so many people are still in the hands of Hamas, women and men and soldiers and babies and we have to bring them back. We could not, we should not forget about them, not even for one minute. Even I, you know, I, you know, like my niece is back, you know, my nephew, I'm sorry, she's back and I can't be more happy that she's back with. What about all the other families that they're beloved ones or not back and they're still there in the tunnels of Hamas, not being fed and being abused, terribly abused. We're hearing terrible things from the people that are coming back from Gaza and they are being abused and terrorized and beaten and not fed and called and I God knows what and we have to bring them back. We have to bring them back. I mean, this is not enough. There are more than a hundred and I can't remember. 160, 80 left there and it's not enough to bring a little, just a little part of them back. They all have to come back. Everybody comes, have to come back for their mothers, for the parents, for the grandmothers, for everyone. Right, and that's certainly our deepest wish at this point. I also want to wish you the best for Avigal and both her brother and sister also as they make their recoveries from this traumatic event. And also, of course, we cannot forget and must continue to mourn for their parents, may their memory of blessing. I thank you for joining me that day on October 7th and I'm glad that there is some closure that we have for that conversation in this one that we're having now. Alamoa, thank you for that. Thank you, thank you so much. And with me in studio, we have our correspondent, Robert Swift, who's been covering a lot of this conflict down south. And Daniel Schach, he's the former Israeli ambassador to France, but he's now in his new title director of diplomacy for the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. By the way, that's live pictures from Gaza whisting flares over Gaza, probably illuminating some fighting there. But Daniel, I want to go to your current job with the Forum for Hostage and Missing Families. It's so encouraging to hear that talk. It's funny how we focus on a few faces. Certainly Avigal, everybody remembers she was the girl with the curls and there was such relief to see. And I have to say on a personal level, because I said she was actually the first one that I had any kind of direct contact with any family member. But again, it wasn't the number that Ella gave, cannot forget. Not only just the fact that there are still hostages, there are still young children, there are still women. And of course, all of the men were still being held in Gaza. Well, you know, Kalev, it's very important what you're saying because one of the objectives of the division at the Forum that I manage is for literally hundreds of foreign representatives who came to the Forum to meet us or met families of hostages through delegations that we send overseas or through Zoom calls or whatever. We would like them, among other things, obviously it's not the only objective, but maybe the most important is to go away from these meetings carrying one face in their mind. The exactly the same process that you describe. Because that humanizes the problem and that makes it something that stays with you and doesn't just, you know, go away with the next new cycle that you follow. It's been two months over two months and it's still a story that many people remember certainly in Israel, obviously, but even worldwide. Greg, well, let me even ask you specifically in that case because Avigal or Abigail had a US citizenship and there seemed to be a personal interest taken even at the level of the White House. In that case, maybe aiding and that was a factor bringing that kind of pressure, humanizing that, giving President Biden a specific face to think about. Perfectly, you know. That's a very important factor. I don't know that that in the end was the determining factor for freeing her because obviously she, thank God, she wasn't the only child that was being freed but there are still other children there and still other fragile hostages that still need attention. And it's also very typical what we heard because people, there is hardly a family that has full happiness. Many of the families that got their loved ones back either have other family members that are still hostage in Gaza or God forbid, people that were murdered. That's not the case with Abigail and her parents were murdered that day. Or both, many families have because these are such close knit communities and even those who, when nothing is, there are no loose ends inside their family, they all feel part of this larger family of the families. The forum of families has become a family and virtually everyone. We have three categories now. We have families of hostages, families of freed hostages and families of murdered hostages. They all come back to continue the work for those remaining. All right, now we did mention the role of the US played in that hostage deal that was released and the involvement of US citizens who are still being held in some cases along with many other countries. The US has been involved in many, many aspects of this conflict. It's also we should know to pressing Israel to do more to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza. Despite that though, the Biden administration is continuing to send Israel some badly needed supplies and weapons to sustain its war against Hamas. With the State Department now announcing that it is sending additional arms to Israel. In one case, even going around Congress to avoid any potential political day delay to that move, Robert Swift here within the studios prepare a report on that. Let's take a look. The United States is doubling down on its support for Israel. Following the use of its veto in the UN Security Council, it is sending an ammunition resupply to bolster Israeli tanks. By passing Congress, the Biden administration is using emergency powers to send $106 million worth of shells as concerns over the cost of US arms supplies to allies and pressure over civilian casualties en Gaza rise. Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that it was in the US's interests to send the 14,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel. The IDF has in the past and continues today to place a high importance on the deployment of tanks. Even in urban combat and the US State Department hopes the weapons shipment will boost Israeli deterrence. But Washington is also signaling to Jerusalem its concerns over the number of non combatants being killed in ongoing fighting. It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection and there does remain a gap between the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground. In the coming weeks, we'll see if this additional fire power gets Israel the victory it's searching for. And here is Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking about US support for Israel at today's cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. I appreciate the just stance the United States has taken at the UN Security Council. Other countries need to understand they can't on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on the other hand call for a ceasefire that will prevent the elimination of Hamas and so Israel will continue its rightful war to destroy Hamas and to achieve the rest of our goals. No, that was separate from a statement there at the cabinet, I should mention. Well, but let's talk about the issue of arms to Israel because it's quite complicated. It enters into a very complex political, domestic political equation going on in Washington DC right now. Yeah, absolutely. So this whole arms shipment to Israel kind of can't be detached entirely from the arms shipments going to Ukraine. Now, as more and more weapons and the cost of these weapons going to Ukraine have risen and risen, the Republican Party in particular is growing increasingly unacceptant of continuing this. And so there's essentially been moves to tie up Congress to attach arms bills which would send more weapons to Ukraine. They have attempted to tie this to other policies that the Republicans want in sort of the usual horse trading that we've come to expect from Washington. Now, this isn't the case with the Israel, with weapons going to Israel. Obviously, the Republican Party are also very supportive of Israel and its policies and its defense. However, out of concern that these sorts of events could delay the shipment of these weapons, the US has pushed one small part of the weapons that it intends to send to Israel. They put that part aside and they shipped it off quickly like we just discussed. But this is a small fragment of a wider arms package that is due to come and that will get congressional scrutiny. Right, and that Israel is going to need to carry on this conflict. Daniel, Mr. Ambassador, this is a very tricky diplomatic dance that Benjamin Netanyahu has to do. No coincidence today releasing the statement, thanking the US for its veto of that resolution calling for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council. It's the only country in the Security Council to veto it, the UK abstained. So again, also the arm shipments that are coming in that are crucial. On the other hand, is US pressure to both ease increased humanitarian aid and if reports can be believed and there was a lot of discussion this weekend about it, whether the US has given some kind of deadline or soft deadline for Israel to wrap up its campaign in Gaza either by the end of the year or it's certainly the end of next month. Two things, Cliff. First of all, let's zoom out just a little bit. We know from previous rounds of wars or operations against Hamas in Gaza, we have termed this as the diplomatic window, the amount of time that Israel is given quote unquote in order to do its business militarily. And of course, the US position is crucial in this window. So in the past, you know, 10 days, two weeks, two and a half weeks, three weeks, tops, we're beyond the second month already. So this is unheard of unprecedented and part of it is and that leads me to the second thing is I think the unprecedented commitment by the United States to back Israel on this this time around. You have a military, a military commitment with a physical military presence in the region. You have a diplomatic commitment which was shown again, not for the first time at the United Nations with a veto, which I should add, the Americans don't use with joy. They don't like using a veto. Nobody likes to be the only country that is because it's sort of by the way it makes life easy for all the other countries who can can have it both ways. They can vote in favor knowing that it's not going to pass. And for some of these countries, I'm sure that was the case. But there is also the very personal, I think emotional involvement by President Biden. And I think that is something that is really unique. The last time you spoke about his attachment to certain hostages, it goes beyond that. So yes, I think this has been a very fundamental and determining factor in Israel's decision making, but it doesn't mean that it's open-ended. And even, you know, I don't know if it's a month, I don't know if it's two months, I don't know if it's negotiable, I don't know if they can be convinced to give more time. So, I think that is what is going to be a limit at some point. And one of the ways to push that limit back is not to allow a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. That is something that the United States won't be able to stomach. Right. I'll just make a couple points. One is, and President Biden is risking some political, his own domestic political capital to taking political risks. lo que se llama lo más progresivo o lefto, o un wing liberal de su party, que es más embiluante de cómo Israel está conduciendo esta operación. Y eso podría venir a jugar, cuando la sesión de elección comienza en Ernest, eso actualmente empieza el próximo mes, al principio de, incluso aunque Presidente Biden está quedando realmente imponente en su party, pero se va a poner un espectáculo de, gente que va a hablar de elecciones y eso va a ser un problema para él, y eso va a ser mucho más problemático. Es crucial para, gradualmente, dejarlo aquí. Y la economía, y eso puede ser una decisión, puede ser sobrevivida por la seguridad o incluso por la habitación de la guerra. Señoras, por favor, estén con nosotros, vamos por un breve descanso, pero vamos a continuar. Muchos están still coming up en este especial broadcast. Israel's war against Hamas, el día 65, pero vamos de vuelta en tres minutos. Es en un estado de la guerra. Las familias, completamente, han quedado en sus bares. Tenemos no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Welcome back to this special broadcast on I-24 News. Israel's war against Hamas, day 65. We were just discussing in the studio here about the relations between Israel and the United States. Let's stay focused on the US now, but look more about how the Israel-Hamas war is impacting on events there internally in the US. Now, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania sparked outrage last week when they were asked at a congressional hearing, simply if calling for the genocide of Jews was against school policy. And none of them could give a simple straight no to that question. Sparking, of course, as they said, outrage. Now, the chips are starting to fall. After the Board of Advisors of the prestigious Wharton Business School came out against her and don't have threatened to pull big ticket donations, the University of Pennsylvania president, Liz McGill, who was one of those at that hearing, resigned yesterday. Our senior correspondent, Owen Altman, looks at how this story is highlighting the larger issue of anti-Semitism on US campuses that has really come to the fore since October 7th. If only Liz McGill had followed Benjamin Franklin's advice, better slip with foot than tongue. And so the University of Pennsylvania president has now resigned. After testimony in Congress last week that pitted donors and even the state's governor against her. Specifically calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment? If it is directed and severe or pervasive, it is harassment. So the answer is yes. It is a context dependent decision, Congresswoman. McGill's resignation Saturday followed that testimony on Capitol Hill, which generated an avalanche of criticism that gained speed. McGill tried to backtrack in the aftermath. It's evil, plain and simple. I want to be clear. A call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening. The walk back was too little, too late. And McGill's wavering before Congress and afterward led many to believe she could not lead through what's seen as a crisis. 36 hours ago, I, along with most of campus, sought refuge in our rooms. As classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews while igniting smoke bombs and defacing school property. And in fact, Penn's president did choose silence. McGill's resignation will boost scrutiny of anti-Semitism on US college campuses. Jewish students continue to charge that rules on free speech have been applied unevenly, protecting other minority groups while not protecting Jews. There are two fixes. Universities could clamp down on pro-Palestinian speech seen as anti-Semitic. Or could relax speech codes across the board, allowing speech targeting a variety of minorities. It's a crossroads and a reckoning. Daniel, as a veteran diplomat, you certainly understand the importance of phrase correct phrasing, especially when you're in a public forum. First of all, it's just astonishing that these university presidents, who should have gone into that hearing well prepared for it, or maybe they were ill-prepared and well-prepared but ill-prepared, just simply were unable to give a straight no answer to that particular question. So first of all, maybe they didn't expect to get such a very straightforward question. But even if they did, I must say that the prepared answer, which clearly they were reading from a piece of paper, is very legalistic, much too convoluted, legally convoluted to make any sense to anybody on such a sensitive issue, very emotional, much should not need any legal support to just express a value. And there were ways to express that, even without putting, I don't know, the position of the university in jeopardy in some way. And even you can read that answer and still offer a personal response to say that such a statement is revolting, or I don't know, it's just very, very clumsy. And I think it's a good thing that the first one of them is gone. The fear issue is, the hesitation seems to be a concern to, I guess, upset, just a way of thinking, that is, if you want to call it politically correct, or if you think there's a problem with that way of thinking currently, then when you get the opportunity, you must have the courage to confront it. And to say this is wrong, to put exterminating Jews into a context that can't make sense to an intelligent woman like the president of a prestigious university. It's just not possible. Right, right. Well, I think we're going to have a... Yeah, so let's go, we have a guest on this. Let's bring in Professor Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School. He joins us this evening from Miami, Florida. Professor Dershowitz, I asked you on this program more than a month ago about this issue when it came up with some incidents at Harvard. At that time, I recall, you demanded that the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, resign. You were a little ahead of the curve as it turned out in this regard. Well, and I wanted to resign not so much because of her, what she said about free speech. I'm in favor of free speech. Let students say whatever they want. What I'm opposed to is the double standard. President Gay is part of this whole diversity, equity, inclusion, nonsense, bureaucracy that doesn't allow students to have free speech when it comes to criticizing other minorities and other groups. If you say anything suggestive of anything critical blacks or gays or transgender people, you're going to be disciplined, you can say anything you want about Jews. So it's not that I want to restrict free speech. I want more free speech. I want a single standard to be applicable to all groups and not a double standard to be applied to Jews and their nation state. Well, then let's look at what happened because Elizabeth McGill has resigned. There's a search committee that's going to be looking to replace her, but I haven't heard anything about committees to rework the university speech code either at UFPEN or Harvard or MIT as well. I mean, how likely do you think that process is likely to happen? How should it happen? Well, it's more than the speech codes. It's the attitude of the universities. The attitudes of the universities are that there's a double standard. The DEI, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion excludes Jews. It presents Jews as oppressors and Jews are the villains and the other groups are the victims. And so until that mindset is totally discredited, we're going to see more and more antisemitism. The DEI bureaucracy has been the hotbed of antisemitism along with these special departments now, Department of Black Studies, Women's Studies, Gay Studies, all of those departments have been at the forefront of the antisemitism at universities. So getting rid of a president here and there is not going to solve the problem. The problem is much, much deeper than that at American universities. Right, now let's be realistic. President McGill's resignation was likely doing part from a major donor to the University of Pennsylvania saying he would withhold or withdraw a $100 million donation. You've had some very prominent donors to Harvard in the business community speak out in a similar way about it. How as much does that process is going to impact on what are private universities? They're not subject to government oversight. So if any pressure is going to come, it's likely they become from those kind of figures. So they are subject to government oversight because they receive government funding. For example, Harvard is being investigated by the Department of Education. I volunteered to be a whistleblower. I probably know more about the workings of Harvard than almost anybody else. I've been a professor there for 60 years. I know where all the bodies are buried. I know about the history of antisemitism that goes back to the 1910s. I know about how when I got to Harvard in 1964, nobody who was Jewish could be a dean or a president. They've had a double standard for years. And they are being investigated. And private donors have a role to play. Now, there are a group of professors now that are standing up and defending President Gay, saying that she's a hero of free speech. And I responded to that letter by the faculty saying, this is not about restricting free speech. We want more free speech. We want the same standards to apply to every single group. We don't want one standard to apply to those who are regarded as oppressors and another standard to apply for those who are deemed to be oppressed. And so this is a worldwide problem. When we see today that a young woman who stands for the environmental movement has now basically put the environmental movement at war against Israel as well. Israel, one of the best environmental countries in the world. But the entire left, hard left, has declared war on Israel. As a great French philosopher today on television said the tactics of Nazism from the hard right have now been transposed to the hard left. And so the problem is much, much deeper than the problem of who will be the president of any given university. Or even whether the speech codes which are generally written in very general terms are applied fairly. All right. I just wanna briefly move on. So of course you are pying publicly about Israel on a number of issues. You did write a piece that was published, I believe it was in the New York Post, this week criticizing. I've also written a whole book. And you've written a whole book there. On October 7th, I wrote it in 35 days, a war against the Jews, how to end Hamas barbarism. I've written 20 out beds since October 7th. So if I were a young man, I'd be volunteering to fight for the IDF. I'm now only old enough to write articles and write books and be on television. But I'm gonna continue to defend Israel in the court of public opinion. Right, let me ask you about the. How to do it. Right, one particular laped criticizing the Lloyd Austin, the secretary of defense who particularly a quote that he made that you can't win an urban warfare by, the lesson is not that you can win an urban warfare by protecting civilians. The lesson is that you can only win an urban warfare by protecting civilians. Seemingly to criticize how the IDF is conducting its operations in Gaza. Just want you to comment on that. Or he's just dead wrong. History proves the opposite. When the United States totally destroyed, Germany totally destroyed, Japan killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. The civilians ultimately thanked the United States and said thank you for ridding us of these horrors of Naziism and of Imperial Japan. And I suspect the same thing might be true here. If Israel manages to read, read Gaza of Hamas, I think it will be more likely to be accepted by the people of Hamas. But at any event, nobody is driving anybody today into Hamas's arms. Something like 70% of the civilians of Hamas have supported the barbarism of October 7th. The numbers of innocent civilians in Gaza who are killed are a fraction of what's been put out in the media. There are many, many people who don't wear the green headdress, but they do allow their houses to be used for tunnels and for rockets and for hiding combatants. These are not innocent people. And many of the people who were killed were killed by rockets, which misfired from Gaza. So we have to be careful about these phony statistics that are being put out. But the main point is that Israel can do the greatest favor to the people of Gaza if it makes sure that Hamas has no role to play in Gaza's future. All right, Professor Alan Dershowitz, thank you for joining us on I-24 News. Thank you. Of course, Professor Dershowitz's views are not shared by many of the world's leaders and at Israel drives deep in Hamas' drunk holds. It is coming under increasing international pressure, including from some close allies that thus far have supported its military operation to do more to prevent civilian casualties and suffering in Gaza. Here's Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking on that point at today's cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. In the last two days, I spoke with both Chancellor Schultz and French President Macron, as well as with other leaders. I told them that it is impossible to support the elimination of Hamas with one hand and pressure us to end the war with the other hand, which will prevent the elimination of Hamas. And I think that in this struggle, justice is with us and unity is with us. When we are united as a people and as a country, there is no force that can prevent us from doing the right thing. Daniel, you spoke about that support. In some ways, unprecedented support by the US, but when it comes to other countries that have been supportive, specifically two names called out there, Olaf Schultz, the Chancellor of Germany, and of course, President Macron of France. We could also write, include the UK, the big three of Europe, you might say, that have been given also in their own way unprecedented support of Israel. But they're starting, you start to sense a shift in their views and in their opinions about at least how the war, not the aims of the war, but how it's being conducted on the ground. Well, yes. I mean, there's a balance for these people to strike between their analysis, their cool-headed analysis of what's going on here. I think they understand that Israel can't just go back to the situation of October 6th and be content with that and just wait for Hamas to rearm and recuperate. Maybe this time it will take much longer than previous rounds, but in the end they will reach the same situation and they have said more than once that they are very proud of what they did on October 7th and they will go ahead and do it again, first opportunity they get. I think they do understand this, but they also have a political reality to consider in their own country. Where Israel's war against Hamas is much less popular, certainly to say the least, then it would be in the United States and it is in the streets of London, Berlin and Paris. Absolutely, absolutely. But I mean, even in these countries, people have, we all of us, have a little bit of a skewed vision of this because we see these demonstrations and they are infuriating and everything, but they don't represent the mainstream of public opinion in Germany or in France or virtually anywhere in Europe. Opinion polls, at least those until a few weeks ago, I haven't seen anything in the past week or two, show that the general public has understanding and solidarity for Israel and what we're seeing is the noisiest part of public opinion, not necessarily the biggest. But these, we also have to understand that the events of October 7th happened on October 7th and the events in Gaza happen every day and they are fed as they should be by the news cycle and they are fed to the public every day and that has an effect on how people feel and I want to believe that in any event the IDF is doing what is possible in order to avoid unnecessary human loss. But Robert, we have seen, even though we heard the determination certainly of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the government not to be deterred from the two main goals of the war, eliminating Hamas and freeing the hostages, but it has made, let's say, tactical changes en response to international pressure. There was initially not allowing humanitarian aid until hostages released or there was access to the hostages and that was changed under pressure. There was the issue of fuel, no fuel for Gaza. The government backtracked on that in the face of pressure and the concerns of a potential humanitarian catastrophe if fuel didn't go in. This evening, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagarri, the IDF spokesperson, saying we're not going to be seeing any more photographs of prisoners or of Hamas stripped to the waist, even though he said this is a tactic Israel has normally used to prevent suicide belts being worn by prisoners. But he understanding the negative international reaction those photographs have had in some quarters and saying it is not going to happen again and he said we will not see those photographs. So, IDF having to make some and the government tactical maneuvers in response to international pressure here. Yeah, indeed. It's worth noting as well that it's not just international pressure. Within Israel itself, domestic pressure has moved the objectives around. Those are two objectives destroying Hamas and releasing the hostages. A lot of attention has been put on the hostages angle and that's why in the lead up to the ceasefire there was such an intention by both the Israeli public and then laterally by the Israeli government to focus on that issue when before it might have been more just a direct attack on Hamas as seen as the essential priority in the early days. You'll have a debate and discussion about that domestically, yeah. Exactly, yeah. Now internationally, yeah, Israel has adjusted its position. That in itself is not a bad thing. Should be adjusting their tactics as they go forward as trying to figure out what's the best way for them to lead the war. If ultimately from Israel's perspective if it is able to increase the amount of time that it has to conduct its war against Hamas by adjusting, exactly. If the window is essentially the greatest tool that Hamas has to survive this, if that window closes then anything Israel can do to extend that window is to its advantage. All right. Now we should note by the way this is the fourth night of Hanukkah which is the traditional Jewish festival of lights and residents of Israel's south who came under attack by Hamas are marking the holiday with a series of events dedicated to the battle underway in Gaza and of course as we just mentioned the call to release all the hostages held there. Now one of those ceremonies took place in Kibbutz Bayeri one of those hottest hit on October 7th. Bishop Ira has worn that in this report. It's Hanukkah, the festival of lights and Jews around the world are celebrating. Here in Kibbutz Bayeri on the Gaza border targeted by Hamas terrorists on October 7 the celebrations are mixed with feeling of sorrow and despair. A group of volunteers and members of the Kibbutz gathered Thursday to light a first candle of Hanukkah. It's very chilling to be here. It's my first time here. This holiday is one of victory. Our victory will be completed when all the Israeli hostages will return home. This was a part of a project led by the Brothers in Arms organization. Special ceremonies took place in 25 communities of the Gaza envelope. In Bayeri one of the participants was Kamelia Hotarishai the grandmother of 13-year-old Gali Tarshensky who was abducted on October 7th and later released. The moment I met Gali again was something I can't express in words. My heart exploded from happiness but also from huge pain from all my granddaughter had to face. I see this event as an opportunity to light a small light which will become bigger and bigger each day and hopefully will have a big light and all the hostages will be released and will eventually return to being a normal country. Another participant was former lawmaker Haim Yellen who has become a popular public speaker since October 7th. We asked Haim about the meaning of the holiday which represents hope and miracles following the horrific events that occurred here. I don't understand miracles. I can only say that we buried many friends and it was very hard for all of us. I hope that today as we light the first light of Chanukah miracles will start to happen. At least 90 people were murdered in Bayeri on October 7th and 30 were abducted. As days go by more and more evidence of the horrific attack comes to light but residents of this small community are still determined to come here and to celebrate the Jewish holiday and to hope for a better future in Bayeri and the entire region. So, are these photographs of mass surrenders of Hamas fighters or are they rather photographs of the Israeli military screening the civilian population? Is it a combination of both? It's unclear. What does seem to be the case is a good tool for Israel to throw in Hamas' face to say, look, some of your soldiers are surrendering already. If they can say this to them, this is a good additional point of pressure to apply to Hamas. I think the proof and the pudding will be just in this kind of resistance that Israel faces critically as it goes into Chan'younis or Robert Swift. Ambassador Daniel Shek, thank you for joining us. I want to go back, bring this show to a close by again going back to the hostages or one of them who was released, another one who was released, and that is Maya Shchem. She's the 21 year old tattoo artist who was one of those taken captive by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival on October 7th. She's one of those faces that got recognized because a few days after that she was seen in this footage released by Hamas with one wounded arm being wrapped in bandages. Now, she was finally released after 55 days in captivity as part of that deal mediated by the US and Qatar. Now, she has released photographs on Instagram. I mentioned she's a tattoo artist showing a new tattoo on her arm and the date of the attack and the words, we will dance again, a reference to the Nova Music Festival, of course. Her Instagram also had the message I will never forget October 7th, 2023. The pain and the fear, the difficult sites, the friends who won't come back and those we must bring back. But we will win, we will dance. And I would say that is also very much in the own way in the spirit of the Maccabees on this Hanukkah holiday. So I want to wish all of you a happy holiday. Bring the hostages home now. Thank you for joining us on this broadcast on I-24 News. I-24 News Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Israel is at war. Make an investment in Israel Bonds. It is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel. Visit israelbonds.com and invest now. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. 24 Israel bajo ataque. 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. Unicamente en I-24 News. El red cross ha yet to gain access to any of them. Fighting continues inside Gaza a short while ago. IDF spokesman Daniel Higari saying the military has discovered a large tunnel network in Gaza City below the complex called Palestine Square. It's home to Hamashe Yahya Sinwar's office and assets of senior terror officials. They connect to the Shifa Hospital. In recent hours the terror group warning that not a single hostage will leave the Gaza Strip alive unless its demands are met. Spokesman for its armed wing Abou Abader was speaking in a televised broadcast. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu is saying in a video message that this is the beginning of the end for Hamas terrorists. Let's take a listen to more news. In recent days dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces. They lay down their weapons they surrender themselves to our heroic soldiers. It will take more time the war is ongoing but this is the beginning of the end for Hamas and I say to the Hamas terrorists it's over don't die for Sinwar surrender now. So for more we welcome to studio Major General in the Reserves Eitan Dungart, former military secretary to three ministers of defense and former coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories in the IDF and our senior editor Guy Azrael thank you both so much for being here. Eitan I'm going to start with you because the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the ground operation so far is at 98 new information that close to 600 soldiers have been wounded in that time in the ground operation. Your assessment of the risks that exist right now is the fighting continues. Yes, we have to to understand as we said from the beginning the war in Gaza is the most difficult war in urban area that I know for the last 30 years and in my estimate it's all over the region and maybe all over the world because the decision to take Gaza Strip after 12 or years and specifically 8 to 9 years that it was built deep the underground tunnels and the arms, the arsenal of weapons systems and also the way that Hamas built its forces brought to a situation that the fighting by the ground forces are very difficult we need a lot of patience we have to see the courage of the soldier and in my opinion the moral of these units you cannot move 100 meters without being in a high unity level and understanding the very important goal and I think in this fact this is the way that the IDF is active for almost 70 days and the main heroes for the last 2 months more or less are the IDF soldiers, women and the men that are taking a part on this kind of the battlefield the results is not easy it's really a big pain when you hear mostly one in day, one in two days we call it the way, I cannot say even payment but this is the way that soldiers give their life for something of the independent of this country fighting for our future existence here I think there is one no one that does not understand the meaning after what happened the tragedy of the 7th of October they not understand the meaning the importance for our future for our generation and unfortunately and in a said way I say that the killing number of the soldiers that were killed and wounded etc is high but we are going and working more and more until we will achieve the last victory that it means a very clear goal Hamas will not be the main continue to be the entity in Gaza, Hamas will be broken structure and we need in Gaza a different way of life without it we cannot leave it on the 7th of October can never ever happen again gentlemen stay with us we got much more to unpack but right now let's go to our correspondent Pierre Steckelbach she joins us from southern Israel and Pierre we know Benjamin Netanyahu saying that dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to Israeli forces in recent days we just heard his video message saying don't die for Yahya Sinwar surrender now and we will be there this hour Rappenita first fighting is going on in different parts of the Gaza Strip we've seen major plumes of smoker rising from the northern part of the Gaza Strip from Bet Leher and Bet Hanun there we've been hearing the Israeli artillery and also air strikes as well as machine gun sounding throughout several hours in the late afternoon early evening there we do know that also fighting is continuing in the central part specifically in the Sujaiye neighborhood the Israeli army announced that they assassinated the battalion commander of the Sujaiye battalion who is responsible for anti-tank fire into Israel that is already the second time that the IDF is saying that it assassinated the Sujaiye battalion commander in an earlier round of the fighting it assassinated his predecessor but the fighting is very much focusing on the southern part of the Gaza Strip on Haan Yunus city in Gaza where the Israeli ground offensive is progressing so that means that the entire Gaza Strip is now a location of heavy fighting which obviously takes a heavy toll on the civilian population there the world food program saying it cannot conduct its work anymore and the WHO saying that this is the precondition for the spread of serious diseases there however the Israeli army is still very much committed to fulfilling the goals of this war which is of course to return those 37 hostages and also to dismantle Hamas both politically and militarily and this is why also the southern part of the Gaza Strip is very much significant for this operation now because this is where the IDF estimates that leaders such as Yahya Sinwar and other senior functionaries of Hamas are hiding out and also are hiding those 137 Israeli hostages so the ground offensive is continuing all focuses on the south but really all of Gaza has become heavy fighting the IDF announced today that since the beginning of this war since the 7th of October targeted 22,000 targets in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas and other groups and since the resumption of fighting after the ceasefire after the truce which is about 2 weeks ago it targeted 3,000 targets so that really shows you how much the offensive is ongoing this war is ongoing at the same time Hamas is still able to fire rockets we have seen that also today however at this slower pace we have seen about 6 times red alert sirens going off that was in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip but no casualties or injuries were reported Benita. Thank you so much that's our correspondent Pierre Stegelbach live from southern Israel more to come from Pierre in the coming hours and now back to studio I want to bring in our senior editor Guy Azrael and Guy so much focus right now on what is transpiring inside there from our colleague Pierre we also know that a former Hamas minister in an interrogation has made some unusual remarks we don't have all the details they are all coming through right now but I understand that this person is saying that crazy people led by Yahya Sinwar destroyed Gaza tell us more what do we know yes we're talking about ex-Pastinian minister minister of communication and his quote is saying I have not seen anyone in Gaza who supports Yahya Sinwar it's a rather straight statement we've seen the candies delivered throughout the Gaza Strip after that terrible onslaught the massacre of 1200 Israelis and cold blood murder of babies elderly women men in their homes we've seen the massive support for this massacre not just on the streets of Gaza we've seen surveys by a Palestinian university a Birzach university showing the immense support for this massacre in Gaza so let's take these statements with a pinch of salt he does call Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas crazy people well he was part of the same Hamas leadership obviously trying to save his skin here in this case I didn't want to touch on what Mr. Hezbollah spoke about just a short while ago and that is the heavy price that Israel is paying we have seen another proof of what it means for the Israeli public but more than that even for the Israeli leadership over the weekend with the devastating loss of the son of Gadi Eisencott former chief of staff a member of the war cabinet just a very sad reminder to all of us that this war touches each and every one of us Israelis many of us know close friends family and others who are in Gaza right now fighting this war risking their lives Gadi Eisencott lost his son he then lost his nephew just a day later as well these people are not fighting or not managing the war from a distance it touches each and every one of us that know someone who is hurt on October 7 someone who is murdered, someone who is kidnapped etc etc the people of Israel are very clear there is a I think a consensus in the Israeli public about the goals of this war I think more than perhaps any other war in Israel's existence about why Israel is fighting this war and fortunately being able to take in the serious heavy tolls from this war so many Israeli soldiers sadly losing their lives and we even heard many of the bereaved families saying well we certainly hope our sons did not die for nothing so that the Israeli government goes ahead and brings back security to the people of Israel we are seeing flares up in the air now in the skies of Gaza certainly terrible tragedy for the Eisencott family we are experiencing two young sons in the space of just a handful of days as you say the pain is real and the nation is mourning as you say we were looking at live images on our screen right there it was coming out of Gaza it's on your screen right now those were flares coming out of the Gaza Strip we will unpack in a short while exactly what that means but right now let's go to our correspondent Zach Andrews he joins us from Israel and red alert siren zacks happening in the Upper Galilee that was in the past hour or so earlier several Israeli soldiers injured by his bullet attacks in northern Israel what is the latest on that front and perhaps it speaks to where the battle or at least where the shift of focus was today that so many of those red alarms came in these communities near the coast just north of Haifa when we've seen a lot on this location where we are Kiran Shimona here more closer to the Golan Heights this of course is a very long border with many points of access for Hezbollah to come down towards the southern Lebanon border fire on several Israeli positions and then retreat further inland to try and escape these IDF retaliatory strikes earlier today there was what appears to be some aerial drone that infiltrated Israeli airspace the IDF says it was intercepted Hezbollah is claiming that it was a suicide drone which would likely make it an Iranian piece of equipment that they supplied and that the suicide drone hit this Israeli target and injured several Israeli troops the IDF says no it was intercepted but there was still damage and two soldiers moderately wounded several others received strapnel wounds and smoke inhalation so it must have had some force to the impact wherever this did land or whatever ended up happening the IDF says that more will be released later but for now this is a kind of a story that's playing out almost every day we're seeing more and more aerial infiltrations in par with on par with the number of rocket attacks, mortar launches and ATGM launches that are fired by personnel and Zack IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari also addressing the threats on the northern front during his briefing just a short while ago the latest on that front it's remarkable to be in this position where we're hearing the outgoing artillery we just heard some location very close to us launch 5 to 7 or so outgoing artillery shells pointed at that border it's remarkable to be in a location where the IDF is going to be traveling over Israeli heads you know as they drive down the highway as it's trying to reach into just on the border or just across the border to strike Hezbollah this is an area that is largely evacuated but many people have stayed because these are their homes these are their livelihood if they have homes right on the border maybe they started staying in hotels en the northern border the statements that are coming out of the Israeli government now indicate that until the UNSC 1701 this United Nations Security Council vote that is over a decade old now until that is upheld and becomes the reality here which is pushing Hezbollah above the Latani River that only then will these evacuation orders be removed and that people can return to their northern border communities what that looks like is the big question that's going to be a challenge of either immense offensive capabilities to strike Hezbollah with force and push them back beyond that river or some sort of diplomatic solution that gets Hezbollah again an Iranian backed group that has shown complete disregard to this agreement over the last decade some sort of international pressure I think we're seeing the rhetoric increase quite a bit from the IDF on that element of force and perhaps that is playing into their efforts to continue the international pressure angle trying continue to push Hezbollah into a position where they must they must abide by that Security Council resolution but of course that timeline is really what they care about when can they return to their homes and that's the part that is just so unclear Thank you so much Correspondent Zach Anders updating us live from Northern Israel more to come from Zach of course in the coming hours still in studio your thoughts on exactly that what Israel needs to be doing now so that it can make sure that all those residents from the northern part of the country that evacuated in recent weeks as to when it will be safe for them to go back to their homes I think that if and it is our duty to made the situation very clear to the civilians I think that we cannot estimate yet when exactly I think it's needed to be let's say under a process for another one to two months at least and I'll tell you why the situation in the north has been declared by Israel as the second area it's very important to make or to achieve the goal in Gaza because it has impact besides Gaza on the way that the north are looking about it when I say the north is Iran and Hezbollah I think that the active the operation of the ground core in the deterrence towards the Israel capacity of the ground forces secondly I think that we have to wait in this period for two major efforts parallel efforts that has to be done together one on the political event, the policy that has been started but it is slowly I mean the efforts by the United States the efforts by other kind of countries that has interest in Lebanon and the second one is the military one I cannot be optimistic towards the fact that the efforts that are done now with Lebanon or Hezbollah or Iran towards we draw from the line, from the border towards the depths of the south area of Lebanon will be succeed without a line of military escalation but for Israel it's much more better now under the policy that has declared at the beginning of the war that first Gaza, second we will see where is the north so the outcome of it is that the thousands of people that are now unfortunately are not at home for their safe should be stayed but under one demand from them to the country as a duty of the country to return back under change in the situation among the north border and it means no more Hezbollah in a perimeter at least for 10 to 15 kilometers from the border Guy. First of all as we speak reports out of Syria now of explosions in the capital Damascus with reports from the official news agency in Syria that the aerial defense systems were activated in the country following some sort of strike that is happening there going back to what Mr. Dangot has said right now while we heard the chief of staff on the northern border just this evening reiterating very similar things we need to return to a different situation both in the north and in the south and in the north and in the north much more extensive strikes of the IDF not just following launches but also in preparation of launches when the IDF spots, squads ready to launch rockets or anti-tank missiles it does strike them on Lebanese territory to return home for security strike them on Lebanese territory before they are able to hit Israeli civilians or soldiers also the IDF spokesman making it very clear that they are trying to clear the border from the presence of all these Hezbollah outposts something that is very concerning of course for the residents there still a long way before they will be moved up north to over the Litany River to the UN resolution and we are very far from that about the report that guys just mentioned concerning explosions on the sky of Damascus or Beirut for me it is much more reality that it is something that may be in Damascus because this is the regular way that shows that Israel continue with its efforts to prevent any kind of Iranian activity inside Syria in order to strength their way of arsenal of missiles etc in Beirut it is a question mark it can be a sonic bomb it can be nothing because of the fact that Israel now prefer to keep the zone of the area between Israel and Hezbollah only around the border and Beirut on the depths is something that point on escalation so we have to wait to know more later there is no report about Beirut just to be clear so Damascus means we continue on the regular mechanism of not accepted any kind of activities from Iran in Syria in order to strength to build the Syrian, the Hezbollah forces or the she is malicious which supply them missiles or other kind of pieces of arsenal of weapons system research or development etc that we have to fight and to continue with this very clear procedure it will be strike over and above what we are discussing the threat side of Lebanon over and above what we are discussing the developments right now in Damascus earlier in the day in Cyprus two Iranians arrested after a clot to kill Israeli terrorists what's the latest update on that front well the latest is that the target of that attack was an Israeli businessman who resides in Cyprus he was informed and was told to leave Cyprus following these threats the Mossad earlier today confirming these reports in Cypriot media that it thwarted together with Cypriot authorities infrastructure of Iranian terror and attempted to execute terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Cyprus we also know that this infrastructure was actually prepared by the Iranians a long time ago and about a month ago they have reused that infrastructure that allowed the intelligence forces to gather the right information about that operation and this is one of course of many Iranian attempts to execute attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets as well as Israeli embassies around the world the Mossad is saying that since October 7th Iran has expanded of course its efforts to do so we see that obviously all over the world we've seen attempts dozens of attempts to execute such attacks that is what the Mossad is saying this is just one of many proxies that Iran is operating and the Khoutis are the main ones it means that besides the circle around Israel that we can account Gaza Strip, Lebanon border the Syrian area in the Golanites she is malicious inside the Golanites we can identify the Khoutis in Yemen we have another arena of terrorism that as Guy mentioned the architect of planning and send the people at this case in Cyprus what was published showed us also involvement from the Turkish area in Cyprus while it was be moved from that part to the Greek area in Cyprus that means also the Turkey now that made its relationship with Israel in a very low level can try to push to release more activities against Israel a few moments we got a short break coming up Guy Israel, thank you very much you are going to stay with us a quick break, stay tuned Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she is our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well la analisis 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 I24 News en Gaza en el mismo tiempo, la administración sigue enviando a Israel supply y armas para sostener la guerra contra Hamas el Departamento de Estado anunciando que está enviando armas adicionales a Israel incluso viajando al Congreso para evitar el debate potencial político Correspondido, Robert Swift tiene más en este reporte la Unidad de Estados Unidos Following the use of its veto in the UN Security Council it is sending an ammunition resupply to bolster Israeli tanks bypassing Congress the Biden administration is using emergency powers to send $106 million worth of shells as concerns over the cost of U.S. arms supplies to allies and pressure over civilian casualties in Gaza rise Secretary of State Anthony Blinken determined that it was in the U.S. interests to send the 14,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel the IDF has in the past and continues today to place a high importance on the deployment of tanks even in urban combat and the U.S. State Department hopes a weapons shipment will boost Israeli deterrence but Washington is also signaling to Jerusalem its concerns over the number of non-combatants being killed in ongoing fighting It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection and there does remain a gap between the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground In the coming weeks we'll see if this additional fire power gets Israel the victory it's searching for So for more insight it's a pleasure to welcome to studio Ambassador to the U.S. and former Deputy Israeli Minister and Parliament Member and still with us, Major General in the Reserves, Etan Dangot and our senior editor Guy Israel Gentlemen, thank you all so much but Dr. Aran, I'm going to come to you specifically about the U.S.-Israeli relationship so much has been made in recent weeks about this apparent deadline the U.S. is putting on Israel to end its operation and Israel to decide which is what many people said was the case all along your thoughts. So you're asking me which is right and the answer is yes, they're both right. Right, tell us more. The administration is talking in completely different voices you call it good cop, bad cop so you have John Kirby who is the spokesperson for the National Security Council you have Matt Miller as the spokesman for the State Department saying Israel, we're fully behind Israel's right and criticizing us for killing too many Palestinians and not even mentioning Hamas, it's amazing the word Hamas wasn't even in remarks and then you've got Anthony Blinken saying to us we have to speed up the operation and at the same time cut down on collateral damage to the Palestinians which of course those are two incompatible goals because you're going to speed up you're going to cause more civilian casualties you can't have it both ways clearly the administration is trying to fight two different goals to support Israel and that is deep I think in the personality and character of the President of the United States he believes in evil, believes in Israel believes that we have to carry this fight out to the end and the other hand politics as a close friend of mine in the journalist community in the United States said it's no longer about Gaza for this administration it's about Michigan and as the numbers keep on going down and you know administration is not just one man administration is tens of thousands of people who are looking at the President saying Israel and they're killing too many Palestinians so on the one hand they're trying to appease the progressive wing that is abandoning the President and saying look we're coming down hard on the Israelis on the question of collateral damage on the other hand they are staying in lock step with the President's own gut feeling and also his supporters in the American Jewish community who are also significant in the Democratic Party and saying we're going to support Israel to the end they're both right which you're saying but they're opposite messages well let's take a look at Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Israel has the right intent when it comes to minimizing civilian casualties in Gaza as you said but the results are not always manifesting themselves let's take a listen to more from his interview on CNN we are in almost constant discussions with the Israelis about to ensure that they understand what their obligations are to make sure that we understand how they are using whatever arms they have as well as more broadly I can't evaluate a specific instance in the moment but I can tell you we're looking at everything your thoughts on exactly that they're trying to do both things he's going to support us he's going to get these tank shells to us which by the way was quite extraordinary those of us remember back in 2014 during protective edge when we asked for ammunition from the Obama administration Obama administration said no he's causing too many Palestinian casualties the president not only got us the tank shells he went around congress to get it to us very very quickly so that's deeply appreciated on the other hand they're sending out a message to the world that Israel is not acting completely in accordance with international law and so on one way the administration is contributing to the momentum to that security council resolution condemning us and then casting the veto on that resolution and this is about politics they're under a difficult situation talking about politics one might have been surprised I certainly was when we heard the latest comments from senator Bernie Sanders a harsh critic of Israel for a while but now he says you can't have a permanent ceasefire with a group like Hamas let's take a listen in his own words terms of a permanent ceasefire I don't know how you can have a permanent ceasefire with Hamas was said before October 7th and after October 7th that they want to destroy Israel they want a permanent war I don't know how you have a permanent ceasefire with an attitude like that well certainly many in this part of the world might agree with him but again might be surprised tell him also given just for that he's got his place in the world to come as we say yes and he's been saying this by the way this is not new he's been saying this the whole time he's a progressive hero Bernie Sanders he's the icon and for him to come out and say that is no small thing and I know him I know his positions well personally and I'm surprised there's a person who has been supportive of boycotts of Israel and sanctions and when the chips were really really down he was there why changes tune though what do you make of that it's a moral compass it's a certain moral compass it's a certain clarity he has on this issue and I think he maybe understands that all those years of playing that game with the progressives of the boycotts and the delegitimization that wasn't going to get with him and I've spent a long time with him he is deeply Jewish in his way and feels himself very Jewish and feels a connection to Israel he was on a kibbutz back in the 60s he was a volunteer so he has that default position and I think it's coming out in this remarks there are very similar things from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of course who is a much more mainstream Democrat and that is no surprise and nonetheless very good to hear as well Doctor Aaron I want you to change your stance in terms of the US focus and take a look now at Vladimir Putin because we know that Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the Russian president they spoke apparently for around 50 minutes just under an hour Vladimir Netanyahu didn't mince his words according to the reports in terms of the messaging at the same time just a short while ago in this broadcast we heard Israel is allegedly conducting strikes in Damascus not confirmed but there are certainly strikes happening in Damascus in the past hour we know that Russia has always turned a blind eye to Israel's activity when it tries to make sure that Iranian arrangement can't happen there talk to us about this diplomatic communication between Russia and Israel at this very important juncture and the kind of messaging that Benjamin Netanyahu needs to get across to Vladimir Putin who has his own relations with Hamas well Russia's a frenemy and recent years it's been more of an enemy than a friend one hand between one out of seven and one out of every five is really speak Russians it's a strong diaspora connection here we have trade relations with Russia Syria the presence of the Russian army in Syria and letting our forces act to prevent Iran from transforming Syria into a forward base we bomb all the time and we have connections with the Russian military and we really have not had any real clashes with them since 2015 when they moved their army into Syria on the side of the side of the Syrians and the side of Iran but in recent years the Russian military presence in Syria ha gone very much diminished it's gone from 4,000 soldiers to about 1,000 soldiers they've removed all of their advanced anti-aircraft systems the F-300 and moved them into the Ukrainian front and so Israel's interest you know business fear of coming into a class with Russia has gone far down in Syria and we continue to operate very freely there on the other hand Russia has come out a four square behind Hamas in this crisis and condemning us and voting against us it is a source of friction I think we'd be very, very careful though in making phone calls with this man keep in mind he's regarded by our principal ally the United States of America as a war criminal and you have to be very, very conscious in having that conversation with him and the U word has got to enter into that conversation somewhere, the Ukrainian word and what does it mean? In our position on Ukraine the prime minister's location on the Ukraine has been less than unequivocal it's been sometimes ambivalent and we have been criticized for that ambivalence by some of our best friends in Congress like Lindsey Graham and so we walk a very delicate line right now with Russia I would like to see, I personally would like to see us take a much more adamant position on Ukraine A and be very cautious in talking to Putin at any level. What did you make of the hostage deal release when we saw additional Israeli-Russian citizens being released and Hamas saying at the time they were doing it as a gesture to Vladimir Putin what did you make of that at that time? I saw what it was that Russia has been supporting Hamas and this is the quid pro quo but you get back, it makes Putin look good makes Putin look influential and makes us whatever looks less influential because we have been able to get our nationals out entirely and yes, I was not least bit surprised by that gesture and that brings me to probably the most pressing issue when it comes to the heart of the nation right now and that is the 137 hostages that are still being kept in captivity by terrorists, it's more than nine weeks now. Who are the players Dr. Oren, realistically who can be putting pressure to make some kind of deal happen soon so that these hostages can get home safely realistically. Realistically you have a lot of players, you're going to have the Europeans they have influenced some of the Iranians over Qatar and there's really Qatar, Qatar, Qatar, Qatar here the United States has influenced over Qatar because the United States has a major Air Force base there, it has tremendous investments there, universities have open branches there, all sorts of influence at the end of the day the greatest leverage which Israel has is the IDF and as the IDF gets closer and closes that noose around Hamas and I bet you my colleagues here on the panel will agree with me to see them come back to the negotiating table to negotiate another round of ceasefires and hostages releases the big problem they're going to have is these hostages now have been tortured, they have been abused some of them sexually abused and Hamas is going to be loathed to let that come out it's not going to run down to their benefit when these people come out and speak it will be very difficult and also at the end of the day they won't give up all the hostages because that's their ultimate get out of Gaza free card as they leverage A-10 I think we are in a very critical week because besides the fact that the military maneuvering inside the central part in the north part of Gaza and towards Hanyunas and it's achievements that step by step only by climbing up in this kind of achievements I think we are pressing Hamas more and more in my opinion we should see and we have to do a lot in the coming few days will be such a pressure on Hamas leadership and also on the other end there is kind of negotiation concerning the hostages issue with some countries in a low level that's the way it should be done but in my opinion the results of the outcome we have to see as a very important goal to create the conditions for another step another part of agreement in order to make our main efforts for release these people because the clock time for their life is coming more and more short because of the time they have been old by Hamas in the tunnels we had the terrible stories it's a tragedy after a tragedy secondly also the pressure on Hamas bring them to be much more extremist towards them besides what it was described till now from the stories and in my opinion the urgent issue besides it's for sure that only by today by military maneuvering reaching more achievements pressing the Hamas we will have the opportunity to open another gate for opportunity for such activity even for stopping the attack for a while or to see what's going on the main duty or the main obligation from Israel as a state towards its civilian is to make sure that these people will come back home and we heard the IDF spokesman Niel Hagaris speaking today making very clear that IDF plans to eliminate to kill the senior Hamas official Mohamed Def and that is important when does the IDF do that really do it now if it has the right information and what does that mean for future negotiations about the safety of the Israeli hostages that are still alive in those underground tunnels does that create a situation in which the last senior officers in Hamas who hold on to these hostages say well if we are next maybe this is the time to release them this is something that the IDF the Israel as a whole is trying to do as part of this ongoing pressure trying to distant the last senior officers of Hamas from the senior ones who are expected to be eliminated as we don't expect a psychopath like Sinwar to give up his weapons and just to surrender to the hands of the IDF Doctor Aaron just a few seconds left your thoughts on the Red Cross yet to have access to any of the hostages we are talking about time frames here around another potential deal but there isn't a hostage release deal who needs to put the right pressure right now to make sure that the Red Cross does its actual job how about the United States, how about the European community Red Cross does not recognize the red Jewish star recognizes the red Cresif not the red Jewish star we've had a long and problematic relationship with the Red Cross but we do have the means and pressure of the Red Cross to go in there Will Hamas ultimately let them do it knowing what the Red Cross is going to find once they visit the hostages that's a different story beyond heart breaking Doctor Michael Aaron, always a pleasure to hear your insights thank you so much for being here Eitan Dungott, you're going to stay with us Guy Azrael, thank you very much as well for your insights on this breaking news edition now on October the 7 three members of the Calderon family were kidnapped in Arez, both children are home now but their father remains in Hamas captivity in this next report by Channel 12 news, Sahar tells older sister Gaia about the abduction more than nine weeks ago the conditions in captivity and their fears for their father let's take a look welcome to Gaia's vlog, take one I was with Sahar and Arez this whole time and I've been away from them for a day now so let's see what they're doing Arez, you're famous now can I take a picture with you I pushed it in my mouth cutie, want to make a plane is it recording? yes, Gaia, Gaia come on what, are you serious? yes, heck what am I three years old patented in captivity I'm back to the age of six come on do you want to talk let's maybe tell what happened in the kibbutz because you know, there are a lot of stories true, the fear you experience there yes, do you understand the fear of death you know that mom came to the kibbutz and she found your and dad's shirt behind the safe room where you escaped from the window not behind no, in the bush in the bush, yes and she found the shirt and I was freaking out then when she was freed she came back and told me what had happened they just got out and dad told her take off your shirt because it was white they were both wearing a white shirt dad and her, he told her take off your shirt because it stands out it was badly hit I don't know how they didn't catch us for two hours yes and we saw the whole thing we were in the first neighborhood the first row in the kibbutz that they entered, they entered in a crazy rush as if they were drunk from it said some of them took drugs makes sense hard drugs, yes that's what made it possible to be so crazed, animals without thinking about it they didn't have to think it was like living in a movie to them you understand? it was like I was in a movie the bush they were hiding in was in front of the fence where all the terrorists entered from they saw all of them from this side there was a road that everyone passing by could see us so we went right into the bush and crouched down and we were quiet and I couldn't move I was uncomfortable, I lost sensation in my legs when did you split up from dad dad told you to run to another place and you didn't notice dad told us when we actually got to the bush he said if someone catches us or grabs us we run over there he showed where we set a place eras and dad ran there as we agreed and I couldn't move because of my legs so oh you tried to move and couldn't? yes I couldn't move and my feet were showing he was standing in front of me and I also only saw his feet and I saw that he had a weapon and he shot right in my direction he shot near your feet? yes he shot and then I got out of that bush then I saw that they were taking eras oh really? I saw that you didn't tell me that didn't I tell you? oh you actually saw eras being taken I saw a boy with a black shirt and one or two people just took him and he went eras, before they took him he tried to climb it was like a space between two walls and he just climbed with his legs and hands tried to climb to the roof he almost reached the roof but some terrorists came in and said to him get down no he said that a terrorist came to him with a gun like that pointed at the gun and told him come as if to climb down wow what a smart boy he was yes I just remember him shouting I don't know if he shouted but he said enough enough enough the guys are careful with these ones I didn't see dad at all even when I ran away I don't know I didn't see him he was running fast so I didn't see where he went eras saw dad being beaten badly yes he saw them dragging dad on the floor oh he saw him being dragged on the floor I think that's what he told me I saw my father's jeep on fire then within 15 minutes the whole neighborhood was filled with all the citizens of Gaza they opened the gate there it's like I was inside Gaza that's how it felt only in your house in the yard of your house yes yes in my safe place I heard lots of gunshots and screams from all around I was stressed out how stressed I thought they were going to kill me I said well I'm going to die then suddenly I ran to the other side because I didn't know what to do and I thought that I would be able to escape from there then I came there and ten men terrorists just looked at me and then they approached me and I sat down on the floor to show them that do what you want I'm with you no I was just scared then two terrorists just picked me up and took me and put me on a motorcycle at half past nine were you still at the kibbutz and they took me now that Sahar is back we know exactly what's happening there and we know that it's impossible to survive something like this for so long we are terribly worried about him terribly especially since the only thing we know is that he was beaten like crazy and probably injured I don't believe they settle for letting him bleed a little I don't know the situation there is not good physically the food, the water, the conditions that is in danger because hostages do not receive even the basic needs to survive we really worry about our father and we want him to come back he deserves to see his family all the people still there they deserve to come home it's not just our father it's the fathers of many families yes, Aris saw that he was in a bad condition I also know from Sahar and Aris that the idea is constantly bombing it's right next to them it doesn't matter where they are it's really incessant and scary bombings I'm gonna bug Aris a bit what are you filming? make a pretty face eating donuts for Hanukkah handsome if you didn't know, Sahar when she came out of captivity she looked like a model absolutely not as if she'd come off the catwalk absolutely not wow, God when Sahar and Aris came back I think it was a crazy moment Sahar looks at me and says I love you I grabbed her head and told her everything is fine I'm here and finally I could calm her down and take care of her properly you see that these are the same children the same siblings they are the ones you really waited for just with added fears not feeling comfortable not feeling safe anywhere it's the fear of going out it's the fear of sleeping alone in the dark it's not trusting anyone it's a great trauma they experienced which in my opinion will never go away I'm Benita Levente 65 of the war and the fate of 137 hostages held by terrorists in Gaza remains unclear the hostages range in age from a baby of under a year to men and women in their 80s they've spent more than 9 weeks in captivity abducted during the Hamas terror rampage on the 7th of October the Red Cross has yet to gain access to any of them in recent hours the terror group warning that not a single hostage will leave the Gaza strip alive unless the group's demands are met fighting continues inside Gaza a short while ago idea of spokesman Daniel Higari saying the military has discovered a large tunnel network in Gaza city below the complex called Palestine Square it's home to Hamas head Yahya Sinwara's office and assets of senior terror officials strategic tunnels in the area connect to the Shifa hospital in recent hours the terror group warning that not a single hostage will leave the Gaza strip alive meanwhile Benjamin Netanyahu saying in a video message that dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to Israeli forces in recent days sending a message to terror operatives saying don't die for Yahya Sinwara surrender now Still with me in studio Major General in the Reserves Etan Dangat and now joining us as well Legal Expert and Political Analyst Daniel Pomeranz the CEO of Reality Check Thank you so much for being here in studio but I want to start with you Etan specifically on one of the security fronts we haven't got to yet and that is concerns around the West Bank talk to us about those security concerns and the steps being taken to hopefully quell tensions there and the West Bank even we are talking a lot about what's going in Gaza as the main arena of the war and the second one in the north between Israel and Hezbollah in the middle in the West Bank we have a lot of escalations but I can call it escalation that are contained by the central command of the IDF with the internal security service which are operating each night in order to prevent or to keep or to kill terrorists that are planning to attack and to create their activities from Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm and even came to Hebron the second one is under intelligence information to prevent in advance this kind of activities and the third one is to arrest Hamas people who are active and you know they are from Hamas y it's the same interest as the Palestinian authorities as because they used also to arrest the people of Hamas that are a threat to their entity so according to this situation we are already more than 2 months according to the timetable of the war that there are something like 80,000 people under permit that are not going to work in Israel and it was a right decision from the beginning of the war but meanwhile while you see the atmosphere in the west bank people start to feel what is the lack of salaries secondly you don't see yet a temp of the majority of the population to the street combination between terrorism with local violence activities in the street as it was in the past according to this and in order from the majority of the population was raised opportunity in order to start pilots of releasing people to work and on the other end the lack of those people who are working in Israel like in builders or in other places will give the answer in advance so it was done today first discussion on the economical cabinet and it was absolutely with side to side negatively let's say it was not confirmed but it's now coming to the table of the security cabinet this is the major one to decide in my opinion it will be mistake not to start in such time that has been passed according to the fact the Palestinian authorities is weak and we would like to increase the pressure on the majority in the street we have to try and to make some categories of workers like people from age of 50, people who don't have any kind of problem from the past etc. and try to release and to see how it will be done and to prepare also the Israeli society for it but the wing party of this government that is really has their reasons not to let's say they are claiming that what has been till the 6 of October is a great mistake I'm not agree because at the end we need one partnership this is the Palestinian authority secondly you have to release the money third you don't have to increase the problem to 3.2 million people all over the west bank and it's needed a stage of making some pilots and then to go on and to prepare the Israeli society for such a process in order to prevent any kind of suspicions or violence towards them. Certainly we'll be waiting to see what the decision makers decide in the end thank you so much for breaking down what is at stake there Right now let's take a look at what's happening further afield the board of advisors of the Wharton Business School came out against her and then donors threatened to pull big ticket donations it all became too much and the president of the University of Pennsylvania Liz McGill resigned on Saturday our senior correspondent Owen Ultiman takes a deeper look if only Liz McGill had followed Benjamin Franklin's advice better slip with foot than tongue So the University of Pennsylvania president has now resigned after testimony in congress last week that pitted donors and even the state's governor against her specifically calling for the genocide of Jews does that constitute bullying or harassment if it is directed and severe pervasive it is harassment so the answer is yes it is a context dependent decision congresswoman McGill's resignation Saturday followed that testimony on Capitol Hill which generated an avalanche of criticism that gained speed McGill tried to backtrack in the aftermath it's evil plain and simple I want to be clear a call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening the walk back was too little too late and McGill's wavering before congress and afterward led many to believe she could not lead through what's seen as a crisis McGill's resignation will boost scrutiny of anti-semitism on U.S. college campuses Jewish students continue to charge that rules on free speech have been applied unevenly protecting other minority groups while not protecting Jews there are two fixes universities could clamp down on pro-palestinian speech seen as anti-semitic or could relax speech codes across the board allowing speech targeting a variety of minorities it's a crossroads and a reckoning so still in studio legal expert and political analyst Daniel Pomerance the CEO of reality checks so Daniel I don't know how many times I've seen footage of that hearing and still it's shocking to hear someone talking about something being context dependent it hurts to actually hear these words from somebody leading an elite institution like she does what did you make A of the resignation and B at the attempts to walk it back before that happened it does indeed hurt it's a little bit gaslighty as psychologists might say I don't make much of the resignation because she's still a tenured professor at the university and will remain there it's not like she lost her job she just left that particular position and of course there are the other university presidents who testified before congress are still in their presidential positions not to mention the many campuses that didn't testify that also probably should be in the spotlight most of that five hour hearing was softball questions to all forms of racism it was only when congresswoman Stefanik stepped in and really took a hard position that the truth came out the truth is that these campuses not just Penn but all of them for the last two months since October 7th have not been protecting their Jewish students so by the time they got to congress there was nothing that they could say congresswoman Stefanik was asking Liz McGill and the others does this violate your policies and the next question is then why didn't you stop it in violation of your own policies if they say no it doesn't then the question is why doesn't it so there's no good answer that they can give but the problem isn't the rhetoric the problem is their behavior over the last two months and legally this isn't about free speech these are calls for incitement to violence which ended up resulting in actual violence as we saw in that clip the student was saying they were boarded up and they were in fear for their safety that is not supposed to happen at all on a campus environment do you think now that there will be an impact at Harvard and MIT as well is there more pressure for their presidents to at least resign there will be some pressure I don't know if it will happen what we have to understand here is that this didn't start on October 7th this started in my opinion there can be different opinions but in my opinion started with the conference they called a Diplomatic Intifada and for 20 years they invested not just Palestinians but Palestinians and their allies such as Qatar invested hundreds of billions of dollars and 20 years of work in building an environment in which they paid for endowments for professorships they supported NGOs and non-profit organizations what we're seeing here is not organic and it's not spontaneous it was built up internationally of course of 20 years and we're just now seeing the results and in fairness to the campus presidents they're just responding to the environment that exists on campus that whole environment has to change not just the presidents what does it take to change something like that we're looking at decades if not longer absolutely we're looking at decades if not longer our goal here shouldn't be what can we do in the next day or in the next week our goal should be what can we do to college in safety once we start thinking in that kind of long term way and really investing for the long term that's when we can start making a positive difference I've noticed we've noticed a number of donors to these universities have been pulling their donations that's part of why some of these resignations have happened why that didn't happen 10 years ago, 20 years ago this action was happening on campus for years and yet many donors including Jewish donors have nonetheless been funding these campuses until it became so obvious after October 7 that it had to stop we have to remember that even when the drama of these months dies down that problem still exists and we have a responsibility to monitor what happens on campus to be cautious about how we donate and condition our donations to make sure our grandchildren will have a safe environment certainly a long road ahead a turn your thoughts yes, I agree I've had no experience something like 6 years ago I was invited to Columbia University to make some briefing after I finished my duty as a coordinator of government activities and I was very surprised as I entered to the university that I was escorted by 3 policemen to the hall of making this speech and also they were waiting outside and they escorted me back when I finished and then I started to ask what's going here and then I realized about and it has begun already as it was mentioned many years ago while during it's like strategic that was plan and store in these universities especially by donors by Arab countries which by the dollar make the strategic of these universities and create this change slowly but very safely concerning what we are meeting today and to change it you need a joint venture from the United States authorities you need also the Jewish community you need make it all over there and from Israel to signal, to instruct and to supply in order and it will take also years to lower this kind of things that happen in the United States this is a risk not also to the United States it will come very close also to Europe and we have to fight not to talk about this and to make measures and this lady that was resigned it was because a donor of 100 million dollars again I started and I said the money here is the main game changer a lot of these campus groups are supported by NGOs those NGOs are well funded reality check, my organization and organizations like mine need to be able to find a hospitable environment to be able to get the funding we need to do this work the anti-israel groups have been acting almost entirely unopposed most of the work that's done for Israel on campuses by private individuals out of their pockets that's what has to change a long road ahead Daniel Pomeranz thank you so much as always appreciate your insights much to discuss, much to unpack a very disturbing situation but we do appreciate your insights as always thank you now talking of video footage as we were earlier on in this broadcast the real verified footage from the terror assault on the 7th of October channel 12 news has this report on a series of clips called Bad Nova showing a range of actual videos taken at that Nova music festival let's take a look there are those who doubt what happened now to end changing gears take a look at these images Israeli reservists on the northern border lighting Chanukah candles Chanukah from the reservists of north by the Khatiba 733 Thank you for watching Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you