 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. I've come to this special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage on Day 40 of the war here in Israel. Now it's been several hours now that the IDF is operating within the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Now what goes in and what goes out, the IDF forces are engaged in this surgical operation at the hospital where right underneath one of the main Hamas headquarters also believed to be one of the main tunnel intersections there. The force is really going room by room at this massive compound. The Israeli soldiers armed with medical supplies and Arabic speaking doctors to make sure the remaining patients there are getting what they need. Now what goes out, lots and lots and lots of ammunition and bombs and other terror infrastructures stored there by Hamas Washington backing Israel's careful action saying they too obtain evidence Hamas is using the hospital compound for its terror operations. Israeli leaders vowing to keep on going until victory. There's the latest from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you remember when we were told that we would not break into Gaza? We broke through. We were told that we would not reach the outskirts of Gaza City. We arrived. We were told that we won't enter Shifa Hospital. We entered. And in this spirit we say a simple thing. There's no place in Gaza we will not reach. There's no hiding, no shelter, no refuge for the murderers of Hamas. We will arrive and eliminate Hamas and return our abductees. These are two sacred missions. Joining us now here in the studio for this broadcast Colonel Amita Asafo, a member of the Israeli Security Agency. Thank you very much Colonel Asafo for joining us. Well, as mentioned several hours into this precise surgical operation, what help us perhaps manage our expectations. What should we expect once this operation is over? How long will it take? It's funny to say in the hospital the surgical operation, but of course we have to go step by step. And as you can see with the map of a Shifa Hospital, it's a very big complex. It's not just the one building. So getting into this complex of buildings, targeting the buildings that is connected to Hamas activity is difficult and we are doing it step by step. As you can see, it's parallel to getting in equipment for the medical team. It's from one hand we have to reach all the Hamas members and all the facilities that Hamas used inside the hospital, from another hand, we are using this opportunity to help the hospital with a lot of incubators, getting in a lot of equipment, medical equipment. And this is how IDF is working, humanitarian way. Yeah, it's a dual operation in that sense. You know what, let's take a look and listen to what IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagarri had to say about, again, this complex and dual operation really to get some assistance in while getting out all the terror infrastructure there. Let's take a listen. IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital. The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the civilians in Gaza. The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. Back here in the city with Colonel Amit Asa, it will obviously take some time to conclude this again extremely complex operation that we've been leading up to it for a while now. No doubt that the Shifa Hospital is some sort of a climax both on the operational level and symbolically speaking. And that brings me to ask what will happen next? What is the next main target of the IDF forces on the ground there? Okay. First, I have to finish another thing that we are doing in the Shifa Hospital is to get evidence about the hostages because we have information that part of the hostages maybe was treated in the Shifa Hospital. And this information is very important for us to understand where is the hostages. Because we are going parallel in these two aims to get the hostages back home and the other one is putting the Hamas down, we have to work also on that point. The other thing is underground. Underground the tunnels that connected to Shifa Hospital was built under Shifa Hospital because electricity, because of the oxygen that they can use from the hospital. So we will have to point this area. And because of the idea or the notion that Israel will never, will never attack there. The humanitarian is not in their head is against us because they are using our moral to put it down the hospital. But when we are talking about the structure of the tunnels down the Shifa Hospital, we have to be very precise and very careful with it because we are talking about it for days now. And they are prepared for it. So we will be not surprised to see the bombs inside these tunnels that if IDF will get into it, they will activate some kind of a bomb inside and we will have to go step by step in that entry to this tunnel, to this bunker. And I'm sure that IDF will do it very easy. But first we have to clean all the hospitals, all the structure outside. And then I think IDF will go inside. Right. So let's cross now live to the ground to the Israel Gaza border, our 24 news correspondent Mary McAuliffe standing by there. Several hours into this complex, and yes, much anticipated operation at the Shifa Hospital. We do know that as we've been discussing here in the studio, part of the specific operation objectives is to get more information about what happened, what is the current status of the hostages. To have been held, at least some of them, at least at some point of the war, right there. That's absolutely right. So right now that main focus is of course on the Shifa Hospital, which you all have been discussing. This is one of the main missions of the IDF, not just to try and root out what they say is a massive terror organization complex underneath that hospital complex, but also try and find any information they can about the hostages if they believe that they were held there. We also heard from the United States yesterday saying that their own evidence suggested one, not just that there was command and control centers belonging to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad underneath the Shifa complex, but that they also believe they have evidence that there were hostages could have been held there. So this is the main mission. So far we don't have any information from the IDF about if they have found anything there. We do know that their weapons trove that they said they're publishing some of the forces who are operating in an area inside the hospital taking place. Hi, 24 news correspondent Mary McAuliffe funding Israel Gaza border. Yes, we're seeing the Gaza skyline right behind you. So obviously an ongoing situation there throughout the day, throughout the evening now when it's nightfall. Thank you very much, Mary McAuliffe for this. And from there we're moving now to I-24 news correspondent, Nicole Zedek. She is walking with the families of the hostages who will get to her, yes. Cross now to Nicole Zedek with the families of over 239 hostages being held captive for 40 days now at the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists. Nicole, it's the end of the second day of this big march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Not in a bit, not tomorrow, now this is what the families are demanding. Exactly Ellie and as night falls here on day two of the march, the family members are just as invigorated as ever before. In fact, I'm joined right now by Yahir Moses, Yahir's mother and father were both kidnapped from Kibbutz near Oz. Yahir, tell me, it's the second day that you've marched from Tel Aviv. How are you feeling on this second day? My feelings are getting better because it's going to be good in this situation. But they see all the people that are joining us and marching with us. It's give a lot of strength to keep doing it and making sure the goal of this march is happening. And what is that goal? What is the message that you're bringing straight to Jerusalem? The message is that returning all the kidnapped people, releasing them is the top priority for everyone in this country. This should be the top priority from all other the goals that they are for this war. You must bring all of them home as soon as possible immediately now because kids, babies, elderly people, they must get medical health and they don't get anything. It's been 40 days. You wrap your head around that and what emotions have you been feeling for these past 40 days? It's impossible even to imagine a situation like this. You cannot imagine how can it be that people are taking and they don't get any help, no support. We don't know what are the conditions. This is another goal for this march is for the international organization that supposedly is supposed to be humanitarian like the UN and the Red Cross to do more in order to get to see them. We don't know their condition. Are they even alive? Are they healthy? Are they wounded? Are they taking their medicines? We don't know anything about the condition they are sleeping in. We don't know anything about them and I'm sure all these organizations could do much more than they do till now except telling us Hamas don't let us get there. They can do more. For example they can say okay until you don't get us there we're going out of Gaza and that's it. We don't give you support until if you want our support you need to be the same and much more things. They can do much more than just telling us oh it's not okay that you're doing this war. That's the response from a lot of these international organizations. What about the Israeli government? That's where you're going right now to Jerusalem. What more can they be doing or should they be doing? Well as I'm not a politician, I don't know exactly what are the, I don't have all the information and I don't know anything. I want to make sure this is their first priority goal from all the goals. Not the war, not destroying Hamas, not anything else. The first goal now is to bring them back and any activity they are doing should be considered. Is it bring us forward to bring them back? If not it can be delayed. First we need to do the activities that will bring them back. Do you have a message right now to your mother and your father who have been captive for the past 40 days? We miss them and we want them back. That's it. Yeah, your Moses, thank you so much. It's people like you and dozens of others that have been marching as I said from Tel Aviv spending the night in Baj Hashmonah tonight. You see all of these tents lining here at a community center as they're willing to spend the night. I can't say sleep because they haven't slept for the past 40 days, Ellie. And so that's why they're coming out here, that's why they continue to march and they continue to urge any civilians, any residents, all of the society throughout Israel to join them in their march because a lot of the people here say that the government has abandoned them so they can't let their citizens and their fellow residents abandon them right now too. So it's a very emotional time out here but it's day two and by Saturday they're going to continue to take their voices and hopefully gather even more people all the way to the capital of Israel. Yes, not abandoned by the people of Israel, that's for certain. I-24 News correspondent Nikol Tzedek, thank you very much for this report from the ground with the families of the hostages. Thank you, Nikol Tzedek, and joining Colonel Amitas and myself here in studio I-24 News senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman. Owen, thank you for joining us. Well, the plea of the families is so understandable. So just and yet every day we're hearing more reports, more indications that something might be materializing but no final deal yet. The latest piece of information that we know, according to Qatari official, is that there is an outline that Hamas is saying yes to, now waiting on the Israeli response, clear the clutter for us. Yeah, obviously there's a lot of clutter over the course of the last few weeks. There's also been a lot of spin, right, particularly I think we all suspect at least spin from the Qatari side, for example, from the Egyptian side to try to say that there is a deal that is being advanced that's in place, that's about to happen. We've even heard that, by the way, from Hamas itself, right, as a way of trying to use that wedge in Israeli society to put those who are more hardcore supporters of the hostages of course, mostly including their families, quite understandably, on one side and other parts of the Israeli public on the other, who might be more inclined to prioritize continuing the military operation or not freeing those terrorists who are in Israeli prisons that might be a part of an exchange deal. So again, trying to play that which I think you have now, Eli, is something that's a bit different. We have reports and actual negotiations and we see that as evidence looking at the reports. We have the Qatari's putting out these concrete terms of this deal and the Israeli response is not, nothing is happening, wait for us, but the response in Israeli media is, we don't want to see only 50 hostages freed. We want a larger deal. And that suggests a kind of negotiation, right, where the gaps are starting to narrow. Right, yeah, because Israeli officials were quoting, were quoted as saying that the mediators know that we want more, demand more. So it does seem as if some sort of give and take is gaining steam. Right, and also, on a more basic level, right, we have Israeli leaders coming out and telling us on the record before the cameras that, or hinting at least, that talks are advanced. And that there are talks going on and dropping heavy, heavy leaks, even if hidden behind the veil of a senior official or senior diplomatic official, or whatever the case may be, right, you're laughing because all we know what that means. But actually coming out and laying the groundwork in Israeli public opinion for a deal to be potentially put out there and accepted and trying to put some of those terms out there so they don't come as a complete shock. And the reaction from the public can start to be, I think, assessed before the deal is actually done. And that's one of the problems of the dynamic here, right? On one hand, we talked about this last night. Israeli officials quite understandably say they can't talk about the terms of the deal because don't want to show their cards and the negotiation is best handled behind closed doors makes perfect sense. On the other hand, how are we supposed to have a public debate about the terms of a deal like this, particularly if it involves a long pause slash ceasefire in the fighting that could potentially limit it on the other side and or release of terrorists from Israeli prisons, right? How can we have a kind of public debate about this? And the answer is we can't. But maybe these leaks are a way of kind of squaring the circle, right? Of putting the terms out there unofficially to at least be able to gauge public reaction before that final vote is taken in that very, very small form of the work. To lay the foundations to an extent. And Owen, speaking of diplomatic officials earlier this week, you are just briefing with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, who suggested this timeframe of between two to three weeks of international leeway for the activity of the idea forces in the Gulf Strip this morning. He's taking it back, so to speak, saying there is no diplomatic hour glance as in the, you know, the sand. We can keep on going as long as it takes. And yet, if you're listening to what the Spanish Prime Minister is saying today, to what the Canadian leader Trudeau is saying today, maybe not. Look, first of all, going back to Eli Cohen's original comment, the way we were allowed to report it, I think led to this being taken out of context, right? He wasn't suggesting that this is welcome news for him, or that's the way he sees what Israel's policy should be. He put this out there as his assessment as Foreign Minister of the diplomatic landscape, right? So it was prone to being taken in a different direction, as we saw. And I think that Eli Cohen is certainly within his rights to try to come out. It's not even walking this back, Eli. I think it's putting it in the proper context of what he actually said and what he actually meant, again, for those of us in the room. Look, obviously, it's not welcome news to look at your phone, even if you're an Israeli citizen, let alone the Prime Minister in the middle of the night, because of course the time difference and see the comments from Justin Trudeau, right? Or from other parts of the West where Israel really sees its most important reservoir of potential support. That said, at the end of the day, the most important word, of course, comes out of the White House, right? And to a significant degree also out of the three most important European capitals, right? London, Paris, and Berlin. And to a degree, also Brussels as well, right? Taking into account the reaction from the full European Union. That's, again, where the focus is, of course, middle-level powers like Canada, like Spain, like Italy. And again, a phone call between the Italian Prime Minister and Recep Tayyip Erdogan today. Who definitely made his voice heard. Certainly. And as he expects Rome to call for a ceasefire, we haven't quite seen that. But the nature of the call and even the nature of the Italian readout leads you to wonder a bit exactly how they feel about the course of events. But at any rate, look, I, for one, don't necessarily agree with the Israeli reading of the hourglass. Why? This is what we've seen in past conflicts. But just in our last broadcast, Ellie, write out that paragraph from The New York Times that says, and I'll paraphrase it, if Israel finds the Hamas Command Center in the basement of Al-Shifa Hospital, the smoking gun, and is able to broadcast credible evidence, convincing evidence, convincing evidence of that to the world, that could change the conversation over the war. And that was a very interesting comment that really jumps out from the page of a very important news outlet. Even beyond that, I think there's this expectation that pressure continues to build. But there's an alternative scenario, which is that, to put it bluntly, the worst is behind us. First, the initial shock of the war and of the beginning of the ground campaign in the pictures. Second, the very difficult events at the hospital. Maybe just maybe on the other side of this, the pressure doesn't continue to build and increase incrementally. In a sense, levels off. Not that it goes down, but levels off. And that the hourglass, the sand doesn't go through the hourglass at the same rate that it's gone through over the past month. That month two and month three, theoretically, look different than month one in terms of the ramping up day to day of the pressure. That's the way I see it. I'm fairly alone in saying it that way, I'll say. But I still think that may be true. And I think that the paragraph from the New York Times article is an interesting piece of evidence to maybe lend some support to what I'm saying. And perhaps it's suggesting that what the Israelis put out from the Venteci hospital earlier this week was perhaps not convincing enough. I don't know, we can perhaps continue to think about it. But someone who's been listening to you for many years, you tend to be right. Thank you. I tend to be willing to take positions early on in a process that people end up taking later on, right? Maybe the case here, of course, not always the case. Look, again, but even without what the New York Times said very quickly, one track is that, again, the smoking gun is found. They change the conversation. That's the New York Times scenario. The other scenario is there isn't that smoking gun found to that degree, but simply the marginal impact of the pictures and the marginal impact of the war starts to decrease. I always use my hand to show that graph that we all remember from Economics 101. Or simply put, people get used to it. To, yeah. Sadly, some things called the civilians of Gaza. But fortunately for Israel's need that it feels to conduct the war and reach its military objectives. Yeah, we are being, you know, shocked and striked by truths about the human consciousness time and time again during this war. Thank you very much, Jeff, for this. And beware and behold, the BBC reporting fake news about Israel, but apologizing. Yes, the British Broadcasting Corporation airing an apology for saying Israel targeted medical teams and Arab speakers at DL Shefa Hospital. When the truth is the exact opposite, of course, the idea of brought in medical teams and Arab speakers to help. Well, the novelty here that, again, the BBC took it back this time. So let's cross now to Tom Grossman, or at least an expert in British political expert. Mr. Ross, well, too little, too late, perhaps? Yeah, yes, too little, too late. And also they buried the apology. So it's very hard for people to have noticed it. But also, look, this is just one drop. The BBC coverage during this conflict has probably been their worst ever. It's just disgraceful. And I'd like to remind people that two Western presidents have now complained about the BBC. President Herzog of Israel has complained, including on this channel, I-24, about the way they edited his interview with the BBC. They cut out the most important bits and he officially complained to the BBC. And President Macron of France last week, four days ago, the BBC's Europe editor interviewed Macron. He made lots of various seven points, including about a ceasefire. But the BBC online headline that went around the world was Macron says Israel must stop bombing babies. This was an entirely twisted analysis, or a summary of what Macron said, and the French Foreign Ministry have complained. So the BBC, which has masses of public money, huge resources to do a news gathering, much more than almost every other channel in the Western world, instead of using them for these resources, it is disgraceful. Look, even Al Jazeera a couple of days ago interviewed some Palestinian woman in a hospital in Gaza who said Hamas should leave us alone and get out of the hospital. They're Hamas gunmen here. Why aren't the BBC doing this? They have so much coverage. They are BBC forces. Anyone who owns a television in Britain must pay by law. Quite a lot of money for the privilege of having a TV license, including the BBC. So, yes, they've apologized. They were forced to because this morning's blood libel was outrageous and lots and lots of people complained. It was the exact opposite of the truth. But that is just one thing. And one more point. The previous time in the hospital when they alleged that Israel had bombed another hospital in Gaza two or three weeks ago, and in fact, Islamic G had rocket, hit the hospital car park, their correspondent, they said he speculated wrongly. But he said, that's John Donison, he said something like, it's difficult to imagine anything else being this because of the scale of the impact other than a massive Israeli rocket. In fact, myself and other journalists, I was speaking to that evening, we instantly knew it was very unlikely to be in Israeli rocket because we looked at the same photos of the impact and we said that's a much smaller rocket. It's likely to be a Palestinian one. There are many international media outlets made this mistake that day, taking it back, but perhaps, again, the damage already done. Mr. Gross really briefly, the government is taking an opposite stance to the one of the BBC and yet perhaps a slight shift with the sacking of Oswele Braverman as the Minister of Interior. That's right. And also, the foreign secretary has been moved. He was also very good on the war from Israel's point of view. David Cameron, the former Prime Minister, has been brought in. I mean, Cameron's okay, but his record on the Middle East was not the best, especially, for example, the intervention in Libya. And I suspect that this is not particularly good news for Israel, the replacement of both the foreign minister and Home Secretary, the Interior Minister. We will wait and see. Tom Gross, thank you very much for this. This is it from us here now, but we continue our rolling coverage at the top of the hour. Thanks for watching. Date of war, families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Come to the special broadcast here on I-24 News as we continue our rolling coverage on Day 40 of the war here in Israel. Now it's been several hours now that the IDF is operating within the chief hospital in the Gaza Strip. Now what goes in and what goes out, the IDF forces are engaged in this surgical operation at the hospital, where right underneath, one of the main Hamas headquarters also believed to be one of the main tunnel intersections there. The forces really going room by room at this massive compound. The Israeli soldiers armed with medical supplies and Arabic-speaking doctors to make sure the remaining patients there are getting what they need. Now what goes out, lots and lots and lots of ammunition and bombs and other terror infrastructures stored there by Hamas Washington, backing Israel's careful action, saying they too obtain evidence Hamas is using the hospital compound for its terror operations. Israeli leaders vowing to keep on going until victory. Here's the latest from Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you remember when we were told that we would not break into Gaza? We broke through. We were told that we would not reach the outskirts of Gaza City. We arrived. We were told that we won't enter Shifa Hospital. We entered. And in this spirit, we say a simple thing. There's no place in Gaza we will not reach. There's no hiding, no shelter, no refuge for the murderers of Hamas. We will arrive and eliminate Hamas and return our abductees. These are two sacred missions. Joining us now here in the studio for this broadcast, Colonel Amita Assa, a former member of the Israeli Security Agency. Thank you very much, Colonel Assa, for joining us. Well, as mentioned, several hours into this precise surgical operation, help us perhaps manage our expectations. What should we expect once this operation is over? How long will it take? It's funny to say in the hospital, the surgical operation. But of course, we have to go step by step. And as you can see with the map of Shifa Hospital, it's a very big complex. It's not just the one building. So getting into this complex of buildings, targeting the buildings that is connected to Hamas activity is difficult. And we are doing it step by step. As you can see, it's parallel to getting in equipment for the medical team. It's from one hand, we have to reach all the Hamas members and all the facilities that Hamas used inside the hospital. On the other hand, we are using this opportunity to help the hospital with a lot of incubators, getting in a lot of equipment, medical equipment. And this is how IDF is working, humanitarian way. Yeah, it's a dual operation in that sense. And you know what? Let's take a look, listen to what IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari had to say about, again, this complex and dual operation really to get some assistance in while getting out all the terror infrastructure there. Let's take a listen. IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital. The IDF is conducting a ground operation in Gaza to defeat Hamas and rescue our hostages. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the civilians in Gaza. The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. Back here in the city where the Colonel Amitasa, it will obviously take some time to conclude this again, extremely complex operation that we've been leading up to it for a while now. No doubt that the Shifa Hospital is some sort of a climax both on the operational level and symbolically speaking. And that brings me to ask what will happen next? What is the next main target of the IDF forces on the ground there? Okay, first I have to finish another thing that we are doing in the Shifa Hospital is to get evidence about the hostages because we have information that part of the hostages maybe was treated in Shifa Hospital and this information is very important for us to understand where is the hostages. As we are going parallel in these two aims to get the hostages back home and the other one is putting the Hamas down, we have to work also on that point. The other thing is underground. Underground, the tunnels that connected to Shifa Hospital was built under Shifa Hospital because electricity because of the oxygen that they can use from the hospital. So we will have to point this area. And because of the idea or the notion that Israel will never attack there. The humanitarian is not in their head is against us because they are using our moral to put it down the hospital but when we are talking about the structure of the tunnels down the Shifa Hospital we have to be very precise and very careful with it because we are talking about it for days now. And they are prepared for it. So we will be not surprised to see the bombs inside these tunnels that if IDF will get into it they will activate some kind of a bomb inside. And we will have to go step by step in that entrance to this tunnel, to this bunker. And I'm sure that the IDF will do it very easy. But first we have to clean all the hospital all the structure outside. And then I think IDF will go inside. Right. So let's cross now live to the ground to the Israel Gaza border, our 24 news correspondent Mary McAuliffe standing by there. Mary several hours into this complex and yes, much anticipated operation at the Shifa Hospital. We do know that as we've been discussing here in studio part of the specific operation objectives is to get more information about what happened, what is the current status of the hostages. Believed to have been held at least some of them at least at some point of the war right there. That's absolutely right, Eli. So right now that main focus is of course on the Shifa Hospital, which you all have been discussing. This is one of the main missions of the IDF, not just to try and root out what they say is a massive terror organization complex underneath that hospital complex, but also try and find any information they can about the hostages if they believe that they were held there. We also heard from the United States yesterday saying that their own evidence suggested one not just that there was command and control centers belonging to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad underneath the Shifa complex, but that they also believe they have evidence that there were hostages could have been held there. So this is the main mission. So far we don't have any information from the IDF about if they have found anything there. We do know that there are weapons trove that they said they're publishing some of the forces who are operating in an area inside the hospital taking place. Hi, 24 news correspondent, Mary McAuliffe on the Israel Gaza border. Yes, we're seeing the Gaza skyline right behind you. Obviously an ongoing situation there throughout the day, throughout the evening. Now when it's nightfall. Thank you very much, Mary McAuliffe for this. And from there we're moving now to I-24 news correspondent, Nicole Zedek. She is walking with the families of the hostages who will get to her. Yes, let's cross now to Nicole Zedek with the families of over 239 hostages being held captive for 40 days now. The Gaza strip by Hamas terrorists. Nicole, it's the end of the second day of this big march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Not in a bit, not tomorrow. Now, this is what the families are demanding. Exactly, Ellie. And as night falls here on day two of the march, the family members are just as invigorated as ever before. In fact, I'm joined right now by Yair Moses. Yair's mother and father were both kidnapped from Kibbutz near Oz. Yair, tell me, it's the second day that you've marched from Tel Aviv. How are you feeling on this second day? My feelings are getting better because it cannot be good in this situation. But they see all the people that are joining us and marching with us. It's give a lot of strength to keep doing it and making sure the goal of this march is happening. And what is that goal? What is the message that you're bringing straight to Jerusalem? The message is that returning all the kidnapped people, releasing them is the top priority for everyone in this country. This should be the top priority from all other the goals that they are for this war. We must bring all of them home as soon as possible immediately now because kids, babies, elders, people, they must get medical health and they don't get anything. 40 days, it's been 40 days. You wrap your head around that and what emotions have you been feeling for these past 40 days? It's impossible even to imagine a situation like this. You don't know. You cannot imagine how can it be that people are taking and they don't get any help, no support. We don't know what are the conditions. This is another goal for this march is for the international organization that supposedly is supposed to be humanitarian like the UN and the Red Cross to do more in order to get to see them. We don't know their condition. Are they even alive? Are they healthy? Are they wounded? Are they taking their medicines? We don't know anything about the condition they are sleeping in. We don't know anything about them and I'm sure all these organizations could do much more than they do till now except telling us, oh, Hamas don't let us get there. They can do more. For example, they can say, okay, until you don't get a set, we're going out of Gaza and that's it. We don't give you support until you, if you want our support, you need to be the same and much more things. They can do much more than just telling us, oh, it's not okay that you're doing this war. And that's the response from a lot of these international organizations. What about the Israeli government? That's where you're going right now to Jerusalem. What more can they be doing or should they be doing? Well, as I'm not a politician, I don't know exactly what are the, I don't have all the information and I don't know anything. I want to make sure this is their first priority goal from all the goals, not the war, not destroying Hamas, not anything else. The first goal now is to bring them back and any activity they're doing should be considered. Is it bring us forward to bring them back? If not, it can be delayed. First, we need to do the activities that will bring them back. Do you have a message right now to your mother and your father who have been captive for the past 40 days? We miss them and we want them back. That's it. Yeah, your Moses, thank you so much. It's people like you and dozens of others that have been marching, as I said, from Tel Aviv, spending the night in Bajashmona tonight. You see all of these tents lining here at a community center as they're willing to spend the night. I can't say sleep because they haven't slept for the past 40 days, Ellie. And so that's why they're coming out here. That's why they continue to march and they continue to urge any civilians, any residents, all of the society throughout Israel to join them in their march because a lot of the people here say that the government has abandoned them so they can't let their citizens and their fellow residents abandon them right now too. So it's a very emotional time out here, but it's day two. And by Saturday, they're going to continue to take their voices and hopefully gather even more people all the way to the capital of Israel. Yes, not abandoned by the people of Israel. That's for certain. I-24 News correspondent Nikol Tzedek, thank you very much for this report from the ground with the families of the hostages. Thank you, Nikol Tzedek. And joining Colonel Amitas and myself here in studio, I-24 News senior, diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman. Owen, thank you for joining us. Well, the plea of the families is so understandable. And yet every day we're hearing more reports, more indications that something might be materializing, but no final deal yet. The latest piece of information that we know, according to Qatari official, is that there is an outline that Hamas is saying yes to, now waiting on the Israeli response. Clear the clutter for us. Yeah, obviously there's a lot of clutter. Over the course of the last few weeks, there's also been a lot of spin, right? Particularly, I think we all suspect at least, spin from the Qatari side, for example, from the Egyptian side to try to say that there is a deal that is being advanced that's in place, that's about to happen. We've even heard that, by the way, from Hamas itself. As a way of trying to use that wedge in Israeli society to put those who are more hardcore supporters of the hostages, of course, mostly including their families, quite understandably, on one side and other parts of the Israeli public on the other who might be more inclined to prioritize continuing the military operation or not freeing those terrorists who are in Israeli prisons that might be a part of an exchange deal. So again, trying to play that wedge. I think we have now, Ellie, is something that's a bit different. We have reports and actual negotiations and we see that as evidence looking at the reports. We have the Qatari's putting out these concrete terms of this deal and the Israeli response is not, nothing is happening, wait for us, but the response in Israeli media is, we don't want to see only 50 hostages freed. We want a larger deal. And that suggests a kind of negotiation, right, where the gaps are starting to narrow. Right, yeah, because Israeli officials were quoting, were quoted as saying that the mediators know that we want more, demand more. So it does seem as if some sort of a give and take is gaining steam. Right, and also on a more basic level, right, we have Israeli leaders coming out and telling us on the record before the cameras or hinting at least that talks are advanced and that there are talks going on and dropping heavy, heavy leaks, even if hidden behind the veil of a senior official or a senior diplomatic official or whatever the case may be, right, you're laughing because all we know and know what that means, but actually coming out and laying the groundwork in Israeli public opinion for a deal to be potentially put out there and accepted and trying to put some of those terms out there so they don't come as a complete shock and the reaction from the public can start to be, I think, assessed before the deal is actually done. And that's one of the problems of the dynamic here, right? On one hand, we talked about this last night. Israeli officials quite understandably say they can't talk about the terms of the deal because don't wanna show their cards and the negotiation is best handled behind closed doors makes perfect sense. On the other hand, how are we supposed to have a public debate about the terms of a deal like this, particularly if it involves a long pause slash ceasefire in the fighting that could potentially limit it on the other side and or release of terrorists from Israeli prisons, right? How can we have a kind of public debate about this? And the answer is we can't, but maybe these leaks are a way of kind of squaring the circle, right? Of putting the terms out there unofficially to at least be able to gauge public reaction before that final vote is taken in that very, very small form of the work. To lay the foundations to an extent. And Owen, speaking of diplomatic officials earlier this week, you are just briefing with the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, who suggested this timeframe of between two to three weeks of international leeway for the activity of the idea forces in the construct. This morning, he's taking it back, so to speak, saying there is no diplomatic hour glance as in the sand. We can keep on going as long as it takes. And yet, if you're listening to what the Spanish Prime Minister is saying today, to what the Canadian leader Trudeau is saying today, maybe not. Look, first of all, going back to Eli Cohen's original comment, the way we were allowed to report it, I think led to this being taken out of context, right? He wasn't suggesting that this is welcome news for him or that's the way he sees, right? What Israel's policy should be. He put this out there as his assessment as foreign minister of the diplomatic landscape, right? So it was prone to being taken in a different direction as we saw. And I think that Eli Cohen is certainly within his rights to try to come out. It's not even walking this back, Eli. I think it's putting it in the proper context of what he actually said and what he actually meant. Again, for those of us in the room. Look, obviously it's not welcome news to look at your phone even if you're an Israeli citizen, let alone the Prime Minister in the middle of the night, because of course the time difference and see the comments from Justin Trudeau, right? Or from other parts of the West where Israel really sees its most important reservoir of potential support. That said, at the end of the day, the most important word of course comes out of the White House, right? And to a significant degree also out of the three most important European capitals, right? London, Paris, and Berlin. And to a degree also Brussels as well, right? Taking into account the reaction from the full European Union. That's again where the focus is. Of course, middle level powers like Canada, like Spain, like Italy. And again, a phone call between the Italian Prime Minister and Retri Ptaya Peridot on today. Who definitely made his voice heard. Certainly. And as he expects Rome to call for a ceasefire, we haven't quite seen that. But the nature of the call and even the nature of the Italian readout leads you to wonder a bit exactly how they feel about the course of events. But at any rate, look, I for one, don't necessarily agree with the Israeli reading of the hourglass. Why? This is what we've seen in past conflicts. But just in our last broadcast earlier, write out that paragraph from the New York Times that says, and I'll paraphrase it, if Israel finds, right, the Hamas Command Center in the basement of Al-Shif Hospital. The smoking gun. The smoking gun. It's able to broadcast credible evidence, convincing evidence, that's the word he's, convincing evidence of that to the world. That could change the conversation over the war, right? And that was a very interesting comment that really jumps out from the page of a very important news outlet. Even beyond that, I think there's this expectation that pressure continues to build. But there's an alternative scenario, which is that to put it bluntly, the worst is behind us. First, the initial shock of the war and of the beginning of the ground campaign in the pictures. Second, the very difficult events at the hospital. Maybe, just maybe on the other side of this, the pressure doesn't continue to build and increase incrementally. In a sense, levels off. Not that it goes down, but levels off. And that the hourglass, the sand doesn't go through the hourglass at the same rate that it's gone through over the past month. So it's an opposite trend, but still. That month two and month three, theoretically, look different than month one in terms of the ramping up day to day of the pressure. That's the way I see it. I'm fairly alone in seeing it that way, I'll say. But I still think that may be true. And I think that the paragraph from the New York Times article is an interesting piece of evidence to maybe lend some support to what I'm saying. And perhaps it's suggesting that what the Israelis put out from the Venteci hospital earlier this week was perhaps not convincing enough. I don't know, we can perhaps continue to think about it, but someone who's been listening to you for many years, you tend to be right. Well, thank you, I tend to be willing to take positions early on in a process that people end up taking later on, right? And this may be the case here, of course, not always the case. Look, again, but even without, what the New York Times said very quickly, one track is that, again, the smoking gun is found, they changed the conversation, that's the New York Times scenario. The other scenario is, there isn't that smoking gun found to that degree, but simply the marginal impact of the pictures and the marginal impact of the war starts to decrease. I always use my hand to show that graph that we all remember from Economics 101. Or simply put, people get used to it. To, to, to, yeah. Sadly, and some things for the civilians of Gaza. Fortunately for Israel's need that it feels to conduct the war and reach its military objectives. Yeah, we are being, you know, shocked and, and, and striked by, by truths about the human consciousness time and time again during this war. Owen Alterman, thank you very much for this. And beware and behold, the BBC reporting fake news about Israel, but apologizing. Yes, the British Broadcasting Corporation airing an apology for saying Israel targeted, targeted medical teams and Arab speakers at the Al-Shifa Hospital. When the truth is the exact opposite, of course, the idea of brought in medical teams and Arab speakers to help. Well, the novelty here that again, the BBC took it back this time. So let's cross now to Tom Gross, Middle East expert in British political expert, Mr. Gross, so well, too little, too late, perhaps? Yeah, yes, too little, too late. And also they buried the apology. So it's very hard for people to have noticed it. But also, look, this is just one drop. The BBC coverage during this conflict has probably been their worst ever. It's just disgraceful. And I'd like to remind people that two Western presidents have now complained about the BBC. President Herzog of Israel has complained, including on this channel, I-24, about the way they edited his interview with the BBC. They cut out the most important bits and he officially complained to the BBC. And President Macron of France last week, four days ago, the BBC's Europe editor interviewed Macron. He made lots of various seven points, including about a ceasefire. But the BBC online headline that went around the world was Macron says Israel must stop bombing babies. This was an entirely twisted analysis or a summary of what Macron said. And the French Foreign Ministry have complained. So the BBC, which has masses of public money, huge resources to do a news gathering, much more than almost every other channel in the Western world, instead of using them for these resources, it is disgraceful. Look, even Al Jazeera a couple of days ago interviewed some Palestinian woman in a hospital in Gaza who said Hamas should leave us alone and get out of the hospital. They're Hamas gunmen here. Why aren't the BBC doing this? They have so much coverage. They are BBC forces. Anyone who owns a television in Britain must pay by law quite a lot of money for the privilege of having a TV license, including the BBC. So yes, they've apologized. They were forced to because this morning's blood libel was outrageous and lots and lots of people complained. It was the exact opposite of the truth. But that is just one thing. And one more point. The previous time at the hospital when they alleged that Israel had bombed another hospital in Gaza two or three weeks ago, and in fact, Islamic G had rocket, hit the hospital car park, their correspondent, they said he speculated wrongly. But he said, that's John Donison, he said something like, it's difficult to imagine anything else being this because of the scale of the impact other than a massive Israeli rocket. In fact, myself and other journalists I was speaking to that evening, we instantly knew it was very unlikely to be an Israeli rocket because we looked at the same photos of the impact and we said that's a much smaller rocket. It's likely to be a Palestinian rocket. Many international media outlets made this mistake that day taking it back. But perhaps again, the damage already done. Mr. Gross really briefly, the government is taking an opposite stance to the one of the BBC and yet perhaps a slight shift with the sacking of as well a braver man as the minister of interior. That's right. And also the foreign secretary has been moved. He was also very good on the war from Israel's point of view. David Cameron, the former prime minister has been brought in. I mean, Cameron's okay, but his record on the Middle East was not the best, especially, for example, the intervention in Libya. And I suspect that this is not particularly good news for Israel, the replacement of both the foreign minister and home secretary, the interior minister. We will wait and see. Tom Gross, thank you very much for this. This is it from us here now, but we continue our rolling coverage at the top of the hour. Thanks for watching. The world brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. The world is completely gunned down in their beds. De la frontière de sépar israël, the state of emergency and war in Israel. Bringing Israel's story to the world. I-24 News Channels, now on Hot. Israel is in a state of war. Families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Here's special coverage. There is a one Reuters report about a hostage deal in the making. No confirmation in Israel right now. Let's go to the latest with I-24 News Senior Correspondent or an alterment, what's the latest one? Reuters describing it as an offer made by the Qataris that had been coordinated with the United States talking about a release of 50 hostages from the Gaza Strip in exchange for three things. First of all, a three day, whether you wanna call it a pause or a ceasefire, but a stopping, if you will, of the Israeli military operation inside the Gaza Strip. That's number one. Number two, the freeing of Palestinian women and as described in the report, children. Although one would imagine it could also include teenagers from Israeli prisons. Again, Jacob, these are Palestinians who have been convicted or held on charges of committing terrorism. So again, there would be released from the prisons an unspecified number, according to that report. And the third, an increase in humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip. Jacob, we've seen in Israeli media or Israeli sources coming out and not necessarily denying the report, but just saying that a release of 50 hostages simply isn't enough from Israel's perspective that Israel's interested in a larger deal. But what it tells me, Jacob, is that there is at least a narrowing of the gap in the two sides of positions in the negotiation. If at one point Israeli sources would simply say there is no deal on the table or wait for us to update you, here at least behind the scenes or at least not for attribution, they're saying that essentially there are talks. This just doesn't meet our demands, but you can sort of start to see that gap between the two sides positions start to narrow. Right, and again, reiterating, there is no confirmation on the Israeli side at this point. That's right. Owen Alderman, thank you very much for that. With us now is Dr. Gershon Baskin, person with connections in Gaza who also was instrumental in the last hostage deal with Hamas, the one involved Israeli soldier Gilat Shalit in exchange for Hamas leadership of today. Thank you very much for joining us, good evening. Good evening, Shalom Yaakov. First of all, do you have any information or confirmation regarding any deal in the process? But the information that I want to give is that everything that's said about the deal is part of the negotiations. Let's put it this way. The negotiations are at the absolute highest level with the absolute highest degree of secrecy, which means that those people who know are not talking and those people who don't know are talking. And the talk that we just heard and all the talk we've been hearing for the last weeks has to be taken as part of the context of the negotiations, of the psychological warfare or whatever you want to call it. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with reality. It is clear that Israel wants a larger deal. Israel wants all the women, all the children, all the elderly, the wounded and the sick to be released. It is known that Israel is holding 39 Palestinian women prisoners and another four administrative detainees as well as 170 minors, 17, 16, 15 year olds as well as another 20 administrative detainees. All of the women and all of the minor prisoners in Israel are not important Hamas people. None of them have murdered Israelis. They're all from the West Bank. A deal could be made like that, but it's much more complex than just releasing women and minor prisoners from Israel. We're talking about a ceasefire that Hamas is demanding. A ceasefire is not just stopping shooting. Israel will have to redeploy its forces to safer locations because just because Israel stops shooting doesn't mean that Hamas would and the Israeli soldiers are now sitting ducks in the middle of Gaza, moving south toward Khan Yunus. They would require redeployment, a repositioning of the Israeli forces. Hamas will try to extend the release of hostages over a course of many days with the hope that international pressure would build on Israel to end the war with Hamas still in power. That's a scenario that Israel will not allow to happen. This makes the negotiations more complex. There are two tracks of negotiations in Qatar and in Cairo. They are both at the highest levels. The head of the Mossad is running the Qatari track. The head of the Shin Bet is running the Egyptian track. This is very, very serious. And I am sure that Israel is exhausting every possibility to bring as many hostages home as soon as possible through a negotiated agreement. Let me turn to your hunch. Do you think we are close to a deal at this point? I would say the time is running out so that we have to be close because there is no way to bring all the hostages home, all these women, children and elderly without a deal with Hamas. And for that Israel will pay a price, a painful price. But I believe that Israel, even this current government of Israel and even Netanyahu was very weak will be able to pay the price because Israel has a moral responsibility to bring them home. Israel failed to protect them. Israel failed to defend our borders and Israel has a moral responsibility to bring them home. The bigger question is going to be what's going to happen with all the young men and the young women who are considered soldiers and policemen by Hamas. I'm afraid that they will be left to the military operations of special forces who will go in search and rescue missions. And hopefully they will be successful but it's at great risk to the hostages and to the soldiers. Do you think the Hamas leadership has still aspirations to regain control of Gaza? From talks that I've had with people who know Sinwar personally, I asked does Sinwar understand that his days are numbered, that he will soon be facing his God and have to justify everything that he's done. And people who know Sinwar have said to me, Sinwar doesn't believe that. He still believes that he will emerge from the tunnels at the end of this war, still in control of Gaza. He doesn't really care about the huge price that the Palestinian people in Gaza have paid for this war because he believes he builds strength and power on the suffering of the Palestinian people. But he apparently still believes that he will survive and emerges the leader of Gaza. Do you think Hamas leadership, including Sinwar, would rather leave Gaza in some sort of another deal in the future? No way. This is not Beirut of 1982 with the PLO and Yasser Arafat boarding a ship to Tunisia. Sinwar will die fighting. He will not raise a white flag and he will not run away. This is not the man who he is and this is not the leadership of Hamas. They will stay in the tunnels, they will fight, they will try to kill as many Israelis as possible. Hopefully they won't be successful at all, but they will face their death at the hands of Israel at the end of the war. In my mind, it's unimaginable that there's a scenario that exists that Hamas will be in control of Gaza when this war is over. Dr. Gershon Beskin, I thank you very much for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that's a very grim analysis, we must say, and Dr. Beskin knows what he's talking about. Families of Israeli hostages have been marching to Jerusalem. Their message is targeted both at Israel's government and the world. I24 News correspondent Nicole Sedeck is with them now. Nicole, what's the reaction there to a possible deal? The reaction is that although they're hopeful that something might happen, until it actually happens, they're going to continue to fight and be a voice for their family members because we continue to hear reports about these deals, but in their eyes, no action is actually being held. So that's why we continue to see them marching towards Jerusalem. Look at all of these tents set up, dozens of tents for all of the different family members who, this is the second night, they'll be staying in some of these tents on their way to Jerusalem because they want to continue to be a voice for their loved ones, 239, that remain at least held hostage in Gaza for the past 40 days. And when I'm speaking to some of the family members, they say for the past 40 days, they haven't been able to sleep, they haven't been able to eat. All they can do is continue to think about the conditions that their loved ones might be in. And so for them marching here, this is an easy task because they haven't been able to do anything else except for have a voice for their loved ones. And so they're calling on also, not just for the families and friends to come out here and be a voice for those hostages, but for all of Israeli citizens as well to continue to be a voice. Because in their eyes, the Israeli government has abandoned them. They say they haven't been doing enough. So they don't want their fellow citizens to abandon them as well. And let me tell you, they absolutely have not. Seeing how everyone is coming together out here, this is just something that the forum for the families and the missing, the hostage forum, this is what they have been doing, organizing events like this, really since October 8th, since the day after the massacre. And so now 40 days in, they continue to organize events like this. But this march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is certainly one of the longest and one of the largest demonstrations that they've had. And they want to continue to bring those voices and continue to show their desperation and their anger. So although there might be reports for hopefully a hostage deal for the families that are here until they actually get to see their loved ones and hug their loved ones and be face to face to them. Again, something they haven't had for the past 40 days. That's when they'll fully believe that a deal is actually being happened. Right, and they keep saying release everybody, release all of them. Now, what happens if we have just a small deal, maybe 50 people, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, this is very hard for the families. It's incredibly hard. And although for the families who might get to receive their loved ones, as we've seen with four hostages who have been released or rescued so far, it's very emotional for those families and all of the families here who might still have their loved ones held captive in Gaza. They have no hate or harm towards anyone. No one can speak badly about a situation like that because they want to see as many people as they can be released and be rescued from Gaza. But until all of them are rescued, until every single one of those 239 are released, that's when these families can sleep well at night. So until then, if it's just one, if it's 50, if it's more than that, anything less than 239, they say they will continue to come out here and continue to be a voice for every single one of them. I think that's one of the most inspiring parts when I speak to family members, although they mentioned their loved ones, whether it's their child, whether it's their mother, their aunt or uncle, they say, I'm a voice for them, but let's not just focus on them. Let's talk about all of the other hostages that are also in Gaza right now. And so it's definitely a lot of people coming together and holding each other up. And they say they'll continue to do that, even if this hostage deal does come to fruition. All right, Nicole Setic with the families. Thank you very much for that. We'll keep waiting for more news and see how things progress. So far, as we've mentioned, we just have one report from Reuters, from Qatar, and that's it. With me here in the studio is Amir Oren, veteran defense and military analyst. Are we nearing your senses? Are we nearing a deal? Now that Dr. Baskin said that whoever talks about the deal apparently doesn't know anything about it, you want me to show that I don't know anything about it. Let's go back to last night and the Biden and Netanyahu talk, in which they talk at length, the White House said, which means that Biden had to read Netanyahu the riot act and tell him what he expects him to sign on the dotted line. And the essence is children and Americans first. The babies and the others, it's not children for children. It's teenagers for toddlers. There is no symmetry here. But in any event, President Biden needs his nine or 10 holders of American passports out and he wants as a compassionate man to have the children out too. And if the- The problem is this is not the end of the story. Even if they release 50 people, okay? There are like almost 200 there. Of course, because Hamas would rather have it on the installment plan. Hamas wants to survive. Again, go to your conversation with Gershon Baskin. At the end of the war, Sinwar and death want to be alive. We haven't heard of any leaders of fundamentalist organizations who are Shahids, martyrs themselves. They send others to be Shahids. And maybe Sinwar would wear a vest and blow himself up when he sees the Israeli troops. But this remains to be seen. He wants to trade the last remaining hostages, the soldiers for his immunity. And perhaps the way he sees it, for some vestige of control over Gaza. He's not going to get it. Israel cannot finish this war in a draw because the residents of the Negev are not coming back. We haven't talked about the North yet. Israel must win this war decidedly. And the way Sinwar wants the hostage deals, not deal, but deals to proceed, this is going to take a long time. Yeah, they are definitely looking to have more time. We can see that. With us in the studio is also Knesset member Ohad Tal from the right wing party religious Zionism. Good evening to you. Good evening. Is the release of the hostages the top priority of Israeli government right now? I think we've stated many times that we have two main goals for this war. One is to defeat Hamas. And the second one is to bring back home safely. All those people were held captives by the hands of Hamas. These are the two main goals and I think we're focusing on these two targets. There's a growing voice in Israel, definitely from the families who was saying, we don't care about anything, just bring home the hostages will deal with Hamas later. What do you say to that? Our job is to take care and to care about the life of all Israel citizens. Those who are held captive in the hands of Hamas, those who are now were sent away from their homes in the Negev and the surroundings of Gaza. We have to make sure that they will have a home to go back to, that they will have a safe environment to go back to. We have to protect the life of all Israel citizens that if they will see that we are threatened by Hamas and we are not acting after all the, oh, everything we saw after the horrible massacre of October 7th, if we are not acting, if we are not defeating Hamas, the whole world is watching to see what are we gonna do? And if we will not act upon it, so we are risking the life of all Israelis. And of course, we have to take everything in consideration, bring back the hostages, but also take care of the rest of the Israeli citizens. Right, as we speak, there are sirens in the southern part of Israel next to Gaza, by the way. But you said first, Hamas being destroyed, secondly, bring home the hostages. Is this the way you look at things? This is first, this is second, because there's a growing argument within Israel about that. I think, you know, I wanna be optimistic, but knowing Hamas, Hamas will not, if you will not be pressurized, they will not free any of the hostages. We have to be realistic. We have to increase the pressure. This is why I don't think it's two goals we're contradicting each other. As much as we will pressure Hamas more, as much as we will pressure Yihasinoar more, as much as we will press his neck, that's the only way we're gonna get our hostages. Well, excuse me for pushing you, because this is our decisions, and there are no straight answers. But for example, as part of the deal, we wanna stop the war for three days, maybe five days. So there is a contradiction there in a way. All these discussions are part of Hamas trying to play with us psychologically to manipulate us, to try to make us fight with each other. It's not gonna work out. We are obligated, as I said, we are obligated to these two goals, bring back our captives and also defeat Hamas. Of course, Hamas, as you said, they wanna stay alive, they wanna survive. This is one of their goals, and their other goal is to defeat us, to destroy us. We're not gonna let them do any of these things. Okay, some of your party members expressed their desire to put Israeli settlements back into Gaza. Do you support that? I think that now we are focusing on one thing, which is to defeat Hamas, as I said. We're not gonna fight with each other. We have to be on consensus. What are you gonna do in the day after? It's a good discussion. I can tell you that I already hear from the opposition members, different opinions about what's gonna happen in the day after. And I think it's a good and healthy discussion that needs to happen, but it's not for now. Now, we have to do what we have to do. But what's going to happen on the day after in terms of who's controlling Gaza? We know the options, and Israeli government is struggling with this. I think we're knowing the current options that we have the regular answers that we had in the last 30 years. And I think part of what happened a month ago should wake us up. We cannot just give automatically the old answers. We have to come up with new answers. And I think the entity which is gonna run business in Gaza is not, it doesn't exist yet. So it's, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said himself, it cannot be the Palestinian Authority because they're sponsoring terror. And of course, they are not the people we can trust protecting our citizens in the South. So this is not an option. We'll have to come up with better answers to this question. We don't have it now. Let me ask you about the entity that is running Israel. Do you think the government will stay, should stay after the war? Well, it's something we'll have to also discuss and see where it goes. No doubt that Israel failed protecting its citizens. What we've seen a month ago, it's something we couldn't even imagine. And we'll have to ask all these hard questions about who's responsible for that. Why we came to this point? And of course, there'll be consequences to these questions naturally. In a short while, I guess. Can I just remember? I hope it's gonna be in short time, but I think this war is gonna take, we all have to be patient. I mean, if you wanna get the real results, it's gonna take some time. Take some time. Well, Atal, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's go to the northern part of Israel, to the Israeli-Lebanese border. My 24-year Zack Anders is standing by there live with the latest, what's the latest, Zack? Within the last half hour, we have multiple incursions that were read alerts across the Galilee, the northern border of Israel with Lebanon. The IDF saying that they have taken care of, intercepted these incursions. We've also heard outgoing artillery, as the IDF says. They are striking some of the locations of the origination of where these launches occurred. Now, throughout the afternoon, once again, Lebanese media and Hezbollah claiming that they are striking with ATGs, anti-tank guided missiles, striking locations along the northern border, and they've continued to do so, obviously, for the last several days. Again, today has been no different. Okay, Zack, thank you very much. This is the northern border. And back to you here in the studio. This thing is not going to disappear. And Israeli government is trying to put it off to say after Gaza, first Gaza, but what's gonna happen in the north? So first of all, if world leaders are so keen on having a ceasefire in the south, why not extend it to the north? We haven't heard Biden or Macron, colon, Lebanon, to put pressure on Hezbollah to ceasefire there for some reason, maybe because there are not so many casualties or displaced persons except in Israel. Now, for Hezbollah, it's almost cost-free. Yes, they are losing some of their assets, which the IDF strikes in order to leave them in an inferior position should work on, but for that price, they have 60,000 Israelis out of their homes. They keep harassing both the IDF and the residents, and we have 350,000 reserve soldiers mobilized. Though you can see some of them in Tel Aviv in shorts and with weapons being refreshed, they have been apparently given some reprieve for a day or two. So the fact that we have not gone to a full war is a small comfort, but nevertheless, this war of nutrition could exhaust Israel. Now, this is obviously under some American pressure. They don't wanna have another front burning, but sooner or later Israel will have to deal with that, and there are promises from politicians that everybody will have free way to come back home to live by the border. How could that be facilitated? You can't force the civilian population to behave as politicians would. It's an individual decision by each family, each household, whether to risk children and other people. And there is a very little trust between the Israeli society and its elected officials right now. There will have to be new elections very soon once the major part of the conflict is over. You can't force people to live under the gun. But still, without security, they will not come back to the border. And this is something that Israel, even though there's an American pressure, it cannot live with. So the answer is agreements. You know, the first time the Northern border was hit quite strongly, not by terror, the way it was in 1974, Mahalot and Bechan and other places, was in 1981 when Begin was prime minister and the PLO shelled Kiryat Shmonar for 12 days. The IDF could not stop it and Saudi Arabia arranged a deal between the PLO and Israel. And there was a year of relative quiet. So yes, some political deal will have to be struck between Israel and Hezbollah through intermediaries. Yeah, you've mentioned France, no word from Macron, no word from France, which has leverage in Lebanon. Some leverage, you know, Lebanon doesn't have a president, hasn't had one for a year now. And Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister, is very weak. The entire Lebanese economy, society, political echelon, they are all gone. Hezbollah is the real government of Lebanon, but there must be some semblance. Perhaps the Iranians in a grand deal with the United States would be able to pull some strings. Right, meanwhile we are looking at Gaza live with some rockets being fired, sirens going off in the southern part of Israel. You're looking at the dark skies, but every now and then you see also some light bombs there over Gaza. You know, it's day 40. And by the 40th day and 40th night, Ohad Tal would know it better than I do. Moses got his wish and got the Torah. Yes, well. So maybe we'll close. All right, we'll take a break now. Thank you very much, Amir. And we'll be right back with more special coverage here night by four days. Each of war families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers, are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Horizon, and we have responded present. In Paris on November 13th, as you mentioned, 130 young people were murdered. Back to our special coverage. Let's go to the southern part of Israel, the city of Siderot, Mary McCullough, fighting for news correspondent is there live, and there's action behind you. That's right, I'll step out of the way so we can see a little bit better, but these are flares that continue to be dropped down on this area. We've heard intense battles throughout the evening here in the Beit Hanun area. We're not exactly sure what the IDF is doing right now, who they're countering, because we believe that they're operating further south, further there's areas inside Chief of Hospital and the El Shazi refugee camp, where they have been operating. But we've heard, as I said, intense battles here, not just also intense airstrikes that have been dropped on the specific area, just to the right of where you see those flares now, we've seen numbers of different airstrikes dropping in that area, but these are flares that they're using to light up the area. So clearly the IDF is currently operating underway as it continues to work inside the Gaza Strip, trying to push forward deeper into that territory and trying to gain control of the situation on the ground. But from the sounds of the gun battles we heard here, clearly they are still encountering resistances, even in these far northern parts of the Gaza Strip. And there were some sirens a few minutes ago. That's right, we've had rocket sirens again continuing in these Gaza border communities. These ones further south in the area of Sufa and Kisufim, we don't have any reports of injuries. We also had direct rocket impact in Ashkelon, but luckily that rocket did not hit anybody just landing in the street. The forces on the scene responding there and saying that there were no injuries or significant damage caused by that. But once again, a reminder to these communities who are here, especially these Gaza border communities which are mostly supposed to be evacuated, the government once again calling on everybody to pay attention to the rocket sirens to stay near your shelter, especially if you're living areas such as where we are, where you have between 10 to 20 seconds to get to a shelter. So it does definitely remain to be a dangerous situation on the Israeli side of the border as well. So again, the government calling on people to follow the restrictions, to listen to what they're being told for their own safety. Do you still see civilians over there? We've been in stroke for the past month and most of the times that we've been here, it has felt like a ghost town. I will say driving around the past few days, we've seen a lot more people here on the streets, a lot of cars driving around, whether or not those are all just residents who some of them are returning. We know we've talked to a few of them over the past few days of some who have said that enough is enough, that they want to come and return to their homes. Of course, that's not the case for many of these areas, these Gaza border communities where these are still closed military areas, especially the areas of Qarazah, Baderi, areas that were completely and almost completely destroyed by the attack on October 7th. These areas are not hospitable at the moment, but in some of these areas like Starot, there is still of course significant damage on the ground, but we have seen some residents slowly beginning to come back, but we must emphasize that it is against the government's orders and restrictions who are still telling the people to not be in these areas, to go to safer parts of the country, to move further north. Right, Mary McAuliffe, thank you very much for this report. IDF soldiers have entered the Shifa hospital in Gaza after delivering health supplies. Their targets are Hamas terrorists, and possibly hostages. IDF correspondent Arila Suran has more. After much anticipation and buildup, IDF forces entered Gaza's Shifa hospital early Wednesday morning. A dramatic development in Israel's 40 day war with Hamas. Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa hospital. The limited raid began at 2 a.m. local time as dozens of IDF troops began searching inside the hospital and covering Hamas weapons, explosives, and assets, the army said. Prior to their entry, the forces came under fire and eliminated at least five terrorists. No soldiers were hurt. The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. Once inside Gaza's biggest hospital, the forces also delivered incubators for newborns, baby food, and medical supplies to the hospital. According to Gaza's director general of hospitals, not a single bullet was fired inside the hospital since the operation began. We didn't know what to do. We are within the building. Israel within the building they are in. We can't move between the hospital buildings at all for sure. So we are with each other as with the patients, with the civilians, within the hospital. It's totally scary situation. Despite widespread fear from Hamas, some criticism could be heard from inside the hospital in recent days, even in an interview to Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV. We do have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad uses some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including the Al-Shifa Hospital, as a way to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages. During a visit to the Zakeem IDF training base near Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israeli forces will reach every Hamas operative in every corner of the Gaza Strip. Do you remember when they said we wouldn't invade Gaza? We invaded. They said we wouldn't get to the outskirts of Gaza City, and we did. They said we wouldn't go into Shifa Hospital. We went in. It is in this spirit that we say something simple. There is no place in Gaza that we won't reach. There is no hideout, no shelter, no refuge for the Hamas murderers. And so as the IDF's ground operation deepens into Gaza's hospitals, it gets closer to its final goal of defeating Hamas. But as the situation in the hospitals continues to deteriorate, the task will become even more challenging. So, Ariel, what's the latest? What's the update from the Shifa Hospital? So the latest is that as far as I'm aware, the forces are still operating inside the hospital. Now, this isn't all across the hospital. As we heard from Daniela Garry, this is in a specific area in the hospital. It's a big complex, so it's not just in, I mean, it's not in the entire complex. It's a limited area, and inside a limited area, even more limited. But what the forces have already found are weapons, ammunition, explosive devices, military walkie-talkies, as well as instructional manuals, all belong to Hamas. And this obviously is not a surprise. It's not the first hospital that such gear and material have been found. I will just note that while the operation continues going on, reports from inside the hospital from the medical staff, which is fascinating that you have IDF forces operating as the hospital continues to function, which is now what we saw in the Rantisi Children's Hospital that was evacuated prior to Israel's operation. The biggest of Gaza's 35 hospitals continues to operate. I don't know if it's full capacity. But indeed, I mean, it's not in full capacity, obviously. And from doctors inside the hospital, they're saying that the chief hospital is the all oxygen services are out of service. And they're also reporting that different, I mean, we can see the damage. It's not fully functioning at all. And as the operation progresses, it will be more challenging also for the forces, but also for the hospital to maintain its proper activity. So far, no word on hostages. No word on hostages. No word on casualties inside the hospital. In fact, I mean, no shots were fired in the hospital. This is something that Israel does not want to see. Obviously, we heard from the White House saying that they do not want to see firefights inside the hospital. So far, that has not happened. And if the operation began 16 hours ago and it's still going on, then that indicates that the forces are working meticulously and very carefully. Yeah, and the main target is not the hospital itself as underneath the hospital. Indeed. And we have no word as to where Israeli forces are right now. No, and they won't tell us because the forces are still there. But when I asked for confirmation from the IDF, they said that there's no beginning to this operation and no end, specifically the operation in the hospital. There was a beginning at 2 AM, but that's an indication that this is expected to be ongoing. Yeah, Amir, this is one of the most complicated operations IDF has ever had. It was justified professionally, militarily. However, it is disappointing because the build-up prior to the entry to the hospital made it look worldwide as if it's Treasure Island. We are going to find there either the leaders of Hamas or hostages, or preferably both. Up to now, while there have been leads, while it is certainly part of the Hamas operation, they are not there. And the mythical proportions that Ashifa received over the last couple of weeks made it look like the Wailing Wall in 1967 or Mount Hermon in 73, the symbol of the war. Up to now, maybe they will find a tunnel leading to somewhere else, going out of the central node there. But up to now, and we are waiting to receive official news, up to now, there is some error of disappointment. Yeah, at one point, it looked like a distraction, maybe intentionally. But I don't see the flip side of that. Look, as long as the hospital continues to remain functional with patients inside, that limits the scope of the operation of the IDF because they're not going to go into just any department and conduct their searches. So they're trying to bring on the hospital management, to encourage it, to evacuate the hospital. Some departments have been evacuated. But Hamas command posts under the hospital, they're spread all across the complex. It's a massive complex. And so I think as the evacuation continues and fewer and fewer patients and medical staff are in the hospital, that will increase the capabilities of the army to act. And as they go deeper into the tunnel labyrinth under Shifa complex, they are expected to find more. I agree with Amir that this isn't the holy grail that it has been built up to be, in terms of the operation that Shifa has done. That will mean the end of the war. That is not going to be the case. But force protection is paramount. They should and do go very slowly in order to be aware of booby traps. And in addition to booby traps, if Hamas put some explosives in order to collapse the entire Shifa hospital, then there will be recriminations and charges. But the fact will be that following the IDF entry into the hospital, the hospital collapsed much like the Beirut Marine barracks or the tire military administration building. So they must work very, very slowly and meticulously with engineering experts looking after every inch whether it is laden with explosives. This is the most important factor. That's a very big trap. Just to finish my previous point, I think the buildup that Amir talked about was necessary because operating in this hospital with patients and staff still inside, it's as bad for optics as can be. But we're seeing besides the libelous report on the BBC, we are not seeing this outrage from the Western world. And I think that is mainly because of this preparation, the buildup, sharing intelligence already a couple of weeks ago. All that was to set the framing of this operation that you see smoke with patients and medical staff, but still the IDF continues to operate inside the hospital. Now, so far, Amir, the IDF controls the northern part of the Gaza Strip. What about the southern part? So they're doing it piecemeal. They obviously have only three divisions, perhaps the fourth, the Gaza Division, which is in charge of the defense of the border. Perhaps you can count the Gaza Division, too, in addition to 36, 162, and 252, because the other forces are needed up north. So there were several contingency plans, but the one chosen had to take into the account the other fronts, which could erupt. And they, after they finish coming, the central and northern parts of Gaza, if they don't find what they are looking for, they will definitely go south, where the humanitarian area is awaiting them. And one of the biggest problems is that they don't want to scare the Egyptians into believing that Israel is pushing the displaced Gazans further south into Rafa and the Sinai, which belongs to Egypt. So this has to be done very delicately. Yeah, do you foresee Israeli forces getting into this dense area of southern Gaza right now? The area of southern Gaza is not as dense as northern Gaza. But mind you, the entire Gaza Strip is 360 square kilometers, 60 by 6 on the average. Still, it is very, very difficult to find a needle in this haystack. And look at the buildings, the building blocks, the street blocks, and the ruins. Just finding something is very difficult. Look, I think if and when the IDF continues their way southward and south of Wadi Gaza, if until October 6 or until the ground invasion, the southern Gaza was less dense than northern Gaza, now it has over a million displaced people from northern Gaza. And that makes the situation in the south but it's not as urban. There are many, many people there, but they are pretty much in nature, yes, but in tent camps and the like. It's not like they have high rises, which is one of the dangers that the IDF is quite aware of. The high rises almost skyscrapers in Gaza City as well as the tunnels. Perhaps the Hamas engineers did not manage to have such a vast network of tunnels in the south as they did in the north. They have tunnels conveying them from the north to the south but it's probably less intricate in the south between Hanyunas or Derel Baloch and Hanyunas and Rafa. As we speak, I get a report from Israeli media that an American ship intercepted another aerial, maybe a missile, maybe an airplane from Yemen. How is this still going on, Amir? This is how Iran contributes to the war effort. The Houthis up to now have not suffered any Israeli retaliation. Perhaps they believe that Israel will indeed, as it's spokespeople say, remain focused on Gaza. If this is what their assessment is, they will sometime be in for a very bitter awakening because Israel will not leave this attack unanswered. Also the Americans? Well, the Americans are fighting with Israel. We accept it as if it's natural but the Americans are involved in this war defensively, not only with the facility in the Negev looking torts Iran, they're under, but here they, the USS Kani and perhaps the same destroyer or another one here helping Israel defend itself. It's like in baseball. They are the second baseman in front of the shortstop. But in Iraq and Syria, if we're going to remain on the baseball metaphor, the Iranians aren't trying to steal a base there, so to speak, because of over 40, probably 45 to 50 attacks by now on US bases and assets in Syria and Iraq, Americans saying that they will retaliate. They have, limitedly, similarly to how Israel has responded or not responded to missiles, drones, and others being launched from Yemen, not only from Yemen, also Iraq launched a missile at Israel that was downed by the Jordanians, by the way. But if we're looking at the Houthis specifically yesterday, the leader of the Houthis tried to take his rhetoric a step further, pinpointing IDF Navy ships operating in the Red Sea saying that they will become a target. We don't know if they haven't been trying to hit them already. Not necessarily IDF, the merchant marine, too, and tankers. Israel is really shipping. All of those are currently being protected by Iron Dome, the Arrow, of course, and all the different aerial defense systems. What we're seeing is that they're amplifying the rhetoric. But I mean, just a report today in Reuters indicating where Iran stands, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, telling the leader of Hamas, Ismail Hania, that since you did not alert us in advance of the October 7th attack, we will not be active in this fight. We will support you. And that explains why Islam isn't even more active. I will just note that following October 7th and the surprise that we all got with reports prior to that kind of swaying our attention, we do need to take all of these reports with a grain of salt. But this is a potential indication that will explain how Iran and its proxies are currently. What Khamenei told Hania, in essence, was, I'm Shiite. You're Sunni. May Allah be with you. Now, what would be the point where the United States will start acting militarily? When it has a fatality, the Pentagon spokesman said that out of the 56 American servicemen who suffered concussions, all are back in service. But if one is killed, we will see quite a response. Let's go to our reporters in the field for some updates. First, in Sderot, Mary McAuliffe, we are with you. Give us the update. That's right, Yaakov. We continue to see Israeli airstrikes, striking parts of this northern Gaza Strip, as I described earlier this evening when we were discussing. And I just want to note it also comes as today. The IDF said that the 14th Brigade was successful in overtaking a Hamas outpost inside the northern part of the Gaza Strip. It did not say where this outpost was located, simply noting the decisions how it was taken by the Israeli army to overtake this outpost and to conquer it using both artillery, as well as troops on the ground, as well as overhead airstrikes. But they did say that this was an outpost that was used to launch attacks against Israel, but now saying that this is firmly in control of the Israeli military. Thank you, Mary. Zach Anders in the northern part of Israel, near the border with Lebanon, the update from there. Well, in the four o'clock hour, the IDF says there was once again another incursion. And then in the five o'clock hour, there was another red alert, but the IDF has now clarified that that was a false alarm. There have been several false alarms in the past few days. The IDF has been airing on the side of caution, considering the activity in the skies, the airspace above Lebanon, just on the border with northern Israel. We've been hearing the outgoing artillery fire. The IDF says that once again, they are striking the locations of these origination points of where the Hezbollah locations are along the Lebanese border. The IDF also say they have been deploying tanks. Tanks have been firing on outposts, Hezbollah outposts. Can also say that public radar data is showing that the United States has air operations in the skies off the coast of Lebanon, currently about 60,000 feet flying along the coastline with their transponder on. That is a bit of an unusual thing for some of the military assets. Usually they operate in secrecy, but turning on their transponders, showing some of the players in the area that they are there and they want their presence known. Okay, thank you very much for this. And I, 24 years, Nicole Serek, is with the families of Israeli hostages tonight, Nicole. Yes, and you can see dozens are starting to gather here behind me at one of the regional council centers here in Beit Hashemuna. And this is where families are going to be spending their second night after departing on a march to Jerusalem all the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This is night two and at about 10 minutes now, we're expected to hear, not only from some of the local community members, but also from the families, from the participates, from the dozens of people who have been taking place in this march to give a voice to the 239 at least hostages that are still held captive in Gaza. So the community support has been really something that has been inspirational for so many of these different family members. And you see, I can see more and more corps are coming, more and more people are arriving here to show their support for these different community members because it's been 40 days. And they say the message they keep repeating is now that their loved ones, the people who they care about should not still be in Gaza. The fact that this has been going on for 40 days, they're calling on not just the Israeli government as they're taking their voices straight to Jerusalem, but also the international crowd as well. In fact, one of the main players that they keep calling out is the International Red Cross for doing so little in their words, not even getting a list of all of the hostages that remain captive in Gaza right now. So when I'm speaking to some of the family members, they say that's really something that has disappointed them, seeing how some of these international organizations have, in their words, failed to do so little to get their loved ones back home or even just check on their safety and see what condition they've been kept in for the past 40 days now. So we're expected to hear from some of these family members from some of these local authorities just to hear about updates as they continue to march and bring their voices all the way to Jerusalem. All right, Nicole, thank you very much for that. Also to you, Mary and Zach. One of the many challenges in Israel today is to treat the new many disabled people. Here's more in the next report. The horrific events of October 7th changed many things in Israeli society. One of them is the treatment of the disabled. Edan Kleyman, the chairman of the handicapped IDF Veterans Organization, says that the organization is ready to accept thousands of new wounded people. We assume that the number of IDF disabled people will be in the same proportion to that in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. We are ready to treat around 10,000 IDF wounded. We already know about around 2,000 physical injuries and we expect up to 10,000 people to suffer from PTSD. In the past, we had three degrees of preparation, short-term, medium-term, and long-term. Today, we've moved everything to the short-term. Here in the handicapped IDF Veterans Center in Tel Aviv, a new call center was recently opened. Dozens of volunteers call the disabled soldiers and take care of their needs. We call people, see what hurts them, we try to help them, whether it's health problem or anything else, we try to help them. One of the issues that distinguishes this current crisis from previous ones is the high number of people suffering from post-traumatic syndrome disorder. Kleiman says that if in the past the recognition of mental disability was a long process, things are now changing. In the past, the authorities waited until the war was over and then started to treat the wounded. Today, we treat the wounded immediately. Every soldier who is wounded is being treated right now. There is a new understanding.