 Welcome to this breaking news edition, I'm Batia Leventhal, coming to you live from Tel Aviv. Thanks for joining me. It is day 25 of warm here in Israel. Rocket Alert sirens have been blaring throughout Israel's southern communities in recent hours. In the early hours of this Tuesday morning, the IDF destroyed the house of Salah al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, who oversaw some of the terror group's activities in the West Bank. In the north, the IDF jets also destroyed a Hezbollah facility housing weapons inside Lebanon. This is the exchange of fire between the Iranian-backed terror group and the Israeli military continues. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening dismissing the idea that Israel would agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, saying that those calling for one are in effect calling for Israel to surrender to terrorism, which it will not do. Let's go now to our correspondent, Pierre Clashenlau, who is standing by for us in southern Israel. Pierre, this morning hasn't necessarily been like most mornings where there's 11-12 hours of lull and then Rocket Alert sirens go off. It's been a pretty noisy morning, has it not? Well, the last rocket strike was in southern Israel at 2.47 local time, which means we've had a lull of about five hours up until now. But as you can hear just next to us, the artillery is unrelentlessly bombing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets as we are talking, and we hear the roar of the fighter jets bombing targets as well as the ground maneuver inside the northern Gaza Strip isn't intensifying. We've heard of progression of the IDF forces on the ground, be it infantry or military engineering units and tanks progressing on the Salahadin axis, which cuts the Gaza Strip from north to east, and it seems that the fighting is still located around the villages in the northern Gaza Strip of Bet Lahiya, Bet Hanun, but they're already west of Gaza City and progressing. Now, there have been reinforcement and also swaps of soldiers, fresh soldiers entering and battled soldiers going out of the Gaza Strip in order to bring fresh soldiers into the front, into the moving front, and that's the situation as far as we understand because since Friday there is a heavy fog of war on what's going on exactly inside the northern Gaza Strip. Right, Pierre, and as we know the IDF coming out with statements on its operations near the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but Hamas is claiming that it is attacking Israeli soldiers or forces that are stationed near the Karim Shalom crossing near the south of the Strip, but as we can hear right behind you that artillery is coming from southern Israel toward northern Gaza areas, is it not? Right, but there are bombing strikes by Israeli air force fighter jets in the southern Gaza Strip as well, although there are no boots on the ground in that sector because it is believed that most command and operational centers and the political leadership of Hamas is probably still hidden underneath Gaza City, underneath in tunnels, probably also tunnels which are close to the main hospitals of Gaza City such as Al-Quds Hospital, Shifa Hospital. The IDF already on Friday explained that Shifa Hospital is basically underground, a major, maybe the most major operational and command center in order to direct the Hamas terrorists into operations against the Israeli army, but up until now we've heard only two wounded, that was in the night of Saturday and Sunday of two IDF soldiers, one severely and one moderately, and since then we haven't heard of any IDF casualties on that front. Correspondent Pierre Clashen, they're giving us an update from the south. Thank you very much for that. We'll cross live to you for more updates later on in the morning. Joining me now from Ramata Sharon in Central Israel is retired Colonel Mary Eisen, the director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichmen University. Mary, good morning to you. It's been almost an emotional pull this morning waking up many to the news about the IDF had rescued one of its troops, one of its soldiers that was taken hostage into the Gaza Strip after the October 7th massacre, but also again waking up with that feeling of jubilation, but then to the realization that Israel is still 25 days engaged in war. It's 200, I think I'm right now, of the 239 families who are still awaiting the same kind of reaction that every single one of us had, but but you think about it in this way, a terror organization not only declared war, enacted war, a genocidal attack, that part of it is the hostages. Israel has systematically in a quiet way. It doesn't make it any easier, rescued one of the hostages. This isn't the manipulation that these terror organizations, specifically Hamas now, are trying to do to all of us. Hamas have tried to release now psychological warfare with a tape that I don't want anybody to see of three hostages that I'm grateful they're alive, but that's part of their psychological warfare. Israel is systematically trying to get to them. Hamas are trying to say that what they're doing is in any way okay. And I think that what we're seeing is that this isn't about haste. We are systematically going after Hamas infrastructure. We're systematically going and trying to get to the hostages. And the Hamas terror organization knows that, is scared, is trying to use its own civilians as the human shields and the hostages as an asset, and we're making sure that they cannot do so in a very complex way. Absolutely. We are looking at live images at the moment on the screen of the Gaza Strip. We can see some smoke in the background as the fighting continues. Miri, to your exact point, we have not and neither have many channels here in Israel been broadcasting that video that you mentioned of the three hostages sitting there and placing blame squarely on Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu for the situation. And again, as you mentioned, part of Hamas' psychological warfare, it's why we're not buying into it and playing those images. But again, the video of that contrast to the jubilation that we're seeing from the videos and from many leaders here in Israel speaking about the soldier that was rescued, it also perhaps bodes well in Israel's favor among its citizens showing that no man is going to be left behind and more so than that, that yes, we are 25 days into the war and yes, progress is slow. But that means that it could perhaps be very strategic. We're in a different war and I'm not sure about you that all of us always understand that. What happened on October 7th is continuing these 24-25 days. This is a war that's going to be long. When we set it on October 7th, I'm not sure we understood the implications. This is a war which does have an aspect which is completely existential for us. And it's the combination of the idea that you can just brazenly, genocidally come in, murder so many people, take the hostages, and then try to turn it into the blame game on Israel. We have enormous resilience, strength, and capabilities. And we're using them now against the terror organization. We're using them to save our citizens. And we have the length and the breadth and the strength, both of the Israeli public. And in this case, I say sadly, well, maybe not sadly, the governments of the decent world, even if some of the publics have shown enormous anti-Semitism. So I say that in that sense, as somebody who's Israeli, I am proud that we are doing what we're doing, that we're doing systematically, that we're trying to save civilian lives in the Gaza Strip, but that we're trying not to succumb to terrorism, that we're trying to make this a world where we actually take actions systematically to get to those hostages without the terrorists winning anything. Miri, stay with us because we've been talking about obviously the release, the rescue, rather, I should correct myself, of the one Israeli soldier. And I want to clue in some of the viewers that perhaps don't know, but with regards to the hostage front, while there are more than 230 hostages that are still in captivity in the Gaza Strip, there is, as we've been talking about, some positive news. Natalie and Judith Raan, non-US citizens who were kidnapped by Hamas and held in Gaza earlier this month, have finally returned to their home in Chicago. The two were the first of the hostages to be released as part of Hamas' ongoing psychological warfare. But on Monday evening, major relief and jubilation. All this as a kidnapped Israeli soldier, Private Ori Megadish, was rescued from Gaza in an Israeli operation the evening before and finally reunited with her family, often nearly four weeks apart. I know the sense of, it's not only the sense of loss that bereaved parents have, it's the sense of not knowing, of continuous anguish. So I fully understand their concern. But our common assessment of all of the, not only the cabinet members, but also all the security forces in the military is that the ground action actually creates the possibility, not the certainty, but the possibility of getting our hostages out. Because Hamas will not do it unless they're under pressure. They simply will not do it. They only do it under pressure. This creates pressure. And again, we obviously greeted one hostage with the open arms after yesterday's successful action by Shabak and the IDF. But we're committed to getting all the hostages back home. We think that this method stands a chance. It's a goal that we're committed to. Most of this broadcast has been focused on developments in the south, but that doesn't mean that we have not been keeping an eye on the north. And I want to go to our correspondent now, Robert Swift, who is standing by for us in northern Israel. Robert, it appears to be a quiet morning there on the border with rocket sirens only being heard in the south. But that doesn't necessarily mean that all is calm on the northern front. No, it doesn't. We've frequently seen spells of calm quickly broken by action here on the north. This has happened on multiple days. So last night there was Israeli airstrikes conducted in the south of Lebanon. This Israeli jets targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, excuse me, and attacking arms depots. This came in response to several mortar and anti-tank weapon attacks that were conducted on the northern border in the western zone, close to where we are. These took place towards the end of the afternoon yesterday, and so the Israeli military responding. But there's still little bits of activity constantly going. Activity that doesn't quite make the threshold of reporting. But it's not uncommon to see fire or to hear shots from the border. If I step aside, you'll see the border behind me where currently there is some sort of fire emanating from there. Now at the minute it's unclear what this is, but often when mortars have been fired, they will cause fire. And you'll see where the smoke is emanating from the border just to the right of there. There's a series of antenna and towers and that is an Israeli base. And we've seen that base and other bases there along the border targeted just yesterday whilst we were up there. We saw that base targeted. So it's possible that that's what's happening up there, but at the minute it remains relatively quiet. Correspondent Robert Swift giving us an update from the northern border. Thank you very much for that. We'll be crossing live to you a little later for more. Still joining me from Ramata Sharron in Central Israel's retired colonel Mary Eisen. And here in studio with me is our senior editor, Guy Azrael. Guy, just before crossing through to Rob, we were discussing with Mary with regards to the jubilation. If you can put it in any other way that was felt when this IDF soldier was finally brought home after almost four weeks of being apart from her family. Now Israel without a doubt is known as being one of the most resilient nations and people are united, but people are also anxious and scared and worried and concerned. What did these images and what did this do for the morale of the country? It's a rare ray of light. The name Ori means light, and that was the ray of light. The moment of joy for the people of Israel 25 days after this massacre and the terrible toll that it took on the national morale, the trauma, the morning, everything that followed has left this nation with very difficult feelings. So certainly yesterday to see that outburst of joy from the family, but not just all of our neighbors, all of that small city of Kyat Gad have come together in celebration. I think many Israelis shared the same emotions last night, looking for something to be joyous about that was so heartwarming to see. We know that she is doing well. The IDF is not releasing a lot of information about how was she rescued. They keep these details secret. What would you do know is that she was held in the hands of Hamas, not under any other terror group or not in the homes of civilians, because we know civilians also took part both in the massacre and in the kidnapping of Israelis. So that was a joint and planned operation. They didn't just come across her, so to speak, as they were making their way into the Gaza Strip. But in a planned operation with intelligence, and the IDF has actually wanted to keep her rescue in secret as well. She was transferred to a hospital. She met her family and the chief of staff and other security officials. They did not want the public to know about this because of the intelligence implications, what the methods that they've used. It came about so that the word has come out. And eventually last night, they figured that they would release that statement together with her picture, a moment of joy for her family and for the people of Israel. The IDF did say that she has provided a lot of very useful information about her captivity, about where she was hiding. We can assume about who held her, about the condition of her friends, perhaps. All of these things would be very useful as the IDF continues. It's a ground operation and the efforts to release more of these hostages. 238 still held in these tunnels in conditions that we don't know about. The Red Cross, of course, have yet to see them or provide them with medicine. And we know that many of them are in need of urgent medicine. And many of them are presumed to be wounded in the fighting as well. Still no word about their condition, a lot of concern, a lot of worry in Israel, and at least that ray of light last night. Mary, from a tactical perspective, and please excuse me, I'm not asking you to get into the mind of Hamas terror organization, but surely releasing one by one the hostages is providing, as Guy mentioned, significant intel and information toward the IDF as opposed to releasing a group of them. It almost appears that, apart from the psychological warfare, this doesn't benefit Hamas in any way, because the more information and intelligence that comes out from each of these individuals, the more precise and perhaps the better Israel is going to be at going in to rescue them. We have to remember that A, Hamas is a terror organization. But yeah, they came in as part of their murderous attack was to take these, as they'll call them, assets. They want to use these assets to get out people, people, terrorists that were put on trial and put on jail under law inside Israeli jails. There is no equivalence. This is the asymmetry in that sense of actually putting it on the same platform. Hamas are losing their cards, they're losing their assets. Not just, not just, their murderous attack should be enough, that ISIS attack that they did on October 7th, the taking of hundreds of hostages from every age. So when I look at it in the operation, this is the side where Israel, and I don't think that we're ignoring the world. I think that we're trying to save civilians in the Gaza Strip, both the hostages and any lives that are not Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. That what we're doing is that we're more in control, and that scares Hamas. We are showing that we can get past what they prepared for a decade as their defense to hold their assets. We're going in and systematically taking it apart. We're going into the system and finding one hostage. And my hope goes out and say, maybe another one. I don't know. They're holding them. I think that the fact that Israel has been exposing that when Hamas built this whole infrastructure, terror infrastructure, to hold the hostages, to take care that their terrorists would stay alive and their civilians above ground would be the defense, that I think that a lot of that is focused on the hospitals inside the Gaza Strip. It is the worst part. So here we are. We're more in control. We're very much taking the advantage. We're the ones on the initiative against Hamas terror, not succumbing to their psychological warfare, not allowing them to lead us on the road. Having said that, Bacha, there's a big gap here between how we view it in Israel, how our allies, governments, understand this and the way that Hamas very much is trying to orchestrate a different narrative, a different idea in world opinion. And that one right now is a challenging arena. Right. And speaking of the world, Israel obviously has many fronts to try and deal with here, but one of them being the fact that anti-Semitism as well as anti-Zionism have been on the rise worldwide amid Israel's war against Hamas following the October 7th massacre. At a Monday meeting with Jewish leaders, Biden administration officials vowed to make a plan within two weeks to counter the alarming increase of anti-Semitism at U.S. colleges and universities to drive that point home. Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdogan and his delegation wore a yellow star of David at the UN Security Council meeting on Monday, bearing the message never again those same yellow Jewish stars that had to be worn by Jews as a mark during the Holocaust. In Israel, more cabinet minister Benny Gantz also addressed the issue, sending a specific message to Israel's Jewish brothers and sisters worldwide. Take a listen. As I speak, our sons and daughters endanger their lives to ensure our survival, to defend our homeland and our families. They fight, we fight, for a future free of terror, a future free from Jewish fear. We owe it to the Jew in Auschwitz crying for help. We owe it to the university students scared to wear a star of David or speak Hebrew. We owe it to over 200 hostages sitting in darkness with nothing but hope keeping them warm. We owe it to the children of Am Israel who deserve one day to live beside their neighbors in security and peace. Mary, a major concern among Israelis, not just those with dual citizenship here, is the prospect of whether to stay or whether to leave and why it's becoming such a difficult concern for many is the fact that anti-Semitism worldwide has really reached a peak in some places, estimating that it's over 1,000 percent of an increase. 1,000 percent, that's off the charts in terms of numbers. And I think what Israeli leaders worldwide are trying to do is to remind the world that while we keep comparing this perhaps to a second Holocaust, the differences is that we have the state of Israel. As I'm sitting here and talking to you, Batya, and both of us have these accents. We came from other places. We came from those Jewish communities around the world. As I've been speaking to Jews, to Israel's supporters over the last three weeks, four weeks endlessly, one of the aspects that I think is the biggest dissonance is that I feel safer as a Jew who was born in the United States right now in Israel, under attack, sirens. My family is mobilized. It's my children who are fighting and my husband who is called up. And I feel that here I'm safer and more in control because that, oh my God, that anti-Semitism that in my lifetime I never thought that I would see in the United States of America, all over Europe, when we say rearing its ugly head, could any of us imagine this, that we're under attack and what comes out is the worst anti-Semitism ever seen? And as I said, our resilience, our strength, the strength of our Am Israel, as Benagon said before, that's one of the things that's going to take us through this. We have the state of Israel. We are so not perfect. We have so many warts and pimples and we are amazing as a country in our resilience and how we're standing up and not just fighting the civil society right now. We have to put back together pieces, the 1400 families who had their loved ones massacred that haven't even had funerals yet, sat shiva, both Israelis and non-Israelis, Jews and non-Jews. This is part of our strength and we need to see it for what it is in its own way, Batya. I'm almost happy that when we say anti-Semitism and we talked about it and everybody was like, no, no, no, it's not there. Here we are. It is here. It is thriving in the worst way possible. Face it, people of the world. Stand up and talk about it. Don't allow the Jew to be the only thing that's allowed to be vilified in the world. Don't let this terror attack take you on to the wrong side. Guy, in the last two minutes that we have of the broadcast, I'd like to get your take on this because obviously this being part and parcel, it's becoming harder and harder to separate anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism because de facto, they are one in the same. I just want to connect to the things we heard from Miri and both of us heard here in studio yesterday. Iris Chaim, she's the mother of Yotam who was kidnapped into Gaza and I spoke to her after the interview and what she said to me was my grandparents, her grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz in the Holocaust and she has no other country and that's why she has her faith in the state of Israel and she will fight for her life here, really alluding to the secret weapon that Golda told Biden about, well, we have nowhere else to go and I think this is something that is the bottom line for the world to understand what we're dealing with and how Israel is so engaged in this situation, a threat on our people because they're Jewish with a Nazi-like ideology as Ophshol says, the new Nazis targeting Israelis with the Charter of Hamas calling to eliminate Israel as the Jewish state to slaughter Israelis and Jews because this is the goal of Hamas and therefore this is how it all connects to our identity, to our history and to what we're fighting for now. Senior editor Gai Israel and retired Colonel Miri Eisen. Thank you both so very much for joining us on this breaking news edition. If anything you missed make sure to check out our website at i24news.tv or tune in again at the top of the hour for more updates from here in Israel. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues. We bring you firsthand testimonies from the front lines, from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas. Follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north. Get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24news. the reaction de los países hispanoparlantes frases que sabes desde donde viene de acá y el paquete copa cuando y recargas que ya sabes hacia donde van en día recargas internacionales altiza tu gente en rd accede a nuestra página web recargas.altis.com.b selecciona recargas y digita el número al que deseas colocarle la recarga además ellos reciben el doble de balance en recargas de ocho dólares o más altis la red global de los dominicanos. Welcome to this breaking news edition i'm batia 11th all coming to you live from tel aviv thanks for joining me it is day 25 of warm here in israel rocket alert sirens have been blaring throughout israel's southern communities in recent hours in the early hours of this tuesday morning the idf destroyed the house of salah al-aruri the deputy head of hamas's political bureau who oversaw some of the terror groups activities in the west bank in the north idf jets also destroyed as well a facility housing weapons inside lebanon this is the exchange of fire between the iranian backed terror group and the israeli military continues israeli prime minister benjamin itanyao on monday evening dismissing the idea that israel would agree to a ceasefire with hamas saying that those calling for one are in effect calling for israel to surrender to terrorism which it will not do let's go now to our correspondent pia clash and let who is standing by for us in southern israel pia this morning hasn't necessarily been like most mornings where there's 11 12 hours of lull and then rocket alert sirens go off it's been a pretty noisy morning has it not well the last rocket strike was in southern israel at 247 local time which means we've had a lot of about five hours up until now but as you can hear just next to us the artillery is unrelentlessly bombing hamas and palestinian islamic jihad targets as we're talking and we hear the roar of the fighter jets bombing targets as well as the ground maneuver inside the northern gaza strip isn't isn't intensifying we've here we're we're we've heard of progression of the idf forces on the ground be it infantry or military engineering units and tanks progressing on the saladin axis which cuts the gaza strip from north to east and it seems that the fighting is still located around the villagers in the northern gaza strip of betlahia bet hanun but they're already west of gaza city and progressing now there have been reinforcement and also swaps of soldiers fresh soldiers entering and and and battled soldiers going out of the gaza strip in order to bring fresh soldiers into the front into the moving front and that's the situation as far as we understand because since friday there is a heavy fog of war on what's going on exactly inside the northern gaza strip right pier and as we know the idf coming out with statements on its operations near the northern part of the gaza stripper hamas is claiming that it is attacking israeli soldiers or forces that are stationed near the kerim shalom crossing near the south of the strip but as we can hear right behind you that artillery is coming from southern israel toward northern gaza and areas is it not right but there are bombing strikes by israeli air force fighter jets in the southern gaza strip as well although there are no boots on the ground in that sector because it is believed that most command and operational centers and the political leadership of hamas is probably still hidden underneath gaza city underneath in tunnels probably also tunnels which are close to the main hospitals of gaza city such as al-Quds hospital shifa hospital the idf already on friday explained that shifa hospital is basically and the ground a major maybe the most major operational and command center in order to direct the hamas terrorists into operations against the israeli army but up until now we've heard only two wounded that was in the night of saturday and sunday of two idf soldiers one severely and one moderately and since then we haven't heard of any idf casualties on that front correspondent peer clash and they're giving us an update from the south thank you very much for that we'll cross live to you for more updates later on in the morning joining me now from ramata sharon in central israel is retired colonel mary eisen the director of the international institute for counterterrorism at reichman university mary good morning to you it's been almost an emotional pool this morning waking up many to the news that the idf had rescued one of its troops one of its soldiers that was taken hostage into the gaza strip after the october 7th massacre but also again waking up with that feeling of jubilation but then to the realization that israel is still 25 days engaged in war it's 200 i think i'm right now of both the 239 families who are still awaiting the same kind of reaction that every single one of us had but but you think about it in this way a terror organization not only declared war enacted war a genocidal attack that part of it is the hostages israel has systematically in a quiet way it doesn't make it any easier rescued one of the hostages this isn't the manipulation that these terror organizations specifically hamas now are trying to do to all of us hamas have tried to release now psychological warfare with a tape that i don't want anybody to see of three hostages that i'm grateful they're alive but that's part of their psychological warfare israel is systematically trying to get to them hamas are trying to say that what they're doing is in any way okay and i think that what we're seeing is that this isn't about haste we are systematically going after hamas infrastructure we're systematically going and trying to get to the hostages and the hamas terror organization knows that is scared is trying to use its own civilians as the human shields and the hostages as an asset and we're making sure that they cannot do so in a very complex way absolutely we are looking at live images at the moment on the screen of the gaza stirbery can see some smoke um in the background as the fighting continues miri to your exact point we have not and neither have many channels here in israel been broadcasting that video that you mentioned of the three hostages sitting there and placing blame squarely on israeli premier um benjamin itaña who fought the situation and again as you mentioned part of hamas the psychological warfare it's why we're not buying into it and playing those images but again the the video of that contrast to the jubilation that we're seeing from the videos and from many leaders here in israel speaking about the soldier that was rescued it also perhaps bodes well in israel's favor among its citizens showing that no man is going to be left behind and more so than that that yes we are 25 days into the war and yes progress is slow but that means that it could perhaps be very strategic we're in a different war and i'm not sure about you that all of us always understand that what happened on october 7th is continuing these 24 25 days this is a war that's going to be long when we set it on october 7th i'm not sure we understood the implications this is a war which does have an aspect which is completely existential for us and it's the combination of the the idea that you can just brazenly genocidally come in murder so many people take the hostages and then try to turn it into the blame game on israel we have enormous resilience strength and capabilities and we're using them now against the terror organization we're using them to save our citizens and we have the length and the breadth and the strength both of the israeli public and in this case i say sadly well maybe not sadly the governments of the decent world even if some of the publics have shown enormous anti-semitism so i say that that in that sense as somebody who's israeli i am proud that we are doing what we're doing that we're doing systematically that we're trying to save civilian lives in the Gaza Strip but that we're trying not to succumb to terrorism that we're trying to make this a world where we actually take actions systematically to get to those hostages without the terrorists winning anything mary stay with us because for we've been talking about obviously the release the rescue rather i should correct myself of the one israeli soldier and i want to clue in some of the viewers that perhaps don't know but with regards to the hostage front while there are more than 230 hostages that are still in captivity in the Gaza Strip there is as we've been talking about some positive news natalie and judith ran and u.s citizens who were kidnapped by chamas and held in Gaza earlier this month have finally returned to their home in chicago the two were the first of the hostages to be released as part of chamas's ongoing psychological warfare but on monday evening major relief and jubilation all this is a kidnapped israeli soldier private ori megadish was rescued from gaza in an israeli operation the evening before and finally reunited with her family often nearly four weeks apart i know this sense of it's not only the sense of loss that bereaved parents have it's a sense of uh not knowing of continuous continuous anguish so i fully understand their concern but our common assessment of all of the uh not only the cabinet members but also all the security forces in the military is that the ground action actually creates the possibility not the certainty but the possibility of getting our hostages out because chamas will not do it unless they're under pressure they simply will not do it they only do it under pressure this creates pressure and again we obviously uh greeted one hostage with the open arms after yesterday's a successful action by shabbat and the idf but we're committed to uh getting all the hostages back home we think that this method stands a chance it's a goal that we're committed to most of this broadcast has been focused on developments in the south but that doesn't mean that we have not been keeping an eye on the north and i want to go to our correspondent now robert swift who is standing by for us in northern israel robert it appears to be a quiet morning there on the border with rocket sirens only being heard in the south but that doesn't necessarily mean that all is calm on the northern front no it doesn't we've frequently seen spells of of cam quickly broken by action here on the north this has happened on multiple days so last night there was israeli airstrikes conducted in the south of lebanon this israeli jets targeting khamas khezbollah infrastructure excuse me and attacking arms depots this came in response to several mortar and anti-tank weapon attacks that were conducted on the the northern border in the western zone close to where we are these took place it took towards the end of the afternoon yesterday and so the israeli military responding but there's still there's still little bits of activity constantly going activity that doesn't quite make the threshold of reporting but it's not in common to seize to see fire or to hear shots from the border if i step aside you'll see the border behind me where currently there is some sort of fire emanating from up from there now at the the minute it's unclear what this is but often when mortars have been fired they will cause fire and you'll see where the smoke is emanating from the border just to the right of there there's a series of antenna and towers and that is an israeli base and we've seen that base and other bases there along the border targeted just uh just yesterday whilst we were up there we saw that base targeted so it's possible that that's what's happening up there but at the minute it remains relatively quiet correspondent robert swift giving us an update from the northern border thank you very much for that we'll be crossing live to you a little later for more still joining me from ramata sharon in central israel's retired colonel mary izan and here in studio with me is our senior editor guy israel guy just before crossing through to rob we were discussing with mary with regards to the jubilation if you can put it in any other way that was felt when this idf soldier was finally brought home after almost four weeks of being apart from her family now israel without a doubt is known as being one of the most resilient nations and people are united but people are also anxious and scared and worried and concerned what are these images and what did this do for the morale of the country but it's a it's a rare ray of light the name ori means light and that was the ray of light the moment of joy for the people of israel 25 days after this massacre and and and the terrible toll that it took on the national morale the the trauma the the mourning everything that followed has left this nation in with very difficult feelings so certainly yesterday to see that outburst of of joy from the family but not just all of our neighbors all of that small city of kerat got have come together in in celebration i think many israelis shared the same emotions last night looking for something to be joyous about that was so heartwarming to see we know that she is doing well the idf is not releasing a lot of information about how was she rescued they keep these details a secret what you do know is that she was held in the hands of hamas not under any other terror group or not in the homes of civilians because we know civilians also took part both in the massacre and in the kidnapping of israelis so that was a joint and planned operation they didn't just come across her so to speak as they were making their way into the gaza strip but in a planned operation with intelligence and the idf has actually wanted to keep her rescue in secret as well she was transferred to a hospital she met her family and the chief of staff and other security officials they did not want the public to know about this because of the intelligence implications what the methods that they've used it came about so that the word has come out and eventually last night they they figured that they would release that statement together with her picture a moment of joy for her family and for the people of israel the idf did say that she has provided a lot of very useful information about her captivity about where she was hiding we can assume about who held her about the condition of her friends perhaps all of these things would be very useful as the idf continues it's a ground operation and the efforts to release more of these hostages 238 still held in these tunnels in conditions that we don't know about the red cross of course have yet to see them or provide them with medicine and we know that many of them are in need of urgent medicine and many of them are considered or presumed to be wounded in the fighting as well still no word about their condition a lot of concern a lot of war in israel and at least that ray of light last night mary from a tactical perspective and please excuse me i'm not asking you to get into the mind of a chamas terror organization but surely releasing one by one the hostages is providing as guy mentioned significant intel and information toward the idf as opposed to releasing a group of them it almost appears that apart from the psychological warfare this doesn't benefit chamas in any way because the more information and intelligence that comes out from each of these individuals the more precise and perhaps the better israel is going to be at going in to rescue them we have to remember that a chamas is a terror organization but yeah they came in as part of their murderous attack was to take these as they'll call them assets they want to use these assets to get out people people terrorists that were put on trial and put on jail under law inside israeli jails there is no equivalence this is the asymmetry in that sense of actually putting it on the same platform chamas are losing their cards they're losing their assets not just not just their murderous attack should be enough that isis attack that they did on october 7th the taking of hundreds of hostages from every age so when i look at it in the operation this is the side where israel and i don't think that we're ignoring the world i think that we're trying to save civilians in the Gaza Strip both the hostages and any lives that are not chamas inside the Gaza Strip that what we're doing is that we're more in control and that scares chamas we are showing that we can get past what they prepared for a decade as their defense to hold their assets we're going in and systematically taking it apart we're going into the system and finding one hostage and my hope goes out and say maybe another one i don't know they're holding them i think that the fact that israel has been exposing that when chamas built this whole infrastructure terror infrastructure to hold the hostages to take care that their terrorists would stay alive and their civilians above ground would be the defense that i think that a lot of that is focused on the hospitals inside the Gaza Strip it is the worst part so here we are we're more in control we're very much taking the advantage we're the ones on the initiative against chamas terror not succumbing to their psychological warfare not allowing them to lead us on the the road having said that bacha there's a big gap here between how we view it in israel how our allies governments understand this and the way that chamas very much is trying to orchestrate a different narrative a different idea in world opinion and that one right now is a challenging arena right and speaking of the world israel obviously has many fronts to try and deal with here but one of them being the fact that anti-semitism as well as anti-zionism have been on the rise worldwide amid israel's war against chamas following the october 7 massacre at a monday meeting with jewish leaders biden administration officials vowed to make a plan within two weeks to counter the alarming increase of anti-semitism at u.s colleges and universities to drive that point home israeli ambassador to the u.n. gilad air done and his delegation wore a yellow star of david at the u.n. security council meeting on monday bearing the message never again those same yellow jewish stars that had to be worn by jews as a mark during the holocaust in israel war cabinet minister benny gantz also addressed the su sending a specific message to israel's jewish brothers and sisters worldwide take a listen as i speak our sons and daughters endanger their lives to ensure our survival to defend our homeland and our families they fight we fight for a future free of terror a future free from jewish fear we owe it to the jew in oschwitz crying for help we owe it to the university students scared to wear a star of david or speak hebron we owe it to over 200 hostages sitting in darkness with nothing but hope keeping them warm we owe it to the children of amis rael who deserve one day to live beside their neighbors in security and peace mary a major concern among israeli is not just those with dual citizenship here is is the prospect of whether to stay or whether to leave and and why it's becoming such a difficult concern for many is the fact that anti-semitism worldwide has really reached a peak in some places estimating that it's over 1000 percent of an increase 1000 percent that's off the charts in terms of numbers and i think what israeli leaders worldwide are trying to do is to remind the world that while we keep comparing this perhaps to a second holocaust the difference is is that we have the state of israel as i'm sitting here and talking to you batia and both of us have these accents we came from other places we came from those jewish communities around the world as i've been speaking to jews to israel supporters over the last three weeks four weeks endlessly one of the aspects that i think is the biggest dissonance is that i feel safer as a jew who was born in the united states right now in israel under attack sirens my family is mobilized it's my children who are fighting and my husband who is called up and i feel that here i'm safer and more in control because that oh my god that anti-semitism that in my lifetime i never thought that i would see in the united states of america all over europe and when we say rearing its ugly head could any of us imagine this that we're under attack and what comes out is the worst anti-semitism ever seen and as i said our resilience our strength the strength of our army as benagon said before that's one of the things that's going to take us through this we have the state of israel we are so not perfect we have so many wards and pimples and we are amazing as a country in our resilience and how we're standing up and not just fighting the civil society right now we have to put back together pieces the 1400 families who had their loved ones massacred that haven't even had funerals yet sat shiva both israelis and non-israelis jews and non-jews this is part of our strength and we need to see it for what it is in its own way batia i'm almost happy that when we say anti-semitism and we talked about it and everybody was like no no no it's not there here we are it is here it is thriving in the worst way possible face it people of the world stand up and talk about it don't allow the jew to be the only thing that's allowed to be vilified in the world don't let this tear attack take you on to the wrong side guy in the last two minutes that we have of the broadcast i'd like to get your take on this because obviously this being part and parcel it's becoming harder and harder to separate anti-semitism from anti-zionism because de facto they are one in the same i just want to connect to the things we heard from miri and both of us heard here in studio yesterday iris haim she's the mother of yotam who's kidnapped into gas and i spoke to her after the interview and what she said to me was um my grandparents her grandparents were murdered in in in all schvitz in the holocaust and she has no other country and that's why she has her faith in the state of israel and and she will fight for her life here really alluding to the secret weapon that golda told the biden about well we have nowhere else to go and i think this is something that is the bottom line for the world to understand what we're dealing with and how israel is so engaged in this situation a threat on our people because they're jewish with a nazi-like ideology as offshore says the new nazis uh targeting israelis with the charter of hamas calling to eliminate israel as the jewish state to slaughter israelis and jews uh because this is the goal of of hamas and therefore uh this is how it all connects to our identity to our history and to what we're fighting for now i'll see you editor guy israel and retired colonel miri eisen thank you both so very much for joining us on this breaking news edition if anything you miss make sure to check out our website at i24news.tv or tune in again at the top of the hour for more updates from here in israel israel is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity welcome to this breaking news edition i'm batter 11th all coming to live from telelev thanks for joining me it is day 25 of war here in israel rocket alert sirens have been blaring throughout israel's southern communities in recent hours including in a lot in the early hours of this tuesday morning the idf destroyed the house of salah arori the deputy head of khamas's political bureau who oversaw some of the terror groups activities in the west bank the israel defense forces says its troops also killed numerous khamas terrorists during ground operations in the gaza strip over the past day as well as striking some 300 terror targets in the north idf fighter jets destroyed his baller facility housing weapons inside lebanon this is the exchange of fire between the iranian bacteria group and the israeli military continues israel's police and shin beth security agencies say three israelis have also been arrested in the north on suspicion of isis connections israeli prime minister benjamin itzanyahu and mandir evening dismissing the idea that israel would agree to a ceasefire with khamas saying that those calling for one are in effect calling for israel to surrender to terrorism which it will not do i'd like to go here in studio where i am joined by rafael urshami a former senior idf intelligence officer and security analyst and our senior editor guy asriel just before we get an update from our correspondence on the ground obviously recent news coming out now that rocket sirens were going off in a lot where many people in the south have actually taken shelter because of the fact that it's so far away from gaza but this seems to be slightly different yes confirmation from the idea of coming right now about sirens surrounding in the area of a lot just that the southern tip of israel just by the red sea saying these alarm concerns a hostile aircraft intrusion into israeli territory and this comes after last thursday the hooties in yemen attempted to send 15 drones towards israel in addition to several ballistic missiles that were downed by the americans one of them also by the saudis and that is a major concern for israel and as you mentioned tens of thousands of those israelis who were hurt devastated in these in this hamas attack on october 7th tens of thousands of them are stationed in a lot now seeking refuge well the hostile terrorists both from hamas and from the hooties and other Iranian proxies are chasing them wherever they are for now residents and the visitors there have been asked to lock themselves up to seek shelter as the idea if he's checking this report about that possible drone infiltration will give you more information as it becomes available and from the very southern tip of the country to the very north i want to cross now to our correspondent robert swift is standing by for us in northern israel robert obviously concerns going on in the south of israel not just along the gaza border but also now in elat what is the situation though in the very north of the country what can you tell us from the ground this morning so the situation is one of simmering tensions i think you could say it's been quiet mostly overnight with the most recent information regarding the arrest of those three israeli citizens from sakin and arabah and on suspicion of connections to the islamic state and potentially uh conducting an attack planning to conduct an attack i should say but beyond that there has been airstrikes conducted by the israeli military just over the border which stands behind me if you'll be able to see that on the hill to my rear there is smoke emanating from the hill that is not related to the airstrikes the airstrikes would have been a bit deeper than that into uh into lebanese territory it's understood that the israeli military was targeting infrastructure possibly weapons depots belonging to hezbollah and that comes as a response to a series of attacks yesterday which included several rounds of mortars being fired to the communities that you're now looking at as well as anti-tank attacks which took place a bit further to the east and those attacks as a result of them the israeli military conducted these airstrikes that we just discussed correspondent robert swift giving us an update from the northern border thank you for that on the hostage front while there are more than 230 hostages still in captivity in the gaza strip there is some positive news natalie and judith ranan u.s citizens who were kidnapped by khamas and held in gaza earlier this month have finally returned to their home in chicago the two were the first of the hostages to be released as part of khamas's ongoing psychological warfare on monday evening major relief and jubilation these happy scenes as a kidnapped israeli soldier private ori megadish was rescued from gaza in an israeli operation the evening before and finally reunited with her family after nearly four weeks apart a major morale boost for the state of israel and a big success for the defense and political establishment i know this sense of it's not only the sense of loss that bereaved parents have it's a sense of not knowing of continuous continuous anguish so i fully understand their concern but our common assessment of all of the not only the cabinet members but also all the security forces in the military is that the ground action actually creates the possibility not the certainty but the possibility of getting our hostages out because khamas will not do it unless they're under pressure they simply will not do it they only do it under pressure this creates pressure and again we obviously greeted one hostage with the open arms after yesterday's successful action by shabak and the idf but we're committed to getting all the hostages back home we think that this method stands a chance it's a goal that we're committed to still with me here in studio rafael you're a show me and gaya asriel rafael is a fortune of complexities involved in this conflict the fact that we are seeing incidents breaking out on not just the southern front but the northern front and also toward drusen them and the west bank but something that benjamin tanya touched on is something that is at least resonant among most israelis at the moment that although there is a sense of of togetherness and being united there's also a major fear of the unknown we don't know how this conflict is going to play out and khizbollah is not like khamas uh yes khamas is a brutal terror organization that committed these heinous crimes but khizbollah has been armed and backed by iran since its founding what is your take on where we would stand if khizbollah had to get involved to a larger extent than what it currently has been so the problem would be the timing meaning if we are very busy with the south who are so busy with the center in the west bank it would be a good opportunity for the khizbollah to attack it might be enticed to do so by iran but it's only the timing that would be inconvenient because right now it becomes clear that after the khamas we have to deal with khizbollah we cannot let the khizbollah as is on our borders it is exactly the same threat tenfold that we had in the south the inhabitants of the north of israel especially those who are living near the border with lebanon and even syria will not go back home if the khizbollah is still there at their door because they will be just in the same danger as the south's southerners were so we think that now it's very clear that we have to deal with the khizbollah we have to hit them we have to destroy them as well it's just it would be nice to do it on our own timing and when we feel that it's good but we are prepared we have right now if you will also an opportunity because we have this huge amount of reserve forces that have been called we have the economy of israel being into like an emergency mode so why stop and then go back to normal and then a few months or in a year or two go back to calling the reserve again emergency mode again to almost keep the momentum running yeah there's something that we have to understand psychologically a lot of people around the world experts you know all on all are saying too much the word impossible they're telling the israelis they will not destroy the hamas it's not possible they will not free the hostages it's not possible the word impossible in our vocabulary it doesn't exist tsar never used the word impossible ever and the freeing of the young soldier yesterday the young corporal of the observing unit shows that we can do the impossible how impossible is it to go right into Gaza right into the den of the terrorist holding one person and arrived to the to the hostage taker out alive after coping so sorry experts of the world there is nothing that's impossible we can we've done in the past in israeli story we had bad things we had the kippur war we did make mistakes but we're also known to do a lot of time the impossible it almost motivates people to say that israel can't do these things and then we do look israel is mainly concerned about what it needs to do not about what the world thinks it cannot cannot do in is i think in this very first statement since the start of this war prime minister benjamin eteniao said we will change the reality in the middle east understanding that the state of israel will no longer be able to live next to the threat of hamas and his bala is for the timing obviously a much more complicated issue as the idea forces are so engaged in this ground operation in the gaza border and just to emphasize to our viewers his bala is estimated to be some 10 times more powerful than hamas and we're talking about tens of thousands of rockets we're talking about precision missiles that could hit very significant israeli infrastructure facilities and we're talking about very well trained red one troops that are able to infiltrate into israel so israel is so well aware of those dangers and his bala is the main reason why the american forces are here in the region in the on the mediterranean we're seeing the us carriers we're seeing the marines rapid response teams they're here not for the threat of hamas which is well can handle by itself but for a possible escalation that would see his bala and other major iranian proxies joining the uh the war that would be a much different story and for that sake the americans here are a deterrent to his bala and to the state of lebanon and that is the difference between hamas and his bala his bala knows that once it engaged it is engaged in a wide-scale war with israel the consequences the verifications for the state of lebanon would be extremely deadly and they know that as a political wing as well absolutely gentlemen stay with me i want to go to our correspondent pier clash and lo who's standing by for us in southern israel pier around 15 minutes ago a rocket siren alerts going off near kerem shalom we also know that there's been alerts in a lot where many in the southern communities have sought refuge in the southern tip of israel how what is the latest happening on the ground there what are you hearing and seeing in the background right what we've heard is that in the extreme south of israel in the area of elad there was an alert for the intrusion of a unmanned aerial vehicle that penetrated the israeli airspace we don't have any details at this point but indeed this is not the first time that either the hooty in yemen or the iranian naval presence in the red sea have been engaged against the israeli extreme south front so it could be a it could be a rehearsal of what happened a few days ago now regarding this particular front which is the most active one we've heard from the id of spokesperson unit that the head of hamas battalion in betlahia which is a village on the northern tip of the Gaza Strip has been eliminated overnight he was responsible for directing the forces that massacred that butchered israelis in two localities in the south of israel kibbutz erez and moshav netiva asara this man was also responsible for building the area of paragliders that were instrumental in perpetrating the october 7 massacres so it's a field commander it's very instrumental because it it's another film commander that has been killed and that's obviously disorganized the hamas resistance against the ground forces that are operating in the northern gara gaza strip beating betlahia or bethanoon now we've heard also from the id of spokesperson unit that 300 strikes on hamas and palestinian islamic jihad targets were operated overnight 300 and as we're talking there is an artillery battery position just nearby where we are three kilometers away from the border that is incessantly bombing terrorist targets correspondent pia kloschen leder in the south giving us an update thank you very much for that still with me in studio rafael you're a shalmi and gaya asriel rafael um a video that was circulated yesterday showed a senior hamas figure explaining to his interviewer that the tunnels were not in essence built to protect gaza civilians they were specifically built to hide terrorists from the israeli air strikes quote unquote and went further to say that it is the united nation and israel's responsibility to protect the citizens of gaza now for many viewers that are watching i'd like you to to clearly iron out israel left the gaza strip in 2005 unilaterally there was not a single israeli sole military personnel government official left in the gaza strip why is there the sense that only israel is responsible for the civilian lives in the gaza strip also knowing that it borders and has a border crossing with egypt exactly and any humanitarian crisis is in the world is that with on a global level it's a coalition of many many countries and NGOs that will deal with it nobody has ever asked a single country nation especially if it's a war to be so responsible for the welfare of the civilian population when they were the rwandan massacres for instance after the civil wars of the hutus and the tutsis it was the whole world that intervene and not only like congo so here is the same i actually point a finger accusing finger towards egypt i think egypt is a guilty of crime against mankind by not opening its borders it is absolutely nothing for egyptians to open their borders and let the refugees from the north and the south of gaza go into saini at least for the time of the war i know that mr sissy's greatest fear is that the gaza people will not go back into gaza they will stay in egypt in saini i think they might not go back to gaza but i can assure they will not stay in saini egypt is also not a nice place to live and the cc government they would maybe go somewhere else in the world but first thing first there is an emergency situation and the real solution is opening the borders of egypt installing refugee camps like there are refugee camps for the syrians after the civil war in syria in these refugee camps that were established in turkey with more or less the same amount of refugees a million and a half or so so that's the and there after egypt the main culprit comes the international community where is the pressure from the american administration where is the pressure from the united nations and the european union on egypt to open these borders and to let children women innocent person flee the combat zone thank god that the israelis are in charge of this combat because they have their ethical standards the biggest that i always say the palestinians do not have shelters like we do in israel and they do not have the iran dome the only shelter they have the only iran dome they have is the highest moral standards of the idf we are protecting them but this being said there is a need for food there is a need we are in a war effort we cannot take on us our economy is at a standstill we we need we might need ourselves some help so the international community has this responsibility if they're not taking it then it's their problem we're doing our utmost we're allowing in times of war things that were never allowed in any other war that even hampers our operational capacities to make sure there is this help and we want to have this because it's our jewish values to do these things but time has come now for the world to take their responsibilities okay they're letting us to fight the whole of a global terror alone we're fighting the jihadist alone for the whole world so at least do your job on the humanitarian side of things and don't just speak yes and of course we should mention that hamas has been receiving billions of dollars from the world from the kataris and from other entities using the vast majority of that money for its infrastructure for its rockets for its tunnels instead of investing them into the people of gaza for the well-being of the people of gaza it is israel that wanted the well-being of the people of gaza both by unilaterally withdrawing from the gaza strip in 2005 and by regularly allowing tens of thousands of gaza into israeli territory every day for work many residents of the south those who are butchered in these communities are the ones who gave work to gaza in hope for coexistence and better future the result was that many of those workers came back from the idea of work and provided hamas with very detailed information about each and every one of these houses about where to target how many residents are in each house which would be easier to hit which has a dog in it which has a weapon in it the detailed information given by these gaza who were allowed into israel was so detailed it was shown in the maps that were on these hamas operatives that were using these gaza residents it is a very sad reality that they've used this opportunity to hurt the israelis who wanted coexistence who wanted well for the people of gaza for so long now they have to bury have to deal with the consequences as well the last thing that israel wants is civilian injuries civilian fatalities but israel can no longer live next to a thriving terror group like hamas and last word an update on that incident in a lot what we're hearing from the idf just moments ago saying that its soldiers have managed to thwart a drone outside israeli territory above the red sea that is a drone that is presumed to have come from the hooties in yemen as they tried to do also just a week ago for now residents are still asked to remain enclosed in safe zones but for now no israeli injuries in this incident and the drone most likely thwarted by the idf over the red sea and just to reiterate perhaps for some of our viewers that don't know the hooties in yemen are backed exclusively by iran which is a major foe of the state of israel as well as many in the west and as we continue to unpack and analyze the current situation and try and predict what's coming from a future perspective we need to remind both our viewers and the world where this all started more than three weeks after hamas launched a massive and unprovoked attack on southern israeli communities those who once lived there are still reeling i24 news correspondent mary mccall have spoke with evacuated residents of kibbutz near oz near the border who visited their homes for the first time since the oxober 7th onslaught the tour was organized by the israeli government to show journalists media and the world the horrors that unfolded inside is as well continues to try and battle mass misinformation and denials an idyllic community burned to ashes this woman is visiting her family's house for the first time since the massacre of october 7th that turned southern israeli communities along the gaza border into enclaves of horror where terrorists systematically broke into homes searching for civilians to kill or kidnap burning down houses with families inside when they failed where survivors hid for eight and a half hours locked inside safe rooms waiting for rescue by the time help arrived all the terrorists had already made their way back over the border we are 400 people in this community 100 people they took or murdered so once or four every four people is not with us today the devastation is apparent as are the relics of the life that once was traces of the families of the children of the grandparents who once tended their gardens everything was so sad now it's gone nothing they burn our souls they really burn our soul the kabuts of near owes was one of the hardest hit by the hamas incursion into israeli territory located under two miles from the border residents have a clear view into the gaza strip from this house had asked his children fled from those who infiltrated their community last message i got from them 8 30 in the morning it told me they jumped from the window and hid in the bush behind the house but with hamas gunmen inside the kabuts there's nowhere to hide the last message i got from my son was mom mom be careful be quiet i love you that's what he told me and my daughter she said mom mom mom this is the last message they've been terrified she hasn't heard from them since three weeks of agony she says in this small community of just 400 people there's another person who lived here who was spared from the violence who doesn't know someone who was taken or whose family was murdered the remaining residents of near owes left to wait to hear from their loved ones or to grieve them mary mccall if i 24 news rafael in in recent hours there has been a map that has gone pretty viral around israel in the sense of i'm assuming it was an organization that tried to map the deaths and the kidnappings of every individual around the gaza border communities and this map is is just striking i'm hoping at some point during the day we will be able to find a way to show some of the viewers this but people seem to forget how this all started and why this is a war and a lot of the times people overseas are asking how they can stop the misinformation from going abroad and perhaps i'm wrong in saying this but i think the biggest way in stopping that is reminding people where this began this is not a war that israel wanted but it's a war that israel unfortunately has found itself in and has to win yes and the main thing is that we here do not forget abroad it's a different ballgame of course people who live abroad are far away from here they do not understand the situation they have to go about with their daily lives and are fed whatever they're fed on the media and there is an effort done by the israeli government in so far as the foreign ministry of israel has informed all embassies abroad to show footage of their atrocities that were committed to uh deciders to journalists to important people i would have advocated to show the atrocities to everybody wouldn't it be the problem that there are children who could be exposed to them so we can't unfortunately show that we should because we should never forget what we have suffered and why we're fighting absolutely guy israel rafael you're shami thank you gentlemen both for being with me on this breaking news edition 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by hamas follow us as israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i-24 news officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking more than a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are ready and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity welcome to this breaking news edition i'm batter 11th all coming to you live from tell avev thanks for joining me it is day 25 of war here in israel rocket alert sirens have been blaring throughout israel's southern communities in recent hours including in a lot in the early hours of this tuesday morning the idf destroyed the house of salah arori the deputy head of hamas's political bureau who oversaw some of the terror groups activities in the west bank the israel defense forces says its troops also killed numerous hamas terrorists during ground operations in the gaza strip over the past day as well as striking some 300 terror targets in the north idf fighter jets destroyed his bola facility housing weapons inside lebanon this is the exchange of fire between the iranian bacteria group and the israeli military continues israel's police and shin beth security agencies say three israelis have also been arrested in the north on suspicion of isis connections israeli prime minister benjamin itzanyahu and monday evening dismissing the idea that israel would agree to a ceasefire with hamas saying that those calling for one are in effect calling for israel to surrender to terrorism which it will not do i'd like to go here in studio where i am joined by rafael urashalmi a former senior idf intelligence officer and security analyst and our senior editor guy asrael just before we get an update from our correspondents on the ground obviously recent news coming out now that rocket sirens were going off in a lot where many people in the south have actually taken shelter because of the fact that it's so far away from gaza but this seems to be slightly different yes confirmation from the idea of coming right now about siren sounding in the area of a lot just at the southern tip of israel just by the red sea saying these alarm concerns a hostile aircraft intrusion into israeli territory and this comes after last thursday the hooties in yemen attempted to send 15 drones towards israel in addition to several ballistic missiles that were downed by the americans one of them also by the saudis and that is a major concern for israel and as you mentioned tens of thousands of those israelis who were hurt devastated in these uh in this hamas attack on october 7th tens of thousands of them are stationed in a lot now seeking refuge well uh the hostile terrorists both from hamas and from the hooties and other iranian proxies are chasing them wherever they are for now residents and the visitors there have been asked to lock themselves up to seek shelter as the idea is checking this report about that possible drone infiltration will give you more information as it becomes available and from the very southern tip of the country to the very north i want to cross now to our correspondent robert swift is standing by for us in northern israel robert obviously concerns going on in the south of israel not just along the gaza border but also now in elat what is the situation though in the very north of the country what can you tell us from the ground this morning so the situation is one of simmering tensions i think you could say it's been quiet mostly overnight with the most recent information regarding the arrest of those three israeli citizens from sakin and arab on suspicion of connections to the islamic state and potentially uh conducting an attack planning to conduct an attack i should say but beyond that there has been airstrikes conducted by the israeli military just over the border which stands behind me if you'll be able to see that on the hill to my rear there is smoke emanating from the hill that is not related to the airstrikes the airstrikes would have been a bit deeper than that into uh into lebanese territory it's understood that the israeli military was targeting uh infrastructure possibly weapons depots belonging to hezbollah and that comes as a response to a series of attacks yesterday which included several rounds of mortars being fired to the communities that you're now looking at as well as anti-tank attacks which took place a bit further to the east and those attacks as a result of them the israeli military conducted these airstrikes that we just discussed correspondent robert swift giving us an update from the northern border thank you for that on the hostage front while there are more than 230 hostages still in captivity in the gaza strip there is some positive news natalie and judith ryanan u.s citizens who were kidnapped by khamas and held in gaza earlier this month have finally returned to their home in chicago the two were the first of the hostages to be released as part of khamas's ongoing psychological warfare on monday evening major relief and jubilation these happy scenes as a kidnapped israeli soldier private ori megadish was rescued from gaza in an israeli operation the evening before and finally reunited with her family after nearly four weeks apart a major morale boost for the state of israel and a big success for the defense and political establishment i know this sense of it's not only the sense of loss that bereaved parents have it's a sense of not knowing of continuous continuous anguish so i fully understand their concern but our common assessment of all of the not only the cabinet members but also all the security forces in the military is that the ground action actually creates the possibility not the certainty but the possibility of getting our hostages out because khamas will not do it unless they're under pressure they simply will not do it they only do it under pressure this creates pressure and again we obviously greeted one hostage with the open arms after yesterday's a successful action by shabak and the idf but we're committed to uh getting all the hostages back home we think that this method stands a chance it's a goal that we're committed to still with me here in studio rafael you're a show me and gaya asriel rafael is a fortune of complexities involved in this conflict the fact that we are seeing incidents breaking out on not just the southern front but the northern front and also toward drusen them and the waste bank but something that benjamin tanya touched on is something that is at least resonant among most israelis at the moment that although there is a sense of of togetherness and being united there's also a major fear of the unknown we don't know how this conflict is going to play out and khizbollah is not like khamas uh yes khamas is a brutal terror organization that committed these heinous crimes but khizbollah has been armed and backed by iran since its founding what is your take on where we would stand if khizbollah had to get involved to a larger extent than what it currently has been so the problem would be the timing meaning if we are very busy with the south we're also busy with the center in the west bank it would be a good opportunity for the khizbollah to attack it might be enticed to do so by iran but it's only the timing that would be inconvenient because right now it becomes clear that after the khamas we have to deal with khizbollah we cannot let the khizbollah as is on our borders it is exactly the same threat tenfold that we had in the south the inhabitants of the north of israel especially those who are living near the border with lebanon and even syria will not go back home if the khizbollah is still there at their door because they will be just in the same danger as the south's southerners were so we think that now it's very clear that we have to deal with the khizbollah we have to hit them we have to destroy them as well it's just it would be nice to do it on our own timing and when we feel that it's good but we are prepared we have right now if you will also an opportunity because we have this huge amount of reserve forces that have been called we have the economy of israel being into like an emergency mode so why stop and then go back to normal and then a few months or in a year or two go back to calling the reserve again emergency mode again so almost keep the momentum yeah there's something that we have to understand psychologically a lot of people around the world experts you know all on all are saying too much the word impossible they're telling the israelis they will not destroy the hamas it's not possible they will not free the hostages it's not possible the word impossible in our vocabulary doesn't exist so i'll never use the word impossible ever and the freeing of the young soldier yesterday the young corporal of the observing unit shows that we can do the impossible how impossible is it to go right into gaza right into the den of the terrorist holding one person and arrive to the to the hostage taker out alive after coping so sorry experts of the world there is nothing that's impossible we can we've done in the past in the israeli story we've had bad things we had the kippur war we we did make mistakes but we're also known to do a lot of time the impossible it almost motivates people to say that israel can't do these things and then we do look israel like is mainly concerned about what it needs to do not about what the world thinks it cannot cannot do in is i think in this very first statement since the start of this war prime minister benjamin eteniao said we will change the reality in the middle east understanding that the state of israel will no longer be able to live next to the threat of hamas and khizbala is for the timing obviously a much more complicated issue as the idea forces are so engaged in this ground operation in the gaza border and just to emphasize to our viewers khizbala is estimated to be some 10 times more powerful than hamas and we're talking about tens of thousands of rockets we're talking about precision missiles that could hit very significant israeli infrastructure facilities and we're talking about very well trained red one troops that are able to infiltrate into israel so israel is so well aware of those dangers and khizbala is the main reason why the american forces are here in the region uh in the under mediterranean we're seeing the us carriers we're seeing the marines rapid response teams they're here not for the threat of hamas which is well can handle by itself but for a possible escalation that would see khizbala and other major iranian proxies joining the uh the war that would be a much different story and for that sake the americans here are a deterrent to hasbala and to the state of lebanon and that is the difference between hamas and khizbala khizbala knows that once it engaged it is engaged in a wide-scale war with israel the consequences the ramifications for the state of lebanon would be extremely uh deadly and they know that as a political wing as well absolutely gentlemen stay with me i want to go to our correspondent pier clash and lo who's standing by for us in southern israel pier around 15 minutes ago a rocket siren alerts going off near kerem shalom we also know that there's been alerts in a lot where many in the southern communities have sought refuge in the southern tip of israel what is the latest happening on the ground there what are you hearing and seeing in the background right what we've heard is that in the extreme south of israel in the area of elad there was an alert for the intrusion of a unmanned aerial vehicle uh that uh penetrated the israeli airspace we don't have any details at this point but uh indeed this is not the first time that either the hooty uh in yemen or the iranian naval presence in the red sea have been engaged against the israeli extreme south front uh so it could be uh uh uh it could be a rehearsal of what happened a few days ago now regarding this particular front which is the most active one we've heard from the idf spokesperson unit that the head of a hamas battalion in betlahia which is a village on the northern tip of the gaza strip has been eliminated overnight uh he was responsible for directing the forces that massacred that butchered israelis in two localities in the south of israel kibbutz erez and moshav netiva asara this man was also responsible for building the array of paragliders that were instrumental in perpetrating the october seven uh massacres so it's a field commander it's very instrumental because it it's another film commander that has been killed and that obviously uh disorganize the hamas uh resistance against the ground forces that are operating in the northern gaza strip beat in betlahia or bethanoon now we've heard also from the idf spokesperson unit that 300 strikes on hamas and palestinian islamic jihad targets were operated overnight 300 and as we're talking there is an artillery battery position just nearby where we are uh three kilometers away from the border that is incessantly bombing terrorist targets corresponding pia clash and live there in the south giving us an update thank you very much for that still with me in studio rafael you're a shalmi and gaya asriel rafael um a video that was circulated yesterday showed a senior hamas figure explaining to his interviewer that the tunnels were not in essence built to protect gaza civilians they were specifically built to hide terrorists from the israeli air strikes quote on quote and went further to say that it is the united nation and israel's responsibility to protect the citizens of gaza now for many viewers that are watching i'd like you to to clearly iron out israel left the gaza strip in 2005 unilaterally there was not a single israeli soul military personnel government official left in the gaza strip why is there the sense that only israel is responsible for the civilian lives in the gaza strip also knowing that it borders and has a border crossing with egypt exactly and any humanitarian crisis is in the world is that with uh on a global level it's a coalition of many many countries and NGOs that will deal with it nobody has ever asked a single country nation especially if it's a war to be so responsible for the welfare of the civilian population when they were the rwandan massacres for instance after the civil wars of the hutus and the tutsis it was the whole world that intervene and not only like kongo so here is the same i actually point a finger accusing finger towards egypt i think egypt is guilty of crime against mankind by not opening its borders it is absolutely nothing for egyptians to open their borders and let the refugees from the north and the south of gaza go into sinai at least for the time of the war i know that mr cc's greatest fear is that the people will not go back into gaza they will stay in egypt in san ay i think they might not go back to gaza but i can assure they will not stay in san ay egypt is also not a nice place to live and the cc government they would maybe go somewhere else in the world but first thing first there is an emergency situation and the real solution is opening the borders of egypt installing refugee camps like there are refugee camps for the syrians after the civil war in syria in these refugee camps that were established in turkey with more or less the same amount of refugees a million and a half or so so that's the and there after egypt the main culprit comes the international community where is the pressure from the american administration where is the pressure from the united nations and the european union on egypt to open these borders and to let children women innocent person flee the combat zone thank god that the israelis are in charge of this combat because they have their ethical standards the biggest that i always say the palestinians do not have shelters like we do in israel and they do not have the iron dome the only shelter they have the only iron dome they have is the highest moral standards of the idf we are protecting them but this being said there is a need for food there is a need we are in a war effort we cannot take on us our economy is at a standstill we we need we might need ourselves some help so the international community has this responsibility if they're not taking it then it's their problem we're doing our utmost we're allowing in times of war things that were never allowed in any other war that even hampers our operational capacities to make sure there is this help and we want to have this because it's our jewish values to do these things but time has come now for the world to take their responsibilities okay they're letting us fight the whole of global terror alone we're fighting the jihadists alone for the whole world so at least do your job on the humanitarian side of things and don't just speak yes and of course we should mention that hamas has been receiving billions of dollars from the world from the kataris and from other entities using the vast majority of that money for its infrastructure for its rockets for its tunnels instead of investing them into the people of gaza for the well-being of the people of gaza it is israel that wanted the well-being of the people of gaza both by unilaterally withdrawing from the gaza strip in 2005 and by regularly allowing tens of thousands of gaza into israeli territory every day for work many residents of the south those who are butchered in these communities are the ones who gave work to gaza in hope for coexistence and better future the result was that many of those workers came back from the idea of work and provided hamas with very detailed information about each and every one of these houses about where to target how many residents are in each house which would be easier to hit which has a dog in it which has a weapon in it the detailed information given by these gaza who were allowed into israel was so detailed it was shown in the maps that were on these hamas operatives that were using these gaza residents it is a very sad reality that they've used this opportunity to hurt the israelis who wanted coexistence who wanted well for the people of gaza for so long now they have to very have to deal with the consequences as well the last thing that israel wants is civilian injuries civilian fatalities but israel can no longer live next to a thriving terror group like hamas and last word an update on that incident in a lot while we're hearing from the idf just moments ago saying that its soldiers have managed to thwart a drone outside israeli territory above the red sea that is a drone that is presumed to have come from the hooties in yemen as they tried to do also just a week ago for now residents are still asked to remain enclosed in safe zones but for now no israeli injuries in this incident and the drone most likely thwarted by the idf over the red sea and just to reiterate perhaps for some of our viewers that don't know the hooties in yemen are backed exclusively by iran which is a major foe of the state of israel as well as many in the west and as we continue to unpack and analyze the current situation and try and predict what's coming from a future perspective we need to remind both our viewers and the world where this all started more than three weeks after hamas launched a massive and unprovoked attack on southern israeli communities those who once lived there are still reeling i24 news correspondent mary mccall have spoke with evacuated residents of kibbutz near oz near the border who visited their homes for the first time since the oxober 7th onslaught the tour was organized by the israeli government to show journalists media and the world the horrors that unfolded inside is as well continues to try and battle mass misinformation and denials an idyllic community burned to ashes this woman is visiting her family's house for the first time since the massacre of october 7th that turned southern israeli communities along the gaza border into enclaves of horror where terrorists systematically broke into homes searching for civilians to kill or kidnap burning down houses with families inside when they failed where survivors hid for eight and a half hours locked inside safe rooms waiting for rescue by the time help arrived all the terrorists had already made their way back over the border we are 400 people in this community 100 people they took a murder so once or four every four people is not with us today the devastation is apparent as are the relics of the life that once was traces of the families of the children of the grandparents who once tended their gardens everything was so sad now it's gone nothing they burn our souls they really burn our soul the kaboots of near o's was one of the hardest hit by the hamas incursion into israeli territory located under two miles from the border residents have a clear view into the gaza strip from this house had asked his children fled from those who infiltrated their community last message i got from them 8 30 in the morning it told me they jumped from the window and hiding the bush behind the house but with hamas gunmen inside the kaboots there's nowhere to hide the last message i got from my son was mom be careful be quiet i love you that's what he told me and my daughter she said mom mom mom this is the last message they've been terrified she hasn't heard from them since three weeks of agony she says in the small community of just 400 people there's an a person who lived here who was spared from the violence who doesn't know someone who was taken or whose family was murdered the remaining residents of near o's left to wait to hear from their loved ones or to grieve them mary mccall if i 24 news rafael in in recent hours there has been a map that has gone pretty viral around israel in the sense of i'm assuming it was an organization that tried to map the deaths and the kidnappings of every individual around the gaza border communities and this map is is just striking i'm hoping at some point during the day we will be able to find a way to show some of the viewers this but but people seem to forget how this all started and why this is a war and a lot of the time