 We have the right ingredients and we have to do the job, and that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job, that the Vakita can be protected. From Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war, I'm Arielle Levin-Waldman. We're going to open on the Northern Front airstrikes reported at the airports in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria. There are sources saying that the runways there were destroyed, it's the second time during the war, that these airports have been struck. The IDF has began evacuation plans for 14 more villages along the Northern border, after creating a three mile deep evacuation zone last week. This comes as Hezbollah increases the range and frequency of shelling in Israeli territory. Israeli soldier was seriously injured by an anti-tank missile near Kibbutz Bar Am. Two other soldiers lightly injured. The IDF hit Hezbollah targets according to Hezbollah's numbers. The terror group has lost 18 operatives since the war began, though Israel has estimated considerably higher figures. The West Bank is heating up as well though. The IDF and Shin Bet, say a military aircraft struck an underground terror route at a mosque in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad were sheltering and planning an imminent attack. The Shin Bet and the military said the terror operatives were using the mosque as a base to plan and carry out attacks, including the recent detonation of an explosive near Israeli troops along the West Bank security barrier. No soldiers were hurt in that blast. The U.S. has also activated more military assets in the Middle East as the war threatens to become a regional conflict. In addition to the two carrier strike groups, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of a terminal high altitude area defense ballistic missile interception battery as well as several Patriot air defense systems in the area to protect U.S. forces. Austin also said additional forces have been set on standby if needed for rapid deployment. And it seems the Hamas's plans for mass murder were possibly more developed than anyone expected. And Axios report claims and cited foreign ministry cables. One of the terrorists during the October 7th invasion and massacre was carrying blueprints for improvised chemical weapons. The report says the foreign ministry warned Israeli embassies in dozens of countries of the possibilities of such devices. And we are going to open with an eye on that northern border where our Middle East correspondent Ariel Osiron is standing by. Ariel, give us the latest developments along that front. Right Ariel. So this morning an anti-tank guided missile attack on the town, the border community of Margoliot. There is no report of any injuries there. Margoliot, one of the border communities that was evacuated in recent days so there isn't full population there. Obviously, overnight you mentioned the airstrike, the joint airstrike attributed to Israel in Aleppo and Damascus airport. So according to Syrian state media, this took place about two and a half hours ago at 5, 25 local time when both airports were struck simultaneously according to Syrian state media by Israeli jets. Now Syria's transportation ministry announcing this morning that all scheduled flights through the Damascus and Aleppo airports have been redirected to the Latakia airport indicating that the two airports that were struck are out of commission. And if we continue regarding the situation along the border community, so as you mentioned the Israel's national emergency management authority in addition with Israel's defense minister announced that they're expanding the amount of border communities that are being evacuated due to the current situation to include 14 more communities. Obviously, this is an anticipation for escalation here on the northern border between Israel and Lebanon with the fighting against Hezbollah only getting stronger. And everyone is definitely worried about what's going to happen next. Ariel, we're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation along that front develops. Thank you very much. Now we're going to turn to our panel to help us understand the situation more. That is Rafael Urashami, former IDF intelligence analyst. And with us we also have Owen Alterman, our senior correspondent. I want to open with you Rafael because Hezbollah has been the making major threats the entire war so far. And there's been this discussion all two weeks whether or not they're going to join. Making statements yesterday saying they are the center of the conflict now rather than what they said last week, they will contribute to the conflict. Is this a sign that they are about to commit? So far the Hezbollah is just a threat. They haven't posed a real strategic threat on the ground apart from what we have seen so far which is very limited. And our response was very limited. So there are two reasons to that. The first one is that the Biden administration has asked us quite firmly not to start anything with the Hezbollah, not to take the initiative, hoping that their presence in the Mediterranean will intimidate the Hezbollah into not going to war against us. The second thing is that would we want to get rid of the Hezbollah is really now the best time to do so. Why not wait for like we are now waiting in the south for the best time to go in and to start a ground offensive? Why not wait for a proper time to attack Hezbollah? If Hezbollah doesn't come into a conflict, a large-scale conflict with us now, why start that conflict? Shouldn't we just wait for, so all this being said, it is true that the risk remains that Hezbollah would go in, that the Iranians would push it and even help it to go into battle with us using also the south of Syria where Hezbollah is also present and other pro-Iranian militias are there. So we have to adopt for now a wait and see policy because of the injunction of the Biden administration but also for operational purposes that might indicate it's better for us to wait and maybe we can just limit this to what is happening now. Of course it's very disquieting to hear that more and more villages and towns are being evacuated. It's a blow to our economy. It's a blow to the life of these people but sometimes patience pays. Absolutely and because we've been discussing the international angle Biden's support, I want to turn to Owen now to discuss a little bit more of this because the United States does not want to see this escalate further but ultimately the United States isn't the only party with a say in this war. We see this resolution the US is bringing before the Security Council to specifically condemn Hamas likely to be vetoed by Russia. Obviously they have to say to walk us through what this whole international cluster is. Yeah, I don't think that there's much expectation or suspicion at this point Arielle that Russia will actually actively try to escalate the conflict. That doesn't seem to be in their interest. They have plenty on their plate as it is in Ukraine. And while it's true, of course, on one hand that Israel has been cautious, many people would say too cautious especially at this point, right? There's increasing criticism in terms of trying not to anger Russia in sort of tiptoeing around Putin and around Moscow. The opposite is also true. Russia doesn't want to antagonize Israel, right? It's trying to use this conflict for its own purposes. The media is reportedly full of anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic statements. And the Russians see this as an opening to increase their soft power, to try to deal a blow to the United States. But from there for the Russians to actually be taking active steps to escalate, it seems to me at this point that that's a bridge that they won't cross. And the Chinese the same, they'll use this to help their soft power, but they don't seem to have any interest in actually escalating. Of course, you're right that there are other parties that have a say, Hezbollah and Iran, of course. And they'll be making their own strategic calculations about what to do. And as you were just talking about, and as for the Israeli side, look, we have to act as if Hezbollah's about to come into the war in the next hour. That's how we need to prepare ourselves mentally. And I assume prepare our forces as a preemptive strike, as you were just saying. It's off the table for now because the United States simply won't support it. Absolutely. I want to look at the southern front where our correspondent P.S. Dekalbach is standing by in southern Israel. Pia, what is happening right now on the southern front? And what is the current status of that possible ground operation that we've been hearing about for two weeks? Right, Ariel. The Israeli military continued to strike targets in Gaza overnight as it did for the past two weeks, really. The last red alert here was triggered shortly after midnight. Here in two communities very close to the Gaza Strip that have been evacuated. Now this comes after yesterday, the 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were let into the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing from Egypt, humanitarian aid organizations are saying that this is like a drop in the ocean, and that way more aid is needed for the 2 million strong humanitarian civilian population that I need for water, food, medicine, and also fuel, which Israel said would not be allowed into the Gaza Strip because the concern is that Hamas will take it onto them to take that fuel away and use it for their own infrastructure. This comes also after the first two hostages have been released on Friday. Now the Israeli military yesterday confirming that 210 hostages have been kidnapped into Gaza and are currently held by Hamas. The release of the two hostages triggered some hope among the families of the hostages that we might see future hostages exchanges, that we might see future deals, as this deal was also believed to be connected to the entry of that humanitarian aid into Gaza. It is not clear yet whether these aid deliveries will continue in fact, but that all happens amid the backdrop, amid the backdrop of the looming ground offensive here into the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has said over the weekend that they will intensify the strikes onto Gaza in the preparation of their ground offensive, and really the preparations have been going on for several days now, and the ground offensive is looming. You have gone on saying that the Israeli soldiers that are stationed here will soon see the Gaza Strip from the inside, but there is no sign in terms of when that ground offensive will indeed begin. The preparations here are very much running high, but no information as of yet as of now when that ground operation will actually begin. We're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation changes, so stay safe out there and we're going to hear more from you shortly now for everyone else. One of the things that we've been talking about over the past few weeks is the tactics, the lies, and the political realities of the war, but the human cost that was inflicted on Israel still horrifies people around the world, particularly here in Israel today. Words fail describing some of the horrors witnessed, and we would hear best from someone who actually survived that firsthand. So joining us in studio is Rafael Zimmerman, a survivor of the terror attack at the Nova Music Festival. I cannot begin to imagine the horrors that you have seen, Rafael. Please share your story as best as you can with the world. Yeah, first of all, I am grateful that I am alive, first of all, because I really passed it for the hell. I can say that and I will share my story, but in the end, it's really hard to understand what's going on, like what they did and what they're supposed to do. So I'm Brazilian and I did that for five months ago because of the security and what's going on now is really hard to understand. So I went to the party Friday night with two friends from Brazil and I heard the party because I'm Brazilian and the party is from Brazil. So it's really famous there and a lot of people know and I said, okay, I will go. I am like, I am my own guy with my friends from Brazil. So let's go together. And we were partying with a lot of people from around the world. So it doesn't matter, like a lot of people from South America, from Europe, from America, from France, from all the world. And 6.30, Saturday morning, about 6.30, I was alone in the party. My friend was like taking some food and I remember just to listen like fireworks, you know, a lot of fireworks. And I look at you up and I saw a lot of rockets. You cannot imagine how many, you cannot count. Like, and for me, it's new. Like, I never did the army. I never saw this. So for me, it was like, okay, what's going on? Like, I don't know what to do. So they stopped the party in the moment. And they started to to send the microphone, like red flag, red flag, take care and be safe. Like, you have to take care. So like, I don't know anything about war. I don't know anything about anything. And I remember that I just started to run to run to try to find my friends. And I found and I found like, they were like, really like, running and we have to go have to go is dangerous. We don't know what's going on. My friend, he did the army. So he know it about the dangerous there. And he said, we have to find a bunker really fast. We have to find a bunker. And okay, we said, okay, let's try to find a bunker. So we stopped at a car in the middle of the street. And the car got us like one minute from the party really close. He stopped in the middle of the street in a bus station. Like, we saw the bunker without without door, just to protect from the rockets. And we said, okay, we are safe. We are good. So me and my friends, we were the first on the bunker. I remember there like just two or three persons there. And after there start to came a lot of people, a lot, a lot. You cannot imagine like, how many people there are around 40, 50 persons and like in a small place, you cannot breathe. But we said, okay, we have to protect like from the the rockets. In my by myself, I was like, okay, I'm safe. I'm safe. I know then I'm going to be protected here. And after five minutes, the hell started. You cannot imagine. First of all, I was like, we just started to to listen a lot of shots, a lot of grenades outside of the bunker. So I was like, here on the bunker in the end of the bunker. And the shots became here. So I felt the shots. I felt the grenades. I listened the like, you know, like the sound of the grenade, then you cannot listen anything. And I don't I didn't know, but I had two polices outside. And I started to listen the girl, the woman, the police talking on the radio and fighting with the terrorists. And you cannot imagine everybody like started to became like, whoa, what's going on? Like, it came crazy. I remember that I just was like this and pray, pray a lot, pray a lot like I never did talking with God and just I have to pass for that. I have to pass for that. Like, we have to pass for that. It's everything's going to be right. Everything's going to be all right. And I, and I remember when I listen, when they got the police, the woman, they shot a lot, a lot, a lot. And they started to scream a lot, but like, you cannot imagine how happy they were, like, really happy, like, whoa, like, I never saw like this. And inside of the bunker, everybody got insane, because we know it and we lost. You don't have option. You are inside of the bunker. You heard them. They took the police. They are screaming a lot, but like, you don't have, you don't have option. So I, I saw the death. I can say that they started with the gas. First of all, with a gas like in 30 seconds, you cannot breathe. You cannot breathe. You cannot imagine how hot your, your body became. And the people started to become crazy because of the gas, because of the situation where girl started to beat me like a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, like, and I had to take out the girl and to, to take the air because of the gas. In 30 seconds, you cannot breathe. And I don't know why, but on my mind just passes the Holocaust. Like when the Jews was killed by the gas, you cannot breathe. You cannot, I cannot say how this is so bad for you. Like, you cannot take air. So in 30 seconds, I saw a lot of people dead, because you don't have option. So after the gas, they started with the grenades, and after the shoots, and after the gas again, and after shoots, and after grenades, no stop. I saw a lot of people dying. So I was in the back. So I was pretending that I was dead, like under the bodies for a long, long time. And it's crazy to say that, but I just wanted to die. I just wanted to die, because I suffered a lot. So after all, I was like, on top of the bodies, just trying to take brief, because I just wanted to die with brief. So I just said, like, okay, please kill me, like, okay, with grenade, with shot, but not with the gas. Not with the gas. And after five hours, when a guy became and started to scream something, I don't speak so good Hebrew. So for me, it was hard to understand. And I looked, I looked at him, and I said, okay, he's dead. Another terrorist, he came again, and I cannot do anymore. Like, okay, I go. So I said, I go, I go. I just walk. I don't know how I just walked to him. And I saw a lot of bodies in the end of the bunker with fire, like a lot of bodies with fire, a lot. And I saw the police, like five police guys, he was like a civilian helping, and I didn't know, because I didn't understand Hebrew. And when I got out of the bunker, I just saw myself like, like, how this is possible? Like, I saw the dead. Like, I passed for the hell, how am I alive? Like, I saw, I really saw how the animal streets, the people, you know. How have you been coping with all this for the past two weeks? Who's been there to help you? I don't have family here. I have a cousin, but my parents, my family is from Brazil. So the government tried to help me with the therapies and like, with all this kind of help. But I tried to help myself. I tried to see, like, after all of these, the good things. I really, I really believe in the peace. I really believe in God. I really believe in them. Then we are better than this. We are talking about life and death. It's not talking about religion, about land, about not. I'm Brazilian. I was partying. So no, it's about more. We are not talking about, yeah. So for me, what's going on now is like, what I have to do, what I have to do in my life to be better after this. And I lost one friend there. This is not easy for me. But I have to be strong for my family, for my people. Now I am Israeli. So this is my people also. So I have to support my people. I know that I have to do this. And I will be strong. This is the Israeli way, no? So I will be strong. I know that. Well, from all of us, and from all Israel, we're sincerely hoping for better days ahead for you, for all of us, and all of the people of this country are at your back. It's the best we can do at this time. Thank you for the harrowing story. I'm going to turn back to our panel in the studio here. It's what we've just heard. Ultimately, I guess the question we have to ask is, how long will Israel have international support? How long will Israel have the will on to see this through to the end to its necessary conclusion? Well, I want to start with what we just heard. I just wanted to say thank you for your resilience and for telling your story, bravely coming out and telling us and telling people all around the world what you've been through and what you saw. Of course, this is one story. Viewers have to understand this is one story among thousands, if not tens of thousands of people who were there on that morning, whether at the festival or in their homes, and are just gradually being able to come to terms with what they saw and to try to move on and rebuild their lives. A lot of people, again, we're in their homes. They can't go back to their own communities. In some cases, communities lost huge percentages of the people who were there, who were either killed or taken hostage. And this is a national challenge. It's not, I hope that you are not alone and that people in those communities are not alone and that this is a national challenge for us. And Arielle, as you said, an international challenge. In the early days, as these stories started to be told, the world understood exactly what Israel faced. As time goes on, the situation becomes more complicated, at least in the eyes of people outside of Israel. And it's our duty to focus on our own resilience in every sense of the world, in every sense of the word, and to try to get help from Israel's friends abroad, wherever they may be, in terms of that process. And I guess we're going to see how that develops as well. Ultimately, is there a strategy going forward to ensure, Owen and Rafael, either of you, to ensure that we can keep the unity and the support of people around the world to ensure that there's at least help for the civilian side here in Israel, when sympathy seems to be drying up quickly in many places? Well, listen, I have always been of the opinion and had arguments with people here in studio about this. I believe that no matter what happens over the course of this war, and there is obviously a huge range of scenarios, I don't believe that these stories will ever be erased. I don't. I think they're going to be part of the public consciousness around the world until the end of this war, for that matter, and until the end of time. I don't think that anything that happens, however complex, however difficult for any side, is going to erase what happened here in the eyes of our country and in the eyes of the world. So, in terms of a strategy, if you will, I mean, Israel's doing the best it can with the strategy in terms of the reality. Again, I don't believe your story is going to be erased. I really don't. And these are stories that are going to haunt the country for a very long time. For everyone out there, it is a measure of what's happened and a need for the resilience and the unity of our people. We're out of time for now, but we will be back at the top of the next hour with headlines and stories from around the war and all of its aspects and how it hits home in many ways. Over 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 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. From Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Levin-Waldman. We're going to open on the northern front airstrikes reported at the airports in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria. Sources saying that the runways there were destroyed, that's the second time during the war, that these airports have been struck. The IDF has began evacuation plans for 14 more villages along the northern border, after creating a three mile deep evacuation zone last week. This comes as Hezbollah increases the range and frequency of shelling in Israeli territory. An Israeli soldier was seriously injured by an anti-tank missile near Kibbutz Bar Am. Two other soldiers lightly injured. The IDF hit Hezbollah targets according to Hezbollah's numbers. The terror group has lost 18 operatives since the war began, though Israel has estimated considerably higher figures. The West Bank is heating up as well though. The IDF and Shin Bet say a military aircraft struck an underground terror route at a mosque in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were sheltering and planning an imminent attack. The Shin Bet and the military said the terror operatives were using the mosque as a base to plan and carry out attacks, including the recent detonation of an explosive near Israeli troops along the West Bank security barrier. No soldiers were hurt in that blast. The U.S. has also activated more military assets in the Middle East as the war threatens to become a regional conflict. In addition to the two carrier strike groups, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of a terminal high-altitude area defense ballistic missile interception battery, as well as several Patriot air defense systems in the area to protect U.S. forces. Austin also said additional forces have been set on standby if needed for rapid deployment. And it seems the Hamas's plans for mass murder were possibly more developed than anyone expected. An Axios report claims and cited foreign ministry cables. One of the terrorists during the October 7th invasion and massacre was carrying blueprints for improvised chemical weapons. The report says the foreign ministry warned Israeli embassies in dozens of countries of the possibilities of such devices. And we are going to open with an eye on that northern border where our Middle East correspondent Ariel Osiron is standing by. Ariel, give us the latest developments along that front. Right, Ariel. So this morning an anti-tank guided missile attack on the town, the border community of Margaliot. There is no report of any injuries there. Margaliot, one of the border communities that was evacuated in recent days. So there isn't the full population there. Obviously overnight you mentioned the airstrike, the joint airstrike attributed to Israel in Aleppo and Damascus airport. So according to Syrian state media, this took place about two and a half hours ago at 525 local time when both airports were struck simultaneously according to Syrian state media by Israeli jets. Now Syria's transportation ministry announcing this morning that all scheduled flights through the Damascus and Aleppo airports have been redirected to the Latakia airport indicating that the two airports that were struck are out of commission. And if we continue regarding the situation along the border community. So as you mentioned the Israel's national emergency management authority in addition with Israel's defense minister announced that they're expanding the amount of border communities that are being evacuated due to the current situation to include 14 more communities. Obviously this is in anticipation for escalation here on the northern border between Israel and Lebanon with the fighting against Hezbollah only getting stronger. And everyone is definitely worried about what's going to happen next Ariel. We're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation along that front develops. Thank you very much. Now we're going to turn to our panel in studio to help us understand the situation more. That is Rafael Urashami, former IDF intelligence analyst. And with us we also have Owen Alterman our senior correspondent. I want to open with you Rafael because Hezbollah has been the making major threats the entire war so far and there's been this discussion all two weeks whether or not they're going to join making statements yesterday saying they are the center of the conflict now rather than what they said last week they will contribute to the conflict. Is this a sign that they are about to commit? So far the Hezbollah is just a threat. They haven't posed a real strategic threat on the ground apart from what we have seen so far which is very limited and our response was very limited. So there are two reasons to that. The first one is that the Biden administration has asked us quite firmly not to start anything with the Hezbollah not to take the initiative hoping that their presence in the Mediterranean will intimidate the Hezbollah into not going to war against us. The second thing is that would we want to get rid of the Hezbollah is really now the best time to do so. Why not wait for like we are now waiting in the south for the best time to go in and to start a ground offensive? Why not wait for a proper time to attack Hezbollah? If Hezbollah doesn't come into a conflict, a large-scale conflict with us now, why start that conflict? Shouldn't we just wait for, so all this being said, it is true that the risk remains that Hezbollah would go in, that the Iranians would push it and even help it to go into battle with us using also the south of Syria where Hezbollah is also present and other pro-Iranian militias are there. So we have to adopt for now a way to and see policy because of the injunction of the Biden administration, but also for operational purposes that might indicate it's better for us to wait and maybe we can just limit this to what is happening now. Of course, it's very disquieting to hear that more and more villages and towns are being evacuated. It's a blow to our economy. It's a blow to the life, even the life of these people, but sometimes patience pays. Absolutely. Because we've been discussing the international angle, Biden's support, I want to turn to Owen now discuss a little bit more of this, because the United States does not want to see this escalate further. But ultimately, the United States isn't the only party with a say in this war. We see this resolution the US is bringing before the Security Council to specifically condemn Hamas likely to be vetoed by Russia. Obviously, they have a say to walk us through what this whole international cluster is. Yeah, I don't think that there's much expectation or suspicion at this point, Ariel, that Russia will actually actively try to escalate the conflict. That doesn't seem to be in their interest. They have plenty on their plate as it is in Ukraine. And while it's true, of course, on one hand that Israel has been cautious, many people would say too cautious, especially at this point, right? There's increasing criticism in terms of trying not to anger Russia in sort of tiptoeing around Putin and around Moscow. The opposite is also true. Russia doesn't want to antagonize Israel, right? It's trying to use this conflict for its own purposes. The media is reportedly full of anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic statements. And the Russians see this as an opening to increase their soft power, to try to deal a blow to the United States. But from there for the Russians to actually be taking active steps to escalate, it seems to me at this point that that's a bridge that they won't cross. And the Chinese the same, they'll use this to help their soft power, but they don't seem to have any interest in actually escalating. Of course, you're right that there are other parties that have to say Hezbollah and Iran, of course. And they'll be making their own strategic calculations about what to do. And as you were just talking about, and as for the Israeli side, look, we have to act as if Hezbollah is about to come into the war in the next hour. That's how we need to prepare ourselves mentally. And I assume prepare our forces as a preemptive strike, as you were just saying. It's off the table for now because the United States simply won't support it. Absolutely. I want to look at the southern front, where our correspondent P.S. Dekalbach is standing by in Southern Israel. Pia, what is happening right now on the southern front? And what is the current status of that possible ground operation that we've been hearing about for two weeks? Right, Ariel. The Israeli military continued to strike targets in Gaza overnight, as it did for the past two weeks really. The last red alert here was triggered shortly after midnight. Here in two communities very close to the Gaza Strip that have been evacuated. Now, this comes after yesterday, the 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were led into the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing from Egypt to humanitarian aid organizations are saying that this is like a drop in the ocean than that way more aid is needed for the two million strong humanitarian civilian population that I need for water, food, medicine, and also fuel, which Israel said would not be allowed into the Gaza Strip because the concern is that Hamas will take it onto them to take that fuel away and use it for their own infrastructure. This comes also after the two first two hostages have been released on Friday. Now the Israeli military yesterday confirming that 210 hostages have been kidnapped into Gaza and are currently held by Hamas. The release of the two hostages triggered some hope among the families of the hostages that we might see future hostages, exchanges that we might see future deals as this deal was also believed to be connected to the entry of that humanitarian aid into Gaza. It is not clear yet whether these aid deliveries will continue in fact, but that all happens amid the backdrop, amid the backdrop of the looming ground offensive here into the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has said over the weekend that they will intensify the strikes onto Gaza and the preparation of the ground offensive. And really the preparations have been going on for several days now and the ground offensive is looming. You have gone on saying that the Israeli soldiers that are stationed here will soon see the Gaza Strip from the inside, but there is no sign in terms of when that ground offensive will indeed begin. The preparations here are very much a running high, but no information as of yet as of now when that ground operation will actually begin. We're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation changes. So stay safe out there and we're going to hear more from you shortly now for everyone else. One of the things that we've been talking about over the past few weeks is the tactics, the lies, and the political realities of the war. But the human cost that was inflicted on Israel still horrifies people around the world, particularly here in Israel today. Words fail, describing some of the horrors witnessed. And we would hear best from someone who actually survived that first hand. So joining us in studio is Rafael Zimmerman, a survivor of a terror attack at the Nova Music Festival. I cannot begin to imagine the horrors that you have seen, Rafael. Please share your story as best as you can with the world. Yeah, first of all, I really am grateful that I am alive, first of all, because I really passed it for the hell. I can say that. And I will share my story, but in the end, like, it's really hard to understand what's going on, like what they did and what they're supposed to do. So I'm Brazilian, and I did that for five months ago because of the security. And what's going on now, it's like really hard to understand. So I went to the party Friday night with two friends from Brazil. And I heard the party because I'm Brazilian and the party is from Brazil. So it's really famous there. And a lot of people know. And I said, okay, I will go. I am like, I am my own guy with my friends from Brazil. So let's go together. And we were partying with a lot of people from around the world. So it doesn't matter. Like a lot of people from South America, from Europe, from America, from France, from all the world. And 6.30, Saturday morning, about 6.30, I was alone in the party. My friend was like taking some food. And I remember just to listen like fireworks, you know, a lot of fireworks. And I look at you up and I saw a lot of rockets. You cannot imagine how many, you cannot count. Like, and for me, it's new. Like I never did the army. I never saw this. So for me, it was like, okay, what's going on? Like, I don't know what to do. So they stopped the party in the moment. And they started to to send the microphone, like red flag, red flag, take care and be safe. Like, you have to take care. So like, I don't know anything about war. I don't know anything about anything. And I remember that I just started to run, to run, to try to find my friends. And I found, and I found like, they were like, really like running and we have to go, we have to go. It's dangerous. We don't know what's going on. My friend, he did the army. So he knew it about the dangerous there. And he said, we have to find a bunker really fast. We have to find a bunker. And okay, we said, okay, let's try to find a bunker. So we stopped the car in the middle of the street. And the car got us like, one minute from the party really close. He stopped in the middle of the street in a bus station. Like, we saw the bunker without, without door, just to protect from the rockets. And we said, okay, we are safe. We are good. So me and my friends, we were the first on the bunker. I remember there, like, just two or three persons there. And after there, such became a lot of people, a lot, a lot. You cannot imagine, like, how many people there are around 40, 50 persons and like in a small place, you cannot breathe. But we said, okay, we have to, to protect like from the, the rockets. In my, by myself, I was like, okay, I'm safe. I'm safe. I know then I'm going to be protected here. And after five minutes, the hell started. You cannot imagine. First of all, I was like, we just started to, to listen a lot of shots, a lot of grenades outside of the bunker. So I was like, here on the bunker in the end of the bunker. And the shots became here. So I felt the shots. I felt the grenades. I listened the like, you know, like the sound of the grenade and you cannot listen anything. And I don't, I didn't know, but I had two polices outside. And I started to listen the girl, the woman, the police talking on the radio and fighting with the terrorists. And you cannot imagine everybody like started to became like, whoa, what's going on? Like, it came crazy. I remember that I just was like this and praying, praying a lot, praying a lot, like I never did talking with God and just, I have to pass for that. I have to pass for that. Like, we have to pass for that. Everything's going to be all right. Everything's going to be all right. And I, and I remember when I listened, when they got the police, the woman, they shot a lot, a lot, a lot. And they started to scream a lot, but like, you cannot imagine how happy they were, like, really happy, like, whoa, like, I never saw like this. And inside of the bunker, everybody got insane. Because we know it and we lost. You don't have option. You are inside of the bunker. You heard them. They took the police. They are screaming a lot, but like, you don't have, you don't have option. So I, I saw that I can say that they started with the gas. First of all, with a gas like in 30 seconds, you cannot breathe. You cannot breathe. You cannot imagine how hot your, your body became. And the people started to became crazy because of the gas, because of the situation where girl started to beat me like a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. Like, and I had to take out the girl and to, to take the air because of the gas. In 30 seconds, you cannot breathe. And I don't know why, but on my mind just pass it the, the Holocaust. Like when the Jews was killed by the gas, you cannot breathe. You cannot, I cannot say how this is so bad for you. Like, you cannot take care. So in 30 seconds, I saw a lot of people dead because you don't have option. So after the gas, they started with the grenades and after the shoots and after the gas again and after shoots and after grenades, no stop. I saw a lot of people dying. So I was in the back. So I was pretending that I was dead, like under the bodies for a long, long time. And it's crazy to say that, but I just wanted to die. I just wanted to die because I suffered a lot. So after all, I was like, on top of the bodies, just trying to take brief, because I just wanted to die with brief. So I just said, like, okay, please kill me. Like, okay, with grenade, with shot, but not with the gas. Not with the gas. And after five hours, when a guy became and started to scream something, I don't speak so good Hebrew. So for me, it was hard to understand. And I looked at, I looked at to him and I said, okay, he's dead. Another terrorist, he came again. And I cannot do anymore. Like, okay, I go. So I said, I go, I go. I just walk. I don't know how I just walked to him. And I saw a lot of bodies in the end of the bunker with fire, like a lot of bodies with fire, a lot. And I saw the police, like five police guys, he was like a civilian helping. And I didn't know because I didn't understand Hebrew. And when I got out of the bunker, I just saw myself like, like, how this is possible? Like, I saw the dead. Like, I passed for the hell, how am I alive? Like, I saw, I really saw how they're the most rates, the people, you know. How have you been coping with all this for the past two weeks? Who's been there to help you? I don't have family here. I have a cousin, but my parents, my family's from Brazil. So the government try to help me with the therapies and like, with all this kind of help. But I try to help myself. I try to see, like, after all of these, the good things. I really, I really believe in the peace. I really believe in God. I really believe in them. Then we are better than this. We are talking about life and death. It's not talking about religion, about land, about not. I'm Brazilian. I was partying. So no, it's about more. We're not talking about, yeah. So for me, what's going on now is like, what I have to do, what I have to do in my life to be better after this. And I lost, I lost one friend there. And this is not easy for me, but I have to be strong for my family, for my people. Now I am Israeli. So this is my people also. So I have to support my people. I know that I have to do this. And I will be strong. This is the Israeli way, no? So I will be strong. I know that. Well, from all of us and from all Israel, we're sincerely hoping for better days ahead for you, for all of us. And all of the people of this country are in that you're back. It's the best we can do at this time. Thank you for the harrowing story. We're going to turn back to our panel in the studio here. It's what we've just heard. Ultimately, I guess the question we have to ask is, how long will Israel have international support? How long will Israel have the will on to see this through to the end to its necessary conclusion? Well, I want to start with what we just heard. I just wanted to say thank you for your resilience and for telling your story, bravely coming out and telling us and telling people all around the world what you've been through and what you saw. Of course, this is one story. Viewers have to understand this is one story among thousands, if not tens of thousands of people who were there on that morning, whether at the festival or in their homes. And are just gradually being able to come to terms with what they saw and to try to move on and rebuild their lives. A lot of people, again, were in their homes. They can't go back to their own communities. In some cases, communities lost huge percentages of the people who were there, who were either killed or taken hostage. And this is a national challenge. I hope that you are not alone and that people in those communities are not alone, and that this is a national challenge for us. And Arielle, as you said, an international challenge. In the early days, as these stories started to be told, the world understood exactly what Israel faced. As time goes on, the situation becomes more complicated, at least in the eyes of people outside of Israel. And it's our duty to focus on our own resilience in every sense of the world, in every sense of the word, and to try to get help from Israel's friends abroad, wherever they may be, in terms of that process. And I guess we're going to see how that develops as well. Ultimately, is there a strategy going forward to ensure, Owen and Rafael, either of you, to ensure that we can keep the unity and the support of people around the world to ensure that there's at least help for the civilian side here in Israel when sympathy seems to be drying up quickly in many places? Well, listen, I have always been of the opinion and had arguments with people here in studio about this. I believe that no matter what happens over the course of this war, and there's obviously a huge range of scenarios, I don't believe that these stories will ever be erased. I don't. I think they're going to be part of the public consciousness around the world until the end of this war, for that matter, and until the end of time. I don't think that anything that happens, however complex, however difficult for any side, is going to erase what happened here in the eyes of our country and in the eyes of the world. So in terms of a strategy, if you will, I mean, Israel's doing the best it can with the strategy. In terms of the reality, again, I don't believe your story is going to be erased. I really don't. And these are stories that are going to haunt the country for a very long time. For everyone out there, it is a measure of what's happened and a need for the resilience and the unity of our people. We're out of time for now, but we will be back at the top of the next hour with headlines and stories from around the war and all of its aspects and how it hits home in many ways. 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. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us, we don't want to do, 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. This particular project with a gross capacity of 103.5 megawatt will be producing around 230 gigawatt hour of clean renewable energy per year. I've been here, where they see us, to complain about the rain. In fact, at this moment, global warming is affecting Bolivia, and not only Bolivia, but all over the world. And we need rain for the embryos. Fakita reserve, we have to write ingredients, and we have to do the job. And that if we have the right ingredients and we do the job, that the Fakita can be protected. From Tel Aviv, and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war, I'm Ariel Levin-Waldman. We're going to open on the Northern Fright, with airstrikes reported near the airports in Damascus and Aleppo. Second time during the war, the airports have been struck. Syrian sources say that the airports runways have been taken out in these strikes. The IDF has begun evacuation plans for 14 more villages along the northern border after creating a three mile deep evacuation zone last week. This comes as Hezbollah increases the range and frequency of shelling in Israeli territory, and just about a half hour ago, Israeli forces struck a terror cell planning to launch an anti-tank missile at a border town. Three Israeli soldiers were injured by an earlier such anti-tank missile strike near the Kibbutz Bar Am. The IDF hit Hezbollah targets there as well. According to Hezbollah's numbers, the terror group has lost 18 operatives since the war began, but Israel has estimated considerably higher figures. The West Bank, though, is heating up as well. The IDF and Shin Bet say a military aircraft struck an underground terror route at a mosque in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were sheltering, and planning a massive imminent attack planned for today, in fact, and modeled after the October 7th massacre. The Shin Bet and the military say the operatives in this terror cell were using the mosque as a base to plan and carry out other attacks, which included the recent detonation of an explosive near Israeli troops along the West Bank security fence. No soldiers were hurt in that attack. The U.S. has activated some more military assets in the region as the war threatens to become a regional one. In addition to the two carrier strike groups, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered deployment of a terminal high-altitude area defense ballistic missile interception battery, as well as Patriot air defense systems in the area to protect U.S. forces. Austin also said additional forces have been set on standby if needed for rapid deployment. And Hamas' plans for mass murder were possibly more developed than anybody expected. An Axios report claims and cited classified foreign ministry cables that one of the terrorists killed during the October 7th invasion and massacre was carrying blueprints for improvised chemical weapons. The report says the foreign ministry warned Israeli embassies in dozens of countries of the possible use of such devices. We're going to open now with the southern border where our correspondent P.S. Dekalboth is standing by in the border town of Sterot. Paya, thank you very much for being with us. Give us the latest updates on the southern front. Right, Ariel. The idea of said that it has struck multiple targets in the Gaza Strip throughout the night. Fighter jets were striking Hamas' targets located. And I want to jump in as well because we're hearing that there are some sirens and some interceptions in central Israel. Actually hearing them from the studio right now. We want to update our audience that there are rockets being fired literally at this moment directly into southern Israel before we go back to the lucky source of those rockets in the south from Hamas, where P.S. Dekalboth is standing by updating us on the situation. Right, Ariel. Israel has been striking targets in the Gaza Strip throughout the night. However, here on the Israeli side, the night has been calm until now. We here in Sterot, we did not have any siren. The last alert was triggered shortly after midnight into border communities. But we also have to say that the area here, that close to the Gaza border, we are about three kilometers away from it, is void of civilians. They have been evacuated a long time ago. Of course, here in Sterot, city of 30,000 residents. They have been about 10% of the population remaining here. But other than that, you do not really see people out here. It is an empty seat. It has become a ghost town here. Now we do from where we stand here, as I said, about three kilometers away from the border. We do hear the Israeli artillery striking in Gaza. We hear the booms. We hear the noises and that has been going on also throughout the night here. Now this comes as yesterday for the first time since the beginning of the war, humanitarian aid was delivered to the Gaza Strip. We're talking about 20 trucks making it across the border at the Rafah checkpoint from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Now Israel has not allowed for fuel to enter, which, as so say, humanitarian organizations and hospitals desperately needed. But Israel is trying to build up pressure on Hamas. It is also saying that it will intensify the airstrikes onto the northern Gaza Strip, still calling upon the residents in Gaza to make their way to the southern part of the Strip. As also the ground offensive is looming, Ariel. Thank you very much, Pia, for that report from the front. We're going to be back with you over the course of the day as things change on the ground. For now, though, we are going to go to our analysts in studio. We are joined as well by Daniel Shek, former Israeli ambassador to France, and one of the main leading advocates for the hostage rescue operations right now, as well as former IDF intelligence officer Rafael Urashami. Thank you both for being with us. I want to actually open with you, Rafael, because this is the topic that's been hanging over us all morning. That was the airstrike in the West Bank on a Hamas terror cell plenum carrying a similar massacre to the October 7th one. How under control does Israel have the situation in the West Bank? Well, strangely enough, it has more control now as there is a war and a lot of our forces are busy with the south and deployed in the north. We seem to have more control. There's been zero terrorist acts perpetrated against Israel during these last two weeks. So the central command is really being very efficient. Every night, they are arresting, mostly arresting and eliminating dozens of terrorists. Every night, it's around like between 1450 terrorists that are being arrested. So it's an amazing operation. It is not for the lack of trying from the part of the terrorists to perpetrate attacks and to perpetrate attacks as atrocious as the one perpetrated by their colleagues in the south, which seems to have created a new fashion, like not just kill Israelis, not just try to kidnap Israelis, but to torture them, to make them suffer, to make the whole Israeli people suffer because of the pictures. Even if we don't see them, we know what is going on. So this, of course, I think also gives a big motivation for our troops operating in the West Bank to fight and to arrest them. Let's do pray that nothing will happen. I mean, the difference between the villages of the south of Israel facing Gaza and the situation in the West Bank is that we have settlements there. Jews, Israelis living in the middle of the Palestinian populations. So you can imagine what a headache it is for the security services. But so far, like last night, this helicopter strike straight on the hiding place of the Hamas operative was a huge success. Let's hope it continues. It's really a front that could be very, very problematic, especially when we enter Gaza on the ground. This West Bank could become a real problem in the back, if you might say. So far, so good. And that's actually a time I'd like to bring you in as well, Daniel, because we're talking about the atrocities commit to civilians and the people they've kidnapped. You have become one of the leading advocates for the families of people abducted by Hamas, trying to pressure governments to bring them back. Walk us through a current overview of the situation because it's not simply about who has who right now. It's about all the ramifications of that going forward during the military operation. Yes. So clearly, I mean, I'm part of a voluntary of the group of volunteers. It's a very large and complicated operation that has been set up by hundreds of volunteers, lawyers, law experts, psychotherapists, former negotiators in previous hostage situations, and just people who want to give their share. And I have set up a small group of diplomats to help in every international aspect. We have only one item on our agenda, and that's to support the families. We're not part of the considerations that the government obviously does have. There's a war to fight. There are other fronts to defend, and there are many other considerations. We just want to give the families a voice and to support them because the emotional stress, Ariel, you know, it's difficult to imagine. I spend sometimes entire days listening to the personal stories of people because we bring in ambassadors and other foreign dignitaries to meet them and to encounter the personally the human toll that a hostage situation entails. And the most important thing, I think, to the most important message to convey is that the generic term hostages doesn't describe the situation. You have to picture in your mind 210 human beings from the age of six months to the age of 87 years old. With all the personal and health problems and mental health issues and families that are broken, and some of them might not be alive, and there are children without parents and parents without children, it's just a nightmare. It's a horrifying thing to think about. Before we continue this discussion, though, we are going to take a look at one of the other fronts in this war, that being the northern one, where our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Osirant, is standing by. Ariel, what are the latest developments along that front? Where, Ariel, the border appears to be heating up as it has been in recent days. The IDF released a statement just a short while ago saying that its forces managed to take out to strike a terror cell that was planning to launch an anti-tank guided missile towards one of the border communities in Avivim. That's a little further to the east from where we're standing now. Now, according to the statement, the IDF forces managed to strike the cell before it was able to carry out the attack. This obviously follows the reports of a previous attack this morning in Mangaliot, which is even further east than that. And so it appears that already the day is starting off with anti-tank guided missile attacks as they have been carrying out in past few days, basically, nearly on a daily basis ever since October 7th. It's definitely a concern. We've seen some reports, though, unconfirmed in papers like Ma'areth here in Israel, that the IDF fears that the north could become the primary front in the war, as Hezbollah makes more and more threatening statements every day. Okay. First of all, we need to clarify. Hezbollah is part of this war. That is clear. This is the amount of exchange of fire. Soldiers killed. Hezbollah operatives killed on the other side. These are unprecedented numbers since the Second Lebanon War in 2006. So Israel and Hezbollah are at a war on the northern border. But the intensity of the fighting is still considered on the lower threshold. But indeed, as the fighting continues, intensifies, and these attacks become more prevalent each day, that indeed raises the chances of a full out campaign against Hezbollah. And indeed, Hezbollah is a lot stronger than Hamas. They have a much more significant arsenal of rockets, over 100, 150,000 rockets that are currently aimed at Israel. Their range is much more significant than the range of Hamas rockets. And in terms of personnel, they have perhaps about roughly three times the amount of fighters. And so indeed, an all out fight against Hezbollah is more significant in comparison to an all out fight against Hamas. We are not there yet. The IDF does not want to reach that point yet. They're gearing up for an all out war against Hamas. And obviously, they do not want to add additional fronts. However, for days, IDF commanders as well as political leaders have been saying that if Israel, in a situation that it does need to fight in more than one front in a full out campaign, Israel is definitely ready to do so. And so, however, they are still trying to keep the fighting concentrated on one front, and that currently is the southern front. Thank you very much, Ariane. We will, of course, be coming back to you as the situation over there changes. Until then, we are going to return to the studio that I want to open with you, Rafael, because you've been hearing about everybody thinks the, well, as we just heard, Hezbollah is part of the war. A lot of intelligence analysts and the like are saying they don't want to fully commit. The situation is not right. But Israel was extremely wrong in its intelligence assessments of Hamas in the south. How guaranteed can we be that our assessments of the north are any better? We've been observing them intensely for quite a while. There's been a lot of exercise, training maneuvers around different scenarios of would we be attacked by the Hamas and the Hezbollah. I think we are more prepared than we were in the south. There was, first of all, a misconception. Then there was doctrine by some politicians that it's good to have the Hamas. They actually reinforce the Hamas. They made the Hamas stronger. That was an error of Israeli politics. The Hezbollah is different ball games. We know it's the enemy. We know it's Iran. It's not good for us. Of course, there was laxism in the fact that the Hezbollah over the years became stronger and stronger and stronger. We could have hit maybe preemptively a few years ago. Now we have a power in front of us. So yet maybe also another mistake. But this is to be dealt with later on. Right now we are thinking that the Hezbollah is not going to go into a full-fledged conflict with us. What is happening is very bothersome. This anti-tank missile that are being shot, these drone attacks for possibly also to try to perpetrate terrorist attacks by three or four terrorists infiltrating into Israel and killing innocent people. So all this is still not, it could be a castle's belly, a reason for war, but also not because it's not a war. It's something very, those on both sides, both sides are. So we have anyway two limitations. One is the Biden administration asked us not to start the war, right, if already. And the second is that we might prefer to have a war with Hezbollah or deal with Hezbollah later on at a more convenient time. Let's put it that way. Why now? So we could also wait. The big question now is does Iran have enough power to force Hassan Nasrallah into action because Iran is activating all its proxies everywhere to the last militia man in Iraq that has been sent from Iraq to Syria, the Houthis in Yemen. So why not use the Hezbollah as well? And Hassan Nasrallah might not want to because he knows that if he starts this full-fledged war with Israel, he might lose everything in it. But he might be forced to. So I think we have right now no choice but to wait. In the meanwhile, we're trying to act against the Hezbollah interests like we used to do before. We attacked last night Syria. We destroyed two airports. I mean, the landing strip of two airports leaving only Latakia as the airport to let the Iranians send to the Hezbollah more munitions, more weaponry. The Americans are quite worried about all this because they have brought even more air defense support now, including what you call the THAAD system that used for ballistic missiles that can destroy missiles even outside the atmosphere. So the fear that if would the Hezbollah go into a clash with Israel, a large one, this might entice Iran to also come in, maybe not physically like with their force or that, but with the shooting missiles at Israel. So the fact that the Americans have such a huge deployment in the Mediterranean shows how worried they are, how that scenario is possible. The fact that they're asking us not to start this war against Hezbollah shows how worried they are about it. But then they're ready to help us with their defense. Your guess is as good as mine. And you have to be a profiler or a medium and go into Hassan Nasrallah's brains to know what and also every morning because he might get up one morning in a bad mood and then start the war. That's the situation right now. But we are ready for it. But the IDF has the power, the capacity, the training to strike back, to strike hard, even if we're busy with the south at the same time. I want to bring another angle into this because security forces have released for very, very rare time a clip of an interrogation with one of the Hamas murderers from the October 7th massacre showing us a little insight into their mindset. Let's take a quick look at this. Rafael, I want to come back to you. This war doesn't end in Gaza as you had just been pointing out, that Iran has its proxies and Hamas has its people all over the region as well. Breaking Hamas doesn't just mean hitting their leadership in Gaza. How are they going to get Hamas leadership that's sitting in their multimillion-dollar properties in Qatar? Well, let's hope the Mossad will manage to get to them with the help of maybe the CIA or other services. It's doable. We've been trying for a few years and we missed Mr. Khaled Mashal a couple of times, so maybe the third time we'll get him. I think by now the determination of the Israelis to settle the score with these people is very high. And yes, abroad is also a front, and I do believe, I'm not, of course, in the secrets of the Mossad, but I do believe that efforts are made, I think constantly, but especially now, to reach these guys. And they can be reached because at some point they have to move. You can hit somebody when they move, and they have to be on the move. At some point they have to go to meetings. Some of them fly from one place to another that they might fly from Qatar to Saudi Arabia or to Turkey or to Lebanon. So I suppose we should be able to hit one of these guys. The first one of the list, you know, it's like a hit parade. So the first one today is Mr. El Arori, who is the chief, military chief of the Hamas, mostly for the activities in the West Bank. Mr. Sinois has always been a candidate, of course, but the big, big chiefs, Aniyeh and Khaled Mashal, are very wealthy people living in luxury, being protected by the Qatari. That'd be, of course, very difficult to hit, but not impossible. I want to turn now to you, Daniel, because we've been talking about the physical threat from abroad and hitting physical targets abroad, but it's not just a physical war. It's also a diplomatic one. We saw 100,000 people come out in favor of Hamas in London just the other day. We've seen massive pro-Hamas demonstrations around the world ever since the massacre on October 7th. Ultimately, how big, how critical of a threat is this building movement, which is only going to grow stronger as the war increases in length? Well, it's a war. This is not diplomacy. This is a war of images. This is a war of narratives and clearly as the distance between the terrible events of October 7th and today, as this distance grows, obviously, they affect of these images and the very strong international solidarity that Israel enjoyed will fade, whereas the images of Israel responding in Gaza in a massive way, they will continue. I don't have any good news to you, Ariel. This is going to grow, and Israel's capability to defend its narrative is going to become more and more difficult. To be honest, it's unpleasant, obviously, and it's infuriating sometimes to see these demonstrations and the slogans and the texts that you see brandished there. Does it really have an effect? Will it change the positions of this or that government? I don't really think so, although the governments too, their positions will evolve. Where I am worried, and I'm not the biggest expert on this, but I know enough, are demonstrations in the Arab world because in the Arab world, they're first of all massive, and they may have a very strong effect on the leadership. The many assets that Israel has gained over the years in the Arab world, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the Abraham Accords, the prospect of possible normalization with Saudi Arabia, all that might disappear. And although the peace agreement with Egypt, for example, and with Jordan, have withstood many situations of crisis and rocket exchanges and operations in Gaza, et cetera, and they were safe. We still have an ambassador in Cairo and they have an ambassador here. I'm not sure that a war that might last for weeks and months, if that won't just kick us back 40 or 50 years in Israel's position in the Arab world. Are there sort of red lines or trigger events that we might see be the cause of massive setbacks you're talking about? Well, the trigger events are those that I'm sure the IDF is trying to avoid. And those are massive humanitarian tragedies. And there is time, an operation of a couple of weeks or three weeks easily forgotten afterwards. An operation, including ground operation with immediate friction between the population and the IDF. I'm not just talking about Hamas because the Hamas operatives won't be on the streets, they will be underground. I mean, Rafael has told you that many times, they're not the ones fighting the war. So that, the length of time of this operation might be a real problem. We're going to turn back to Rafael for some quick comments on the minute we have left, because as we've noted, this is not going to be a short operation. This is not going to be something that Israel can do from the air. Ultimately, how long do we think this campaign is going to take? Your guess is as good as mine. The experts are speaking of weeks, if not months. I'd say the conservative estimate is between two and three months. If we want to attain the objective that we said is to eliminate the Hamas, to have the Hamas never come back into power in Gaza. If we stick to that objective, then it will take a long time. Let's do hope that the government will stick to the objective because it has been known to be shy and change the objective halfway through campaigns and stopping campaigns before they could be ended. And we wouldn't be here now if the governments before hadn't been so shy. But let's not forget that there are 210 hostages to take into consideration in any operational decision making. That's why we can wait. We are not going into the ground. We can wait. The opportunities to have a successful operation can become later and give a chance effectively to diplomatic channels to liberate the hostages. Well, it's a lot of questions, and those are questions we are going to be attempting to answer over the course of the day. We are out of time for now, but we will see you again at the top of the next hour for breaking news and analysis and updates on this war. 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 I-24 News. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. 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. From Tel Aviv, and welcome to I-24 News' ongoing coverage of Israel at war. I'm Ariel Levin-London. We're going to open on the Northern Freight, with airstrikes reported near the airports in Damascus and Aleppo. The second time during the war, the airports have been struck. Syrian sources say that the airport's runways have been taken out in these strikes. The IDF has begun evacuation plans for 14 more villages along the northern border, after creating a three mile deep evacuation zone last week. This comes as Hezbollah increases the range and frequency of shelling in Israeli territory. Just about a half hour ago, Israeli forces struck a terror cell, planning to launch an anti-tank missile at a border town. Three Israeli soldiers were injured by an earlier such anti-tank missile strike near the Kibbutz Bar Am. The IDF hit Hezbollah targets there as well. According to Hezbollah's numbers, the terror group has lost 18 operatives since the war began, but Israel has estimated considerably higher figures. The West Bank, though, is heating up as well. The IDF and Shin Bet say a military aircraft struck an underground terror route at a mosque in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad were sheltering, and planning a massive imminent attack planned for today, in fact, and modeled after the October 7th massacre. The Shin Bet and the military say the operatives in this terror cell were using the mosque as a base to plan and carry out other attacks, which included the recent detonation of an explosive near Israeli troops along the West Bank security fence. No soldiers were hurt in that attack. The U.S. has activated some more military assets in the region, as the war threatens to become a regional one. In addition to the two carrier strike groups, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered deployment of a terminal high-altitude area defense ballistic missile interception battery, as well as Patriot air defense systems in the area to protect U.S. forces. Austin also said additional forces have been set on standby if needed for rapid deployment. And Hamas' plans for mass murder were possibly more developed than anybody expected, and Axios report claims and cited classified foreign ministry tables that one of the terrorists killed during the October 7th invasion and massacre was carrying blueprints for improvised chemical weapons. The report says the foreign ministry warned Israeli embassies in dozens of countries of the possible use of such devices. We're going to open though with the southern border, where our correspondent P.S. Deckelbach is standing by in the border town of Sterot. Pea, thank you very much for being with us. Give us the latest updates on the southern front. Right, Arielle, the idea of said that it has struck multiple targets in the Gaza Strip throughout the night. Fighter jets were striking Hamas' targets located. And I want to jump in as well, because we're hearing that there are some sirens and some interceptions in central Israel, actually hearing them from the studio right now. We want to update our audience that there are rockets being fired, literally at this moment, directly into southern Israel before we go back to the likey source of those rockets in the south from Hamas, where Pea, Deckelbach is standing by updating us on the situation. Right, Arielle, well, Israel has been striking targets in the Gaza Strip throughout the night. However, here on the Israeli side, the night has been calm until now. We here in Sterot, we did not have any siren. The last alert was triggered shortly after midnight into border communities. But we also have to say that the area here, that close to the Gaza border, we are about three kilometers away from it, is void of civilians. They have been evacuated a long time ago. Of course, here in Sterot, the city of 30,000 residents, they have been about 10% of the population remaining here. But other than that, you do not really see people out here. It is an empty seat. It has become a ghost town here. Now we do, from where we stand here, as I said, about three kilometers away from the border, we do hear the Israeli artillery striking in Gaza. We hear the booms. We hear the noises, and that has been going on also throughout the night here. Now, this comes as yesterday. For the first time since the beginning of the war, humanitarian aid was delivered to the Gaza Strip. We're talking about 20 trucks making it across the border at the Rafah checkpoint from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Now Israel has not allowed for fuel to enter, which, as so say, humanitarian organizations and hospitals desperately needed. But Israel is trying to build up pressure on Hamas. It is also saying that it will intensify the airstrikes onto the northern Gaza Strip, still calling upon the residents in Gaza to make their way to the southern part of the Strip, as also the ground offensive is looming Ariel. Well, thank you very much, Pia, for that report from the front. We're going to be back with you over the course of the day as things change on the ground. For now, though, we are going to go to our analysts in studio. We are joined as well by Daniel Shek, former Israeli ambassador to France, and one of the main leading advocates for the hostage rescue operations right now, as well as former IDF intelligence officer Rafael Urushami. Thank you both for being with us. I want to actually open with you, Rafael, because this is a topic that's been hanging over us all morning. That was the airstrike in the West Bank on a Hamas terror cell, planning on carrying a similar massacre to the October 7th one. How under control does Israel have the situation in the West Bank? Well, strangely enough, it has more control now as there is a war and a lot of our forces are busy with the south and deployed in the north. We seem to have more control. There's been zero terrorist acts perpetrated against Israel during these last two weeks. So the central command is really being very efficient. Every night, they are arresting, mostly arresting and eliminating dozens of terrorists. Every night, it's around, like, between 1450 terrorists that are being arrested. So it's an amazing operation. It is not for the lack of trying from the part of the terrorists to perpetrate attacks and to perpetrate attacks as atrocious as the one perpetrated by their colleagues in the south, which seems to have created a new fashion, like not just kill Israelis, not just try to kidnap Israelis, but to torture them, to make them suffer, to make the whole Israeli people suffer because of the pictures. Even if we don't see them, we know what is going on. So this, of course, I think also gives a big motivation for our troops operating in the West Bank to fight and to arrest them. Let's do pray that nothing will happen. I mean, the difference between the villages of the south of Israel facing Gaza and the situation in the West Bank is that we have settlements there. Jews, Israelis living in the middle of the Palestinian population. So you can imagine what a headache it is for the security services. But so far, like last night, this helicopter strike straight on the hiding place of the Hamas operative was a huge success. Let's hope it continues. It's really a front that could be very, very problematic, especially when we enter Gaza on the ground. This West Bank could become a real problem in the back, if you might say. So far, so good. And that's actually a time I'd like to bring you in as well, Daniel, because we're talking about the atrocities committed to civilians and the people they've kidnapped. You have become one of the leading advocates for the families of people abducted by Hamas, trying to pressure governments to bring them back. Walk us through a current overview of the situation, because it's not simply about who has who right now. It's about all the ramifications of that going forward during the military operation. Yes, so clearly, I mean, I'm part of a voluntary of a group of volunteers. It's a very large and complicated operation that has been set up by hundreds of volunteers, lawyers, law experts, psychotherapists, former negotiators in previous hostage situations, and just people who want to give their share. And I have set up a small group of diplomats to help in every international aspect. We have only one item on our agenda, and that's to support the families. We're not part of the considerations that the government obviously does have. There's a war to fight. There are other fronts to defend, and there are many other considerations. We just want to give the families a voice and to support them because the emotional stress, Ariel, you know, it's difficult to imagine. I spend sometimes entire days listening to the personal stories of people because we bring in ambassadors and other foreign dignitaries to meet them and to encounter the personally the human told that situation, a hostage situation entails. And the most important thing I think to the most important message to convey is that the generic term hostages doesn't describe the situation. You have to picture in your mind 210 human beings from the age of six months to the age of 87 years old with all the personal and health problems and mental health issues and and families that are broken and some of them might not be alive. And there are children without parents and parents without children. It's just a nightmare. It's a horrifying thing to think about. Before we continue this discussion, though, we are going to take a look at one of the other fronts in this war, that being the northern one, where our Middle East correspondent, Arielle Osirant, is standing by. Arielle, what are the latest developments along that front? Where real, the border appears to be heating up as it has been in recent days. The IDF released a statement just a short while ago saying that its forces managed to take out to strike a terror cell that was planning to launch an anti-tank guided missile towards one of the border communities in Avivim. That's a little further to the east from where we're standing now. Now, according to the statement, the IDF forces managed to strike the cell before it was able to carry out the attack. This obviously follows the reports of a previous attack this morning in Magaliot, which is even further east than that. And so it appears that already the day is starting off with anti-tank guided missile attacks, as they have been carrying out in past few days, basically, nearly on a daily basis ever since October 7th. It's definitely a concern. We've seen some reports, though, unconfirmed in papers like Ma'areth here in Israel, that the IDF fears that the North could become the primary front in the war, as Hezbollah makes more and more threatening statements every day. Okay, first of all, we need to clarify, Hezbollah is part of this war. That is clear. This is the amount of exchange of fire, soldiers killed, Hezbollah operatives killed on the other side. These are unprecedented numbers since the Second Lebanon War in 2006. So Israel and Hezbollah are at a war on the northern border. But the intensity of the fighting is still considered under lower threshold. But indeed, as the fighting continues, intensifies, and these attacks become more prevalent each day, that indeed raises the chances of a full out campaign against Hezbollah. And indeed, Hezbollah is a lot stronger than Hamas. They have a much more significant arsenal of rockets, over 100, 150,000 rockets that are currently aimed at Israel. Their range is much more significant than the range of Hamas rockets. And in terms of personnel, they have perhaps about roughly three times the amount of fighters. And so indeed, an all out fight against Hezbollah is more significant in comparison to an all out fight against Hamas. We are not there yet. The IDF does not want to reach that point yet. They're gearing up for an all out war against Hamas. And obviously, they do not want to add additional fronts. However, for days, IDF commanders as well as political leaders have been saying that if Israel in the situation that it does need to fight in more than one front in a full out campaign, Israel is definitely ready to do so. And so, however, they are still trying to keep the fighting concentrated on one front, and that currently is the southern front. Thank you very much, Ariel. And we will, of course, be coming back to you as the situation over there changes. Until then, we are going to return to the studio that I want to open with you, Rafael, because you've been hearing about everybody thinks the, well, as we just heard, Hezbollah is part of the war. A lot of intelligence analysts and the like are saying they don't want to fully commit. The situation is not right. But Israel was extremely wrong in its intelligence assessments of Hamas in the south. How guaranteed can we be that our assessments of the north are any better? We've been observing them intensely for quite a while. There's been a lot of exercise training maneuvers around different scenarios of would we be attacked by the Hamas and the Hezbollah. I think we are more prepared than we were in the south. There was, first of all, a misconception. Then there was doctrine by some politicians that it's good to have the Hamas. They actually reinforce the Hamas. They made the Hamas stronger. That was an error of Israeli politics. The Hezbollah is different ball games. We know it's the enemy. We know it's Iran. It's not good for us. Of course, there was laxism in the fact that the Hezbollah over the years became stronger and stronger and stronger. We could have hit maybe preemptively a few years ago. Now we have a power in front of us. So yet maybe also another mistake. But this is to be dealt with later on. Right now, we are thinking that the Hezbollah is not going to go into a full-fledged conflict with us. What is happening is very bothersome. This anti-tank missile attack being shot, these drone attacks for possibly also to try to perpetrate terrorist attacks by three or four terrorists like infiltrating into Israel and killing innocent people. All this is still not, it could be a Cassus belly, a reason for war, but also not because it's not a war. It's something very, those on both sides, both sides are. So we have anyway two limitations. One is the Biden administration asks us not to start the war, right, if already. And the second is that we might prefer to have a war with Hezbollah or deal with Hezbollah later on at a more convenient time. Let's put it that way. Why now? So we could also wait. The big question now is does Iran have enough power to force Hassan Nasrallah into action, because Iran is activating all these proxies everywhere to the last militia man in Iraq that has been sent from Iraq to Syria, the Houthis in Yemen. So why not use the Hezbollah as well? And Hassan Nasrallah might not want to, because he knows that if he starts this full fledged war with Israel, he might lose everything in it, but he might be forced to. So I think we have right now no choice but to wait. In the meanwhile, we're trying to act against the Hezbollah interest like we used to do before. We attacked last night Syria. We destroyed the two airports, I mean the landing strip of two airports leaving only Latakia as the airport to let the Iranians send to the Hezbollah more munitions, more weaponry. The Americans are quite worried about all this because they have brought even more air defense support now, including what you call the THAAD system that used for ballistic missiles that can destroy missiles even outside the atmosphere. So they fear that if would the Hezbollah go into a clash with Israel, a large one, this might entice Iran to also come in, maybe not physically like with their force or that, but with shooting missiles at Israel. So the fact that the Americans have such a huge deployment in the Mediterranean shows how worried they are, how that scenario is possible. The fact that they're asking us not to start this war against Hezbollah shows how worried they are about it. But then they're ready to help us with their defense. Your guess is as good as mine and you have to be a profiler or a medium and go into Hassan Nasrallah's brains to know what and also every morning because he might get up one morning in a bad mood and then start the war. That's the situation right now, but we are ready for it. But the IDF has the power, the capacity, the training to strike back, to strike hard, even if we are busy with the south at the same time. I want to bring another angle into this because security forces have released for very, very rare time a clip of an interrogation with one of the Hamas murderers from the October 7th massacre showing us a little insight into their mindset. Let's take a quick look at this. Rafael, I want to come back to you. This war doesn't end in Gaza as you had just been pointing out that Iran has its proxies and Hamas has its people all over the region as well. Breaking Hamas doesn't just mean hitting their leadership in Gaza. How are they going to get Hamas leadership that's sitting in their multimillion-dollar properties in Qatar? Well, let's hope the Mossad will manage to get to them with the help of maybe the CIA or other services. It's doable. We've been trying for a few years and we missed Mr. Khaled Mashal a couple of times. So maybe the third time we'll get him. I think by now the determination of the Israelis to settle the score with these people is very high. And yes, abroad is also a front. And I do believe, I'm not, of course, in the secrets of the Mossad, but I do believe that efforts are made, I think constantly, but especially now to reach these guys. And they can be reached because at some point they have to move. You can hit somebody when they move and they have to be on the move. At some point they have to go to meetings. Some of them fly from one place to another that they might fly from Qatar to Saudi Arabia or to Turkey or to Lebanon. So I suppose we should be able to hit one of these guys. The first one of the list, you know, it's like a hit parade. So the first one today is Mr. El Arori, who is the chief, military chief of the Hamas, mostly for the activities in the West Bank. Mr. Sinois are always many candidates, of course. But the big, big chiefs, Ani and Khaled Mashal, are very wealthy people living in luxury, being protected by the Qatari. That'd be, of course, very difficult to hit, but not impossible. I want to turn now to you, Daniel, because we've been talking about the physical threat from abroad and hitting physical targets abroad, but it's not just a physical war. It's also a diplomatic one. We saw 100,000 people come out in favor of Hamas in London just the other day. We've seen massive pro-Hamas demonstrations around the world ever since the massacre on October 7th. Ultimately, how big, how critical of a threat is this building movement, which is only going to grow stronger as the war increases in length? Well, it's a war. This is not diplomacy. This is a war of images. This is a war of narratives. And clearly, as the distance between the terrible events of October 7th and today as this distance grows, obviously, they affect of these images and the very strong international solidarity that Israel enjoyed will fade. Whereas the images of Israel responding in Gaza in a massive way, they will continue. So I don't have any good news to you, Ariel. This is going to grow. And Israel's capability to defend its narrative is going to become more and more difficult. To be honest, it's unpleasant, obviously, and it's infuriating sometimes to see these demonstrations and the slogans and the texts that you see brandished there. Does it really have an effect? Will it change the positions of this or that government? I don't really think so. Although the governments, too, their positions will evolve. Where I am worried, and I'm not the biggest expert on this, but I know enough, are demonstrations in the Arab world. Because in the Arab world, they're, first of all, massive, and they may have a very strong effect on the leadership. And the many assets that Israel has gained over the years in the Arab world, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the Abraham Accords, the prospect of possible normalization with Saudi Arabia, all that might disappear. And although the peace agreement with Egypt, for example, and with Jordan, have withstood many situations of crisis and rocket exchanges and operations in Gaza, etc. And they were safe. We still have an ambassador in Cairo and they have an ambassador here. I'm not sure that a war that might last for weeks and months, if that won't just kick us back 40 or 50 years in Israel's position in the Arab world. Are there sort of red lines or trigger events that we might see be the cause of this massive setback? Well, the trigger events are those that I'm sure the IDF is trying to avoid. And those are massive humanitarian tragedies. And there is time, an operation of a couple of weeks or three weeks, easily forgotten afterwards. An operation, including ground operation with immediate friction between the population and the IDF. I'm not just talking about Hamas because the Hamas operatives won't be on the streets. They will be underground. I mean, Rafael has told you that many times. They're not the ones fighting the war. So that, the length of time of this operation might be a real problem. We're going to turn back to Rafael for some quick comments on the minute we have left, because as we've noted, this is not going to be a short operation. This is not going to be something that Israel can do from the air. Ultimately, how long do we think-