 As Bala decides to enter the war, it will miss the second Lebanon war. It will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with force it cannot imagine. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News, I'm Khaled bin David. It is day 15 of Israel's war against Hamas and the numbers are airing up. Over 7,400 rockets fired into south and central Israel from Gaza over the past two weeks. One of them seriously injuring a resident of the town of Netivo today. That brings a number of wounded to more than 5,400 and the dead to over 1,400. The IDF now confirming that at least 212 hostages are being held in Gaza. Other fronts active as well. The IDF striking his Bala positions in south Lebanon today after rocket fire from that territory this weekend killed Staff Sergeant Omer Balba, a dual Israeli-American citizen. Israeli airstrikes also reportedly hitting the Aleppo and Damascus airports. And an exceptional Israeli airstrike in the West Bank early today on a mosque in Janine killing two members of an Islamic Jihad terror cell said to be hiding there. The numbers also adding up in Gaza with the Hamas run health ministry claiming over 4,600 killed and over 14,000 injured. And of course, one more number I want to give you that was released today by the Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare. Some 21 Israeli children from 13 families having left without both their parents either because they were murdered or kidnapped in the October 7th massacre, 21 offense. Joining me in studio is Ambassador Danny Aylone, former Israeli Ambassador to the US, former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister. Thank you for joining Danny. And yes, the numbers are adding up and a lot of Israelis are wondering now at this stage, when is the ground offensive going to begin? Well, I think it's quite certain because without a ground offense or offensive, there will not be any chance for not eradicating Hamas. And this is a goal which has been shared also with the United States. Now, I believe that the main reason now, or the main factors determining the day or the hour of the offense would be on tactical grounds. First of all, every day Hamas capabilities are being degraded on a systematic way. On the other hand, they're more intelligence that is being gathered by the IDF, which would make it easier for the ground operation to just unfold and take over. There's also the issue of the hostages and I believe that a lot of concern but also a lot of effort is being geared towards trying to find the whereabouts, although it's very difficult. Well, let me bring up another aspect of the hostages, Danny, because there is speculation certainly here in Israel, whether the release of Judith and Natalie run on over the weekend, the two American citizens, one an Israeli-American, resulted in American pressure, US pressure from the Biden administration in Israel, to hold off a ground offensive to see if Hamas will release any additional hostages, especially foreign citizens. Well, the Hamas will certainly use his cards in a ruthless way, as it does, it's not surprising. And from Hamas' point of view, they release, like trickle, on a trickling basis, the hostages can just buy them time because they are very much, very much afraid of this ground operation. The ground operation will not stop until they reach the bunkers of their leaders, Mohamed Deff and Yichy Sinoir, on all the rest of them, just like Hitler was rooted out and ferried out of his own bunker. So to the extent that he had to commit suicide. But the question I'm asking you, when you served at the highest levels, Israeli government, especially in terms of relations between Israel and the United States, is the current Israeli government, oh, I'm going to come back to you on that because I do want to go back to our defense correspondent, Jonathan Regheff, who's down south in the town of Stiro. First of all, Jonathan, another day of fire in the southern part of the country, in and around that area. Some injuries also. Yes, we were earlier in the city of Netivot, and as opposed to what happens here, where there are protected spaces, practically every 100 meters in Netivot, which is a bit further away from the Gaza border. This is not the case. Therefore we had to duck down next to a wall that we saw on the street, because there's no protected area in the place where we were. It was quite a large barrage. We saw at least 10 interceptions in the sky, at least two of those two two rockets also made landfall and two people were injured in the city of Netivot earlier on. And also on the Gaza border itself in the area of Kisufim, which is right in front of the Palestinian city of Hanyunas, there was some fire exchange between Israeli soldiers and Hamas terrorists. As far as we understand, the Israeli army goes a few hundred meters into Gaza trying to locate perhaps remains dead bodies or some traces and fire was opened on those forces. So yes, still ongoing, ongoing fighting all the time. There was also a Syrian in the city of Bersheva about an hour ago, there's no real quiet down here. Right. Now I want to ask you about an incident that took place close to the Israeli-Egyptian border. Apparently, some errant IDF tank fire hitting an Egyptian army observation post and it may have disrupted somewhat this plan to start sending these, renew these A-trucks going into the Gaza Strip. That is correct because there was a report that the A-trucks did go through, then there was a denial that the trucks went through and of course Israel has no interest whatsoever in dragging Egypt into this, the fire that hit that Egyptian post that was by mistake and the statement posted by the Egyptian army quite calms things down. The Egyptians saying that they are aware that the fire was shot, but they're aware that it is by mistake and this incident is basically over, but it proves the high level of tension among everybody here in the area. All right. Certainly, yes, tension and tension is growing. Thank you, Jonathan. Reg Evans. Stay safe down there. I want to ask you about that incident that the Rafa crossing because it just illustrates the complexities of the sending these A-trucks through that border area, something that has been a little problematic for the government in terms of checking whether, for example, weapons could be smuggled there and the whole question, the pressures from families of hostages in Israel saying why is A going into Gaza when we've still got no information, solid information on the hostages there? Sure. It's a major issue, but I would say that here we have to really be very cold and calculated and not think emotionally. Yes, nobody would like to see any humanitarian aid goes to Gaza when our hostages are still there. But at the same time, we cannot say no to the United States. We are with them. Actually we are working on this together. And there is also, I would say, an operational reason for doing that because what we're trying to do actually is have all the population in Gaza north move into the south in order to actually lure them or give them incentives to go to the south, notwithstanding, of course, the Hamas trying to block them is to have humanitarian caches, humanitarian stockpiles in the south so they can get into it. Right, reportedly something like 60, 70% of the million people living above that line have moved. So there has been effective to some degree. Sure. But again, if we go down and drill down into the details, what Israel has stipulated is that within this humanitarian aid, there will be only medical supplies, water and food, no gasoline or no energy or no fuels. Why? Because the fuel goes to the purposes of Hamas, to its own generators so they can continue and manufacture and produce their rockets. And this is something that Israel has said no way we will allow that. And so within these parameters, I think it makes sense for Israel to allow this humanitarian aid for the purpose of removing or helping the population of Gaza get out of harm's way and clear the way for the IDF to go straight after Hamas in a, you know, I would say. But again, that brings me back to my other question because that the enraging on humanitarian aid did come about in part because of U.S. pressure on Israel. And the question is there is going to be a point if there is, how susceptible is Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other members of the war cabinet, Defense Minister Jov Garlandt and former Chief of Staff Ben against to U.S. pressure to delay a ground operation? You've seen this work at the highest levels. Are they going to be at some point to, I want to come back to you still on that question. Because I do what we now we have our correspondent in North Mary McAuliffe joining us and Mary as a clear sign of the tensions in the north that concerns that Israel has are the fact that more communities ordered there in the north to be evacuated today. That's right Clev. So an additional 14 communities in the northern part of Israel, the communities very close to the Lebanese border. We're again getting that evacuation order today. This joins the additional 28 communities who in the past two weeks have already received evacuation order. So there's quite a significant number of areas here along the Israel-Lebanon border in which all of the residents have been told to evacuate. And just recently now in the past hour, we've also seen warnings of an infiltration alarm in Matulah. So that's a very, very northern community really enclosed on three sides by the Lebanese border. We're still waiting to hear more updates and details from that. So far we only have reports from security forces who are working inside Matulah, but Matulah is one of those areas, of course, that was one of the first to be evacuated because it really is the first line when it comes to the Israel-Lebanon border. And throughout the day, we've seen a number of different attacks from across the border from Hezbollah fighters into Israel and then Israeli retaliatory attacks. But we've also spoken to a number of residents here in the area who are still staying in their houses and saying they simply don't want to leave their homes. They're going to stay here and weather it out for however long it takes. Right. And it does seem to be widening. The conflict there has followed emitting. I think something close to two dozen of its fighters killed. And we're seeing reported Israeli airstrikes in places like Damascus and Aleppo. That's right, Clev. So we'll begin first in Syria. So earlier today, there were airstrikes. This is Syrian state media who's reporting that but saying that once again, there were simultaneous airstrikes by Israel on the Damascus airport as well as the Aleppo airport. So this is the second time in the past two weeks that both these airports have been hit at the same time. Syrian state media saying there was significant damage done to the airports, putting the airports out of commission for the time being also killing a civilian worker at the airport. But here closer to Israel, Lebanon border. We've also seen a number of different attacks, both from the Hezbollah side and Israel. Hezbollah since this morning, they've been firing anti-tank guided GPS missiles to positions in the Israeli border areas, but also to communities in the border areas targeting some civilian areas. Luckily, nobody was injured on the Israeli side of the border, but we have heard reports about Israeli shelling into southern Lebanon as well as a deadly airstrike that happened a couple hours ago in which the Lebanese Red Crosses, that the bodies of six Hezbollah fighters were recovered from this area just over the border in southern Lebanon in Ramiya in this area. But so far we don't have any confirmation from Hezbollah that any of its fighters were killed. The official tally we have from them from this point from today is that 24 fighters of Hezbollah have been killed in the past two weeks that we've seen these cross-border raids between Israel and Hezbollah. All right, Mary McAuliffe there, just south of the Israel-Lebanon border. Thank you for that. Let's talk about now the situation in the south, especially in the wake of the October 7th Hamas attack. Yuli and Ella Ben-Ami are some of few of the extremely lucky residents of Kibbutz-Berry in the Gaza border area that did manage to survive the horrific massacre that was perpetrated there by Hamas terrorists. But any relief they may feel is now underscored by their concern over the lives of their parents. The father, Ohad and Mother Raaz were seen on photos posted on social media from Gaza being taken hostage there by terrorists. Here's a bit of a phone call that Ella made on that terrible morning to Israel's channel to news requesting help from her parents while she herself was under siege. When joining us now are Yuli and Ella Ben-Ami. Thank you for joining us. First of all, just horrifying hearing that call. I don't know which one of you wants to speak. I want to hear what, first of all, your experiences on that morning, what you were going through. Yes, so I made a call. I didn't know what to do. My dad wrote me that they caught him and I had nothing to do from my room because I can't get out. So I called the news to tell the world and I hoped that someone will come and help us. And nothing happened until three, it's afternoon, something like this. And the call was at 11 at the morning. Right. And just maybe just talk about what happened at three when you fought, first of all, I want to hear how both of you managed to escape from that horrific situation on Kibbutz Berry. So we were in the safe room for 16 hours, from 6 to 8.42, I've been until 8.42. And that came from me with the soldiers. All this time, we heard bombs and screaming in Arabic and a lot of shooting. It was terrifying. And we didn't know what happened to the rest of our family because we didn't have battery on the phone and we didn't have electricity. So yes, it was very hard. And I know this is difficult, girls, but I want to know just when you saw those pictures that were posted on a telegram, a social media app that's used by a lot of Palestinians, what were you thinking when you saw those photos? I think we were all in shock. We couldn't believe that this is what we see. And our mother picture came only a week after. And before that, we didn't know anything, even not what she was wearing. So I mean, we couldn't do nothing to try to help know where she is. And the video also came a week later. So we didn't know exactly what is happening. It was like a big surprise to everyone. It was unreal. We just felt like it's not happening. The most terrible feeling that we have been through, it's that we've been helpless. We are still helpless. We don't know what to do. We don't have anything to do. I don't have gone to go and get my parents. I don't have nothing to do besides do this, do the interviews and tell them the world about them, but we are helpless, helpless. Well, I want to ask you, girls, what your message is now this evening to the Israeli government, but also to the world, the international community. You know we're an international channel, Gal Hirsch, who has been assigned by the government to handle the situation met today with Red Cross. What do you have to say, use this forum to speak to the world? I think the most important thing to us to say is that our mother is very sick. She needs a lot of medications and we need to get out of there as soon as possible. If not, she will die without her medications. It's the most important thing to us to say. And in general, that all the kidnaps and all the world crimes that happened need to solve, to come to a solve and they need to come back to us. I mean, we just want to save the hostage that everyone is be here with us, save. And we just really miss our parents. And the situation of my mother is very concerned. I mean, we just, I don't know, we just want her to be healthy and be with us. Well, Ellie and Yula, we join in the pain that you're experiencing. And of course, I'm sure you've missed many loved ones from that attack on Kibbutz, Barry, and we wish most of all for the safe return of your parents. Thank you for joining us on our 24 news. Thank you. Let's go to the IDF spokesperson. We're Admiral Daniel Chagari giving a briefing. Unlike reports that came today, no fuel came into the Gaza Strip. The footages that were shown were internal movement of fuels in Rafa for UNRAS needs. We supervised the movement of these fuels so that fuel does not reach Hamas. We've exposed this evening another proof to the way in which Hamas launches rockets next to schools, hospitals, kindergarten, et cetera. This is the same Hamas and as it didn't fear using the mosque in Jenin last night that we struck where terrorists wanted to execute an attack against Israelis, it is doing the same with using children and sick people next to its rockets. That's a challenge to the IDF and the IDF stands to that challenge according to international law, maintains the need to prevent hurting civilians, unlike Hamas, who uses them as human shields. We'll continue to expose these proof and show that to the world. We prevented an attack in Jenin and we'll continue to operate there and everywhere, every arena where there will be a threat on the state of Israel. An Israeli tank accidentally shot an Egyptian post near Kerm Shalon. We spoke to our Egyptian counterparts that is an operational mistake. We will investigate this and share the information with Egypt. In addition to Egypt to Gaza, we continue to operate our operation next against Hezbollah in the north. There were several incidents today. IDF took down several squads of terrorists of Hezbollah before and after they launched rockets towards Israel. We'll continue to do so against every squad of Hezbollah on the border and we'll also attack Hezbollah infrastructure in order to reduce their ability to act against Israel. So far we've given notices to the families of 308 fallen Israeli IDF soldiers and to the families of 218 kidnapped. The information updates constantly. According to the information we receive, we examined that information and updates the families with every trace of information. We classify our certainty and inform the family and the public. This number will continue to be updated. This mission is first priority for us. Assisting the bereaved families is a main principle for the IDF since it's an establishment. Every family without any differences of race, sex, sexual orientation will give the assistance to all families. May ever they be. Questions, please. Ground maneuver hasn't started yet. Is this related to the kidnap issues and other negotiations for more releases? We received goals from the political officials. Our first goal is to eliminate Hamas' abilities as a government who executed this attack and also to eliminate its military capabilities. And there's another central goal in this war and that is the return of the kidnapped and our effort to make every possible effort in order to bring back the kidnap to their homes. We need to stand to all these goals together and therefore we will execute our ability to achieve these goals with the time that we have in every possible way. We continue to use the time and make better preparedness for the ground maneuvers. The IDF is operating under the orders of the political officials. Other disagreements between the military and the political officials. IDF presents its stances in close discussions. We present the alternatives and the meanings and the risks. We speak about several arenas. One of them is Gaza. We have a challenge in the north. We look at all arenas of the war, the events in Yemen and in other places and put them all together. At the end of the day, we focus on Gaza to achieve those goals that we mentioned. We are prepared. We're ready for the ground maneuver. And when the political officials decide so, we will do so. Should we enter Gaza as quickly as possible? This is a war. And that was the IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hargari there, giving a briefing. Someone important update coming out of that. He said that the IDF has now confirmed that 218 hostages are being held in Gaza. But he said it's being important. He said it's being updated all the time. Earlier today, the army released a figure of 212. It is not actually even clear because the IDF has not identified all the bodies, the identity of all the bodies burnt and mutilated there in the Gaza border area. And of course, even Hamas's figures cannot be reliable, both because it's Hamas and because they claim other terror groups are holding other hostages there. Still with us, Ambassador Denny Elon, and Denny, you heard the questions. It's basically the same one I've asked you a couple of times and I haven't given you the chance to answer. But is the delay in Gaza possibly more a political or diplomatic decision than a military decision? Well, I think that what we saw the Brigadier General Hargari, the spokesman of the IDF, actually, his answer was pretty much what we have discussed here. There is no political constraints, not from the Israeli government and also not from the American government. We are on the same page when it comes to the purpose and to the objective and the end goal of the war in Gaza. There is no question about it. Even with the timing, as what we're talking about. Yes. Well, with the timing, I think mostly it will be determined by operational considerations. As painful as it is, the issue of the hostages now is done on a parallel track. And I suggest and I think that it should be put as the owners should be on the international Red Cross on the UN. Mr. Gutierrez, the Secretary General of the UN, I would have expected from him and his people and idea and Red Cross people, when they move the trucks, the humanitarian trucks to Gaza, Red Cross people should be in these trucks confronting Hamas. They will not be in danger because Hamas will not do anything to them. The pressure on the Hamas vis-à-vis the release of the hostages should be immense and not from Israel. Right. Because if it's from Israel, it's a show of weakness and they will manipulate and use it against us. It has to be the entire international community and mainly the humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross. And when it comes to the IDF, as we mentioned, they are degrading the capabilities of Hamas. They are getting more intelligence. Hopefully also one of the, I would say the main focus of the intelligence collection is the whereabouts. If we can find the whereabouts of the hostages, at least the main bulk. As you mentioned, Kalev, many of them are not known, they are not even in the hands of Hamas. Hamas doesn't even know where they are, could be Islamic jihad, could be even some local Hamulas, local families, Ghazan families that have them in their own custody. So it is something that we'll have to go on, as I mentioned on the parallel track. As far as the United States goes, we have a free hand because they understand that what's at stake here and we discussed it also. It's not just Israel vis-à-vis Hamas, it's the free world, it's the Western world under the leadership of the United States vis-à-vis the global jihad. Right, just on your point, a bipartisan group of 10 senators are here in Israel, headed by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin. They came after, they first were in Saudi Arabia yesterday, speaking with the Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. And they've had a press briefing tonight. We've just got in some of the comments they made there in Tel Aviv, just in the past hour, let's take a listen. The idea that this happened without a reigning involvement is laughable. 93% of the budget over decades, they're training the equipment, all coming from the Ayatollah. I come here to let Israel know that America will be with you. I come here to let the Arab world know. Let's make peace if we can. Destroying Hamas is non-negotiable. How we do it, let's talk. So we're here today- Okay, Danny, well, you heard it from Senator Lindsey Graham, very influential figure in the Senate there. Destroying Hamas is non-negotiable. That's from a U.S. Senator. Yes, and with Ben Cardin, you know, the ranking democ- Well, now on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, he's taken over there. This is in the wake of another codel, you know, bipartisan delegation of last week. With Chuck Schumer and with the one who ran for- Tim Scott, who's running for president. Right. So we see actually that there is a new dynamics in the Congress as well, which, you know, if we can put a parenthesis, I believe the President Biden is trying to actually leverage this new bipartisan, which is right now is very specific on the Israeli issue. He probably would like to enlarge it also on the Ukraine. So I think also with the aid to Israel, there's also going to be some piggyback on the Ukrainian aid and a few other things that are internal U.S. But we see what the Americans are doing. Not only sending their aircraft carriers and supporting us, Vito, was very important, Vito. Do you want to give a heads-up? Yes, absolutely. But also we see that they're gearing up for attacks on American assets in the region. So actually they have ordered the evacuation of American families. I just want to go, Ben Denny, down to our defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev. Back down in Stale Road. We just heard the great Admiral Daniel Higari. Some interesting points, Jonathan updating the number of hostages at 218. Also referring to pictures earlier claiming that there were fuel trucks going into the Gaza Strip. And there had been some reports on that and refuting that saying Israel, that was internal, Israel is not sending fuel into Gaza. Yes, that is true. And also that report of those 17 trucks, it came from Arabic media and later on Arabic media moved those reports away, meaning those fuel trucks did probably not come from outside the Gaza Strip. They're in the Gaza Strip, you know, Kalev, we're speaking all the time. For more than a week now, we're speaking about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There's no electricity. There's no water. There's no fuel. And apparently there's pretty much of all of them. So I don't see a humanitarian crisis so far on the other side of the border, sorry. It simply doesn't exist. It's another one of those manipulation. And humanitarian crisis does come in. There's a humanitarian corridor. Yesterday morning, trucks did come in. Don't remember any humanitarian corridor for the residents here in Sderot, Nakhal Oz, Kfar Azar, and on Bari and all the other communities, no one really intervened for them. Right then some 200,000 Israelis have been displaced by the situation, both in the south and also the north over the past two weeks. Jonathan Regev and Sderot, thank you for that. Well let's move a little out of Israel because this conflict is causing global, has global repercussions. Yesterday morning, a shocking story emerged in the US city of Detroit. A prominent synagogue president was found stabbed to death outside of her home. Now authorities have not yet established a motive, but with a wave of anti-Semitism rising around the globe, many quickly worried this murder was a hate crime. Senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman takes a look at that surge of Jew hatred and how some leaders are speaking out against it. When it happens in Germany, it resonates even more. Two petrol bombs thrown at a synagogue in central Berlin last week, an attack on the Jews in the land of the Holocaust, part of the worldwide wave of anti-Semitism that has come in the wake of the war and has not yet crested. Across the English Channel, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visiting a Jewish school in north London, sending a message of support in difficult times. Well I've come to this Jewish school this morning specifically to demonstrate my solidarity with the Jewish community here in the UK and let them know that we're going to do everything in our power to keep them safe. Anti-Semitism is up in the wake of the war. In London, by 1,350% police say. And anti-Semitism is up in many parts of the world, beyond London and beyond Berlin. Among some of the anti-Israel protesters and hanging in the air, Jewish communities are boosting security. Leaders are speaking out. We must, without equivocation, denounce anti-Semitism. We must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia. And to all you hurting, those of you hurting, I want you to know, I see you. You belong. In the United States, the current wave of anti-Semitism comes on top of the wave that had already come in the years before the war. At its worst, claiming the lives of 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. Now, many American Jews saying they feel betrayed by some fellow left-wing activists, who have excused the Hamas massacres. All yielding a sense of vulnerability that has spread beyond Israel's borders to the furthest corners of the Jewish world. And joining us now in the studio is William Darroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. First of all, welcome to Israel. Thank you. And it's good to have you here, William. We'll talk a little about your visit here. But first, I do want to say, and I want to be very careful what I say here, Samantha Wall, the synagogue president who was murdered in Detroit. I want to stress, the motive for her death is unknown. But just the fact that this coming at this time is raising such red flags among the American Jewish community, I think says something about the current situation, certainly American Jews and those in many other countries feel themselves in. Certainly, as it relates to the specific case, just before coming in, I did get a briefing from federal law enforcement who say, at this point, they still do not have a definitive link relative to the motive for the stabbing. They're deferring to local law enforcement who are investigating. But at this point, there's no direct link. That being said, this is a very troubled time for the American Jewish community. There is an incredible number of threats and anti-Semitic activities and violence that are occurring against Jews throughout the United States and across the world. And I think that it is incumbent upon elected officials, the news media and others to recognize that when they report lies, when they demonize Israel, they're in fact demonizing and endangering Jews all around the world. All right, now let's talk about your visit here and the solidarity and support despite the fact that there was some risk involved and we've seen that in other cases in terms of that, how the American Jewish community is reacting to the developments here. So it was an incredible amount of solidarity and unity among American Jewry. Last Tuesday, we had a fly-in where leaders from across the United States came to Washington, 350 of them, to advocate on behalf of Israel. We heard from leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party in both houses, as well as from the administration, where we were wall-to-wall in support of Israel. Directly from that event, 50 of us, 50 American Jewish leaders, flew here to Israel where we engaged in an emergency solidarity mission. We met with your governmental officials, we met with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Strategic Affairs and the Foreign Minister and the President. We also met with hostage families, we met with families of fallen soldiers, we met with the injured at Hadassah Hospital. And the intent is to give a big bear hug to the people of Israel. We are one, we know that now more than ever and you are hurting, we are hurting and we want you to know that you're not alone. You're not alone as it relates to American Jewry and you're not alone as it relates to the American government, which has had unprecedented support from President Biden on down in solidarity with Israel. Right, by the way, we just showed a clip of Lindsey Graham just at a press conference. I think about it just about an hour ago, basically saying, a very strong quote, the destruction of Hamas is not negotiable. Yeah, that is exactly where the American government is. We are, from everything I hear, giving a green light to the Israeli government to do what it needs to do to ensure that the Hamas terrorist army is no longer a threat to the Israeli people, period, end of sentence. And that's what I hear from everybody in the Israeli government. That's what I hear in the American government as well. Our intent when we come back to America, as the mission goes back to America, is to go back to our elected officials and tell them what we saw here. To tell them the hurt in these families, the families, 200 plus families who have hostages in Gaza and who are undergoing unspeakable war crimes as we speak. To talk to them about the evacuees who are hundreds of thousands of them who can't live at home because of this threat. And to talk to them about the solidarity and the unity of the Israeli people. It's much, much different, Caleb, than when I was last year, where we were, everybody was divisive about legal reform, about mahitzas, about you name it, everybody was at each other's throats. But today, at this very moment, I've never seen the unity of the Israeli people, the unity of world Jewry where it is. And we are focused on ensuring that Israel is safe and secure and that Israel will continue to have the promise to the Jewish people of being our refuge and our homeland. And that's something I'm confident Israel will bring about, and Israel will be able to do that with the strong support of the United States of America and American Jewry. You talk about the support of the US government for Israel within the mainstream of the American Jewish community. Surely there aren't, though, other voices William heard in America. We've seen these protests in different cities, including New York City, so-called pro-Palestinian protests. But at the Israelis, we do hear cries of support for Hamas, denial of the actions that they've done. So US Jewry, you also were on your home front, find yourselves also sort of facing a battle of both disinformation verging into, of course, anti-Semitism in some sense. I would say it's more than just verging into it. Well, I would say in some quarters, yes, this wish, some quarters. What we see in this massacre is as clear an issue of right and wrong as there is. Certainly there are a number of issues as relates to Israel and Palestinians, or maybe there's some gray area. I see half a glass half full, you see it a glass half empty. In the situation here with the brutality and the wanton destruction of civilian life and the torture of civilians and the kidnapping of civilians, there's only one answer here. There's a moral right answer, and that is against the Hamas terrorist army. And anybody who's out there defending or minimizing what Hamas has done, we clearly know what their intentions are. Their intentions are not peace. Their intentions are not a two-state solution. They are totally motivated by hatred for Israel, hatred for the Jewish people. Otherwise, they wouldn't minimize and apologize for mass murder of Israelis. Civilians, it's outrageous. Israelis who have been decapitated, women who have been raped and are being raped as we speak. Anyone who doesn't speak out right now, we know precisely where they are, and they're not on the side of the Jewish people. Right. I want to ask you, Denny, as a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, the Israeli side of that. Of course, Israel is fighting its battle for the survival of its citizenry here. But there is also in terms of concerns about Jews abroad, and also mobilizing the Jewish community, especially the American Jewish community, as the state of Israel, or as I say, as a Zionist movement did, in 1948 for their support. Well, today, luckily, we have the sovereign state of Israel, the independent state of Israel, which is very strong, not only on the ground, militarily, but also politically, and certainly today. And we've had really a great relationship now with the Biden government. I think Biden has proven himself to be really a Churchillian type of leader in times of crisis. And here we should understand what's happening in the United States and elsewhere, especially in Europe. This new anti-Semitism, certainly, it's part of a very, very latent, deep-down dug, classic anti-Semitism throughout the ages. But what is really being perpetrated by are Muslims, Jihadists, Palestinians who live in the United States, and they are using many of those, let's say, young minds in the campuses as useful idiots. And here it's a matter of ignorance on the one hand. It's not just anti-Semitism, it's also ignorance. And I think here all of us should do a lot in trying to educate and put the record straight for the campuses, for the media, for everywhere we can. I also think that this is not enough. And here I know William Darroff is a great leader of the Jewish community and very effective one. I believe there should be legislation, maybe new type of legislation with enforcement, not only in the federal Congress, but also in the state Congresses. And then there should be also a lot of pressure put on universities like Harvard. I'm sure there's a lot of money coming out of Jewish entities and Jewish families. I think this money should be withdrawn until and unless not only they apologize, but they kick out any faculty or student who is anti-Semitic and blatantly, blatantly supporting the salary of Hamas. Well, it's easier to say that in Israel than in the United States. So I do want to hear. Well, that's why I want to hear William speak of a response to that. On your first point, we certainly have First Amendment concerns. But as far as it relates to the Harvard's and the pens of the world, Mark Rowan, a great leader of the Jewish people who's on the board of the University of Pennsylvania, who has given tens of millions of dollars to the University of Pennsylvania, is encouraging fellow philanthropists instead of donating to these elite universities the millions they were to donate $1, not to donate nothing because they won't know what the situation is, but to know that they're donating $1 as a protest against the moral relativism and the incredible lack of having any sort of courage by these university officials to stand up for the Jewish people and to stand up against this hate. It is outrageous and I salute those who want to push back against it absolutely. All right, William, could you stay with us for a little longer because we're talking about the unity of Israel and the heroism and I do want to give one little story here. As Israel begins to bury its dead from the October 7th attack, it's honoring the heroism of those who fell in it. One of them is the IDF Sergeant Yareen Pellead from Kibbutz, Berry, who at the time was working as a volunteer first responder for the McGindavida Dome Emergency Medical Rescue Service. The 20-year-old Pellead was laid to rest today in the town of Savion and our correspondent Emily Francis was there and filed this report. Two weeks after being gunned down by Hamas terrorists, 20-year-old female IDF combat medic Yareen Pellead was finally able to be given the Jewish burial she deserves. Pellead, a blue-eyed, brave beauty, was on IDF medic duty at Kibbutz, Berry when the terror attack occurred. She heeded the call to the Nahal-O's massacre and was shot and killed. She fell in defense of the homeland and its residents. She enlisted into the medical hall out of a great love for healing, together with her friends. But her heart and soul were with the McGindavida Dome, also known as Mada, Israel's national Red Cross, where at 15 she began as a youth volunteer paramedic and continued to volunteer on weekends and vacation days away from her military service. As you can see from the sea of white shirts with the red star of David, her legacy lives on. Moments before she left for Nahal-O's, she penned a note that if she should die, she would like for everyone from McGindavida Dome to honor her at her funeral with a signature attire. Mada Yareen, your service in McGindavida Dome was for you more than ideology. Simply put, it was the way of life you chose. Yareen's grieving mother called her a superhero who lived 20 years of magic. Go now and shine like the sun. You have wings fly far away. Mom and dad love you most in the world and are proud of you forever and ever. Her sisters called Yareen their light and now their guardian angel. Sister, how do we part through the love of my life with the most beautiful eyes and the best laugh in the world? I don't accept the fact that I will never see you again. At the Sevillone Military Cemetery, Emily Francis, I-24 News. Well, a true hero to rest may her memory be a blessing. We mentioned just a few minutes ago, this press conference was given by a delegation of U.S. senators to Israel bipartisan. Here are some other comments were made by the Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal at that press briefing. All right, do we have that? Yeah. Us met with a group of families of hostages. And I cannot stop thinking about a little three-year-old girl named Abigail, who has been taken hostage by Hamas. This is her picture. Her mother was murdered, and her father was murdered as he was trying to rush little Abigail away. What kind of people commit such atrocities? This is not a close call. This is a clear case. Hamas is a terrorist group. And we must do all that we can to support Israel in its quest to eliminate Hamas. Today, one of my cousins is on the front in the IDF. When I met with those hostages, I saw in every one of them my family. They are Americans in their dedication to freedom and the values of America, and in their grief and fear, they can unite America. William Richard Blumenthal, Susan Collins. I'm not going to agree on much in the Senate, but we did hear a unanimity there. And that will be necessary going forward. Absolutely. Because Israel will have to, at a time of very deep partisan divides in Congress. Congress is busy with a lot of other things right now. It's going to need that bipartisan support to have that flow of American aid still come. Absolutely. You see there are Republican and Democrat who are standing together. I'm wearing this blue ribbon now, which is a campaign that the Jewish Federations of North America have put forward. Blue ribbons for Israel in order to show our solidarity with the hostages. You had 100 senators unanimously approve a resolution condemning Hamas last week. We have over 410 members of the House who have cosponsored a resolution. The House says some issues that make it so they can't actually pass legislation at the moment, but they're in the right place. And you're right because timing-wise there is an emergency supplemental bill that is coming down the pike that will bring billions of dollars to Israel to ensure that you have the ability to secure yourself. The American people are expressing their solidarity here. The American Jewish community is expressing their solidarity. Along the lines of what Senator Collins said, I've been to Tushivas since I've been here. I was a funeral today of a young man that I've known since he was a kindergartner. Wow. Who was killed by an anti-missile, an anti-tank missile on Friday. And it is just... Right. An Israeli-American. Israeli-American. An IDF who came and flew back here, especially to do his reserves. Exactly. He and my daughter enlisted in the IDF together. They were in the same green. He was the most amazingly wonderful future Jewish leader. Someone whose Neshama was shining bright. He came here to be with his soldiers because he said that he couldn't leave them alone. And he paid the ultimate price. He is a hero of Zion. And that is precisely what these thousands of Israelis who've been murdered by Hamas are as well. And we stand with Israel when it comes to ensuring that Israel is secure and the Israeli people are able to live their lives without this terrorist threat over their heads. And, Danny, it's not this time, it is not just aid. The US, we mentioned this before, has moved its military six-fleet naval forces right off the coast of Lebanon and Syria. And the US even taking an active part already off the coast of Yemen. Shooting down missiles fired by the Houthi rebels, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Of course, the question is how far America will get involved moving forward on at least that northern front. And how much Israel wants it to get involved because that too is a complication, a potentially unprecedented complication for Israel as it deals with this multi-front war. As far as I can see, the United States is with us all the way. I mean, it is unprecedented. We saw President Biden the first few hours after the savagery and the attack on our southern border towns. He came out in front of the camera saying he's supporting Israel all the way. And he was issuing a threat to, without mentioning names, but it was the Hezbollah and Iran. Later on, he corroborated this threat with the strike groups of the Eisenhower and the Ford and vetoing in the EU and giving us really the political umbrella which is very much needed against all these nefarious forces like the Russians and the Chinese and all their cronies, Iran, of course. But also, I think, what's at stake here, first of all, is really solidarity like almost like a mishpucha. But what's at stake here, the United States cannot just allow itself to be sentimental or only sentimental. It should be very cold and calculated, really defending our values, defending our very own lives. And the United States is the leader of the free world, of the Western countries, is now showing leadership that I cannot remember since World War II. That is that bad because we are actually on the cusp of a world war. We had the Nazis in the past. Well, let's be cautious in our assessments. It could be different manifestation. I'm not sure that, no, history doesn't always repeat itself. But you mean the conflict could well broaden, certainly. But what we see here, we see the United States, we see the NATO countries, we see Israel, we see South Korea and Japan and Australia. And on the other hand, we see China and Pakistan and Syria and Russia and Iran and all the proxies of Iran from Yemen to Nigeria, Boko Haram and all the rest. The battle right now is in Gaza. But the war is a global war. And this is why the U.S. understands Israel must win, not just for us, but also for the future of our children or for the entire Western civilization. Can I just ask you, Perthoulin, is that perception in the U.S.? I think there's absolutely the idea that Hamas needs to be stopped now and that this terror is something that certainly spread throughout the world and hit Western interests everywhere. We see what's happened because of the incitement in Arab countries where Israeli embassies are having to close, where Israelis are being threatened. In Tunisia, as you know, the synagogue was burned. This incitement that is occurring, that's happening in large part, I will say right now because of Qatar, because of Al Jazeera, that is being broadcast throughout the Arab world, is something that is endangering Jewish lives. And that is something that inspires lone wolves, it inspires terror. And so the Hamas terrorist army has to be stopped now because that threat to the world is real. In some of the Jewish lives, we saw the two Swedes that were murdered by Jihadists. We saw that they're not very far past. We saw this killing in London and in Paris and in Brussels and all of it. This is all part of the same machinery. The same Muslim Brotherhood Jihad that targets us. Alright Ambassador Daniel Lone, William Daroff for the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Thanks for joining us. We're going out for a brief break. Please stay with us. We'll be back at the top of the hour with more of our coverage of Israel's war against Hamas. Big questions answered at the Edmund and the Lisafar Center in Jerusalem. Questions like, what makes us human? How come that my brain is so sophisticated? What makes it so sophisticated? Is it only the number of the cells? We have more. A thousand times more than there are. Or is there something else in the brain that is beyond the big numbers? My answer is certainly yes. Some people feel that there is something else. Maybe a mystical thing, you know, that is not only the material but there is something else that comes to the complicated machine. What makes us human? I don't think so. It's a machine. A wonderful, wonderful machine. So if this is a machine in principle, I should be able to replicate it. Professor Idan Segev has spent his life mapping out the brain's base unit, the neuron. When you have a mathematical formulation of a biological phenomenon, you build a machine that replicates the mathematics and the mathematics represent the biology. So we merge biology with technology through mathematical understanding. If you want a complex machine to be able to do complex things like multiple tasks and general artificial intelligence, then you will need, for sure, more complex architectures that exist today. What Professor Segev is doing at ELSEC is building that new architecture, or at least the code for it, machines that transcend the limits of hardware. This other machine will be very much like us. It will feel. It will work. It will be intelligent. It will be our friend. 1,500 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. As Bala decides to enter the war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War. It will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with force it cannot imagine. Welcome to our back to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Khaled Bindavid, we're in Day 15 of Israel's war against Hamas. Let me go straight down to the Gaza border area. The town of Stilrod and our defense correspondent, Jonathan Bregev and Jonathan, we're getting reports of air raid sirens in the south, in an area where there was, unfortunately, an injury today. The city of Netivot, about a 10-minute drive from the place where we are. We were there earlier in the day when there were rockets as opposed to the road where we are, where literally every 100 meters you can find a protected area. In Netivot, there are quite a lot of neighborhoods where you do not see these protected areas. It's a bit further away from the Gaza Strip, about six, seven miles or so, meaning we had to duck down right next to a concrete wall. And there were two landfall, two impacts there, two people injured. And now we're hearing again sirens in Netivot. So yes, clearly a violent day once again. All right. Now I want to ask you, there is some news coming out about the city of Ashkelon, also a little north of you, reports earlier that the city was meant to be evacuated. Apparently, there seems to be some second thoughts on that. Yes. And first, let's understand. We're speaking of all these communities in Netivot, the road, the Gaza border communities. Ashkelon is a different story. Ashkelon is a big city. 160,000 people live in Ashkelon. You simply cannot evacuate all of them. Many people already left the city. Ashkelon is a city which took more rockets than any other in the war, more than a thousand rockets on Ashkelon itself. But there's not enough place for everybody. Not enough hotel rooms, guest houses, you name it, to house 160,000 people. Therefore, the city is not evacuated entirely. Many people have been evacuated with the help of the municipality. But we are hearing a lot of concern and anger among many of the citizens. What we're saying is the road has been evacuated. The Gaza border communities have been evacuated. Why are we any different? And they're partly right. Just like what we mentioned about Netivot being what, six, seven miles north of the border, away from the border. This is pretty much the same distance with Ashkelon. All right. Jonathan Regev down in Steroot on the Gaza border. Thank you for that. Let's go now to the northern border, the Lebanon border. Our correspondent Mary McAuliffe just south of there in Israel. And Mary, just some updates. We are getting reports maybe of some activity. Once again, this evening, along that border, which has been heating up and tensifying the last few days. That's absolutely right, Kolev. So just in the recent minutes, we've received reports that in Kibbutzivtah, that's an area along the Israel-Lebanon border. There were reports of four soldiers who were wounded in an anti-tank guided missile that was fired from positions in southern Lebanon. We know we've seen a number of anti-tank missiles fired from inside southern Lebanon towards Israeli communities, both targeting civilian areas and civilian towns, but also targeting military that's been stationed and repositioned in the area. So that's an emerging report coming out just now from Israel's McGendavid-Adom Red Cross Service. So we will be monitoring that to follow more updates. All we know right now is that four people are reported injured and it was targeting a base of soldiers in the area. We'll try and be more from that. But Iftok was also an area. This is the second time we've had an incident there today. Earlier in the day, mortar alert sirens ringing out throughout the area. Nobody was injured in that incident, but we do continue to see Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire across this border, mostly with Hezbollah firing these anti-tank missiles. Mortars also rockets and Israel responding. Israel says it's responded four times today and hit terror cells that are operating inside southern Lebanon. So far, the number of Hezbollah fighters who've been killed since the beginning of these skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah has now risen to 24, but we've also heard reports about an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon in which the Lebanese Red Cross said they recovered six bodies from the aftermath of that strike. Well, I just want to, for those of you who haven't been following the news this weekend, we did have a fatality there. Staff Sergeant Omer Balva, a dual Israeli-American citizen killed, I think, late Friday night. Clearly, the fighting there is looking very much like a shooting war. Absolutely, Kolev and this is the area. All eyes are on the south right now. Everybody is really waiting for this Gaza operation, but inside Israel, many eyes are really watching the north because this is where this war could really turn into something much more serious and it could become a regional war if Hezbollah decides to really get involved. That means taking it a step beyond what they've been doing, which is just trading fire across the border for the past week or so, and if other Iranian-backed proxies in the region decide also to try and escalate their actions against Israel. We heard the U.S. come out against us today saying that the major escalation, if there will be escalation here, is because of these Iranian-backed proxies operating in Lebanon and Syria and other areas nearing Israel's border decide to get involved with this fight that Israel is launching against Hamas. So this is what all eyes really are on. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling soldiers today one of the main tasks might be in the south in the war against Hamas. The jobs of the soldiers here are really important. All right, Mary McAuliffe, thank you for that. We'll update any information we have on the situation what happened in the north. There are some reports coming out, conflicting reports, but I don't want to go into that until we have confirmation. Joining us in Studio Reserves, IDF Brigadier General Israel Relik Shafir, former commander of the Tel-Nolf Air Force base, former combat pilot, Israeli Air Force highly decorated former combat pilot. Relik, I'm looking at the north there, a fatality, anti-tank missiles being fired, IDF suffering a fatality. His baller is losing two dozen soldiers. I mean, at what point do we say that we have a shooting war in the north as well as the south? We're giving a lot of thought to every person who's been hurt. Certainly, those who are killed on our side, but at this time, this is a skirmish. It's not a shooting war. Four or five skirmishes per day are something that is bothering, but not more than that because we need to think that strategy leads tactics and not the other way around. So if Hezbollah and the price that we have to pay is clear out about two, three kilometers along the border. Which has been done, yes. And hit any Hezbollah positions there. None of them can be not all of them can be spotted, but places where they can shoot from. That's what the Air Force is doing. So this, this is a short skirmish. What's the red line though at which it crosses what action by his baller or even some of the other groups that would then cross the red line to justify a much stronger Israeli response. Firing at Israeli settlements. Not the ones who are evacuated, but those who are still manned and hitting a center of town with casualties would force Israel into something a lot more aggressive. It doesn't mean an all out war in the north because this is not what our interest is. But we should think strategy leads tactics. That means that if strategically we do not want to wage a war now against Hezbollah. We'll put our efforts in Gaza. Finish the Gaza Fair first if that can be done before we address Hezbollah in the north. Otherwise it can get out of hand and think before act. So at this particular time every Hezbollah shooting that takes place a pretty strong answer in that one but only along the border nothing inside Lebanon itself. Let me ask you that. We have also Israeli very careful alleged Israeli airstrikes reported Israeli airstrikes on the airports of Damascus and Aleppo. Let's relate potentially if this was indeed Israeli airstrikes to what the goals are there. Are we talking about hitting arms shipments perhaps heading to Hezbollah perhaps from Iran to intercept those at this time? This has been going on for years. We call it the wars between wars. And at this time I would figure that the Iranians are trying to push as much as they can munitions etc. into Lebanon and into southern the southern Golan Heights and doing it either by convoys or by airshipment to Damascus and Aleppo. So this is a clear answer and forced projection by Israel saying yes we don't want to go into a war with Hezbollah this time but let's stop the transition of munitions from Syria to Lebanon. This is part of our strategy and we'll keep doing it with more and more force. This is a way for us to show that we're treating the north seriously and we'll find the right time to strike. We're doing it now while we're back in Gaza. So it's a kind of a chess game where we cannot blind eye or put a blind eye to any changes in the power structure in the north. I do want to say there is a report that US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu did speak again today on the phone we'll update you on the information we have on that as it comes out. I want to go to another front also in which serious action was taken by Israel the West Bank, the city of Genine, an Israeli air strike on a mast there that was said to be hiding an Islamic Jihad cell. Reports were that this was a, it's not a missile or a drone but actually an Israeli air force plane was used in this which is highly unusual if the reports are accurate. Some saying it's been two decades since this kind of air strike in this place. Is that sound right to you and using a fighter jet in the West Bank? Well, you know we're talking strategy and strategy this is a weak point both in the West Bank and Israeli Arabs. Israeli Arabs have been behaving in a commendable way we're not seeing any anti so to speak elements active within Israel itself and the ability in the West Bank to strike at Israeli weak points while Hamas is calling its people in the West Bank to rise up and hit Israelis this is the right answer hit hard take off the gloves to show the force so that the people they understand that we will not hold back on fighting Hamas within the West Bank. And I do want to go also now to the south and to the air campaign questions being asked of Rear Admiral Daniel Higari this evening about the ground operation why it hasn't happened yet whether the issue of the hostages is delaying it this weekend of course Admiral Higari emphasizing that ultimately the military will make its recommendation it is the civilian political establishment that has to make that final decision the question a lot of people asking now is military factors that may be holding off the continuation of the air campaign degrading Hamas's ability or is there a diplomatic element here following the release of those hostages and of course as I said before we had a phone call this evening between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu I think when Biden was here he was telling the government but basically Israelis what is the end game what do you see Gaza what's happening with Gaza let's say that we removed Hamas what's next for us emotionally it's a very difficult moment to think of the long future that we have evaded for 75 years on what will happen with Gaza certainly 6 to 6 day war the almost clear answer is the Palestinian Authority should be reinstated in Gaza and control Gaza with the help of an international peace force and perhaps enlarge Gaza towards Elarish this was an idea floated and probably rejected by Egypt well actually this is not quite so President Assisi himself suggested this about 6 years ago but obviously Egypt would need to be paid quite handsomely compensated in a way and with international aid to go through this maneuver and the Arab countries should pull in as well but this is an international event maybe led in a way by Israel because it's our interest to pacify the southern border there are no magic things here and even though some right wing Israelis would like to resettle there all kinds of ideas that are floated about there is no other end game but to pacify the Gazan people with a control either of the Palestinian authorities or international community in one way or another how to have to agree on getting there that this is the end game and then draw back how do we create a position where Hamas are removed and the authorities are put in it's a very difficult game to play Israeli public emotionally is not ready for this and I think this is some of the conversations between the US and Israeli if I would guess militarily we are also seeing some friction between the military and the government that was hinted at almost by admiral Hagari this evening I would say hinted at yes you can see this also by the fact that the military has put a full general in charge of the hostages whereas the prime minister put a Brigadier General who was rejected by some of the families and he made quite a blunder at his opening statements with diplomats so we're seeing different kinds of frictions that actually indicate that things are not all right underneath the table I'm sure some of that is going to come out certainly in the Israeli meeting in the coming days stay with us I want to look at a different aspect of the conflict beyond the purely military one the communities in the Gaza border area attacked by Hamas terrorists depend in large part for their livelihood on agriculture in October 7th including the foreign workers who toiled in the fields and greenhouses and have now departed the area many have departed the country understandably several were killed in that attack have made it difficult for the farmers there to recover from the devastation to their livelihood a group of volunteers have stepped in to assist those farmers and our correspondent Orisha Piro joined them down south and filed this report two weeks into Israel's war with Hamas there are still heart warming gestures from volunteers who come to help the people of the south several organizations have joined forces to assist the farmers affected by the fighting driving down and seeing all the cars actually going towards the war zone and not running away I think it says a lot about the power that we have as a nation as a people and coming here hearing the echoes from the war zone meanwhile picking and you know it out in times of need it's an amazing feeling it's really empowering and gives a really good feeling that we're in the right direction and this is winning here in Moshavia Ted close to the Gaza border only a few farmers are left to work in the fields the farmers have many problems these days such as the absence of foreign workers from Thailand and Palestinian workers who can't work here now so the assistance of volunteers is needed in addition to that some of the farmers were killed in the initial Hamas onslaught and others were recruited to military service others are mourning their loved ones so we operate this project not just here but across Israel I-24 News joined Chai a local farmer who points out the damage done by a rocket from Gaza this is a crater made by a 170mm rocket it caused huge damage to the environment the plants were destroyed the poles were broken we need major renovation here we're lucky we didn't have workers here because they wouldn't have survived this as we tool the greenhouse we hear a siren we're farmers we don't have anything else this is our job this is our home we need to secure this place we never thought about leaving here our wives and the foreign workers left for security reasons we can't leave this place we can't not far from here in the Amios village another group of volunteers assist in collecting tomatoes we got used to the rockets what happened on October the 7th was frightening we'll learn how to live with it but we need that the country reorganize and help agriculture farmers say the current crisis may lead to a lack of fruit and vegetables for the entire country in the meantime they are continuing their labors while hoping for more assistance from the government and help from the public and now I want to speak with Reserves IDF Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conriquez the former international spokesman for the IDF for the IDF Jonathan thank you for joining us first of all I just want to ask you about the situation there on the Israel-Egypt border the Rafakh or Gaza the Gaza border this incident that took place there at Rafakh and of course the status of the trucks going back and forth about how many trucks went through and what they were carrying Hi Kaleb I hope you can hear me well and thank you for having me on the show fighting continues we're striking Hamas targets all over the Gaza Strip and as fighting continues rockets are fired at Israel and humanitarian aid is provided to Palestinians all things simultaneously unfortunate incident along the border with Egypt we issued a clarification that it was a mistaken identification under the circumstances of war and that has been cleared with the Egyptians and we are moving on hopefully it won't occur again but you know these things unfortunately happen when there are so many moving parts and so many constant threats from many dimensions troops on the ground have to respond fast and sometimes not everything is as accurate as we want it to be regarding the much spoken about the humanitarian aid to Gaza listen our priority is of course the we want to make sure that the aid goes in but we want to make sure that only aid goes in and that when it goes in it reaches the intended purpose for the civilians and that Hamas doesn't use that like they use everything else so there's a few mechanisms in place for us to be able to be sure that that happens and that is connected with the Egyptians so far I am not aware of any deviations but we are definitely monitoring that to make sure that Hamas doesn't abuse the humanitarian aid coming in from Egypt let me ask you about the air campaign against Gaza and we saw another senior Hamas commander killed today with surely achievement but to what degree how does the IDF assess the impact of the air campaign at this point especially in terms of laying the groundwork for a ground invasion something that we are Admiral Hagari was questioned about this evening Yes, so we are degrading Hamas and its military capabilities many of us know we all know it's no secret that Hamas really depends on subterranean infrastructure the tunnels this are hiding right now this is where all of their company based out of and once in a while when Hamas commander surface for whatever purpose we target them it is clear that Hamas still has significant combat power and capabilities despite the fact that we have been degrading a lot of those logistics rocket firing capabilities UAV launch pads a lot of the financial infrastructure the intelligence infrastructure much of that has been targeted but of course there are still many many Hamas combatants terrorists that are hiding the tunnels using the civilians of their human shield and waiting for the next stage of operations we are prepared for that and as Lieutenant General Halevi has said the enemy may have surprises for us we sure have prepared a few for them and I'm sure I think that they will find the underground presence something of a challenge and not only something that they can use against us very briefly Jonathan on the northern border is the idea satisfied with the way it's containing the situation there with Hamas even after the fatality of a soldier that we saw on Friday evening yes unfortunately not the only fatality Israel has had more than seven civilian and military and Hezbollah is really pushing Lebanon very close to a brink Lebanon needs to answer itself if it's really worth it to risk what's left of Lebanese prosperity for the sake of the ISIS of Gaza it's really worth it and that's the question that needs to be answered by Lebanon all right IDF reserves Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Cornricus thank you for joining us on I-24 News thank you joining us guy Israel briefly guy the report was a mistake about this anti-tank missile the report about Israeli troops wounded in Kibbutz Iftah in the north turns out this was an IDF drill they did not inform the security services who reported this as a live event eventually a clarification from the IDF no Israelis wounded there no casualties in Iftah thank you for joining us on this part of I-24 News and stay with us we'll be back in a few minutes with more of our special broadcast Israel's war against Hamas 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 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 is the same year as part of the documentary series reportage inside I traveled to Argentina to interview Fiscal Alberto Nisman who had determined in constitutional memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran signed by the ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was related to the attack on the AMIA in 1994 which left a salary of 85 dead and more than 100 injured we worked on a daily basis on January 18th, 2015 an impactant event took place Fiscal Alberto Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment with a bullet in his head and what everyone was wondering was a suicide or a murder the Supreme Argentine Court dictated that it was a murder the only solution is to bring them here behind this interesting story of terrorist coverage international conspiracies search for the truth will we ever know the truth? in the last 7 years for the magazine news 24 in Spanish that is broadcast on it24news I made more than 40 reports related to the issue AMIA Nisman Iran a topic that has all the documents for an international news channel like it24news until one day the truth will be revealed on October 7th and although he lived in southern Israel at least part of his heart resided in the UK city of Liverpool more specifically it celebrated soccer team Liverpool FC so much so that when rowey was laid to rest today many of the mourners dressed in the red uniforms of Liverpool and draped his grave site with a shirt and a flag of that club but rowey's love for Liverpool wasn't quite so strongly reciprocated although it did yesterday observe a moment of silence before its match with the fellow English club Everton when some fans unfurled a banner in the stands with photos of rowey and a couple of other Israeli fans of Liverpool they were made by ushers to take it down despite the fact that one did see later on a Palestinian flag unfold there by other attendees in that stadium well joining us now in studio is member of the Knesset family could party Boas Bismuth and an avowed Liverpool fan until this day at least what do you have to say about Liverpool now Boas this picture a lot of emotion you've seen the pictures of today the funeral dressed up with Liverpool because when you support a team it's like something that you all your life I mean you never change your team and like rowey I support Liverpool of course I support Liverpool ever since I was six years old and like rowey you know they make me thrill and I cried with them when they won when they lost and yesterday they made me very very sad I was very disappointed by my adore team that I worship and why because rowey all his life was Liverpool and he was a big fan big supporter and what they tried to put over there is a picture over there with two of his friends saying that he's a supporter and he was he was executed they were executed all those people in a terrorist attack which is something that all the world should be shocked all the world should mourn all the world should be concerned and Liverpool is part of the world and to tell them that not to allow to put this those pictures this message and in parallel allowing Palestinian flags as if this is not political and this is so it's very disappointing from a team that we adore, cherish, worship almost and you know I'll tell you one thing that explains everything at the end of every game at the beginning of every game when we're at Enfield and I go to Enfield as I told you I'm a huge supporter right the stadium we should mention stadium we always sing this famous song you'll never walk alone that's right Liverpool you'll never walk alone so like rowey rowey in the sky me now in your studio I think we sing the same song today you'll never walk alone but Liverpool, Israel you'll never walk alone Israel and yet I mean we're focusing on this one poignant story because it is indicative of a larger sentiments that we see among certainly some quarters in the United Kingdom in other countries in some of the media coverage that Israel is getting we did see that initial wave of sympathy for Israel following the October 7th massacre but we do see a kind of shifting way both from the situation in the Gaza Strip where there are civilian casualties but also just maybe just from sort of established narratives in the media and in certainly parts of the world and parts of the western world again casting Israel as the aggressor Too soon, too soon shocking, disappointing, worrying too soon I'll explain to you why I was a few days ago in the south but also to give support and also to see what has happened over there and to see how you can help and assist and I went, I was in Kfar Raza where you had all those atrocities of course one of the 30 communities where you had atrocities and there were journalists in Steroz I was asked to go to Steroz to speak to them and all the questions I was asked was about the future civilian casualties in Gaza while we in Israel still did not identify their own casualties and why because these are babies for example not only where they slaughtered but sometimes in pieces you can't even identify them therefore you can't even yet have a funeral for them but still the questions you're asked are not about anymore about the Israeli casualties that's it, this is over, dead, finish finish, that's it, you're already in Gaza humanitarian in Gaza what about humanitarian in Israel what about atrocities that happen here and you know what, I'm sorry to be a bit I don't know to say maybe things that are very sad because it comes, you know, where Israelis were also Jews and in the meantime we read these story books and we say, I mean, how things happened in the past it can't be, it can't be, I mean this is it's unbelievable, how people can accept to see how Jews were taken to to gas chambers for example and I hate to make the comparison with Nazi Germany but this is what it was two weeks ago and here you see in Europe, for example today I was told in France 15,000 people go to Bastille or a republic, I don't know exactly where the place to demonstrate for some of the past things when you demonstrate now it's for Hamas in a case where everything is so simple, so easy it's good against evil and I'm very sorry Israel is on the side of the civilized country and they go and demonstrate against Israel for Palestinian it was only two weeks ago two weeks ago the atrocities and you ask yourself where can it go, I mean is there terrorism against England, America, France, Al-Qaeda or Daesh and here, all the world can be united and everything is allowed in order to delete them from the world and it comes to Israel not only you understand terrorism but you can also explain it this is something that honestly honestly I see the pictures I see the pictures of demonstrators that you show now that keep the world clean and this little baby that you see I know the woman that presents is I think a medicine student medicine student she's going to heal people so I'm telling you this is according to what I heard this is according to our sources so I'm telling you is there like a value of life for anyone any civilian in the world and the Jew works a little bit less because to him you can rape the girls you can kill the babies take his eyes out you can also tie them to all the family burn them afterwards and one week after you already think of the neighbor this is I'm outraged well now I have to ask you you're a member of the government parliament you're a member of the coalition I agree there was a question about the idea of spokesman regarding the timing of a ground operation in Tegazza was asked whether it's we're talking about military considerations that are maybe determining the timing why Israel has an order are there diplomatic considerations political is there a concern on the ultimately it has to be the government your government that makes that decision in a democracy a civilian government questions being asked about whether it's being pressured by the United States to hold off because of the release of hostages those two hostages American citizens this weekend concern over Israeli casualties so let me ask you you're sitting in deliberations in the parliament the Knesset about this operation about that question of what is it determining who is determining and what are the facts determining when Israel moves to the next stage of the war we will decide when we go into Gaza groundly speaking from the ground it's Israel Israel and Israel because you mentioned you spoke about foreign countries like our good allies and friends in the United States well as much as I remember the American President Biden said himself that Hamas has to be destroyed you can't destroy Hamas with roses and pieces of cotton you agree with me and therefore I will tell you one thing that the war because it's war, it's not a cycle of violence it's war this time you cannot think that the war starts only when Israel goes inside ground speaking, ground forces it has started already what we're doing right now in Gaza is tough and rough against Hamas against the terrorists we are asking civilians to go out of places where we're going to attack this is the difference between we and Hamas it has started already now I can tell you one thing I can tell you how it started with this massacre how it will end with Hamas of course being destroyed and Hamas which is also an idea so this idea will not be able also people having this idea will not be able to control politically this territory of Gaza this is how it will end what will happen in the middle I can't tell you the details because they will have surprises yet I can tell you one thing it will be long because it will be how do you say in English thoroughly it will be done thoroughly I mean you will not be after this when this war will be over and it will not be one week, two weeks it will be long but afterwards believe me we shall not need to speak anymore of protecting our civilians in the south of Israel this is how you can measure success that promise has been made many times by the government but there was one big difference I will tell you, or two even I will say first of all we had cycle of violence we had all the time the international community telling us I mean looking at that with a stopwatch you have to stop humanitarian reasons this time I mean first of all the world has seen what we have we have passed through we are this time declaring that we are at war we cannot anymore live with terrorist entity beside us and I would also say one thing this time I think as I said myself I'm a member of Knesset and I'll tell you there are moments in our history and history is judging us right now it's history it's our great-grandkids are going to judge us the way we treated this form of anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism there are moments in our history where we look at our priority and still after all what we have suffered two weeks ago we shall do it according to international law believe me I mean we shall we are looking for terrorists for barbarians not for civilians but please I'm urging the international community this time not to look at the watch it will take the time it needs but Hamas will be destroyed otherwise not Israelis history will not forgive us all right well we'll see if the world heats that core boys Bismuth Likud member of parliament thank you for joining us thank you so much for inviting me live 24 news now we spoke earlier about the Israel Club in England in the UK and of all the government there is supporting Israel in its operation against Gaza parts of the British public feel quite different for a second consecutive weekend a massive pro-Palestinian rally of over 100,000 was held in London we saw some pictures from that with smaller protests taking place in such cities as Birmingham, Cardiff and Southford at which cries of Jihad could be heard now amid a surge of anti-Semitism UK Jews are not staying silent they're holding a rally today in London calling on the freeing of the hostages held in Gaza among those taking part is Marie van der Zyl head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews she joins us from London Marie thank you for joining us first of all first of all tell us about that rather the rally by British Jews today there are about 15,000 people that came to Trafalgar Square in support and in unity to call on and demand for the hostages to be released there were keynote speakers including Michael Gove and government speakers and the feeling of being together in unity was an incredible feeling and we all demand that the hostages are released and every single one of their names was read out we had family members attending it was an incredibly heartbreaking experience and it is on YouTube and I hope that perhaps your listeners will want to listen on the other hand though we did see this rally over the weekend again a much bigger rally of supporters of the Palestinians among them our right supporters of Hamas calls that could certainly cross the line into I would say incitement against Israel and anti-Semitism tell us how the Jewish community there in the UK is feeling right now we're feeling very frightened, very vulnerable there's a huge increase in anti-Semitism this hasn't been helped by the BBC refusing to call Hamas what they are terrorists and I brought a number of complaints against the BBC and I saw the director general on Friday and although they have now agreed to stop calling them militants this is causing a huge anguish in the community and to be fair has been taken up by politicians across the board and the king also has clearly described Hamas what they are terrorists but there's fears in school children haven't been going to school they've been told to take off any sign that they're Jewish they haven't been wearing their uniforms there have been attacks at synagogues it's a great it's a huge surge in anti-Semitism very worrying we have some statements from some British Jews let's take a listen we can come and pick us up right after this sure we don't feel safe we don't think the police take it very seriously we don't think that we are taking seriously we are just being mocked by don't go out on the streets of London be careful and I think there is a sense we have to be careful we have to be vigilant I mean surely as you mentioned the current British government has taken up a strong position both supportive of Israel and against anti-Semitism other leading figures but what are you how do you feel safe now yourself you're quite a public figure a face of the Jewish community there in the UK how do you feel I'm the democratically elected leader of the lay community and whatever risk there is to me I'm out there proud working for the Jewish people but there is fear and anxiety on the streets the home secretary has said that people will be arrested for chanting for example from the river to the sea it's quite clear these people want to exterminate the Jewish state but I think the police need more powers and I have written to them over the weekend setting out my concerns about how the rally was conducted and a number of issues of which I shall be following up during the week we will not stay quiet we're a very vocal community but I fully understand the people that have spoken on your program and said they do not feel safe and finally let me ask you about Israel's role in this there's something you feel that either Israel should be doing for your community or your community is doing for Israel in this current time and also let's say for the many British Jews who do live here and some who of course suffered either being as hostages or killed in that Hamas attack it's so traumatic in the UK there are so many of us who have got friends or family who know people who have been killed who have been taken hostage it's really close to how many people that I know are absolutely powerless to get people to raise money from organ dovetodom any sort of help but we all stand by Israel Israel has the right to defend itself this was a brutal barbaric murderous attack by Hamas terrorists and we are here for everyone in Israel we stand in unity anything that we can do in the UK I know that we will Alright Marie van der Zyl head of the board of deputies on I-24 News and Guy I just want to make a somewhat slight correction that earlier I stated that the number of hostages had risen to 218 that is a mistake in terms of the official confirmation by the Israel IDF that on us it is still stands at 212 though I do want to stress that is confirmed hostages because the exact number of hostages has risen at one time Guy it was 199 the fact is the IDF is still identifying bodies still locating bodies still unsure who exactly was killed and who may have been taken hostage in that attack We are talking about some 100 Israelis are considered missing now unclear whether they are dead alive, kidnapped in Gaza or what is their condition the long process of identifying the bodies is taking a very long time because as we know Hamas desecrated the bodies, burned people alive it is a long process so far only some 758 bodies have been identified Right and having to use dental records Yes well in many of the cases sadly dental records are not enough DNA is not enough because of what they've done to the bodies so that is the situation also getting information from the social services office about the state of children left without their parents we are talking about 21 children without parents most of them orphans minors whose parents are not present following the attack they are either with their parents either murdered missing or kidnapped we are talking about a 4 years old girl who is both orphaned into Gaza she has no parents alive and she is kidnapped in Gaza 4 years old another girl lost her mother in the attack her father was abducted this is the gruesome price of this Hamas attack and at the same time we are getting confirmation from the COGAT from the coordinator of Israel's activities in the territories that aid has been passed through to Gaza this evening mainly water food and medicine also ensuring and not fuel less and ensuring that Israel did manage to check all the trucks before they entered the strip last update Netanyahu spoke to Biden once again this evening also speaking to Dutch Prime Minister Mike Rutte and for Spain's Pedro Sanchez Emmanuel Macron, Rutte will be here tomorrow Macron will be in Israel on Tuesday all right we'll talk about whether that may have been delayed apparently we'll see the guy as well thank you for that now as residents in the Gaza border area came under attack by Hamas terrorists in October 7 and were either killed, kidnapped or fled many left behind their family pets now several of the frightened lost pets we're talking about mainly dogs here were shot on sight by the terrorists since then one group has been working tirelessly to rescue the surviving pets with the hopes of safely either reuniting them with their families or finding new homes to those who have lost all their family more Ellen joined the group dogs and heroes on their mission of mercy Israeli residents living next to the Gaza border have been forced to evacuate their homes in a hurry many were forced to leave their pets behind we're talking about cases where people themselves had to run with their babies on their hands stories of them jumping out of windows with their babies and they the stories that I hear are of people trying to call their dogs right or cats is even harder to come with them but the dogs are so afraid that they hide or they run away and they just had to run they were running for their lives so a lot of the dogs which are right there and cats there are other another family member that was just left behind so that's why it was really important for us to just go and get you know extract them as fast as possible Dr. Shira Yasve from the Dogs and Heroes organization realized the problem early on and is trying to rectify it Dogs and Heroes is a spontaneous grouping of a few volunteers friends from before the war started some of us are graphic designers I'm a veterinary doctor there's people from all across the spectrum of professions and basically when the war broke we understood that animals would have to be animals needs would have to be addressed in some way and that there's going to be a crisis also on the animal front so already the same night of the 7th and October we started our gathering volunteers for the past two weeks thousands of Israelis from all over the country have come together to reunite families with their pets a war room in Beit Kama in the south of Israel was established and from there the teams leave for their assignments these volunteers are headed to another operation to extract dogs from the dangerous areas the areas that are still closed military zones under the control of the IDF Don't try to run to a shelter just line the ground and put your hands on your head don't kneel same goes if we are driving quickly halt the cars get as far away as we can from the car and lie flat on the ground in Kerim Shalom or any other village when we look after animals if the dog runs off let us know so we can come with you don't get too far away from us we can be with the forces of the village they will direct us where to go I'm sure you all know us well but just please stay with us for those who are carrying weapons we are here to safeguard you please leave your gun in the holster except when we are under fire it doesn't faze these volunteers when the war broke out I was basically just at home and I didn't really do anything to help and I felt a little bad with myself I couldn't do something better than just sitting at home watching the news it can be a bit scary sometimes but it's for the dogs for the volunteers the satisfaction of reuniting pets with owners is worth the risk this dog owner came all the way from Elat where he and his family since the war broke out after his dog was found in one of the villages he tells the volunteers that his second dog is still inside not a minute goes by and another group of volunteers come back with the missing dog the unions are unbelievable they're unbelievable I think it's also a sliver of hope that if the dog came back then maybe the kidnap people would come back as well it shows the possibility of getting back someone that you thought you lost track of I do hope we see many more reunions like that in the coming days God willing we're going to leave you with this clip from this evening just a few hours ago the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra gave a special performance of the Israeli national anthem Hatikva in Habima Square right outside the hall in which it plays next to regularly plays next to torches that were lit in memory of the victims of the Hamas attack thank you for joining us on this broadcast stay with us and let's leave you with that with some of that performance 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 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 the special broadcast here on night 24 news as we continue our rolling coverage day 16 of the war here in Israel it's been 16 days that 9 month old Kfir Bebas is being held hostage by vile Nazi Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip 16 days since this sweet baby last heard a peaceful lullaby 9 months 16 days and in just 2 hours Ohad Munda is turning 9 but there will be no cake no candles because he too is right now as we speak somewhere in the Gaza Strip above ground, underground this charming 90 year old boy instead of celebrating and 3 year old Abigail and 85 year old Yaffa and the list is so long so unbearably long at least 212 Israelis are held by human monsters for 16 days in what universe can that be the case what world have we created that can live with that where is this world that will ditch all the empty slogans and void announcements and pretentious statements and will not sleep until a mother can talk her child in bed again we will be discussing war maneuvers and geopolitical tactics and diplomatic strategies on this show all of course with great importance but this is not another talking point it's a 9 month old baby and a 9 year old boy and if the world is able to live with the fact that they are held by sadistic terrorists for 16 days we should all be asking ourselves what world are we fighting for we want to begin this broadcast by getting updated from the ground and we are heading north I-24 News Mary McAuliffe is with the the rest of the I-24 news team on the northern front there Mary if until now there was this benefit of the doubt if you will that Hezbollah might stay out well this is not the sentiment today that's right Ellie but it really is the question is how involved Hezbollah is really willing to get in this war so far what we've seen over the past two weeks is various cross-border skirmishes, cross-border raids Hezbollah firing into Israel Israel returning fire that continues to be what we see today but really the question is how big is it going to get and what are the limits if any for Hezbollah stopping them from getting involved all eyes are really on the south watching that Gaza operation as IDF prepares they say they're ready for the next steps but really people are very nervous about the situation here in the north of course they fought two wars in Lebanon before Israel very much bracing you can feel it on the streets many many army personnel army trucks, tanks, heavy machinery all throughout this area everybody watching very carefully to see what happens but for now most of this war between Hezbollah has been confined cross-border attacks anti-tank missiles being fired from Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon as well as Palestinian terror groups who are also operating in southern Lebanon and firing here to Israel we saw a number of these attacks happen today Israel struck in response they carried out four different strikes on Hezbollah terror cells who are preparing to fire anti-tank missiles into Israel as well as some that had already fired into Israel we saw a number of attacks on positions today both on Israeli and civilian areas and this is why Israel is moving to continue to evacuate communities on the northern border there are now 42 communities in the north who have been ordered to evacuate residents told to go to safer parts of the country and to get away from the danger zone which is this border the danger zone which is this border seems to be indeed perhaps the best definition I-24 news correspondent Mary McCall if thank you very much for this much more from Mary later on in the broadcast in Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was true up in the north today saying you do not want to mess with us take a listen you fought with supreme bravery in Gaza the stories are inspiring I know you lost friends it is very very difficult but we are in a battle for our life a battle for our home this is not an exaggeration this is the war it is to be or to cease they should cease what you are doing here and what I just heard from your commanders is an extremely important thing you are taking down Hezbollah operators trying to attack our front line I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war if Hezbollah decides to enter the war it will miss the second Lebanon war it will make the mistake of its life we will cripple it with force imagine and the meaning for it and for the state of Lebanon is devastating but we are prepared for any scenario you are prepared for any scenario I do not know joining us now in studio former senior intelligence officer Mr. Rafale Hiroshalmi thank you very much for joining us on this broadcast and I do want to begin on the northern front since there was this notion at least until a few days ago that should the northern front flare up it will be due to a mistake so to speak on behalf of either of the players on both sides of the border but now the sentiment appears to be changing we are no longer talking a mistake but rather who will hit first simply put Hezbollah will hit first for two reasons the first reason is pretty obvious we have instructions clear instructions from the Biden administration not to start an escalation not to widen the scope of the fights that we have now the skirmishes I would call them with the Hezbollah that's almost a direct order from Joe Biden to Benjamin Netanyahu so I think given the extraordinary support we get from the Americans and the American forces we may accept to do so unless some kind of operational opportunity would present itself that we could strike like a very little blow to the Hezbollah then we would do it we would ask permission but right now we're obeying our American allies we're accepting that they are rightfully I think fearing that Iran might come into play if we start this full-scale war with Hezbollah it would destabilize the region after all the American fleet in the Mediterranean is not just there to help us it's there to ensure stability of the Middle East now this being said do we really want to strike Hezbollah now would the pre-emptive strike achieve anything we've had the Hezbollah on our doorstep for years and years and years so now we would strike it now that we're busy with the southern front now we're busy with keeping order in the central part of Israel that our economy is blocked is it really the best time should we wait to finish the job south and then take care of the north and yet it is clear that we cannot reach about a situation in which there's literally a ticking bomb on the northern border Israelis will not be able to live in that situation you're absolutely right unfortunately you could have been right saying the same thing ten years ago the problem is just the same as it happened with the Hamas in the south a certain doctrine or conception of the governments in Israel made the Hezbollah what it is today we just let them gather strength and power year after year after year they should never have reached that level of capacity these 150,000 missiles the same way that the Hamas should never have this is a huge mistake from the past governments we cannot repair it now now in one minute action can be taken and will be taken it is not that important militarily speaking who shoots first because we are ready so the first shot is not crucial no because at the first of what might sound like a winding of the scope of the attacks we are ready to pound the whole of Lebanon the rest of Lebanon we are also ready for the Syrian front because by now the Iranians together with Hezbollah some militias have strengthened the Syrian border with Israel so this front is now longer the arc circle is bigger and we are ready for it we are absolutely ready there are essentially two northern fronts one size fits also to speak one could play the other and like to confuse us to create diversions but all these scenarios contrary to what happened in the south that did this terrible surprise or mistake in the north we have had all the intelligence we had many successful operations we know what is going on we have been practicing training for years maneuvers it is not exactly the same scenario it could have been applied on the southern front until I do want us to speak on a front that is perhaps less at the epicenter of our discussions naturally recently and luckily for now this is the case and yet another front a third front that can flare up in a split second the west bank today we have seen this operation in Janine Hamas obviously expanding its influence there for long long years now and it is not less alarming of course not and you may be sure that the Hamas including the big chiefs abroad like Mr. La Rourie have given orders to all their cells including dormant cells you know to come out and to prepare a third front if possible with more of a psychological impact of course but also the same tactics because we are obviously talking about this squad this Hamas squad that planned an identical massacre to the one we have seen from Hamas terrorists in the south they had feasible plans of taking over a Jewish community an Israeli community in the west bank and massacring people exactly that is very worrisome Hamas shows the level of hatred and fanaticism especially that the loss of a certain support at least abroad the atrocity of these massacres have gained us some kind of compassion that we didn't used to have before from a lot of countries around the world and they are still insisting on doing this because they know the impact on our troops on our populations this is a psychological warfare as well because it takes us to your heart to your belly and this is very difficult to live even for our troops but they are making quite a mistake because our troops now are doubly motivated to catch them and kill them unfortunately that's their logic and I just must say that the central command is doing an extraordinary job if you've noticed we haven't had terrorist attacks of late clumping down and every night it's dozens of terrorists that are arrested some are eliminated doing a great job keeping the center quiet and this front together with another front the internal front are enabling the discipline of Israeli citizens the solidarity are enabling the north and the south to do their job and they are quiet in the head knowing that in the center and inside Israel they're not distracted by other fronts hopefully this will continue to be the case but to a front that is very much alive and kicking we're heading south now I-24 news senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev is joining us Jonathan before we discuss a pending ground operation this hour Israel's president Isaac Herzog is revealing more about the the shocking vile plan of Hamas terrorists planning to use cyanide chemical weapons to create not mass destruction but mass murder of Israeli lives of Jewish lives what can you tell us what do we know yes it was revealed in an interview by a president Isaac Herzog and it just shows exactly what kind of an enemy we're dealing with here and nothing short of the Nazis really this is the same the same ideology the same kind of people the same kind of thoughts the same kind of methods they're nothing short of that and the international community is asking to be compassionate and asking to to create humanitarian corridors or anything I don't remember anyone asking for humanitarian corridors and rightfully so for the residents of Germany in 1944 and 1945 because they did not deserve any of them and I can say the same about the people in Gaza where there's strong support for such actions and these people and these plans this is what they were planning to gas people loud and clear what's the difference between this and putting people in gas chambers so I think the same treatment that was given to Nazi Germany by the allies in 1944 and 1945 pretty much the same thing that should be given to Hamas and to Gaza right now of course the international community has other ideas they care a lot about the humanitarian corridor bringing in money and fuel and other medicine and other goods to Gaza I don't remember there was any humanitarian corridor over in Kvaaza or in Bari or in Akhaloz or here in Starrot or in any other or as we speak Jonathan to over 212 Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip as we speak it is mind-blowing Miss no one is even visiting them but there's always international criticism when Israel say prevents family visits or it takes away some rights from prisoners then there's international outcry I don't see any international outcry now but I think this is the global I don't I don't know if hypocrisy is the right word but there's clearly a way in which any of Israel's enemies is treated in the way that Israel is treated I don't remember any humanitarian corridor for the people who were massacred here and those who came in were actually even planning to guest them as far as much as we're hearing words Jonathan have lost all meaning in the past 16 days perhaps words is the last thing we need at this point in time more action last words yeah I-24 news senior defense correspondent Jonathan I give joining us from the south thank you very much for this Jonathan and speaking to that point exactly we want to go back now to what we begin this broadcast with and how every conversation about this war should begin at least 212 at least 212 Israeli hostages babies, children, women elderly men 16 days now in Hamas captivity yes those Nazi terrorists that planned to use cyanide to guest people here in Israel are being held captive in the Gaza Strip and with everyday passing without them being released the heart of the nation simply cannot beat Gaetz Haki uncle of Ernie Rashalmi who was kidnapped at the last of all is joining us now here in studio thank you so very much for coming because what you and so many other families of those who've been kidnapped in the past 16 days are doing is to speak again and again and what essentially is happening is that you're reliving this hell every single moment so I'm going to ask you what seems to be the most difficult question this nowadays how are you it could be better we are literally devastated can you imagine a mother and father of Eden and not only Eden of course where their little girl in Gaza held by Hamas this is the worst nightmare that I could ever imagine and what I mean we still hope that she will come back home and we believe in that she will come back home the question is when and everyday it's like eternity we cannot sleep and we hope for the best before we talk about what is next let's go back to this bloody Saturday what do we know about what happened to the morning so Eden was at the Nova Music Festival with her friends and you know this is a huge rave with hundreds of young kids, young people from outside of Israel as well right when all of that started it was Saturday early morning Eden called her mother crying and told her that they were attacking them Eden was on the phone with her mother and two sisters the entire time and during that time there was there was a lot of shotguns people crying and dying and my sister Eden's mother she was sure confident that this is the army it was so much shotgun she couldn't even imagine it so she told her Eden be strong it is a matter of minutes because the army is here and it continued and sadly the army didn't come so Eden ran away and she took cover in a car with two dead bodies and at some point her battery her phone battery died and she took another phone from the car and continued the call with her mother after an hour and a half the door was opened Eden was very happy that maybe it is someone that came to rescue her but sadly it was another guy from the party that was running for his life and she saw this is a great opportunity for me to escape and this is what she did she joined him shortly after they split apart and she hid in the bush Eden is very small but sadly the bush was even smaller and she felt the bush is not a good cover for her but whenever she look she saw terrorists so she simply stayed there and it was close to 11 when she felt that they are closing in on her five hours more or less into this nightmare it was hours and she said and we have that recorded I mean her sister was clever enough to feel that this is the last minute the last moments and she recorded these last seconds from her phone and she said she whispered they are taking me we heard something in Arabic something like that which means get up or something like that and the call was disconnected and since then we don't know many families later discovered their loved ones in horrific footage released by Hamas do we have an indication? I am not strong enough to watch these videos but I know that people that knows that know they try to follow up on all these videos but they didn't see they didn't see any any photo or video of of Ed. You know guy we are here again day 16 it is incomprehensible and the ground operation is still on hold for that time being and yet it cannot be on hold the hostages cannot wait for the right timing and we do hear families voicing frustration that humanitarian aid is entering this trip not saying humanitarian aid should not go into this trip but yet no movement when it comes to the release of the hostages how do you feel? there are so many parameters and this equation and you know what I give the government and the military I give them credit I don't know why but I give them credit maybe because I have no other option and I truly believe that they understand that the hostages the civilians and and the soldiers must brought back home unless they do that it will be it will be severe I mean we cannot neglect and forget the guys who were kidnapped and I am confident that our government knows that yes I do join the sentiment with all of my being and yet guy you are here and our audience around the world is watching what is your message to those who are watching from abroad to decision makers who are watching so I would like to just make two short statements one is to the world you need to understand this is not israel problem it looks like israel problem but what happens here tomorrow will happen some place else maybe it happens to us first but it's not israel problem and second is to Hamas I believe that they are not a terror organization right they are a military organization so behave like one military organization does not kidnap kids does not kidnap elderly and young women so please release all the civilians they are not part of the military and war that we have behave like military organization and to the international community no one should be able to go to sleep without those civilians back home we will not go to sleep until they are back home guys khaki thank you so very much for coming here I know it is not difficult and we appreciate you coming here and hopefully we will be back with you as soon as possible thank you keep on going this is the only way and we will win is there a way to secure that both objectives dismantling Hamas and bringing back the hostages or rather bringing back the hostages and dismantling Hamas will be achieved through a ground operation yes but one by one so dismantling Hamas can wait we've waited 20 years to dismantle Hamas we should have dismantled Hamas long time ago so we can wait a little longer the hostages we can't wait so we have to act meanwhile we are delaying the ground offensive a lot of intelligence is being gathered it was gathered at first from the terrorists that were captured they were interrogated by the Shin Bet their phones were analyzed we also know that some of the hostages their phones were taken with them because the Hamas was trying to provoke the Israeli population by using their phones this enabled us to track some of them we have a movement of population from north to south of the Gazan people it's quite a havoc in the streets of Gaza which enables our infiltrated agents to penetrate there without being noticed because there is such a chaos and while they are there they have the technique they just speak to people questions that seem like just and they are trying to gather information we have also informants on the ground that belong to the opposition to Hamas that are our normal informants and we even had incursions to try and get more information to discover more bodies and today one of our soldiers was killed in such an incursion Israel is at war make an investment in Israel bonds it is the most powerful and direct way to stand with Israel visit israelbonds.com and invest now 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 the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news welcome back to the special broadcast here on I-24 news day 16 of the war here in Israel now what was supposed to be a watershed moment for the Arab and Muslim world appears to be at this point in time at least a moment of a lot of disgrace a so-called peace summit convened in Cairo this weekend hosting regional and European leaders and we're not even able to agree on a concluding statement not to speak of course about a condemnation of the brutal butchering of Israelis by Hamas Nazi murderers but is there still hope for the Arab world to come to its senses we want to turn now to Ruth Westerman-Landy a former member of the Israeli parliament and an expert on Middle Eastern affairs thank you very much Miss Westerman-Landy for joining us so so far Arab leaders are allowing Hamas to connect their crimes against humanity to the Palestinian issue instead of saying one has nothing to do with the other more than that by doing so they will help the Palestinian cause but again this is not the case the Hamas atrocities have absolutely nothing to do with the Palestinians in fact the Hamas put the Palestinians in Gaza in a terrible situation on the one hand they are not letting them escape from the bombardments from the air on the side of Israel and having understood that once they perpetrate these absolutely heinous crimes Israel will retaliate and second of all the Hamas leaders underground have all the water all the food all the gas that they need for everything to answer their and their families needs but the people the people that are suffering really you know they have no water by the way I just like to remind the audience that 89% of the water in Gaza is under control Hamas and not Israel at all not to mention other things this is a terrible situation in which doing what they did which is completely inhumane and connecting it to the Palestinian cause is particularly ridiculous for those who understand the Middle East as well and Arab countries understand the Middle East so they understand the Middle East and yet not saying that out loud at this point in time but let's do try to divide it into camps if you will we have Egypt and Jordan terrified for the stability of their own regimes we have Saudi Arabia tiptoeing and Qatar continues its vicious double game encouraging terror on the one hand and getting credit points for releasing hostages on the other so map it for us how do you see the dynamic of the region from this point onwards so first of all the Arab countries united even in the Arab League there are lots of beautiful words but unity is not something that characterizes the Arab countries and there are not the same they differ greatly from one to another there is however a mutual underlying interest that unites Jordan Egypt Saudi Arabia the UAE Bahrain and others and that is the wish for stability and the wish for stability is in a problem right now because there is a chance of the instability from Gaza leaking its way into Egypt for sure Jordan as well but also the fact that there are so many people distressed by the disinformation which is given by what by Qatar's Al Jazeera owned and funded by Qatar disseminating a lot of disinformation and that itself holds the public the Arab public in a way that makes very difficult life for the Arab leaders themselves and as a former envoy to Egypt and you have a great understanding and familiarity with the Egyptian state of mind and sentiment for many years perhaps an Egyptian success quote unquote that was obviously undoubtedly exacerbated by the Israeli policy Gaza was seen primarily at least as Israel's problem can this situation change that well first of all nobody wanted Gaza not the Egyptians, not the Jordanians no one wanted a responsibility over Gaza it's a very difficult place and a very challenging place in a manner of speaking the fear of the Egyptians is completely legitimate they do not want to have mail from Gaza enter into their own territory and they know why why do they not want to allow the Gazans into their own territory because they are afraid of the instability that this may cause and the insurgency that this may entice emits the population they know why they do not want Palestinians from Gaza to enter they may at some point agree to women children people who were perhaps injured from Gaza to take refuge in the Sinai not for sure and it's a very delicate issue but certainly there isn't a wish to see this situation leaking into Sinai so in that sense it is legitimate of Egypt not to want to import this problem into its own territory but Israel can no longer be responsible especially after having left Gaza in 2006 completely be responsible for what is happening there and or agree to this carnage and this massacre and this rape and this inhumanity to be dealt to our own citizens what has been done to Israeli civilians and I want to ponder on that for one moment with your permission is by far the most heinous inhumane behavior I had ever ever seen it is absolute disgrace to Islam an absolute disgrace to any Palestinian and it cannot be done in the name of Palestinians it's a stain on the morality of all those involved and all those who are afraid from saying that as is just at the top of the hour Ruth Westerman Landy Israeli president revealing another step in this Nazi crusade of Hamas terrorists using cyanide chemical weapons to expand the murders even further no around it calling spade a spade calling Hamas ISIS. Ruth Westerman Landy thank you very much for this and still with us here in studio Rafael Urshalmi we do need to note that Hamas is comprised of two sets of leadership the one in the strip and Hamas foreign Hamas abroad in Doha and Beirut in Turkey who has the final say at this point in time obviously they're all carried with this momentum of the dubious success of their campaign but at the end of the day who is calling the shots because this time from the five star hotels in Doha the political branch or even Mr. Al-Aori because it's not only the political branch that resides abroad it's also a military part they can give the instructions that they want they cannot dictate what will happen on the ground it's more Mr. Sinoir that will decide or Mr. Mohammed Def if he's still alive and not some avatar of himself they have the ones who are going to take the decisions according to the developments on the on the ground with the military operations so Mr. Sinoir for instance he's going to have to save his own skin and that's why I give some hope for the hostages because they are his life insurance they're going to decide hopefully that they want these hostages well and safe because they are the last run part of defense for the high leaders they're in the Gaza Strip of course the other leaders abroad first of all they're also a target let me remind you it's not for lack of trying and we'll try even more now the Mossad will try to get to them they know it but they have another role their role is to push the Palestinian coast to the Arabic countries because really right now you hear a lot of condemnation from the Arabic countries there's a summit in Cairo they're not even able to agree on anything because they have their own interest Saudi Arabia doesn't care whether it's Palestinian or not it's a tool they use it as leverage but they have interest towards agreements with the Biden administration very important things that could happen economically for the future of Saudi Arabia because the petrol is not there forever it's going to dry out so he has his own agenda the Emirates have their own agenda Qatar they all have their agenda the Palestinians cause is just goes on for too long then it might destroy the Abraham Accords right now the Abraham Accords are just on hold and the Hamas people know that they're trying to entice the governments, the Arabic countries to go into war they're trying to convince Iran I'm not sure Iran wants to go into that war so they have they're at this point where they have nothing to lose really so with pushing them further to the extreme possibly be more extreme than that the ones in Gaza might have nothing to lose they have a lot of money Mr. Hani has got millions and millions of dollars in pre-private bank accounts well no one said that eliminating Hamas leadership is bordered to and also if it takes 20 years to find them we'll find them no one should be surprised if people all over the world will be vulnerable people are terrorists not people are terrorists alright it is obviously not a local war not a regional one a global one the camp of light fighting back tonight in the UK after a mass demonstration of pro Hamas protesters in the streets of one of the most enlightened capitals of the world tonight it's the pro humanity force but what is stronger the attempt to counter hate or the spreading of it I-24 News Senior Correspondent Jonathan Sashadadi is joining us now so Jonathan what is happening this hour in the streets of London as you know there have been a few anti-Israel protests that have gone on in the streets of London one last weekend and one this weekend yesterday the latest counting 100,000 people according to police estimates taking part but then this evening in Trafalgar Square there was a vigil held by members of the Jewish community and allies who wished to draw attention to the hostages who are still being held by Hamas in Gaza and also to all of those people who had been killed brutally on the 7th of October in that Hamas attack the savage and brutal murder of all of those people so unusually perhaps at the moment flags of Israel on the streets of London speakers speaking out for the hostages and for those who've been killed and indeed showing their solidarity behind the state of Israel because while the government and even the opposition have been quite vocal in their support of Israel and its war against Hamas it hasn't necessarily been mirrored by the protesters on the streets which has left many people in the Jewish community feeling quite afraid out on the streets of London at the moment these are not sentiments of fear but rather very feasible threats to their security because less than 24 hours ago while those Hamas rallies were taking place this tube driver who I doubt can even place Israel on a map had this to say let's take a quick listen so Jonathan before we let you go what security assurances are given to Jewish communities to Israelis in the UK at the moment obviously the streets of London are not a very safe place nowadays well British transport police are investigating that footage of a train driver seeming to lead pro-Palestinian chance over the train tunnel system and ministers have called the scene intimidating in fact of course some Jewish families have said they no longer feel safe on the tube they don't feel safe travelling in the London underground trains should be relatively easy for them to figure out exactly who the driver was at that shift going by the time and the tube lining question but so far we haven't heard any results from that investigation spokesman for the transport police has said they are aware of footage circulating on social media which suggests chance are led by a driver of a train in London and BTP that's British transport police are working with investigating the matter but this isn't the end of it of course because those massive protests that took to the street also had within them so called jihadi flags the black flag they had people chanting that Jews should be cursed by God that non-believers of Islam should be cursed by God one shouting words in Arabic for Islamic State and the police playing catch up really only realising that this was against the law when people on Twitter or now called X attention to it in the video initially the police saying the flag wasn't a problem ignoring the chance themselves so it seems despite the efforts of the government to say that Jews will be protected and the sentiment supporting terrorism won't be allowed on the streets the police aren't necessarily acting as quickly as the government would have liked them to Jonathan Ciscerati terrifying times no other way to put it thank you very much 24 news senior UK correspondent Jonathan Ciscerati for this and staying very much in topic an incredible moment in this massive Hamas protest in London last night that featured among too many others LGBTQ plus activists revealing once again this ridiculous progressive moral bankruptcy and perhaps this moment is another demonstration of that because a pride flag was waived shortly after the flag can be seen falling on the ground people surrounded the flag bearer perhaps a polite to polite preview to what would have happened if it was up to Hamas it so dearly supports crossing now to activist and filmmaker Yuval David Yuval you know queers for Hamas I saw this thing online today it's like chickens for KFC and I think this is spot on my mind is is blown I I'm as confused and distraught by it as you are it makes no sense for any LGBTQIA plus activist to support Hamas Hamas throws gay people off of buildings they murder and kill anybody who's even accused of being LGBTQ Israel for years has taken in LGBTQ Palestinian refugees and asylum seekers I've been involved in those processes it makes no sense when I see my own progressive liberal LGBTQ activists who are supporting Hamas who are speaking out in support of Palestinian causes and say nothing about Israel say nothing about the over 1,400 Israelis and other nationals who were killed over the 212 now hostages the people who are not speaking out about it from my own progressive liberal communities I yell Boucha on them I yell shame at them if you are truly a human rights and civil rights and so warrior and activist you must support anybody who supports LGBTQ rights it doesn't make sense for them to show up at these pro Hamas demonstrations we keep on talking about the collapse of conceptions right military conceptions security conceptions or more accurately misconceptions this notion that the global left the liberal left the progressive liberals pro humanity pro enlightenment pro equality is shattered to the bone is it shattered to the bone or does it once again reveal this this this ground swell of anti-Semitism we have seen this throughout the course of our people's history and I question why is this our lottery in life as Jews when we see progressive liberal intellectuals espousing and sharing anti-Semitism or supporting other people it against us it doesn't make sense now they use terms like apartheid Israel is not an apartheid state if you look at the amount of judges including Supreme Court judges in Israel who are Arab Muslim Palestinian Israelis if you look at the Knesset members the amount of people in Israel's parliament who are Palestinian if you look at the amount of hospital administrators and hospital owners if you look at public schools it makes no sense to use apartheid so this shows something that the Palestinian activists have done and the jihadi activists and BDS activists have done in a very smart way they have taken words that are triggering for civil rights and social justice progressive people they say apartheid they say colonialist they say progressive liberals are all about nuances right, pronouns and you know even perhaps the Vegas example or the most general example if I was to say that the US is Trump and Trump is the US they would be insulted to their core so what happens to all those double standards it's a double standard that makes no sense there are people that are against Israel wholeheartedly because of Netanyahu or Ben Gvir or Smotrich or they look at what is going on now and they see this as a war between Israel and Palestinians which is not true this is a war between Israel and Hamas and as Hamas sees it Hamas sees it as a war between Hamas and Jews so people are trying to shoehorn American and Western and other issues into this cause they're trying to make it a racial thing they're trying to say all of these fake false narratives that they're putting out about us when I see activists who I know and I've been involved with over many years in the LGBTQ space and I see them posting that they're going to this protests and they're saying free Palestine and they're saying end Israeli occupation and Israeli brutality it makes me think that these people are not progressive they are fow aggressive if anything they are regressive question being whether it will be a watershed moment or at least trigger a tiny bit of soul digging in those in these sectors not only soul digging but here's a problem Jews like me in America who are part of the progressive liberal LGBTQ movements and organizations we're having a very hard time because these movements that are all about inclusion and acceptance and representation not if you're a Jew not if you're a Jew queers for Palestine chickens for KFC simply put I don't understand look queers for Palestine and BDS come to whenever I have a speaking engagement somewhere and when I have successes within here and they try to cancel me they say that I have no right to be an LGBTQ activist because I practice pinkwashing they accuse me and this is an accusation that has been following me for years they accuse me of being obviously Zionist and openly Jewish you've all the weed stay strong this is all I stay strong because of the work that you do the work that all of us are doing every single Jew every single Israeli needs to practice we have a PR problem where people have no other choice no other choice other choice I appreciate you Thank you thank you so very much for your work and for your words we shall overcome thank you and staying so very much on topic you thought queers for Hamas is ridiculous what about the environmentalist yes those were fighting to respect the nature apparently feel okay with massacring Israelis and Jews the famed climate it kid Greta Thunberg choosing the wrong side of history is the climate movement tarnishing itself or can planet savers still be saved we do want to talk now to Noga Levitson and Don managing partner at Value Squared you are a part Noga thank you very much for joining us they are a part of this group of dozens of Israeli environmentalist reaching out to Ms Greta today tell us more and did you hear back from anyone first of all I think what happened here is a very very bad thing for the environment but really I think Greta got it all wrong she got it all wrong and she is now in the sense of thinking that she is doing good and she is doing the worst thing that she could ever do she is pretended to be someone that knows to go deeply into details she got it all wrong she is irresponsible and what she says is is just horrific because she doesn't know the details she thinks it is popular now to say to free Palestine or free Gaza she doesn't have a clue and it's bad for the environment it's bad for Israel but more than that it's bad for the environment and it's bad for the cause because we need people will not believe what she says anymore about the environment also because if that's how she got it wrong probably she gets other things wrong Noga one of the main efforts of the climate movement is to exceed the borders of left and right divisions and to turn it into a matter of political consensus how can you explain this moral abyss first of all I think there is no right left right thing