 Tel Aviv, and welcome to I-24 News's ongoing coverage of Israel at war. We are 26 days into the conflict with Israel, fighting on two fronts. You can actually see there's live images in front of you right now of those front one being Gaza, the other being in the north. There are some new reports saying Egypt's rough crossing will open today to allow foreign nationals and Gaza dual citizens to flee Gaza, part of a deal negotiated with Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Hamas and the United States. A deal that will allow wounded. And we're seeing right now live images of Rafa with people, the Rafa crossing, with many people clustered and waiting to get through the checkpoint. The deal in question would also allow wounded Gazans to seek treatment in Egypt. Now Egypt is setting up field hospitals on their side of the border to keep that from becoming a wider crisis with refugees fleeing all across Egypt as well. There's no agreement on how long the crossing will remain open for. The IDF is announcing the death of another nine soldiers that were killed fighting in northern Gaza against Hamas terrorists that joins two more pronounced dead yesterday. Seven of the fallen from the Zabar battalion, another two from the 77th. The IDF is saying that the Air Force struck some deep underground Hamas infrastructure in Jabalia and a strike that took out Ibrahim Biari, the commander of Hamas's central Jabalia battalion and a central planner of the October 7th massacre. In the north, the IDF intercepted a surface to air missile fired from Lebanon at an Israeli drone on Tuesday night. According to the IDF spokesman's unit, the IDF struck the site where the missile was fired from as well as the terror cell that fired the missile. Israel has dispatched two missile ships to the Red Sea in an attempt to deter Iran-backed Houthi rebels after those militias have fired ballistic and cruise missiles at Israel multiple times. Now they were intercepted by the IDF while heading towards a lot in these events. The US is saying that Saudi Arabia is still interested in pursuing a normalization agreement and framework with Israel that from US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying he was confident that the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia do have a path forward to get back to normalization but after the war. Bloomberg News is reporting that the US and Israel are exploring possibilities for a multinational force to manage Gaza after the war. One that might involve American troops. A second option could establish a peacekeeping force modeled on the Egypt-Israeli one and a third could put it under the oversight of the United Nations. Now for far more on this, we are going to go to the north first where correspondent Mary McAuliffe is standing by in northern Israel. What are the latest developments on the northern front? As I was, you mentioned another surface to air missile. Israel again responding and attacking the source of that. We've seen that dynamic play over the course of the past two weeks earlier this week and over the weekend. We actually saw a surface to air missile allegedly target Israeli drone. Hezbollah said it brought down that drone. We didn't have official confirmation but we have been seeing Hezbollah using these surface to air missiles to try and attack Israeli military and infrastructure as they are finding that the rockets that have also been fired from Southern Lebanon into Israeli citizens have for the most part not caused most damage. They've mostly been taken down by the Iron Dome. That's not to say there haven't been any injuries. There was also a house hit in Kiryat Shmona earlier this week. So we have seen injuries. We've also seen deaths among Israeli soldiers as well as some civilian deaths as well as also on the Lebanese side of the border. There are some 50 Hezbollah fighters who have been killed so far in this latest round of escalation. But for now, we sort of see the same dynamic playing out between Israel and Hezbollah not seeming either side wanting to take this to the next level of confrontation. But the more worrying development and what we are keeping a careful eye on here in the region is the different attacks throughout the Middle East, not just between Israel and Hezbollah. But as we have fears that this could spread into a more regional wars, we're very carefully watching what's happening, especially U.S. bases that have been attacked by Iranian backed proxies in the region, specifically in Syria and Iraq. Another attack or attempted attack, I should say, happening this morning by an Iraqi Iranian backed group, which said it once again launched explosive devices, explosive drones at U.S. bases where you American troops were stationed, the Iraqi government just now saying that they thwarted that attempt. But again, we have now almost 30 attacks on U.S. bases throughout the region. We also heard from the Russian foreign ministry last night coming out and condemning Israeli aggression is what he called it, responding to Israeli strikes into Syrian territory. But those strikes were targeting infrastructure that have been used to try and target Israeli civilians. We see attacks coming from both inside Syrian territory as well as Lebanon. So this is certainly not just a one front war and we are watching on all dimensions to see exactly how it plays out and if things will escalate to the next level here on the northern border. We'll be back with you over the course of the day as there are developments. Now we are going to turn to the studio, but first we do have a piece of breaking news, the IDF announcing a 10th casualty overnight in the fighting in Gaza, a member of the givati combat brigade that also fell in addition to those nine we mentioned earlier and the two yesterday that were mentioned. We're going to turn to a studio where we have Jack Narayat, the Colonel, Jack Narayat, former deputy head of assessment with the IDF intelligence, as well as our senior correspondent Owen Altman. Thank you both for being with us. Jack, I want to open with you first because we are seeing not just Hamas, not just Hezbollah. We're also seeing these provocations and direct attacks from these Houthi rebels in Yemen. Many regional powers have tried to deal with the Houthi rebels before they have not succeeded. And now they're turning their guns on Israel. Two missile cruisers not going to have that much effect. Well, you know, Ariel, I think that you mentioned at the beginning of this that Israel was facing two fronts. Well, in fact, we're facing five fronts, facing Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Gaza, and now Yemen. So we are facing a general a general setup that was prepared by Iran, the unification of all the fronts around Israel. This is one thing. And right now, if we have to concentrate on each of the fronts, we see that we have a response. We have definitely a response for Hezbollah. Hezbollah is facing a riddle today. How to overcome these Israeli defenses? And every squad he's sending towards the border is being intercepted and killed. They say that there's the way to Jerusalem is full of martyrs. Right now, it's not only 50 martyrs. It's much more than that. Every system that he is operating, be it ground to air missiles or the attack at attack drones are all being countered by Israeli countermeasures and and the response is further bombardment of Hezbollah infrastructure in the south without going too far. I mean, even though we have we had some interventions deep inside Lebanon, but still we are talking about the limited conflict between us and Hezbollah waiting for Friday in order to hear what has what Hassan Nasrallah has to say. He has put this the famous ring on his finger, which is interpreted by most by most analysts as this is the ring of war, meaning that the the preparation that he would like, he would pronounce a war like announcement on on Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon. This is concerning the nose concerning the sound. We are surprised by the by by the rapidity of the Israeli intervention. Five days ago, you could not even imagine that we would be inside the Gaza Strip, inside Jibalia, not a few a few, I would say, 100 meters from the Rimal neighborhood. And there you have the Shifa Hospital just beyond. I mean, less than two kilometers from there. So and and Hamas is feeling now the crux because Gaza has been surrounded and put on the siege from the south, from the east and from from the sea. And of course, from the north and according to the latest, it seems that Hamas has lost control of the northern part of Gaza. So we are advancing under. Unfortunately, we have a price to pay and the price is a price of blood. And, you know, there's nothing that can be immune against the anti-tank missiles or RPGs fired at the position inside inside an apartment. This is the price we have to pay. But basically, I think that we are surprising both Hamas and Hezbollah. And finally, we are also surprising the Houthis because we have a weapon that is that that is intercepting those missiles beyond the atmosphere, just beyond the atmosphere and way, way far from us. And before we continue this discussion, I actually want to cross over to our correspondent in the south, Pierre Klosch, and they're in southern Israel looking over Gaza. We understand the Rafa border crossing is to open today. What do we know about this? Well, we only can rely on the Reuters news agency, which says that Qatar brokered an agreement between Israel, Hamas, Egypt and in coordination with the United States, the major actors in this conflict in order to allow the evacuation of the foreign nationals and the dual nationals that are stuck into the Gaza Strip. Anthony Blinken spoke about six thousand dual and foreign nationals that are inside the Gaza Strip. And the agreement, if it has indeed been brokered, there's no confirmation would allow this the extraction of these foreign nationals. Now, in addition, they would allow also the evacuation of severely wounded civilian Palestinians that have been hit by the war inside the Gaza Strip. An hospital, a field hospital has been established in Sher Swade, which is in the northern tip of the Sinai Peninsula under Egyptian sovereignty. Some numbers, possibly something like 80 severely wounded Palestinians. And in addition, the army is indeed progressing inside the Gaza Strip, cordoning off Gaza from southeast and north. There is ferocious fighting right now in the in the Zaytun and Jabalia refugee camp districts. I want to show you a little bit with Gilkremere what's going on right now. We hear the roar of fighter jets. We hear the ratata of heavy machine gun. We hear the booms of the outgoing of the Israeli artillery. And from time to time, we see a mushroom elevating inside the Gaza Strip. The progression is fast. After five days of ground incursion, Israel has gained something like 10 kilometers. It started in the northern tip in Bethanoon and in Bethlehem. And now it's on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip with, according to the IDF, spokesperson over 11,000 strikes since the beginning of the hostilities inflected by Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7. Well, thank you very much, Pierre. We're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation develops, as just a recap of the latest in the Gaza front of the war, as well as the reopening of the Rafa crossing. We are very soon going to be hearing a morning briefing about the IDF from Daniel Higari about the latest developments in the war. But before we get to that, we're going to return to the studio where we have our correspondent, Owen Alterman, as well as former deputy head of assessment with the IDF, Jack Nariel. I want to open with you, Owen, because we are focusing on the Rafa crossing right now. Many people in Israel are wondering, what does Israel get out of this deal? Well, that's the big question. Well, first of all, just to stay to play, Arielle, reports coming out of people actually inside the terminal with their luggage and potentially about to cross. So obviously, an emotional moment for them, you can only imagine people have been in the Gaza Strip for the last three weeks, who have endured whatever they've endured. I'm talking, of course, about civilians, not about Hamas terrorists, especially people who are injured as well, what must be going through their minds as their wheeling suitcases through the terminal at Rafa about to get to the other side in Egypt, what they've been through and what awaits them. And of course, to those who were innocent civilians who have been caught in the cross, we can only wish them well. As for Israel, look, I'll go back again, I'm a broken record, but I have to do it to what I've said since the very beginning of the war. A policy of denying food, water and basic medicine to civilians in Gaza, put aside ethical and legal issues, was not and never was a realistic policy for Israel. Just in terms of the balance of power of international affairs, it was not realistic. It's like the apple that falls from the tree and hits Isaac Newton's head. That apple doesn't levitate in the air. There's a force of nature that pulls the apple down and has it hit Isaac Newton in the head. And lo and behold, those forces of nature of international relations have given us a situation where the gates have opened up to humanitarian aid. And now this of people being let out. In terms of people being let out, let's be very clear. It was not necessarily Israel that was blocking them from being let out. It was very well may have been Hamas and Egypt that were the obstacles and not us. I don't think Israel had any objection to those holding foreign passports from leaving Gaza, let alone people who are severely injured from leaving Gaza to safely get medical care in Egypt or elsewhere. That's that's not something that Israel objects to. The issues have been surrounding the humanitarian aid. We've obviously discussed those at length. And obviously that is progressing in the sense that more trucks are going through and a mechanism has been found to give Israel comfort and a line again with the realities of international affairs. So I don't see this on its faces, having anything that's a security risk for Israel in any way. It's only a benefit to the people involved. It's wonderful to those foreign governments that they're able to get their citizens out and obviously for those who are injured, who are going to be able to get medical care. We're going to now turn to the briefing where Daniel Higari is beginning to speak. So let's take that life. A paraphrase, not an exact translation, not exact words. Good morning. Our forces are continuing to deepen their activity in the Gaza Strip. With a meaningful way on the ground in the north of the Strip over the course of the night, IDF fighters had meaningful, significant battles in one of the battles in a area of the high rise building in Jabalia, the terrorist shot towards our forces on the ground. The building, this building, like many others, has a service using it as a shelter. In this case, we're talking about an intentional using a residential building next to a school, next to a medical center and next to government offices. We had a drone from the air that destroyed the terrorists. As was published yesterday, we could kill the head of the Jabalia Brigade, a murderous terrorist who was also responsible for an important space from which terrorists went out for the massacre on the 7th of October. More than that, this is a meaningful terrorist that administered the battle in the north of the Gaza Strip in a dominant way. We killed him. His death happens inside his building in the Jabalia refugee camp. When he is there with dozens of other terrorists in a place where there is a command center and an underground area that is built within the civilian refugee camp in the buildings, this led to the collapse of the building and the underground infrastructure of the tunnels, and therefore other buildings collapsed. Of course, this testifies more on the cynical use by murderous terrorists that are using human shields of the population that we told them to leave for its own defense southward and the cynical use that they're able to making of him in the course of the fighting. Sinwar and all the senior officials of Hamas want to show a picture of Gaza destroyed and Gazans killed for the fault of Israel and the fault of the IDF. They're hiding the real guilty ones who are themselves for the situation in Gaza. Our forces are fighting with force inside the Strip, killing terrorists, having conducting battles and getting to contact. This morning, we had other IDF officers who other soldiers who fell in battle in the depths of the land. The army shares the sorrow of the families and converts them in the north. We are ready with the higher state of readiness to give a strong answer with defense and offense. Also with our spread of our forces in the Northern command defense and also in the ways we've acted in the last day to stop us a terror squad trying to get to our territory. We attack it and we kill it. Every every group we do the same with high readiness of the Air Force that is ready for our intelligence branch that is ready and looking northward to everything and every scenario and every threat. In the Red Sea we shot down an aerial threat and far from the territory of Elat there was no danger to civilians and no in penetration of Israeli airspace. We have a very high readiness in their defense in this space. We added more tools of the of the Navy that can bring a meaningful defense to threats from the air. The Air Force is built with multi multiple layers and planes and we're ready in this area space just as we are in every space of the air defense to attack at the time and place of our choosing with every security interest of the state of Israel and every place that we would be asked to on the home front the the sticking of the state of the citizens of Israel to the instructions of saving lives. We continue to ask you citizens to continue to follow the regulations. We're trying to get the schools back at local municipalities in the having a routine in the shadow of war with different forms of routine. Look at this website. We are not compromising the security of the citizens. That's the most important thing to remember. Until now notice to 240 hostages. We are still seeing as a highest our highest objective to bring everyone home. We three hundred twenty six fallen soldiers passed and noticed the families. The soldiers gave a great contribution to the security of Israel. We are very strong and because of them because of them we will win. We hug the families. We will continue to be with them and also the families of the injured and we wish them a speedy recovery. And what happened like yesterday please stop spreading rumors there will be use responsibility and stop also in terms of security of information to to to guard our our forces and also in the sense that this adds pressure in society. We are committed to you to give you the most reliable and exact information possible and in certain situations you have to wait until we tell the families until we do something we have to respect this and we are committed to do this with our responsibility in front of the public stick with the information that is published by the IDF spokesperson. Questions please. Channel 12. Twelve soldiers were killed in IDF activity in the strip. Can you tell us what happened in those incidents. There are a lot of rumors after the Hamas spokesperson yesterday or that there are refugees going to their hostages that are going to be released soon over the course of a few days. We are fighting in a meaningful way on the ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip and for a few days we are trying and deepening and we're getting to the the beginning of the peel of this complicated situation. We are our soldiers are fighting with bravery and some of the battles are face to face and in those situations we have with ours great sorrow those who are killed and those who are injured. This hurts but in every battle such as this our we have the upper hand there was not a single battle that we didn't have the upper hand not one battle not in Jibalia not another place that at the end of the day it didn't end with terrorists killed terrorists fleeing civilians fleeing and the situation in this in this war. I think that our fighters are doing this with great bravery and we're changing with the security of our forces every place where we have a threat where we can move away and bring in the Air Force to just to get hard from the air we're doing everything we can to do this and we will try to give security to our forces and only after that will we bring our forces in this happens that this way in an organized way for a number of ways and we'll continue this way but even so in fighting they're also those are injured into our sorrow as for Hamas I don't know what they said I have no idea I know one thing we will give you the most reliable information and I suggest that not to listen to this murderous organization Hamas that wants to inflict psychological terror on the citizens of Israel I tell you don't listen to them don't trust them listen to us we'll give you the information all the information you get from us after of course as I said giving to come on the security of our forces we'll do this in every issue in terms of hostages and all other issues and the we will give you the information and we're going to return to our discussion in studio I'm going to reopen with you Jack because we're talking about some of the accomplishments the IDF has done on the ground unfortunately there are still 40,000 Hamas soldiers most of them are underground and fortified infrastructure this war doesn't end until those forces are broken and they are largely fanatics many of which will fight to the very end how much further do we have to go how effective our tactics at this first of all let's let's agree that the 40,000 number that you have just quoted is not the right number where they are they claim to have 40,000 and I think that the division is 25,000 for Hamas and 15,000 for the Islamic jihad anyway there is quite some number of terrorists and you know we have to find them the thing is what you what the spokesman has said and so illustrative is the fact that they are running away the fortitude is not their character fortitude is our character we have no choice and we will continue to pursue them and like what happened in in Mosul in Mosul the Allied forces had to suffer about 1,000 casualties this is not the number that we would like to have but the fact is that on the other side you had 20,000 who were killed so I think that in a clash between a regular army well trained well motivated against those terrorists I think that the battle is one ahead of time I don't actually go back to that and some other things that Daniel Higari said first of all I Jack you're absolutely right the state almost made as a kind of by the way right that the terrorists fled is quite striking also the assertion I think for the first time we've heard this from Daniel Higari that in every single battle the Israeli military he said had the upper hand a very significant statement I again I think the general impression was from the from the military angle that this campaign so far again this is an unpredictable and very long war with twists and turns but so far has gone well also another explanation maybe the most precise and even elaborate to date about what happened in Jabalia and why there was the collapse of the buildings and why there was the crater we now hear directly from the Israeli military don't know if it's for the first time but maybe the most explicit and the most express and again just so viewers understand the sensitivity in this country to casualties among soldiers the IDF is a people's army with a mandatory draft many of these people are our teenagers who are fighting who have parents who have families so it's an emotional issue even if I think the public certainly understands the bigger picture here and sadly as Daniel Higari said the necessity of some civilian casualties even as the IDF does what it can to limit those that's what catches chemistry among soldiers like this those limit those of course also limiting civilian casualties as well it's going to be a huge challenge going forward on but ultimately I think everyone in Israel understands that there really is no choice in this fight but to press on and push this war to its inevitable conclusion being the destruction of Hamasai thank both of you for being in studio to break down various different angles both international as well as the tactical and intelligence angle on the ground for everybody else we are just about out of time at least for now but we will see you again at the top of the next hour with updates from the war across all fronts and all possible angles to discuss but we'll be back with you soon so thanks for watching we'll see you again very soon officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do it 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 before news is ongoing coverage of Israel at war we're 26 days into the conflict with Israel fighting on two fronts you can actually see there's live images in front of you right now of those front one being Gaza the other being in the north there are some new reports saying Egypt's Rafa crossing will open today to allow foreign nationals and Gaza dual citizens to flee Gaza part of a deal negotiated with Egypt Israel Qatar Hamas and the United States a deal that will allow wounded and we're seeing right now live images of Rafa with people the Rafa crossing with many people clustered and waiting to get through the checkpoint the deal in question would also allow wounded Gazans to seek treatment in Egypt now Egypt is setting up field hospitals on their side of the border to keep that from becoming a wider crisis with refugees fleeing all across Egypt as well there's no agreement on how long the crossing will remain open for the IDF is announcing the death of another nine soldiers that were killed fighting in northern Gaza against Hamas terrorists that joins two more pronounced dead yesterday seven of the fallen from the Tsabar battalion another two from the 77th the IDF is saying that the air force struck some deep underground Hamas infrastructure in Jabalia and a strike that took out Ibrahim Biari the commander of Hamas essential Jabalia battalion an essential planner of the October 7th massacre in the north the IDF intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at an Israeli drone on Tuesday night according to the IDF spokesman's unit the IDF struck the site where the missile was fired from as well as the terror cell that fired the missile Israel has dispatched two missile ships to the Red Sea in an attempt to deter Iran backed Houthi rebels after those militias have fired ballistic and cruise missiles at Israel multiple times now they were intercepted by the IDF while heading towards a lot in these events the U.S. is saying that Saudi Arabia is still interested in pursuing a normalization agreement and framework with Israel that from U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying he was confident that the U.S. Israel and Saudi Arabia do have a path forward to get back to normalization but after the war Bloomberg News is reporting that the U.S. and Israel are exploring possibilities for a multinational force to manage Gaza after the war one that might involve American troops a second option could establish a peacekeeping force modeled on the Egypt Israeli one and a third could put it under the oversight of the United Nations now for far more on this we are going to go to the north first where our correspondent Mary McAuliffe is standing by in northern Israel what are the latest developments on the northern front as far as I was you mentioned another surface-to-air missile Israel again responding and attacking the source of that we've seen that dynamic play over the over the course of the past two weeks earlier this week and over the week and we actually saw a surface-to-air missile allegedly targeting Israeli drone Hezbollah said brought down that drone we didn't have official confirmation but we have been seeing Hezbollah using these surface-to-air missiles to try to attack Israeli military and infrastructure as they are finding that the rockets that have also been fired from southern Lebanon into Israeli citizens have for the most part not caused most damage they've mostly been taken down by the Iron Dome that's not to say there haven't been any injuries there was also a house hit in Kiryat Shmoana earlier this week so we haven't seen injuries we've also seen deaths among Israeli soldiers as well as some civilian deaths as well as also on the Lebanese side of the border there's some 50 Hezbollah fighters who have been killed so far in this latest round of escalation but for now we sort of see the same dynamic playing out between Israel and Hezbollah not seeming either side wanting to take this to the next level of confrontation but the more worrying development and what we are keeping a careful eye on here in the region is the different attacks throughout the Middle East not just between Israel and Hezbollah but as we have fears that this could spread into a more regional wars we're very carefully watching what's happening especially US bases that have been attacked by Iranian-backed proxies in the region specifically in Syria and Iraq another attack or attempted attack I should say happening this morning by an Iraqi-Iranian-backed group which said it once again launched explosive devices explosive drones at US bases where American troops were stationed the Iraqi government just now saying that they thwarted that attempt but again we have now almost 30 attacks on US bases throughout the region we also heard from the Russian foreign ministry last night coming out and condemning Israeli aggression is what he called it responding to Israeli strikes into Syrian territory but those strikes were targeting infrastructure that have been used to try and target Israeli civilians we see attacks coming from both inside Syrian territory as well as Lebanon so this is certainly not just a one front war and we are watching on all dimensions to see exactly how it plays out and if things will escalate to the next level here on the northern border so we'll be back with you over the course of the day as there are developments now we are going to turn to the studio but first we do have a piece of breaking news the IDF announcing a 10th casualty over night in the fighting in Gaza a member of the givati combat brigade that also fell in addition to those nine we mentioned earlier and the two yesterday that were mentioned we're going to turn to studio where we have Jack Naria the Colonel Jack Naria former deputy head of assessment with the IDF intelligence as well as our senior correspondent Owen Ultriman thank you both for being with us Jack I want to open with you first because we are seeing not just Hamas not just Hezbollah we're also seeing these provocations and direct attacks from these Houthi rebels in Yemen many regional powers have tried to deal with the Houthi rebels before they have not succeeded and now they're turning their guns on Israel two missile cruisers not going to have that much effect well you know Ariel think that you mentioned at the beginning of of this that Israel was facing two fronts well in fact we're facing five fronts facing Lebanon Syria the West Bank Gaza and now Yemen so we we are facing and a general a general setup that was prepared by Iran the unification of all the fronts around Israel this is one thing and right now if we have to concentrate on each of the fronts we see that we have a response we have definitely a response for Hezbollah Hezbollah is facing a riddle today how to overcome these the Israeli defenses and every squad he's sending to the towards the border is being intercepted and killed they say that the way to Jerusalem is full of martyrs right now it's not only 50 martyrs it's much more than that every system that Hezbollah is operating be it ground to air missiles or attack attack drones are all being countered by Israeli countermeasures and the response is further bombardment of Hezbollah infrastructure in the south without going too far I mean even though we have we had some interventions deep inside Lebanon but still we are talking about the limited conflict between us and and Hezbollah waiting for Friday in order to hear what has what Hassan Nasrallah has to say he has put the famous ring on his finger which is interpreted by most by most analysts as this is the Ring of War meaning that the preparation that he would like he would pronounce a warlike announcement on Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon this is concerning the north concerning the south we are surprised by the by the rapidity of the Israeli intervention five days ago you could not even imagine that we would be inside the Gaza Strip inside Jibalia not a few a few I would say 100 meters from the Rimal neighborhood and there you have the Shifa hospital just beyond I mean less than two kilometers from there so and and Hamas is feeling now the crux because Gaza has been surrounded and put on the siege from the south from the east and from from the sea and of course from the north and according to the latest it seems that Hamas has lost control of the northern part of Gaza so we are advancing under unfortunately we have a price to pay and the price is a price of blood and you know there's nothing that can be immune against anti-tank missiles or RPGs fired at the position inside inside an apartment this is the price we have to pay but basically I think that we are surprising both Hamas and Hezbollah and finally we are also surprising the Houthis because we have a weapon that is that that is intercepting those missiles beyond the atmosphere just beyond the atmosphere and way way far from us and before we continue this discussion I actually want to cross over to our correspondent in the south Pierre Klosch and they're in southern Israel looking over Gaza we understand the Rafa border crossing is to open today what do we know about this well we only can rely on the Reuters news agency which says that Qatar brokered an agreement between Israel Hamas Egypt and in coordination with the United States the major actors in this conflict in order to allow the evacuation of the foreign nationals and the dual nationals that are stuck into the Gaza Strip Anthony Blinken spoke about 6000 dual and foreign nationals that are inside the Gaza Strip and the agreement if it has indeed been brokered there's no confirmation would allow this the extraction of these foreign nationals now in addition they would allow also the evacuation of severely wounded civilian Palestinians that have been hit by the war inside the Gaza Strip an hospital a field hospital has been established in Sher Swade which is in the northern tip of the Sinai Peninsula under Egyptian sovereignty some numbers possibly something like 80 severely wounded Palestinians and in addition the army is indeed progressing inside the Gaza Strip co-ordining of Gaza from south east and north there is ferocious fighting right now in the in the Zaitun and Jebalia Refugee Camp districts I want to show you a little bit with Gilkremer what's going on right now we hear the roar of fighter jets we hear the ratata of heavy machine gun we hear the booms of the outgoing of the Israeli artillery and from time to time we see a mushroom elevating inside the Gaza Strip the progression is fast after five days of ground incursion Israel has gained something like 10 kilometers it started in the northern tip in Bethanun and in Betlahia and now it's on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip with according to the IDF spokesperson over 11,000 strikes since the beginning of the hostilities inflected by Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7th well thank you very much Pierre we're going to be coming back to you over the course of the day as the situation develops as just a recap of the latest in the Gaza front of the war as well as the reopening of the Rafa crossing we are very soon going to be hearing a morning briefing about the IDF from Daniel Higari about the latest developments in the war but before we get to that we're going to return to the studio where we have our correspondent Owen Alterman as well as former deputy of assessment with the IDF Jack Nariah I want to open with you Owen because we are focusing on the Rafa crossing right now many people in Israel are wondering what does Israel get out of this deal well that's the big question well first of all just to stay to play Ariel reports coming out of people actually inside the terminal with their luggage and potentially about to cross so obviously an emotional moment for them you can only imagine people have been in the Gaza Strip for the last three weeks who have endured whatever they've endured I'm talking of course about civilians not about Hamas terrorists especially people who are injured as well what must be going through their minds as their wheeling suitcases through the terminal at Rafa about to get to the other side in Egypt what they've been through and what awaits them and of course to those who are innocent civilians who have been caught in the cross are we can only wish them well as for Israel look I'll go back again I'm a broken record but I have to do it to what I've said since the very beginning of the war a policy of denying food water and basic medicine to civilians in Gaza put aside ethical and legal issues was not and never was a realistic policy for Israel just in terms of the balance of power of international affairs it was not realistic it's like the apple that falls from the tree and hits Isaac Newton's head that apple doesn't levitate in the air there's a force of nature that pulls the apple down and has it hit Isaac Newton in the head and lo and behold those forces of nature of international relations have given us a situation where the gates have opened up to humanitarian aid and now this of people being let out in terms of people being let out let's be very clear it was not necessarily Israel that was blocking them from being let out it was very well may have been Hamas and Egypt that were the obstacles and not us I don't think Israel had any objection to those holding foreign passports from leaving Gaza let alone people who are severely injured from leaving Gaza to safely get medical care in Egypt or elsewhere that's not something that Israel objects to the issues have been surrounding the humanitarian aid we've obviously discussed those at length and obviously that is progressing in the sense that more trucks are going through and a mechanism has been found to give Israel comfort and the line again with the realities of international affairs so I don't see this on its faces having anything that's a security risk for Israel in any way it's only a benefit to the people involved it's wonderful to those foreign governments that they're able to get their citizens out and obviously for those who are injured who are going to be able to get medical care we're going to now turn to the briefing where Daniel Higari is beginning to speak so let's take that live a paraphrase not an exact translation not exact words good morning our forces are continuing to deepen their activity in the Gaza Strip with a meaningful way on the ground in the north of the Strip over the course of the night IDF fighters had meaningful significant battles in one of the battles in a area of the high-rise building in Jabalia the terrorist shot towards our forces on the ground the building this building like many others has a service using it as a shelter in this case we're talking about a intentional using a residential building next to a school next to a medical center and next to government offices we had a drone from the air that destroyed the terrorists as was published yesterday we could kill the head of the Jabalia Brigade a murderous terrorist who was also responsible for an important space from which terrorists went out for the massacre on the 7th of October more than that this is a meaningful terrorist that administered the battle in the north of the Gaza Strip in a dominant way we killed him his death happens inside his building in the Jabalia Refugee Camp when he is there with dozens of other terrorists in a place where there is a command center and an underground area that is built within within the civilian refugee camp in the buildings this led to the collapse of the building and the underground infrastructure of the tunnels and therefore other buildings collapsed of course this testifies more on the cynical use by murderous terrorists that are using of using human shields of the population that we told them to leave for its own defense southward and the cynical use that they're able to making of him in the course of the fighting Sinwar and all the senior officials of Hamas want to show a picture of Gaza destroyed and Gazans killed and for the fault of Israel and the fault of the IDF they're hiding the real guilty ones who are themselves for the situation in Gaza our forces are fighting force inside the strip killing terrorists having conducting battles and getting to contact this morning we had other IDF officers other soldiers who fell in battle in the depths of the land the army shares the sorrow of the families and converts them in the north we are ready with the higher state of readiness to give a strong answer with defense and offense also with our spread of our forces in the northern command defense and also in the ways we have acted in the last day to stop a terror squad trying to get to our territory we attack it and we kill it every every group we do the same with high readiness of the air force that is ready for our intelligence branch that is ready and looking northward to everything and every scenario and every threat in the Red Sea we shot down an aerial threat and afar from the territory of Elat there was no danger to civilians and no in penetration of Israeli airspace we have a very high readiness in their defense in this space we added more tools of the of the Navy that can bring a meaningful defense to threats from the air the air force is built with multi multiple layers and planes and we're ready in this area space just as we are in every space of the air defense to attack at the time and place of our choosing with every security interests of the state of Israel in every place that we would be asked to on the home front the the sticking of the state of the citizens of Israel to the instructions of saving lives we continue to ask you citizens to continue to follow the regulations we're trying to get the schools back at the local municipalities in the having a routine in the shadow of war with different forms of routine look at this website we are not compromising the security of the citizens that's the most important thing to remember until now notice to 240 hostages we are still seeing our highest objective to bring everyone home 326 fallen soldiers passed and noticed the families the soldiers gave a great contribution to the security of Israel we are very strong and because of them we will win we hug the families we will continue to be with them and also the families of the injured and we wish them a speedy recovery and what happened like yesterday please stop spreading rumors there will be use responsibility and stop also in terms of security of information to guard our forces and also in the sense that this adds pressure in the society we are committed to you to give you the most reliable and exact information possible and in certain situations you have to wait until we tell the families until we do something you have to respect this and we are committed to do this with our responsibility in front of the public stick with the information that is published by the IDF spokesperson questions please channel 12 12 soldiers were killed in IDF activity in the strip can you tell us what happened in those incidents there were a lot of rumors after the Hamas spokesperson yesterday are that there are refugees going to there are hostages that are going to be released soon over the course of a few days we are fighting in a meaningful way on the ground defensive inside the Gaza Strip and for a few days we are trying and deepening and we are getting to the beginning of the peel of this complicated situation we are our soldiers are fighting with bravery and some of the battles are face to face and in those situations we have with our great sorrow those who are killed and those who are injured this hurts but in every battle just this we have the upper hand there was not a single battle that we really didn't have the upper hand not one battle not in Jibalia not another place that at the end of the day it didn't end with terrorists killed terrorists fleeing civilians fleeing and the situation in this in this war I think that our fighters are doing this with great bravery and we're changing with the security of our forces every place where we have a threat where we can move away and bring in the air force to to get hard from the air we're doing everything we can to do this and we will try to give security to our forces and only after that and will we bring our forces in this happens this way in an organized way for a number of ways and we'll continue this way but even so in fighting they're also those are injured into our sorry as for Hamas I don't know what they said I have no idea I know one thing we will give you the most reliable information and I suggest that not to listen to this murderous organization Hamas that wants to inflict psychological terror on the citizens of Israel I tell you don't listen to them don't trust them listen to us we'll give you the information all the information you get from us after of course as I said giving to come on the security of our forces we'll do this in every issue in terms of passages and all other issues and the we will give you the information and we're going to return to our discussion in studio I'm going to reopen with you Jack because we're talking about some of the accomplishments the IDF has done on the ground unfortunately there are still 40,000 Hamas soldiers most of them are underground in fortified infrastructure this war doesn't end until those forces are broken and they are largely fanatics many of which will fight to the very end how much further do we have to go how effective are tactics at this well first of all let's let's agree that the 40,000 number that you have just quoted is not the right number where they are they claim to have 40,000 and I think that the division is 25,000 for Hamas and 15,000 for the Islamic jihad anyway there is quite some a number of terrorists and you know we have to to find them the thing is what you what the the spokesman has said and so so illustrative is the fact that they are running away the fortitude is not their character fortitude is our character we have no choice and we will continue to pursue them and like what happened in in Mosul in Mosul the Allied forces had to suffer about 1,000 the casualties this is not the number that we would like to have but the the fact is that on the other side you had 20,000 who were killed so I think that in a clash between a regular army well trained well motivated against those terrorists I think that the battle is one ahead of time I don't actually go back to that and some other things that Daniel Higari said first of all Jack you're absolutely right the the state almost made as a kind of by the way right that the terrorist fled is quite striking also the assertion I think for the first time we've heard this from Daniel Higari that in every single battle the Israeli military he said had the upper hand a very significant statement I again I think the general impression was from the from the military angle that this campaign so far again this is an unpredictable and very long war with twists and turns but so far has gone well also another explanation the most precise and even elaborate to date about what happened in Javalia and why there was the collapse of the buildings and why there was the crater we now hear directly from the Israeli military don't know if it's for the first time but maybe the most explicit and the most express then again just so viewers understand the sensitivity in this country to casualties among soldiers the IDF is a people's army with a mandatory draft many of these people are our teenagers who are fighting who have parents who have families so it's an emotional issue even if I think the public certainly understands the bigger picture here and sadly as Daniel Higari said the necessity of some civilian casualties even as the IDF does what it can to limit those that's what it can do and canvashes among soldiers they have to limit those of course also limiting civilian casualties as well it's going to be a huge challenge going forward Owen but ultimately I think everyone in Israel understands that there really is no choice in this fight but to press on and push this war to its inevitable conclusion being the destruction of Hamasai thank both of you for being in studio to break down various different angles both international as well as the tactical and intelligence angle on the ground for everybody else we are just about out of time at least for now but we will see you again at the top of the next hour with updates from the war across all fronts and all possible angles to discuss but we'll be back with you soon so thanks for watching we'll see you again very soon 1,300 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 News 4 News is ongoing coverage of Israel at war we are 26 days into the conflict Israel's fighting on two fronts the visuals you're seeing now are from Egypt's Rafa crossing which has opened to allow foreign nationals Gaza dual citizens to flee Gaza that's part of a deal that's been negotiated with Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Hamas and the United States and will also allow wounded Gazans to seek treatment in Egypt there's no agreement so far on how long the crossing will remain open for trucks carrying humanitarian aid are also on video passing through the crossing into Gaza the IDF has announced the death of another 10 soldiers killed fighting in northern Gaza against Hamas terrorists joining two more pronounced dead yesterday seven of the fallen were from the Zabar battalion and I'm going to interrupt now at the note that there's a rock alert for Ashkelon right now as we speak that's in Israel's south of the fallen as saying after the barrage I was mentioning the fallen so far seven from the Zabar battalion two more from the 77th and another from the Givati combat infantry the Air Force also struck some deep underground Hamas infrastructure in Jabalia strike that also took out Ibrahim Biari the commander of Hamas's central Jabalia battalion and a core planner of the October 7th massacre in the north the IDF intercepted a surface to air missile fired from Lebanon and an Israeli drone on Tuesday night and according to the IDF spokesperson's unit the IDF struck the site where the missile was fired from as well as the terror cell that fired that missile we could kill the head of the Jabalia brigade a murderous terrorist who was also responsible for an important space from which terrorists went out for the massacre on the 7th of October more than that this is a meaningful terrorist that administered the battle in the north of the Gaza Strip in a dominant way we killed him his death happens inside his building in the Jabalia refugee camp when he is there with dozens of other terrorists in a place where there is a command center and an underground area that is built within within the civilian refugee camp in the buildings this led to the collapse of the building and the underground infrastructure of the tunnels and therefore other buildings collapsed of course this testifies more on the cynical use by murderous terrorists that are using of using human shields of the population that we told them to leave for its own defense southward and the cynical use that they're able to make of him in the course of the fighting and for more from the south we are going to cross over to our correspondent Pierre Kloschen there who is standing by in southern Israel Pierre it's good to have you on I want to talk about the Rafa cross and opening what details do we have what is going through how many people everything we know well at this point we know that there's about 400 people waiting at the Rafa terminal on the Palestinian side waiting to be crossing to Rafah on the Egyptian side because Rafah is a city which is divided between Egypt and the Gaza Strip right now only 400 but Anthony Blinken spoke about figures like 6,000 foreign and dual nationals that are in the Gaza Strip so if today 400 are evacuated and extracted from the Gaza Strip that means that it would be only the first batch of those civilians that would be extracted and that would require many more days to extract all the civilians with dual nationality of foreign nationality in addition we know that Egypt has established a field campaign hospital in Sher Swade which is on the northern tip of the of the Sinai peninsula and 91 severely wounded and Sikh Palestinians civilians only are supposed to be evacuated today in addition we know that Israel the US France are trying to coordinate sheep hospitals in order to allow more people to be treated out of the Gaza territory and Pierre just a couple of moments ago there was a rocket barrage coming out of Gaza aimed at Ashkelon what do we know about that we still don't know I mean the rescue services are still scoring the area with Gil Kremmer I want you to have a look at what's going on in the Gaza Strip right now you see plumes of smoke and on the right side Gil is going to pan you'll see a huge black smoke billowing over the northern villages of the Gaza Strip Betlahia or Betranoun it's not clear from where we are but you can see that this is probably the explosion caused by a fighter jet and that's been going on since we've been here this morning we know that internet and cellular services are partially closed right now that would mean that Israel is speeding up in a sense it's ground offensive cordon enough Gaza City from the southeast and north and cleaning the areas where terrorists are barricaded Pierre we're going to be back to you over the course of the day as the situation develops and it is developing very fast but first we are going to turn to our studio we have Colonel Jack Narria former deputy have assessment with Israeli military intelligence as well as our senior correspondent Owen Ultriman thank you both for being with us again I want to open with you Jack because what I understand there's been some very significant movements in the ground in the last 24 hours and now Israel has access to various tunnel sites that lead into Hamas's underground facilities ultimately what sort of access are we talking and what capabilities does that give Israel for disabling them well let's first put it right on the table Israel has no intention to send fighters inside the tunnels this is something that we cannot afford because the casualties will be enormous we don't know exactly how the web is constructed and we might meet at every corner the Hamas terrorists that would put explosives and then this this would be a deadly encounter from our point of view so the the issue is how do we deal with the with the tunnels first I mean by uncovering the entrances and the exits of those tunnels and just sealing them from both sides and waiting waiting or on the other hand bombing the buildings where they hide under the buildings and when we uncover again the entrances to the those tunnels those tunnels have to be just closed forever this is how we will deal with that because at 500 kilometers this is something that I mean it will last four years so the the thing is that we have just to close and when they will feel that 70 meters below the surface that they have no air no oxygen because the the fuel that is generating the generators that are bringing electricity and and aeration into the those tunnels will just end and they will have no choice but to go out once they go out that they are at our mercy well ultimately we can't really guarantee that we don't know where all these 500 kilometers of tunnel are we don't know where every single exit every single vent is if we disable even 50 60 70 percent there's still a lot of leeway for them to move yeah I also want to add another question you talk about the issue of the fuel the reporting is that Hamas's fuel that can last for months yes beyond the so then what value you know you know they've been preparing for this war for the last two years if that's the case why should we think that the tactical idea of denying of waiting until the fuel runs out will work because by the time the fuel runs out we are not waiting for that I'm saying that the fuel will run out at the end of the day that this will run out but right now we are uncovering the entrances and the exits of the we know I would say most of the entrances and the exits but we have to reach them to you know to reach them you have to fight several lines of defense that Hamas has put on the ground so this is yesterday we just fought a bastion a fortification which just crumbled under the building and we just discovered the web of tunnels that was under it and 50 terrorists were killed yesterday just because of that so I think that the idea that is as I said to advance slowly to uncover the entrances and the exits and to try to just seal them to seal them and this is the way you can you can deal with them and we know from our past experience in the last five days that as soon as they feel that danger is coming near them they go out in order to to attack our forces and when they meet the army they're always inferiority I remember several years back on the Lebanese front with the tunnels there the IDF unveiled various tunnel crawling drones armed drones that can go in there without having to risk Israeli soldiers is this a viable strategy to conduct tunnel fighting well you know the Hezbollah at the time had about 10 tunnels dug for years and they were supposed to I mean the exit was inside the Israeli territory and in times of of war or the of a surprise attack they were supposed to overcome the obstacle and this is what happened in in Gaza we had two or three times you know tunnels that were that were dug and were under the and reached inside Israeli territory so we had to build this wall which is the cause of most of our trouble today because I mean everybody thought that this obstacle was impossible to to cross so the and then they they went deeper and deeper and in some places the wall that we have constructed goes several I would say dozens of meters below the surface in order to stop any possibility of crossing inside Israel so this is really a job that has been done for years I'll I'll give you an example before on the Philadelphia on the Philadelphia axis that this is the border between Rafa and and Egypt there were about 150 tunnels in some of the tunnels they would they would bring cattle the cows and and cars and everything that would cross inside this is a real underground city so this is quite a challenge but it can be met and before we continue this discussion I am going to turn to our correspondent the North Mary McAuliffe standing on the border there we're not just looking at the northern front though we're seeing an entire regional escalation you've mentioned Yemen of course but now we're seeing some threats from Iraqi militias to escalate just what's going on now that's exactly right Arielle so statement this morning coming out from the Hezbollah El Nujaba that's the Iraqi version of Iraqi version of Islamic resistance or at least they pose themselves as the head of the Islamic resistance in Iraq now announcing that they want to take all decisions to remove all foreign military presence from that country saying that they will stop at no cost to try and make sure that they do it and there will be no backing down of course there are a number of different coalition troops from the western coalition who still remain in Iraq from the fight on terror who still remain in there numerous different bases and we've seen almost 30 attacks on forces that are housing American bases in both Iraq and Syria since the beginning of this war broke out on October 7th so certainly this war has already spilled out and caused some escalation beyond Israel's borders and beyond the Palestinian borders you can see these all actions that we are hearing worrying statements coming out from the U.S. warning of de-escalation in the region and we've heard numerous times over the past few weeks that the U.S. says if there's going to be de-escalation in the reason the Iranian-backed proxies and Iran's malign influence is to blame and we have certainly seen an increase in attacks all of them coming from Iranian-backed groups were stationed throughout the Middle East some of them also on Israel's northern border of course we're talking about Hezbollah where we just continue to see cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah that has forced thousands of people to evacuate both from the Israel side of the northern border but also in southern Lebanon on that side of the border thousands have been killed a number of Israeli soldiers have been killed and dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed thank you very much Mayor for the updates from the northern front as well as fronts beyond that we'll be back with you as those fronts develop further I want to return to studio where Owen Ultraman our senior correspondent is sitting by we're seeing escalating attacks on U.S. forces in the region as well at what point does the United States ultimately get dragged into this as a much larger scale than a few airstrikes here and there only if Hezbollah comes in and Israel can't beat Hezbollah by itself that's the bottom line I don't think that the attacks on the bases are going to do much of anything if the Iranians think that this is going to deter from the United States from getting involved Joe Biden has set the stakes so much higher that I don't think he can allow that to deter him so I don't think it's a particularly effective tool by these militias but certainly if there's a major escalation on the north that is beyond Israel's power to handle on its own we heard Anthony Blinken say this explicitly I believe while he was here visiting Israel we know you say you want to defend yourselves and you can defend yourselves but just know you don't have to those are the words the U.S. Secretary of State and it was again there was President Biden who famously said that one word right don't so if there's a major escalation in the north I think that the United States has committed itself to getting involved if need be short of that no I don't think the United States is going to get more involved other than changing its force posture obviously which of course is what we've seen across the region but force posture will not include wider air strikes on Houthi rebels that are firing in the region especially if they're firing on U.S. troops such as other Iranian groups have done it's hard for me to imagine the United States after all it's been thrown its policy on the war in Yemen is going to get involved in the war in Yemen but obviously there are outlier scenarios right and attack that is quote unquote too successful that kills a large number of American troops that forces the United States's hand obviously there are outlier scenarios like that it's hard for me to imagine the United States getting involved directly in that way in the war in Yemen that said I do think that the involvement of the Houthis inserting themselves into this war Israel has no conflict with the Houthis in Yemen nothing to do with the war in Yemen and yet they have decided to start firing on Israel and presumably on civilian targets in Israel or at least indiscriminately we heard IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari say that the military is ready to respond at the time and place of Israel's choosing I do think that that move may change the way the United States looks at the war in Yemen and US objectives on the war in Yemen and if you think about it that way it's a bit hard to understand what the Iranians are trying to achieve with inserting the Houthis here and you just get the sense it might backfire in them very very badly both in terms of the way the United States is going to look at this and also the way the Saudis are going to look at this We're going to continue this in a brief moment but I do want to bring in more on that discussion because Israel has dispatched two missiles ships to the Red Sea it's an attempt to deter Iran back to the rebels because those militias have fired multiple ballistic cruise missiles as well as explosive drones at Israel and multiple events multiple rounds of missiles being fired towards a lot and intercepted by the IDF now that's a challenge because a lot has become a refuge for many Israelis who were evacuated from the Gaza border region many of which are survivors of that initial attack on Israeli soil they now find themselves under bombardment once again we're actually joined right now by Adele Ramer a resident of Kibbutz Nereem who survived Hamas's assault on October 7th Adele thank you very much for being with us how are you feeling right now? Thank you for inviting me I'm not a person who scares easily I went back to my Kibbutz yesterday to get things even though I know that it's not completely safe it's a closed war zone and we came to a lot feeling that we have a place of quiet of where we can relax we can let our arm down let our guard down and now we hear this it's it's disconcerting but you know this has been my answer all along I've taken hundreds of people to my community to see the community to describe what life on the border is really like and when people say well why do you live so close to the border where do you live where you do it's so dangerous I tell them where is it safe in Israel where can I go Tel Aviv gets rockets Bersheva certainly gets rockets Ashkelon Jerusalem gets rammings and knife things up north and now in a lot it's just this is the reality of 2023 and radical Islam raising its ugly head and deciding that this for them is the time to try and get rid of us Is there a fear from people in Iraq a lot from your family because it's not just rockets this time we're talking about much bigger missiles much more advanced things coming from the Houthis in Yemen does that change the equation for you what equation where to go what equation it is what it is we there's where can you run away to you cannot run away from terror it's scary I mean I'm hearing impaired I was woken up in the middle of the night by this humongous explosion it was hard to fall asleep again but I did I'm not there's no choice we have to learn how to just take a really deep breath and let the IDF do what they know how to do and it's going to take a lot for the IDF and the government the country to let us rebuild our sense of security certainly where we live I don't know when we're going to go back to where we live but in general to help us build back the resilience that we had and the feeling of security that we had that Israel is the safest place in the world for Jews and I want to commend you and your family for that resilience I also want a chance to talk to our audience to let you talk to our audience to describe what you and your family had to endure on that fateful day that led to this point it started at 6 30 when we started getting incoming rocket alerts warnings which give us zero to 10 seconds to get from wherever we are into the safe room uh because that's how long it takes for from the minute you hear the alarm until the minute you hear the explosion so I ran to my safe room where my son who was visiting me was already sleeping and there was a it's usually one rocket two rockets we usually close the safe room window but it was such an intense barrage we dare not even stand up to close the window we close the door um and then about 20 minutes later we got notification that there were terrorists in the kibbutz that we had to go outside the safe room to close all the doors all the blinds all the windows lock the doors to go back in our safe room and lock the safe room door which you cannot do the safe room is built to be safe from rockets and the lock the click that it has clicks it with with prongs into the ceiling and and the floor so that if a rocket hits the house it won't implode and blow the door open the safe room is not built to protect against infiltration the only way that you can to some extent protect against infiltration is by physically holding down that handle on the door and hoping that the terrorists on the other side aren't stronger than you and won't be able to open it so we sat there petrified waiting for waiting for terrorists and all the while hearing automatic gunfire outside things that we're not used to hearing we don't usually hear within the kibbutz and we heard Arabic we heard the terrorists talking to each other outside and and there's an internal messaging system where we're seeing messages house by house neighborhood by neighborhood people are screaming for help call the army call the air force call the the fire department the police where are the people that are supposed to be coming to save us crickets nothing nobody's coming to save us we realized that we were on our own we did not have a weapon my son neither my son nor I have had a weapon with us so we just sat there petrified waiting for the terrorists to enter our house at one point my son heard Arabic and he he understands a little bit and he heard them saying come here we didn't understand what what they're what that was all about about an hour later when I could not hold it in any longer I opened the door I had to go to the bathroom and I saw the slats on my window busted which means that when we heard them say come here they were trying to enter my house and someone called called them away another terrorist called them away my son-in-law was in his house with my three granddaughters he's one of the first responders so he did have a weapon and thank god he did because when the terrorist entered his apartment he told the girls cover yourselves with the blanket don't make a noise you're gonna hear a loud noise but don't run after me these girls never listen they did thank god he stepped outside his safe room and shot the terrorist with his own hands protected his children we were on our own four men four brave men who worked amazingly well together against tens somebody said somebody said 50 somebody said 60 nobody knows exactly how many there were because there were terrorists and there were just looters and destroyers people just wearing street clothing in regular guzzins who decided to come and wreak havoc in the community shooting up cars bashing windows destroying everything stealing things so these four men held the point from 6 30 in the morning until the army started arriving at 1 30 in the afternoon we have five of our community were slaughtered five of them disappeared we don't know anything about their whereabouts or their situation one we saw on well I didn't see the clip a picture that the media showed one of those women the three women in that clip are one of our kidnapped Rimon and now we're in a lot we are refugees we left with practically nothing we had an hour we were kept in the kibbutz we weren't able to be evacuated until 3 o'clock the following day and all the while under fire with we didn't know if they'd gotten all the terrorists but we were still getting incoming rockets I did not believe I was going to see another sunrise I don't really goodbye to their children goodbye to their families sent messages I love you it's the sort of terrifying situation I just don't really have words to to to answer to give comfort I guess the best I can ask is since then what sort of message do you have as someone who lived through this as somebody who's still living under fire in Israel South what's your message to your fellow Israelis at this time I still believe that Israel is the only place in the world where Jews can be free to protect ourselves and many many tragic mistakes happened I trust my country my army my government to figure out what went wrong and to fix it because this can never ever happen again and when the Palestinians say from the river to the sea Palestine will be free that is a genocidal war cry and we really need to take them at their word well they've certainly showed that they mean it Adele I'm glad you could be with us I'm glad you can explain everything that we saw and remind our viewers people around the world just what it is that Israel's fighting for thank you for staying strong through all of this thank you for your support to end the support that we get from abroad it helps it truly helps absolutely thank you very much we're going to be ending our show right there because we are out of time but we will see you again at the top of each hour and we will bring you updates from around Israel and around all the various fronts of this war when we get back so we'll see you again very soon until then thanks for watching get the inside scoop on what's going on only on i24 news for news is ongoing coverage of Israel at war we are 26 days into the conflict Israel's fighting on two fronts the visuals you're seeing now though are from Egypt's Rafa crossing which has opened to allow foreign nationals Gaza dual citizens to flee Gaza that's part of a deal that's been negotiated with Egypt Israel Qatar Hamas and the United States and will also allow wounded Gazans to seek treatment in Egypt there's no agreement so far on how long the crossing will remain open for trucks carrying humanitarian aid are also on video passing through the crossing into Gaza the IDF has announced the death of another 10 soldiers killed fighting in northern Gaza against Hamas terrorists joining two more pronounced dead yesterday seven of the fallen were from the Sabar battalion and I'm going to interrupt now the notion that there's a rock alert for Ashkelon right now as we speak that's in Israel's south of the fallen as saying after that barrage I was mentioning the fallen so far seven from the Sabar battalion two more from the 77th and another from the Givati combat infantry the air force also struck some deep underground Hamas infrastructure in Jabalia a strike that also took out Ibrahim Biari the commander of Hamas's central Jabalia battalion and a core planner of the October 7th massacre in the north the IDF intercepted a surface to air missile fire from Lebanon and an Israeli drone on Tuesday night and according to the IDF spokesman's unit the IDF struck the site where the missile was fired from as well as the terror cell that fired that missile we could kill the head of the Jabalia brigade a murderous terrorist who was also responsible for an important space from which terrorists went out for the massacre on the 7th of October more than that this is a meaningful terrorist that administered the battle in the north of the Gaza Strip in a dominant way we killed him his death happens inside his building in the Jabalia refugee camp when he is there with dozens of other terrorists in a place where there is a command center and an underground area that is built within within the civilian refugee camp in the buildings this led to the collapse of the building and the underground infrastructure of the tunnels and therefore other buildings collapsed of course this testifies more on the cynical use by murderous terrorists that are using of using human shields of the population that we told them to leave for its own defense southward and the cynical use that they're able to making of him in the course of the fighting and for more from the south we are going to cross over to our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler who is standing by in southern Israel Pierre it's good to have you on I want to talk about the Rafa cross and opening what details do we have what is going through how many people everything we know well at this point we know that there's about 400 people waiting at the Rafa terminal on the Palestinian side waiting to be crossing to Rafa on the Egyptian side because Rafa is a city which is divided between Egypt and the Gaza Strip right now only 400 but Anthony Blinken spoke about figures like 6000 foreign and dual nationals that are in the Gaza Strip so if today 400 are evacuated and extracted from the Gaza Strip that means that it would be only the first batch of those civilians that would be extracted and that would require many more days to extract all the civilians with dual nationality of foreign nationality in addition we know that Egypt has established a field campaign hospital in Sher Swede which is on the northern tip of the Sinai peninsula and 91 severely wounded and Sikh Palestinians civilians only are supposed to be evacuated today in addition we know that Israel the US France are trying to coordinate ship hospitals in order to allow more people to be treated out of the Gaza territory and Pierre just a couple of moments ago there was a rocket barrage coming out of Gaza aimed at Ashkelon what do we know about that we still don't know I mean the rescue services are still scoring the area with Gil Kramer I wanted you to have a look at what's going on in the Gaza Strip right now you see plumes of smoke and on the right side Gil is going to pan you'll see a huge black smoke billowing over the northern villages of the Gaza Strip Betlahia or Betchanoun it's not clear from where we are but you can see that this is probably the explosion caused by a fighter jet and that's been going on since we've been here this morning we know that internet and cellular services are partially closed right now that would mean that Israel is speeding up in a sense it's ground offensive Cordon enough Gaza City from the southeast and north and cleaning the areas where terrorists are barricaded Pierre we're going to be back to you over the course of the day as the situation there develops and it is developing very fast but first we are going to turn to our studio we have Colonel Jack Nariot former deputy have assessment with Israeli military intelligence as well as our senior correspondent Owen Ultriman thank you both for being with us again I want to open with you Jack because what I understand there's been some very significant movements in the ground on the last 24 hours and now Israel has access to various tunnel sites that lead into Hamas's underground facilities ultimately what sort of access are we talking and what capabilities does that give Israel for disabling them well let's first I mean put it right on the table Israel has no intention to send fighters inside the tunnels this is something that we cannot afford because the casualties will be enormous we don't know exactly how the web is constructed and we might we might meet at every corner the Hamas the terrorists so that would put explosives and then this would be a deadly encounter from our point of view so the the issue is how do we deal with the with the tunnels first I mean by by uncovering the entrances and the exits of those tunnels and just sealing them from both sides and waiting waiting or on the other hand barming the buildings where they hide under the buildings and when we uncover again the the entrances to those tunnels those tunnels have to be just closed forever this is how we will deal with that because at 500 kilometers this is something that I mean it will last for years so the the thing is that we have just to close and when they will feel that 70 meters below the surface that they have no air no oxygen because the the fuel that is generating the generators that are bringing electricity and and aeration into the those tunnels will just end and they will have no choice but to go out once they go out that they are at our mercy well ultimately we can't really guarantee that we don't know where all these 500 kilometers of tunnel are we don't know where every single exit every single vent is if we disable even 50 60 70 percent there's still a lot of leeway for them to move yes I also want to add another question you talked about the issue of the fuel the reporting is that Hamas's fuel that can last it for months yes beyond the so then what value you know you know they've been preparing for this war for for the for the last two years that's the case if that's the case why should we think that the tactical idea of denying of waiting until the fuel runs out will work because that by the time the fuel runs out we are not waiting for that I'm saying that the fuel will run out at the end of the day that this will run out but right now we are uncovering the entrances and the exits of the we know I would say most of the entrances and the exits but we have to reach them to you know to reach them you have to fight several lines of defense that Hamas has put on the ground so this is yesterday we just fought a bastion a fortification which just crumbled under the building and we just discovered the web of tunnels that was under it and 50 terrorists were killed yesterday just because of that so I think that the idea that is as I said to advance slowly to uncover the the entrances and the exits and to try to just seal them to seal them and this is the way you can deal with them and we know from our past experience in the last five days that as soon as they feel that danger is coming near them they go out in order to to attack our forces and when they meet the army they're always in inferiority I remember several years back on the Lebanese front with the tunnels there the IDF unveiled various tunnel crawling drones armed drones that can go in there without having to risk Israeli soldiers is this a viable strategy to conduct tunnel fighting? Well you know the Hezbollah at the time had about 10 tunnels dug for years and they were supposed to I mean the exit was inside Israeli territory and in times of war or a surprise attack they were supposed to overcome the obstacle and this is what happened in Gaza we had two or three times tunnels that were dug and were under the and reached inside Israeli territory so we had to build this wall which is the cause of most of our trouble today because I mean everybody thought that this obstacle was impossible to cross so and then they went deeper and deeper and in some places the wall that we have constructed goes several I would say dozens of meters below the surface in order to stop any possibility of crossing inside Israel so this is really a job that has been done for years I'll give you an example before on the Philadelphia on the Philadelphia axis that this is the border between Rafa and Egypt there were about 150 tunnels in some of the tunnels they would bring cattle the cows and cars and everything that would cross inside this is a real underground city so this is quite a challenge but it can be met and before we continue this discussion I am going to turn to our correspondent in North Mary McAuliffe standing on the border there we're not just looking at the northern front though we're seeing an entire regional escalation you've mentioned Yemen of course but now we're seeing some threats from Iraqi militias to escalate just what's going on now that's exactly right Ariel so statement this morning coming out from the Hezbollah El Nujaba that's the Iraqi version of Iraqi version of Islamic resistance or at least they pose themselves as the head of the Islamic resistance in Iraq now announcing that they want to take all decisions to remove all foreign military presence from that country saying that they will stop at no cost to try and make sure that they do it and there will be no backing down of course there are a number of different coalition troops from the western coalition who still remain in Iraq from the fight on terror who still remain in there numerous different bases and we've seen almost 30 attacks on forces that are housing American bases in both Iraq and Syria since the beginning of this war broke out on October 7 so certainly this war has already spilled out and caused some escalation beyond Israel's borders and beyond the Palestinian borders you can see these all actions and we are hearing worrying statements coming out from the U.S. warning of de-escalation in the region and we've heard numerous times over the past few weeks that the U.S. says if there's going to be de-escalation in the region the Iranian-backed proxies and Iran's malign influence is to blame and we've certainly seen an increase in attacks all of them coming from Iranian-backed groups who are stationed throughout the Middle East some of them also on Israel's northern border of course we're talking about Hezbollah where we just continue to see cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah that has forced thousands of people to evacuate both from the Israel side of the northern border but also in southern Lebanon on that side of the border thousands have been killed a number of Israeli soldiers have been killed and dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed Thank you very much Mayor for the updates from the northern front as well as fronts beyond that we'll be back with you as those fronts develop further I want to return to the studio where Owen Ultraman our senior correspondent is sitting by we're seeing escalating attacks on U.S. forces in the region as well what points does the United States ultimately get dragged into this as a much larger scale than a few airstrikes here and there Only if Hezbollah comes in and Israel can't beat Hezbollah by itself that's the bottom line I don't think that the attacks on the bases are going to do much of anything if the Iranians think that this is going to deter from the United States from getting involved Joe Biden has set the stakes so much higher that I don't think he can allow that to deter him so I don't think it's a particularly effective tool by these militias but certainly if there's a major escalation on the north that is beyond Israel's power to handle on its own we heard Anthony Blinken say this explicitly I believe while he was here visiting Israel we know you say you want to defend yourselves and you can defend yourselves but just know you don't have to those are the words the U.S. Secretary of State and it was again there was President Biden who famously said that one word right don't so if there's a major escalation in the north I think that the United States has committed itself to getting involved if need be short of that no I don't think the United States is going to get more involved other than changing its force posture obviously which of course is what we've seen across the region that force posture will not include wider airstrikes on Houthi rebels that are firing in the region especially if they're firing on U.S. troops such as other Iranian groups have done it's hard for me to imagine the United States after all it's been through and its policy on the war in Yemen is going to get involved in the war in Yemen but obviously there are outlier scenarios right and attack that is quote unquote too successful that kills a large number of American troops that forces the United States' hand obviously there are outlier scenarios like that it's hard for me to imagine the United States getting involved directly in that way in the war in Yemen that said I do think that the involvement of the Houthis inserting themselves into this war Israel has no conflict with the Houthis in Yemen nothing to do with the war in Yemen and yet they have decided to start firing on Israel and presumably on civilian targets in Israel at least indiscriminately we heard IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari say that the military is ready to respond at the time and place of Israel's choosing I do think that move may change the way the United States looks at the war in Yemen and U.S. objectives on the war in Yemen and if you think about it that way it's a bit hard to understand what the Iranians are trying to achieve with inserting the Houthis here and you just get the sense it might backfire on them very very badly both in terms of the United States is going to look at this and also the way the Saudis are going to look at this we're going to continue this in a brief moment but I do want to bring in more on that discussion because Israel has dispatched two missile ships to the Red Sea it's an attempt to deter Iran back to the rebels because those militias have fired multiple ballistic cruise missiles as well as explosive drones at Israel and multiple events multiple rounds of missiles being fired towards Eilat and intercepted by the IDF now that's a challenge because Eilat has become a refuge for many Israelis who are evacuated from the Gaza border region many of which are survivors of that initial attack on Israeli soil they now find themselves under bombardment once again we're actually joined right now by Adele Ramer a resident of Kibbutz Nirium who survived Hamas's assault on October 7th Adele thank you very much for being with us how are you feeling right now thank you for inviting me I'm not a person who scares easily I went back to my Kibbutz yesterday to get things even though I know that it's not completely safe it's a closed war zone and we came to Eilat feeling that we have a place of quiet where we can relax we can let our arm down let our guard down and now we hear this it's disconcerting but you know this has been my answer all along I've taken hundreds of people to my community to see the community to describe what life on the border is really like and when people say well why do you live so close to the border why do you live where you do it's so dangerous I tell them where is it safe in Israel where can I go Tel Aviv gets rockets Bersheva certainly gets rockets Ashkelon Jerusalem gets rammings and knife things up north that and now in Eilat it's just this is the reality of 2023 and radical Islam raising its ugly head and deciding that this for them is the time to try and get rid of us is there a fear from people in Eilat a lot from your family because it's not just rockets this time we're talking about much bigger missiles much more advanced things coming from the Houthis in Yemen does that change the equation for you what equation where to go what equation it is what it is we there's where can you run away to you cannot run away from terror it's scary I mean I'm hearing impaired I was woken up in the middle of the night by this humongous explosion it was hard to fall asleep again but but but I did I'm not there's no choice we have to learn how to just take a really deep breath and let the IDF do what they know how to do and it's going to take a lot for for the IDF and the government the country to let us rebuild our sense of security certainly where we live I don't I don't know when we're going to go back to where we live but in general to to help us build back the resilience that we had and the feeling of security that we had that Israel is the safest place in the world for Jews and I want to commend you and your family for that resilience I also want a chance to talk to our audience to let you talk to our audience to describe what you and your family had to endure on that fateful day that led to this point it started at 6 30 when we started getting incoming rocket alerts warnings which give us 0 to 10 seconds to get from wherever we are into the safe room because that's how long it takes for from the minute you hear the alarm until the minute you hear the explosion so I ran to my safe room where my son who was visiting me was already sleeping and there was a it's usually one rocket two rockets we usually close the safe room window but it was such an intense barrage we dare not even stand up to close the window we closed the door and then about 20 minutes later we got notification that there were terrorists in the kibbutz that we had to go outside the safe room to close all the doors all the blinds all the windows lock the doors to go back in our safe room and lock the safe room door which you cannot do the safe room is built to be safe from rockets and the lock the click that it has clicks it with prongs into the ceiling and the floor so that if a rocket hits the house it won't implode and blow the door open the safe room is not built to protect against infiltration the only way that you can to some extent protect against infiltration is by physically holding down that handle on the door and hoping that the terrorists on the other side aren't stronger than you and won't be able to open it so we sat there petrified waiting for waiting for terrorists and all the while hearing automatic gunfire outside things that we're not used to hearing we don't usually hear within the kibbutz and we heard Arabic we heard the terrorists talking to each other outside and there's an internal messaging system where we're seeing messages house by house neighborhood by neighborhood people are screaming for help call the army call the air force call the fire department the police where are the people that are supposed to be coming to save us crickets nothing nobody's coming to save us we realized that we were on our own we did not have a weapon my son neither my son nor i have had a weapon with us so we just sat there petrified waiting for the terrorists to enter our house at one point my son heard Arabic and he understands a little bit and he heard them saying come here we didn't understand what what the what that was all about about an hour later when I could not hold it in any longer I opened the door I had to go to the bathroom and I saw the slats on my window busted which means that when we heard them say come here they were trying to enter my house and someone called called them away another terrorist called them away my son-in-law was in his house with my three granddaughters he's one of the first responders so he did have a weapon and thank god he did because when the terrorist entered his apartment he told the girls cover yourselves with the blanket don't make a noise you're going to hear a loud noise but don't run after me these girls never listen they did thank god he stepped outside his safe room and shot the terrorist with his own hands protected his children we were on our own four men four brave men who who worked amazingly well together against tens somebody said somebody said 50 somebody said 60 nobody knows exactly how many there were because there were terrorists and there were just looters and destroyers people just wearing street clothing and regular cousins who decided to come and wreak havoc in the community shooting up cars bashing windows destroying everything stealing things so these four men held the point from 6 30 in the morning until the army started arriving at 1 30 in the afternoon we have five of our community were slaughtered five of them disappeared we don't know anything about their whereabouts or their situation one we saw on on a clip on well I didn't see the clip a picture that the media showed one of those women the three women in that clip are one of our kidnapped Rimon and now we're in a lot we are refugees we we left with practically nothing we had an hour we were kept in the kibbutz we weren't able to be evacuated until three o'clock the following day and all the while under fire with we didn't know if they'd gotten all the terrorists but we were still getting incoming rockets I did not believe I was going to see another sunrise I don't really goodbye to their children goodbye to their families sent messages I love you it's the sort of terrifying situation I just don't really have words to to to answer to give comfort I guess the the best I can ask is since then what sort of message do you have as someone who lived through this as somebody who's still living under fire in Israel South what's your message to your fellow Israelis at this time I still believe that Israel is the only place in the world where Jews can be free to protect ourselves and many many tragic mistakes happened I trust my country my army my government