 Thanks Sarah Martinez and you're watching I-24 News. Today marks the 55th day of the war here in Israel and here's the latest at this hour. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in a car ramming attack at the Bukalak checkpoints in the Jordan Valley on Thursday afternoon. The suspected terrorist was apprehended. Israel has confirmed that the temporary six-day ceasefire has been extended by another day. The temporary truce which began on Friday and was set to expire Wednesday evening at midnight was extended after mediation efforts by the United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar carried on until just before 7 a.m. this morning. Underscoring the urgency, Israel's war cabinet also issued an ultimatum to Hamas, released an acceptable list of hostages by 7 a.m. or else the fighting will restart immediately. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jerusalem where he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, his fourth trip to the region to boost truce negotiations and to discuss how to provide additional humanitarian aid to Gaza. As part of the agreement, Hamas will release another eight Israeli hostages today, six women and two children who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip. They were kidnapped on October 7th. Their families have been notified. They will also release the bodies of three Israelis. According to the latest reports, Hamas claims they will release also two Russian Israelis today. So far 97 civilians have been released from Hamas captivity in Gaza. 145 hostages, including 15 women and children, still remain captive in the Gaza Strip by the terror organization. Meanwhile, three Israelis were killed and six were injured in a shooting attack to the entrance of Jerusalem this morning. Hamas has claimed responsibility for that deadly shooting attack. Our I-24 News correspondent Pierre Klochenler filed this report from there today. Take a look. The shooting terror attack occurred here at 7.38 a.m. local time. Two terrorists came out of a white car armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a headgun and they shot at people here indiscriminately. Three people were killed, three Israelis, and seven others were wounded. Five severely, one moderately and one lightly. This was a very severe attack. But it happened within seconds because there were two reservists on leave, plus a civilian. The two reservists on leave were on a 12-hour leave and they were returning back to the Gaza front. And they managed to neutralize the two terrorists who are affiliated to Hamas. And what's amazing is that the rescue was very speedy because the headquarter of the Magan David at Dom Rescue Services is just nearby. So within half hour all the wounded were hospitalized in two hospitals at 8, 10 local time. They were already being treated after receiving first aid on the ground. They were being treated in the hospitals. Now what's also amazing is the return of life to normal. Or a normal, abnormal if you want. Two hours after the highway is still open, is open, the buses are serving the people that are waiting at the bus stop and people decorated the bus stop with Israeli flags and with slogans in Gaza, we shall win. With the help of God, we shall win. Don't be afraid, shoot. The people of Israel live. This is what's written in the bus stop. And yet, it's obvious for the Israelis that what happens here and what happens in Gaza is completely interrelated. Within two hours, as I said, life returned to some sort of normalcy. Other rescue workers scrapped pieces of flesh and bone and washed the blood. The scrapped pieces of flesh and bones because in a scene of violence, you have to pick up any human remains because human remains are holy and you have to bury them and you have to clean the scene. And this is what happened. Now obviously, the Israelis are very mobilized. Earlier there were some school girls that came here. These are the ones that decorated the bus station. They demonstrated their support to the army, their support to the people of Israel. This is Pierre Closh and Lair, I-24 News in Jerusalem. And then spring in, retired IDF colonel Dr. Jacques Néria, former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Havin. Thank you very much for joining us today. Me too. Jacques, I want to ask you about this attack that occurred this morning. Hamas has claimed responsibility for it. How concerning is that for the IDF, especially in light that it's released some 210 Palestinian prisoners back to the West Bank? Well, so we are in fact in the state of war in the West Bank. I mean, we shouldn't be fooled ourselves. It's been quite a while where this piece of land was not a piece at all. The only from the beginning of this war, 2000 operatives of Hamas and other Palestinian factions were arrested, whereas about 200 were killed in clashes with the army. The army enters and every day, the refugee camps in Nablus, in Janine and other places. And in fact, I mean, day by day, we can see that it expands to most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank. So I mean, and who's leading the incitement? Hamas, Hamas is leading the incitement. And the popular vote is for Hamas. Hamas, according to the polls, has the biggest popularity in the West Bank, whereas the Palestinian authority is set back in a forgotten, almost and useless. So what happens is the following, two days ago, the head of the Janine battalion is killed by the Israeli IDF. And then what happens is the response, the response is to the terrorists who attack a bus stop in Jerusalem. So there's inspiration, and the fact that this is an ongoing war, and we have to be very alert. And the fact is that less than two minutes after the beginning of the incident, those two terrorists were killed. Jaqna, stay with me. I wanna listen to this quickly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a war cabinet meeting accompanied by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Let's listen to the remarks by Israel's Premier. Well, welcome. Secretary Dyer had an opportunity to begin the discussion. There are many issues that we want to talk about, which I want to express our appreciation for your support from the beginning, the Presidents, your delegation, and the war aims of eliminating Hamas and releasing and securing our borders of our hostages. You've been very, very helpful. We appreciate it deeply. We'd like to talk to you about the next phase. That's a summary of what we'd like to talk about and began talking about it. Joining me here in studio is Dan Perry, International Affairs Analyst and former Europe and Middle East Editor for the Associated Press. Thank you very much for joining me today. We just listened to Netanyahu and Blinken talk to us about the role Blinken and the United States in general has played in these diplomatic efforts to extend this truce by another day. It is absolutely remarkable that Blinken is now in his third war cabinet meeting. I mean, I don't recall the U.S. being quite this intimately evolved in a war effort of even a NATO country or any other allied country. I think that shows both the U.S. commitment to Israel's twin goals of removing Hamas from power in Gaza and if at all possible eradicating Hamas's military capabilities and returning the hostages. That said, I'm not the first to note that the U.S. also perhaps is trying to keep Israel on a leash because there is a very clear concern about the civilian death toll in Gaza. Can we expect the same level of U.S. support in this next phase of the war once the fighting resumes? I think that attaches to the degree to which Israel can credibly prove that it is doing everything conceivable to minimize the death toll in the south in this case and it'll be more difficult because the north was largely cleared out of civilian population and still many thousands were killed and I recognize that we don't really know the exact number but when Hamas run health ministry out of Gaza, this says that there's 15,000 people killed and Israel doesn't strenuously deny it. You have to assume that indeed the death toll is huge. Southern Gaza now has two million people, one million of whom are refugees. Half of them are living in tents and such and clearly the potential in that kind of a situation for Hamas to use them as human shields successfully and to have the result be a horrifying death toll. That will create pressure on Israel to stop as high. And should we expect the U.S. to pressure Israel to end the war, giving Israel some sort of deadline? I don't think so much a deadline, at least not overtly in public. But I do expect that the U.S. will start to pressure Israel to present a different day after plan. When it to now says a Palestinian authority, even in rejuvenated form, even in revitalized and democratized and improved form, cannot be in control of Gaza. That suggests what he's seeking is an occupation. And I think President Biden is going to seek a day after plan that gives the Palestinians some attractive horizon. And that, by the way, will impact political opinion in West Bank as well. I mean, Jacques Nariad just spoke of the rather horrifying and dispiriting support that Hamas has in West Bank. But that is also a function of the right-wing government in Israel. And before we turn back to Jacques, I want to speak a little bit about these Hamas reporting that it will release two additional Israeli citizens who also have Russian citizenship. Hamas saying it's a separate gesture to Putin. What does Putin want to demonstrate here? I think Putin wants to seize every opportunity to appear as a useful, good faith player on the world stage. But these are all psychological games. I mean, I don't think Hamas is actually going to count them as extra. They're probably going to be balanced out by a lesser number later on. I mean, if Putin can help somehow, there's no reason that Israel shouldn't avail itself of that assistance. But I frankly doubt that will undo the damage Putin has done to Russia's brand with his criminal evasion of Ukraine. I want to cross over to I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Reghev who is at Schneider Children's Medical Center. Jonathan, tell us about the preparations the hospital is making to treat these women and children that are expected to arrive later this evening. Yes, the same preparations that have been going on for a week now. Let's remember the first patients who were released last Friday arrived here. All in all, 26 freed hostages arrived to Schneider for the past week, since Friday evening, since this whole process began. And just a short time ago, we heard from the hospital's director, Dr. Efrat Harlev-Baron, about the whole process, what they've been going on, what has been happening at the hospital for the past week. Let's listen. We are overwhelmed by their ability to gradually adapt during the days of their stay with us, which inspires us with great optimism. Over the last five days, we've met children who were entirely withdrawn and lost. And after a day or two, they were already running, playing around the world and laughing. We heard from many of the children and women unimaginable accounts, some of them really completely surreal. We've heard stories which are hard for us as doctors and as caregivers to believe that can exist. We understand that they're just at the beginning and that everyone still has a long way to go for the full rehabilitation. One of those 26 people brought here to Schneider was Ofir Engel, who arrived here very late last night. Let's remember the whole process last night was delayed, but eventually it happened. Ofir Engel was one of four who was brought here to Schneider. And just a short time ago, we spoke with his aunt, a frat about his condition and about how he feels, how our family feels. Let's listen. I don't know. He looks okay, but you have to look into his eyes. I think he had a terrible time. It was very hard. He's so thin. I see fear in his eyes, but everyone tells me he's okay. He looks very good. He is such a beautiful woman. Jonathan Regev, thank you for that update. I want to turn back to our guest on Skype, Jacques Néria. Jacques, before we spoke earlier about some reports that Israeli and US officials are discussing the idea of expelling thousands of low-level Hamas terrorists from the Palestinian enclave as a way to shorten the war, similar to the US broker deal that allowed Palestinian leader Yasser Al-Fat and thousands of fighters to flee Beirut in 1982. I want to ask you, is that feasible in the Gaza Strip with Hamas? Well, yes, it's feasible. It's a very feasible. It's a scenario I just drew from the very first day of this conflict. Under duress, under pressure, the leadership of Hamas will just leave there, will leave through the Egyptian border, to an aeration from there that fly to Beirut or to any other capital they want to be, or even in Russia, if the Russians would like to get them back. So this is a possible scenario. And I think that we shouldn't eliminate it or ignore it. This is a possibility that maybe can be broken through the Egypt Qatar and of course the United States. Dan Perry, you wanted to add something? I wanted to agree vehemently. This is not just a possibility. It is almost certainly the optimal way out of this conflict to insist on their surrender is probably a fool's gambit. They're not going to surrender. They'll fight to the death of the last human shield. To insist on killing Sinwar and others today is attractive, but the cost is really not worth it. And he'll be replaced by some other wannabe Sinwar, whereas to end the war with a departure of 30,000 Hamas necks who can for all I care become construction workers in Qatar would enable everyone a ladder to climb down from what is an absolutely otherwise impossible situation. And I want to speak because we've spoken about Hamas in Gaza, but we haven't spoken yet about Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has a much larger and more powerful arsenal than Hamas. Is the idea of concerned about that? Once the fighting resumes in Gaza, can we expect fighting to resume on the northern border? They're more than concerned. The sort of war footing that the October 7th outrage has created in Israel makes, has created not a consensus, but I believe a majority in Israeli public for initiating something against Hezbollah, which we haven't heard anything the likes of in decades. And that is because of precisely what you said. The concern, well, the feeling that it's unacceptable that Israel should be sitting around waiting for Hezbollah to attack. So I think there is a possibility that Israel may initiate something against Hezbollah, which may not necessarily be wise. It's conceivable that the lesson they learned in 2006 still applies. You see that despite the pressure, probably also from Iran, that they do something significant these past two months, they really haven't. They have engaged in brinksmanship and middle level provocations, but have been careful not to instigate a war. The question is whether Israel wants a war? I'm so lay down, stay with me. The police station in Zdelodz that was attacked by dozens of terrorists October 7th, the fierce battle that lasted for hours. And one of the difficult decisions made was to bulldoze it and the terrorists that hid inside. The body of one of them was even found in rubble seven weeks after the attack. And this week, the police forces are celebrating inauguration of a new station in the city. More in the following report by Estelle Eden. After Israelis, I heard the sirens at home at 6.30 a.m. I put my wife and children in the shelter. I realized that if I was hearing sirens at my home in Beersheba, chances were high, there were also sirens in Zdelodz. Madi Safarti drove through the heavy rocket barrage, trying to reach the police station as fast as possible. While I was on my way to the police station, I saw a terrorist in front of me. He was in uniform and carrying an AK-47. He shot at me five times. At this point, I realized it was an exceptional situation. Madi met several of the placement from his team, assessed the situation and got ready for the battle. I took an assault rifle. I was not armed at all. I had just returned for my vacation. Even my gun was in the office with all my other stuff. So I took an automatic weapon, checked the magazine, did two shots to check if the gun was working. Three more magazines. I just tucked into my shirt as I had no other place to put it and continued on my way to the station. On the road leading to the police station, we neutralized approximately four terrorists. One of them, after we neutralized him, fell and tried to get at his weapon. So I shot again in the direction of the head, eliminated. At this point, a sniper who was standing on the roof shot me in the chest. I fell backwards and got another bullet in the leg. His fellow policeman grabbed Madi and hid him behind a megunit, a concrete protective barrier. I called my wife and told her that I was injured in the chest and in the leg. I told her that I love her and I love our children and I'm not willing to die. The battle at Sterot police station lasted for around 20 hours. The station lost 10 of its officers, both men and women. But if not for the heroism of the unit, the whole city of Sterot could have suffered heavier losses. At least 40 terrorists came here. Whose goal was to take control of the police station, to kill all the policemen and after that to move on to slaughtering civilians in Sterot. And Sterot is only one example. The terrorists planned the same thing for Nettivot, Ashkelon, Ashdod. Madi fought not only for the city of Sterot, but also for his own life. He bled for several hours before the police were able to evacuate him. But on the way, they again came under fire. Madi was moved to a private car and only then was he able to get to an ambulance. Madi survived, but he was hospitalized for weeks and is still receiving treatment. Nevertheless, he couldn't stay home on the day of the inauguration. One of the reasons why it was so important for me to come and to meet my team is that we're very strong and we're always keeping our heads up. People who understand battle tactics know that police should join only in the third circle. But my policeman fought in the first circle. The inauguration of the station is a historic day for the policemen and for the whole city of Sterot. Inaugurating the police station in Sterot is a sign of pride for the Israeli police and its strength and its ability on the one hand to shut down the station and destroy it with the dozens of terrorists hiding inside and on the other hand to decide and to work so that within four days we would build a new one that could help civilians to receive their complaints to give a sense of security to the residents. Not all the residents of Sterot are left and they need this sense of security and this is what we will do here at the Sterot police station. Though today policemen from Sterot station stay strong and try to smile, their thoughts are with the friends that they lost. To alleviate their grief, at least for one night, the Gad Dairy Company joined the event with their special project called Secret Dinner. The project was created seven years ago and lets people buy a ticket to the dinner without knowing in advance where they'll be going or what they'll eat. Since the start of the war, the project has changed years and these days organizes surprise dinners for security forces and medical teams. When we thought about the project in wartime, the first thought we had was about the policemen from the Sterot station. They survived a tragedy. Only now have they finished the morning period for their friends. We owe them this. After the whole station was destroyed, we're raising a new police station together with them. This time, the dinner was cooked by renowned Israeli chef Ayal Shani, who was recently awarded a Michelin star. Never in my life have I been so proud to belong to this people as I am now. This is the most amazing people. We see it in our warriors, in our parents. We have become one body, each one a cell that contributes to the life of our country. I believe we are here today, right now, in large part, thanks to you. Indeed, being united, supporting one another, and the ability to start from scratch, even in the darkest of days, is one of Israel's biggest strengths. And still with me is retired IDF colonel Dr. Jacques Neria, Foreign Deputy Head of Assessment for the Israeli Military Intelligence. Jacques, I want to ask you, how is the idea of preparing for this next phase of the war? Well, the idea has been prepared for a long time now, and the orders have been given, and the plans have been studied very carefully. And I believe what is lacking is just the green light given by the government, given by the Netanyahu. Because otherwise, I mean, we know what is the direction. Like, when pattern was asked after the norm and the invasion, what's next, they said only east. And now the question is, what is next? They only south, south, meaning towards Chanyulis, towards Dilem Malach and Rafa. This is the plan, and it is going to be executed in a very, very special way that will surprise most of us, and certainly will not comply to what the Americans have in mind. This is not going to be a serial campaign. It's a surgical attacks on targets. This is going to be war, complete war, and as quick as possible. And many are speaking of sort of urban warfare. Tell me about the practices that the IDF does in order to ensure the least amount of civilian casualties there in the Gaza Strip. Well, you know, in the northern part of Gaza and Gaza City, the IDF initiated a tactic that is unprecedented, I mean advancing after a wall of fire being established by air force bombing and by artillery. And then, you know, the tanks and the infantry would go in. I think that basically this is going to be the same, but directed at specific targets. And while the air force will be targeting the tunnels and the entrances and the exits, and try to cross them in order to prevent Hamas fighters from getting out from those tunnels and fighting the IDF in the rear. Jack Neriya, I want to thank you both, Jack and Dan Perry here in studio. Thank you both for joining me today. Thank you. As part of the agreement, Hamas will release another 10 Israeli hostages today who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip since they were kidnapped on October 7th. Their families have been notified. So far 97 hostages have been released from Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire deal. A state of war families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. Israel's story to the world, i24 news channels. Good afternoon. I'm Sarah Martinez and you're watching i24 news. Today marks the 55th day of the war here in Israel. And here's the latest at this hour. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in a car ramming attack at the Bukaluk checkpoints in the Jordan Valley on Thursday afternoon. The suspected terrorist was apprehended. Israel has confirmed that the temporary six day ceasefire has been extended by another day. The temporary truce, which began on Friday and was set to expire Wednesday evening at midnight, was extended after mediation efforts by the United States, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar carried on until just before 7am this morning. Underscoring the urgency, Israel's war cabinet also issued an ultimatum to Hamas, released an acceptable list of hostages by 7am, or else the fighting will restart immediately. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jerusalem where he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, his fourth trip to the region to boost truce negotiations. To discuss how to provide additional humanitarian aid to Gaza. As part of the agreement, Hamas will release another eight Israeli hostages today, six women and two children who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip. They were kidnapped on October 7. Their families have been notified. They will also release the bodies of three Israelis. According to the latest reports, Hamas claims they will release also two Russian Israelis today. So far 97 civilians have been released from Hamas captivity in Gaza. 145 hostages, including 15 women and children, still remain captive in the Gaza Strip by the terror organization. Meanwhile three Israelis were killed and six were injured in a shooting attack to the entrance of Jerusalem this morning. Hamas has claimed responsibility for that deadly shooting attack. Our I-24 News correspondent Pierre Colotionler filed this report from there today. Take a look. The shooting attack occurred here at 7.38 a.m. local time. Two terrorists came out of a white car armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a headgun and they shot at people here indiscriminately. Three people were killed, three Israelis, and seven others were wounded. Five severely, one moderately, and one lightly. This was a very severe attack, but it happened within seconds because there were two reservists on leave plus a civilian. The two reservists on leave were on a 12-hour leave and they were turning back to the Gaza front. And they managed to neutralize the two terrorists who are affiliated to Hamas. And what's amazing is that the rescue was very speedy because the headquarter of the Maghen David at Dom Rescue Services is just nearby. So within half hour all the wounded were hospitalized in two hospitals. At 8, 10 local time they were already being treated after receiving first aid on the ground. They were being treated in the hospitals. Now what's also amazing is the return of life to normal or a normal abnormal if you want. Two hours after the highway still open is open. The buses are serving the people that are waiting at the bus stop and people decorated the bus stop with Israeli flags and with slogans in Gaza we shall win. With the help of God we shall win. Don't be afraid, shoot. The people of Israel live. This is what's written in the bus stop. And yet it's obvious for the Israelis that what happens here and what happens in Gaza is completely interrelated. Within two hours, as I said, life returned to some sort of normalcy. Other rescue workers scrapped pieces of flesh and bone and washed the blood. They scrapped pieces of flesh and bones because in a scene of violence you have to pick up any human remains because human remains are holy and you have to bury them and you have to clean the scene. And this is what happened. Now obviously the Israelis are very mobilized. Earlier there were some schoolgirls that came here. These are the ones that decorated the bus station that demonstrated their support to the army, their support to the people of Israel. This is Pierre Klosch and Leir, I-24 News in Jerusalem. And then spring in retired IDF colonel Dr. Jacques Néria, former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Khabib. Thank you very much for joining us today. Jacques, I want to ask you about this attack that occurred this morning. Hamas has claimed responsibility for it. How concerning is that for the IDF, especially in light that has released some 210 Palestinian prisoners back to the West Bank? Well, so we are in fact in the state of war in the West Bank. I mean, we shouldn't fool ourselves. It's been quite a while where this piece of land was not a piece at all. Only from the beginning of this war, 2,000 operatives of Hamas and other Palestinian factions were arrested, whereas about 200 were killed in clashes with the army. The army enters and every day the refugee camps in Nablus, in Janine and other places. And in fact, I mean, day by day, we can see that it expands to most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank. So, I mean, and who's leading the incitement? Hamas. Hamas is leading the incitement. And the popular vote is for Hamas. Hamas, according to the polls, has the biggest popularity in the West Bank, whereas the Palestinian authority is set back in a forgotten almost and useless. So what happens is the following, the two days ago, the head of the Janine battalion is killed by the Israeli idea. And then what happens is the response. The response is to the terrorists who attack a bus stop in Jerusalem. So there's there's inspiration. And the fact that this is an ongoing war, and we have to be very alert. And I mean, the fact is that less than two minutes after the beginning of the incident, those two terrorists were killed. Jacques, stay with me. I want to listen to this quickly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a war cabinet meeting accompanied by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Let's listen to the remarks by Israel's Premier. Well, welcome. Secretary Dyer had an opportunity to begin the discussion. There are many issues that we want to talk about, which I want to express our appreciation for your support from the beginning, the President's your delegation, and the and the war aims of eliminating Hamas and releasing and securing our over the several hostages. You've been very, very helpful. We appreciate it deeply. We'd like to talk to you about the next phase. So that's a summary of what we'd like to talk about and began talking about it. Joining me here in studio is Dan Perry, International Affairs Analyst and former Europe and Middle East editor for the Associated Press. Thank you very much for joining me today. Yes, sir. We just listened to Netanyahu and Blinken talk to us about the role Blinken and the United States in general has played in these diplomatic efforts to extend this truce by another day. It is absolutely remarkable that Blinken is now in his third work cabinet meeting. I mean, I don't recall the US being quite this intimately involved in a war effort of even a NATO country for any other allied country. I think that shows both the US commitment to Israel's twin goals of removing Hamas from power in Gaza and if at all possible eradicating Hamas's military capabilities and returning the hostages. That said, I'm not the first to note that the US also perhaps is trying to keep Israel on a leash because there is a very clear concern about the civilian death toll in Gaza. Can we expect the same level of US support in this next phase of the war once the fighting resumes? I think that attaches to the degree to which Israel can credibly prove that it is doing everything conceivable to minimize the death toll in the South in this case. And it'll be more difficult because the North was largely cleared out of civilian population and still many thousands were killed. And I recognize that we don't really know the exact number. But when Hamas run health ministry out of Gaza, this says that there is 15,000 people killed and Israel doesn't strenuously deny it, you have to assume that indeed the death toll is huge. Southern Gaza now has two million people, one million of whom are refugees. Half of them are living in tents and such and clearly the potential in that kind of a situation for Hamas to use them as human shields successfully and to have the result be a horrifying death toll that will create pressure on Israel to stop as high. And should we expect the US to pressure Israel to end the war, giving Israel some sort of deadline? I don't think so much a deadline, at least not overtly in public, but I do expect that the US will start to pressure Israel to present a different day after plan. When it to now says a Palestinian authority, even in rejuvenated form, even in revitalized and democratized and improved form cannot be in control of Gaza, that suggests what he's seeking is an occupation. And I think President Biden is going to seek a day after plan that gives the Palestinians some attractive horizon. And that, by the way, will impact political opinion in West Bank as well. I mean, Jacques Narill just spoke of the rather horrifying and dispiriting support that Hamas has in West Bank, but that is also a function of the right-wing government in Israel. And before we turn back to Jacques, I want to speak a little bit about these Hamas reporting that it will release two additional Israeli citizens who also have Russian citizenship. Hamas saying it's a separate gesture to Putin. What does Putin want to demonstrate here? I think Putin wants to seize every opportunity to appear as a useful, good faith player on the world stage. But these are all psychological games. I mean, I don't think Hamas is actually going to count them as extra. They're probably going to be balanced out by a lesser number later on. I mean, if Putin can help somehow, there's no reason that Israel shouldn't avail itself of that assistance. But I frankly doubt that will undo the damage Putin has done to Russia's brand with his criminal evasion of Ukraine. I want to cross over to I-24 News Senior Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regev, who is at Schneider Children's Medical Center. Jonathan, tell us about the preparations the hospital is making to treat these women and children that are expected to arrive later this evening. Yes, the same preparations that have been going on for a week now. Let's remember the first patients who were released last Friday arrived here. All in all, 26 freed hostages arrived to Schneider for the past week since Friday evening, since this whole process began. And just a short time ago, we heard from the hospital's director, Dr. Efrat Harlev-Baron, about the whole process, what has been happening at the hospital for the past week. Let's listen. We are overwhelmed by their ability to gradually adapt during the days of their stay with us, which inspires us with great optimism. Over the last five days, we've met children who were entirely withdrawn and lost. And after a day or two, they were already running, playing around the world and laughing. We heard from many of the children and women unimaginable accounts, some of them really completely surreal. We've heard stories which are hard for us as doctors and as caregivers to believe that can exist. We understand that they're just at the beginning and that everyone still has a long way to go for the full rehabilitation. One of those 26 people brought here to Schneider was Ofir Engel, who arrived here very late last night. Let's remember the whole process last night was delayed, but eventually it happened. Ofir Engel was one of four who was brought here to Schneider. And just a short time ago, we spoke with his aunt, a friend about his condition and about how he feels, our family feels. Let's listen. I don't know. He looks okay, but you know, you have to look into his eyes. I think he had a terrible time. It was very hard. It was, he's so thin. I see fear in his eyes, but everyone tells me he's okay. You know, he looks very good. He is such a beautiful, you know, Jonathan Regev, thank you for that update. I want to turn back to our guest on Skype, Jacques Néria, Jacques. Before we spoke earlier about some reports that Israeli and US officials are discussing the idea of expelling thousands of low level Hamas terrorists from the Palestinian enclave as a way to shorten the war similar to the US broker deal that allowed Palestinian leader Yasser Al-Fat and thousands of fighters to flee Beirut in 1982. I want to ask you, is that feasible in the Gaza Strip with Hamas? Well, yes, it's feasible. It's a very feasible. It's a scenario I just drew from the very first day of this conflict that under duress, under pressure, the leadership of Hamas would just leave there, would leave through the Egyptian border, the Tuarela region from there that fly to Beirut or to any other capital they want to be, or even in Russia, if the Russians would like to get them back. So this is a possible scenario. And I think that we shouldn't eliminate it or ignore it. This is a possibility that maybe can be broken through the Egypt Qatar and of course the United States. Dan Perry, you wanted to add something? I wanted to agree vehemently. This is not just a possibility. It is almost certainly the optimal way out of this conflict to insist on their surrender is probably a fool's gambit. They're not going to surrender. They'll fight to the death of the last human shield. To insist on killing Sinoir and others today is attractive, but the cost is really not worth it. And he'll be replaced by some other wannabe Sinoir. Whereas to end the war with a departure of 30,000 Hamasniks who can for all I care become construction workers in Qatar would enable everyone a ladder to climb down from what is an absolutely otherwise impossible situation. And I want to speak because we've spoken about Hamas in Gaza, but we haven't spoken yet about Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has a much larger and more powerful arsenal than Hamas. Is the IDF concerned about that? Once the fighting resumes in Gaza, can we expect fighting to resume on the northern border? They're more than concerned. The sort of war footing that the October 7th outrage has created in Israel makes, has created not a consensus, but I believe a majority in Israeli public for initiating something against Hezbollah, which we haven't heard anything, the likes of in decades. And that is because of precisely what you said. The concern, well, the feeling that it's unacceptable that Israel should be sitting around waiting for Hezbollah to attack. So I think there is a possibility that Israel may initiate something against Hezbollah, which may not necessarily be wise. It's conceivable that the lesson they learned in 2006 still applies. You see that despite the pressure, probably also from Iran, that they do something significant these past two months, they really haven't. They have engaged in brinksmanship and middle-level provocations, but have been careful not to instigate a war. The question is whether Israel wants a war. Absolutely. Dan, stay with me. The police station in Zilod was attacked by dozens of terrorists October 7th, the fierce battle that lasted for hours. One of the difficult decisions made was to bulldoze it and the terrorists that hid inside. The body of one of them was even found in rubble seven weeks after the attack. And this week, the police forces are celebrating the inauguration of a new station in the city. More on the following report by Estelle Eddin. Like other Israelis, I heard the sirens at home at 6.30 a.m. I put my wife and children in the shelter. I realized that if I was hearing sirens at my home in Bershiba, chances were high. There were also sirens in Sderot. Madi Safarti drove through the heavy rocket barrage, trying to reach the play station as fast as possible. While I was on my way to the police station, I saw a terrorist in front of me. He was in uniform and carrying an AK-47. He shot at me five times. At this point, I realized it was an exceptional situation. Madi met several of the placement from his team, assessed the situation and got ready for the battle. I took an assault rifle. I was not armed at all. I had just returned for my vacation. Even my gun was in the office with all my other stuff. So I took an automatic weapon, checked the magazine, did two shots to check if the gun was working. Three more magazines. I just tucked into my shirt as I had no other place to put it and continued on my way to the station. On the road leading to the police station, we neutralized approximately four terrorists. One of them, after we neutralized him, fell and tried to get at his weapon. So I shot again in the direction of the head, eliminated. At this point, a sniper who was standing on the roof shot me in the chest. I fell backwards and got another bullet in the leg. His fellow policemen grabbed Madi and hid him behind a megunit, a concrete protective barrier. I called my wife and told her that I was injured in the chest and in the leg. I told her that I love her and I love our children and I'm not willing to die. The battle at Sterot police station lasted for around 20 hours. The station lost 10 of its officers, both men and women. But if not for the heroism of the unit, the whole city of Sterot could have suffered heavier losses. At least 40 terrorists came here. Whose goal was to take control of the police station to kill all the policemen and after that to move on to slaughtering civilians in Sterot. And Sterot is only one example. The terrorists planned the same thing for off-a-came, netivot, Ashkelon, Ashdod. Madi fought not only for the city of Sterot, but also for his own life. He bled for several hours before the police were able to evacuate him. But on the way, they again came under fire. Madi was moved to a private car and only then was he able to get to an ambulance. Madi survived, but he was hospitalized for weeks and is still receiving treatment. Nevertheless, he couldn't stay home on the day of the inauguration. One of the reasons why it was so important for me to come and to meet my team is that we're very strong and we're always keeping our heads up. People who understand battle tactics know that police should join only in the third circle, but my policemen fought in the first circle. The inauguration of the station is a historic day for the policemen and for the whole city of Sterot. Inaugurating the police station in Sterot is a sign of pride for the Israeli police and its strength and its ability on the one hand to shut down the station and destroy it with the dozens of terrorists hiding inside and on the other hand to decide and to work so that within four days we would build a new one that could help civilians to receive their complaints to give a sense of security to the residents. Not all the residents of Sterot have left and they need this sense of security and this is what we will do here at the Sterot police station. Though today policemen from Sterot station stay strong and try to smile, their thoughts are with the friends that they lost. To alleviate their grief, at least for one night, the Gad dairy company joined the event with their special project called Secret Dinner. The project was created seven years ago and lets people buy a ticket to the dinner without knowing in advance where they'll be going or what they'll eat. Since the start of the war, the project has changed years and these days organizes surprise dinners for security forces and medical teams. When we thought about the project in wartime, the first thought we had was about the policemen from the Sterot station. They survived a tragedy. Only now have they finished the morning period for their friends. We owe them this. After the whole station was destroyed, we're raising a new police station together with Hanna Mechodeshet. This time, the dinner was cooked by renowned Israeli chef Ayal Shani, who was recently awarded a Michelin star. Never in my life have I been so proud to belong to this people as I am now. This is the most amazing people. We see it in our warriors, in our parents. We have become one body, each one a cell that contributes to the life of our country. I believe we are here today, right now, in large part, thanks to you. Indeed, being united, supporting one another, and the ability to start from scratch, even in the darkest of days, is one of Israel's biggest strengths. And still with me is retired IDF Colonel Dr. Jacques Néria, Foreign Deputy Head of Assessment for the Israeli Military Intelligence. Jacques, I want to ask you, how is the idea of preparing for this next phase of the war? Well, the idea has been prepared for a long time now, and the orders have been given, the plans have been studied very carefully. And I believe what is lacking is just the green light given by the government, given by the Netanyahu. Because otherwise, I mean, we know what is the direction. Like when Patton was asked after the Normandy invasion, what's next, he said only east. And now where the question is, what is next? The only south, south, meaning towards Hanyunists, towards the Dilem Malach and Rappach. This is the plan, and it is going to be executed in a very, very special way that will surprise most of us, and certainly will not comply to what the Americans have in mind. This is not going to be a sterile campaign. It's a surgical attacks on targets. This is going to be war, complete war, and as quick as possible. And many are speaking of sort of urban warfare. Tell me about the practices that the IDF does in order to ensure the least amount of civilian casualties there in the Gaza Strip. Well, you know, in the northern part of Gaza and Gaza City, the IDF initiated a tactic that is unprecedented, I mean advancing after a wall of fire being being established by air force bombing and by artillery. And then you know the attacks and the infantry would go in. I think that basically this is going to be the same, but directed at specific targets and why the air force will be targeting the tunnels and the entrances and the exits, and try to cross them in order to prevent Hamas fighters from getting out from those tunnels and fighting the IDF in the rear. Jacques Néria, I want to thank you both Jacques and Dan Perry here in studio. Thank you both for joining me today. Thank you. As part of the agreement, Hamas will release another 10 Israeli hostages today who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip since they were kidnapped on October 7th. Their families have been notified. So far 97 hostages have been released from Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire deal. Wraps this hour's coverage of the war here in Israel and extended ceasefire. If you missed anything from this broadcast, you can catch up on our website i24news.tv or on social media. Stay tuned right here on i24news. We'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest news out of Israel. I'm Sarah Martinez. Thanks for watching. Is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where is she. As our soldiers are fighting on the frontline, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. I guess you're watching i24news. We're coming to you live from Tel Aviv and Israel says it has informed the families of the eight hostages due to be freed by Hamas terrorists in Gaza tonight. According to the family of 16 year old Aisha al-Ziadna, she and her brother Bilal will be on that list for a source close to Hamas claims that two additional hostages, Russian Israeli citizens will also be freed. Under the terms of a ceasefire agreement, Hamas has released 97 Israeli hostages so far. But one are women and children, Egypt and Qatar say they are working to extend the truce by another two days. Another 16 people were released last night, including 12 Israelis, five of them teenagers, and four Thai nationals. Israel has had two, three dozens of Palestinian prisoners over the past week as part of the deal. This morning in Jerusalem, two Hamas terrorists carried out a shooting attack, killing three people and wounding six others. Terrorists were shot dead out of the state. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Here's Netanyahu speaking for short while. I've just finished meeting with American Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Shortly after Hamas murderers killed Israelis here in Jerusalem. I told him it is the same Hamas. It is the same Hamas that carried out the horrifying massacre on October 7th, the same Hamas that attempts to kill us everywhere. I said we have sworn and I have sworn to eradicate Hamas and nothing will stop us. We will continue this war until we achieve all three objectives, the release of all our hostages, complete elimination of Hamas, and guaranteeing that Gaza never poses such a threat ever again. Well, with me in the studio this hour, Ghanan Ben-Itrak is a former agent for the Shembet. Thank you for joining us, our senior diplomatic editor Owen Altman is with us as well. I mean, let's start then with that visit by Secretary of State Blinken. He's met with President and the Health Secretary and Netanyahu today. And he has told Netanyahu that it is imperative to protect Gaza civilians. Right. In one hand, we're not new to hear from the Biden administration. They've said it from the get-go, right? In very polite terms during Blinken's first visit to Israel, right? In those opening days, opening weeks of the war, obviously the warnings or the suggestions are a little bit more insistent now. I think the main question, and we're going to have to tease this out at Anthony Blinken's presser later on today, does the United States agree with Israel that ending Hamas' control over the Gaza Strip and eliminating Hamas' military capabilities are the goals of the war? Israel has been very clear. Netanyahu has been very clear. He will accept nothing less. And he has not moved on that statement of the goal of this war. Has the Biden administration moved? What did Anthony Blinken say just a couple days ago at that NATO meeting? He said, October 7th must never happen again. Israel needs to be in a position, paraphrasing but close to the text, in which October 7th doesn't happen again. But maybe in his view, and in the Biden administration's view, you can be in a position where October 7th will never happen again, but with Hamas in control of at least part of the Gaza Strip, right? Again, if you look at other things he said, he talks about the day after, a day after presumes that Hamas is not in control of the Gaza Strip. But to what extent does the Biden administration still support and subscribe to that core Israeli goal of winning the war? I think it's starting to be an open question. It doesn't mean there's not strong support for Israel. They certainly have not called for a permanency's fire at law, unlike the French government, for example. But again, essentially saying that at this point, the humanitarian issue is more important and takes precedence over the continuing of the military operation. And if that's the case, then by extension, it may be that there's some erosion from Israel's perspective in their position about what the end game here and what the goal is, the concrete goal of the war. All right. Let's pick up on that in just a moment. First, I want to go to our correspondent, Zach Anders. He is at the Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv. So Zach, I mean, hospitals have been the scene, haven't they, of emotional family reunions in recent days, including last night when we had 12 Israeli citizens returned, five teenagers among them. Hi, Laura. Yeah, these are emotional scenes for all involved, even the doctors, the staff, as they do that initial work of receiving these patients and then evaluating what level of care they're going to need as they stay here for several nights. This hospital, Sheba hospital says it's received 27 of the freed hostages and of those 13 individuals are still here and they're still in those hospital beds. They are a little, they have not expressed in deep detail the levels of their conditions, how they physically are doing to great extent. But they have said that for the most part, for what they've been through, they're doing well and psychologically that they are receiving the care that they need in those next steps. We heard from one of the doctors on staff here earlier today and they had an update on some of the reports. We are overwhelmed by their ability to gradually adapt during the days of their stay with us, which inspires us with great optimism. Over the last five days, we've met children who were entirely withdrawn and lost and after a day or two, they were already running, playing around the world and laughing. We heard from many of the children and women unimaginable accounts, some of them really completely surreal. We've heard stories which are hard for us as doctors and as caregivers to believe that can exist. We understand that they're just at the beginning and that everyone still has a long way to go for the full rehabilitation. And one of the things that the staff and the doctors have been instructing family to do is to give these children agencies. So what the families and some of the doctors have started doing is asking permission from these children to do things, to leave the room. They'll ask, okay, I'm going to leave now. Is that okay? They're starting to try and do what they can to provide agency to give the kids a sense of direction to give them the choice of to give them options for the first time in over 50 days for some of them. And that's one of the tools that is being employed here. It's going to be a long path psychologically to be able to heal some of those mental wounds, but it does begin now and they have started. Yeah, 50 days is an awful long time for anyone, let alone a young child. Thank you, Zach. Zach Andrews there. Good to hear that those children are starting to recover. Well, let's talk now to our studio, get going, and Benitrag from the Shin Bet. Let's talk about the ceasefire. We were talking earlier about, you know, possibly some pressure building from the Americans to extend the ceasefire further. After tonight, there should be no more Israeli children held in captivity. What is your opinion? Do you think Israel should extend the ceasefire to try and get some of the men back? Yeah, now we are getting to the bigger problem, which is the men that are hostages in Gaza. We know that chief of Mossad, Dede Barnea, was in Qatar. He met chief of manager of CIA and also the Egyptian intelligence. Israel needs to decide and we know what Hamas wants. Hamas wants Israel to stop the war. Netanyahu right now is saying all the time that his goal is to destroy Hamas completely. But then, of course, the question is what about the people that are back there? So this is a big dilemma. I guess that if Hamas will go to some big deal, freeing the hostages, all the hostages, then Israel might consider that. But right now it seems like we are going back to the war. Yeah, because we're talking about people's fathers, aren't we? One of the women who was released last night, her husband was murdered, her son, Sasha, still being held in captivity. So this is the terrible reality for many, many people here in Israel. Very hard choices. All right, stay with us. We're going to go to hostages, square as it's been named, in Tel Aviv, where the families of some of the hostages and their supporters have gathered. Ariel Ossiran is there. First of all, Ariel, some breaking news. The IDF says it's uncovered a new set of tunnels, is it, in northern Gaza? Indeed, Laura, while the ceasefire is in its seventh day and it appears that it could be approaching its end, the IDF sharing with I-24 News French correspondent Mathias Inbar new information regarding a tunnel shaft that had uncovered in northern Gaza. This is a tunnel that was the shaft, a 15-meter underground tunnel shaft, uncovered in a kindergarten located in the Nevesseid area in northeastern part of the Gaza Strip. Now this tunnel shaft connects to a larger tunnel kind of route, according to the IDF. This tunnel route also passing under a nearby mosque and also leading to civilian houses inside those houses. Some served as anti-tank guided missile posts, others served as sniper positions, as well as weapons cash was identified. And it is important or interesting to note that we unfortunately cannot determine clearly whether this happened during the ceasefire or prior to that. That is also interesting in terms of how the information came out from the IDF, but IDF sharing with I-24 News this newly uncovered underground tunnel in a kindergarten in northern Gaza. This is not the first time a tunnel shaft is located in a kindergarten or hospital or mosque. This is just, this mounts up as these discoveries continue of Hamas' use of different civilian sensitive installations for its military purposes. All right, Ariel, thank you very much. Ariel Ossaran there in central Tel Aviv. I'm going to end it and I'll end with this in the studio. The IDF is getting some intelligence from the hostages who have been freed. Of course it is very difficult for them to speak publicly given that some of their family members are still being held. But we have heard, and this is Israeli journalist Alamog Bokeh, he says that two hostages told him, one was held by a teacher for UNRA, that's the UN agency that takes care of Palestinians in Gaza, and a Garzan doctor. He says they kept him, they mistreated him. I mean, what is your reaction to that? I'll say that when Hamas was established in the West Bank, Hassan Yusuf, the father of Musab, Hassan Yusuf, the Green Prince, established Hamas in a place that owned by UNRA, not far from Iran, not far from Jerusalem. So I'm not surprised, but actually we need to ask why do Palestinians need UNRA? UNRA is an agency that helps refugees. They're third generation, they're not refugees. So the fact that UNRA is all the time, you know, the name of UNRA, the fact that we find tunnels in UNRA facilities, and we find weapons in UNRA facilities, maybe it's time for UNRA just to step back from the Palestinian Israeli conflict, because they don't help anybody in the region. Right. The previous US president, of course, President Trump, he cut off UNRA funding. It was one of the first things that he did, no sign that the Biden administration considers doing anything like that. Well, Germany just recently, Laura, cut off funding to UNRA, at least in Gaza. So there's movement on this, and the European Union and European countries have at least paused, in many cases, funding of different bodies, the Palestinian Authority, and UNRA itself. So obviously, look, I think the challenge for Israel is going to be to demonstrate that there is something systematic that's wrong with UNRA, right? Not one teacher here, not one school there, not one tunnel, but something systematic in the entire apparatus. There's been a lot of work done in the education system, but what Gonen is talking about is something much more extensive even than that. And that, I think, is going to be the challenge for Israel, of course, to the extent that the goal that Benjamin Netanyahu has set for Israel, meaning ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip, which in essence means, and practice means, Israeli control over the Gaza Strip, over the territory, at least in the short term, could give Israel the leverage to shape the day after, either without UNRA or with a very, very different UNRA, with a very different set of investigation and inspection and over what it does. But again, I think the challenge, first of all, is to be able to lay out the case to document it. And again, the more Israel succeeds in winning the war and in taking control of Gaza's territory, the more access it will have to the sites and to the people, the better job it can do to document. All right. Thanks, Owen. Well, the fragile ceasefire in Gaza is still holding, at least for another 24 hours. Another arena, though heating up. Three Israelis were killed this morning in a terrorist attack at a bus station at the entrance to Jerusalem. Two women and an older man were killed. Hamas has claimed responsibility. Both terrorists were killed at the scene. Our defense correspondent, Johnson Regev, has the details. The shots can be clearly heard echoing in the Jerusalem rush hour. Here are the two terrorists armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun, shooting at anyone they see, killing three people and injuring various others. I saw the car stopping by the station. It seemed suspicious from the start. The driver got out of the vehicle and pulled out a weapon. I realized immediately that this is a terror attack. They ran to their car for more ammunition, and that is when they were stopped. A very quick reaction from two soldiers and a civilian on site neutralized the terrorists, and they were both eliminated. This event illustrates another thing. How important is the policy of delivering weapons? Despite the criticism, I will continue with the policy of handing out weapons everywhere, including to emergency units and civilians. The terrorists are two brothers from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Tzurbacher, both with a history in Israeli prisons and with connections to Hamas. Police and border police units raided their homes, searching for more potential terrorists. Our forces are spreading every arena to neutralize every possible threat. These two terrorists were eliminated, and the same will happen to every terrorist coming to Jerusalem. Israel's focus may be on Gaza, but as we learned once again, the potential for escalation comes from every possible arena. All right, so gone in. Hamas has claimed responsibility for that attack. The two terrorists were shot at the scene. Two questions, really. First of all, is this not a violation of the truce, given that it was Hamas terrorists who carried it out? And secondly, Israelis releasing dozens of Palestinian prisoners, some jailed for attempted murder. Are we going to see more terrorist attacks like this on the streets of Jerusalem and elsewhere? So indeed, Hamas took responsibility to the attack in Jerusalem this morning. We don't know for now if the two brothers that committed the terror attack were Hamas members or whether Hamas sent them to do it. If the answer is yes, this is of course a violation of the ceasefire. The ceasefire is not only in Gaza. The ceasefire is between Hamas and Israel. Hamas tried from the beginning to ignite some fire and terror attacks from the West Bank because Hamas knows that this is something that will be very hard to deal with. This time they succeeded. It's disturbing because the two brothers are people that are known, Shabbat knows them. They were prisoners, ex-prisoners. And the fact that we didn't have intelligence in advance before they committed the terror attack is disturbing. Is it a violation of the truth, first of all? And also because we've seen dozens of prisoners released, are we going to see more of the same? So of course, I don't know if we're going to see more. But no doubt that the release of prisoners in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and those two terrorists are from East Jerusalem, meaning they're holding an Israeli ID. This is something that brought a lot of enthusiasm to Palestinians. They see Iche Sinouar and Hamas as heroes. The fact that he managed to release prisoners is a victory. And I suspect that we are going to see more terror attacks. We might see more terror attacks. Of course, if Israel is going back into war. Now, of course, to carry out terrorist attacks, they need weapons. The IDF says it has just foiled a huge attempt at smuggling weapons into Israel from Jordan. This is a very important point because we saw in the video that the weapons that they carried was M16, meaning this is not the regular weapon that they produce in the West Bank that is called the Karlo. When I was in charge of all the Jericho area in 2014, there was a lot of smuggling in the border between Israel and Jordan. Taking out the weapons in the West Bank is something Israel has to do. This is part of the big change that we need to do. This is why we saw those raids almost weekly in places like Jenin Nablus. Jenin Nablus, but also in Jerusalem. And I will say also in some villages inside Israel, because if I need to remind, just before the massacre, we were dealing with violence among the Arab population. There's been another murder today. A pregnant woman was... Pregnant woman and the embryo. Yeah. So this is something that we need to change completely after the massacre as part of the things that we need to learn out of the massacre. It's hard to see what more Israeli forces could do, though. What would you like to see happen? I think that the Israeli police and the military needs to have some plan for the future, how they do it. And by the way, I don't want to get into detail, but even when I was in charge of this area in Jericho area, Israel didn't do all in its capability in order to stop it. Israel didn't? No. Israel didn't do all in its power to stop smuggling from Jordan into Israel. Could I ask why? Because nobody thought that it's important enough, because you have Hamas and you have Islamic jihad. So we didn't have time to deal with it. Usually the police was dealing with smuggling. The police didn't have all the abilities that Shin Bet had. And nobody thought that it's important enough. Gonan, I actually want to ask you, if I may, are you specialized in the West Bank? And of course, if yours are not familiar, Gonan was the Schmidt Handler for the Green Prince, the son of a senior leader of Hamas, Wasab Asan Yosef. Very prominent figure. If you don't know about him, you can go out and search him in Gonan's role in working with him in the Second Niti Fada. You're an expert on the West Bank. Why is it that Hamas has not been able to achieve its goal of igniting violence in the West Bank against Israelis? Why has Hamas not succeeded in that? And why has the West Bank been quieter than I think most of us would have expected on October 8th? Because when the Israeli military has the ability to go into the cities and fight it. And we see every night the IDF going into Janine, into Tulkarem. Every time we have intelligence about something that is happening there, we enter and we stop it, then Israel has the ability to do it. Unlike Gaza, the Gaza for a long time. Well, we're allowed to flourish. The terrorist groups were allowed to flourish. Because of course, there's been an awful lot of international pressure on Israel over these raids into Nablus Janine and elsewhere. Where does the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, fit into all of this? We haven't seen or heard from him for a while now. Of course, prior to this, there was a level of security cooperation as kind of troubled as it was between the PA and Israel. I mean, where does that stand now? Basically, there's still a cooperation between Israel and the PA. The 7th of October massacre happened in very sensitive time because everybody's waiting to the shift of leadership in the West Bank. And they're trying to walk, and I'm saying it not because I'm trying to defend the PA. I think what they said the last 50 days is just ugly and doesn't help the effort to bring peace to the region. But they know that Hamas became very popular after the releasing of prisoners. They're trying to be quiet. I think that cooperation is still there for some level. But everybody will need to recalculate the way because things are going to be different also in the West Bank after we will finish the war in Gaza. We're going to go to southern Israel. Our correspondent, Nicole Zedek, is with us now. So Nicole, that truce, the last truce was extended at the 11th of hour really, wasn't it? We're now hoping to see, expecting to see at least eight hostages, possibly 10 hostages free tonight. Exactly, Laura. I mean, last night many Israelis went to bed, unknowing if today was going to continue to see this pause in fighting. But right before that deadline at 7 a.m., we did see that both sides were able to come to some sort of agreement. And as you said, what we're seeing from different Israeli reports, at least eight Israelis Hamas also claiming they could release two Russian Israelis as well as well as three bodies. Now this is something that we have not seen over the past six days. So that's absolutely going to be something that is new when it comes to this movement that we're expecting today, where we're standing in southern Israel, not far from the Karam Shalom border crossing. We're hoping to see in the next coming hours because as we've seen over the past couple of days, right around 4 p.m. Israel time, any time between 4 and 5, that is when we can start seeing some of this movement with some of these hostages possibly being handed over to the Red Cross. But as we've also seen from last night, there's likely some delays that could pop up as well. And as we saw last night, some of those hostages weren't even handed over to the Red Cross until right before 11 p.m. Israel time. So this is the hour right as the sun is falling as we're waiting to get these updates to see exactly who and when some of these hostages might finally come back here to Israel. Yeah, it's a pretty distressing pattern that the entire country has fallen into night after night. But we're hoping to see more Israelis home tonight. Thank you very much, Nicole. Nicole Zedek there. And so far, 97 hostages have been released from Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire deal. Here they are being reunited with their families. Heart warming scene. Some of the hostages reunited with their families and we're hoping to see more of that tonight when at least eight hostages due to be freed by terrorists in Gaza, including 16-year-old Aisha Al-Ziadna and her brother Bilal, two Israeli Muslims who will be on the list, the last children being freed from Gaza tonight. Stay tuned. Is in a state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she is. Our soldiers are fighting on the front line, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. As we're coming to you lies due to be freed by Hamas. Aisha Al-Ziadna, she and her brother Bilal will be on that list. For a source close to Hamas claims that two additional hostages, Russian Israeli citizens will also be freed. Under the terms of a ceasefire agreement, Hamas has released 97 Israeli hostages so far, but one are women and children. Egypt and Qatar say they are working to extend the truce by another two days. Another 16 people were released last night, including 12 Israelis, five of them teenagers and four Thai nationals. Israel has had two three dozens of Palestinian prisoners over the past week as part of the deal. This morning in Jerusalem two Hamas terrorists carried out a shooting attack, killing three people and wounding six others. The terrorists were shot dead at the scene. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Here's Netanyahu speaking a short while ago. I've just finished meeting with American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Shortly after Hamas murderers killed Israelis here in Jerusalem, I told him it is the same Hamas. It is the same Hamas that carried out the horrifying massacre on October 7th, the same Hamas that attempts to kill us everywhere. I said we have sworn and I have sworn to eradicate Hamas and nothing will stop us. We will continue this war until we achieve all three objectives, the release of all our hostages, complete elimination of Hamas and guaranteeing that Gaza never poses such a threat ever again. Well, with me in the studio this hour, Gonom Ben-Itrak is a former agent for the Shembet. Thank you for joining us, Senior Diplomatic Editor Owen Altman is with us as well. I mean, let's start then with that visit by Secretary of State Blinken. He's the President and the House of Prime Minister Netanyahu today, and he has told Netanyahu that it is imperative to protect Gaza civilians. Right. In one hand, we're not new to hear from the Biden administration. They've said it from the get-go, right? In very polite terms during Blinken's first visit to Israel, right, in those opening days, opening weeks of the war, obviously the warnings or the suggestions are a little bit more insistent now. I think the main question, and we're going to have to tease this out at Anthony Blinken's presser later on today, does the United States agree with Israel that ending Hamas' control over the Gaza Strip and eliminating Hamas' military capabilities are the goals of the war? Israel has been very clear. Netanyahu has been very clear. He will accept nothing less, and he has not moved on that statement of the goal of this war. Has the Biden administration moved? What did Anthony Blinken say just a couple days ago at that NATO meeting? He said, October 7th must never happen again. Israel needs to be in a position, paraphrasing but close to the text, in which October 7th doesn't happen again. But maybe in his view, and in the Biden administration's view, you can be in a position where October 7th will never happen again, but with Hamas in control of at least part of the Gaza Strip, right? Again, if you look at other things he said, he talks about the day after, a day after presumes that Hamas is not in control of the Gaza Strip, but to what extent does the Biden administration still support and subscribe to that core Israeli goal of winning the war? I think it's starting to be an open question. It doesn't mean there's not strong support for Israel. They certainly have not called for a permanency's fire at war, unlike the French government, for example. But again, essentially saying that at this point, the humanitarian issue is more important and takes precedence over the continuing of the military operation. And if that's the case, then by extension, it may be that there's some erosion from Israel's perspective and their position about what the end game here and what the goal is, the concrete goal of the war. All right. Let's pick up on that in just a moment. First, I want to go to our correspondent, Zach Anders. He is at the Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv. So, Zach, I mean, hospitals have been the scene, haven't they, of emotional family reunions in recent days, including last night when we had 12 Israeli citizens returned, five teenagers among them. Hi, Laura. Yeah, these are emotional scenes for all involved, even the doctors, the staff, as they do that initial work of receiving these patients and then evaluating what level of care they're going to need as they stay here for several nights. This hospital, Sheba hospital, says it's received 27 of the freed hostages and of those 13 individuals are still here and they're still in those hospital beds. They are a little, they have not expressed in deep detail the levels of their conditions, how they physically are doing to great extent, but they have said that for the most part, for what they've been through, they're doing well and psychologically that they are receiving the care that they need in those next steps. We heard from one of the doctors on staff here earlier today and they have an update on some of the reports. We are overwhelmed by their ability to gradually adapt during the days of their stay with us, which inspires us with great optimism. Over the last five days, we've met children who were entirely withdrawn and lost and after a day or two, they were already running, playing around the world and laughing. We heard from many of the children and women unimaginable accounts, some of them really completely surreal. We've heard stories which are hard for us as doctors and as caregivers to believe that can exist. We understand that they're just at the beginning and that everyone still has a long way to go for the full rehabilitation. And one of the things that the staff and the doctors have been instructing family to do is to give these children agencies. So what the families and some of the doctors have started doing is asking permission from these children to do things, to leave the room. They'll ask, okay, I'm going to leave now. Is that okay? They're starting to try and do what they can to provide agency to give the kids a sense of direction, to give them the choice of, to give them options for the first time in over 50 days for some of them. And that's one of the tools that is being employed here. It's going to be a long path psychologically to be able to heal some of those mental wounds, but it does begin now and they have started. Yeah, 50 days is an awful long time for anyone, let alone a young child. Thank you, Zach. Zach Andrews, they're good to hear that those children are starting to recover. Well, let's talk now to our studio guest, Konan Bin Benintak from the Shin Bet. Let's talk about the ceasefire we were talking earlier about, you know, possibly some pressure building from the Americans to extend the ceasefire further. After tonight, there should be no more Israeli children held in captivity. What is your opinion? Do you think Israel should extend the ceasefire to try and get some of the men back? Yeah, now we are getting to the bigger problem, which is the men that are hostages in Gaza. We know that chief of Mossad, Dede Barnea, was in Qatar. He met chief or manager of CIA and also the Egyptian intelligence. Israel needs to decide and we know what Hamas wants. Hamas wants Israel to stop the war. Netanyahu right now is saying all the time that his goal is to destroy Hamas completely. But then of course the question is what about the people that are back there? So this is a big dilemma. I guess that if Hamas will go to some big deal freeing the hostages, all the hostages, then Israel might consider that. But right now it seems like we are going back to the war. Yeah, because we're talking about people's fathers, aren't we? One of the women who was released last night, her husband was murdered, her son Sasha still being held in captivity. So this is the terrible reality for many, many people here in Israel. Very hard choices. All right, stay with us. We're going to go to hostages square as it's been named in Tel Aviv, where the families of some of the hostages and their supporters are gathered. Ariel Ossaran is there. First of all, Ariel, some breaking news. The IDF says it's uncovered a new set of tunnels, is it, in northern Gaza? Indeed, Laura. While the ceasefire is in its seventh day and it appears that it could be approaching its end, the IDF sharing with I-24 News French correspondent Mathias Inbal new information regarding a tunnel shaft that it uncovered in northern Gaza. This is a tunnel that was the shaft, a 15-meter underground tunnel shaft uncovered in a kindergarten located in the Nevesaid area in northeastern part of the Gaza Strip. Now, this tunnel shaft connects to a larger tunnel kind of route according to the IDF. This tunnel route also passing under a nearby mosque and also leading to civilian houses. Inside those houses, some served as anti-tank guided missile posts. Others served as sniper positions, as well as weapons cash was identified. And it is important or interesting to note that we unfortunately cannot determine clearly whether this happened during the ceasefire or prior to that. That is also interesting in terms of how the information came out from the IDF, but IDF sharing with I-24 News this newly uncovered underground tunnel in a kindergarten in northern Gaza. This is not the first time a tunnel shaft is located in a kindergarten or hospital or mosque. This is just, this amounts up as these discoveries continue of Hamas' use of different civilian sensitive installations for its military purposes. All right, Ariel, thank you very much. Ariel Osaran, there in central Tel Aviv. I'm going to end in Itzhak. And, oh, and Ottoman still with us in the studio. The IDF is getting some intelligence from the hostages who have been freed. Of course, it is very difficult for them to speak publicly, given that some of their family members are still being held. But we have heard, and this is Israeli journalist, Alamog Bokeh. He says that two hostages told him one was held by a teacher for UNRA. That's the UN agency that takes care of Palestinians in Gaza. And a Garzan doctor, he says they kept him, they mistreated him. I mean, what is your reaction to that? I'll say that when Hamas was established in the West Bank, Hassan Yusuf, the father of Musab, Hassan Yusuf, the Green Prince, established Hamas in a place that owned by UNRA, not far from Iran, not far from Jerusalem. So I'm not surprised. But actually, we need to ask, why do Palestinians need UNRA? UNRA is an agency that helps refugees. They are third generation. They are not refugees. So the fact that UNRA is all the time, the name of UNRA, the fact that we find tunnels in UNRA facilities and we find weapons in UNRA facilities, maybe it's time for UNRA just to step back from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because they don't help anybody in the region. Right. The previous US president, of course, President Trump, he cut off UNRA funding. It was one of the first things that he did, no sign that the Biden administration considers doing anything like that. Well, Germany just recently lower cut off funding to UNRA, at least in Gaza. So there's movement on this. And the European Union and European countries have at least paused, in many cases, funding of different bodies, the Palestinian Authority and UNRA itself. So obviously, look, I think the challenge for Israel is going to be to demonstrate that there is something systematic that's wrong with UNRA, right? Not one teacher here, not one school there, not one tunnel, but something systematic in the entire apparatus. There's been a lot of work done in the education system. But what Gonen is talking about is something much more extensive even than that. And that I think is going to be the challenge for Israel, of course, to the extent that the goal that Benjamin Netanyahu has set for Israel, meaning ending Hamas control over the Gaza Strip, which in a sense, in essence means and practice means Israeli control over the Gaza Strip, over the territory, at least in the short term, could give Israel the leverage to shape the day after with either without UNRA or with a very, very different UNRA, with a very different set of investigation and inspection and over what it does. But again, I think the challenge, first of all, is to be able to lay out the case to document it. And again, the more Israel succeeds in winning the war and taking control of Gaza's territory, the more access it will have to the sites and to the people, the better job it can do to document. All right. Thanks, Owen. Well, the fragile ceasefire in Gaza is still holding, at least for another 24 hours. Another arena, though, heating up. Three Israelis were killed this morning in a terrorist attack at a bus station at the entrance to Jerusalem. Two women and an older man were killed. Hamas has claimed responsibility. Both terrorists were killed at the scene. Our defense correspondent, Johnson Regev, has the details. The shots can be clearly heard echoing in the Jerusalem rush hour. Here are the two terrorists armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun shooting at anyone they see, killing three people and injuring various others. I saw the car stopping by the station. It seemed suspicious from the start. The driver got out of the vehicle and pulled out a weapon. I realized immediately that this is a terror attack. They ran to their car for more ammunition, and that is when they were stopped. A very quick reaction from two soldiers and a civilian on site neutralized the terrorists, and they were both eliminated. This event illustrates another thing. How important is the policy of delivering weapons? Despite the criticism, I will continue with the policy of handing out weapons everywhere, including to emergency units and civilians. The terrorists are two brothers from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Tzurbacher, both with a history in Israeli prisons and with connections to Hamas. Police and border police units raided their homes, searching for more potential terrorists. Our forces are spreading every arena to neutralize every possible threat. These two terrorists were eliminated, and the same will happen to every terrorist coming to Jerusalem. Israel's focus may be on Gaza, but as we learned once again, the potential for escalation comes from every possible arena. All right, so gone in. Hamas has claimed responsibility for that attack. The two terrorists were shot at the scene. Two questions, really. First of all, is this not a violation of the truce, given that it was Hamas terrorists who carried it out? And secondly, Israelis are releasing dozens of Palestinian prisoners, some jailed for attempted murder. Are we going to see more terrorist attacks like this on the streets of Jerusalem and elsewhere? So indeed, Hamas took responsibility to the attack in Jerusalem this morning. We don't know for now if the two brothers that committed the terror attack were Hamas members or whether Hamas sent them to do it. If the answer is yes, this is of course a violation of the ceasefire. The ceasefire is not only in Gaza. The ceasefire is between Hamas and Israel. Hamas tried from the beginning to ignite some fire and terror attacks from the West Bank, because Hamas knows that this is something that will be very hard to deal with. This time, they succeeded. It's disturbing because the two brothers are people that are known. Shabbat knows them. They were prisoners, ex-prisoners. And the fact that we didn't have intelligence in advance before they committed the terror attack is disturbing. So, and the second question? Is it a violation of the truth, first of all? And also, because we've seen dozens of prisoners released, are we going to see more of the same? So, of course, I don't know if we're going to see more, but no doubt that the release of prisoners in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and those two terrorists are from East Jerusalem, meaning they're holding an Israeli ID. This is something that brought a lot of enthusiasm to Palestinians. They see the fact that he managed to release prisoners is a victory. And I suspect that we are going to see more terror attacks. We might see more terror attacks. Of course, if Israel is going back into war. Now, of course, to carry out terrorist attacks, they need weapons. The IDF says it has just foiled a huge attempt at smuggling weapons into Israel from Jordan. Oh, this is a very important point because we saw in the video that the weapons that they carried was M16, meaning this is not the regular weapon that they produce in the West Bank that is called the Karlo. When I was in charge of all the Jericho area in 2014, there was a lot of smuggling in the border between Israel and Jordan. Taking out the weapons in the West Bank is something Israel has to do. This is part of the big change that we need to do. This is why we saw those raids, you know, almost weekly in places like Jenin Nablus. Jenin Nablus, but also with Jerusalem. And I will say also in some villages inside Israel, because if I need to remind just before the massacre, we were dealing with violence among the Arab population. There's been another murder today. A pregnant woman was... Pregnant woman and the embryo. Yeah. So this is something that we need to change completely after the massacre as part of the things that we need to learn out of the massacre. It's hard to see what more Israeli forces could do, though. What would you like to see happen? I think that the Israeli police and the military needs to have some plan for the future, how they do it. And by the way, I don't want to get into detail, but even when I was in charge of this area in Jericho area, Israel didn't do all in its capability in order to stop it. Israel didn't? No. Israel didn't do all in its power to stop smuggling from Jordan into Israel. Could I ask why? Because nobody thought that it's important enough. Because you have Hamas and you have Islamic jihad. So we didn't have time to deal with it. Usually the police was dealing with smuggling. The police didn't have all the abilities that Shin Bet had. And nobody thought that it's important enough. Gonen, I actually want to ask you, if I may, are you specialized in the West Bank? And of course, if yours are not familiar, Gonen was the Schmidt handler for the Green Prince, the son of a senior leader of Hamas Al-Sahab, a son Yosef, very prominent figure. If you don't know about him, you can go out and search him in Gonen's role in working with him in the second Niti Fada. You're an expert on the West Bank. Why is it that Hamas has not been able to achieve its goal of igniting violence in the West Bank against Israelis? Why has Hamas not succeeded in that? And why has the West Bank been quieter than I think most of us would have expected on October 8th? Because when Israeli military has the ability to go into the cities and fight it, and we see every night the IDF going into Janine, into Tulkarem, every time we have intelligence about something that is happening there, we enter and we stop it, then Israel has the ability to do it. Unlike Gaza, the Gaza for a long time. We're allowed to flourish. The terrorist groups were allowed to flourish because of course there's been an awful lot of international pressure on Israel over these raids into Nablus Janine and elsewhere. Where does the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fit into all of this? We haven't seen or heard from him for a while now. Of course, prior to this, there was a level of security cooperation as kind of troubled as it was between the PA and Israel. Where does that stand now? Basically, there's still a cooperation between Israel and the PA. The 7th of October massacre happened in very sensitive time because everybody is waiting to the shift of leadership in the West Bank. And they're trying to walk, and I'm saying it not because I'm trying to defend the PA. I think what they said the last 50 days is just ugly and doesn't help the effort to bring peace to the region. But they know that Hamas became very popular after the releasing of prisoners. They're trying to be quiet. I think that cooperation is still there for some level. But everybody will need to recalculate the way because things are going to be different also in the West Bank after we will finish the war in Gaza. All right. Thank you very much. Go ahead. Thank you very much. All right. We're going to go to Southern Israel. Our correspondent, Nikol Zedek, is with us now. So, Nikol, that truce, the last truce, was extended at the 11th of our already, wasn't it? We're now hoping to see, expecting to see at least eight hostages, possibly 10 hostages free tonight. Exactly, Laura. I mean, last night, many Israelis went to bed, unknowing if today was going to continue to see this pause in fighting. But right before that deadline at 7 a.m., we did see that both sides were able to come to some sort of agreement. And as you said, what we're seeing from different Israeli reports, at least eight Israelis, Hamas also claiming they could release two Russian Israelis as well, as well as three bodies. Now, this is something that we have not seen over the past six days. So, that's absolutely going to be something that is new when it comes to this movement that we're expecting today, where we're standing in Southern Israel, not far from the Karim Shalom border crossing. We're hoping to see in the next coming hours. Because as we've seen over the past couple of days, right around 4 p.m. Israel time, any time between four and five, that is when we can start seeing some of this movement with some of these hostages possibly being handed over to the Red Cross. But as we've also seen from last night, there's likely some delays that could pop up as well. And as we saw last night, some of those hostages weren't even handed over to the Red Cross until right before 11 p.m. Israel time. So, this is the hour, right as the sun is falling, as we're waiting to get these updates to see exactly who and when some of these hostages might finally come back here to Israel. Yeah, it's a pretty distressing pattern that the entire country has fallen into night after night. But we're hoping to see more Israelis home tonight. Thank you very much, Nicole. Nicole Zedek there. And so far, 97 hostages have been released from Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire deal. Here they are being reunited with their families. Part warming scene, some of the hostages reunited with their families. And we're hoping to see more of that tonight when at least eight hostages are due to be freed by terrorists.