 In the coverage of the war here in Israel, I'm Nicole Zadik live in Tel Aviv. It's been 20 days since Hamas' full-scale attack on Israel. The IDF launched a targeted raid overnight in the northern Gaza Strait, sending infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists, all while preparing the area for the next stage of the war. Meanwhile, Israel is keeping an eye on the north as well, Israel's air defense systems intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon. After leaders of the three main terror groups, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad held a meeting in Begrut. This, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the nation, stating, while the number one priority right now is eliminating Hamas, once the war is won, Israel will have some major questions to answer. We are bringing down lethal fire on Hamas. We've already killed off thousands of terrorists and this is just the beginning and we're also preparing for the ground offensive. I'm not going to give any specifics on when, how, and how much. I'm also not going to specify the various considerations we're taking into account. Many of these considerations are not known to the general population in Israel and that's a good thing because we want to protect our soldiers' lives. I would like to be clear. The timing of the IDF operation was determined unanimously by the cabinet in charge of this war together with the Chief of General Staff and together with the cabinet we operate in order to guarantee the most optimal conditions for our troops for the upcoming activities and when we get into Gaza and then later on we're going to get those murders who committed these horrendous, horrific events of Hamas-Isis to pay the full price. October 7th was a very dark and black day in our history. We will fully investigate what had happened at our southern border, the border with Gaza. Everybody will have to provide answers, myself included, but all that will happen only after the war. Well, we unpack all the latest developments we want to begin on Israel's northern border where our correspondent Pia Stegelback is standing by. Pia, what's the latest on the ground right now? I know just yesterday we saw that meeting between leaders in Hezbollah, Hamas, and PIJ. Is there the sense that all of them could significantly join the fight in the coming days? Right, Nicole, that has been the concern basically since the beginning of the war that meeting yesterday in attempt of Iran to show how it is trying to pull together its proxies here in the region. Over the night the idea of intercepted a ground-to-air missile coming from southern Lebanon striking back towards the origin of that launch that comes after. The Israeli military said it struck three squads yesterday throughout the day that were trying to each launch anti-tank missiles towards Israel, one of them succeeded in firing toward the tank in the Israeli community of Avivim. There comes after yesterday four rockets were launched also from southern Lebanon towards the area of Kiryat Shmon in the eastern part of the Israel-Lebanon border. Those four rockets fell into open area and were not intercepted as per protocol. No injuries there reported. That meeting happening yesterday morning in Beirut between Hezbollah leader Hassan Asrallah himself and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziyad Nakhle and the Syrian Hamas official Salih Al-Aroori really showing how, and this has been what Hezbollah has been emphasizing throughout the year, the fronts there, Hezbollah on the one side and the Palestinian factions supported by Iran on the other side are supposed to be combined, united in what they said, trying to plan the next step in that sensitive stage now in an attempt to bring about what they said, the victory of the resistance in Gaza. We have been seeing those attempts really in the past months. Hezbollah trying to emphasize that they are supporting the Palestinian cause and that they are willing to take steps to also actively support that, although the skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah have increased throughout the past two weeks. We haven't seen that full-scale escalation here manifesting, but of course Israel here is preparing the ground for the possibility. But we also, when we speak about the north, have to take a look at the south because if you need more proof that those fronts are also in fact combined. Yesterday a rocket was fired from Hamas and Gaza towards the Haifa area. They are a long-range missile, a sign of Hamas really trying to show that that meeting or these meetings that have been taking place between Palestinian factions and the Hezbollah leader are in fact also able to bring about results on the ground. 24 News correspondent P.S. Dekalback up on the north. Thank you for your coverage. Now I want to bring in my guests in studio. I'm joined by retired colonel Dr. Jacques Naria, former deputy head of assessment for the Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Wabine, along with I-24 News senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ulterman. Colonel Naria, I want to begin with you because as we were just hearing from our correspondent Pia about the threat, especially as these main terror group leaders are meeting, Hezbollah, Hamas, P.I.J., we have to remember it's not just between the south and the north as she was stating, it's also the West Bank. In fact we continue to see clashes as we're speaking between Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Palestinians the idea of doing everything they can to get a grip on that region as well. Yeah, definitely. And we just heard the President Biden advising Israel to try to prevent these actions to be conducted. I mean settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, this is not very good from our point of view. In any case, I mean the American administration is against it. What is clear that there is a sort of intifada in the West Bank that we are facing. The fact is that we have arrested more than a thousand Hamas activists and operatives in the West Bank. We are trying to eliminate the presence of the Hamas in the West Bank, political and military, whereas there are already more than 70 Palestinian terrorists killed by the Israeli army. And I think that in a way the Palestinian Authority should be thankful to Israel because without eliminating the presence of Hamas just gives the Palestinian Authority a chance to reestablish its authority among the Palestinians. This is where we are today. It's an ongoing battle. It's not so much in the media and it's better that it is like this on a low profile but the activities are as intense as one can imagine. I'm curious. You brought up what U.S. President Joe Biden had said, urging the idea to get a grip on the clashes in the West Bank. He also said something about how after October 6th, Israel will never look the same. Specifically also stating that after this there needs to be more calls for a two-state solution. But I'm curious, do you think that's possible, especially following this massacre, the device? It's bigger than ever before. Look, there's no future without the political solution. Everybody is aware that after a war there's a time for negotiations. What sort of landscape would it be? Definitely not the one that we knew before the 6th of October. Israel cannot afford having a Hamas like regime in Gaza or Hezbollah on its border. Something has to change radically. And the more we think about it, we are tempted to think about solutions that today are inimaginable. We are not ready to see the Palestinian Authority back into Gaza. We're not ready for that. We might be ready for a sort of autonomy or something of a sort. Everybody thinking about it and certainly the American administration is studying the situation. What has been before the 6th of October will definitely change. But it's not for tomorrow. Remember when the minister who has just joined the cabinet just said to the settlers on the Gaza border, you have to wait at least a year before coming back to your house. We are talking about a long, long conflict between us and the Palestinians and we don't know yet what sort of conflict it would be because the people in Israel as much as the analysts are confused. At the beginning of the war we heard that the goal was to defeat Hamas, to get rid of Hamas and then we would deal with the hostages. Now it's the other way around. And we know according to the history of wars that when you exchange prisoners happens only when you stop fighting. So is this what we are looking at? I don't know yet. And you're talking about a lot of the response from the United States. I also think it's important as we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just stating how Israel and its government and its military will have a lot of questions to answer after this, correct Owen? Yeah, that was of course a headline that many Israelis took from that speech. Of course the background, Nicole, is that the prime minister, unlike others, some others in his government and certainly others through that security services has not gone out and said point blank that I take responsibility for what happened. Netanyahu has stopped short of that. As close as he came to doing that was that line in the speech last night. Obviously that won't satisfy his critics. Netanyahu of course making the argument that this isn't the time for him to do so and that he needs to focus on being as he put it responsible for the victory. It's been said by Israeli political commentators that Netanyahu is concerned about doing this because admitting responsibility in that way is too much of a concession to his political opponents and would lead him vulnerable on the day after in elections. Obviously the Israeli public left to make up its mind about what it wants to hear from the prime minister and how high up on its list of priorities that is. But I think equally concerning for the prime minister should be the lack of satisfaction of both the organization on the home front and on the civilian side, the services to those who have been evacuated from the south and from the north and on compensation to people who have obviously lost income in so many ways over the course of the war and also concerned about a sense in the media and I think in large parts of the public that a lot of the ministers just haven't been out there in front. Haven't been out there in front early enough getting out into the border communities themselves. Haven't been seen as having passion for their jobs and for their works, for their work and really stepping up the function of their offices. Again, a lot of people see a very, very active civil society and a very, very robust and impressive volunteer effort that is, the criticism has been that that effort is taking place in part because the government and the state themselves haven't stepped up. So obviously that debate is going to continue that you know, tried to address it and put out his side last night. Obviously the public will have to make up its own mind. And the public certainly continues to voice their opinion. I want to move now to everything that's happening with the latest developments out of Israel's southern border. And that's where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by. Now, Pierre, overnight we hear that there was a targeted raid by the Israeli Defense Forces, the largest incursion into Gaza since the beginning of this war. What can you tell us about the operation? Well, it's not the first time that there's been a nightly ground raid inside the Gaza Strip. I've countered at least two others. That would be the third one which has been confirmed by the IDF Spokesperson Unit. A ground raid involving combined armored tanks, armored forces, infantry units in order to calm the area inside the Gaza Strip close to the security fence in order to neutralize terrorists that are roaming the area to neutralize anti-tank posts, probably cleaning the area from IEDs and preparing the ground in general for a further ground offensive that the Israeli public has been waiting for the past 20 days since the start of the war declared by Hamas on Israel. So it is happening, probably happening even when the army does not confirm it's happening. It's probably happening a lot, but these are limited ground incursions in order to prepare the battleground, the future battleground. And at the same time, there are intensive air strikes overnight on the Gaza Strip, on different Hamas targets, neutralizing tunnels, tunnels shafts, command posts, and that goes on relentlessly. Meanwhile, Pierre, we're hearing new reports of new calls from Hamas for protests in Israel, in the West Bank, in the entire Muslim world on Friday and Sunday to allow more aid coming into the Rafah border crossing. This continues to be a very difficult part of everything that continues to happen, especially in the crisis in Gaza. Right, Hamas is trying to put a lot of international pressure on governments, be it Europe, the United States, and also inside Israel. Trying in Israel, as far as Israel is concerned, trying probably to open another front inside Israel within the Arab-Israeli communities, trying to try and escalate already a very fragile and precarious situation in the West Bank. Our correspondent Pierre Kloschender, thank you for bringing us all the latest as we continue to keep our eye on all of the latest developments down there in the south and the impending ground offensive. Now, I want to come back to my guests in studio. Dr. Jack Naria, as we heard from Pierre about this overnight targeted raid, it certainly indicates that there is more action happening, specifically with tanks, troops, all entering the area coming back, but they're preparing. Yeah, well, from the military point of view, I mean, the pure doctrine is what's happening is testing the defenses of Hamas. When you go into the territory that is under control of Hamas terrorists, you have to see what sort of ambushes is he preparing. We have to clean the rubble because otherwise the tanks cannot go in. It's impossible. So much damage and debris is all over the ground. We have to clear the air. So engineers have to go with bulldozers and clean the area. So as, I mean, but mainly the main idea is to see how alert are the defenses and how can they be countered by Israeli forces. And what's happening yesterday and what happened yesterday and the two other raids is encouraging because, I mean, we might be surprised to see that after the whole the whole shouting that they have 40,000 fighters and so on and so on, maybe surprise would be that it's not so big. Owen, what about the optics of this? The idea of publishing that footage claiming this is the largest incursion since the war began. They're really pushing that they are preparing for a bigger invasion. Yeah, I think in this case, Nicole, a lot of that is really meant for the Israeli public. Again, to give the public here a sense of forward movement in the war, right? Because there's a sense of kind of stasis. Not that the Army is being passive by no means. Nobody is arguing that. But again, the public was in a sense promised an initial and very harsh ground campaign at the beginning. And it obviously hasn't happened for a whole host of reasons, many of which may well turn out to be legitimate and even smart and shrewd. But I think the military wants to show the public, give them a sense of forward movement. And I think it's important for people abroad to understand just how different the way this is played out is from the general way that Israel's military campaigns have gone, at least in my lifetime in the Israeli psyche, where always the emphasis was on hitting back first, on hitting back hard, on making a strong impression, both psychologically for the home front and psychologically to deter the other side. And for Israel to take the advantage, defend itself, and move quickly. And obviously everything we've seen over the course of the last week is in a sense the exact opposite. And there are lots of reasons for that. We've talked about many of them. A lot of it, of course, having to do with influence from abroad, particularly from the United States, for a host of reasons. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just very different from what we in Israel are accustomed to. And very different from how we're used to our military campaigns being run. So I suspect it was important for the military to get this documentation out there, and these pictures out there, to give people a sense of forward movement. It continues to be interesting, saying not just how the Israeli perspective interprets all of this, but also the international perspective. And I want to state that one of the most shocking outcomes from the October 7th massacre on Israeli civilians has been the international public response, including an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks. Now pro-Palestinian, nor specifically pro-Hamas protests, have erupted around the world. And American college campuses are taking a center stage in these protests. Recently, Jewish students at Cooper Union College in New York were locked in a library by a security team in order to protect the students from a pro-Palestinian group taking free Palestine and trying to break down the library door. Now we saw some of these images, just how horrific it is of these students locked by security guards saying that it's for your best safety to stay in this room away from these protesters. And this is just one scene that's happening in the United States on college campuses. But we see it time and time again. Yeah, I mean I think that Nicole anti-Semitism is of course a serious problem. I also think if you look at it in the wider frame and I'll explain what I mean by this, in a sense the overreach by these protesters, rioters, let's be honest, criminals in some cases, the overreach is an opportunity for Israel. I mean, first of all, obviously anti-Semitism is a huge problem. If you are those students locked in that library at Cooper Union, that's your focus in those minutes, in those hours, and on the day after when you have to go back to your university. Right now, you can see them locked in as the protesters are trying to get inside. It's shocking. Imagine being them with feeling they have no support from their university, they have no support from the New York Police Department, and they're just there all alone locked in with the rioters essentially outside. And obviously in that sense anti-Semitism is a huge problem, right, for American Jews, for Jews around the world, and we've seen the spike, I want to make the last person to diminish the severity of it. On the other hand, in a wider strategic frame, this is the opening for Israel. These protesters are obviously overreaching, they're rioting. Protesters, as we know, Nicole, are tearing down posters of Israeli hostages. Think about that. Young children, women, Holocaust survivors being held hostage by Hamas, and their posters are being theatrically torn down. There's a lot of focus on the protesters and the protest movement and what it means in American society, in Western society. And I think in Israel and the Jewish world, there's a kind of sense of a coming apocalypse. But we have to remember, the protesters represent the protesters. They don't represent the broad middle, the broad center of public opinion in these societies, which is what we have to be focused on. And that's Israel's opportunity, their overreach, their violence, verbal and physical, and their tearing down posters of hostages is our opportunity here in Israel to position Israel as part of the political center in the United States and in Europe, right? Not connected to the far left, not connected to the far right, but part of the broad center of what the society is and wants to be. And of course, the person going out there and making this message most forcefully and effectively is the most powerful person in the world, US President Joe Biden. This is his message to the public. Israel equals Ukraine. Israel equals Ukraine equals Taiwan. These are our friends in the world, the people who are consistent with our values as the center in the political center in the United States and elsewhere. And of course, it's not just Joe Biden. Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, and a host of other leaders from Europe have all been here on Israeli soil making this case to their own people. Obviously, Israel has problems in public opinion. The generation gap in the United States between what older Americans say and younger Americans say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has never been wider. There's a lot of work for Israel to do. But positioning ourselves in the political center, given the overreach of the protesters, by the way, the propaganda overreach by Hamas. Its health ministry puts out numbers that are now widely understood to be fake, essentially. Giving an opening for Israel to be able to make its case. Getting to that political center and navigating to get there is something that needs to be done. It's not the only scenario. There are other worse scenarios. But it gives, I think, a direction strategically for Israeli public diplomacy and advocacy that I think our leaders and advocates would be wise to take. And you mentioned just how the world leaders seem to be siding with Israel, but it's the general public that is especially influenced by this Hamas propaganda. I mean, Jack Naira, we continue to see it with the hostage situation. I think that's some of the largest examples of this propaganda that these Hamas terrorists continue to use to manipulate the public. It's not only the Hamas terrorists. I mean, look at our neighbor. Our neighbor, the Queen of Jordan, the Queen of Jordan, denies that all the events of the 7th of October really happened. She denies the fact that babies were decapitated, that women were raped. I mean, it's unbelievable, but it can be understood. Why? Because you have more than 5,000 jihadists on the borders of Jordan waiting for the sign to go into Jordan. So they have to use a double language. Say, on the one hand, they are against what's happening in Israel. On the other hand, they are just hoping Israel finishes with the problem as soon as possible. This is true for Jordan. This is true for Egypt. This is true for Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf. Imagine the Emirates, who are under Iranian subversion all the time, voted against the resolution presented yesterday by the U.S. at the Security Council. Yeah, well, two points out of this. Number one, to take up a check saying, their, quote, unquote, overreach and their mistakes are our opportunity. And that has to be the focus, right? And it has been the focus in terms of the attention paid rightly to the Hamas health ministry, the attention paid rightly to the violence by protesters, rioters at Cooper Union and taking down of the posters. And also the United Nations has to be mentioned. The Russians and the Chinese had to veto that American resolution yesterday because otherwise it would have had the votes to pass. Meaning that the resolution that did not call for a ceasefire, that would be to Hamas's benefit, that's the resolution that Russia and China had to veto because if they not vetoed it, it would pass. Really a landmark event for Israel at the United Nations, maybe coincidental because if you actually look at the lineup in the Security Council by good fortune for Israel, it's a more favorable lineup just in terms of the rotation of countries. But nonetheless, goes to my point, the political center, the leadership and the broad political center in public opinion can be Israel's target audience. We can connect with them. We can be on their side. And again, it's the Russians and the Chinese who are on the other side. There are the people who ride it in Cooper Union, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Those are the people on the other side, Israel's against them and with you. That has to be the message. We know Israel continuing to stay with his Western allies, but just as you were saying, all of the Arab countries that surround Israel, not taking a firm stance in this because it's not in their best interest to help out the Palestinians that are being impacted by this. Definitely, but this is, I mean, the way those rulers in the Arab world I mean, it's not a democracy, remember? We're talking about regimes that are not living in a democracy. The only democracy in the region is Israel. So, I mean, this is really different. This is the clash between what our Prime Minister called light and obscurity. This is light and darkness. This is what, I mean, a civilized society and, I mean, beasts on the other side. But there's another point also. I mean, we know that leftist groups all over Europe, mainly, are against Israel. They've been historically against Israel. Now, if you look at even the U.N. Secretary General, I mean, he just proved a lack of knowledge when he just said and justified what happened on the 7th of October as if Israel was responsible of it, as if it was a response to what Israel has been conducting a policy with the Palestinians and forgetting that 95% of the Palestinians are under Palestinian rule and not under Israel. There's no occupation, no real occupation. There's no real occupation. We are in 5% of the territories in the West Bank, whereas, I mean, the Palestinian Authority enjoys much more than the only thing that they don't enjoy is that they don't exert any authority on the West Bank. That misinformation that continues to fuel this public debate, retired Colonel Dr. Jock Naria, along with our senior diplomatic correspondent, Owen Alterman. Thank you both for all of your insight. Truly, so much to unpack when it comes to the war here in Israel. Thank you for tuning in. Is officially in a state of war. This is a very active scene, and we need to get in the car as we're talking. More than 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped. Help us. We don't want to do it. We just don't know anything. Entire families, including babies and children, and elderly were butchered in their beds. Awaken the giant, and we are ready, and we are strong. Everyone is showing up. This is the unity. Welcome to our rolling coverage of the war here in Israel. I'm Nicole Zadik live in Tel Aviv. It's been 20 days since Hamas' full-scale attack on Israel. The IDF launched a targeted raid overnight in the northern Gaza Strip, sending in infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists, all while preparing the area for the next stage of the war. Meanwhile, Israel is keeping an eye on the north as well, as Israel's air defense systems intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon. After leaders of the three main terror groups as Bala, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad held a meeting in Beirut. This says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the nation, stating, well, the number one priority right now is eliminating Hamas. Once the war is won, Israel will have some major questions to answer. We are bringing down lethal fire on Hamas. We've already killed off thousands of terrorists, and this is just the beginning, and we're also preparing for the ground offensive. I'm not going to give any specifics on when, how, and how much. I'm also not going to specify the various considerations we're taking into account. Many of these considerations are not known to the general population in Israel, and that's a good thing, because we want to protect our soldiers' lives. I would like to be clear. The timing of the IDF operation was determined unanimously by the cabinet in charge of this war, together with the Chief of General Staff, and together with the cabinet, we operate in order to guarantee the most optimal conditions for our troops for the upcoming activities. And when we get into Gaza and then later on, we're going to get those murderers who committed these horrendous, horrific events of Hamas ISIS to pay the full price. October 7th was a very dark and black day in our history. We will fully investigate what had happened at our southern border, the border with Gaza. Everybody will have to provide answers, myself included, but all that will happen only after the war. Well, we unpack all of the latest developments we want to begin on Israel's northern border where our correspondent Pia Stegelback is standing by. Pia, what's the latest on the ground right now? I know just yesterday we saw that meeting between leaders in Hezbollah, Hamas and Pij. Is there the sense that all of them could significantly join the fight in the coming days? Right, Nicole, that has been the concern basically since the beginning of the war in that meeting yesterday, an attempt of Iran to show how it is trying to pull together its proxies here in the region. Over the nights, the idea of intercepted air to ground to air missile coming from southern Lebanon, striking back towards the origin of that launch that comes after the Israeli military said it struck three squads yesterday throughout the day that were trying to each launch anti-tank missiles towards Israel. One of them succeeded in firing toward the tank in the Israeli community of Avivim. There comes after yesterday four rockets were launched also from southern Lebanon towards the area of Kiryat Shmon in the eastern part of the Israel-Lebanon border. Those four rockets fell into open area and were not intercepted as per protocol. No injuries there reported. That meeting happening yesterday morning in Beirut between Hezbollah leader Hassan Asrallah himself and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad Nakhle and the Syrian Hamas official, Salah Al-Aroori really showing how and this has been what Hezbollah has been emphasizing throughout the year. The fronts there, Hezbollah on the one side and the Palestinian factions supported by Iran on the other side are supposed to be combined, united in what they said trying to plan the next step in that sensitive stage now in an attempt to bring about what they said the victory of the resistance in Gaza. We have been seeing those attempts really in the past months. Hezbollah trying to emphasize that they are supporting the Palestinian cause and that they are willing to take steps to also actively support that although the skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah have increased throughout the past two weeks. We haven't seen that full-scale escalation here manifesting but of course Israel here is preparing the ground for the possibility but we also when we speak about the north we want to take a look at the south because if you needed more proof that those fronts are also in fact combined. Yesterday a rocket was fired from Hamas in Gaza towards the Haifa area. They are a long-range missile. A sign of Hamas really trying to show that that meeting or these meetings that have been taking place between Palestinian factions and Hezbollah leader are in fact also able to bring about results on the ground. 24 news correspondent P.S. to go back up on the north. I'm joined by retired colonel Dr. Jock Naria, former deputy head of assessment for the Israeli military intelligence and former foreign policy advisor to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin along with I-24 news senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman. Colonel Naria I want to begin with you because as we were just hearing from our correspondent Pia about the threat especially as these main terror group leaders are meeting Hezbollah, Hamas, P.I.J. We have to remember it's not just between the south and the north it's also the west bank. In fact we continue to see clashes as we're speaking between Israeli settlers in the west bank and Palestinians. The idea of doing everything they can to get a grip on that region as well. We just heard the president Biden advising Israel to try to prevent these actions to be the conductors I mean settlers attacking Palestinians in the west bank. This is not very good from our point of view. In any case the American administration is against it. What is clear that there is a sort of intifada in the west bank that we are facing. The fact is that we have arrested more than a thousand Hamas activists and operatives in the west bank. We are trying to eliminate the presence of the Hamas in the west bank. Political and military whereas there are already more than 70 Palestinians killed. I mean terrorists killed by the Israeli army and I think that in a way the Palestinian Authority should be thankful to Israel because without eliminating the presence of Hamas just gives the Palestinian Authority a chance to reestablish its authority among the Palestinians. This is where we are today. It's an ongoing battle. It's not so much in the media and it's better that it is like this on a low profile but the activities are as intense as one can imagine. I'm curious you brought up what U.S. President Joe Biden had said urging this, the idea to get a grip on the clashes in the west bank. He also said something about how after October 6th Israel will never look the same. Specifically also stating that after this there needs to be more calls for a two state solution. But I'm curious do you think that's possible especially following this massacre the device? It's bigger than ever before. There's no future without the political solution. Everybody is aware that after a war there's a time for negotiations. What sort of landscape would it be? Definitely not the one that we knew before October 6th. Israel cannot afford having a Hamas or Hamas like regime in Gaza or Hezbollah on its border. Something has to change radically. The more we think about it, we are tempted to think about solutions that today are inimaginable. We are not ready to see the Palestinian authority back into Gaza. We're not ready for that. We might be ready for a sort of autonomy or something of a sort. Everybody is thinking about it. And certainly the American administration is studying the situation. What has been before the 6th of October will definitely change. But it's not for tomorrow. Remember when the minister who has just joined the cabinet just said to the settlers on the Gaza border you have to wait at least a year before coming back to the house. We are talking about a long conflict between us and the Palestinians and we don't know yet what sort of conflict would it be because the people in Israel as much as the analysts are confused. At the beginning of the war we heard that the goal was to defeat Hamas to get rid of Hamas and then we would deal with the hostages. Now it's the other way around. And we know according to the history of wars that when you exchange of prisoners it happens only when you stop fighting. So is this what we are looking at? I don't know yet. And you're talking about a lot of the response from the United States. I also think it's important as we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just stating how Israel and its government and its military will have a lot of questions to answer after this, correct Owen? Yeah, that was of course a headline that many Israelis took from that speech. Of course the background Nicole is that the Prime Minister unlike others in the United States and the U.S. government and certainly others through the security services has not gone out and said point blank that I take responsibility for what happened. Netanyahu has stopped short of that as close as he came to doing that was that line in the speech last night. Obviously that won't satisfy his critics. Netanyahu of course making the argument that this isn't the time for him to do so and that he needs to focus on being as he put it out. Netanyahu is concerned about doing this because admitting responsibility in that way is too much of a concession to his political opponents and would lead him vulnerable on the day after an elections. Obviously the Israeli public left to make up its mind about what it wants to hear from the Prime Minister and how high up on its list of priorities that is. But I think equally concerning for the Prime Minister should be the lack of satisfaction of both the organization and the services to those who have been evacuated from the south and from the north and on the compensation to people who have obviously lost income in so many ways over the course of the war and also concerned about a sense in the media and I think in large parts of the public that a lot of the ministers just haven't been out there in front. Haven't been out there in front early enough getting out into the border communities themselves. Haven't been out there in front early enough getting out in front early enough getting out into the border communities again a lot of people see a very very active civil society and a very very robust and impressive volunteer effort that is the criticism has been that that effort is taking place in part because the government in the state themselves haven't stepped up so obviously that debate is going to continue that you know tried to address it and that's where we're going to go to the next slide. We're going to talk about the developments out of Israel's southern border and that's where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by now Pierre overnight we hear that there was a targeted raid by the Israeli Defense Forces the largest incursion into Gaza since the beginning of this war. What can you tell us about the operation? Well, it's not the first time there has been confirmed by the IDF spokesperson unit a ground raid involving combined armored tanks armored forces infantry units in order to calm the area inside the Gaza Strip close to the security fence in order to neutralize terrorists that are roaming the area in order to neutralize anti-tank posts probably meaning the area from IEDs and preparing the ground in general for a further ground offensive that the Israeli public has been waiting for the past 20 days since the start of the war declared by Hamas on Israel so it is happening probably happening even when the army does not confirm it's probably happening a lot but these are limited ground incursion in order to prepare the future battleground and at the same time there are intensive air strikes overnight on the Gaza Strip on different Hamas targets neutralizing tunnels shafts command posts and that goes on relentlessly meanwhile Pierre we're hearing new reports of new calls from Hamas for protests in Israel in the West Bank and the entire Muslim world on Friday and Sunday to allow more aid coming into the water crossing this continues to be a very difficult part of everything that continues to happen the aid crisis in Gaza right Hamas is trying to put a lot of international pressure on governments be it Europe the United States and also inside Israel trying in Israel as far as Israel is concerned trying probably to open another front inside Israel within the Arab Israeli communities or to try and escalate already a very fragile and precarious situation in the West Bank our correspondent Pierre thank you for bringing us all the latest as we continue to keep our eye on all of the latest developments down there in the south and the impending ground offensive now I want to come back to my guests in studio Dr. Jack Naria as we hear from Pierre about this overnight targeted raid although not the first targeted raid it certainly indicates that there is more action happening specifically with tanks troops all entering the area coming back but they're preparing from the military point of view I mean the pure doctrine what's happening is testing the defenses of Hamas when you go into the territory that that is under control of Hamas terrorists you have to see what sort of ambushes is he preparing we have to clean the rubble because otherwise the tanks cannot go in it's impossible so much damage and debris around we have to clear the area so engineers have to go with bulldozers and clean the area so as I mean but mainly the main idea is to see how alert are the the defenses and how how can they be countered by Israeli forces and what's happening yesterday and what happened yesterday and the two other raids is encouraging because I mean we might be surprised to see that after the whole the shouting that they have 40,000 fighters and so on and so on maybe surprise would be that it's not so big what about the optics of this the idea of publishing that footage claiming this is the largest incursion since the war began they're really pushing that they are preparing for a bigger invasion yeah I think in this case Nicole a lot of that is really meant for the Israeli public again to give the public a sense of forward movement in the war right because there's a sense of kind of racist not that the army is being passive by no means nobody is arguing that but again the public was in a sense promised an initial and very harsh ground campaign at the beginning and obviously hasn't happened for a whole host of reasons many of which may well turn out to be legitimate and even smart and shrewd but I think the military wants to show the public give them a sense of forward movement and I think it's important for people abroad to understand just how different the way this is played out is from the general way that Israel's military campaigns have gone at least in my lifetime in the Israeli psyche where always the emphasis was on hitting back first, on hitting back hard, on making a strong impression both psychologically for the home front and psychologically to deter the other side and for Israel to take the advantage defend itself and move quickly and obviously everything we've seen over the course of the last week is in a sense the exact opposite and there are lots of reasons for that we've talked about many of them a lot of it of course having to do with influence from abroad particularly from the United States for a host of reasons this isn't necessarily a bad thing it's just very different from what we in Israel are accustomed to and very different from how we're used to our military campaigns being run so I suspect it was important for the military to get this documentation out there in these pictures out there to give people a sense of forward movement it continues to be interesting not just how the Israeli perspective interprets all of this but also the international perspective and I want to state that one of the most shocking outcomes from the October 7th massacre on Israeli civilians has been the international public response including an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks now pro-Palestinian or specifically pro-Hamas protests have erupted around the world and American college campuses are taking a center stage in these protests recently Jewish students at Cooper Union College in New York were locked in a library by a security team in order to protect the students from a pro-Palestinian group getting free Palestine and trying to break down the library door now we saw some of these images just how horrific it is of these students locked by security guards saying that it's for your best safety to stay in this room away from these protestors and this is just one scene that's happening in the United States on college campuses but we see it time and time again Yeah, I mean I think that Nicole anti-Semitism is of course a serious problem I also think if you look at it in the wider frame and I'll explain what I mean by this in a sense the overreach by these protestors, rioters let's be honest, criminals in some cases the overreach is an opportunity for Israel I mean first of all obviously anti-Semitism is a huge problem if you are those students locked in that library Cooper Union that's your focus in those minutes in those hours and on the day after when you have to go back to your university Yeah, you can see them locked in as the protestors are trying to get inside it's shocking imagine being them with feeling they have no support from their university they have no support from the New York police department and they're just there all alone locked in with the rioters essentially outside and obviously in that sense anti-Semitism is a huge problem for American Jews, for Jews around the world and we've seen the spike and I certainly I wouldn't be the last person to diminish the severity of it on the other hand in a wider strategic frame this is the opening for Israel these protestors are obviously overreaching they're rioting protestors you know as we know Nicole are tearing down posters of Israeli hostages think about that, young children women, Holocaust survivors are held hostage by Hamas and their posters are being theatrically torn down there's a lot of focus on the protestors and the protest movement and what it means in American society and western society and I think in Israel and the Jewish world there's a kind of sense of a coming apocalypse but we have to remember the protestors represent the protestors they don't represent the broad middle the broad center of public opinion in these societies which is what we have to be focused on and that's Israel's opportunity their overreach, their violence verbal and physical and their tearing down posters of hostages is our opportunity here in Israel to position Israel as part of the political center in the United States and in Europe not connected to the far left not connected to the far right but part of the broad center of what the society is and wants to be and of course the person going out there and making this message most forcefully and effectively is the most powerful person in the world US President Joe Biden this is his message to the public Israel equals Ukraine Israel equals Ukraine equals Taiwan these are our friends in the world the people who are consistent with our values as the center in the political center in the United States and elsewhere and of course it's not just Joe Biden Rishi Sunak the British Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron the French President Olaf Scholz the German Chancellor and a host of other leaders from Europe here on Israeli soil making this case to their own people obviously Israel has problems in public opinion the generation gap in the United States between what older Americans say and younger Americans say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has never been wider there's a lot of work for Israel to do but positioning ourselves in the political center given the overreach of the protestors by the way the propaganda overreach by Hamas is now widely understood to be fake essentially giving an opening for Israel to be able to make its case getting to that political center and navigating to get there is something that needs to be done it's not the only scenario there are other worse scenarios but it gives I think a direction strategically for Israeli public diplomacy and advocacy that I think our leaders and advocates would be wise to take world leaders seem to be siding with Israel but it's the general public that is especially influenced by this Hamas propaganda I mean Jack Nerio we continue to see it with the hostage situation I think that's some of the largest examples of this propaganda that these Hamas terrorists continue to use to manipulate the public but it's not only the Hamas terrorists I mean look at our neighbor our neighbor the queen of Jordan the queen of Jordan denies that all the events of the 7th October really happened I think we know the fact that babies were decapitated that people were women were raped it's unbelievable but it can be understood why because you have more than 5,000 jihadists on the borders of Jordan waiting for the sign to go into Jordan so they have to use a double language say on the one hand they are against what's happening in Israel on the other hand they are just hoping Israel finishes with the problem as soon as possible this is true for Jordan this is true for Egypt this is true for Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf imagine the Emirates who are under Iranian subversion all the time voted against the resolution presented yesterday by the US at the Security Council two points out of this number one to take up what Jack is saying their quote-unquote overreach and their mistakes are our opportunity and that has to be the focus the attention paid rightly to the Hamas health ministry the attention paid rightly to the violence by protesters, rioters at Cooper Union and taking down of the posters and also the United Nations has to be mentioned the Russians and the Chinese had to veto that American resolution yesterday because otherwise it would have had the votes to pass meaning that the resolution that did not call for a ceasefire that would be to Hamas's benefit that's the resolution that Russia and China had to veto it, it would pass really a landmark event for Israel at the United Nations maybe coincidental because if you actually look at the lineup in the Security Council by good fortune for Israel it's a more favorable lineup just in terms of the rotation of countries but nonetheless goes to my point the political center the leadership and the broad political center and public opinion can be Israel's target audience we can connect with them we can be on their side and again it's the Russians and the Chinese who are on the other side the people who rioted in Cooper Union Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping those are the people on the other side Israel's against them and with you that has to be the message we know Israel continuing to stay with his western allies but just as you were saying all of the Arab countries that surround Israel not taking a firm stance in this because it's not in their best interest to help out the Palestinians that are being impacted by this definitely but this is the way those rulers in the Arab world I mean it's not a democracy remember we're talking about regimes that are not living in a democracy the only democracy in the region is Israel so I mean this is really different this is the clash between what our Prime Minister called light and obscurity this is light and darkness civilized society and I mean beasts on the other side but there's another point also I mean we know that leftist groups all over Europe mainly are against Israel they've been historically against Israel now if you look at even the UN Secretary General I mean it's he just proved a lack of knowledge when he just said and justified what happened on the 7th of October as if Israel was responsible of it as if it was a response to what Israel has been conducting a policy with the Palestinians and forgetting that 95% of the Palestinians are under Palestinian rule and not under Israeli rule there's no occupation there's no real occupation we are in 5% of the territories in the West Bank whereas I mean the Palestinian Authority enjoys much more than anything that they don't enjoy is that they don't exerce any authority on the West Bank that misinformation that continues to fuel this public debate retired Colonel Dr. Jacques Naria along with our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Alterman thank you both for all of your insight truly so much to unpack when it comes to the war here in Israel thank you for tuning in 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues bringing 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 insight scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news exclusive reports from the war zone the reaction of the Spanish-speaking countries News 24 the only Spanish media that keeps you informed and connected with the Latin community in Israel News 24 only on I-24 news I-24 news Jihad held a meeting in Beirut this says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the nation stating will be number one priority right now is eliminating Hamas once the war is won Israel will have some major questions to answer now meanwhile I want to begin with our correspondent in the south Pierre Kloschenler I-24 news correspondent in southern Israel Pierre as we're speaking right now we're also waiting to hear from the IDF spokesperson really briefing addressing the media as well but also within the past half an hour now we see more rockets after a 12 hour lull continuing to target southern Israel right and it's a pattern that has been going on for the past few days that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad awaken in the morning at around 10 or 11 AM local time and start launching their salvos of rocket this time they were very local they were salvos of rockets in the localities nearby the security fence separating Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip including here in the much abandoned city of Beirut we had a rockets alert at least we didn't hear of any interceptions or impact and according to the national rescue services they received no calls of impacts or casualties or damage at this point but this is the pattern starting from 10 11 in the morning the rocket salvos start striking Israeli territory meanwhile the Israeli army we hear from the IDF spokesperson unit as stricken from the air from the sea and from the ground 250 targets terror targets including positions that were nearby mosques and kindergarten the navy was involved ground to air missiles positions were neutralized as well as anti-tank positions 250 targets in the past 24 hours is less that what we've been used to hear from the IDF spokesman I remember a couple of days ago they spoke of over 420 targets in the Gaza Strip that were stricken by the Israeli Air Force does this mean anything I don't know and yet I think that the Israeli army is pounding by air, by sea and with the artillery and relentlessly Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets up until now time to time here are some explosions Pierre you mentioned those 250 targets including some of them stationed near a kindergarten and a mosque, this continues to be one of the most challenging aspects as Hamas continues to put their command centers, their targets near civilian infrastructures Right and I think that you know I mean for over 20 years of rocket fire on Israeli territory, Israel has argued that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rely on the Palestinian civilian population as a human shield and I think it's starting to sink in, President US President Joe Biden mentioned that yesterday and he's been mentioning it since the start of the war declared by Hamas on Israel so I think that this is something that now people, more and more people are starting to realize Hamas use human shields Our correspondent Pierre Koshien they're reporting from southern Israel thank you for all of the latest as we continue to keep our eye down there near the Gaza border I want to bring in my guest in studio right now I'm joined by Rafael Yerosalmi former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and security analyst as well as Zarell Margoliet founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners and former member of Israeli Parliament for the Labor Party Affairs and Defense Committee thank you both so much for joining me Rafael let's begin with talking about the IDF overnight targeted raid in the Gaza Strip really all signs point that they're preparing for this ground operation trying to take out as many targets as they can but it remains difficult as those targets remain in underground tunnels That's right and that's why we have to have this incursion inside the Gaza territory even though it's still okay to wait a little while from the air with the artillery and the more we can do that without entering with our troops underground the better this being said we have to prepare the ground the operation of last night led by the Givati Brigade included the entry into Gaza of armored vehicles and tanks which was already a feat in itself since there are many obstacles prepared against tanks on the ground and the attack positions were equipped with anti-tank missiles and they managed to destroy these positions before any anti-tank missile could hit them which is of course a success they operated a few things first of all intelligence gathering coming into the enemy territory allows you to gather intelligence it makes you check the capacities the fact that we could enter and come out unharmed it's a checking of our capacities to do so maybe on a larger scale they prepared also the ground for future attacks it's in two ways there are some perimeters that they have booby trapped so it will be like terminators we don't go into and if the Hamas goes into they'll have a bad surprise and others are perimeters that are technologically prepared for the attack we have a few surprises of our own for the Hamas and for that we need sometimes on the ground certain sensors or technological things to help us do so so all in all it's a very positive action it also shows that we do not have to go tomorrow morning in a huge offensive we can maybe wait a little longer we can also it's very nerve rocking for the enemy the enemy in the tunnels or wherever it is hiding it's very nerve rocking for them to see that first of all we're waiting we're taking our time now the masters we decide if and when we go in and then we can still allow ourselves to have this kind of operation so all in all very good news and I think it's also a relief psychologically for our troops that are waiting very impatiently on the border and for the civilian population of Israel who is now seeing some like real action I mean we know there's a lot of action from the air and the artillery of course but now they see something that shows determination it's starting to be more tangible now also as we keep our eye on the Gaza Strip everything that's happening there also more calls for aid to enter the area as well reports that Hamas is calling for protests also from Israel from the West Bank from the entire Muslim world to protest on Friday and Sunday urging more aid to be let in through the Rafa border crossing but this is a difficult situation it is but I think that we need to be smart about it and surgical Rafael spoke about a surgical entrance entrance into the field I was a commander in an anti-tank unit and so I know what the hunters of the tanks are doing and when they're hiding so I think it was very important that those units are there first of all the clearing the road and the other things that they're doing Israel's being very surgical the more you know the more surgical it could be and you can avoid you can hit your enemies Hamas but you could do your best to avoid hitting any civilian targets now with respect to the aid I think it's important I think Israel needs to differentiate between the people of Gaza and between Hamas the more people understand that Israel has been doing a lot I was in the security and foreign affairs committee in the Knesset we were the ones that started with the possibility of Gazans to work in Israel normative people of Gaza good people that were working here that were doing their job in Israelis were taking care of their livelihood and I think that it's important to get that message across Hamas is the worst thing for the Palestinian population in Gaza and for the Palestinian cause there are justified issues in the Palestinian cause which are not massacre people and people the Palestinian cause which are not massacre people and people the Palestinian cause which are not massacre people and people that you don't want to associate yourself with Hamas with ISIS or other terrorist group we need to make a distinction between the population and Hamas that we need to go after with all our might and the population that if we can do things that are forthcoming and are not hurting our security people should get help if we can give it to them. I want to note that as we're taking a look right now the IDF spokesperson is about to address the IDF headquarters. IDF troops under the Givati Brigade executed a ground raid using tanks in the north then gathers a strip they have taken down terrorists and destroyed terror infrastructure spreading this for the next stages of the war through this raid we take down terrorists we take care of threats or dismantle explosives neutralize terrorists in order to enable the next stages of the war for the ground troops the mission lasted a few hours and they have left at the end with no injuries to our forces in the northern front over the Givati Brigade they took down five squads of Hezbollah who attempted to fire towards our territory they were eliminated in their movement towards firing and this is how we'll continue to operate aggressively against anyone who attempts to place a threat against us we'll find us determined beyond that overnight land to air missile in Lebanon area the drone was not hit and the missile was thwarted by missile defense systems we targeted the source of the fire we neutralized the threat and we'll continue to do so any fire towards our drones will be thwarted and we will hit the source of the fire we're in strong defense determined offense and whoever attacks us will pay for it with his life in the home front there is no change in the instructions I wish to stress we must not be too calm listening to the instruction saves lives we saw this in Rishon Lezion last night in a hit on a building the protected areas the building were not hurt this emphasizes the importance of the instructions of the home front command this is how we will be able to go back to to routine amid the war we have managed to open some educational institutes we update you on the true picture in real time this would enable the public to continue during the war so far we have given notices to families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 kidnapped persons this information continues to change according to the intelligence information that we have each sends us to the family we continue together with operational efforts we continue to hold rates to collect information and to understand who is missing who is kidnapped that number may change and we're standing in 224 kidnapped our hearts are with the bereaved families we feel their pain we'll continue with them and update the families of the kidnapped and missing with every development with every piece of information that we hold first of all the families and then the media the effort to return the kidnapped is a top priority in every way civilian operational intelligence and this is how we will continue to operate I will give another update in the evening we were just hearing from the IDF spokesperson Daniel Higari addressing the public on this 20th day of the war here in Israel I want to come back to my guests in studio to unpack a little bit of what Daniel said there one of those interesting things to me I think is talking about the home front command and urging residents to continue to listen to the home front command we're in day 20 of this no signs of it stopping now but people are tired people are getting complacent this is almost becoming the new normal so how dangerous is that shift in perspective for the Israeli citizens I think that there needs to be chief of staff in command for the civilian population as well one needs to understand that the evacuation has happened obviously in the south not in organized fashion of course we were surprised but in the north it is happening in organized fashion a lot of the families need support they are very nickeling and diming the families the finance ministry whether you're four kilometers from the border or six kilometers before the border or seven people need to get the support because they cannot afford to pay for hotels on their own and the government needs to step up and not play games the other thing there needs to be a very clear policy I was running the policy for the small businesses support and you can be very complicated and you can be stingy or you can have a red and green route most of the people should be getting support from the green route because it's very clear that their businesses were in the line of fire and they were evacuated the government needs to be proactive the other thing that needs to be understood the education ministry kids need to be contained there are certain things that we did during the corona we have a nonprofit organization that's working with the finance with the education ministry we know that they can but they need to initiate the containment of the kids some of the kids can go to the schools in the places they were evacuated yesterday in Jerusalem we're in Jerusalem so we had a variety of kids that were part of the learning program and part of I know we had a big birthday set of birthdays for kids it needs to be contained and the education ministry needs to step up and understand that it's going to be part of the backbone of what Israeli society needs to step up for and so in the north in the south the finance ministry the education ministry people need to be proactive and not sit and guard their bits and pieces of of diming and licking some of the population it's time to be generous and clear especially as we see more and more people continuing to be evacuated not only from the south but from Rafael we're hearing that the people that have been evacuated specifically from the south the time that they can return to their home keeps being delayed this is an ongoing issue and the IDF and the Israeli military recognizes that yes and they should also recognize that these people whatever is decided will not go back to their home if the Hamas is still around after this war that's it either you annihilate the Hamas they will go back home if not whatever the government decides or the army decides and the Hamas is still in place they won't go back why would they go back to have another massacre and so that's it we're all now hostages of the terrorist organizations we have to eliminate them if not we will remain hostages the whole of the country not just the north and the south now I must salute the Israeli population because okay the front internal command it's nice to have advice from the government but we function the government doesn't function we do and the solidarity and the discipline of the Israeli people is an example for everybody in the world and you can rely upon it that if we win this war it will be thanks to the soldiers but also to the civilians and it's true there is one of routine after one and people you know you've got to breathe you've got to go out especially the children so it might be a risk but you know what we made that mistake during the corona we closed the schools the damage the psychological damage to the children by closing the schools it's much worse than taking a chance of course speaking mostly of schools which have shelters if there is a shelter in the school I mean what's the difference there are some houses without shelters so if there are protected areas and shelters in the school go to school if you can hide in a concrete building go and build we have no economic depth I mean we always speak of strategic depth like the Israeli small but also we cannot stay for months and months without doing economy being stopped with 350,000 reserve people called that are mostly young people who work so at some point we have to make the economy run again I think that's you bring up just the best point because exactly as we're talking about the physical toll the emotional toll something that also can't be understated is the financial toll that this is taking on the Israeli population right now yeah so I have to say I agree with Rafael but I have to say that in a high tech sector we're moving forward and the world needs to know that the Israeli high tech industry is continuing to move forward because one we're gathering with the HR people the human resources people in every organization and taking care of the employees taking care of their families understanding what is their mental situation and whether they're okay and I think every company needs to do that the CEO, the head of HR people need to reach out to their employees second thing is financials companies to pay salaries they need to meet their payments they need to go on and so the CFOs and the investors need to come together and make sure that everything's okay the third thing is the CEOs and the executive leadership of each company we are very focused that companies will meet their targets for 2023 we'll plan 2024 the Israeli high tech industry knew the Intifada I'm from Jerusalem, second Intifada was very difficult but we build a company like CyberArc to be five and a half billion when it started in the second Intifada so we know what it is to build an economy during the crisis and so my message to a lot of the companies a lot of the employees continue to move forward continue to move forward and do it in a way which is attentive to the employees which create groups which talks about the problems that people may have because about 10% of the workforce in the high tech sector is recruited but there's a bunch of other people that can continue and talk to the international peers in your company have them understand that you're continuing to work because some of the biggest things that you can do in order to help yourself yes take care of your family you need to be recruited you need to go but continue to work and create and do things both with your family and with your company because it gives you sanity and it gives people around you a good sense of direction now you say the high tech sector is moving forward despite you know 10, 15 I've even seen reports of 20% of the reservists leaving this high tech sector we're also seeing reports from the S&P downgrading Israel's financial score from stable to negative that's taking a major hit also from the economy and shows the reflections of this but what people should realize is what Rafael was speaking about look at the resilience of the Israeli society we have criticism about some of the functions of the government both on the security level and the civilian level but look at the society how it's coming together look at people how they're helping each other you see the spirit of Israel sometimes in the way that people take care of each other that spirit will continue to be there when the companies are being built when you do things at adversity and Israel knows how to build things at adversity and the message is that every venture capitalist and every CEO and I'm not saying we don't have difficulties I just came back from a conversation with 130 my investors some of the largest sovereign funds in Singapore in France and in the US different parts of the world they wanted to understand first of all how are you how are the people that are working in the companies and the second thing is are you guys continuing and the answer is unequivocally yes there's no doubt to the strength of the Israeli population and how they will come together here despite all these economic financial troubles one question though Rafael that does need to be answered specifically after this even if we move fast everything that does happen the Israeli military still has so many questions to answer specifically when it comes to this intelligence breach I think that might be one of the hardest points for the Israeli public to move fast well the military will have and has taken responsibility at least the highest commanders but there's been a huge huge misconception of what was going on so and okay there is the misconception at the political level Mr. Netanyahu for instance for 15 years so that it was good to have the Hamas in place in Gaza because he wanted to divide the Palestinian authority into two camps so he thought it was great and he let the Hamas become what it is today military power so that was the misconception at the top the doctrine now tactically on the ground and in the intelligence services there is the real real problem because there was a huge mistake the misconception cannot be a guilty of these massacres it means guilty of a mistake on the global level these massacres they could have been avoided that's it we have today testimonies of soldiers mostly girls who were observing the border who reported the problem and this is a mistake this has to be repaired they are limited to report only figures and facts they cannot give their opinion and it's very important if you put a human being instead of a camera it may be the advantage is that the human being feels tough they have gut feelings with the camera doesn't have so they should not be limited as they were to just give figures so many Toyota cars passing by but even if you limit to the figures they gave the number of cars day by day they spoke about training it was once or twice a week that the Hamas was training near the border then it was every day then it was a few times a day and there were more and more cars and they were telling that to their direct commanders but even their direct commanders lieutenants and captains can't speak to the clever guys in the intelligence units so there is something that was very wrong but you know war and this will be settled after the war we have just to take the lessons quickly quickly for what we need now for the war sometimes getting hit really hard wakes you up there are very good exceptional units in the IDF the best units in the world whether it's special forces whether it's the Givati brigade Golanig which I'm very proud of because I was there at Tsankhanim there are very very good units I think that the army needs to wake up because the training needs to be different the readiness needs to be different and things need to be managed different conceptually and conceptually I have to say it's not just about the military it's also about being a statesman if you're saying no to Hamas in Gaza you need to start understanding what it is that you want to drive and we need to remember that with the Palestinian the West Bank we have we have security cooperation a quick break but Ariel Margoliet Rafael you saw me thank you for both of your insight as always thanks over 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 news rolling coverage of the war here in Israel and Nicole's at a dive in Tel Aviv in 20 days since Hamas' full-scale attack on Israel after a 12-hour lull red alert sirens lair through southern Israel as Hamas fires a heavy attack from Gaza following an IDF targeted raid overnight in the northern Gaza Strip sending infantry forces and tanks to strike Hamas infrastructure and terrorists all while preparing the area for the next stage of the war meanwhile Israel is keeping an eye on the north as well as Israel's air defense systems intercepted a missile launch from Lebanon after three leaders of three main terror groups as Bala Hamas and Palestinian Jihad held a meeting in Beirut this says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the nation stating will be number one priority right now is eliminating Hamas once the war is won Israel will have some major questions to answer now meanwhile I want to begin with our correspondent in the south Pierre Kloschenler I-24 news correspondent in southern Israel Pierre as we're speaking right now we're also waiting to hear from the IDF spokesperson about the daily briefing addressing the media as well but also within the past half an hour now we see more rockets after a 12 hour lull continuing to target southern Israel right and it's a pattern that has been going on for the past few days that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad awaken in the morning at around 10 or 11 AM local time and start launching their salvos of rocket this time they were very local they were salvos of rockets in the localities nearby the security fence separating Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip including here in the much abandoned city of Zderot we had a rockets alert at least we didn't hear of any interceptions or impact and according to the national rescue services they received no calls of impacts or casualties or damage at this point but this is the pattern starting from 10.11 in the morning the rocket salvos start striking Israeli territory meanwhile the Israeli army we hear from the IDF spokesperson unit as stricken from the air from the sea and from the ground 250 targets terror targets including positions that were nearby mosques and kindergarten the navy was involved ground to air missiles positions where neutralized as well as anti-tank positions 250 targets in the past 24 hours is less that what we've been used to hear from the IDF spokesman I remember a couple of days ago they spoke of over 420 targets in the Gaza Strip that were stricken by the Israeli air force does this mean anything I don't know and yet I think that the Israeli army is pounding by air, by sea and with the artillery and relentlessly Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets up until now to time here are some explosions Pierre you mentioned those 250 targets including some of them stationed near a kindergarten and a mosque, this continues to be one of the most challenging aspects as Hamas continues to put their command centers, their targets near civilian infrastructures Right and I think that you know I mean for over 20 years of rocket fire on Israeli territory, Israel has argued that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rely on the Palestinian civilian population as a human shield and I think it's starting to sink in, President US President Joe Biden mentioned that yesterday and he's been mentioning it since the start of the war declared by Hamas on Israel so I think that this is something that now people, more and more people are starting to realize Hamas use human shields Our correspondent Pierre Koshien they're reporting from southern Israel I thank you for all of the latest as we continue to keep our eye down there near the Gaza border I want to bring in my guest in studio right now I'm joined by Rafael Yerosalmi former senior intelligence officer for the IDF and security analyst as well as Zarell Margoliet founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners and former member of Israeli Parliament for the Labor Party Affairs and Defense Committee Thank you both so much for joining me Rafael let's begin with talking about the IDF overnight targeted raid in the Gaza Strip really all signs point that they're preparing for this ground operation trying to take out as many targets as they can but it remains difficult as those targets remain in underground tunnels That's right and that's why we have to have this incursion inside the Gaza territory even though it's still okay to wait a little long from the air with the artillery and the more we can do that without entering with our troops underground the better this being said we have to prepare the ground the operation of last night led by the Givati Brigade included the entry into Gaza of armored vehicles and tanks which was already a feat in itself since there are many obstacles prepared against tanks on the ground and the attack positions were equipped with anti-tank missiles and they managed to destroy these positions before any anti-tank missile could hit them which is of course a success they operated a few things first of all intelligence gathering coming into the enemy territory allows you to gather intelligence it makes you check the capacities the fact that we could enter and come out unharmed it's a checking of our capacities to do so maybe on a larger scale they prepared also the ground for future attacks it's in two ways there are some perimeters that they have a booby trapped so it will be like terminators we don't go into and if the Hamas goes into they'll have a bad surprise and others are perimeters that are technologically prepared for the attack we have a few surprises of our own for the Hamas and for that we need sometimes on the ground certain sensors or technological things to help us do so so all in all it's a very positive action it also shows that we do not have to go to more mourning in a huge offensive we can maybe wait a little longer we can also it's very nerve racking for the enemy the enemy in the tunnels or wherever it is hiding it's very nerve racking for them to see that first of all we're waiting we're taking our time now the masters we decide if and when we go in and then we can still allow ourselves to have this kind of operation so all in all very good news and I think it's also a relief psychologically for our troops that are waiting very impatiently on the border and for the civilian population of Israel who is now seeing some like real action I mean we know there's a lot of action from the air and the artillery of course but now they see something that shows determination it's starting to be more tangible now also as we keep our eye on the Gaza Strip everything that's happening there also more calls for aid to enter the area as well reports that Hamas is calling for protests also from Israel from the West Bank from the entire Muslim world to protest on Friday and Sunday urging more aid to be let in through the Rafa border crossing but this is a difficult situation it is but I think that we need to be smart about it and surgical Rafael spoke about a surgical entrance entrance into the field I was a commander in a anti-tank unit and so I know what the hunters of the tanks are doing and when they're hiding so I think it was very important that those units are there first of all the clearing the road and the other thing that they're doing Israel's being very surgical the more you know the more surgical it would be and you can avoid you can hit your enemies Hamas but you could do your best to avoid hitting any civilian targets now with respect to the aid I think it's important I think Israel needs to differentiate between the people of Gaza and between Hamas the more people understand that Israel has been doing a lot I was in the security and foreign affairs committee in the Knesset we were the ones that started with the possibility of Gazans to work in Israel normative people of Gaza good people that were working here that were doing their job and Israelis were taking care of their livelihood and I think that it's important to get that message across Hamas is the worst thing for the Palestinian population in Gaza and for the Palestinian cause there are justified issues in the Palestinian cause which are not justified you don't want to associate yourself with Hamas with ISIS or other terrorist group we need to make a distinction between the population and Hamas that we need to go after with all our might and the population that if we can do things that are forthcoming and are not hurting our security operation we should do it and we should be clear about it to the world that we are distinguishing between the people and between Hamas Hamas and the people should get help if we can give it to them. I want to note that as we're taking a look right now the IDF spokesperson is about to address the IDF headquarters. IDF troops under the Givati Brigade executed a ground raid using tanks in the north then Gaza's strip they have taken down readiness for the next stages of the war through this raid we take down terrorists we take care of threats or dismantle explosives neutralize terrorists in order to enable the next stages of the war for the ground troops the mission lasted a few hours and they have left at the end with no injuries to our forces in the northern front over the next stage. They took down five squads of Hezbollah who attempted to fire towards our territory they were eliminated in their movement towards firing and this is how we'll continue to operate aggressively against anyone who attempts to place a threat against us we'll find us determined beyond that overnight in Lebanon area the drone was not hit and the missile was thwarted by missile defense systems we targeted the source of the fire we neutralized the threat and we'll continue to do so any fire towards our drones will be thwarted and we will hit the source of the fire where in strong defense determined offense and whoever attacks us will pay for it with his life in the home front there is no change in the instructions I wish to stress we must not be too calm listening to the instruction saves lives we saw this in Rishon Lezion last night in a hit on a building the protected areas the building were not hurt this emphasizes the importance of the instructions of the home front command this is how we will be able to go back to routine amid the war we have managed to open some educational institutes we update you on the true picture in real time this would enable the public to continue during the war so far we have given notices to families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 kidnapped persons this information continues to change according to the intelligence information that we have each sends us to the family we will continue together with operational efforts we continue to hold rates to collect information and to understand who is missing who is kidnapped that number may change we are standing in 224 kidnapped our hearts are with the bereaved families we feel their pain we will continue with them and update the families of the kidnapped and missing with every development with every piece of information that we hold first of all the families and then the media the effort to return the kidnapped is a top priority in every way civilian operational intelligence and this is how we will continue to operate I will give another update in the evening we were just hearing from the IDF Spokesperson Daniel Higari addressing the public on this 20th day of the war here in Israel I want to come back to my guest in studio to unpack a little bit of what Daniel said there and one of those interesting things to me I think is talking about the home front command and urging residents to continue to listen to the home front command we're in day 20 of this no signs of it stopping now but people are tired people are getting complacent this is almost becoming the new normal in a sense and so how dangerous is that shift in perspective for the Israeli citizens I think that there needs to be chief of staff in command for the civilian population as well one needs to understand that the evacuation has happened obviously in the south not in an organized fashion of course we were surprised but in the north it is happening in an organized fashion a lot of the families need support they are very nickeling and diming the families the finance ministry whether you're four kilometers from the border or six kilometers before the border or seven people need to get the support because they cannot afford to pay for hotels on their own and the government needs to step up and not play games the other thing there needs to be a very clear policy I was running the policy for the small businesses support and you can be very complicated and you can be stingy or you can have a red and green route most of the people should be getting support from the green route because it's very clear that their businesses were in the line of fire and they were evacuated the government needs to be proactive the other thing that needs to be understood the education ministry kids need to be contained and there's certain things that we did during the corona we have a nonprofit organization that's working with the finance with the education ministry we know that they can but they need to initiate the containment of the kids some of the kids can go to the schools in the places they were evacuated yesterday in Jerusalem we're in Jerusalem so we had a variety of kids that were part of the learning program and part of I know we had a big birthday set of birthdays for kids it needs to be contained and the education ministry needs to step up and understand that that's going to be part of the backbone of what Israeli society needs to step up for and so in the north and the south the finance ministry the education ministry people need to be proactive and not sit and guard their bits and pieces of diming and linking some of the population it's time to be generous and clear especially as we see more and more people continuing to be evacuated not only from the south Rafael we're hearing that the people that have been evacuated specifically from the south the time that they can return to their home keeps being delayed this is an ongoing issue and the IDF and the Israeli military recognizes that yes and they should also recognize that these people whatever is decided will not go back to their home if the Hamas is still around after this war that's it either you annihilate the Hamas then they will go back home if not whatever the government decides or the army decides and the Hamas is still in place they won't go back why would they go back to have another massacre and another and so that's it we're all now hostages of the terrorist organizations we have to eliminate them if not we will remain hostages the whole of the country not just the north and the south now I must salute the Israeli population we have a front internal command it's nice to have advice from the government but we function the government doesn't function we do and the solidarity and the discipline of the Israeli people is an example for everybody in the world and you can rely upon it that if we win this war it will be thanks to to the soldiers but also to the civilians and it's true that there's this kind of routine after a while and people you know you've got to breathe you've got to go out especially the children so it might be a risk but you know what we made that mistake during the corona we closed the schools the psychological damage to the children by closing the schools it's much worse than taking a chance of course speaking mostly of schools which have shelters if there is a shelter in the school I mean what's the difference there are some houses without shelters so if there are protected areas and shelters in the school go to school if you can hide in a concrete building go and build we have no economic depth I mean we always speak of strategic depth like the Israeli small but also we cannot stay for months and months without doing economy being stopped with 350,000 reserve people called that are mostly young people who work so at some point we have to make the economy run again I think that's you bring up just the best point because exactly as we're talking about the physical toll the emotional toll something that also can't be understated is the financial toll that this is taking on the Israeli population right now yeah so I have to say I agree with Rafael but I have to say that in a high tech sector we're moving forward and the world needs to know that the Israeli high tech industry is continuing to move forward and that's one of the things one we're gathering with the HR people the human resources people in every organization and taking care of the employees taking care of their families understanding what is their mental situation and whether they're okay and I think every company needs to do that the CEO, the head of HR people need to reach out to their employees second thing is financials companies to pay salaries they need to meet their payments they need to go on and so the CFOs and the investors need to come together and make sure that everything's okay the third thing is the CEOs and the executive leadership of each company we are very focused that companies will meet their targets for 2023 we'll plan 2024 the Israeli high tech industry knew the Intifada I'm from Jerusalem, second Intifada was very difficult but we build a company like CyberArc to be five and a half billion when it started in the second Intifada so we know what it is to build an economy during the crisis and so my message to a lot of the companies a lot of the employees continue to move forward continue to move forward and do it in a way which is attentive to the employees which create groups which talks about the problems that people may have because about 10% of the workforce in the high tech sector is recruited but there's a bunch of other people that can continue and talk to the international peers in your company have them understand that you're continuing to work because some of the biggest things that you can do in order to help yourself yes, take care of your family you need to be recruited, you need to go but continue to work and create and do things both with your family and with your company because it gives you sanity and it gives people around you a good sense of direction now you say the high tech sector is moving forward despite you know I've even seen reports of 20% of the reservists leaving this high tech sector we're also seeing reports from the S&P downgrading Israel's financial score from stable to negative that's taking a major hit also from the economy and shows the repercussions of this but what people should realize is what Rafael was speaking about look at the resilience of the Israeli society we have criticism about some of the functions of the government both on the security level and the civilian level how it's coming together look at people how they're helping each other you see the spirit of Israel sometimes in the way that people take care of each other that spirit will continue to be there when the companies are being built when you do things at adversity and Israel knows how to build things at adversity and the message is that every venture capitalist and every CEO and I'm not saying we don't have difficulties I just came back from a conversation with 130 of my investors some of the largest sovereign funds in Singapore in France and in the US different parts of the world they wanted to understand first of all how are you how are the people that are working in the companies and the second thing is are you guys continuing and the answer is unequivocally yes there's no doubt to the strength of the Israeli population and how they will come together here despite all of these economic financial troubles one question though Rafael that does need to be answered specifically after this even if we move fast everything that does happen the Israeli military still has so many questions to answer specifically when it comes to this intelligence breach I think that might be one of the hardest points for the Israeli public to move fast well the military will have enhanced taking responsibility at least the highest commanders but there's been a huge huge misconception of what was going on so there is the misconception at the political level Mr. Netanyahu for instance for 15 years so that it was good to have the Hamas in place in Gaza because he wanted to divide the Palestinian authority into two camps so he thought it was great and he let the Hamas become what it is today military power so that was the misconception at the top the doctrine now tactically on the ground and in the intelligence services there is the real real problem because there was a huge mistake the misconception cannot be a guilty of these massacres it's really guilty of a mistake on the global level these massacres they could have been avoided that's it we have today testimonies of soldiers mostly girls who were observing the border who reported the problem and this is a mistake this has to be repaired they are limited to report only figures and facts they cannot give their opinion and it's very important if you put a human being instead of a camera maybe the advantage is that the human being feel stuff they have gut feelings with the camera doesn't have so they should not be limited as they were to just give figures so many Toyota cars passing by but even if you limit the figures they gave the number of cars day by day they spoke about training it was once or twice a week that the Hamas was training near the border then it was every day then it was a few times a day and there were more and more cars