 ceasefire as of 10 p.m. tonight. That means that as of this very minute, both sides will be putting down their weapons and ending a days-long round of violence that has seen over 1,200 rockets fired towards Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip and over 370 Pij military targets hit by the IDF. The last 20 minutes have seen a barrage of rockets fired into Israel and what seems to be a last hurrah sitting off rocket sirens in central and southern Israel. The IDF has also continued striking Pij targets as well from what we know. Now in past conflicts there have been rockets that have continued to fly even in the minutes after the official ceasefire. The question now is whether or not this is going to hold and joining us now in the studios are senior correspondent Owen ultimate I'd like to turn to you first. What were the terms of this ceasefire from from what we know at this point? What we know is not much Natasha, but the terms they're announced is essentially that the two sides are going to be ceasing fire. Right? Another way of expressing that that both sides according to the statement from Egypt, both sides have agreed to stop targeting civilians to stop demolishing houses and targeting individuals. So translation, they agreed to ceasefire. Those are the conditions. I guess the only wrinkle to that is this idea that they agreed to stop targeting individuals. Does that mean Israel made some sort of more explicit commitment to stop targeted killings that reportedly had been a hold up over the last few days. On the other hand, it's been widely argued in Israel that by definition, if you agree to a ceasefire, you agree to ceasefire. So whether or not you make some some specific explicit commitment specifically on the targeted killings or you don't essentially it gets to is the same difference type of issue because you've agreed to do it. At any rate, both sides agreeing to a ceasefire, but we don't have anything beyond that. Right? There's no there's no there's no political terms beyond that about some kind of difference in the political arrangement in Gaza. The return of bodies, whether it be the body of that Islamic jihad prisoner from the West Bank or the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers that have been kept in Gaza. None of that seems to have been resolved by this simply a ceasefire for the two sides to put down their guns. You know, it's interesting because Hamas has managed to kind of keep out of this conflict in this round so far. But of course, we know that the Jerusalem flag march is going to be taking place on Thursday. That's just a couple of days away. Can we expect the ceasefire to last? And I mean, especially knowing that the last wave or very serious kind of conflict with Hamas specifically was triggered by that flag march back in the day of 2021. Yeah, as in Hebrew, we will definitely one event chases another. Look, obviously, as you mentioned, Natasha, first of all, formally Hamas, not a party to the ceasefire, right? And you're right. We saw particularly in 2021 that this Jerusalem day flag march was used by Hamas as a way to escalate in that case, escalate dramatically the conflict leading to the guardians of the walls operation and all that followed, which we remember two years ago. You're right. It's still an open question about exactly where that march will lead the march itself, a kind of provocation. Of course, with right wing and far right activists marching through the heart of the Muslim quarter in order to send a political message. Again, from an Israeli terms, the idea is that these operations restore the so called deterrence. But Natasha, as we've learned time and time again in Gaza, there is no final victory for Israel and Gaza and operations and in rounds. There simply is a restoration of the deterrence, so to speak. And in this case, particular damage by the particular targeted killings of the particular Lama Jihad operatives, which may, it is said, be able to set back that organization's ability to execute. On the other hand, the open question of what this operation and what its reaction have meant for Islam, which you had standing within Palestinian public opinion, right? Some say that their standing has risen because they've so called resisted Israel. And if that's the case, maybe they have an incentive to go back at it and maybe Hamas will have an incentive to go back at it. Obviously complicated situation, but you're right. A very fluid one and one that you're right could erupt in just a few days time. And don't forget, even before that May 15th, the anniversary of the Nakba as Palestinian see it, which could again be a cause for an escalation. I mean, what has Israel accomplished in this latest round of violence? What do we know in terms of the amount of Pij military sites that were targeted, the number of senior members that were targeted and all that in the face of, of course, the civilians that were also killed in this conflict, which we know the international community is very upset about. And of course, Palestinians across the board are very upset about. Well, a couple things. First of all, in terms of the damage to Islamic jihad is primarily the people, right? The three senior Islamic jihad officials were killed in the strike that began the operation. And then others who were killed and other targeted killings beyond that. One doesn't get the sense that there was a lot of damage done to the actual physical plants and physical material of the PIJ. But as you remember, a more limited conflict only against the Pij and one in which Israel was for the large part risk averse. That's why there were not a lot of civilian casualties, at least after the initial strike. You know, I'd like to just note that what you're seeing right now on the screen are kind of live images of Israel to see if there are any rockets are going to be exchanged. But I'd like that scasa right there is what you're seeing here. So that, you know, again, we want to see if there's going to be any barrages in the coming minutes or perhaps hour, because that has typically happened in the past that we have seen at least a couple of rockets flying after the ceasefire. But I'd like to turn now to our correspondent Hamda Salhut. She's joining us from Stiglut in southern Israel. So tell us about what's happening in the south where you are right now. Obviously, you're in a town that has been the most hard hit by all the rocket fire that has been launched towards Israeli territory. Many locals flood this area. Are we going to see a mass return? What are you seeing? Natasha, good evening. Look, there's a lot of residents around me now in this parking lot as well as media. Just in the last several minutes, barrages of rockets and dozens of interceptions over our heads, the red alerts happening all across the country. And I want to point to a statement that Palestinian Islamic jihad released at exactly 10 o'clock 10 p.m. When the ceasefire was set to go into place, saying quote that the Palestinian resistance continues to pound Tel Aviv and the occupied cities, the Gaza periphery with those intense missile barrages in response to the assassination and the continuation of aggression against the Palestinian people before the ceasefire came into effect. Now, historically, we do see barrages of rockets coming in right before the ceasefire kind of Pij letting Israel know that they are forced to be reckoned with as of now. Since the ceasefire has been into place for exactly seven minutes, there have not been any barrages of rockets. Residents said to come back to the southern city specifically here in Sidot, one of the hardest hit cities typically when escalations like this happen. We've seen several dozen, as I said, interceptions over our heads, several red alerts, not just here, but across Israel, going all the way north to the suburbs of Tel Aviv, places like Rishon, Le Tion, Jolon. These are places Pij is targeting with long range missiles. The Israeli security apparatus didn't really think the missiles could reach that far yesterday. We even saw them reaching Jerusalem. It looks like, it's sorry, I'm just going to stop you there because I'm getting a red alert right now about a rocket in Qesofim, that's an Israeli town bordering the Gaza Strip. The question is, if that is what's happening right now or if this is just a report on the phone, of course, we're going to be updated on that. I'd also just like to ask you kind of about the rhetoric from the Palestinian community as a whole in regards to the ceasefire. Is this what locals wanted to see happen in the Gaza Strip? Look, the views are divided within the Gaza Strip. We've got some incoming fire, I believe here. People stay right there, right there, Natasha, the Iron Dome, working to intercept one of the rockets right here, right here, Roy, right here, right here, right here, right here, up, up, right here, right alert, right here, right now. Guys, kill the break. Guys, kill the break, right now. All right, we're staying on air. You guys can see that there was a ceasefire put into place at 10 p.m. Let's go back to those images. Do we still have them or no? We're going to stay on that right now. Keep in mind, Hamda, can we hear you? Can you try speaking to us? Go, go, go. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we hear you now. Look, look, this is a barrage of rockets, barrage of interceptions coming in now, the ceasefire coming into place 10 minutes ago, and these barrages of rockets still coming in. Palestinian Islamic Jihad wanting to prove a message to Israel to send a strong message saying that the resistance is powerful, steadfast and ready to continue with whatever sort of operation that will happen. All right, so you know, like we had kind of reported just before this, this is something that we've seen even after a ceasefire has been put into place. In the past, we have seen barrages of rockets come into Israeli territory, vice versa, kind of an exchange of fire that's lasted even in the minutes after the implementation of an official ceasefire. The question is whether or not this is going to only be happening within the coming minutes or if we're going to continue to see more and more rockets. Hamda, you know, you've been speaking to locals who are on the ground right now. Does this, I mean, maybe there's somebody right there who you could even speak to and ask if anybody speaks English. But do you think that seeing these rockets is going to kind of evaporate any sense of security and a feeling that life might go back to normal in the coming days for those who are living in this area? Look, we have spoken to a lot of residents here who say that they just want calm. They just want to live in peace. And now with the ceasefire coming into place, hopefully that'll be the case. All right, well, we also have Colonel in the reserves alone, Evietel joining us. He's a Palestinian affairs expert. He is a former COGAT advisor. I'm interested to kind of hear your take about what we're seeing right now. We just were told that there's going to be a ceasefire, you know, going going into action at 10pm. Clearly, we saw some more rockets fired. What's your take? I have to say that I'm not surprised. It was expected. I don't think that regarding our long experience with the terror organization like Islamic Jihad and the Hamas as well, we know that the reality or the test is the implement on the ground, which means after you sign the agreement, and it's not an agreement in just it is just to understand, understanding with between Israel through Egypt and Islamic Jihad, the test or the proof will be on the ground tomorrow, the day after and even during the next days if you want. I think that everything is relative. We know that the entity of the Islamic Jihad as a terror organization, it's not respect the agreements or the previous agreements if you want or the understand between them. Just I want to take to give you an example. What could be let's say few days from from today or one week or two weeks if you want, not just the launch rockets. I just want to say briefly more rocket sirens going off in southern Israel and in Ashloshah. In addition to that, we are seeing rocket sirens go off in other bordering Israeli communities in Nilem. So again, it seems that there is another round of rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. Continue every agreement or understand understanding between the two sides is flexible. I want to describe you or to illustrate what could be happened during the next days. Let's say that tomorrow the IDF after the ceasefire, tomorrow the IDF and the Shabbat will will say find that a terror cell of the Islamic Jihad is planning a terror attack from a refugee of refugee camp of Janine in the West Bank, right, not related related in any case to Gaza Strip. And the IDF will act in order to prevent this terror attack. And during the the activity, those terrorists from the Islamic Jihad could be killed. It's happened and it will be happened for a long of a long, I would say, long run. In the end of the day, Islamic Jihad should response to this activity. How how we will do it by launching a rocket from Gaza Strip as he did before? It's an open question. I mean that Islamic Jihad tried during the last two, three years to react from Gaza Strip on IDF activities against him against the terror organization in the West Bank. So I think that we should take in, I would say in the limit related to this understanding between the two sides and be careful. I mean that nobody knows what will be happened during the next days. And I think that the IDF and the Shabbat as well will be in high preparation for the next activity of the Islamic Jihad and take carefully what's going on inside this organization. We know that just last sentence, we know for sure that those who are operate if you want or give orders even to Islamic Jihad is Iran. So if Iran will decide to change those disagreement between the two sides, I think that the Islamic Jihad will be obligated to Iran and not to Egypt. Alright, Owen, I'd like to kind of turn to you. Obviously, Israel has been facing terror on many different fronts within the course of the past year, whether or not that's rockets being launched from the Gaza Strip from Palestinian factions in Lebanon, Syria, then of course you have the lone terror attacks that we've been seeing take place across Israel and also the West Bank. When it comes to the Palestine Islamic Jihad and its power, we know that from a rocket launch perspective, Israel has had a lot of success in kind of targeting those senior commanders who are running business in the Gaza Strip. But where can we expect terror to be emanating from this group in other parts of the country? And is Israel as focused on those potential threats? Of course, of course, Israel is and obviously the situation in Jerusalem is very sensitive situation in the West Bank as we saw two years ago, Natasha, in 2021, even the situation in mixed Jewish Arab cities in Israel. Obviously, these are important issues for the Israeli security apparatus. And in the case of mixed Jewish Arab cities in the situation in Jerusalem for Israeli society to manage. But as for this, I want to go back to Hamd is terrific reporting from there and what she said about what this means to PIJ and to its supporters, how this is their expression of their power and the staying power of the resistance. And I'm sure Hamd is reporting faithfully what they feel and how they think. But from Israel's perspective, I look at those pictures, Natasha, you know what I say? So what? So what 16 years of the Moukama strategy from Gaza, right? The resistance strategy would be Hamas Islamic Jihad. What are the strategic achievements? Zero, zero. Israel is more powerful economically, more powerful militarily, more powerful socially, societally. You know what Prime Minister Netanyahu said in one of his speeches, I haven't fact checked this, but what he said about the population in Sterot and the Gaza envelope, what's happened over the last decade, grown dramatically. People are moving in, not moving out. Yes, temporarily relocating. But that big complex and I've been there where Hamd is, it'll come back to life tomorrow. It'll come back to life. The society has proven it is resilient, partly because of the iron dome system, again, in those spectacular interceptions that we saw the system proving itself, again, which has been a real shield for Israel and ability for the Israeli society and Israeli military to function. And again, whatever people in Gaza may feel and I credit their feelings and the importance of their feelings from a strategic perspective, Islamic Jihad has been an absolute failure. It's gotten their goals moving forward nowhere. What we're seeing right now are live images from Khan Yunus in the Gaza Strip. Apparently, the IDF has also struck back against military, Pij military sites in the Gaza Strip. And there have been several injuries. These are ambulances on their way to the site of the latest attack. Of course, we do not yet have the numbers in terms of how many have been injured. But we are hearing that there were strikes in Khan Yunus and also in the center of Gaza as well. This, of course, comes just as we saw a barrage of rockets fired from Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants into Israeli territory, specifically into southern Israel. We had our correspondent on the ground in Stego Tamda, Sal Hutu actually was able to kind of report on some of those rocket launches live. So we did see that with our own eyes. And now we are seeing that Israeli response to that rocket barrage right here in these live visuals of the Gaza Strip. Again, we're going to keep you updated as to whether or not there were any lives lost, how many people have actually been injured. But for now, what we know is that ambulances are on their way to a Pij site, a military target that the IDF hit. The question is how many injuries and or casualties have taken place as a result. Okay. By the way, while we are seeing this film from live from Gaza, Israel should show the international community and the media those proofs. This is hard evidence, which means that the Islamic Jihad itself, as Hamas did it before, the Islamic Jihad launched rockets and those rockets fell on the Gaza field. It means that there are Palestinian casualties from the Islamic Jihad and not by the Israeli side. So Israel should show it and expose those films toward the international community in order to prevent political damage. Well, we don't know if in this case the casualties are the injuries that we're seeing here are a result of a Israeli airstrike, particularly or perhaps a rocket that had fallen short. But what we do know is that over the course of the past couple days, over 1200 rockets have been fired by the Pij towards Israeli territory. Over 200 of them fell short. That's about one in four rockets that fell short into Ghazan territory. At least four Ghazan civilians were killed as a result of those rockets that fell short. And we also know that earlier today the second life lost in Israel as a result of a Pij rocket was that of a Palestinian, a Ghazan worker who was in Israel working, an agricultural worker who had a permit to work in Israel, who got hit by shrapnel after there was a direct impact in the Israeli community in southern Israel by the Pij. So obviously really just tragically the quantity of lives lost. We know at this point, obviously Owen, we spoke about this earlier, the health ministry, the Palestinian health ministry in the Ghazan strip says at this point 33 people have been killed. We have Hamda on the line. Is that what I'm hearing? Okay, we have our correspondent Hamda Salhut on the line. So Owen, I'll come back to you. Hamda, paint us a picture of what is happening where you are right now. Obviously, we just saw that barrage of rockets live. What's going on right now? Natasha, strangely enough, things are actually back to normal after these red alerts, after the interceptions, people kind of go about their regular business. Just a few minutes after that ceasefire was put into place, it was already violated by Palestinian Islamic jihad sending rockets into several parts of southern Israel and other parts of the country, the Israeli military saying that they also struck Gaza amid that incoming rocket fire. Now in the last just a few minutes, a little bit of calm here, not receiving any red alerts for the last eight minutes, but you know it might be a long night ahead, like I've been reporting. This is something we have historically seen when a ceasefire is put into place, large barrages of rockets sending a message to the Israeli security apparatus that the factions are to be dealt with accordingly, that they are forced to be reckoned with. They are steadfast and strong in their resistance and they will continue to fight for the freedom of the Palestinian people. Now, we see that there happened to be a lot of Stelot residents who are out and about right now. What is kind of the rhetoric on their end in terms of the ceasefire, the hopes that they have for the coming days? Are people planning on coming back Stelot at this point? What do we know? Look, people, whether it's here in southern Israel or in the Gaza Strip, they just want to live their lives normally. Some people are political, but most of these people are just caught in the crossfire. They are the innocent who bear the heaviest weight when it comes to these conflicts. We've spoken to a number of residents here who say they just want to get their lives back to normal. They just want to take their kids to school. They want to go for walks. The same sentiment echoed from Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip here. They say that they just want peace. Well, that's not the case for all of the people, but the majority of the people just want to live their lives normally, see prosperous futures for both people in the end. All right, Hamd, I'd like to thank you for joining us from Stelot again. For now, it seems like there is a tense quiet. I mean, I think we're all just, it's such a ride to live through this every single time. And we've been seeing these cycles of violence over and over again, especially in the past couple of years. It doesn't really ever seem to be ending. And you don't know whether or not you can finally calm down or you can expect yet another barrage. But our society is resilient, Natasha, here in Israel. The society is resilient. And I think people over time have developed a more sophisticated understanding and a more realistic set of expectations about what can actually be achieved in the short term and in the medium term in managing the issue of the Gaza Strip. There are no easy solutions in terms of policy and there are no instant solutions either. You know, and I have to say something that I've been seeing, there seems to be this constant comparison of the number of casualties that have, the lives that have been lost in this conflict. We saw over 1200 rockets fired into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. The Iron Dome had a 91% success rate. That means that, I mean, if we had not had the Iron Dome in this country, we can only imagine the sheer number of lives that would have been lost. When we saw that direct hit on a home in Rehobo, just 14 miles from where we are right now, that did shake the Israeli public, especially those living in the center who are not as used to these constant rocket sirens like the people in the south. So the question is, in that case, we obviously saw technical difficulty from the Iron Dome that the IDF reported. Our Israeli is going to continue to feel that level of safety in the coming years if this doesn't end. And how far is Israeli government willing to go to actually stop the rocket launches from the Gaza Strip knowing that we have this defense system in place? Two things. Yes, I think people continue to feel safe. The Iron Dome system is upgraded all the time. As for policy toward Gaza, look, the Israeli strategies, we keep saying, is mow the lawn, right? The grass grows and then the army comes in and mows it. It's obviously a kind of dehumanizing metaphor, but an apt one for the way that the terrorist organizations on the Strip Act and the way the Israeli military responds to them, meaning that the grass doesn't go away. It only gets mowed. It's obviously a strategy. It doesn't have a lot of imagination. It's one that doesn't promise a victory. But anyone who doesn't like it is the obligation of proposing a real alternative and we haven't seen an alternative. Okay. I just before we go out for a break, I just have to say that we're getting a statement in from the Pij spokesperson to Al Jazeera, the firing of rockets after the ceasefire is a message to the enemy that the resistance will not lay down its weapons. This is a Google translated comment that was made to Al Jazeera by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesperson. If the enemy carries out assassination or bombs houses, the resistance will respond. So that seems to insinuate that maybe a ceasefire isn't actually in place right now. And we're also hearing that after those red alert sirens that we had just seen take place with Hamda live, three people have been injured as they were running for safety here in Israel. And that actually also took place in Jolon and Batiam in the latest barrage. So that's the latest news that we have for you right now. We are out for a break. This is I-24 News. I'm Natasha Kirchuk. We'd like to thank you so much for joining us.