big friend of the Jewish people in Israel. For watching the I-24 News Desk at this hour, as we bring you the latest live updates from Tel Aviv. This morning is day 60 of the Israel Hamas War, and right now there are major battles raging deep inside Gaza, in both the north and the south. The battles have been going on all night long. It appears, according to reports and social media videos, that this active battle may be the IDF's largest simultaneous assault on Hamas positions since the war began. New footage from the overnight hours is quite dramatic. Intense aerial bombing campaigns, tank movement, firefights on the ground. The IDF this morning has announced the deaths of three more soldiers, four other soldiers are seriously wounded. Let's go live now to the south, where I'm joined by I-24 News correspondent Pierre Kloshendler. Pierre, what is going on in the south right now? Well, as you said, intense fighting in both sectors of the Gaza Strip, in the northern sector and the central and south sector of the Gaza Strip. We hear from time to time the pounding of presumed terror targets in the northern sector, which is in the back, you won't see much because it's foggy. But there's also the fog of war. What we understand is in the northern sector, fierce battle at close range between Israeli ground forces and Hamas terrorists in the Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza City, inside Gaza City in the Zaitun neighborhood, and southeast of Gaza City in Shejahiyah. Fierce battles and three soldiers killed from the armored corp. The announcement was just published an hour ago by the IDF. And in the south, intense bombing around Hanyunas and inside Hanyunas, yesterday social media reports from the Palestinian side affiliated to Hamas spoke of 100 strike just in the city of Hanyunas in the central sector of the Gaza Strip within half an hour, which is huge now. This is in preparation for the ground offensive inside Hanyunas. Right now the forces, armored vehicles, tanks and infantry are on the northeast and eastern outskirts of the city of Hanyunas. They're progressing on two axes, basically the Salahadin road, which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the pose in the fighting last week is now used as a major corridor for the offensive towards Hanyunas. And thus this is not used anymore by the non-involved Palestinian population. And at the same time from the Israeli side of the border towards the east, towards Hanyunas, Palestinians are reporting that they already see the tanks and the armored vehicles of the IDF from Hanyunas. So they're on the outskirts very close. Some reports are talking about a distance of one kilometer yesterday evening. And it's possible that the forces have already progressed inside. And at the same time, major reinforcements of IDF forces to the central sector, because Hanyunas is now believed by the IDF to be maybe the most important stronghold of Hamas. First of all, because many of the Hamas terrorists flew using the pose to buttress the Hamas defense line in Hanyunas. And at the same time, we know that the military and political leadership of Hamas is originally from Hanyunas. Yes, the political head and Muhammad death, the military head of Hamas are both originated from Hanyunas. And therefore the IDF believes that these two men, for instance, and their leadership is hiding in Hanyunas because that's the safest place for them. Pierre, thank you for that live update. Let's go now in studio where I'm joined by Amir Ordin, Defense and Government Analyst and Ariel Osaran, our Middle East correspondent. Thank you both so much for being here. I want to start with you, Amir, with a question on this ferocity that we are seeing overnight into the morning hours of the IDF offensive in both the north and the south at the same time all night long. Why now? What explains this renewed intensity and how will we judge its success? It should be, and this is not part of a franchise as serious, fast and furious. And fast is as important as furious because there are restrictions being imposed by the IDF. You mentioned the fast and furious. Amir, we had heard from Israeli officials, Israeli military commanders saying that they want to be slow and deliberate to avoid any civilian casualties or civilian deaths or damage. They need to be deliberate. Now it appears this is an extremely ferocious campaign. There's a tension or even a contradiction between the tactical and the operational. What you cited is true once an armed column slowly progresses through a neighborhood. And if need be, invites, orders, a strike by a fighter plane, by a helicopter, by a UAV. But if you look at it in a general sense, operationally the U.S. has imposed restrictions on this operation. It has forbidden Israel to copy what it has done in the north, which is not yet over as we have heard, into the south. It wants Israel to be more focused, more targeted, not to have a steamroller effect, but rather more pinpricks. And this is very easy to say, more difficult to implement. But obviously Israel is trying, first of all, to clear, to map up all the resistance in the north, because there are still not only pockets of resistance, but also rockets being launched towards Israel. So obviously Israel is not in full control. But also Israel wants to obey the guidance it has been given and minimize civilian casualties and also try to facilitate more aid being entered into Gaza. So for instance, the U.S. administration has asked Israel to use the former Kerem Shalom crossing, which is in the south, not for the very entry of trucks. This is impossible. But to do the screening, because there is a bottleneck at the Rafa crossing and not enough trucks are coming in. So maybe this will happen. It only goes to show you that the intimacy between the U.S. military and the U.S. State Department and the Israeli military is so great that Israel has to come us up with plans which are approved by Washington before it can go on and execute them. And one last point, obviously, had conditions been different, Israel could have done it simultaneously. You know, this is only 60 kilometers by length and six kilometers wide, the entire Gaza Strip. However, it must keep approximately half of its force for a Lebanese contingency. Irel, what do you make of this ferocity and perhaps a timeline imposed on Israel to make gains quickly because there is going to be increasing pressure from U.S. allies in the United States? Well, there has been consistently increasing pressure and there's no cost to believe that that will subdue anytime soon. Israel has military objectives that it wants to achieve and it has to carry out different operations on the ground in order to achieve them. And it is as we can see as we heard overnight and we heard here this morning, the idea forces are engaged with Hamas terrorists all across the Gaza Strip because the goal is to dismantle it from its military capabilities, also from its governmental capabilities all the while trying to receive new intel and try to affect positively any chances of hostage release. And so given that the next big stronghold of Hamas, or perhaps last stronghold, is Chanyounis, then that's where the forces are trying to make it as deep as possible. It's also believed that that's where Yiches-Sinwar, Hamas's leader in Gaza, is still and also Mohamed Def, the leader of its military wing, both are native Chanyounis and it's believed that they're still there. And obviously, you know, the fighting in the south is a lot more challenging at this point in time than the fighting in the north was simply due to the fact that you have over a million displaced people in the area that you're hoping to advance in and dismantle Hamas' capabilities when it embeds itself in civilian population. So you have urban warfare in a densely populated area and you add to that another million displaced and that just makes the military challenge all the more significant. But at the end of the day, the idea is going to continue to push forward. It doesn't want to rush too fast because it also wants to protect its own forces in addition to try to reduce casualties among the civilian-Palestinian population. And in terms of the timeframe, we are seeing a fairly swift advancement since the resumption of fighting after the ceasefire. Jeff, you remember the six-day war, obviously. Actually we had two six-day wars in 1956 and 1967 and on both Gaza surrendered on the very first or second day. Now we are on the 60-days war, 10 times the length of the six-day war. And still the objectives are far from being achieved. It's still Hamas being able to fire rockets into Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv suburbs, 60 days into the war. I mean, the labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza, a network in the north, a network in the south, extensive tunnel network reports today in the Wall Street Journal that as might have been expected, Israel has operational plans to flood them, to flood these tunnels. But they already have the pumps perhaps set up. There are conflicting reports on the support that this plan would have, what it means perhaps for hostages, what it means for the future of Gaza's water supply and soil. Do you think the tunnels will be flooded and why? Well obviously, and it was already reported by the Washington Post a couple of weeks ago, the same report that the Wall Street Journal carries today, there are contingency plans to flood the tunnels, whether by sea water or some other means, however, there are two problems. One, you mentioned the hostages, and the other is that two years ago Israel has exposed its wildcard, the so-called plan to hit the metro. And after that, the Palestinians put in blast doors, which means that it is not so easy to get from one compartment to the other, just like in ships or submarines. You do have some walls between various parts of the tunnels. So maybe engineers have designed some bypass to that, but as long as you are not certain whether there are hostages in any particular part of the tunnel system, you can't risk that. And we have seen blast doors definitively in some of the videos, especially under Chief of Hospital in the network. The president of the International Red Cross traveled yesterday to Gaza and said Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians. She says she's visited the European Gaza Hospital. They've seen young children suffering with terrible injuries due to the IDF bombing. We have to find solutions to this. We can't turn away from what is evidently a moral failure in the face of the international community. I'm calling on all parties, on everyone who has an influence, to de-escalate and to find other, the military solutions to what is an immense suffering of the people on both sides. We have to protect the rights of the people. We have to protect the rights of the civilians. We have to protect the rights of the detainees. We have to protect the rights of the hostages. The U.S. State Department says it appears Hamas is refusing to release the remaining Israeli women from captivity because the terror group doesn't want the negative global publicity from this group of women in particular speaking out about what they've endured. This has been suspected for days discussed across Israel that the Qatari-led negotiations for another hostage deal broke down specifically because Hamas didn't want the kidnapped women to be able to share what they've gone through. But this is the first time a top U.S. government official has confirmed that this is the likely reason. Jake Sullivan says the U.S. is still working, though, to secure another deal. This past weekend I held several rounds of intensive phone calls with partners in Israel, Egypt, Qatar and other nations as we remain intensely engaged in a basically non-stop discussion of the developments in the region since Hamas' devastating terrorist attacks on October 7th. We're still talking about trying to find a way forward on hostages. We're talking about sustaining and expanding the humanitarian assistance making in Indigaza. Right now, Hamas is refusing to release civilian women who should have been part of the agreement. And it is that refusal by Hamas that has caused the end of the hostage agreement and therefore the end of the pause in hostilities. Israel last night held an event at the United Nations focused on the sexual violence against women during the Hamas attack. Israel has been critical of the U.N.'s response to the attacks, particularly the refusal of U.N. women for nearly two months to specifically denounce Hamas, or even make a single remark showing support for the rape and sexually abused Israeli victims. This all led to a global viral hashtag, me too, unless you're a Jew. As a global community, we must respond to weaponized sexual violence wherever it happens, with absolute condemnation. There can be no justifications and no excuses. Rape as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity. On October 7th, Hamas perpetrated rape and sexual violence, exploiting these unforgivable crimes as weapons of war.  This was premeditated. This was planned. This was instructed. This moment is so critical. We have come so far in establishing that rape is a crime against humanity, and we have come so far in believing survivors of sexual assault in so many situations. That's why the silence on these war crimes is dangerous. It threatens to undo decades of progress, to undo an entire movement. Ariel, we know that there are women who are still held in Hamas captivity that would have qualified, should have qualified, under the Arranged and Agreed-Upon Categorization, should have been released. Are there talks about expanding or changing, adjusting the categories of remaining hostages? Is there a chance for another deal? First of all, regarding the victims of sexual violence and the fact that this is starting to receive more awareness, the main reason why we're not hearing testimonies from victims of the sexual violence is because there are no survivors. Hamas killed all of them because they knew that they would receive backlash, and so this does kind of make sense what the White House has been saying regarding this group of female hostages, but indeed there are talks to try and change the classification or include more different groups in this classification of women and children to include the elderly, the sick, because these are people who are not given any treatment or supervision by the Red Cross. The Red Cross is not making sure that their condition is okay, that they're receiving the medication that they need to as the Red Cross vows to do with hostages in any situation under its quote-unquote neutrality in such issues. And so I think while there are no ongoing negotiations or active negotiations right now, because the Israeli team is not in Doha, it's been sent back, and on the Palestinian side they're also saying that there are no active negotiations going on. Qatar is saying that they are committed to try and resume the talks, but as there are still attempts to try and return to the table, indeed there are talks at least on the Israel-U.S. side of this equation to try and include more hostages, more of the frail hostages in this group of women and children to be released. It's a challenging task, not only because there are no ongoing negotiations, but because Hamas itself is playing with the figures saying that women who should have been released under the terms of the agreement that they're considered soldiers even though they weren't in active duty at the time, or claiming that they already released all the women and children and in order to find more they need more time. And so on the one hand Israel's doing all it can to try and once the negotiations are resumed to bring upon the release of more hostages, all the while taking into consideration that Hamas is going to continue to play its games and drag this on as long as possible while releasing as few hostages as it can, that's according to its wishes at least. Amir, do you believe that Yuriyah Sinwar himself is in close contact with hostages, perhaps is hiding out with hostages as his direct involvement possibly in the days ahead regarding a possible future hostage deal? Yes, he is in touch with this issue and probably with hostages themselves even though the early report that he himself welcomed or met with a group of hostages was later retracted. Now all power flows from Sinwar and his elimination would probably give everything being relative a more moderate tone to the remaining Hamas leaders. But we have right now two painful dilemmas about which Ariel just talked. One is whether to insist on women and put off the chance of getting the elderly back which is what Hamas suggested last week and Israel refused. And the other is whether to keep silent on these crimes in order to get the women first or to go on with the public diplomacy campaign and thereby perhaps put the captives at risk. Because if the details that they are able to tell once they are released are so injurious to Hamas maybe they will not keep them alive. So this is a very, very excruciating dilemma. We see the ferocity of the campaign in the south, the ground offensive. Is there going to be increasing pressure on Egypt to do something to help civilians to open up the border, to let refugees come into Egyptian territory as the days roll on here? Definitely not. This is one of the main conditions that both Egypt and the United States put on Israel. No displaced persons living Gaza, neither to Egypt nor to Jordan or to any other place. And the so-called Philadelphia road or axis separating Gaza from Egypt may be patrolled by Israel even to block such a movement. Egypt is an important ally both of the United States and Israel. Its cooperation is crucial both in the hostage negotiations and in general and Israel should and will do nothing against President Sisi. Also the threats of course continue in the north from Hezbollah and from the Houthi rebels, the Iran backed group in Yemen as well. Ariel, what are the latest on the threats from the other fronts of this war, this campaign? Well, we saw at the beginning of the war different strikes originating from Yemen towards Israel, cruise missiles, drones. Now they're, rather than targeting Israel, the Houthis appear to be targeting different commercial ships and trade routes in the south of the Red Sea, the Babelmandab, that's the mouth of the Red Sea leading from the Persian Gulf. They are, we saw over the weekend, four separate attacks on three different ships with missiles and drones. A U.S. warship that was in the area did manage to also assist the ships, also to down three drones. But according to Israel's military spokesperson, one of the ships is at risk of sinking and the goal of the Houthis here, a proxy of Iran, so the goal of Iran here too, is to once again threaten the travel routes and to assert their positioning in the area. And ships are changing course, you would imagine this does have an impact on global trade already, the global trade. It does, it does. And you have a lot of countries concerned as to the safety of trade routes there. Let's listen to Jake Sullivan from the White House. We heard him earlier. Let's hear him talking about this issue. We're not going to be able to play the soundbite, but just if you can paraphrase I guess what Jake Sullivan is saying in the... Yeah, so basically he's saying that this is... This couldn't have happened without the facilitation of Iran. The White House points a finger towards the regime in Tehran of supporting these strikes, of amplifying these strikes, and the fact that the three ships were partially owned by 14 separate countries is an issue that makes it a global issue, an international issue, and it should have many international actors concerned. Washington is trying an indirect approach too, sending its emissary, Team Lender King, to Yemen in order to facilitate an internal Yemeni rapprochement, hoping that this way the Houthis will lay down their arms. Again, it's not just the Israel Hamas war, that southern border with Israel in the north, across the sea in Yemen, there continues to be active attacks and active military campaigns and diplomatic channels as well. Amir Oren and Ariel Olsaron, thank you so much for being with us in studio. We're going out for a break here on I-24 News with again active military campaign going on now, deep ferocious battles being waged inside Gaza in the north and in the southern strongholds at the same time of Hamas as the hunt for Hamas terror leaders continues. We will have more live updates when we come back. Thanks so much for watching I-24 News. Stay with us. We'll see you soon with more updates and analysis. All the war families completely gunned down in their beds. We have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well. Thanks for watching the I-24 News Desk at this hour as we bring you the latest live updates from Tel Aviv. This morning is day 60 of the Israel Hamas war and right now there are major battles raging deep inside Gaza in both the north and the south. The battles have been going on all night long. It appears according to reports and social media videos that this active battle may be the IDF's largest simultaneous assault on Hamas positions since the war began. New footage from the overnight hours is quite dramatic. Intense aerial bombing campaigns, tank movement, firefights on the ground. The IDF this morning has announced the deaths of three more soldiers. Four other soldiers are seriously wounded. Let's go live now to the south where I'm joined by I-24 News correspondent Pierre Kloshendler. Pierre, what is going on in the south right now? Well as you said, intense fighting in both sectors of the Gaza Strip in the northern sector and the central and south sector of the Gaza Strip. We hear from time to time the pounding of presumed terror targets in the northern sector which is in the back you won't see much because it's foggy but there's also the fog of war. What we understand is in the northern sector fierce battle at close range between Israeli ground forces and Hamas terrorists in the Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza city inside Gaza city in the Zaitun neighborhood and southeast of Gaza city in Shejaiya. Fierce battles and three soldiers killed from the armored corp. The announcement was just published an hour ago by the IDF and in the south intense bombing around Hanunas and inside Hanunas. Yesterday social media reports from the Palestinian side affiliated to Hamas spoke of 100 strike just in the city of Hanunas in the central sector of the Gaza Strip within half an hour which is huge now. This is in preparation for the ground offensive inside Hanunas. Right now the forces armored vehicles tanks and infantry are on the northeast and eastern outskirts of the city of Hanunas. They're progressing on two access basically the Salahadin road which was used as a humanitarian corridor before the pose in the fighting last week is now used as a major corridor for the for the offensive towards Hanunas and thus this is not used anymore by the non-involved Palestinian population and at the same time from the Israeli side of the border towards the east towards Hanunas. Palestinians are reporting that they already see the tanks and the armored vehicles of the IDF from Hanunas so they're on the outskirts very close. Some reports are talking about a distance of one kilometer yesterday evening and it's possible that the forces have already progressed inside and at the same time major reinforcements of IDF forces to the central sector because Hanunas is being is is now believed by the IDF to be maybe the most important stronghold of Hamas. First of all because many of the Hamas terrorists flew using the pose to buttress the Hamas defense line in Hanunas and at the same time we know that the military and political leadership of Hamas is originally from Hanunas. The political head and Muhammad Def the military head of Hamas are both originated from Hanunas and therefore the IDF believes that these two men for instance and their leadership is hiding in Hanunas because that's the safest place for them. Pierre thank you for that live update. Let's go now in studio where I'm joined by Amir Oran defense and government analyst and Ariel Osaran our Middle East correspondent. Thank you both so much for being here. I want to start with you Amir with a question on this ferocity that we are seeing overnight into the morning hours of the IDF offensive in both the north and the south at the same time all night long. Why now what explains this the renewed intensity and how will we judge its success? It should be and this is not part of a franchise as serious fast and furious and fast is as important as furious because there are restrictions being imposed by the you mentioned the fast and furious Amir we had heard from Israeli officials Israeli military commanders saying that they want to be slow and deliberate to avoid any civilian casualties or civilian deaths or damage they need to be deliberate now it appears this is an extremely ferocious campaign. There's attention or even a contradiction between the tactical and the operational what you cited is true once an armored column slowly progresses through a neighborhood and if need be invites orders a strike by a fighter plane by a helicopter by a UAV but if you look at it in a general sense operationally the US has imposed restrictions on this operation it has forbidden Israel to copy what it has done in the north which is not yet over as we have heard into the south it wants Israel to be more focused more targeted not have a steamroller effect but rather more pinpricks and this is a very easy to say more difficult to implement but obviously Israel is trying first of all to clear to map up all the resistance in the north because there are still not only pockets of resistance but also rockets being launched towards Israel so obviously Israel is not in full control but also Israel wants to obey the guidance it has been given and minimize civilian casualties and also try to facilitate more aid being entered into Gaza so for instance the US administration has asked Israel to use the former Kerem Shalom crossing which is in the south not for the very entry of trucks this is impossible but to do the screening because there is a bottleneck at the rougher crossing and not enough trucks are coming in so maybe this will happen it only goes to show you that the intimacy between the US military and the US State Department and the Israeli military is so great that Israel has to come us up with plans which are approved by Washington before it can go on and execute them and one last point obviously had conditions been different Israel could have done it simultaneously you know this is only 60 kilometers by length and six kilometers wide the entire Gaza Strip however it must keep approximately half of its force for a Lebanese contingency I mean Ariel what do you make of this ferocity and perhaps the timeline imposed on Israel to to make gains quickly because there is going to be increasing pressure from US allies in the United States well there has been consistently increasing pressure and there's no cost to believe that that will subdue anytime soon Israel has military objectives that it wants to achieve and it has to carry out different operations on the ground in order to achieve them and it is as we can see as we heard overnight and we heard here this morning it the idea forces are engaged with Hamas terrorists all across the Gaza Strip because the goal is to dismantle from its military capabilities also from its governmental capabilities all the while trying to receive new intel and try to affect positively though the any chances of hostage release and so given that the the next big stronghold of Hamas is or perhaps last stronghold is Han Yunis then that's where the forces are trying to to make it as as deep as possible it's also believed that that's where yes you know Hamas is leader in Gaza is still and also Muhammad the leader of its military wing both are native Han Yunis and it's believed that they're still there and obviously you know the fighting in the south is is a lot more challenging at this point in time and the fighting in the north was simply due to the fact that you have over a million displaced people in the area that you're hoping to advance in and dismantle Hamas's capabilities when it embeds itself in civilian population so you have urban warfare and densely populated area and you add to that another million displaced and that just makes the the military challenge all the more significant but at the end of the day the idea for it's going to continue to push forward it doesn't want to rush too fast because it also wants to protect its own forces in addition to try to reduce casualties among the civilian Palestinian population and in terms of the of the timeframe we are seeing a fairly swift advancement since the resumption of fighting after the ceasefire you remember the six day war obviously actually we had two six day wars in 1956 and 67 and on both Gaza surrendered on the very first or second day now we are on the 60 days war 10 times the length of the six day war and still the objectives are far from being achieved and still Hamas being able to fire rockets into Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv suburb 60 days into the war Amir the labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza a network in the north a network in the south extensive tunnel network reports today in the wall street journal that as might have been expected Israel has operational plans to flood them to flood these tunnels and but they already have the pumps perhaps set up there are conflicting reports on the support that this plan would have what it means perhaps for hostages what it means for the future of Gaza's water supply and soil do you think the tunnels will be flooded and why well obviously and it was already reported by the Washington post a couple of weeks ago the same report that the wall street journal carries today there are contingency plans to flood the tunnels whether by sea water or some other means however there are two problems one you mentioned the the hostages and the other is that two years ago Israel has exposed its wild card the so-called plan to hit the metro and after that the Palestinians put in blast doors which means that it is not so easy to get from one compartment to the other just like in in ships or submarines you you do have uh some walls between various parts of the tunnels so maybe engineers have designed some bypass to that but as long as you are not certain whether there are hostages in any particular part of the tunnel system you can't risk that and we have seen blast doors definitively in some of the video especially under chief of hospital in the network the president of the international red cross traveled yesterday to Gaza and said Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians she says she's visited the european gaza hospital they're seeing young children suffering with terrible injuries due to the idf bombing we have to find solutions to this we can turn away from what is evidently a moral failure in the face of the international community i'm calling on all parties on everyone who has an influence to de-escalate and to find other the military solutions to what is an immense suffering of the people on both sides we have to protect the rights of the people we have to protect the rights of the civilians we have to protect the rights of the detainees we have to protect the rights of the hostages the u.s. state department says it appears Hamas is refusing to release the remaining Israeli women from captivity because the terror group doesn't want the negative global publicity from this group of women in particular speaking out about what they've endured this has been suspected for days discussed across israel that the qatari-led negotiations for another hostage deal broke down specifically because Hamas didn't want the kidnapped women to be able to share what they've gone through but this is the first time a top u.s. government official has confirmed that this is the likely reason jake sullivan says the u.s. is still working though to secure another deal this past weekend i held several rounds of intensive phone calls with partners in israel egypt cutter and other nations as we remain intensely engaged in a basically non-stop discussion of the developments in the region since Hamas is devastating terrorist attacks on october 7 we're still talking about trying to find a way forward on hostages we're talking about sustaining and expanding the humanitarian assistance making it indagaza right now Hamas is refusing to release civilian women who should have been part of the agreement and it is that refusal by Hamas that has caused the end of the hostage agreement and therefore the end of the pause in hostilities israel last night held an event at the united nations focused on the sexual violence against women during the Hamas attack israel has been critical of the un's response to the attacks particularly the refusal of un women for nearly two months to specifically denounce Hamas or even make a single remark showing support for the rape and sexually abuse israeli victims this all led to a global viral hashtag me too unless you're a jew as a global community we must respond to weaponized sexual violence wherever it happens with absolute condemnation there can be no justifications and no excuses rape as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity on october 7 hamas perpetrated rape and sexual violence exploiting these unforgivable crimes as weapons of war these were not merely seek spare of the moment decisions of defa to defile and mutilate israeli women and girls to parade their naked bodies in the street while onlookers cheered this was pre-meditated this was planned this was instructed this moment is so critical we have come so far in establishing that rape is a crime against humanity and we have come so far in believing survivors of sexual assault in so many situations that's why the silence on these war crimes is dangerous it threatens to undo decades of progress to undo an entire movement are you know we know that there are women who are still held in Hamas captivity that would have qualified should have qualified under the arrange and agreed upon categorization should have been released are there talks about expanding or changing adjusting the categories of remaining hostages is there a chance for another deal right so first of all regarding the the victims of sexual violence and the fact that this is starting to get receive more awareness the main reason why we're not hearing testimonies from victims of the sexual violence is because there are no survivors Hamas killed all of them because they knew that they would receive backlash and so this does kind of make sense what the the White House has been saying regarding this group of female hostages but indeed there are talks to try and change the classification or include more different groups in this classification of women and children to include the elderly the sick because these are people who are not given any treatment or supervision by the Red Cross the Red Cross is not making sure that their condition is okay that they're receiving the medication that they need to as the Red Cross vows to do with hostages in any situation under its quote unquote neutrality in such issues and so I think while there are no ongoing negotiations or active negotiations right now because the Israeli team is not in Doha it's been sent back and on the Palestinian side they're also saying that there are no active negotiations going on Qatar saying that they are committed to try and resume the talks but as they're still attempts to try and return to the table indeed there are talks at least on the Israel-US side of this equation to try and include more hostages more of the frail hostages in this group of women and children to be released it's a challenging task not only because there are no ongoing negotiations but because Hamas itself is playing with the figures saying that women who should have been released under the terms of the agreement that they're considered soldiers even though they weren't in active duty at the time and so or claiming that they already released all the women and children and in order to find more they need more time and so on the one hand Israel's doing all it all it can to try and and and and and and and once the negotiations are resumed to bring upon the release of more hostages all the while taken to consideration that Hamas is going to continue to play its games and drag this on as long as possible while releasing as few hostages as it can that's according to its wishes at least I mean do you believe that you hear us in the war himself is in close contact with hostages perhaps is hiding out with hostages is his direct involvement possibly in the days ahead regarding a possible future hostage deal yes he is in touch with this issue and probably with hostages themselves even though the early report that he himself welcomed or met with a group of hostages was later retracted now all power flows from sin war and his elimination would probably give everything being relative a more moderate tone to the remaining Hamas leaders but we have right now two painful dilemmas about which I really just talked one is whether to insist on women and put off the chance of getting the elderly back which is what Hamas suggested last week and Israel refused and the other is whether to keep silent on these crimes in order to get the women first or to go on with the public diplomacy campaign and thereby perhaps put the captives at risk because if the details that they are able to tell once they are released are so injurious to Hamas maybe they will not keep them alive so this is a very very excruciating dilemma we see the ferocity of the campaign in the south the ground offensive is there going to be increasing pressure on Egypt to do something to help civilians to open up the border to let refugees come into Egyptian territory as this as the days roll on here definitely not this is one of the main conditions that both Egypt and the United States put on Israel no displaced persons living Gaza neither to Egypt nor to Jordan to any other place and the so-called Philadelphia road or axis separating Gaza from Egypt may be patrolled by Israel even to block such a movement Egypt is an important ally both of the United States and Israel its cooperation is crucial both in the hostage negotiations and in general and Israel should and will do nothing against President Sisi also the threats of course continue in the north from Hezbollah and from the Houthi rebels the Iran backed group in Yemen as well Ariel what are the latest on the threats from the other fronts of this camp of this war of this campaign well we saw at the beginning of the war different strikes originating from Yemen towards Israel cruise missiles drones now they're rather than targeting Israel the Houthis appear to be targeting different commercial ships and trade routes in the south of the Red Sea the bubble mandab that's the mouth of the Red Sea leading from the Persian Gulf they are we saw over the weekend four separate attacks on three different ships with missiles and drones a U.S. ship that was in the area did manage to also assist the ships also to down three drones but according to Israel's military spokesperson one of the ships is at risk of sinking and the goal of the Houthis here proxy of Iran so the goal of Iran here too is to once again threaten the travel routes and to assert their positioning in the area and ships are changing course there you would imagine this does have an impact on global trade already the global trade does it does and you have a lot of countries concerned as to the safety of trade routes there let's listen to Jake Sullivan from the White House we heard him earlier let's hear him talking about this issue we don't we're not going to be able to play the sound bite but just if you can paraphrase I guess what Jake Sullivan is saying in there yeah so basically he's saying that this is this couldn't have happened without the facilitation of Iran they the White House points a finger towards the regime in Tehran of supporting these strikes of amplifying these strikes and the fact that the three ships were partially owned by 14 separate countries is an issue that makes it a global issue an international issue and it should have many international actors concerned Washington is trying an indirect approach to sending its emissary team lender king to Yemen in order to facilitate an internal Yemeni rapprochement hoping that this way the Houthis will lay down their arms again the it's not just the Israel Hamas war that southern border with Israel in the north across the sea in in Yemen there continues to be active attacks and active military campaigns and diplomatic channels as well Amir Oren and Ariel Osseron thank you so much for being with us in studio we're going out for a break here on i24 news but again active military campaign going on now deep ferocious battles being waged inside Gaza in the north and in the southern strongholds at the same time of Hamas as the hunt for Hamas terror leaders continues we will have more live updates when we come back thanks so much for watching i24 news stay with us we'll see you soon with more updates and analysis the balance in recargas de 8 dolares omas altis la red global de los dominicanos is in a state of war families completely gun down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well i24 news desk at this hour as we bring you the latest live updates from televieve this morning is day 60 of the israel hamas war and right now there are major battles raging deep inside gaza in both the north and the south simultaneously these battles have been going on all night it appears according to reports and various social media videos of this active ongoing battle is the idf's largest simultaneous assault on hamas positions since the war began new footage from the overnight hours is dramatic intense bombing tank and armored vehicle movement firefights on the ground the idf this morning announcing the deaths of three more soldiers and four other soldiers are seriously wounded also tensions continue to rise in the north as well as israel continues to deal with the threat the constant of hezbollah rocket and anti-tank missile attacks for more on the assessment today let's go to the northern border where i'm joined by i-24 news correspondent pia stekelbach for more on the threat from lebanon pia good morning right good morning jeff will this night we have seen another continuation of the cross-border attacks continuously conducted by his ballah we do know that the israeli military from the air targeted several his ballah positions in southern lebanon that comes after a day of skirmishes yesterday the most uh probably the most uh influential one was the rocket attack on kiri ashmona city at the very eastern part of the israel lebanon border it reportedly at least six rockets were fired from southern lebanon towards that area they landed an open area not causing any injuries but that really just shows you how volatile the situation here is those skirmishes that we have seen before the ceasefire have uh have come back we are at a situation that looks exactly like the one we had before the ceasefire the week-long ceasefire that also caused some calm here in the north yesterday that rocket attack was not the only incident here at the border we're also talking about attacks on the western edge of the israel lebanon border the communities of stula and matat were targeted and when we speak about these attacks we usually do refer to both motor shells and anti-tank missiles and also these are rocket attacks this is something that has been occurring here on a quite regular basis the communities alongside the border on the israeli side i still widely evacuated including that city of kiri ashmona that has come under rocket fire quite a lot we're speaking about an area of more than 20 000 residents so the residency in the north have left their homes without really knowing when they will be able to come back because hisballah has continually said that they will make their actions their full entry into this war depending on what is happening in gaza but the threat that hisballah sitting on the border poses will probably not be over even after the war with gaza will end so this is a very very uh unknown situation here how this will continue as of now these skirmishes have been contained but we do know that hisballah also has an interest in keeping the tensions up high here causing major uncertainty for the residents here in the north obviously also on the lebanese side civilians fleeing from the israeli retaliatory artillery strikes that we've also seen and also heard from here yesterday whenever hisballah attacks from the south of lebanon the israeli artillery and also many times the israeli air force strikes back towards the origin of those launches jeff all right pia thank you so much for that report from the northern border here in studio i'm joined by i-twenty for news middle east correspondent aeril osir on and i-twenty for news anchor and host of the nightly program the the rundown on i-twenty for news colette ben davey thank you both for being with me ferocious battles overnight in both the northern part of the gaza strip and in the south as well a major ground offensive uh colette what explains do you think the ferocity why now on day 60 of this war sure i think there's a couple of reasons jeff one is uh the idea may be working on a quicker timetable now i think they don't feel they have maybe uh the support uh that it's enjoyed internationally is included from the u.s. if she's pressuring israel now to keep civilian casualties lower they've reportedly told israel not to engage in the kind of extended aerial air bombing campaign that we saw in northern gaza uh so i think they're gonna there is my perhaps a feeling a sense of urgency to move quicker uh wrapping up the situation in the north and penetrating at the khan udus in the south that's one reason another is the hostages we look we've learned of the deaths of many of the hostages several of the hostages uh that were taken into gaza in the last week so there is maybe a sense of urgency that israel is going to have to move quicker in order to uh save those hostages that are still being held uh presumably in the southern part of gaza by hamas aerial the idf publicly speaking for weeks about the need to be slow and determined even just the other day with this very highly organized highly detailed map on uh residential zones that would be fleed zone by zone would be evacuated before combat the idea of being slow and deliberate to save civilians now it appears tonight into this morning it's the opposite quite fast and furious our civilians in gaza at risk how accurate can the idf be in a situation like this do you think look unfortunately it's a war zone so civilians are at risk and especially they are being put more at risk by hamas as it's being as they're being used as human shields not only in their homes but in the the facilities that they're asked or that they uh evacuate to we're talking about the use of the military use of of hospitals of schools of mosques and of other international aid groups their facilities and so unfortunately that that is the situation in gaza but we know that the idf has been saying that it wants to get it right it wants to do it professionally wants to do it at a at a pace that not only protects the safety of its own soldiers because half of gaza is half of the buildings in gaza that have been left behind are booby trapped or dangerous in other ways as they serve as anti-tank firing positions or sniping positions but also to try and reduce and minimize as much as possible the civilian casualty and that's why you see large amounts of forces moving slowly in various areas that is a way to also advance your military objectives but also to protect the forces acting on the ground also they're not operating inside the tunnel system that is another issue that we may touch on a little later the fact that the tunnel system is a threat but and that's where the terrorists are hiding but they're not fighting there so they need to advance they need to get them out of the tunnels but they also need to do this while trying to avoid as much as possible civilian casualties so on the one hand we're seeing very as you talked about fierce battles going on in multiple parts of the gaza strip because the goal is to try to reach the main objectives that's toppling Hamas avoiding any creating a situation that there's no threat from gaza and finding the hostages and releasing them this is something that the forces continue to act in many areas of the gaza strip and that's why we're seeing this widespread campaign going on the ground right now i'll note also this morning already Hamas firing rockets into southern israel the smaller kibbutzim in the gaza envelope already this morning as the battles go on let's go live now to pierre cloche endler our correspondents in steroat near the israel gaza border for an update on the situation today pierre good morning good morning jeff uh we don't see much today because it's foggy but it's also the fog of war that doesn't allow us to know exactly what's going on on an hourly basis but we know a few general indications of what's going on we know that there are two fronts actually right now the first one is the one behind me in the northern gaza strip which started with a ground offensive in october 27 and the second one is in the central sector of the gaza strip uh nearing hanuness uh that started on the first of december now these two thrives uh these two thrusts of the army uh are going in parallel with ferocious battles with close range combat in the jebalia refugee camp in the northern sector north of gaza city in the zaitun neighborhood and in the gaza city outskirts southeast of gaza city in shejai there they're very fierce fighting and three soldiers have been killed uh in the past 24 hours it was announced by the rdf just a couple of hours ago in addition regarding the central front palestin media reports affiliated to hamas of course but we've seen videos of really intense bombing on the city of hanuness for instance they're talking about 100 hits on targets on on targets in hanuness within half an hour now yesterday the army spoke of 200 aerial strike within 24 hours in hanuness 100 in half an hour it's it's incredible the power of the idf on hanuness is huge at the same time the ground forces are approaching the outskirts of the the eastern outskirts of the city palestinian witnesses are talking about seeing from a distance of about one kilometer from the city armored vehicles ground forces as well as tanks and the army is progressing on two axes as far as we understand the salah had been axes east of gaza city which crosses the gaza street from north to south and what's and was used as a humanitarian corridor until the end of the pose in the fighting last week and also from the israeli territory westward toward hanuness and when you hear about rocket fire uh being launched on communities in the central uh facing the central sector of the gaza strip that's probably hamas terrorist launching not rockets but mortar fire on the positions of the army facing hanuness on israeli territory because not all the forces have already entered gaza in the central sector and many of them are still gathered in gathering points facing hanuness on israeli territory so this is probably the case when you hear a lot of focus of mortar fire uh on communities which are really close to the border and facing hanuness jeff all right pierre for us in the south thanks so much for that update you could have pierre talking about the constant mortar fire so ongoing kamas still also able to fire rockets i mean there's still day 60 into this war still firing rockets onto televieve and televieve suburbs deep into central israel their ability to wage war is it's degraded do they still have surprising rocket capability at this point well first of all we have to say it's certainly degraded there's no question about it jeff you mentioned there's still a uh rocket fire most of that though has been in the south we definitely see a decrease in rocket fire towards central israel here in televy but even in cities like ashkelad that have been main targets really their focus now is more seems to be on what's called the gaza envelope those communities around there so there's no question it's been degraded maybe do they maybe have some surprising ability uh some some of the longer range missiles that they've pulled uh into for example to the south of gaza of course that's a real possibility and the idea has to take that into account it also has to protect its troops and that's part of the reason we're talking about these intensified air strikes there to uh degrade that military capability so of course surprise is still possible but there's no question it's been weakened and alia we talked about the tunnels before what will become of them other hostages there is that where the terror commanders are or is there a plan on how to deal with the tunnel threat while keeping israeli soldiers as safe as possible right so on the one hand we have the tunnels that are the perhaps the main strategic uh tool by amas to also protect its fighters but uh potentially hold some of the hostages from accounts of the hostages not all of them were kept in tunnels that is important to remember but we do know that the idf does not want to send its soldiers to fight in the tunnel so how does it deal with this threat so according to uh reporting in the wall street journal the idf has completed a task to connect pumps that will pump seawater into these tunnels and we're talking about uh a pump system of five large water pumps that are expected to uh to flood the terror tunnels within weeks by pumping thousands of cubic meters of water per hour now given that this would be a gradual threat there is no uh concern of immediate uh threat to the hostages if they are indeed kept down there another concern is how will this affect uh gaza sewer system and its aquifers its its natural water system however this is uh seen to be by the idf the ideal course of action to incapacitate these tunnels to to force the amas terrorists out hopefully with the hostages in a way that will make it easier for for instance israel's aerial surveillance to get and have some effect on that um there according to the reporting there has been some disagreements uh within the biden administration regarding the necessity or efficacy of such a plan but not in a way that would uh make israel drop the water entirely i just want to add that i just want to add that the fact that this plan even leaked out if you excuse me is an indication that maybe the idf wants to just make the enemy hamas aware of the threat uh and in order to sort of flush them out of tunnels saying if you stay in the tunnels this is what we could do we're letting you know it has been discussed for weeks this possibility of flooding the tunnels it's been discussed for years for years the question of course now that the idf is there what does this mean for gaza's future uh the damage that flooding the tunnels would do underground are the concerns about the humanitarian consequences downstream right again uh uh by the way we should note that the sewage uh uh system in gaza that's been a an issue for for years even in decades and water issues and this certainly wouldn't help we don't really know we can't really assess what impact we don't even know the extent of the tunnels we don't even know what impact what connection they may have to the natural aquifer that's obviously a risk that one has to take into account but at the end of the day israel has its two goals freeing the hostages and eliminating hamas is certainly military capability and those goals override anything else involved in what we call the day after so it's i would say it's a last resort weapon and again the fact that it leaked out in such detail indicates to me the idf wanted this to get out basically it's like it's sending a warning shot to hamas and we have chilling new footage just hidden to the eye to her newsroom here of an israeli hostage being kidnapped on october 7th by hamas terrorists this is new video and we do have permission from the woman here to share this publicly this is a meat susana she lived alone in an apartment in kabutsk far aza that's right near the gaza border it was overrun with terrorists this security camera footage shows her heroically bravely trying to fight off her hamas kidnappers there are seven of them she single-handedly fights them off some of them armed with automatic weapons they try to pull her into gaza territory she was eventually dragged or carried there a meat was released days ago from gaza in the seventh and final group of hostages and more testimony from survivors of hamas captivity about the inhumane treatment that they received from their captives the brother of charon alone in cuneo said that hamas separated charon's three-year-old twins just a few days into their captivity charon did not know for almost 50 more days if that toddler was alive or dead now the twin girls emma and yuli are physically healthy but deeply scarred of course psychologically a bunch of people more than 10 people in a very very small room when they needed something they needed to knock on the door and maybe someone would come there uh to them after one hour maybe four hours they weren't sure um think about how's you know how people managing their own bodies in this in this small room especially kids in a different location they were at uh food was not a given they weren't sure when they will be given food um or how much i understood that they were arguments between the hostages around water uh no my 12 years old daughter uh don't allow me to leave the house to leave her promise for more than i just asked her what can i get the trash down and she wouldn't permit it so she's like hanging out to me very closely uh she have worked and sometimes during the night screaming for more than 48 hours uh all the kids were still whispering to each other and all the communication was only whispering 48 hours after they were released all of them the kids the mothers all the hostages that were released by now all of them lost weight between 10 to 15 percent of their body weight there was a limitation of water uh limitation of drinking water and the limitation of course of water to take a shower because we have one family who took three showers in 54 days and uh one of the kids who took non-shower at all on 54 days and you can imagine from that point the the medical hygiene that they came back every family that we we were talking to they were psychologically abused on a terrible way from nobody cares for you nobody will will will look for you uh one of the kids told me that one of the teenager that they told him every day several times a day that don't worry you will be here at least for a year if you go back at all back here in studio club there are still children hostages there are still women hostages that would have been should have been part of the category of the release under the under the outline of the framework of the initial deal why aren't the additional women coming home and what do you make of these you know horror stories that are still emerging i'm and unfortunately anyone who knows Hamas is not surprised by these stories that that are emerging and it just speaks to the point earlier said about now the urgency to free the hostages those remaining who have done about the women who have not been freed the state department spokesperson Matthew Miller yesterday said in washington that Hamas may be holding some of those women because they're trying to conceal the sexual abuse that they have undergone as a hostage and the whole issue especially of the abuse the sexual abuse of women both in the october 7th attack and subsequently after that has really come to the fore in the last few days part of that is the testimony that's been given by some of the people the hostage attorneys who witnessed those incidents on october 7th or the experience of the hostages some is the footage the unedited footage that the israeli government of the idea has been showing increasingly to audiences around the world they can see first hand some of that abuse so that issue has now really come to the fore come forward it was discussed in the un yesterday a major some important figures gal gadot the israeli actress hollywood star putting out a very strong statement who's always been supportive of israel but it's been a little circumspect given her position in the show in the entertainment world coming up with just a strong statement on instagram saying the world has failed the women of october 7th so that issue belatedly unfortunately way belatedly has now coming to the fore and raising concern of course about those hostages still being held tensions are rising also i want to note in the north with lebanon and also in the with the houthi rebels in yemen that continue to attack and increasingly targeting commercial ships the pentagon is reporting multiple attacks on vessels from 14 different countries which indicate and of course highlight the global implications and the threats to trade routes here's more on the ongoing and even growing danger from the houthi rebels yemen's houthis are escalating attacks on commercial ships in the red sea raising concern for the safety of key trade routes the naval forces of the yemeni armed forces with the help of allah almighty carried out this morning a targeting operation against two israeli ships in the babel mandib street the targeted ships were the unity explorer and ship number nine the first ship was targeted with a naval missile and the second ship was targeted with a naval drone the running back militia said attacks like those on sunday would continue until israel ends its strikes on gaza but the idf denied the ship said any connection to israel and accused the houthis of endangering the freedom of navigation in the region one of the ships was damaged in a very serious way and it seems that it could be in danger of sinking and other one was lightly damaged this is an event stemming from negative sabotage of the houthis we need to see how the world will answer this issue this past weekend saw four attacks against three separate commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern red sea three vessels that are connected to 14 different nations which goes to show you the extent to which this is truly a source of global concern and a threat to international peace and stability the bahamas flagged unity explorer bulk carrier was attacked in the morning and then again in the afternoon by anti-ship missiles then the panamanian flag number nine reported damage but no casualties caused by a missile from yemen a third ship the sophie two which also sails under panama's flag said it was struck as well but suffered no significant harm the arlie burt class destroyer uss carney responded to the distress calls from these ships and provided assistance in doing so it detected three uavs at three different times heading in its direction and it took action against all three of those uavs we have every reason to believe that these attacks while they were launched by the houthis in yemen were fully enabled by iran this is also one of those allegations aimed at projections which are made in line with efforts to deviate public opinion of nations and to cover up crimes by the zinus regime and the u.s government the u.s says it will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international partners but in the absence of significant action such attacks off the coast of yemen will only increase in frequency and severity we're going out here for a break on the channel but more live reporting from the field more expert analysis and insight from our guests in studio and around the world on the 60th day of the israel hamas war again rockets already this morning mortar shells being fired from hamas terrorists into southern gauze in town southern israeli towns they're gonna active war going on being waged right now in the north part of the gauze strip and the south and the major city of hanunas especially home to the hamas terror leaders including uh muhammad beef and yes and war the idea of confirming the deaths of three soldiers this morning several others seriously hurt as the fight goes on more updates straight ahead stay with us on the channel and thanks for watching in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well 24 news desk at this hour as we bring you the latest live updates from televieve this morning is day 60 of the israel hamas war and right now there are major battles raging deep inside gauze in both the north and the south simultaneously these battles have been going on all night the peers according to reports and various social media videos of this active ongoing battle is the idf's largest simultaneous assault on hamas positions since the war began new footage from the overnight hours is dramatic intense bombing tank and armored vehicle movement firefights on the ground the idf this morning announcing the deaths of three more soldiers and four other soldiers are seriously wounded also tensions continue to rise in the north as well as israel continues to deal with the threat the constant threat of hezbollah rocket and anti-tank missile attacks for more on the assessment today let's go to the northern border where i'm joined by i-24 news correspondent pia sekelbach for more on the threat from lebanon pia good morning right good morning jeff well this night we have seen another continuation of the cross-border attacks continuously conducted by hezbollah we do know that the israeli military from the air targeted several hezbollah positions in southern lebanon that comes after a day of skirmishes yesterday the most probably the most uh influences one was the rocket attack on kirya shmone city at the very eastern part of the israel lebanon border it reportedly at least six rockets were fired from southern lebanon towards that area they landed an open area not causing any injuries but that really just shows you how volatile the situation here is those skirmishes that we have seen before the ceasefire have uh have come back we are at a situation that looks exactly like the one we had before the ceasefire the week-long ceasefire that also caused some calm here in the north yesterday that rocket attack was not the only incident here at the border we're also talking about attacks on the western edge of the israel lebanon border the communities of stula and matat were targeted and when we speak about these attacks we usually do refer to both motor shells and anti-tank missiles and also these are rocket attacks this is something that has been occurring here on a quite regular basis the communities alongside the border on the israeli side i still widely evacuated including that city of kirya shmone that has come under rocket fire quite a lot we're speaking about an area of more than 20 000 residents so the residency in the north have left their homes without really knowing when they will be able to come back because isballah has continually said that they will make their actions their full entry into this war depending on what is happening in gaza but the threat that isballah sitting on the border poses will probably not be over even after the war with gaza will end so this is a very very uh unknown situation here how this will continue as of now these skirmishes have been contained but we do know that isballah also has an interest in keeping the tensions up high here causing major uncertainty for the residents here in the north obviously also on the lebanese side civilians fleeing from the israeli retaliatory artillery strikes that we've also seen and also heard from here yesterday whenever isballah attacks from the south of lebanon the israeli artillery and also many times the israeli air force strikes back towards the origin of those launches jeff all right pia thank you so much for that report from the northern border here in studio i'm joined by i-20 for news middle east correspondent aeril osir on and i-20 for news anchor and host of the nightly program the the rundown on i-20 for news kolev ben davey thank you both for being with me ferocious battles overnight in both the northern part of the gaza strip and in the south as well a major ground offensive uh kolev what explains do you think the ferocity why now on day 60 of this war sure i think there's a couple of reasons jeff one is uh the idea may be working on a quicker timetable now i think they don't feel they have maybe uh the support uh that it's enjoyed internationally is included from the u.s. if she's pressuring israel now to keep civilian casualties lower they've reportedly told israel not to engage in the kind of extended aerial air bombing campaign that we saw in northern gaza so i think they're gonna there is my perhaps a feeling a sense of urgency to move quicker uh wrapping up uh the situation in the north and penetrating at the khan utas in the south that's one reason another is the hostages we look we've learned of the deaths of many of the hostages several of the hostages uh that were taken into gaza in the last week so there is maybe a sense of urgency that israel is going to have to move quicker in order to uh save those hostages that are still being held uh presumably in the southern part of gaza by hamas ariel the idf publicly uh speaking for weeks about the need to be slow and determined even just the other day with this very highly organized highly detailed map on uh residential zones that would be fleed zone by zone would be evacuated before combat the idea of being slow and deliberate to save civilians now it appears tonight into this morning it's the opposite quite fast and furious are civilians in gaza at risk how accurate can the idf be in a situation like this do you think look unfortunately it's a war zone so civilians are at risk and especially they are being put more at risk by hamas as it's being as they're being used as human shields not only in their homes but in the the facilities that they're asked or that they uh evacuate to we're talking about the use of the military use of of hospitals of schools of mosques and of other international aid groups uh their facilities and so um unfortunately that is the situation in gaza but we know that the idf has been saying that it wants to get it right it wants to do it professionally wants to do it at a at a pace that not only protects the safety of its own soldiers because half of gaza is half of the uh buildings in gaza that have been left behind are booby trapped uh or dangerous in other ways as they serve as anti-tank firing positions or sniping positions but also to try and reduce and minimize as much as possible the civilian casualty and that's why you see large amounts of forces moving slowly in various areas that is a way to also advance your military uh objectives but also to protect the forces acting on the ground also they're not uh operating inside the tunnel system that is another issue um that we may touch on a little later the fact that the tunnel system is a threat but and that's where the terrorists are hiding but they're not fighting there so they need to advance they need to get them out of the tunnels but they also need to do this while trying to avoid as much as possible um civilian casualties so on the one hand we're seeing uh very as you talked about fierce battles going on in multiple parts of the gaza strip because the goal is to try to reach the the main objectives that's toppling hamas uh avoiding any creating a situation that there's no threat from gaza and finding the hostages and releasing them this is something that the forces continue to act in many areas of the gaza strip and that's why we're seeing this uh widespread campaign going on the ground right now i'll note also this morning already hamas firing rockets into southern israel the smaller uh kibbutzim in the gaza envelope already this morning as the battles go on let's go live now to pierre clo chendler our correspondents in sterot near the israel gaza border for an update on the situation today pierre good morning good morning jeff uh we don't see much today because it's foggy but it's also the fog of war that doesn't allow us to know exactly what's going on on an hourly basis but we know a few general indications of what's going on we know that there are two fronts actually right now the first one is the one behind me in the northern gaza strip which started with the ground offensive in october 27 and the second one is in the central sector of the gaza strip uh nearing hanyuness uh that started on the first of december now these two thrives these two thrusts of the army uh are going in parallel with ferocious battles with close range combat in the jebalia refugee camp in the northern sector north of gaza city in the zaitou neighborhood and in the gaza city outskirts southeast of gaza city in shejaya there they're very fierce fighting and three soldiers have been killed uh in the past 24 hours it was announced by the rdf just a couple of hours ago in addition regarding the central front palestine media reports affiliated to ramas of course but we've seen videos of really intense bombing on the city of hanyuness for instance they're talking about 100 hits on targets on targets in hanyuness within half an hour now yesterday the army spoke of 200 aerial strike within 24 hours in hanyuness 100 in half an hour it's it's incredible the power of the idf on hanyuness is huge at the same time the ground forces are approaching the outskirts of the the eastern outskirts of the city palestinian witnesses are talking about seeing from a distance of about one kilometer from the city armored vehicles ground forces as well as tanks and the army is progressing on two axes as far as we understand the salah hadin axes east of gaza city which crosses the gaza strip from north to south and what's and was used as a humanitarian corridor until the end of the pose in the fighting last week and also from the israeli territory westwood toward hanyuness and when you hear about rocket fire being launched on communities in the central facing the central sector of the gaza strip that's probably hamas terrorist launching not rockets but mortar fire on the positions of the army facing hanyuness on israeli territory because not all the forces have already entered gaza in the central sector and many of them are still gathered in gathering points facing hanyuness on israeli territory so this is probably the case when you hear a lot of focus of mortar fire on communities which are really close to the border and facing hanyuness jeff or pierre for us in the south thanks so much for that update your club pierre talking about the constant mortar fire so ongoing hamas still also able to fire rockets i mean they're still day 60 into this war still firing rockets onto televieve and televieve suburbs deep into central israel their ability to wage war is it's degraded do they still have surprising rocket capability at this point well first of all we have to say it's certainly degraded there's no question about it jeff you mentioned there's still a rocket fire most of that though has been in the south we definitely see a decrease in rocket fire towards central israel here in televieve but even in cities like ashkelad that have been main targets really their focus now is more seems to be on what's called the gaza envelope those communities around this so there's no question it's been degraded maybe do they maybe have some surprising ability some some of the longer range missiles that they've pulled into for example to the south of gaza of course that's a real possibility and the idea has to take that into account it also has to protect its troops and that's part of the reason we're talking about these intensified airstrikes there to degrade that military capability so of course surprise is still possible but there's no question it's been weakened and alia we talked about the tunnels before what will become of them other hostages there is that where the terror commanders are or is there a plan on how to deal with the tunnel threat while keeping israeli soldiers safe as possible right so on the one hand we have the tunnels that are the perhaps the main strategic tool by amas to also protect its fighters but potentially hold some of the hostages from accounts of the hostages not all of them were kept in tunnels that is important to remember but we do know that the idf does not want to send its soldiers to fight in the tunnel so how does it deal with this threat so according to reporting in the wall street journal the idf has completed a task to connect pumps that will pump seawater into these tunnels and we're talking about pump system of five large water pumps that are expected to to flood the terror tunnels within weeks by pumping thousands of cubic meters of water per hour now given that this would be a gradual threat there is no concern of immediate threat to the hostages if they are indeed kept down there another concern is how will this affect gaza sewered system and its aquifers its natural water system however this is seen to be by the idf the ideal course of action to incapacitate these tunnels to to force the amas terrorists out hopefully with the hostages in a way that will make it easier for for instance israel's aerial surveillance to get and have some effect on that um there according to the reporting there has been some disagreements uh within the bite administration regarding the necessity or efficacy of such a plan but not in a way that would uh make israel drop forward entirely i just want to add that i just want to add that the fact that this plan even leaked out if you excuse me is an indication that maybe the idf wants to just make the enemy hamas aware of the threat uh and in order to sort of flush him out of tunnels saying if you stay in the tunnels this is what we could do we're letting you know it has been discussed for weeks this possibility of flooding the tunnels it's been no it's been discussed for years for years the question of course now that the idf is there what does this mean for gaza's future uh the damage that flooding the tunnels would do underground are there concerns about the humanitarian consequences downstream right again uh uh uh by the way we should note that the sewage uh uh system in gaza that's been a an issue for for years even in decades and water issues and this certainly wouldn't help we don't really know we can't really assess what impact we don't even know the extent of the tunnels we don't even know what impact what connection they may have to the natural aquifer that's obviously a risk that one has to take into account but at the end of the day israel has its two goals freeing the hostages and eliminating hamas is certainly military capability and those goals override anything else involved in what we call the day after so it's i would say it's a last resort weapon and again the fact that it leaked out in such detail indicates to me the idf wanted this to get out basically it's like it's sending a warning shot to hamas and we have chilling new footage just hidden to the idf newsroom here of an israeli hostage being kidnapped on october 7th by hamas terrorists this is new video and we do have permission from the woman here to share this publicly this is a meat susana she lived alone in an apartment in kabutsk far asa that's right near the gaza border it was overrun with terrorists this security camera footage shows her heroically bravely trying to fight off her hamas kidnappers there are seven of them she single-handedly fights them off some of them armed with automatic weapons they try to pull her into gaza territory she was eventually dragged or carried there a meat was released days ago from gaza in the seventh and final group of hostages and more testimony from survivors of hamas captivity about the inhumane treatment that they received from their captives the brother of charon aloney cuneo said that hamas separated charon's three-year-old twins just a few days into their captivity charon did not know for almost 50 more days if that toddler was alive or dead now the twin girls emma and yuli are physically healthy but deeply scarred of course psychologically a bunch of people more than 10 people in a very very small room when they needed something they needed to knock on the door and maybe someone would come there to them after one hour maybe four hours they weren't sure think about how's you know how people managing their own bodies in this in this small room especially kids in a different location they were at food was not a given they weren't sure when they will be given food or how much i understood that they were arguments between the hostages from water uh no i'm my 12 years old daughter uh don't allow me to leave the house to leave her premise for more than i just ask her what can i get the trash down and she wouldn't permit it so she's like hanging out to me very closely uh she have broken sometimes during the night screaming for more than 48 hours uh all the kids were still whispering to each other and all the communication was only whispering 48 hours after they were released all of them the kids the mothers all the hostages that were released by now all of them lost weight between 10 to 15 percent of their body weight there was a limitation of water limitation of drinking water and the limitation of course of water to take a shower because we have one family who took three showers in 54 days and one of the kids who took none shower at all on 54 days and you can imagine from that point the the medical hygiene that they came back every family that we we were talking to they were psychologically abused on a terrible way from nobody cares for you nobody will will will look for you uh one of the kids told me that one of the teenager that they told him every day several times a day that don't worry you will be here at least for a year if you go back at all back here in studio collab there are still children hostages there are still women hostages that would have been should have been part of the category of the release under the under the outline of the framework of the initial deal why aren't the additional women coming home and what do you make of these you know horror stories that are still emerging I mean unfortunately anyone who knows Hamas is not surprised by these stories that that are emerging and I this speaks to the point earlier said about now the urgency to free the hostages those remaining who have done about the women who have not been freed the state department spokesperson Matthew Miller yesterday said in Washington that Hamas may be holding some of those women because they're trying to conceal the sexual abuse that they have undergone as a hostage and the whole issue especially of the abuse the sexual abuse of women both in the october 7th attack and subsequently after that has really come to the fore in the last few days part of that is the testimony that's been given by some of the people the hostage attorneys who witnessed those incidents on october 7th or the experience of the hostages some is the footage the unedited footage that the Israeli government of the IDF has been showing increasingly to audiences around the world they can see firsthand some of that abuse so that issue has now really come to the forward come forward it was discussed in the UN yesterday major some important figures Gal Gadot the Israeli actress Hollywood star putting out a very strong statement who's always been supportive of Israel but has been a little circumspect given her position in the show in the entertainment world coming out with just a strong statement on instagram saying the world has failed the women of october 7th so that issue belatedly unfortunately way belatedly has now coming to the fore and raising concern of course about those hostages still being held uh tensions are rising also i want to note in the north with lebanon and also in with the houthi rebels in yemen that continue to attack and increasingly targeting uh commercial ships the pentagon is reporting multiple attacks on vessels from 14 different countries which indicate and of course highlight the global implications and the threats to trade routes here's more on the ongoing and even growing danger from the houthi rebels yemen's houthis are escalating attacks on commercial ships in the red sea raising concern for the safety of key trade routes the naval forces of the yemeni armed forces with the help of allah almighty carried out this morning a targeting operation against two israeli ships in the bab el mandib street the targeted ships were the unity explorer and ship number nine the first ship was targeted with a naval missile and the second ship was targeted with a naval drone the running back militia said attacks like those on sunday would continue until israel ends its strikes on gaza but the idf denied the ship said any connection to israel and accused the houthis of endangering the freedom of navigation in the region hi yome one of the ships was damaged in a very serious way and it seems that it could be in danger of sinking and other one was lightly damaged this is an event stemming from negative sabotage of the houthis we need to see how the world will answer this issue this past weekend saw four attacks against three separate commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern red sea three vessels that are connected to 14 different nations which goes to show you the extent to which this is truly a source of global concern and a threat to international peace and stability the bahamas flagged unity explorer bulk carrier was attacked in the morning and then again in the afternoon by anti ship missiles then the panamanian flag number nine reported damage but no casualties caused by a missile from yemen a third ship the sophie two which also sails under panama's flag said it was struck as well but suffered no significant harm the arleigh burt class destroyer uss carney responded to the distress calls from these ships and provided assistance in doing so it detected three uavs at three different times heading in its direction and it took action against all three of those uavs we have every reason to believe that these attacks while they were launched by the houthis in yemen were fully enabled by iran this is also one of those allegations aimed at projections which are made in line with efforts to deviate public opinion of nations and to cover up crimes by the zionist regime and the us government the us says it will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international partners but in the absence of significant action such attacks off the coast of yemen will only increase in frequency and severity we're going out here for a break i'm the channel but more live reporting from the field more expert analysis and insight from our guests in studio and around the world on the 60th day of the israel hamas war again rockets already this morning mortar shells being fired from hamas terrorists into southern god's in town southern israeli towns they're getting an active war going on being waged right now in the north part of the gaza strip and the south and the major city of khanunis especially home to the hamas terror leaders including uh muhamadif and yes and war the idea of confirming the deaths of three soldiers this morning several others seriously hurt as the fight goes on more updates straight ahead stay with us on the channel and thanks for watching a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well el único medio en español que te mantiene informado y conectado con la comunidad latina en israel news 24 únicamente en i24 news i24 news desk at this hour as we bring you the latest live updates from televique this morning is day 60 of the israel hamas war and right now there are major battles being waged deep inside gaza in both the north and the south it appears according to reports and social media videos that this ongoing battle which has been going on all night long is the idf's largest simultaneous assault on hamas since the war began just moments ago the idf says its troops in north gaza have completed the encirclement of the javalia uh camp terror stronghold the idf also says a top commando unit has successfully raided the hamas general security headquarters in that area in the north the israeli army this morning also confirming the deaths of three more soldiers fighting in gaza for other soldiers are seriously wounded let's go live now to i24 news correspondent pia clausenla furos near the israel gaza border as the battle goes on pia why so why is this battle that's been going on this intense firefight for hours now why so ferocious now why so intense now as we approach the second month of this war well there's a double barrel ground offensive the one that started behind me in the northern sector of the gaza strip on october 27 and the one that has been launched in the central sector of the gaza strip south of gaza city towards han yunus uh on december 1st this double barrel defensive is tightening the news on hamas obviously there are ferocious battles in the javalia refugee camp inside the camp already it wasn't circled uh already before the pose in the fighting last week uh but now the army is operating inside the camp in zaytun in gaza city one remaining pocket of resistance close-range combat also and uh in the shijaya outskirts eastern outskirts of gaza city facing kibbutz nakhal oz where there was a major massacre during october 7 there also ferocious fighting uh with close-range combat between ground forces and hamas terrorists as you mentioned uh inside javalia the general security services war room of hamas has been taken over uh there are destroying infrastructure as usual and they're cleaning the whole area of the northern gaza strip this is why we hear from time to time still uh targeting of presumed terror targets of hamas with our aerial strikes and artillery strikes in the center uh in han yunus this is maybe the make or break of hamas because many of the terrorists who didn't confront the israeli forces before the truce last week managed to flee toward the network of tunnels that are underneath han yunus and it's believed by the idf that the commanders of the military uh wing of hamas as well as the chief of the political wing of hamas are located in han yunus why because those two men yehye sinwar the political leader and hama death who is the military leader are both originated from the han yunus area the refugee camps of han yunus and as a result the hope is to uh for the idf is to have a hand on them in order to uh maybe uh decapitate the leadership on one hand creates a trauma a moral amongst the hamas fighters and at the same time possibly completely disorganizing the leadership now uh this goes hand in hand and at the moment we understand that the idf is at around one kilometer on the eastern outskirts of han yunus very close to the to the really the center there as the battle goes on peter thank you so much for that update stay safe today here in studio i'm joined by jonathan reggae of our senior defense correspondent and club ben davey host of the rundown our prime time show here at i-20 news thank you both for being with me jonathan first get me caught up on the jabalia refugee camp as we've discussed here many times not a refugee camp in any traditional sense of the word when you think of a refugee camp being you know wide open space and tents this is a city as high rises very densely packed together a modern city in many respects uh it's encircled now what does that mean for the idf how does it proceed and the dangers ahead in this particular area in the north you mentioned the dangers ahead we can we can speak only of what the army has found so far we're speaking of 800 tunnel shafts that have been found how many have not been found we don't know and these tunnel shafts are extremely dangerous why because there's not there there is face-to-face combats with between idf and kamas but nor elot the strategy of kamas is coming up from the tunnel shooting anti-tank missiles or placing ids and and and having very short firefights and disappearing back to the tunnel shafts the assumption is that in jabalia just like in sajaiya zaitun many other neighborhoods of gaza city there are many tunnels still operating we saw when the Israeli army was not operating last week during the ceasefire that kamas has still plenty of people in that area are ready to fight and and and and still in control in communication they still have capabilities and when you're speaking of an area so densely populated with with very narrow alleys and alleyways and and tunnels and buildings that you never know who's hiding there that is uh the main danger jabalia is encircled but when you go in as the army will eventually do if you want to conquer it all together you do have to push in these are the dangers they will face colin as pier mentioned in his report you know the the ground offensive in han yunus especially the effort to go after to find to kill uh ismail uh um uh do you believe that this would be a symbolic victory only for the idea no would it actually demoralize or have any uh tangible impact on kamas's continuation of the fight i think it's would have uh as as pier said these are the two senior figures and it would disrupt their command structure we don't know if there is a hierarchy in place uh that would that presents a clear succession to them but i'll add another reason why it's important to get those two figures we it's gonna have to start israel is going to have to start talking at least in private about the day after in gaza uh reportedly there is a team of uh u.s officials senior u.s officials coming uh to hear to discuss to begin discussions with the israeli government on the so-called day after what will at least the civil administration of gaza look like after the military operation takes place and it's impossible to imagine that happening without uh yixin war and mohammed deaf being out of the picture because they have the strongest following the strongest mystique in hamas no other figure either from the palestinian camp or even from some other arab camp if you imagine what could take the reins in gaza as long as those two figures are alive and active in gaza so it's not just symbolic uh it's a military target and also setting the stage for this for the day after the threats continue of course also not just from hamas but hezbollah in the north hezbollah with near daily attacks on israeli towns and israeli military targets in the northern part of israel let's go live now to pia stekelback our correspondent near the israel lebanon border for an update on the threats as as the israeli offensive intensifies uh visibly intensifies across gaza today pia what about the threat from the north and is there a chance that hezbollah may use this as a this as a escalation point right jeff will we did see that the skirmishes are back after the end of the ceasefire is bala time and time again saying that they will make their actions dependent on what is happening in gaza is bala just now publish their daily attack summary this is something that they put out every day summarizing the attacks of the previous day the attacks of course on israeli positions in the north here they said that yesterday they attacked 12 targets in northern israel as a result of that the israeli military struck back both from the area and with artillery numerous times during the day targeting his bala infrastructure such as weapons depots and also launch sites now we have seen several attacks really across alongside the israel lebanon border both in the east and in the west in the east yesterday a late afternoon evening we saw a rocket attack on the city of kirya shmona that interestingly enough his bala did not claim responsibility for but we do know that there are other groups active in southern lebanon such as also hamas's military wing in southern lebanon that has claimed responsibility for rocket fire in the past now that rocket fire on to kirya shmona did not cause any casualties those rockets reportedly landed in an open area but that really shows you how high the tensions are here kirya shmona city of more than 20 000 residents that has been widely evacuated such as dozens of communities here alongside the border on the north in the north of israel now other attacks that we've seen yesterday were conducted by his bala in the west on stula matat when we speak about those attacks we speak about both water shells and the entire tank missiles now yesterday throughout the day there were no reports of casualties but on sunday there was a major attack on betelel in the eastern part of the israel lebanon border where 11 israelis were injured both civilians and soldiers so the scumishes do continue the way that they were conducted before that ceasefire and that really just shows you that his bala is reacting to what is happening in gaza and we're not expecting these clashes these cross border attacks to really end anytime soon jeff bia thanks so much for that live update from the north with me now is idf reserves major elia trodoff but also serving as a political and military analyst here major thank you so much for being with me the idf offensive is intensifying around khanunas they are pushing deeper into khanunas in gaza do you believe do you think the idf knows at this point where senwar is where his hideout is do you think the idf is going to get to him two different questions first of all i think uh the idf has a reasonably good idea of where he is uh we're both of them are uh but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be there when the idf shows up and i i i think it's important to understand uh earlier was a discussion about the the shafts down into the tunnels when we talk about the tunnel system we have to understand that that there are two aspects to it there's the vertical aspect which is the shafts uh of which there are hundreds and hundreds 800 have already been found 500 have been destroyed uh and they they present a tactical threat to any israeli forces operating in gaza whether it's in gaza city in the neighborhoods jibalia zia zaitun or in khanunas and later perhaps in rafiah but there's the other aspect of it and that's the 500 kilometers of underground tunnels i call that the horizontal part of it which not only are networked under the cities but connect the cities to each other in other words there is still movement between khanunas and gaza city jibalia zia and back so they have a great deal of mobility we control the above ground for sure combination of our ground forces the artillery the air force uh the above ground battle is going entirely in our favor but there's still an entire aspect of below ground that also gives them a great deal of mobility despite the amount of force that we have above major this doves tales then with my next question about this new report in the wall street journal about the possibility of flooding the tunnels that according to reports the idf has completed its preparations that they have uh the huge multiple water pumps ready to go to begin this operation there's active discussions within israel and also with uh the american allies on going through with this plan and the implications of it uh what do you make of it what's your analysis here on this on this idea to flood the tunnels over the next few weeks so i have to say the talk of flooding the tunnels goes back um at least as far as 2002 i was in the the headquarters of the gaza division uh back then back in the day when it was in uh outside of nivea khalim and gush katif the tunnels were an issue back then as well and flooding them was was considered one of the possible options there are two downsides that one is for sure and the other one is we is a we don't know the the one for sure is damaging the aquifer under gaza in other words there's there's an environmental question here that has to come into play you don't want to do major environmental damage that may may sound kind of irrelevant in warfare but it's not because there's got to be a day after the war as well and not just for gaza but for israel certainly um so that's one question but even leaving that aside the substrate of gaza is sand as you can see in in what you're showing on the screen right now sand absorbs water and it's not clear at all whether these tunnels will actually flood even with massive amounts of water being pumped into them they may get a foot or two of water you know on the ground but will they actually flood to the point where they can't be used is an open question so i would say it's an interesting idea it's an idea that that's at least 20 years old um it may be attempted uh but we shouldn't think that there's this magical solution that we pump water in and they come out like like brats off a sinking ship uh a final question for you major i want to ask about the the push forward now on the ground inside gaza with the jabalia camp now being completely encircled uh the push close to the center of con unis uh as i as you heard our reporter confirming that the idea for really just a few hundred meters away at this point you know every idf death is a tragedy each life its own world horrible every one of these casualties overall though within a war the number of israeli casualties is quite low all things considered uh and now the the deep offensive begins in the in the real terror strongholds what is the key do you think to the idf low casualty count and how does that look in the days ahead on the most intense ground part of this war so i think there are two aspects to it and it's hard to measure which which is more important uh but they're both there and they're both real one is the absolute superiority of the idf uh over kamas and and and it's it's terrorists both in training in equipment in coordination in real-time intelligence it's it's an overwhelming battlefield superiority we should also keep in mind that the terrorists are following maltsi tong's dictum um it's written in in his book i'm sure they've read it every guerrilla fighter slash terrorists in the world worth their name is familiar with it and that is you don't confront a superior enemy you skirmish with them you ambush them and then when they gather overwhelming force you disappear and for that the tunnel system is critical so i think the above ground battle is most likely to continue in the way it is uh in the way it has been and that is very very careful uh methodical work on the part of the idf and that's what we've seen over the past couple of months in this operation but i think that the real fight is still going to be both below ground or the or the real issue is going to be below ground however we deal with it major thank you so much for your time this morning and i point for news great to have you my pleasure thank you like to answer jonathan as you know as the major mentioned there you know this risk perhaps likelihood of even after the war ends skirmishes ambushes are going to remain a constant threat for the foreseeable future exactly because can you reach every every hamas terrorist or every rocket there is or every launcher there is the answer is no i think um when when when the the goal at the beginning of the war was said to eradicate hamas eliminate hamas altogether i think that's an unrealistic goal not because the israeli army is not strong enough it is but but can you reach can you really reach every possible terrorist the answer is no let's learn from from previous examples isis isis was defeated right does that mean there's no isis at all no it doesn't mean that so so we have to be realistic that the war in gaza will continue even after the war will end at a much lower scale yes what is happening now in the west bank for example is is in a much lower scale than operation i think it was called a protective protective shield back in 2002 when it was a full on war and then skirmishes continue i think this will happen in gaza for the foreseeable future until until some very strong factor will take control of that area i don't know who the factor is right and i and jeff if i could just add the major made a good point he reminded us they talk of flooding the tunnels back in 2002 when israel was had a full military control over the gaza strip a full military occupation over the gaza strip already hamas was building its tunnels at that at that point hamas was already firing rockets into israel before israel pulled out in 2005 hamas was kidnapping israelis israeli soldiers well before israel pulled out the disengagement in 2005 all that happened when israel was in full military control occupation of the gaza strip so yes of course all these could continue after this war ends yep also now new into the newsroom chilling footage of an israeli hostage being kidnapped back on october 7th by hamas terrorists we have permission from the woman to share this video publicly this is a meat susana she lived alone in an apartment in kabut kvart aza that kabut is right near the gaza border it was overrun with terrorists that day this security camera footage shows her heroically trying to fight off her hamas kidnappers amit single-handedly fights seven of them some of them armed with automatic weapons she struggles with them as they try to pull her in gaza ultimately she was dragged inside to the gaza strip amit thankfully was released from gaza last week in the seventh and final group of hostages israel last night held an event at the united nations focused on the sexual violence against israeli women by hamas israel has been very critical of the un's response to the attacks particularly the refusal of un women for nearly two months to denounce hamas or even to make a single solidarity remark with abused israeli women israeli diplomats combined compiled eyewitness and victim testimony a warning here that these interviews that have been compiled are graphic in their description of hamas sexual violence mafahat by the way there are a lot of It's just a little bit of a different story. It's a bit of a different story. It's about things that are different. It's about the way things are going. So it's something that someone has been doing. And I actually understand what they're doing. And it actually changes them. Like, we really remember that. And then they pass it on to someone else. Has it been in your life, the last time they did it? Yes. Has it been in my life? Has it been in my life? It's been in my life. I have been doing really well. I don't know where it was. When he crushed the scissor it was eaten by the wind. He crushed the scissor. And he didn't even chew it. He chewed the grass. He chewed the grass and it broke on the ground. He's crying with it. Back here in studio, one of the reasons that has been talked about, the reason we don't have direct victim firsthand, we have eyewitness, we have the rescue agencies, we have family members who witness and they're speaking, but direct victim testimonies because they were killed.  That being said, we do know. There are still female hostages, women alive who are in Hamas captivity right now that should have been part of this initial framework of hostage deals. What is the power of this testimony, the power of the video of the eyewitness testimony and the responder testimony, and could it impact future deals? It certainly could. And the power is, look, we've heard rumors or reports of these kinds of sexual atrocities immediately in the days following October 7th, but what was missing was more of the sort of hard documentary evidence. It's coming out now. Some of the hostages that were released, some of the men, for example, some of the other women there were witnesses to what happened on October 7th. So they've been able to find their account. There are, as we saw, some of the investigations that have been taken place. Some of the footage that has now been shown, the unedited footage worse than this. I have to say graphic footage that's being shown in closed screenings for different groups now, first in Israel and then across the world. So that's the accumulation of evidence. And there is a question about why some of the women were not released in it. And we heard even the State Department spokesperson yesterday in Washington suggesting or saying it's likely because they themselves have been abused in captivity and Hamas does not want to release them to be able to give a testimony to that. So Jonathan, could the categories change? I mean, there aren't any, there's no negotiation active in Doha at this time. But we heard Jake Sullivan, the U.S. State Department says we're still having phone calls. Even this weekend there were phone calls. Could they be fruitful? Could they lead somewhere? They could always lead somewhere. You never know. The assumption in Israel is that military pressure could lead to that. We heard spokespeople for Hamas saying just this weekend there are no more negotiations and we will release hostages only after the war ends. Guess what? The same things were said about a month ago. But eventually there were deals and more than 100 hostages were released. Why Israel believes it is because of the military pressure? When there was military pressure in the northern half of the Gaza Strip, it eventually persuaded Hamas to go to some kind of a deal. More than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were released. Israel believes and that is why it is pounding so hard on the area of Chanyunas now that similar pressure could lead to further hostage deals. Let's hope so. Kalev, Jonathan, thank you both so much for being with us in the studio. Going out for a break, more live reporting, more in-studio analysis when we come back. Stay with us here on Day 60 of the Islam Hamas War. Major battles right now inside Gaza in the north and the south. More live updates coming your way. Thanks for watching. Watching the I-24 News Desk at this hour as we bring you the latest live updates from Tel Aviv. This morning is Day 60 of the Israel Hamas War and right now there are major battles being waged deep inside Gaza in both the north and the south. It appears, according to reports and social media videos, that this ongoing battle, which has been going on all night long, is the IDF's largest simultaneous assault on Hamas since the war began. Just moments ago, the IDF says its troops in north Gaza have completed the encirclement of the Javalia Camp Terror Stronghold. The IDF also says a top commando unit has successfully raided the Hamas General Security headquarters in that area in the north. The Israeli army this morning also confirming the deaths of three more soldiers fighting in Gaza for other soldiers are seriously wounded. Let's go live now to I-24 News Correspondent, Pierre Kloshenlaferos, near the Israel-Gaza border as the battle goes on. Why is this battle that's been going on this intense firefight for hours now, why so ferocious now? Why so intense now as we approach the second month of this war? Well, there's a double-barrel ground offensive, the one that started behind me in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip on October 27th and the one that has been launched in the central sector of the Gaza Strip, south of Gaza City towards Chanyunis on December 1st. This double-barrel defensive is tightening the noose on Hamas, obviously. There are ferocious battles in the Jebaliah refugee camp inside the camp already. It wasn't so cold already before the pose in the fighting last week. But now the army is operating inside the camp in Zaitun, in Gaza City, one remaining pocket of resistance, close-range combat also. And in the Shizahia outskirts, eastern outskirts of Gaza City, facing Kibbutz-Nachal Oz, where there was a major massacre during October 7th, there are also ferocious fighting with close-range combat between ground forces and Hamas terrorists. As you mentioned, inside Jebaliah, the General Security Services War Room of Hamas has been taken over. There are destroying infrastructure as usual and they're cleaning the whole area of the northern Gaza Strip. This is why we hear from time to time still targeting of presumed terror targets of Hamas with aerial strikes and artillery strikes. In the center in Hanyunas, this is maybe the make or break of Hamas because many of the terrorists who didn't confront the Israeli forces before the truce last week managed to flee toward the network of tunnels that are underneath Hanyunas. And it's believed by the IDF that the commanders of the military wing of Hamas, as well as the chief of the political wing of Hamas, are located in Hanyunas. Why? Because those two men, Yeche Sinwar, the political leader, and Mohamed Def, who is the military leader, are both originated from the Hanyunas area, the refugee camps of Hanyunas. And as a result, the hope for the IDF is to have a hand on them in order to maybe decapitate the leadership on one hand, create a trauma, a moral trauma amongst the Hamas fighters and at the same time possibly completely disorganizing the leadership. Now this goes hand in hand and at the moment we understand that the IDF is at around one kilometer on the eastern outskirts of Hanyunas. Very close to the really the center there. As the battle goes on, Pierre, thank you so much for that update. Stay safe today. Here in studio, I'm joined by Jonathan Regev, our senior defense correspondent and Kalev Bendevi, host of The Rundown, our prime time show here at I-25 News. Thank you both for being with me. Jonathan, first get me caught up on the Jabalia refugee camp. As we've discussed here many times, not a refugee camp in any traditional sense of the word when you think of a refugee camp being wide open space and tents. This is a city as high rises, very densely packed together, a modern city in many respects. It's encircled now. What does that mean for the IDF? How does it proceed and the dangers ahead in this particular area in the north? You mentioned the dangers ahead. We can speak only of what the army has found so far. We're speaking of 800 tunnel shafts that have been found. How many have not been found? We don't know. And these tunnel shafts are extremely dangerous. Why? Because there is face to face combats between IDF and Hamas, but not a lot. The strategy of Hamas is coming up from the tunnel, shooting anti-tank missiles or placing IDs and having very short firefights and disappearing back to the tunnel shafts. The assumption is that in Jabalia, just like in Sajayia, Zaitun, many other neighborhoods of Gaza City, there are many tunnels still operating. We saw when the Israeli army was not operating last week during the ceasefire that Hamas has still plenty of people in that area ready to fight. And still in control, in communication, they still have capabilities. And when you're speaking of an area so densely populated with very narrow alleys and alleyways and tunnels and buildings that you never know who's hiding there, that is the main danger.  Kolev, as Pierre mentioned in his report, the ground offensive in Hanyunis especially, the effort to go after, to find, to kill Ismail Suleim- Ma'a Iikh-e-Suleim-Mahamedef, yeah. Do you believe that this would be a symbolic victory only for the idea that they would actually demoralize or have any tangible impact on Hamas' continuation of the fight? I think it would have, as Pierre said, these are the two senior figures and it would disrupt their command structure. We don't know if there is a hierarchy in place that presents a clear succession to them. But I'll add another reason why it's important to get those two figures. We, it's going to have to start, Israel is going to have to start talking, at least in private, about the day after in Gaza. Reportedly, there is a team of US officials, senior US officials coming to here to discuss, to begin discussions with the Israeli government on the so-called day after. What will at least the civil administration of Gaza look like after the military operation takes place? And it's impossible to imagine that happening without Iikh-e-Sinwar and Mahamedef being out of the picture because they have the strongest following, the strongest mystique in Hamas, no other figure either from the Palestinian camp or even from some other Arab camp, if you can imagine, what could take the reins in Gaza as long as those two figures are alive and active in Gaza. So it's not just symbolic. It's a military target and also setting the stage for this for the day after. The threats continue, of course, also not just from Hamas, but Hezbollah in the north. Hezbollah with near-daily attacks on Israeli towns and Israeli military targets in the northern part of Israel. Let's go live now to Pierre Stechelback, our correspondent, near the Israel-Lebanon border for an update on the threats as the Israeli offensive intensifies, visibly intensifies across Gaza today, Pierre. What about the threat from the north? And is there a chance that Hezbollah may use this as an escalation point? Right, Jeff. Well, we did see that the skirmishes are back after the end of the ceasefire, Hezbollah time and time again saying that they will make their actions dependent on what is happening in Gaza. Hezbollah just now published their daily attack summary. This is something that they put out every day, summarizing the attacks of the previous day, the attacks, of course, on Israeli positions in the north here. They said that yesterday they attacked 12 targets in northern Israel. As a result of that, the Israeli military struck back both from the air and with artillery numerous times during the day, targeting Hezbollah infrastructures such as weapons, depots, and also launch sites. Now we have seen several attacks really across alongside the Israel-Lebanon border, both in the east and in the west. In the east yesterday, late afternoon evening, we saw a rocket attack on the city of Kiryat Shmona that interestingly enough, Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for, but we do know that there are other groups active in southern Lebanon, such as also Hamas's military wing in southern Lebanon that has claimed responsibility for rocket fire in the past. Now that rocket fire on to Kiryat Shmona did not cause any casualties. Those rockets reportedly landed in an open area, but that really shows you how high the tensions are here. Kiryat Shmona is city of more than 20,000 residents that has been widely evacuated, such as dozens of communities here alongside the border on the north in the north of Israel. Now other attacks that we've seen yesterday were conducted by Hezbollah in the west on Stoulan-Mattat. When we speak about those attacks, we speak about both water shells and the anti-tank missiles. Yesterday, throughout the day, there were no reports of casualties, but on Sunday, there was a major attack on Bethelel in the eastern part of the Israel-Lebanon border, where 11 Israelis were injured, both civilians and soldiers. So the skirmishes do continue the way that they were conducted before that ceasefire, and that really just shows you that Hezbollah is reacting to what is happening in Gaza. And we're not expecting these clashes, these cross-border attacks to really end anytime soon. Jeff. Thanks so much for that live update from the north. With me now is IDF Reserve's major, Elia Chodof, who is also serving as a political and military analyst here. Major, thank you so much for being with me. The IDF offensive is intensifying around Khan Yunus. They are pushing deeper into Khan Yunus in Gaza. Do you believe, do you think the IDF knows at this point where Sinirah is, where his hideout is? Do you think the IDF is going to get to him? Two different questions. First of all, I think the IDF has a reasonably good idea of where he is, where both of them are. But that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be there when the IDF shows up. And I think it's important to understand earlier was a discussion about the shafts down into the tunnels. When we talk about the tunnel system, we have to understand that there are two aspects to it. There's the vertical aspect, which is the shafts of which there are hundreds and hundreds, 800 have already been found, 500 have been destroyed. And they present a tactical threat to any Israeli forces operating in Gaza, whether it's in Gaza City in the neighborhoods, Jabalia, Zia, Zaitun, or in Khan Yunus and later perhaps in Rafi'ah. But there's the other aspect of it. And that's the 500 kilometers of underground tunnels, I call that the horizontal part of it, which not only are networked under the cities, but connect the cities to each other. In other words, there is still movement between Khan Yunus and Gaza City, Jabalia, Zia, and back. So they have a great deal of mobility. We control the above ground for sure, combination of our ground forces, the artillery, the air force. The above ground battle is going entirely in our favor. But there's still an entire aspect of below ground that also gives them a great deal of mobility despite the amount of force that we have above. Major, this dovetails then with my next question about this new report in the Wall Street Journal about the possibility of flooding the tunnels. As according to reports, the IDF has completed its preparations that they have the huge multiple water pumps ready to go to begin this operation. There's active discussions within Israel and also with the American allies on going through with this plan and the implications of it. What do you make of it? What's your analysis here on this idea to flood the tunnels over the next few weeks? I have to say, the talk of flooding the tunnels goes back, at least as far as 2002, I was in the headquarters of the Gaza division back then, back in the day when it was outside of Nivea Kalim and Gush-Katif, and the tunnels were an issue back then as well. And flooding them was considered one of the possible options. There are two downsides that one is for sure and the other one is a we don't know. The one for sure is damaging the aquifer under Gaza. In other words, there's an environmental question here that has to come into play. You don't want to do major environmental damage that may sound kind of irrelevant in warfare, but it's not because there's got to be a day after the war as well and not just for Gaza, but for Israel, certainly. So that's one question. But even leaving that aside, the substrate of Gaza is sand, as you can see in what you're showing on the screen right now. Sand absorbs water and it's not clear at all whether these tunnels will actually flood even with massive amounts of water being pumped into them. They may get a foot or two of water on the ground, but will they actually flood to the point where they can't be used is an open question. So I would say it's an interesting idea. It's an idea that that's at least 20 years old. It may be attempted, but we shouldn't think that there's this magical solution that we pump water in and they come out like Bratz office sinking ship. A final question for you, major, I want to ask about the push forward now on the ground inside Gaza with the Jabalia camp now being completely encircled. The push close to the center of Khan Yunus, as you heard our reporter confirming that the IDF really just a few hundred meters away at this point. Every IDF death is a tragedy each life, its own world, horrible every one of these casualties. Within a war, the number of Israeli casualties is quite low, all things considered. And now the deep offensive begins in the real terror strongholds. What is the key, do you think, to the IDF low casualty count? And how does that look in the days ahead on the most intense ground part of this war? So I think there are two aspects to it and it's hard to measure which is more important. But they're both there and they're both real. One is the absolute superiority of the IDF over Hamas and its terrorists, both in training and equipment and coordination in real time intelligence. It's an overwhelming battlefield superiority. We should also keep in mind that the terrorists are following Mao Zedong's dictum. It's written in his book, I'm sure they've read it, every guerrilla fighter slash terrorist in the world worth their name is familiar with it. And that is you don't confront a superior enemy. You skirmish with them, you ambush them, and then when they gather overwhelming force, you disappear. And for that, the tunnel system is critical. So I think the above ground battle is most likely to continue in the way it is. In the way it has been. And that is very, very careful methodical work on the part of the IDF. And that's what we've seen over the past couple of months in this operation. But I think that the real fight is still going to be below ground or the real issue is going to be below ground, however we deal with it. Major, thank you so much for your time this morning in I-Coin for News. Great to have you. My pleasure. Thank you. Back here in Syria, Jonathan, as the major mentioned there, this risk, perhaps likelihood of even after the war ends, skirmishes, ambushes, are going to remain a constant threat for the foreseeable future. Exactly, because can you reach every Hamas terrorist or every rocket there is or every launcher there is? The answer is no. I think when the goal at the beginning of the war was set to eradicate Hamas, all together, I think that's an unrealistic goal. Not because the Israeli army is not strong enough, it is. But can you really reach every possible terrorist? The answer is no. Let's learn from previous examples. ISIS. ISIS was defeated, right? Does that mean there's no ISIS at all? No, it doesn't mean that. So we have to be realistic that the war in Gaza will continue even after the war will end at a much lower scale. Yes, what is happening now in the West Bank, for example, is in a much lower scale than Operation, I think it was called a protective shield back in 2002 when it was a full-on war. And then skirmishes continue. I think this will