130 young people were murdered. Our special coverage here on I-24 News, as we've mentioned before, there is one Reuters report about a hostage deal in the making, no confirmation in Israel. Now back to the Israeli-Lebanese border, I-24 News, Zach Anders is standing by live with the latest from there, Zach. Well once again, there has been more engagements with Hezbollah on the border with northern Israel. These launch sites, Hezbollah launch sites are the target of the IDF outgoing artillery that we have been hearing throughout the evening. The Hezbollah sources through Lebanese media are claiming that they have been once again firing ATGs, anti-tank guided missiles at Israeli locations being returned fire with Israeli tanks targeting these launch points and several Hezbollah outposts on the border. So where we are located currently has been turned into somewhat of an evacuation zone. The folks that are told to leave, many of them have done so, some have decided to stay, but the IDF presence here is once again telling folks, please find shelter or safety somewhere else. In Israel move further south, they're trying to create accommodations for them. The current presence here has been, or the current message here rather has been to be close to shelters and to be prepared for just a few seconds notice, should there be a red alert. Right. Thank you, Zach. That brings us to our next guest, which is Seth Dekhanou, resident of Netoha, which is a village close to the border with Lebanon. Thank you very much for joining us and good evening, Seth. Good evening and thank you for having me. Now you and your family are away from home right now, right? Yes. Currently we're evacuated. We're in a hotel in Netanya. Tell me about your family and tell me about the fact that your wife just gave birth. Yeah, so we're evacuated. My wife was eight months pregnant and I mean, it was terrifying the thought of where we're going to go. We have this beautiful place. I mean, the community has been nothing but so amazing here and the way that Israel has come together as one unit has been truly amazing to see. The gifts that we were given was amazing and her labor was miraculous. I mean, it was she was her water broke and then we're about a kilometer away from the hospital and it was the whole process was two hours from the moment that she felt her first contraction to the moment that my baby was born and it was it was almost like a sign, okay, this is going to be okay. Like you're like, we're going to be okay. So it was it was it was outstanding really and we've been so blessed even though we're evacuated. We've been so blessed and but we are obviously terrified of going back home now with a new baby born and my other son and and it's it is going to be it's it's an uneasy feeling. Me and my father have been going back and forth to Natua and we've been helping the Kitat Konanut with some of the certain things that they need, like basic things like boots and Leatherman's and things like this. And we're just trying to do everything we can as as people that are not in uniform and not fighting on the front line to to help the war. This is our war. This is the the world is at war as far as I can tell. And so we're just trying to do our part. Yeah, well, remarkable circumstances, but congratulations nonetheless. The baby is OK. Your wife is OK. Everything's OK. It was it was amazing. She's she's she's good and we've been moving from place to place, but mostly staying here in the country. Now this has been going on for what a full month more. Yes, so it's been draining. So a lot of, you know, it was fun at first to stay at a hotel. It was nice. The beach is closed so we can go to the beach and it's been really nice. But we want to go home. We want to go home and we want to feel safe. And I keep talking to my father about fortifying our house. You know, somehow, how are we going to make it feel safe up on the border? How can we do that? That's that's the biggest question. What will it take for people like yourself to go back to the border over there? Next to Hisbalah. How can we just in the two just recently, they hit a fortified location where two soldiers were sitting, guarding the gates inside the town. They that means that they have visual at at places that are guarded, which mean I can see Lebanon from my window from the house from my house. So how am I supposed to feel safe there? There is no way. And that's when that's when we have we're on high alert and we have military presence all up on the border. I mean, soldiers everywhere and they're still hitting specific locations because they can see it. They can decide that that's the target that they want to hit and then they can take it out.  What are we supposed to do? Like the Kitaj Konanout is is, you know, outfitted and everything. But that's a huge concern. There's just no way that anybody. I mean, there's 70,000 people that have been evacuated on another border. How can anybody feel safe once if this war ends? So how long is it going to go on? We don't know. I mean, is it going to be I don't know.  I'm just giving you my little two cents. Yeah, nobody knows. What's the baby's name? Anything symbolic? Yes, David, David Josiah DeKanem. It was. Yes, it was very his name. Well, his Pasha, I'm not going to get into that, but it's yes. Yes, it is very symbolic. It has been a huge. I mean, it's a huge name, David, King David. And these times felt fitting. And I never thought like when I hear the name David, and there's many people that are named David. I think that is a huge shoe to fill. So I didn't think I was going to ever name my son, David. But here we are. Here we are. Seth, I wish you all the best. And I hope for you, you'll get back home soon and safely. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this with us. With me here in the studio now is Avi Pazner, former Israeli ambassador and an adviser to Prime Minister Shamir. Good evening, Avi. Good evening, Yakov. Look at these people. They are out of their homes for over a month now. This is, you know, really a terrible reality that is imposed on civilians in Israel. You know, Yakov, this is a reality Israel has never known, you know, in all our wars in the past, people stayed where they were. But apparently today it is not physically possible. And I think that one of the priorities of Israel is to see how to bring them back, where they belong and where they should be, because we don't want to see in Israel getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And 150 Israelis, refugees in their own land. This has to be one of the priorities for the after war. It's good that we are going to win the war, of course, not only in the south. We have also to see what's going on in the north. The question is, what what what do we have there in the north? Is this a war? Is this a back and forth? Is this going to change the situation there? It's very complicated. You know, it's not a war. What we have now with the Hezbollah is an exchange of fire with the Hezbollah. And I think that both sides are very careful not to cross the red line, both sides. Hezbollah and we are also because our main business now is Gaza. And we have to see to it that we win a clear victory there. But on the day after, we will have to think about the Hezbollah and nobody knows what's going to happen there. You know, nobody knows what's going to happen there. It is possible that we will seek a diplomatic accommodation. Although I must say, Yaakov, after the experience we had with 1701, it will be very difficult to convince the people to go there on the base of a promise of a unifil or force there. Or maybe we will have to show some military muscle. But it doesn't have to be an all out war, you know. But, you know, we are not, I think, now in a position to know what is going to. But we are in a position to know that we will not accept the present situation. Yeah. And especially people who live there. We'll get back to this now to I-24 News, Nicole Zedek, who's with the families of the Israeli hostages awaiting the war, it's a possible deal that was reported by Reuters, but nothing confirmed at this point. Nicole, what's happening there? We are seeing a massive community turnout, Jacob. That's why you can barely see past me here, because there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of people here in central Israel and Beit Hashemana coming together to support the families who are marching all the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. What's the message? Bring them home now. You can see it on all of these shirts. This is the hashtag they're saying. Bring them home now. That's what you hear as you're listening to all of these people. Chance of now. Chance that it should have been yesterday. It should have been 40 days ago. 40 days these people have been without their loved ones. They have not seen them. They have not heard from them. They don't even have a list from the International Red Cross about who exactly is being held there and the medical condition. So right now we're hearing from some different community members here in Beit Hashemana, as well as different family members of those who have been taken hostage, talking to all of these people who have been coming out and supporting them. But they say, really, until every single one of the hostages is home, not 50, although the reports for this would absolutely be heartwarming and everyone would be welcomed with open arms, they say, until all 239 are back here, back in Israel, back with their families. That's when they will be able to sleep at night. Until then, they will continue to come out here in massive groups, sharing their voice, sharing their message, not only to Israel, but to the world. They want this to be an international call for everyone to do everything they can to really put some pressure on these different organizations and get some movement, because 40 days is a long time for them to not see their loved ones. And so really, that's why we're continuing to hear the calls for action that this needs to change now. Yeah, and we've heard some family members today, like this mother of a son who said, even if my son comes back, I'm still going to go with these families until the last one of them is released. Exactly, that's the message we continue to hear, even from the four different hostages that have been released or rescued so far, although it's heartwarming and everyone is welcoming, any hostages that are rescued and are able to return to Israel, until every single one of them is able to be back home, then all of these family members and all of these loved ones, and really it's an entire call for the state of Israel to come out here. They say, until every single one of them is home, they will not be able to sleep at night. And that is also something, as they're continuing to march to Jerusalem, they're really calling on everyone here in Israel. They say they feel abandoned by the Israeli government and they don't want their fellow citizens to abandon them as well. And from what I can see, that's certainly not the case, because more and more people continue to come out here, continue to show their support, wave posters, wave Israeli flags, show the faces of the hostages that range from small babies to elderly grandparents, all of them. Their condition's still unknown until we know the condition and until all of them are back here, you hear from the families themselves who are saying they will continue to be a voice for those who don't have a voice because they are still captive in Gaza. All right, Nicole, thank you very much. We'll get back to you later as well. Avi Pesner here in the studio. There are no good choices here. It's a terrible decision to take, but Israel will take a deal to release 50 people, cannot reject that, especially when talking about babies and wounded people and so on. You know, the question, Yakov, is the Hamas serious about it? I mean, you say Israel, of course. But yesterday, for example, yesterday we were discussing another idea or another proposal or another lie. 80 hostages for five day truce. Today we discuss 50 for three.  You don't have really a partner whom you can trust that he speaks seriously and the deal is a deal. Of course Israel will do whatever it takes, whatever it takes to liberate hostages. We never were in a situation like that with so many hostages. No, we had Gila Chalit, was one soldier. Okay, we made a terrible mistake by liberating a thousand Hamas terrorists for him, but we gave a bad example. So the Hamas know this weakness. You see, so they're playing with us. So I don't know, I would like to be an optimist. I would like even to see one hostage being freed for, you know, like they did at the beginning. But this has to be a priority. We have to be on top of this and see how much we can release hostages. And we will have to pay a price. Obviously it's a deal. Yeah, I'd like you to watch together with us. Turkish president Erdogan speaking today. Let's take a listen. I am calling on Netanyahu from here. Do you have an atom bomb or not? Do you have it or not? Announce it if you dare. But he can't. He's saying... Hey, Israel, you have an atom bomb, a nuclear bomb, and you are threatening with this. We know this and your time of death is coming.  So Abi, why is Erdogan trying so hard to be the number one fan of Hamas these days? He's not trying. He is. I mean, we have to realize that Erdogan is worse than many Arab leaders as far as Israel is concerned. So it is true. It's Turkey, they are not Arab, they are Muslim. We have even diplomatic ties with him from time to time. He sent back the ambassador, then returns. But Erdogan, Yako, is one of the worst enemies of Israel. When he thinks that Israel is strong, so he's nice with us. He wants to try to make a deal with the gas. When he see maybe some weakness or maybe that we are not in the best of the position, then he's against us 100%. So we have to be very careful with Erdogan. I put him in the list of Israel's enemies. Even, again, even though we have diplomatic pressure, you know, I have a friend today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who told me, Avi, called me. What do you think? Why shouldn't we break diplomatic relations with Turkey? After what Erdogan said, I said, no. It will be to be angry and shoot ourselves in the foot. If he wants to break diplomatic relations, let it be. I mean, Israel will continue to exist. We should not punish ourselves because of Erdogan's sins. And we have to put him in the list of the dangerous enemies of Israel, although he can change in three months from now, can't you? Two months ago, he met Bibi, shook his hand at the UN. But a dangerous man, unpredictable and dangerous. All right, we took a note. Let's go to Dubai. Israel's pavilion at the Dubai Air Show seats empty. Bastien Borey, our man in Dubai, is with us now. Bastien, and the reason is, of course, the war. Well, I contacted the spokesperson of this pavilion, and I still haven't heard back. And they're usually very quick to respond to the media, especially when it comes to the sales of Israeli equipment to Gulf countries. So the silence might speak volumes, and it contrasts with the previous years and previous editions of this show. A few months ago, Rafael, one of the companies at this pavilion, opened its first office here in the UAE. A few months before, at the end of 2022, the Emirates had purchased, for the first time, spider interceptor missiles, again developed by Rafael. We also know, even if it's a rather well-kept secret, that Israel and the UAE are jointly developing USV, sorry. So a man's remote-controlled drone warships, which will eventually be capable of patrolling the waters of the Gulf. So aeronautical and military cooperation between the two countries is growing. Now the question is whether the war in Gaza has at least temporarily undermined this cooperation. That's the first hypothesis. We can also assume that Rafael and AI received security warnings either from the Israeli authorities or from the Emirates, who may have judged the presence of these companies at this show too dangerous, given the circumstances. And then the third hypothesis is the one that may have prompted the Israelis to avoid making the trip to Dubai, so to speak, out of decency or out of support for the people of Israel. Bestien, we are in the sixth week of this war. It's time to reflect about the whole reaction over there in the Gulf towards the war, towards Israel. How do you say it? Well, if you're talking about the United Arab Emirates, the Emirates are active or seem very active, but they are coming up against several things, several difficulties, at least two. First, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who's for the moment without any kind of concession. And second, the power of neighboring Saudi Arabia. All the Gulf states are a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and as in just about all international organizations, it's the most powerful member who decides how to proceed. And in this case, it is Saudi Arabia. So what the Emirates are saying, what the Bahrainis are saying, what the Omanis are saying, pretty much follows the rhythm set by the Saudis. And that's how it's been since the start of this war. Gulf communication works in phases. For a few days, you have very firm condemnations of Israel. And then over the next few days, the tone changes. Qatar releases Israeli hostages. Saudi Arabia says that negotiations on the Abraham Accords will resume and so on. So probably in a few days' time, the wheel will continue to turn. Next week, you and I will probably be talking about new condemnations, again, aimed at the Jewish state and so on, all because the Gulf countries have chosen the middle way, the median line to keep good relations with everyone. All right, Bastien Boreh in Dubai. Thank you very much, Bastien. One of the surprising developments in this war has been the attempts by the Houthis in Yemen to launch missile attacks against Israel. That looks like a new chapter in the Middle East and we haven't seen the end of it yet. I-24 News, Robert Swift reports. Yemen's Houthis attacked Israel on Tuesday, targeting the southern city of Elat with surface-to-surface missiles, not for the first time. With the help of Allah the Almighty, our armed forces have launched ballistic missiles at various targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Palestinian territories, including targets in Elat. It has used drones and missiles to target Israel as an act of support to Hamas, with its weapons falling short and reportedly landing in Egypt and Jordan at times. A Shiite organization, with Yemen's Houthi tribe at its core, it is backed and armed by Iran. For around a decade, it has fought for control of Yemen. It is designated as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia, but not in the US, which temporarily labeled it as such for a month in 2021. On top of the threat of long-range attacks against Israeli cities, the Houthis are threatening Israeli shipping. In the Red Sea, particularly in Bab El-Manda and its adjacent Yemeni territorial waters, our eyes are constantly monitoring for Israeli ships, which rely on evasion and disguise in their movements, not daring to raise the Israeli flag. The Houthis have formed in attacking ships. Yemen's strategic location offering them ample targets. In the past, they have struck Saudi Navy ships and commercial cargo vessels. For this reason, the US is deploying an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, enhancing air defenses off Israel's south coast and beefing up deterrence, a move that could either dampen down the Houthi threat or risk tipping Israel's war into a wider regional conflict. For more on this with us now is Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, former US Ambassador to Yemen. Thank you very much for joining us. Now, Mr. Ambassador, missiles have been fired towards Israel and the Houthis are still there. Do you think they can get away with this? Well, I think that what they're doing, of course, is demonstrating that they are part of the so-called axis of resistance, the militia groups around the region that follow the Iranian line. And they are trying to raise their profile, but the reality is I think your correspondent noted is that their ability to actually strike Israel is very limited. They might be able to get as far as a lot, but probably not much more than that. But in the Red Sea, in the Babel-Mendem, they actually do pose a serious threat, not only to Israeli shipping, but all international shipping in the region. Which is a serious threat. And the question is why is the world, you know, United States, Saudis and others are not taking any serious action about that? Well, I think that it's, there's really not an awful lot that the US can do. In the past, when they have fired missiles at shipping in the Red Sea, the US did hit some of their radar, some of their other sites. I suspect that if this continues, the US might take some action again against the specific targets inside of Yemen. But beyond that, there's really not an awful lot. And of course, the US, along with the rest of the international community, is hoping to see an end to the civil conflict in Yemen, which has been going on since 2014. But we were led to believe that interrupting shipping in the Gulf is first class, no, no, let's put it this way by the West. And you're describing somewhat of a very mild reaction. Well, again, I think that it depends and it will be a reaction based on what the Houthis do. If the Houthis actually do attempt to make serious efforts to hit international shipping or to do other things, or if in fact there is a successful attack on a lot, then I suspect that you'll see a more robust US response. But in the short term, with the Houthis really not posing much of a threat to anything right now, I think that the administration's emphasis will still be by trying to keep the conflict from spreading beyond Gaza. All right, Ambassador Feierstein, I thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take a short break now and when we come back, more special coverage here on the I-24 News, stay tuned. A state of war, families completely done down in their beds. We have no idea where she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines, but the general perception is something that certainly needs to be fought as well. For a special coverage here on I-24 News, the Biden administration has been generally supportive of Israel. Now, less than a year before elections, political calculations are starting to weigh in. I-24 News senior correspondent Owen Alterman has more. The question is whether these pictures will matter. US President Joe Biden embracing Israel in the war in Gaza in the fall of 2023 with the countdown clock set for the fall of 2024 and Biden's bid for reelection. We will continue to have Israel's back as you work to defend your people. We'll continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians. Claims about the impact of the war on Biden's election chances are likely exaggerated. The election is a year away. New cycles will have spun onward from the scenes in the Gaza Strip. And very few Americans have seen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a voting issue, focused instead on the economy, immigration, and the potential clash between Biden and Donald Trump. In pockets of the electorate, the war could matter. One that gets attention. Arab American voters in the swing state of Michigan, about 3% of the state's population, who in a close tally could swing the state away from Biden. He continues to side on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of humanity. And so I think come 2024, it will be very difficult for him to come to a mosque or come to a church where Arabs pray and to ask for their support. I'm Yitra Al-Khai. Of course, the war could well matter for Israel standing among Americans in the long term. Polling is mixed on how Americans feel at this stage. And the war is not over. But a war this momentous is bound to have an impact. A lot, is at stake. Not to Mike. Wegenheim, I-24 News, senior U.S. correspondent. Hi, Mike. Can supporting Israel become a liability or an issue in American politics? You know, it kind of all depends on your certain circumstances. There are some members of Congress, of the Senate who are insulated from those types of backlash, depending on the demographics of their district, depending on their history, with a particular issue in terms of you, Biden. Oh, and mention possibly an opening there in Michigan that might cost them heavily with our voters there. But Biden could just as easily turn around and say, hey, you're gonna vote for the other guy who wants to ban Muslims from coming into the U.S.  And it's all a matter of how you frame the issue and how you frame the alternative to yourself as a candidate as well. So we're a long ways away from that particular vote in November 2024. Much can happen between now and then. There could be a men's maid between Biden and Arabs in the American community, long ways away at this point. But it's certainly something that the White House has on its radar. Right. Meanwhile, President Biden and she of China are meeting today. And one of the items on the agenda is the Middle East. Why is that? There's a lot to talk about here between Biden and Xi and the very fact that they're meeting at all signals a warming of ties. It's been cold for quite some time now. But China has been used almost as a hedge in the Middle East by Saudi Arabia, by Israel to some extent as well as they have almost come out and said, listen, we don't feel like we have the backing of America. We don't feel like the U.S. under Joe Biden will come to our aid if we're attacked. We've got to look for other partners in the region that we can rely on or that we can partner with. And China has been more than willing to step up, especially with its latest economic malaise, and say, hey, we can be a reliable partner in the region. It's led to the Belt and Road Initiative there in the Middle East, which has involved massive Chinese infrastructure projects, oftentimes with loans attached to them. It's led to China having a political influence in the Middle East as well. So it's something that the US and China want to discuss here, not as adversaries as Joe Biden keeps saying over and over again, but as two superpowers who need to learn to work with each other or at least around each other when it comes to global affairs. All right, Mike, tell me, what's the reaction after the big rally in Washington yesterday, the big show of support for Israel? Well, it was something to take hold. I was fortunate enough to be there covering it for I-24 News yesterday. Almost 300,000 people on the National Mall. You know, we often talk and there's been statistics, Jacob, to back it up, that there was a growing chasm. There is a growing chasm between American Jewry and Israel on any number of issues, but when you see that kind of turnout, it kind of puts some of those fears on the back burner, knowing that at a moment of truth, American Jewry turned out in support of Israel. It could very well be a turning point in that relationship, that feeling that everybody left the National Mall with yesterday that maybe despite disagreements over certain policies, certain members of the government, that fundamental foundational relationship between American Jewry and Israel will survive the difficult times. All right, Mike Wagenheim, thank you very much. From New York. Back to the studio here, Owen Alterman, let's get some updates on what's happening. First, the deal, as we said, there was just one report by Reuters, no confirmation whatsoever of what's going on with this. Yeah, that was the report from Reuters, some talk in Israeli media, Jacob, indeed about the bigger deal, if you will, that Israel wants, potentially releasing, let's say, all of the women and children, at least all the women and children who were civilians as part of the deal. Still talk about that five-day, I don't know if it's a five-day period, if you want to call it a pause or a ceasefire, but that is being part of the deal, and then some release of women and minors. Of course, a minor might not just be a child, it might be a 17-year-old who engaged in terrorism or at least was firing at Israeli soldiers, but some of those people could be those who were released as part of a prisoner exchange. Obviously, a wrenching decision for Israel, everybody wants to see the hostages come home, questions about the practicalities of restarting, if you will, the war after a five-day period of pause. Does it lose momentum? Does it lose diplomatic support? Is it harder to do logistically? So there are still questions about how to manage that issue. It doesn't seem to me, and I doubt it seems to any of us, that that issue is going to be the deal breaker here. I think if there's a sense that this is a deal that Israel feels it can take, then it'll go forward. And then on the other side of that pause, the military and the war cap, it is going to have to manage the situation. The IDF objects five days. Yeah, and that's been their opening position. That may be, question mark, one reason why we haven't had a deal to date. But again, if this is a deal on the table and it will free significant numbers of people, right? And the Israeli government reportedly, and quite understandably doesn't want a situation where some women and children are released and not others, right? Just in terms of being able to relate to the families, being able to the rate to the public, that maybe that will be a kind of deal. And of course, it's ultimately not the military's decision, the war cap decision. I also ask myself if the military's position a few days ago will be the military's position a few days from now, given that one was before the operation in and around Sheba Hospital, and one may well be after, after there's been more progress in Gaza City. Again, put that out as a question, but maybe a theory as well. Right. What's the latest you're hearing about the Sheba Hospital there? It's still going on? Look, still going on, again, getting reliable information out of Sheba Hospital is proving as hard as it's always been. That's it, I am surprised, as a journalist, I think we should all be pleasantly surprised at the amount of information that the Israeli military is providing us. I for one wouldn't have expected the amount of information that was provided overnight in this morning, including pictures about what's going on. One would imagine this would have been part of the planning and part of the management of the operation, right? An operation that must, you can only imagine how carefully this has to be planned, and the media strategy would be part of it, and maybe the feeling was better to put more information out rather than less in order to try to give some comfort and certainty to media outlets who, I hope at least, are feeling that they're having to struggle through this. Well, that's because of the sensitivity, obviously, and IDF is aware of that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and we obviously saw the episode in the BBC earlier today, and they're reporting on it. Again, what happened is they reported that the Israeli military was targeting Arabs and medical personnel, of course, what was actually happening in this statement. They misquoted a Reuters report. Which I believe misquoted a comment from IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagar himself, which said, not that Israel was targeting Arabs and medical teams, bringing with it as part of the military crew that's there, medical teams, for obvious reasons, as Arabic speakers, for obvious reasons as well. Look, my read on that is it seems to me to have been a human mistake, and I think some of Israel are making too much of it. That said, what was it that conditioned that person to make this particular mistake might have been their feelings about the war and their preconceptions about the way the Israeli military was acting? Again, that, I think, more of a question than anything else. But again, the BBC has apologized. Yeah. Personally, I would expect the BBC to investigate this, because this is their own question. Even if it was a human error, Jacob, it was obviously a costly error and a real slander of the Israeli military that it certainly didn't deserve. Right. The fighting in Gaza continues nonstop. I, 24 years defense correspondent, Jonathan Regev, has the report. It used to be a major terror hub, but not anymore. This is the Palestine outpost. It was officially described as a training facility, but various terror attacks emerged from this outpost in the northern Gaza Strip. Those terror attacks will now come to an end. We are inside the Palestinian outpost, a major Hamas outpost, which we conquered. We destroyed much of the infrastructure and killed many terrorists. The fighting here was intense. Like so many other outposts, Hamas was well entrenched here, mostly underground. Tens of terrorists, along with dozens of anti-tank missiles and mortars, were waiting for the incoming IDF soldiers. They were all destroyed in a combined operation from the air and from the ground. Our entire battalion is dedicated to this mission. We finished our training and headed to battle. We found enemy infrastructure of every kind, including ammunition and tunnels. We did whatever we needed to do here, and now we are ready to head forward. This is one of the places where the army was rushing to. In a world where symbols are meaningful, here is one symbol gone. This used to be the Gaza Parliament building controlled by Hamas, step by step. Every aspect of their control is going, going. That's been going on in us all the time, fighting goes on all the time. Owen, let's get back to the United States for a minute, and your piece about the election impact, if at all. If at all? If at all, because you were very skeptical that things will remain on this level in the American public opinion until next year. Yeah, that's right. I mean, listen, the context of this, Jacob, of course, is in the first few weeks of the war, there was at least one poll, I think a Gallup poll, that showed Joe Biden's approval rating among Democrats just going down dramatically in a month, right? Going down 10 percentage points, of course, still very high, right? I mean, Democrats like a Democratic president, but he declined so much, and it had been attributed to the war, maybe not unreasonably, we should say, because this was obviously the major event, certainly at that time, but still, in the news and in American politics. But I was skeptical then, I'm still even more skeptical now about what this really means for an election that's a year away. I mean, for two reasons. Number one, the election is a year away. I mean, don't underestimate that, and the fact that, obviously, this is consuming the public debate right now, but in November of 2024, as opposed to 2023, the situation, obviously, may look very different. And the second point, just how few Americans have decided how to cast their vote when they're behind the curtain or filling out their absentee ballot and putting it in the mail or putting it in a drop box, how few Americans actually vote based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including, of course, Jewish voters themselves when they're pulled about this, very, very, a minority, certainly much higher than the general public. So minorities say that this is the issue that that is what decides their vote. Again, there may be other reasons for that, but I think that, again, in a crowded public agenda, where, of course, the overwhelming issue is not gonna be any issue. It's going to be the clash between Biden and Donald Trump. That is going to focus minds on both sides because they're so very different. Trump's persona is so controversial across the center and left of American society that any talk about the war in Gaza a year before is just going to seem so small and marginal. That said, of course, this is an event that's very important for how Israel is seen by the American public. It's going to sear that view for better or for worse, and we don't yet know which it is into the minds of so many people because they are consumed to one degree or another in this situation for the better part of two months. Yeah, you know, the one time that the headlines in the states were not Gaza in the past six weeks was when Donald Trump went to trial and testified. Avi. About Donald Trump, you mentioned it. He's always positioned himself as a great friend of Israel. But correct me if I am wrong. I didn't hear his voice since the beginning of the fighting in Gaza. Yeah, I heard it once. Two days afterwards, he made fun, I think, of Gallant because Gallant said that he was not interested in a war with Hezbollah. And then silence. Where is the great friend of Israel? He has spoken at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and on a few other occasions. It hasn't been completely silent. But you're right, this has not been front and center in Donald Trump's campaign. And that, again, tells you something because Donald Trump, if nothing else, is superb and very effective politician.  Of course, the Republican primaries, first of all, but then looking past that to November. Yeah, he said, by the way, that what happened in Gaza was no good and would not have happened under his leadership, right? He said that. And then I have another. Yesterday, we all were full of admiration. There was a big rally in Washington. 300,000 people, mostly Jews, not all of them, in support of Israel. But it took six weeks for the Jews in the United States to gather and to show the support of Israel. Where is New York, for example, a little city of 2 million Jews? Where are the Jews of New York? I mean, this is something that we have to think about. There was a time, I remember, that we were able to ask the Jews in America, please, help us, show your support. Does the government do anything in that direction? Did somebody try to motivate the Jews in America to show the support? You know, I must say, I am surprised by that. It's true that we had a very difficult period this year, 2023, was a divisive year. Many Jews in America didn't like what they saw in Israel. But still, this is the only Jewish state we haven't that they have. How come that it took six weeks for them to raise in protest when every day you had Palestinian demonstration and that all the campuses in the United States, they were attacking Jews and Israelis? And this, I think we have to, the government must think about this and see how to correct the situation. I mean, well, a couple of things. First of all, the responsibility, the address, if you will, for what you're saying, shouldn't be the government of Israel. If at all, it should be the Jewish communities in America who can absolutely stand up in their two feet. Most of them are. Absolutely stand up in their two feet and organize and so forth. Look, a few things. Number one, the event yesterday, even sitting here and watching it in our studio was absolutely remarkable, historic, right? I said in the studio, it echoes of 1987, right? The big march to free Soviet Jewry. I was in elementary school at the time. I went. We flew in from Detroit for the day and flew back. I remember the massive numbers of people. And Abby, that was a protest that got 250,000 people. It was on a Sunday. It was planned for months in advance, right? Natan Sharanski came to our synagogue to recruit people for the protest months before. This was not. This was on a weekday. I don't know why I'll confess. And obviously, in a much shorter time frame, I think the turnout that was five times expectations, right? I think that success and the feeling of together is here forever there, far outweigh that. Second, it's not the first protest. There were many, many protests on the local smaller, really smaller, but not always so small, sometimes in the thousands of people around the country. I do think there's one place where I do agree with you. And the silence or relative silence was deafening. And you're right. It's on the streets of New York. How can it be that a city where the five boroughs of that city have a million Jews and the greater tri-state area of that city, right, with its suburbs all connected by commuter trains, has two million Jews? Why is it that the other side has control of the streets, if you will, with the protests? To me, it's a question that also generates a lot of other questions. And one really wonders why there wasn't more momentum, not just to get support from politicians in New York, which of course is very, very important, and to do work in your own communities, but to actually be out there and show strength on the streets at a much, much earlier stage in a place where maybe one of the only places in the world, let's be honest, were Jews have a numerical and demographic advantage. And that could have been a place where there was real strength beyond the relatively given the demographics, small protests and timescreen plus interesting questions. Thank you for that. Now we're on the up of our reporters. We'll start with Sterot. Mary McAuliffe is there with the update, Mary. That's right, Yaakov. So just now, behind me, we continue to hear Israeli air strikes, Israeli fighter planes overhead, dropping massive ton bombs into the Gaza Strip. We know the IDF is currently operating in parts of the Northern Strip and trying to work to dismantle some of these terror tunnels that they say are running through portions of the Northern Gaza Strip. We know today, forces were able to successfully take over what they say was a major Hamas outpost in the Northern part that they say was used to launch attacks against Israel. We're seeing them using a variety of different means here really in the very Northern parts of the Gaza Strip using both these air strikes, as I mentioned, also mortars and shelling, but also the sounds of gun battles that we continue to hear. We can even see on the ridgeline behind us the sight of those tracer bullets that are even being fired by the military very near this Northern border in the city of Sterot. Mary, thank you very much. Let's go to the Northern border. Zach Anders is there with the update, Zach. Well, another day of continued fire from Hezbollah on the Northern border of Israel and the last 24 hours, of course, has seen a similar scene to what we've seen. In the last several days, continued ATG fire on Israeli positions on the Israeli side. ATG stands for anti-tank guided missile. Now this can target just about anything, even personnel troops on the ground. It's not just for tanks, but it is one of the more lethal weapons in Hezbollah's arsenal because it has those armor piercing rockets that can shoot through the tanks that Israelis have been moving to the Northern border to fire on return fire on these positions. The IDF says they've been targeting Hezbollah outposts, rather, Hezbollah outposts inside Lebanese territory. We've continued to hear the outgoing artillery fire targeting these positions coupled with Israeli airstrikes that have taken place, of course, over the last several weeks. They continue on this steady drum of continued exchanges over the last several days. Again, today, no different. These red alerts coming in for communities in the Galilee and they came in around four o'clock. And then again, in the five o'clock hour, the five o'clock hour, the IDF says was a false alarm. There's been a few of those in recent days. Of course, the IDF airing on the side of caution and telling the people that haven't evacuated these communities yet, that they should continue to do so if they haven't or stay close to shelters because there's very little notice for when these red alerts come in. Thank you very much, Thak. The major headline of this evening, possible hostage deal. And the I-24 news, Nicole Selleck is with the families of Israeli hostages on their way to Jerusalem. Nicole. Yes, Jacob. And we're hearing some Israeli reports that there might have been a breakthrough in some of those negotiations. But for the families here that are making their way to Jerusalem until they see it, until they see their family members, that's when they're going to believe that there is any movement in any of these negotiations regarding the 239 hostages. Now here, this is just night two of the March from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And it was a very emotional night, as we heard from different family members of loved ones who have been held captive for the past 40 days. We also heard different musical guests coming together, singing to the different family members, to the different friends. I would say dozens of people, more than a hundred, all gathering behind me here, coming together and really showing their support from one another. And that's the main call that the families that are marching all the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, that's really what they want to see right now. The community coming together. They feel abandoned by the Israeli government as they're marching all the way to Jerusalem to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's office. They say they feel abandoned for the past 40 days. So right now who they're really calling on is they're Israeli citizens, as well as the international community. When we're talking about some of these hostage negotiations we know Qatar and the United States are big players involved. But along with the negotiations, they're also calling on the international Red Cross to do more when it comes to these hostages, to get a list of the hostages and their conditions as well. So that they can even know the condition that they've been kept in and that they are being treated in for these past 40 days. So it's an emotional night, but it's only night two. And not until Saturday is when they're going to make it all the way to Jerusalem, to the capital of Israel. And it's going to continue to be difficult but the family members say, this is all they can do. They haven't been able to sleep. They haven't been able to eat for 40 days. So all they can do is continue to march forward, push forward and really be a voice for the 239 people who do not have a voice right now and who haven't had a voice for the past 40 days. Nicole, thank you very much. And the rest of our team as well, Mary McCullough and Zach Anders. Here in the studio, back to you Owen, the families are marching towards Jerusalem, towards the Israeli Knesset and Prime Minister's office. And they will be joined by other groups who are protesting. And this is possibly shaping up to be a huge demonstration for the weeks to come.  And if that at least tempers some of the emotions. But again, don't forget, Jacob, that under all the scenarios that are being discussed, the majority of the hostages will stay in captivity or stay in the tunnels of Gaza or wherever they are. And so of course, the movement to bring them home will continue, will continue with full force, with the families, with the supporters and all the dilemmas that this means, not just for Israel society, but I think primarily for the decision makers. No, we have a war cabinet of five people. Two of them are observers. It's up to three human beings who I ultimately are gonna make the decision on who stays free and who's in captivity of what happens to this war effort in which this country has invested so much and in which there's so much at stake. So no easy decisions here, by all accounts, decision hours approaching and maybe not for the last time because again, many will be left in captivity. I mean, we have under a minute, but I was aiming at the protest movement that is probably going to come back to life at one point or another. Look, I must tell you as a complete neutral observer that I hope that there will be no protest movement during the war. A movement for the liberation of the hostages? Absolutely, but I do not think that Israel now needs a protest movement, a political protest movement in the middle of a war. Afterwards. Thank you very much, Owen. Thank you. This would be it for my part here. Stay tuned for more special coverage with Kalev Ben-David. Have a good night from Tel Aviv. It all 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 be fought as well. Welcome to this special broadcast on I-24 News. I'm Kalev Ben-David. It is day 40 of Israel's war against Hamas. And the battle of Shifa Hospital, which sits atop the terror group's main command center in northern Gaza, has begun, with IDF troops today raiding one of the buildings on its campus and finding a weapons cache there. Now the number of soldiers falling in Gaza and battle now reaching 48. Rocket fire also continuing today from Gaza into Israel's south and from Lebanon into the country's north. More reports this evening of talks about a deal to free at least some of the 238 confirmed hostages held in Gaza as their families continue a march from Tel Aviv towards Jerusalem today demanding their release. Well, Israeli special forces backed by additional troops entered Gaza City's Shifa Hospital overnight last night to carry out what they called a precise and targeted operation against Hamas terror infrastructure at the site. The IDF and officials in Gaza said there was no friction between troops and patients and medical staff there. While inside the forces also delivered incubators for newborns, baby food and medical supplies and Middle East correspondent Ariel Osirana's more in this report. After much anticipation and buildup, IDF forces entered Gaza's Shifa Hospital early Wednesday morning. A dramatic development in Israel's 40 day war with Hamas. Based on intelligence information and an operational necessity, IDF forces are carrying out a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the Shifa Hospital. The limited raid began at 2 AM local time as dozens of IDF troops began searching inside the hospital and covering Hamas weapons, explosives and assets, the army said. Prior to their entry, the forces came under fire and eliminated at least five terrorists. No soldiers were hurt. The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. Once inside Gaza's biggest hospital, the forces also delivered incubators for newborns, baby food and medical supplies to the hospital. According to Gaza's Director General of Hospitals, not a single bullet was fired inside the hospital since the operation began. We didn't know what to do. We are within the building Israel, within the building they are in. We can't move between the hospital buildings until the foreshore. So we are with each other as well as the patients with the civilians within the hospital. It's totally scary situation. Despite widespread fear from Hamas, some criticism could be heard from inside the hospital in recent days, even in an interview to Qatar's Al Jazeera TV. We don't know what to do with the people. Why do we want to kill people? Why do we want to kill people? We want to kill people. We want to kill people. We do have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad uses some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including the Al-Shifa Hospital as a way to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages. During a visit to the Zikim IDF training base near Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israeli forces will reach every Hamas operative in every corner of the Gaza Strip. Do you remember when they said we wouldn't invade Gaza? We invaded. They said we wouldn't get to the outskirts of Gaza City and we did. They said we wouldn't go into Shifa Hospital. We went in. It is in this spirit that we say something simple. There is no place in Gaza that we won't reach. There is no hideout, no shelter, no refuge for the Hamas murderers. For the Hamas. And so as the IDF's ground operation deepens into Gaza's hospitals, it gets closer to its final goal of defeating Hamas. But as the situation in the hospitals continues to deteriorate, the task will become even more challenging. And let's go now to Israel South, right on the Gaza border on Mary McCall if they're in Estero and Mary. It does look like that fighting taking place just a few kilometers from you over there in Gaza. And today a new phase centered around the Shifa Hospital. That's right. Good evening, Kalev. So as Ariel mentioned in his report, fighting ongoing still in the areas around Shifa Hospital, the IDF, though, says it didn't fire shots inside the hospital, but that it did target a number of Hamas operatives, Hamas terrorists who attempted to open fire on them and saying they eliminated four of those while they were working in the vicinity. The defense minister, Gioav Gallant earlier today was also meeting with fighters who had recently been inside the Gaza Strip and reaffirming what the mission was to them, saying that the IDF in its operation in Gaza had two main goals. The first one is eliminating Hamas, no more and no less. But the second goal is also to release the hostages. This was one of the missions inside the hospital to try and see if they could find any evidence of hostages being held in that facility. So far we haven't heard anything from the IDF on that front, but we do know that fight's ongoing. But here in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, we're also hearing intense battles taking place. Israeli airstrikes, of course, continuing in this part of the Gaza Strip, but especially also in the Beit Hanun area. We've heard number of different fights taking place throughout the evening, including routinely continuous gun battles happening, some so close that we can even see that from across the border, those tracer bullets that are being fired by these heavy mechanized machine guns that are being fired by Israeli forces who continue to operate here. Today, the 14th Brigade of the Israeli military say that they also took over a Hamas outpost that was used to launch attacks against Israel. This saying in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, we were unclear exactly where the outpost was located. They did not specify that, but we can tell you in the Beit Hanun Jabalia area, we are definitely seeing intense airstrike continually targeting specific areas inside this area. We've also heard massive explosions coming from some of these heat-seeking missiles that Israeli warplanes have dropped from the skies ahead, likely trying to target some of those tunnels, which they say run all underneath the Gaza Strip. So we think that is what's currently going on here in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Right, and Mary, we should note, while all this is going on, they do continue to be rocket firings from Gaza into Israel, mainly in the southern part of Israel and that border area where you are. That's right, today, Sirens again, ringing out a number of different times. The most recent one was about an hour ago in the southern part of the Gaza Strip in the Sufa and Kisufim areas. We don't have any reports of injuries there. Important to note that these are evacuated communities, so we don't know how many people are actually living there, but many of the border communities, as they have been over the past month, continue to see relentless rocket fire and Sirens ringing off inside their communities. In Ashkelon, a rocket fell inside that southern city. It did land in a road, though, and we don't have any reports of injuries from that strike, but the idea of in the military, the government is calling on everybody to pay attention to the home front command restrictions, to stay in shelter when the rocket Sirens ring out and to try and stay as close as you can to protected areas, especially here in these southern areas where your time to go to a shelter can be between 10 and 20 seconds. That's not a lot of time. Not a lot of time at all. Stay safe down there, Mary. Thank you for that. There is some news out of the Israeli media this evening. We're gonna be very cautious with this, because we have been very cautious that our 24 news on reports of hostage negotiations. Some of the channels here in Israel reporting this evening, citing sources, saying there's been some kind of breakthrough in hostage negotiations, kind of maybe the outline of a deal of a first-agged release of hostages during a pause or some kind of ceasefire, but we're gonna be very cautious on that. We'll bring you any confirmed news that we have. A reminder that we're Admiral Daniel Higari, the idea of spokesman, spokesperson will schedule to speak in the coming minutes. Maybe we'll get more information on what's going on in Gaza. With us in studio, we have our senior defense counselor, Jonathan Regev, our senior diplomatic correspondent, our own ultimate, our Middle East correspondent, Ariel Oswein. Just another bit of news also, Jonathan, we're focused on northern Gaza, but some news coming out about southern Gaza, especially the Hanyunis refugee camp or neighborhood more accurately in the south. Yes, first, we have to say that these are reports. There's no confirmation of anything that I'm about to say. It's all media reports. Those reports suggest that there have been leaflets dropped on the city of Hanyunis, which is the second largest city in the Gaza Strip, but the largest city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. And in those leaflets, people are told to leave their homes and go to designated areas where they could be safe. That could possibly indicate the fact that the next stage of the ground operation focusing this time on the southern Gaza Strip may be about to begin. We've been expecting this, of course, if you want to topple Hamas, you don't just deal with one part of the Gaza Strip, you deal with the entire Gaza Strip. So this is a report that we're hearing. We can say that over the past two, three days or so, we're seeing much more activity from the air at the moment. An artillery directed towards the area of Hanyunis, again, the largest city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. For speaking of Hanyunis, Hanyunis is the Palestinian city, which is just opposite to the community of Niroz. Niroz, a place where 74 people have been kidnapped for. That's about a third of the people kidnapped. The assumption is that those people are somewhere there. Is it true or not? Of course, we're not right. As you were speaking, there's some new details. It looks like this confirmed about these leaflets. The idea of confirming these leaflets were dropped over Hanyunis and the eastern areas of El Karara, Jarrah, Ben-Isuhila, and Isan. Now, this does raise the question, given that the residents of northern Gaza were called to go to southern Gaza, where are they supposed to go? I mean, there is the western and Muassi humanitarian area. Here, they're called to go to designated shelters. But this does raise complications moving forward as the population of Hanyunis and southern Gaza has doubled since the start of the ground invasion. This will make advancing. And the next stage, if indeed we are to see, if and when to see a next stage in southern Gaza, there will be a lot different than what we're seeing. We'll follow that, of course. But I want to go now to northern Israel, of course. Today, still those exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and other terrorist forces in south Lebanon. The idea for spawning, Zach, and there's our correspondents up there by the Lebanese border. Give us the update on the north, Zach. Well, this continues to be a broader area of conflict as Hezbollah continues to target Israeli forces on the Israeli side from the Lebanese side. Now, today was another red alert day for several communities throughout the border area, the northern Israeli border, and the Galilee area, Kiryat Shemona against once again put under red alert for possible intrusion through the airspace with these drones, the Iranian supplied drones. But the IDF says what they were targeted with today were more of those ATGs, anti-tank guided missiles that were targeting their personnel on the Israeli side. They say they returned fire and fired at Hezbollah outposts in Lebanese territory. Again, this back and forth between both sides. The Israeli forces here are substantial. We've seen quite a number of troops in the area. The question, of course, is what is Hezbollah's willingness or full capacity for this engagement? How far do they want to go? And perhaps the propaganda or the social media that they've been able to cobble together from this is playing a part of it. They've been releasing a lot of videos, showing a lot of maps of Israeli targets that they've successfully struck, they say, and really pushing this idea that they are asserting their dominance here on the border line. Perhaps that is, for now, what they consider to be a fair level of their engagement, that that's how they want to be involved. Of course, the IDF sources that we're speaking to are telling us their concern is that Hezbollah will in the coming weeks, depending on what happens in Gaza, try and ramp things up, escalate the tensions here. Of course, no one knows for certain what's coming next. All right, again, we'll wait for a seat. Maybe the IDF spokesperson, Daniel Higari, will have more information also on the northern front. Zach Ann is there in northern Israel near Lebanon border. Thank you for that. Owen, again, and I'm being very cautious here, reports in the Israeli media claiming there's been some kind of break for. We should note yesterday, President Joe Biden, when he was stopped by a reporter, saying we're working on it, things are moving forward, and overnight a call between President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, which reportedly in part dealt with that. We should note that call coming on the eve of a hugely important meeting for President Biden with Xi Jinping, the President of China here in San Francisco today at this big Asian-Pacific summit. So clearly that shows the importance, and maybe there is something to the reports of some movement in the hostage arena. Yeah, as we look what I believe to be the skyline of the Gaza Strip yet again in the nighttime here in Israel. Look, again, putting as fine a line as possible on the twin goals of Israel in this operation, the military victory in the war, and of course, returning the hostages. Kaleb, what's different, and I understand the caution, what's different this time in terms of the feeling about the hostage deal is that the information is coming from Israeli sources to Israeli media. This can't be seen as spin from the other side, if you will, from Qatar or from Egypt in some cases, or from Hamas directly, and we saw plenty of that, in which case- Going to the far, the psychological warfare. Biden going to the foreign networks, of course. Exactly, these are leaks coming from within Israel, and not for the first night, we should also say. And to me, that signals an interest by the decision makers and by the government to lay the groundwork for the public to either to accept a deal that's put out there, again, especially as there are leaks of the terms of the deal that's under negotiation and to be at least able to feel out where the public is, even if it's not realistic, as we talked about last night, to have a full on public debate over the deal. And also, given that the talks would seem to be close, to be able to deflect blame in case the talks break down, to be able to go to the hostages' families and to say we tried. Right, and some of those details, again, all of this is based on media reports claiming there might be a release of security prisoners, something that would be very unpopular in here in Israel. And as you suggested last night, it's quite possible. Some of these details would be leaked out just to gauge the public reaction to them. Now, we're looking at those scenes there. That's the skies above the Gaza Strip. But you're looking at flares there. Generally, that's an indication that there is fighting going on, ground fighting. We know these reports. Jonathan, Chief of Hospital, there were reports coming out in some media about a best couple hours saying that the Israeli army had pulled back from this one, at least one building in Chief of Hospital. And I think we have a graphic showing in Chief of Hospital worth putting up that we're not talking about one building here. It's a campus of buildings. And this is going to be an operation that's going, if certainly in Sheaffer is going to last several days. Even on the above ground, never mind these sort of below ground tunnels there. It's a very large complex there. We can see it. And it's made up of a couple of buildings, buildings originally built by the British when the British mandate was here. And then expanded actually by Israel some 30-something years ago. And there we can see it's quite a large complex. So Israeli forces, yes, they have entered one part and have looked through it. There are many other parts which the soldiers would also want to look through them. And let's remember, all that is above the ground. There's a level under the ground. And you don't know exactly what is waiting for you there. Are there terrorists just waiting for the soldiers to come in with explosives? We don't know all that. What we do know, what we're hearing is that there have been indications for some kind of a military headquarter there by Hamas. And we remember those graphics shown by IDF spokesman some two weeks ago laying out the information of that Hamas headquarters under the Sheaffa Hospital. And yes, this is not an operation that will last a day or so. The Sheaffa Hospital is a large complex. Taking care of all of it will take at least a few days. All right, and speaking of also concern, there could be hostages. We don't know that in that area. And speaking of that, there was several events in Israel focusing on the plight of the hostages, including a march by family members from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And Nicole said that has been following this. Nicole, where are you right now? And what's the situation there? Collab, we're in Beit Hashmonai right now. It's night two of this march for these families marching all the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, going straight to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to take their concern, their despair, their heartache straight to Jerusalem and to the Israeli government. Because for the past 40 days, they have been living, they say, in a never-ending nightmare. And so all they can do, they can't sleep. They can't eat. All they can do is keep marching, keep going forward and continuing to be a voice. So behind me here, we heard from different community members coming together, talking about their experience over the past 40 days. We heard different musical performances, really bringing the community together. The event just wrapped up. But I can tell you, at its height, there were dozens of people, even hundreds of people in this small community here in central Israel, all showing their support for the families. And that is one of the main requests that we're hearing from many of these family members. As they make their march all the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, they say we don't want to be alone right now. We feel like we have been abandoned by the Israeli government, and we cannot be abandoned by our Israeli citizens as well. And coming out here, seeing the community support, I can tell you that's not the case. I'm sorry, Nicole, we are going to this IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagar right now. IDF forces continue to go deeper in their operation in the northern Gaza Strip. At this stage, forces are cleaning the entire area from ammunition, from terrorists. IDF forces continue to act at this time on a precise way in the Shifa Hospital. We entered this operation last night. Shifa is a place that we knew, based on intelligence that has terror infrastructure, and we are deepening our activity. In the hospital, we found ammunition and intelligence and military equipment. Also, we found a headquarter with communication, means and technology belonging to Hamas. We have turned them into our intelligence forces. Our forces are continuing to look at the hospital based on intelligence in order to have more details, find out more means, and show the terror activity in the hospital. We had many contacts with the factors in the hospital to take away the people, the people who are sick inside. We found Hamas's uniform in the hospital thrown on the ground that belonged to Hamas people who wanted to flee as residents, as patients. We warned Hamas and we warned the hospital directors of our intentions. We also gave them food for patients and food for babies. The Rantisi Hospital and the Shifa Hospital all were used by the terrorists for their purposes, along with other hospitals. In Shifa, any Rantisi hospitals, what we found can tell us with no doubt that the hospitals were used for terrorism as opposed to the international law. We will continue to expose this to the world and show the way how Hamas ISIS takes hospitals and uses it for terror purposes. In the north, we continue to be ready on the defense and on the attack. Today, we attack the Hezbollah infrastructures. And for every place there was striking on Israel, we attack back. In the home front, we have to continue to look to preserve the instructions because they save lives. Due to following the government decision, we're now supporting our service men and women reservists who have been called for reserves. Oh, I call on all the reservists to hand in their forms. This is just one of the ways for us to show our appreciation for our reservists who left everything, their families, their work, their studies in order to come and fight for our home.  And we appreciate, we want to show our appreciation in a humble way through this fund that now exists. And together, we will win. The IDF is thankful for you. We gave, we advised families of 368 IDF soldiers in fighting. We also advised the families of 239 hostages. We work all the time with the concealed and public means to bring back our hostages home. This is a national effort of the utmost importance. We have not missed and will not miss any opportunity to bring them home. We want to make sure that the families watching us know this.  Is it possible that the delay in the entrance to Shifa is what caused us not to find intelligence about the hostages? We came into Shifa when it was the proper time for us. Also, we had to take into consideration the efforts that we made in front of the hospital. We have to understand there were many people, many more people than there are now in Shifa, which would endanger both our forces, endanger the people, and would give Hamas the one victory that they need, that victory is showing the IDF hurting civilians in hospitals. We want to do a high quality operation after a very precise information and preparedness. This is how we act as opposed to the attempts of Hamas to delegitimize the state of Israel. This operation needs time. It needs time. It takes a lot of time, and there are many people there, patients, doctors, refugees. And we have to do it at the proper time, with the proper time with intelligence, operational intelligence, according to our needs. Only by what we found now, we know that Hamas has conducted an operation within Shifa. This place, after October 7, was used as a hideout for 205 terrorists who participated in the terrible slaughter. They went there. Today we came to Shifa. This is a symbol for them. Hamas leaders know that this is a symbol. They never thought that we would come to Shifa, and we will continue to go anywhere where there are Hamas terrorists. All right, that was Rear Admiral Daniel Higari discussing mainly the operations in Shifa Hospital. The main news out of that was Israel is finding other evidence besides weapons that Shifa Hospital was indeed, as has been said, by Israel. The idea for long used as a command center by Hamas is Hamas's military wing. We'll have more on that and all the other stories when we come back. We're going out for a brief break. Back in three minutes, stay with us on this special broadcast of Day 40, Israel's War Against Hamas. I-24 News Channel, broadcasting from Israel, with dozens of correspondents throughout the world, brings the truth from Israel to hundreds of millions of people in scores of countries. They have been completely gunned down in their beds. De la Frontière qui sépare l'Israël, the state of emergency, and war in Israel. Bringing Israel's story to the world, I-24 News Channels, now on Hot. I-24 News, as we just heard and saw, the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Higari, did give his nightly briefing, also revealing new information about what IDF troops found there as they began their incursion into the campus of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Ariel Osaran, again, evidence besides weapons that Hamas was using Shifa Hospital as a sort of command and control center. Yes, indeed, Kalev. Shifa in Arabic means health, but that's the opposite of what Hamas has been using Gaza's biggest hospital in recent years in this operation. IDF forces exposed weapons and operational command center, as well as additional technological assets in the MRI building of the hospital. I'll let you describe it as a vast complex. And indeed, this was found just in the MRI building, but as the forces in another department in the hospital, forces found an additional operation, operational command center, and assets belong to Hamas, obviously indicating that the TAIR organization uses the hospital for TAIR purposes. Yeah, that's Shifa Hospital, that's the forces bringing in medical supplies and gear this morning to the hospital. Right, medicine incubators for the neonatal ward that's gotten a lot of publicity, certainly, in the media. Right, and the IDF just sharing now kind of the figures of what they sent into Shifa today. We're talking about three incubators, 14 boxes of medical supplies and 100 packages of baby formula. That's pretty much the opposite of what we just described that was found in the use of Hamas in the hospital. And of course, with the claims against Israel operating, at least under international humanitarian law, against operating in the hospital, the presence of these materials, the fact that it's an operational headquarters, the fact that there are weapons there, does diminish the protection that the hospital gets under international law. And that obviously explains the ability of Israel to operate there as well as the support that it is getting by the US and the UK in such an operation. Obviously, this follows what was discovered in the Lentisi Hospital, which a children's hospital there in the basement, they found evidence for hostages being held, including potentially baby hostages that is not the case so far in the hospital, but 18 hours after the operation began, Israeli forces continue to operate in Shifa Hospital. And the irony of seeing Israeli forces bringing metal equipment into Shifa, and then presumably we'll be taking out these tools that Hamas used to wage war from within that hospital complex. Well, we did report earlier that Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden did speak by phone overnight. The topics including this RDF military operation in Gaza, and of course a possible hostage deal, Israeli media reporting there, maybe some advancement in that this evening. Now, in the opening weeks of the war, some American commentators did say that President Biden's support for Israel was hurting him by lowering his approval rating among certain wings of the Democratic Party. Since then though, polling has painted a more complicated picture, but as our senior diplomatic correspondent on ultimate reports, Biden has reason to believe that the war will not be a big factor come the elections in November of next year. The question is whether these pictures will matter. US President Joe Biden embracing Israel in the war in Gaza in the fall of 2023, with the countdown clock set for the fall of 2024, and Biden's bid for reelection. We will continue to have Israel's back as you work to defend your people. We'll continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians. Claims about the impact of the war on Biden's election chances are likely exaggerated. The election is a year away. News cycles will have spun onward from the scenes in the Gaza Strip. And very few Americans have seen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a voting issue, focused instead on the economy, immigration, and the potential clash between Biden and Donald Trump. In pockets of the electorate, the war could matter. One that gets attention, Arab-American voters in the swing state of Michigan, about 3% of the state's population, who in a close tally could swing the state away from Biden. He continues to side on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of humanity. And so I think come 2024, it will be very difficult for him to come to a mosque or come to a church where Arabs pray and to ask for their support. I'm Yishra El-Khai. Of course, the war could well matter for Israel standing among Americans in the long term. Polling is mixed on how Americans feel at this stage. And the war is not over. But a war this momentous is bound to have an impact. A lot is at stake. Well, let's go now to our senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim in New York. He was interviewed yesterday. They're in Washington for that rally. And of course, exceeding expectations, Mike, close to 300,000 people, more than triple, more than triple than the number of people that were expected. Just an impressive gathering all around. No doubt whatsoever. And really, with that, you know, supposed growing chasm between American Jewry and Israel that we've touched on so many times, looking at, you know, nearly 300,000 people in the mall, you would tend to think that in the moment of truth, so to speak, American Jewries really stepped up in its support of Israel. Now, after the rally, we headed over to Capitol Hill to cover a reception for the Congressional Israel Allied Caucus and spoke with a couple of members of the caucus, specifically Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, long-time member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke with him just moments after Senate Democrats turned back a house pass bill to provide $14.3 billion of emergency aid to Israel. The House, though, offset that aid with cuts to the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS. Senate Democrats said, we're not going for that. It's gotta be a standalone provision. I asked Sherman specifically about that bill and whether Republicans had essentially poisoned the bipartisan landscape on emergency aid to Israel. Here's Representative Brad Sherman. Once you start pitting Israel against domestic priorities, then the next bill is to cut local education to fund Israel. The next bill after that is to cut our food stamp program, which is the way we provide food to the poorest Americans. And the best way to undermine support for Israel and the United States is to say, the only way to help Israel is to cut food for poor Americans, education for young Americans. You cannot pit Israel against anything domestic. Another member of the Israel Allies caucus who spoke yesterday, Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, he called Democrats' position on the Israel aid funding a distraction. He said, we'll get it done no matter what on the Republican side, whether it involves offsets or not. Now, Smith, there's nobody who served longer in the House than him. He's worked for decades on issues of anti-Semitism in the United Nations as well. He told us that accountability for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the so-called Palestinian refugee agency, he says accountability for UNRWA is coming based on the fact that now so many things are being uncovered in Gaza in relation to UNRWA and essentially they're hiding of Hamas crimes within Gaza. Here's Representative Chris Smith in our conversation with him yesterday. Hatred and prejudice UNRWA does it every single day. And the teachers, the textbooks, the study guides are replete with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred. And we need to be absolutely clear that we're not gonna fund it, it needs to be changed. Otherwise, those kids, this is child abuse against Palestinian children. It changes their mind and causes them to be haters and the lies they feed them about the Israelis and about the Jews globally as well as in Israel, it's just outrageous. So we need to fund it, we need to do it now. Well, you're certainly gonna find plenty of people in Israel and among its supporters who agree with that take on UNRWA, Mike, especially some of the stuff that's come out even over the past six weeks. I do wanna ask you about the funding for Israel because the House did finally, or House Republicans did finally at least within the House pass the stopgap on this to keep the government going, to keep the government funded. The new House Speaker, Mike Johnson, managing to forge a compromise bipartisan between Republicans and Democrats. Will that impact maybe in a more positive way efforts to get that Israel funding through either as part of a general spending bill or even as isolated? Well, at least buys him some time. And by the way, Mike Johnson compromise with Democrats probably means his days are numbered as the House Speaker, even though he was just installed a few weeks ago. But it does buy some time. The problem is the essential, what Democrats are saying, poison pill of IRS defunding within the Israel aid bill. And now it's up to the Senate, the Democratic controlled Senate to get something done. The Democrats and the Senate can pass their own aid bill, but then it will need to be reconciled with Republicans and it will really put each side into position where they can either tow their respective lines or forge some compromise. But the ball is now in the court of Senate Democrats to pass something on Israel aid and then figure out if they can meet somewhere in the middle with Republicans in the House. All right, Mike Wagenheim there in Washington. Thank you for that. Just staying on the subject of President Biden for a minute, oh, and he is got a big meeting today. I think I mentioned it briefly. Actually, it's supposed to start, I think within the next hour in San Francisco at that Asia Pacific Summit with Xi Jinping, the President of China. Of course, the main issues are gonna be bilateral relations between the US and China. The Taiwan issue may come up, but Israel and the Gaza conflict is expected also to be on that agenda there. In those talks, something no one would have expected two months ago. Yeah, I'm sure it'll be there. But the end of the day, Kolev, you said it yourself, that this is a relationship with much, much bigger fish to fry, right? The most important bilateral relationship in the world. We all know how complicated it is. We all know how wide the range of topics is, how high the stakes are. I'm sure this will be there. How can it not, if you're having a meeting of heads of state on November 15th, 2023, it just has to be there. But one would imagine this will not dominate the agenda that there are plenty of other issues that will do that. Now, of course, one of the issues that President Biden has been pushing has been for either a, you wanna call it a humanitarian pause or a brief ceasefire, however you would have it. The question is, how could that impact on military operations, especially when the IDF is in this sort of ongoing incursion into Shefa Hospital? What would be the impact if, for example, we would have a cease in offensive operations for like one to three days, Jonathan, at this point? Hamas currently is crushed, and if they have time, they could reorganize. It's that simple. They could reorganize, and they could put perhaps soldiers in jeopardy. We're only talking about what we're seeing on the ground, fighting we're seeing on the ground, but behind the scenes, a lot of things are happening. Communication, for example. Communication lines by Hamas are at least in the northern part, where Israel entered with ground forces. Communication lines may be cut off, and this could give Hamas the time to reorganize everything, get their people some rest, get everything up and going, and of course, get them a little bit more fresh to the battle. Generally speaking, this is something that Israel would not agree to, and when the word talks about a ceasefire for numbers of 10, maybe via 15 hostages, the answer was loud and clear, no. But when we're speaking of 70, 80, possibly 100 hostages, that of course is another issue because these are very big numbers and there's pressure from families as well. And as we saw with that march to Jerusalem, which we'll be heading into Jerusalem, right to the prime minister's office, and the reports put out by Hamas, for example, saying that Israel is turning down a hostage offers, exchange offers, accurate or not, do exert a kind of political pressure on the prime minister. If we're talking of numbers, say 80 hostages, I really don't see a government in Israel being able to say no. Of course, yeah. Even with the five-day ceasefire putting Israel on perhaps putting Israel backwards in the very good position it got militarily so far, but when we're speaking of 80 hostages, especially children, mothers, I don't see a government saying no, and let's remember one thing. We know that Hamas and their masterminds in these kinds of negotiation, so they'll say 80 hostages in five days, but we'll release 15 hostages every day. But you know what, after day one and day two, maybe it's difficult to release another 15 hostages because we don't hold them, Hamas, it's the Islamic jihad. We have to get them from Islamic jihad. It's difficult for us. Then we don't need five days. Maybe we need 10 days. Maybe we need 20 days. It's going to be very difficult. We're speaking of five days. If it really happens, don't be surprised if it takes much, much more than five days. Absolutely. Now, while we're focused right now on the battle ongoing in the Gaza Strip, Israel does face a number of additional threats on its borders. We mentioned the North earlier, Hezbollah, maybe the closest and dangerous of these enemies, but Yemen's Houthi rebels, Iran-backed Houthi rebels, have also demonstrated the capacity and intent to target Israel's southern cities with long-range missile attacks and drone attacks. Robert Swift takes a closer look at that. Yemen's Houthis attacked Israel on Tuesday, targeting the southern city of Elat with surface-to-surface missiles, not for the first time. With the help of Allah the Almighty, our armed forces have launched ballistic missiles of various targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Palestinian territories, including targets in Elat. It has used drones and missiles to target Israel as an act of support to Hamas, with its weapons falling short and reportedly landing in Egypt and Jordan at times. A Shiite organization with Yemen's Houthi tribe at its core, it is backed and armed by Iran. For around a decade, it has fought for control of Yemen. It is designated as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Malaysia, but not in the U.S., which temporarily labeled it as such for a month in 2021. On top of the threat of long-range attacks against Israeli cities, the Houthis are threatening Israeli shipping. In the Red Sea, particularly in Bab el-Manda and its adjacent Yemeni territorial waters, our eyes are constantly monitoring for Israeli ships, which rely on evasion and disguise in their movements, not daring to raise the Israeli flag. The Houthis have formed in attacking ships. Yemen's strategic location offering them ample targets. In the past, they have struck Saudi Navy ships and commercial cargo vessels. For this reason, the U.S. is deploying an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, enhancing air defenses off Israel's south coast and beefing up deterrence, a move that could either dampen down the Houthi threat or risk tipping Israel's war into a wider regional conflict. Now, let's come back to the Houthis in a minute, but there are some developments coming out, news Ariel, some of it concerning the hostages as well. Indeed, so just a short or earlier today, amid there were reports in recent days circulating that one of the hostages, the Israeli hostages who was pregnant in advanced labor, advanced pregnancy, that she gave birth. So today we got the closest thing to an official confirmation. This is in a letter that Prime Minister Netanyahu's wife, Sarah Netanyahu, wrote to First Lady Jill Biden. Here we can see the letter on the screen now. I'll read just a part of it, the relevant part she says. One of the kidnapped women was pregnant. She gave birth to her baby in Hamas captivity. You can only imagine, as I do, what must be going through that young mother's mind as she's being held with her newborn by these murderers. Now, up until this birth, 10-month-old Khfil was the youngest of the Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas. We'll talk about an infant of less than a month born in Hamas captivity being held in Gaza. It sort of bottles the mind there, gentlemen. And that could explain also the images of baby formula and diapers that we saw and the evidence that was exposed. At the Rancisi Hospital, in the basement there, yes. And the Hamas apparently responding to some of this information that we heard Daniel Higari give during his briefing and some of it that the IDF is sending out. Right, so we're talking about Hamas's senior official Basem Naim, who's obviously discrediting everything that Israel's claiming to have found in the Shifa hospital, saying that it's the IDF that brought the weapons and planted them there to try and show them as Hamas' calling this a farce. But I think the more interesting statement by this same Basem Naim was given yesterday, where he basically admitted to the fact that Hamas has tunnels operating under the Shifa hospital telling in an interview to Al Jazeera that there are resistance tunnels in Gaza, but the security of our people is important to us. The possibility of the presence of tunnels in hospitals does not justify the bombing of them. Israel targeted several hospitals, not just Shifa Hospital. It doesn't take a mind reader to understand from this statement that he's basically admitting to the existence of Hamas' tunnels under the hospital, but according to him, that doesn't justify Israel operating in them. And so far Israel has not targeted from the air any of the hospitals. All their operations are on the ground, mainly special forces, to try and reduce the friction and the casualties among civilians in Gaza. Just a quick word. Hamas might not be functioning militarily, but its media operation is very much functioning. And they are ready for this moment. They have answers for every step that the Israeli military takes. Of course, are they good answers to simply say that it's forged, that it's fake, that the weapons are brought there. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, except the conspiracy theorists. But the media operation is there, it's functioning, and they're trying from their perspective to stay a step ahead. I'm actually fascinated by the media strategy in the Israeli side as well. Because the Israeli military, they made a calculation that notwithstanding the statement, notwithstanding the video that the International Spokesperson, Jonathan Conriquez has put out, they seem to want to wait until the end of the operation to be able to come with a finished package, right, to international media and give the full picture with the best information possible that they have to make the strongest possible impression. I would imagine that they are extremely disappointed with the impact of the video from the Rantisi hospital. I certainly am, and to say quite surprised, about how little impact that made international media. I'm a little surprised by your surprise, I have to say, always considering certainly the attitude much of the international media has already taken. I'm not sure why you necessarily would think the reaction would be more than you would expect from them. I guess you're right at this stage, but I still can't help, but be struck by the difference in the level of quote-unquote independent verification required for materials supplied to the Israeli military versus those supplied by the Ministry of Health. It just doesn't make sense, but it does, I wonder whether the spokesperson's unit, Kalev, is drawing lessons from that and trying at the second and even more important bite of the apple, a chifa, to be able to present the fullest and best evidence at the end of the operation with only these very small lower stakes, right, lower stakes drips and drabs along the way. You could argue that the major audience for the information that was put about a Rantezi hospital was not for the public or international media, but for world leaders. In other words, as Israel was about to go into Chifa Hospital, it did not want the pressure to ramp up from the United States, from western nations, from the European Union, and the idea was to bring out that information from Rantezi, so at least at this stage, Israel would be able to go ahead and carry out these operations in Chifa Hospital. On that degree, you'd have to say yes, it has been able to go, it started into going into Chifa Hospital without at least statements like the ones we heard from the ones we heard earlier from Emmanuel Macron. Yeah, listen, I mean, maybe you're right, I would hope that the ambition, there would be a little bit more, the goals would be a bit more ambitious than that, right? If you're putting this video out through the international media that would actually be for them and for public opinion, which of course is playing such an important role and also the fact that was much more meaningful, right? And giving legitimacy and space to the operation in Chifa Hospital didn't come from the podium and from Daniel Higari or from his video, it came from the podium in Washington and from John Kirby who came out and said the United States shares Israel's impression, that was something that western media and especially American media couldn't fully ignore, couldn't ask for all kinds of independent verification of and could simply take the word of American intelligence. The reaction from John Kirby could have been a result of the presentations. He said it was from their own intelligence. Okay, let's move on from that and let's move on to the regional reaction to some of the events taking place right now in Gaza. Among them, Turkish President Rajiv Tayyip Erdogan who since October 7th has returned to the virulent anti-Israel rhetoric that he used before shifting tack to re-establishing relations with Jerusalem last year. Today in Ankara, Erdogan took his anti-Israel rhetoric to a new level or you could say a new low. Here is some of that. Hey Israel, you have an atom bomb a nuclear bomb and you are threatening with this. We know this and your time of death is coming no matter whether you own a nuclear bomb own whatever you own but you are a goner. I think the significance here with Turkey is that it is one of those countries with relations that has been involved in the Gaza issue. One might have think they could have played a constructive role in the so-called day after but clearly Erdogan has made a decision not to be part of that to shift back to really joining the sort of access of rejectionism that Israel has been facing with countries like Syria for example in Iran. Erdogan has gone all in in terms of putting his chips on the Palestinian side obviously this is not the first time this has happened but that was also the cause for the break in relations. I would even say on the Hamas side not even necessarily on the Palestinian side. Indeed. I will say that Prime Minister Netanyahu has responded obviously refuting the claim saying that he is not going to take any such attacks from a leader who bombs villages inside Turkey as part of the so-called war on terror but following the resumption of diplomatic ties between Israel and Turkey this was always a possibility this I would imagine was in the back of minds of Israeli leaders when they decided to renew ties but given the strategic nature of Turkey in terms of its positioning in terms of its ties with both axes the Iranian axis as well as the moderate axis at least it's a country that it is it could be beneficial if there isn't a flare up in Gaza unfortunately this flare up in Gaza once again exposed there to one's true colors and I think moving forward it will it is deemed necessary to give a more strategic long-term view as to what Israel-Turkey relations should be moving forward. I'd say the prospects of Israel building a gas natural gas pipeline have diminished certainly greatly gentlemen stay with us we are going out for a brief break but we will be back with another hour of our special coverage of Israel's war against Hamas day 40 we'll be back at the top of the hour stay with us for a minute www.madeforme.co.il madeforme official dresser of i24 news good evening ladies and gentlemen