job that the Vakita can be protected. Breaking news coverage here on I-24 News, I'm Bacha Levinthal, thanks for joining me. It's day 17 of war here in Israel. The IDF launched overnight strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, killing senior members of the terror group as well. The continuing air campaign against Hamas also comes amid an attack on Israeli troops on Sunday operating in the enclave, which saw one soldier killed and three others hurt. The operation is part of the military's searches for bodies of missing Israelis and to clear the area for Israel's upcoming ground offensive. The IDF has just released updated figures on the hostages after notifying their families. The number of confirmed captives held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas is now 222. Meanwhile, the exchange of fire on its northern border with Lebanon continues to heat up. The Israel Defence Forces says it again targeted a cell of Qesbola terrorists in southern Lebanon, attacked its military infrastructure and destroyed an anti-tank missile launcher. Israeli media estimates that the number of Qesbola operatives killed thus far is over 30, including field commanders. And with me here in studio is Professor Uzi Rabi, the director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies at Tel Aviv University and a senior researcher at the Center for Iranian Studies also at Tel Aviv University. Firstly, good afternoon and thank you for being here. Before we go to our correspondence on the north and the southern border to get an update on what the situation is like here in Israel, there's evidently a bigger angle to this conflict and that is Iran. We know that Qesbola is a direct proxy of Iran, Hamas not necessarily, but is now getting funded in arms by Iran. How is this going to develop and is Iran actually going to finally take some sort of head-on admission to the fact that they are involved in this war? We have long actually argued and talked about the octopus, Iranian octopus. Now we have kind of an opportunity to see how it works because when we talk about missiles coming from the Houthis in Yemen, when we talk about Qesbola that goes without saying, even Hamas and Islamic jihad. And of course, when it comes to Iraq and Syria, we do see the arms of the octopus. Iran would love actually to engage kind of a war of proxies against Israel because what Iran is having in mind is humping the process of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which in the end of the day actually aims at isolating Iran. But having said that, this is what is fascinating in what we have here. We started with a bilateral conflict between Israel and Hamas. Soon it appears that this is much more bigger and wider than that. It is regional, and I even would say it has some global ramifications. You do see the United States here. This is unheard of the way actually United States is getting involved in it. And the most important thing is to make sure that Iran is not capitalizing on what's going on here. And there is kind of a warning sign coming from the U.S. against Iran. And here is the bottom line. Iran is getting kind of an equation where stakes are getting higher, which I do believe would make Iran to have a recalculation. Professor Steyer with us. I want to cross now live to our correspondent, Pierre Closh and Ler, who is standing by for us in the south of Israel. Pierre Hamas has woken up. It was 14 hours of quiet and calm, but now the sirens are going off for the second time in just minutes in the south. Right. They were the first rocket alerts, first rocket strike started at 11.30, 35 minutes ago. And then 10 minutes later, another rocket strike. The cities targeted are Ashkelon and Kibbutzim in the area, Yad Mordechai, Mafki'im, Zikim Ucha, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip. But according to the rescue services of the Maghen David Adam, Israel, there are no casualties in those two rocket strikes at the moment, at least. Here in Sderot, the calm prevailed, but immediately when the rockets were launched, we could hear the roar of fighter jets going over Gaza and striking possibly the source of fire, and we heard some explosions. Pierre, just explains our own viewers, because we constantly have correspondence down in the south, in particular in Sderot, how far away from a shelter you are. The residents in Sderot, of which now thousands have evacuated, only have 30 seconds to get to a safe zone. Right. It depends where you are. But here in Sderot, we are 15 seconds away from a rocket impact. I think that Ashkelon is about the same time, 15 to 20 seconds away. It depends if the rockets were launched from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip, which is harder and harder for the terrorist groups, or if it's launched from the southern or central part of the Gaza Strip, then it takes a bit longer. But people don't take any chance. The home front command speaks about 15 seconds. That's the time that we take for ourself to look for cover, and we're just like meters away, literally, from a shelter here. Hopefully for that, correspondent Pierre Closh and Leia giving us an update on the south. Thank you very much. Still with me here in studio, Professor Uzzi Rabi, I want to continue the conversation with regards to the Iranian proxy, because a concern that many are having is the same way that Russia has been given drones and Iranian weapons from Tehran. And we know that the foreign minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, is currently in Tehran meeting with officials there. Is there a possibility that we could be seeing Iranian weapons involved in this war? Are we already seeing Iranian weapons involved in this war? There is a possibility, but as I said before, actually, though we have kind of wider implications and it glows all over the globe, and President Biden is his last speech, actually portrayed kind of a map where you have the bad guys and good guys. And the question to who is helping Iran out when it comes to economy in China politically is Russia. This is kind of an axis. And all these proxies Iran actually has nurtured in the recent 40 years. This is something that comes to fruition now. And here is the question. Does Iran intend to get involved in the war in kind of a full volume? I myself, I think that Hezbollah was not given birth in order to rescue Palestinians. In my opinion, Palestinians actually means nothing for Iran. And the cynical view and the strategy Iran or the method Iran is implementing is well known. I say that Iran now is in kind of a stage of a recalculus because as I said before stakes are getting higher, United States is here. I think that they actually are made it very clear that if Iran is going to capitalize on what's going on in Gaza, United States is going to retaliate. We do see something in Iraq. There actually three American soldiers were found dead because of Iranian militias. We do see what happened with the missiles from Yemen and the interception of those by the U.S. So yes, we have wider ramifications, but the one million dollar actually question still remains open. Does Iran intend to let Hezbollah or his strength is Bala to come with kind of a full flower when it comes to this war? I think that Hezbollah is just working beneath the threshold of war. What Hezbollah is doing is kind of a war, a small war, mini war and the Galilee. I don't think he would go beyond that, but here comes the thing. We are in an area of war. This is the arena of miscalculations. And once Israel is in Gaza in the ground attack, we are having a different opera. So I would leave actually this question open. I want to continue talking with you specifically about Iraq and Jordan and other nations that are getting involved here. But I want to first cross to our correspondent, Mary McCullough, who is standing by for us in northern Israel, specifically at the Ziv Medical Center in Safat. What can you tell us? What is the latest happening there at the moment? No doubt preparing for rockets as the south has just been hit by a barrage of them. That's right, but yes, we haven't had any rocket sirens ring here in northern communities since about noon yesterday, but they are still very much preparing for this. We know they've been hit very hard by rocket fire in the last few days, and that's why they continue to evacuate settlements and communities in this area. We're standing here at the Ziv Medical Center, though, which is absolutely in war footing, conducting their preparations to try and be ready for taking in a number of different patients, both civilians and soldiers alike. We're actually standing here in a new wing, which will be an intensive care unit. And I just want to show you back here. Part of their preparations. This is an area that is completely missile, rocket proof, also chemical and biological weapon proof. Those are those vents you can see at the far end at the hall. But this entire area was an area that was due to open about two to three months. They were already in active preparations to open this unit and get it ready. After the war broke out, they immediately accelerated those preparations. And in a matter of 10 days, they've got this center up and ready. And within today, they can actually begin taking patients already. Just this morning, the floor I'm standing on was put in, but just we can show you inside some of these rooms and how they've retrofitted the area to make it more prepared for what they're dealing with, the influx of patients that they are expecting or at least preparing for. These rooms were also supposed to be single rooms. Now you can see these double tube valves for oxygen and other medical equipment. Now double rooms, so these rooms can now hold double the patients. And just to show you how quickly they have put this together. Again, the L of this operational as of today. This happened the last 10 days. And just to show you some of the sinks and infrastructure, we were told these sinks were put in. You can show this one. They said completely different because they basically grabbed anything that they could find to make it ready to take patients as soon as possible. Ziv Medical Center continues to launch these preparations and they're working really around the clock. Many of the workers here have also been evacuated from their communities in northern Israel and they continue to come here every day and try and get the preparations ready to take any number of patients that they're expecting and they're absolutely bracing for. Correspondent Mary McCauliffe, thank you very much for that thorough update there from the north. And still with me in studio, Professor Uzi Rabi. Something that has been quite interesting to notice is that there are prune Iranian campments, if you can put it that way, in Iraq that are trying to make their way through Jordan to the border to engage in some of these violent protests against Israel. Yes, the state of Israel is very much on alert at the moment on its north and its southern borders. But what about on its eastern border and how does this impact? You mentioned earlier, possibly rockets coming in from Yemen. We know that authorities with regards to the Houthis in Yemen are now threatening to be bombing Israeli ships. Well, so you can see actually that Iran is trying to just urge its proxies to do whatever they can. And the Houthis in Yemen is just one example or indication. You mentioned Jordan, and this is a very sensitive issue because, you know, while looking at the map and you know that when we talk about monarchical Jordan, this is kind of a buffer zone between Israel and everybody else with the between Israel and let's say bad guys, actually, ISIS, Iranian proxies, et cetera. It goes without saying that we should support the king in order to preserve his own rule. The situation in Jordan is not that easy because Muslim brothers and Palestinians alike are trying to capitalize on that. And they are raising the funding, the flame over what's going on in Gaza. They do talk about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is not there yet. But they are once again actually bringing it in. Listen, I mean, this is the whole story is becoming kind of a battle on the fate of the Middle East, on the future of the Middle East. And I dare say that what happens in Gaza has become a litmus test that could definitely tell us where are we heading to if Israel is going to remain determined and stick to its goal to eradicate Hamas. This would lead the way for a better Middle East. Remember, we talked about normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. All these things basically is trying to just, it's an attempt to hamper that. Once again, Gaza, Hamas, this actually such group like Hamas or organizations or whatever, Hezbollah, et cetera. These are the hindances for a better Middle East. And I dare say that it goes through that unless Israel is doing that fully and ultimately, we cannot talk about a better future, not for us, not for our neighbors. There are forces in the Middle East that would like actually to have kind of a different course, a different future for this region. We can't actually fulfill it as long as we have neighbors adjacent to us, such as Hamas, such as Hezbollah. So before we're going to actually talk about a better Middle East, the road actually leads to their eradication, annihilation, and there is no other choice. Professor, to be continued, but I want to go now to Jerusalem, where I'm joined by Tzipi Arom, a charity journalist, that we've been speaking throughout the morning about just the amount of unprecedented events in connection with Israel's war against Hamas. But what we're also seeing is an unprecedented mobilization. It's thousands of ultra-orthodox are now volunteering for the IDF. Just this morning, 150 Khareedim arriving at a recruitment office in Tel Aviv to do exactly that, to draft. Which is surprising and not surprising, because as you said, you know what, everybody is mobilizing themselves towards something that will help those who need help. Since the Suhathorah was over, and we started to grasp the magnitude of this event, everybody sprang into action. So you see people in action on civil places, like in hotels and other places that need help. And some people feel like they would be fulfilled better in the army. When I started checking out who is going there, you know what, I myself spread at the link so people could register and come there. And I know who came and asked, how could I do that? So it's mainly people who received a dismissal from the army ages ago through what Yehulah P. did in 2013. So they went on with the lives, and many of them are working. And they feel like, OK, anyway, I'm not working now. I'm working less because of the war. So they want to be in action. They want to be where they feel like they could fully fulfill themselves and give them to these nations' effort to survive. How does this fit into the narrative of ultra-orthodox refusing to serve in the army? I want to point out that the 150 volunteers this morning were mainly members of the Lithuanian sect. But there is a fortune of different factions within the ultra-orthodox community, and we can't generalize between all of them. But do they all hold the same narrative, or are there splinters that hold different viewpoints? I would like to repeat something that my colleague Ishae Koen said yesterday on Channel 12. This is not a chain of narrative about the importance of learning Torah. You see that those who came or not people who came from Yeshiba and they said, OK, I'm closing the Talmud and I'm coming to the army to serve there. Those are people who are already working, and they said, forget about what people around me might be thinking because, as you said, they are coming from the Lithuanian community, which is very strict about people who are going to the army. They are the hardest about people who are going to the army, unlike Sephardic people or Hasidic people who are different communities and they are more accepting people who are being drafted to the army. And they said, OK, now it's a time of war. This is where I can contribute, and nobody is going to say anything bad about them. I'm sure of that. I'm certain of that. I don't think it's going to last in that magnitude after the war. What I do think is that people who could do that and are not learning would think twice before they start working. I think they would first go to the army, which is something that I've been saying for years. If you can't sit and learn and contribute to our nation by learning, you should go to the army. So they are just taking on this attitude and going on with it. Sipi, in the last couple of weeks, even months, the criticism over the draft law and also perceived draft dodging has been immense. Is there a sense of remorse here or simply nothing more than deep patriotism and wanting to serve the nation? What is the motivation? You mentioned that a lot of them are coming from the fact that they've either already been told no by the army for previous drafts or the fact that they are working, but it's not just that sect that is specific near 150 this morning. There's over 2,000 people in this ultra-orthodox community that want to volunteer. What is their key motivation here? The feeling that we should be part of the war in any way that could be. And they ask. I see them on social media and already social media, which is mainly WhatsApp. They're asking, where can I contribute? Please put me in some place that I could give more than what I'm giving now, and so on. So if the army is opening its gates, and it's an initiative that was started by Rabbi Ramm Raavad, who was the rabbi of the Air Force in the past. And he felt like he could mobilize people into joining the army and give their part. They're not going to battle. They're going to support the battle, but they are in the back unit, not in the front unit. And they could give whatever they give, and they counter in order to do that. But it's not part of what was before the war. You know, war has different laws for all of us. And I don't think many people like the law even beforehand, meaning it was too harsh, like spitting in the faces of some people. And I'm not saying here that learning Torah is anything less, but the most important thing that it should be. I also don't think it's the way it was done in the law. And people felt that. So they are not coming against the law. This action is not going against the law. It's just merely, I'm a patriot, and I'm coming here. And they were not learning before. And many of them are saying, if you can sit on there and stay there. But my part is being there. And my two cents about it, I don't think this law is going to be even raised again in the Knesset once the war is over. Absolutely, no doubt. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds once the war is over. But first, Judy Calls. Sepia Romachareli, journalist. Thank you so much for joining me from Jerusalem. Thanks for having me. And still in the area, but moving now to the Dead Sea, where I'm joined by Dr. Edidi Mia Min Khan, a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist in humanitarian aid and intervention. Thank you very much for being with me. Firstly, you're in a location where thousands have arrived from the South, broken homes quite literally, but also families as well. What kind of trauma and grief counseling is currently being given to those people there right now? Hi, but yes, there's a huge response and people are being given a lot of trauma, emotional support, immediate support to help to stabilize people, to help them to be able to get through the next hour, the next day. There's a huge variety of people here who've been through different situations. But as we know, the entire country is in a state of trauma at the moment. We're in an ongoing traumatic situation where nothing's ended. We're not after. And so there's responses from where there's assistance to people who've been right in the middle of the most horrific experiences to people that have not themselves been directly affected, but are in danger if they're in the South and are also feeling extremely, are feeling extremely traumatized, nervous, hyper-vigilant. And there's help for all adults and children here, a most unbelievable response over here. I want to just point out to our viewers that while we're speaking to you, there are rocket alert sirens going off in the Gaza border communities. Now, the psychological effects here are enormous. The full-scale, possibly not even able to grasp right now, but the health ministry is encouraging Israelis to seek mental health support and avoid self-medicating. There also seems to be a shortage at the moment of antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds. Yes, well, in the case of that shortage and people being reliant on it, then I think the health ministry's suggestion is extremely good to take care of, to make use of the many, many services that are available to be helping people right now and to reach out if you are not doing that already. There's information on assistance in all of the major news channels, newspapers, online, et cetera. Do you think that the health ministry at the moment is equipped to manage this crisis? Uriel Menachem Busso from the Shast party appears to be in charge of the sector, who has a degree in law, but not necessarily medicine. Is the health ministry at the moment under the current coalition able to deal with this? I, at the moment, am accompanying Israel, international emergency aid organization, which usually is used to helping all over the world. And at the moment, never dreamed that we'd be working here in our own country with the most horrendous situation. And the response that I'm seeing right now is of many people in civil society, many people from different non-governmental organizations, as well as the health ministry, education, et cetera, all pulling together to give a response. This is an unprecedented time, unprecedented trauma. And also to think about it, that all of the people that are giving help, we are all in this situation together, all we're not used to going through the war together and all of the trauma that's occurred on the whole spectrum. And so I think that all of us have to know that everyone is doing the best that they possibly can in the current situation to be able to help those that need help and to help ourselves. Dr. Didi, Mia Mian Khan, a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist in humanitarian aid and intervention, joining me from the Dead Sea. Thank you so very much for your time and your analysis. Still with me in studio, Professor Uzzi Rabi. Uzzi, before we end the broadcast, I'd like to get your take on, we've listened to two guests at the moment, both from the Jerusalem area. It appears that politics is somewhat taking a back seat to the war at the moment, the draft law being pushed aside, the divisions in Israeli society being pushed aside and even qualifications to hold certain ministerial positions are just not important. Well, I hope that this is actually what we do have now and this is what we should have. Listen, Israel is going through a very, very bitter chapter in its history. This is kind of a real trauma. A lot is going to be written and said about what you see here. In my opinion, this is the second childhood of Israel. Or if you would like, say, second world of independence, why? Because Israel got a bitter lesson of what actually we have here. You can give a hand to whoever would like actually to talk to you as long as he doesn't hold kind of a very, very radical, facist ideology, which is sort of a blend with radical Islam that is trying actually to destroy you. Israel will have to get the lesson and be changed. Politics at this moment should be set aside. Why? Because we are fighting for our fate, our destiny. What is the meaning of being kind of a state named Israel? This is something that is being put to the question now. But what about the people that don't necessarily get that? I mean, you have the far right minister, the National Security Minister, Itzmeri Ben-Kivir, writing a letter to Netanyahu saying, why was I not included in this emergency cabinet? And where is my position? This is just mere and small politics. This is nothing when it comes to the big thing. Well, we have such voices. I'm sorry for that. But we have to take it into the account. Politicians are doing politics. It seems also when we are getting closer to a war zone or a war time, they would actually be punished for that. I'm pretty sure about that. For the time being, 80% of the Israelis are well tuned to, in what I would say, the sacred goal, annihilating Hamas. Israel should be unified. And we should come for the first time when it comes to this neighbor with kind of a fist that would let everybody know. Israel is still here. You know, the enemy was thinking that Israel is dwindling, that Israel is getting weaker and weaker. This is why by the way, actually, one of the reasons why they actually came up with that thing, we have to provide an answer to the neighborhood, to the Middle East. We have to provide the answer for ourselves because there's a huge breach between state and society. For all these reasons, we are in a moment which is very crucial in Israel's history. I don't want to be or sound melodramatic, but I do think that this is the moment where Israel should do what it should do. And this is very, very crucial for its future, for the next generations. I hope that Israel shall prevail. I hope that Israel shall do what it's, I mean, what it must do. And I do think that the bitter lesson actually in the long history of Israel is to become kind of a lesson from which actually Israel is going to change its modest operandi for better or for worse in our region. The underlying message, what was, is not what will be. Professor Ozirabi, thank you for joining me. Stay tuned. We'll have more on our breaking news coverage right here on the I-24 News Desk. I'm back to Lemonville. Thanks for joining me. It's day 17 of war here in Israel. The IDF launched overnight strikes on Hamas targets in the Garmadon region. We'll have more on our breaking news coverage right here on the I-24 News Desk. I'm back to Lemonville. Thanks for joining me. It's day 17 of war here in Israel. The IDF launched overnight strikes on Hamas targets in the Garmadon region. Killing senior members of the terror group as well. The continuing air campaign against Hamas also comes amid an attack on Israeli troops on Sunday operating in the enclave, which saw one soldier killed and three others hurt. The operation is part of the military's searches for bodies of missing Israelis and to clear the area for Israel's upcoming ground offensive. The IDF has just released a report on the hostages after notifying their families. The number of confirmed captives held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas is now 222. Meanwhile, the exchange of fire on its northern border with Lebanon continues to heat up. The Israel Defense Forces says it again targeted a cell of his volunteers in southern Lebanon attacked its military infrastructure and destroyed an anti-tank missile launch. Israeli media estimates that the number of Ghezbollah operatives killed thus far is over 30, including field commanders. And with me here in studio is Professor Uzi Rabi, the director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies at Tel Aviv University and a senior researcher at the Center for Iranian Studies also at Tel Aviv University. Firstly, good afternoon and thank you for being here. Before we go to the next slide, before we go to our correspondents on the north and the southern border to get an update on what the situation is like here in Israel, there's evidently a bigger angle to this conflict and that is Iran. We know that Ghezbollah is a direct proxy of Iran Hamas, not necessarily but is now getting funded in arms by Iran. How is this going to develop and is Iran actually going to finally take some sort of head on admission to the fact that they are involved in this war? We have long actually argued and talked about the octopus, Iranian octopus. Now we have kind of an opportunity to see how it works because when we talk about missiles coming from the Houthis in Yemen, when we talk about Ghezbollah that goes without saying, even Hamas and Islamic jihad and of course when it comes to Iraq and Syria, we do see the arms of the octopus. Iran would love actually to engage kind of a war of proxies against Israel because what Iran is having in mind is humping the process of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which in the end of the day actually aims at isolating Iran. But having said that, this is what is fascinating in what we have here. We started with a bilateral conflict between Israel and Hamas. Soon it appears that this is much more bigger and wider than that. It is regional and I even would say it has some global ramifications. You do see the United States here. This is unheard of the way actually United States is getting involved in it and the most important thing is to make sure that Iran is not capitalizing on what's going on here and there is kind of a warning sign coming from the U.S. against Iran and here is the bottom line. Iran is getting kind of an equation where stakes are getting higher which I do believe would make Iran to have a recalculation. Professor, stay with us. I want to cross now live to our correspondent Pierre Kloschenle, who is standing by for us in the south of Israel. Pierre Hamas has woken up. It was 14 hours and it was very quiet and calm but now the sirens are going off for the second time in just minutes in the south. Right, they were the first rocket alert, first rocket strike started at 11.30 35 minutes ago and then 10 minutes later another rocket strike. The cities targeted are Ashkelon and Kibbutzim in the area, Yad Mordechai, Mafki'im, Zikim Ucha and the northern edge of the Gaza Strip. But according to the rescue services of the Maghen David Adam, Israel there are no casualties in those two rocket strikes at the moment at least. Here in Sderot, the calm prevailed but immediately when the rockets were launched we could hear the roar of fighter jets going over Gaza and striking possibly the source of fire and we heard some explosions. Pierre just explains to our viewers because we constantly have correspondence down in the south in particular in Sderot, how far away from a shelter you are. The residents in Sderot of which now thousands have evacuated only have 30 seconds to get to a safe zone. Right, it depends where you are but here in Sderot we are 15 seconds away from a rocket impact. I think that French Cologne is about the same time 15 to 20 seconds away. It depends if the rockets were launched from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip which is harder and harder for the terrorist groups or if it's launched from the southern or central part of the Gaza Strip then it takes a bit longer. But people don't take any chance. The Homefront Command speaks about 15 seconds that's the time that we take for ourselves to look for cover. We're just like meters away literally from a shelter here. Thankfully for that. Corresponding Pierre Clashendlay giving us an update on the south. Thank you very much. Still with me here in studio, Professor Uzi Rabi. I want to continue the conversation with regards to the Iranian proxy because a concern that many are having is the same way that Russia has been given drones and Iranian weapons and we know that the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov is currently in Tehran meeting with officials there. Is there a possibility that we could be seeing Iranian weapons involved in this war? Are we already seeing Iranian weapons involved in this war? There is a possibility but as I said before actually that we have kind wider implications and it glows all over the globe and President Biden is his last speech actually in the middle of the map where you have the bad guys and good guys and the question to who is helping Iran out when it comes to economy in China politically is Russia. This is kind of an axis and all these proxies Iran actually has nurtured in the recent 40 years this is something that comes to fruition now and here is the question does Iran intent to get involved in the war in kind of a full volume I myself I think that Hezbollah was not given birth in order to rescue Palestinians in my opinion Palestinians actually means nothing for Iran and the cynical view and the strategy Iran or the method Iran is implementing is well known I say that Iran now is in kind of a stage of a recalculus because as I said before steaks are getting higher United States is here I think that they actually are made it very clear that if Iran is going to capitalize on what's going on in Gaza United States is going to retaliate we do see something in Iraq there actually three American soldiers were found dead because of Iranian militias we do see what happened with the missiles from Yemen and the interception of those by the US so yes we have wider ramifications but the one million dollar actually question still remains open does Iran intend to let Hezbollah or Hezbollah to come with kind of a full flower when it comes to this war I think that Hezbollah is just working beneath the threshold of war what Hezbollah is doing is kind of a war a small war and the Galilee I don't think he would go beyond that but here comes the thing we are in an area of war this is the arena of miscalculations and once Israel is in Gaza in the ground attack we are having a different opera so I would leave actually this question open I want to continue talking with you specifically about Iraq and Jordan and other nations that are getting involved here but I want to first cross to our correspondent Mary McCall of who is standing by for us more than Israel specifically at the Ziv Medical Center in Safat what can you tell us what is the latest happening there at the moment no doubt preparing for rockets as the south has just been hit by a barrage of them that's right but yes we haven't had any rocket sirens ring here in northern communities since about noon yesterday but they are still very much preparing for this we know they've been hit very hard by rocket fire in the last few days and that's why they continue to evacuate settlements and communities in this area which is absolutely in war footing conducting their preparations to try and be ready for taking in a number of different patients both civilians and soldiers alike we're actually standing here in a new wing which will be an intensive care unit I just want to show you back here part of their preparations this is an area that is completely missile rocket proof also chemical and biological weapon proof those are those vents you can see at the far end at the hall but this entire area was an area that was due to open about two to three months they were already in active preparations to open after the war broke out they immediately accelerated those preparations and in a matter of ten days they've got this center up and ready and within today they can actually begin taking patients already just this morning the floor I'm standing on was put in but just we can show you inside some of these rooms and how they've retrofitted the area to make it more prepared for what they're dealing with the influx of patients that they are expecting or at least preparing for these rooms were also supposed to be single rooms now you can see these double tube valves for oxygen and other medical equipment now double rooms so these rooms can now hold double the patients and just to show you how quickly they have put this together again the L of this operational as of today this happened the last ten days and just to show you some of the sinks and infrastructure we were told these sinks were put in you can tell show this one they said completely different because they basically grabbed anything that they could find to make it ready to take patients as soon as possible Z medical center continues to launch these preparations and they're working really around the clock many of the workers here have also been separated from their communities in northern Israel and they continue to come here every day and try and get the preparations ready to take any number of patients that they're expecting and they're absolutely bracing for correspondent Mary McCauliffe thank you very much for that thorough update there from the north and still with me in studio professor Uzzi Rabi something that has been quite interesting to notice that there are prune Iranian campments if you can put it that way in Iraq that are trying to make their way through Jordan to the border to engage in some of these violent protests against Israel yes the state of Israel is very much on alert at the moment on its north and its southern borders but what about on its eastern border and how does this impact you mentioned earlier possibly rockets coming in from Yemen we know that authorities with regards to the Houthis in Yemen are now threatening to be bombing Israeli ships well so you can see actually that Iran is trying to just urge its proxies to do whatever they can and the Houthis in Yemen is just one example or indication you mentioned Jordan and this is a very sensitive issue because you know why looking at the map and you know that when we talk about monarchical Jordan this is kind of a buffer zone between Israel and everybody else with the between Israel and let's say bad guys actually ISIS Iranian proxies etc it goes without saying that we should support the king in order to preserve his own rule the situation in Jordan is not that easy because Muslim brothers and Palestinians alike are trying to capitalize on that and they are raising the funding the flame over the what's going on in Gaza they do talk about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza which is not there yet but they are once again actually bringing it in listen I mean this is the whole story is becoming kind of a battle on the fate of the Middle East on the future of the Middle East and I dare say that what happens in Gaza has become a litmus test that could definitely tell us where are we heading to if Israel is going to remain determined and stick to its goal to eradicate Hamas this would lead the way for a better Middle East remember we talked about normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel all these things basically is trying to just an attempt to hamper that once again Gaza, Hamas this actually such group like Hamas or organizations or whatever Hezbollah etc these are the hindances for a better Middle East and I dare say that it goes through that unless Israel is doing that fully and ultimately we cannot talk about a better future not for us not for our neighbors there are forces in the Middle East that would like actually to have kind of a different course a different future for this region we can't actually fulfill it as long as we have neighbors adjacent to us such as Hamas such as Hezbollah so before we are going to actually talk about a better Middle East the road actually leads to their eradication annihilation and there is no other choice. Professor to be continued but I want to go now to Jerusalem where I am joined by Sippia Rom a Hariri journalist that we have been speaking throughout the morning about just the amount of unprecedented events in connection with Israel's war against Hamas but what we are also seeing is an unprecedented mobilization is thousands of ultra-orthodox are now volunteering for the IDF just this morning 150 Haridim arriving at a recruitment office in Tel Aviv to do exactly that to draft which is surprising and not surprising because as you said you know what everybody is mobilizing themselves towards something that will help those who need help since the Asyukha Torah was established and we started to grasp the magnitude of this event everybody sprang into action so you see people in action on civil places like you know in hotels and other places that need help and some people feel like they would be fulfilled better in the army when I started checking out who is going there you know what I myself spread the link so people could register and come together and I know who came and asked how could I do that so it's mainly people who received a dismissal from the army ages ago through what Yale PD in 2013 so they went on with their lives and many of them are working and they feel like okay anyway I'm not working now I'm working less because of the war so they want to be in action they want to be where they feel like themselves and give them to these nations effort to survive how does this fit into the narrative of ultra-orthodox refusing to serve in the army I want to point out that the 150 volunteers this morning were mainly members of the Lithuanian sect but there is a fortune of different factions within the ultra-orthodox community and we can't generalize between all of them but do they all hold the same narrative or are there splinters that hold different viewpoints I would like to repeat something that my colleague Ishaiko said yesterday on channel 12 this is not a chain of narrative about the importance of learning Torah you see that those who came or not people who came from Yeshiva and they said okay I'm closing the Talmud and I'm coming to the army to serve there those are people who are already working and they said forget about what people around me might be thinking because as you said they are coming from the Lithuanian community which is very strict about people who are going to the army they are the hardest about people who are going to the army unlike Sephardic people or Hasidic people who are different communities and they are more accepting people who are being drafted to the army and they said okay now it's a time of war this is where I can contribute and nobody is going to say anything bad about them I'm sure of that I'm certain of that I don't think it's gonna last in that magnitude after the war what I do think is that people who could do that and are not learning would think twice before they start working I think they would first go to the army which is something that I've been saying for years if you can't sit and learn and contribute to our nation by learning you should go to the army so they are just taking on this attitude and going on with it. In the last couple of weeks even months the criticism over the draft law and also perceived draft dodging has been immense is there a sense of remorse here or simply nothing more than deep patriotism and wanting to serve the nation what is the motivation you mentioned that a lot of them are coming from the fact that they've either already been told no by the army for previous drafts or the fact that they are working but it's not just that sect that is specifically 150 this morning there's over 2000 people in this ultra orthodox community that want to volunteer what is their key motivation here the feeling that we should be part of the war in any way that could be and they ask I see them you know on social media and already social media which is mainly WhatsApp they're asking where can I contribute please put me in some place that I could give more than what I'm giving now and so on so if the army is opening its gates and it's an initiative that was started by a rabbi who was the rabbi of the Air Force in the past and he felt like he could mobilize people into joining the army and give their part they're not going to battle they're going to support the battle but they are in in the back you start in the front units and they could give whatever they give and they counter in order to do that but it's not part of what was before the war you know war has different laws for all of us and I don't think many people like the law even beforehand meaning it was too harsh like spitting in the faces of some people and I'm not saying here that learning Torah is anything less but the most important thing that it should be I also don't think the way it was done in the law and people felt that so they are not coming against the law this this action is not kind against the law it's just merely I'm a patriot and I'm coming here and they were not learning before and many of them are saying if you can sit on there and stay there but my part is being there and my two cents about it I don't think this law is going to be even raised again in the Knesset once the war is over absolutely no doubt will be interesting to see how it unfolds once the war is over but first duty calls thanks for having me and still in the area but moving now to the Dead Sea where I'm joined by Dr. Edidi Mia Min Khan psychologist and trauma specialist in humanitarian aid and intervention thank you very much for being with me firstly you're in a location where thousands have arrived from the south broken homes quite literally but also families as well what kind of trauma and grief counselling is currently being given to those people there right now hi but yes there's a huge response and people are being given a lot of trauma emotional support immediate support to help to stabilize people to help them to be able to get through the next hour the next day there's a huge variety of people here who've been through different situations but as we know the entire country is in a state of trauma at the moment we're in an ongoing traumatic situation where nothing's ended we're not after and so there's responses from there's assistance to people who've been right in the middle of the most horrific experiences to people that have have not themselves been directly affected but are in danger if they're in the south and also feeling extremely are feeling extremely formatized nervous hyper-vigilant and there's help for all adults and children here a most unbelievable response over here I want to just point out to our viewers that while we're speaking to you there are rocket alert sirens going off in the Gaza border communities now the psychological effects here are enormous the full scale possibly not even able to grasp right now but the health ministry is encouraging Israelis to seek mental health support and avoid self-medicating there also seems to be a shortage at the moment of antidepressants yes well in the case of that shortage and people being reliant on it then I think the health ministry's suggestion is extremely good to take care of to make use of the many many services that are available to be helping people right now and to reach out if you are not doing that already there's information on assistance in all of the the major news channels newspapers, online etc Do you think that the health ministry at the moment is equipped to manage this crisis? Uriel Menachem Bousseau from the Shast Party appears to be in charge of the sector who has a degree in law but not necessarily medicine is the health ministry at the moment under the current coalition able to deal with this I at the moment am accompanying Israel to trade international emergency aid organisation which usually is used to helping all over the world and at the moment never dreamed that we'd be working here in our own country with the most horrendous situation and the response that I'm seeing right now is of many people in civil society many people from different non-governmental organisations as well as the health ministry education etc all pulling together to give a response this is an unprecedented time unprecedented trauma and also to think about it that all of the people that are giving help we are all in this situation together all we're not used to going through the war together and all of the trauma that's occurred on the whole spectrum and so I think that all of us have to know that everyone is doing the best that they possibly can to be able to to help those that need help and to help ourselves Dr Didi, Mia Mian Khan a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist humanitarian aid and intervention joining me from the Dead Sea, thank you so very much for your time and your analysis still with me in studio Professor Uzzi Rabi Uzzi before we end the broadcast I'd like to get your take on we've listened to two guests at the moment both from the Jerusalem area and the Israeli side and the Israeli side and the Israeli side and the Israeli side and even qualifications to hold certain ministerial positions are just not important well I hope I hope that this is actually what we do have now and this is what we should have listen Israel is going through a very very bitter chapter in its history this kind of a real trauma a lot is going to be written and said about what you see here in my opinion this is the second child of Israel or if you would like say second world of independence why because Israel got a bitter lesson of what actually we have here you can give a hand to whoever would like actually to talk to you as long as he doesn't hold kind of a very very radical facist ideology which is sort of blend with radical Islam that is trying actually to destroy you Israel will have to get the lesson and be changed politics at this moment should set aside why because we are fighting for our fate our destiny what is the meaning of being kind of a state named Israel this is something that is being put to the question now but what about the people that don't necessarily get that I mean you have the far right minister the national security minister Itzmer Ben Kivir writing a letter to Netanyahu saying why was I not included in this emergency cabinet and where is my position this is just mere and small politics this is nothing when it comes to the big thing we have such voices I'm sorry for that but we have to take it into the account politicians are doing politics it seems also when we are getting closer to a war zone or a war time they would actually be punished for that I'm pretty sure about that for the time being 80% of the Israelis are well tuned to in what I would say the sacred goal is that Israel should be unified and we should come for the first time when it comes to this neighbor with kind of a fist that would let everybody know Israel is still here you know the enemy was thinking that Israel is dwindling that Israel is getting weaker and weaker this is why by the way actually one of the reason why they actually came up with that thing we have to provide an answer to the neighborhood to the Middle East we have to provide the answer for ourselves because there is a huge breach between state and society for all these reasons we are in a moment which is very crucial in Israel's history I don't want to be or sound melodramatic but I do think that this is the moment where Israel should do what it should do and this is very very crucial for the future for the next generations I hope that Israel shall prevail I hope that Israel shall do what it's what it must do and I do think that the bitter lesson actually in the long history of Israel is to become kind of a lesson from which actually Israel is going to change its modest operandi for better for worse in our region the underlying message what was is not what will be Professor Ozirabi thank you for joining me today tuned we'll have more on our breaking news coverage right here on the I-24 news desk is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped help us we don't want to do we just don't know anything entire families including babies and children and elderly were butchered in their beds awaken the giant and we are strong everyone is showing up this is the unity Tel Aviv and welcome to I-24 news ongoing coverage of Israel at war I'm Ariel Levin Waldman on the southern front the IDF says they are increasing the intensity of airstrikes in Gaza hitting more than 320 Hamas and Islamic jihad targets in the last 24 hours with overnight strikes killing several senior members of the Hamas terror group as well it comes as a Hamas attack on Israeli troops on Sunday operating in the enclave killed one soldier and wounded three more the operation is part of the military search for the bodies of missing Israelis and to clear the area for Israel's upcoming ground offensive US media is reporting that pressure from inside the Biden administration has delayed Israel's promise ground offensive in Gaza the New York Times citing officials who claim the US is stalling to buy time for more hostages and negotiations and also to fortify US military assets in the region from expected Iranian-backed militia attacks once Israel launches its offensive in earnest the US has also cautioned Israel to have an exit strategy with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying just last night that Jerusalem needs a day after plan for who will rule Gaza after Hamas is destroyed meanwhile the exchange of fire up we're gonna jump in right now because apparently there is in fact a new rocket siren new launches from Gaza in the south on southern border communities like we've seen so much of in the past few days we're going to move now to the northern border as well an exchange of fire no okay we're gonna continue talking about the southern issue at the moment because that is a developing situation that we're going to come back to you as soon as there are some more details available on that the IDF also operating in the north targeting a cell of his bullet terrorists in southern Lebanon and attacking military infrastructure and destroying anti-tank missile launching teams Israeli media estimates the number of his bullet operatives killed thus far is over 30 including field commanders the IDF has also confirmed the number of hostages held by Hamas at least 222 this was mentioned at a military briefing just a short while ago let's take a quick listen 222 hostages this number is getting updated according to our intelligence gathering but it also stems from the fact that there are quite a few foreign citizens among them that it took us time to classify them and understand who these foreign citizens are this is part of the reason for the increase in the number I have just announced this is the number the families of 222 abductees have been updated we are in contact with all the families of the missing through the IDF officers who accompany them each family personally and closely we continue and will continue to act in all possible ways all possible ways in order to return the captives home safely and we are joined in studio by Doron Avital that is the lieutenant colonel reservist of the special forces of the IDF who has also served in just about every security position in Israel in the years since as well as in Israel's parliament but I want to actually focus first on your experience leading special forces because they are going to be a critical part of any hostage rescue operations once a ground offensive begins can you walk us through what the challenges are going to be and what the capabilities of these special forces are facing now the government and the decision makers and it's intertwined with the decision about the ground offensive but we have to take into account once the window of diplomatic negotiation ends and we go for a ground offensive that even then with the forces that enter there will be special forces that their mission would be dedicated to find the hostages and try to locate them negotiate if they are possible or kill the people that hold them we have to take into account the fact that there's more than 200 hostages I mean that they are scattered they are in different localities they must be under different even organizations and right now in the last two weeks a very well known general in fact a soldier of mine in its own alone was appointed as the general that is responsible for this part of the offensive so the intelligence gathering and the preparing of those dedicated forces to this mission is all in his hands good hands I should say and this would be one of the major major missions of any ground offensive once it starts Let's start with the intelligence side of things how do you actually find where the hostages are? Ok, so first of all we go back to the beginning where the terrible terrible sat back in terms of intelligence so intelligence has different venues but right now now that we see two weeks already I want to remind the audience about the interception of the exchange between the Islamic jihad and the Hamas about the bombing of the hospital when they acknowledged that they did it this is the kind of intelligence that Israel can generate through in those two weeks and this knowledge those are 200 people it's not like Gila Chalit a single abducted soldier hosted by one family nobody knows about it there must be some residue and some intelligence mentioning of them in some context I hope we gather it, I hope we'll get it the hostages can be on the move once there's a ground offensive very complicated but we have to take it into account and to create the machinery in terms of the task force the task, the forces, the mission, the intelligence the sync with the other forces in order to accomplish such a mission that Israel never, never in its history had to stand to think about Antebe the unit I commanded I was a young guy back then but Antebe this is a major great rescue operation of hostages but this is in a different magnitude this is a war zone a very hard task it's a war zone where your, the rescue targets are spread out there underground bunkers and the like walk us to the operational side what it actually might look like to get to them so every such unit there will be a few units and they will be scattered from different venues we'll have also a negotiation team somebody that talks Arabic you would follow some intelligence, some lead they will try to close the area of course when you have such a hostage taking area to really block it, locate it if there's a possibility of negotiation you start, if not you have to break in try to identify the hostages kill the kidnappers and take them out a big mission in the war zone definitely gonna be a very difficult mission exactly I think I can't think even in military history of a mission in this magnitude it's hard for me to locate in my memory but this is a great challenge we can think of other attempted rescue operation as special forces around the world have done but generally not not in this magnitude, but not in this magnitude we're talking about numbers different numbers, war zone army that is well situated in its bunkers and tunnels a big task and this comes in as the Israeli government is promising to begin a ground offensive in the very near future and we're hearing that there's a lot of pressure to delay it so that the negotiations for the hostages can move forward walk us through what that might look like as well because it sounds like there's a lot of different pressures in many different directions exactly it can be from abroad because we have many foreign hostages in this case which really changes the scenario we have of course the Biden administration that watches us very closely but I think also even the Israeli government I'm not sure whether there's some tension between the army who wants to act fast and go in and the political echelon and Bibi Netanyahu at the helm that are trying to be more careful and wait so there might be a window opening up using Qatar using Egypt but we shouldn't forget that the Hamas knows it just as well and he's using it in order to postpone any possible attack and also for the minute there's a limited window for how long we can hold the army in its readiness to enter and not start so it's really a dilemma a strategic dilemma many elements participating in the dilemma the army we have also the public, the families of the hostages foreign countries the political echelon of Israel a dilemma that I hope will be studied in the future when the outcome is reasonable but it's a challenge and we're going to return to this discussion briefly but first we are going to turn our eye to the southern border where correspondent Pierre Kloschen there is standing by in Oshkola and Pierre it's good to have you on the line with us, can you give us what the most recent updates from the front are well there's just been a rocket attack about seven minutes ago on the the locality of Nakhal Oz which is nearby Sderot approximately and in Bersheva which is the southern city of the Negev a city of 200,000 inhabitants we don't know, we don't have any reports of casualty at this point earlier on there was here in Oshkola a rocket attack an hour and a half ago and in the localities nearby Oshkola no casualties reported and after a 14 hour and a half lull in rocket firing again Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad are awakening so to speak and firing rockets on Israeli territory as it's been the case for the past 17 days now Pierre you are in Oshkola which is always one of the primary targets for Hamas' rocket attacks how are residents there coping with this state of warfare where there is a lot of difficulty again on the front line but this time it certainly seems that the military is ready to actually make a move right, there's been a lot of difficulties in Oshkola first of all it's the most impacted city in Israel with over 1067 rockets and that's an estimation from last week now the majority of 160,000 inhabitants do not have a private shelter now that stems from the fact that Oshkola is beyond the 7 km line front line and as a result it's not the same effort to protect the citizens as in Derot for instance where you have shelters in the street every 100 meters or so here in Oshkola there is not one single mobile shelter unit and we are near the municipality of Oshkola so the government decided to evacuate all those residents and there are about 20, 25,000 inhabitants who do not have a private shelter to evacuate them in Israeli hotels that was the plan last Thursday to be executed on Sunday which means yesterday the problem is the Ministry of Tourism who is in charge of evacuation of residents do not have enough room in hotel rooms the problem is that the government has not contracted enough hotels to host all those residents and now they are coming from the north, they are coming from the south there are 120,000 all in all at this point who have been evacuated from Oshkola are stuck in that bureaucracy for days now and with no glimmer of hope at this point because the government need to contract hotels in order that they open and in order to organize the evacuation of additional civilians from Oshkola and possibly from other places in the north operational challenges in our front if you expected Pierre we're going to come back to you over the course of the day as that situation changes but before anything else we are now going to turn an eye on the northern border as well where correspondent Mary McAuliffe is standing by what I understand just mere minutes ago there was an interception of something coming in from the Lebanese airspace that's right Arles we don't really have any details we don't even know where this happened we just have a short statement from the idea that they detected some kind of object aerial object coming in from the northern border in from Lebanese territory and that they fired a missile to intercept it and they said it was headed towards or at least it landed in an open area so sirens did not ring out those in the northern Israel communities who have been carefully monitoring their phones carefully waiting to hear if they have had any updates any rocket sirens as we've seen many over the past week or so there have not been any open sirens we haven't actually had sirens since about two o'clock in the afternoon yesterday that was in one community luckily there were no injuries reported from that attack but in the meantime we've continued to see Israel and Hezbollah and other Palestinian terror groups in southern Lebanon trading fire across the border Israel responding with both air strikes as well as anti-tank strikes and other different kinds of means at their disposal to try and attack these terror cells which they say continue to try and launch attacks into Israeli communities most of the Israeli communities in this northern part of the country have been evacuated including an additional 14 who were evacuated yesterday and we've been seeing since the beginning of the conflict the threats from Iranian back proxies particularly Hezbollah to open an entire new front with like a full scale commitment to this what sort of escalation have we seen over the course of the week at this point where does it stand with that the danger of that front? Sorry Arielle for now it seems to be contained to these tit for tat attacks between Hezbollah fighters or the other terror groups in the area firing into Israeli territory Israel fighting back in response the big question is if and when at what point are they going to decide to escalate this a bit further? Israel is of course bracing for this eventuality and very on high alert many of the forces here on high alert but we're here at the Mziv Medical Center in spots in northern Israel which is actively preparing to take in patients both civilians and soldiers alike and we can listen to a little bit about what professor Salman Zarka told us about how this hospital is getting ready Unfortunately being in this neighborhood close to an active border both with Lebanon and with Syria requires the hospital to be on high alert around the clock Preparing for war is part of our activity we do exercises with the home front command the northern command and the police we also following the lessons of the second Lebanon war protected various areas of the hospital then from the moment the state of emergency was declared and war was declared the main element of our work was to ensure that patients and staff were in a safe place that's why we re-examined all our activities now what could be closed we temporarily closed and we moved the rest of the activity to protected complexes So there you can hear how this hospital is very much on war front war fronting this medical center they're actively preparing for the eventuality of taking in many many patients but this is also a medical center to note that it was also hit in 2006 by a missile attack so they are very used to this conflict in the north and they're very actively preparing for it this is the outside of one of the buildings it is completely missile and rocket proof these are one of the six that have been taking in recent years and in recent decades to try and protect from this threat this is a new center inside of the hospital a new intensive care unit that was supposed to open in about two to three months but once the war broke out they massively accelerated that process and today it is open for business they just put the floors in today and already they said they're ready to receive patients and they are ready and waiting you bring up a good point there the readiness having to be increased at the last moment have there been a large call up of medical personnel not quite a reservist kind of deal but they have been asked to come to the events absolutely and you mentioned reservists one problem for staffing in this hospital is that many of the reservists have been called into active duty and to join the army so they have an additional challenge here of not only trying to get more additional staff while bracing for a war but they're already losing a significant number of their staff to those who have been drafted to the reserves so that's a main task for this hospital now many of them who live in northern communities that have had to have been evacuated with an American team of doctors who was sent here as part of a mission to try and help and assist and take off some of the burden that they are expecting here Mary thank you very much for the details from the north and we'll come back to you over the course of the day with updates from that front now we're going to return to the studio where we have Doron Avital the former commander of IDF Special Forces I want to discuss the operational challenges on the northern front as well now we've been saying for a long time we've been fighting a war on multiple fronts at once but the IDF was designed to repel an invasion by peer level threats on multiple fronts at once to actually project force into enemy territory in multiple fronts especially to fight insurgencies like they're going to be fighting against Hamas and against some of the irregulars of Hezbollah that seems to get an entirely different ballgame it's a challenge we shouldn't forget that we have also the West Bank we have a mini war in the West Bank going on for a year and now it intensifies so it's a challenge I would think we can and I think that's what the IDF project says though the Sadback really shook the confidence of many of our officers but we can I think the logic in the northern front is not to go pre-emptive strike there was this discussion in the beginning of the war but to really hold your fire there was those clashes but hold on, be prepared and once some threshold is being crossed by Hezbollah move full force, full-blown attack so this is the logic in the northern front and there we are prepared we can be surprised in this sense of course if there's a ground invasion, a ground offensive in Gaza this might move to Hezbollah to act in a dramatic fashion because right now the common wisdom and I dare to say common wisdom because the common wisdom failed us in Hamas the common wisdom is that Hezbollah doesn't want it to a full-blown war in the north but if we go ground offensive everything can change and the whole area can go to a different level of escalation, I think we are ready I think we have good generals in the north but it's a very serious situation two fronts, three fronts, it's hard we're talking about Gaza we're talking about the West Bank this is urban warfare, are there limits to what the Israeli Air Force can really accomplish here for sure, urban warfare I'm myself a veteran of the 82 war in Lebanon we were fighting at Beirut urban warfare is the worst, the hardest challenge an infantry or commando can have because you don't know all the venues you have the heights of the buildings it's a terrible, terrible puzzle that you have to untie as you fight the war a big challenge to every army we know it from the history, military history and we know it from our own history as we were fighting in Beirut, Lebanon in 82 in any other front so of course, Gaza would be a harder challenge fighting in the Gaza city in this respect I always feel more confident surprisingly enough the Hizballah is much stronger than Hamas in the northern front because there we can command the landscape or the topography better but still a challenge on all fronts absolutely and looking at that challenge particularly in Gaza it's not simply urban warfare underground city, a tunnel for ambushes and the like what is the possible strategy to tackle that? First of all let's say this is the whole underground infrastructure this is the main challenge also this is why we can't hit them completely with our air force and if you think military history it might remind us in the Vietnam war the tunnels in the Vietcong was digging so in the last 10, 15 years the idea to bring itself to such warfare with technology with techniques with operation procedures still a challenge I think key to a challenge like this is indeed the intelligence how well we know exactly how the structure works the geometry of those tunnels the depth, the size, the location and I hope we have enough intel to go on to this and meet this challenge as we've said the conventional wisdom is that is when Hezbollah is likely to commit to the fight 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel are their primary targets going to be these really military facilities or are they just going to rain down on cities with the attempt to cause maximum casualties? I think based on the past they would do both of course the military targets would be well protected in terms of interception of our iron dome and other missiles that we have in our disposal I think the real fear that we have is that citizens would be hit dramatically in cities like Haifa and other places deep in the heart of Israel I think the evacuation procedure that we started is important because we really succeeded to take great summer population deep into the country but of course we can't do it forever we can't evacuate Israel unfortunately or not unfortunately this is our homeland and we have to fight for it so this is a major challenge the arsenal of missiles different types with accuracy which is new to us we didn't see in the previous exchanges this would be a very hard challenge and for our audience I want to choose the concept of attrition that they're going to be firing at us but we're going to be knocking out their equipment at a high rate how fast can we knock out that artillery I think it will take it I don't know how fast because it was hard to identify all the missiles the location of all the missiles and where they were from do they launch it but I think what we did in the previous war the 2006 we had we really were prepared to demand the missiles that have the the biggest the greatest range and the highest accuracy and to target them first and then the arsenal that they have so how fast it would be it wouldn't be a war of days it would take time and people should be prepared for these very citizens definitely hard days ahead, thank you Daron we're going to turn now to the funeral for 20 year old medic Yerin Pelle taking place this week after she was gunned down by Hamas terrorists in Nakhal Oz during the massacre of October 7th I-24 Emily Francis was there for this terrible ceremony two weeks after being gunned down by Hamas terrorists 20 year old female IDF combat medic Yerin Pelle was finally able to be given the Jewish burial she deserves Pelle a blue-eyed brave beauty was on IDF medic duty at Kibbutz Berry when the terror attack occurred she heeded the call to the Nakhal Oz massacre and was shot and killed she fell in defense of the homeland and its residents she enlisted into the medical call out of a great love for healing together with her friends but her heart and soul were with the Maghen Davida Dome also known as Mada Israel's national red cross where at 15 she began as a youth volunteer paramedic and continued to volunteer on weekends and on vacation days away from her military service as you can see from the sea of white shirts with the red star of David her legacy lives on moments before she left for Nakhal Oz she penned a note that if she should die she would like for everyone from Maghen Davida Dome to honor her at her funeral with the signature attire Mada Yerin was for you more than ideology simply put it was the way of life you chose Yerin's grieving mother called her a superhero who lived 20 years of magic go now and shine like the sun you have wings fly far away mom and dad love you most in the world and are proud of you forever and ever her sisters called Yerin their light and now their guardian angel sister how do we part through the love of my life with the most beautiful eyes and the best laugh in the world I don't accept the fact that I will never see you again at the Sevillon military cemetery Emily Francis, I-24 News and this is all coming as Israel's government is facing one of the worst almost a refugee crisis inside Israel with 200,000 internally displaced people coming up later in the show as a lot opens a massive tent city to try to rehouse temporarily many of the evacuees from Israel's north and south where the cities have come under fire and have been forced to evacuate by order of the military to reduce the possibility of civilian casualties in the days ahead as the military operations begin to heat up on both fronts more on this and so many other stories as we come back from a short break we'll see you in just three short minutes 400 people murdered and more than 3,000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first-hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside scoop on what's going on only on I-24 News it actually starts from scratch and the way that it works is it generates this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior good evening ladies and gentlemen thanks for staying with us as we continue our coverage of the war you can see behind me on screen just a small selection of faces these are the faces of some of the 222 Israelis that were kidnapped by Hamas and dragged back into Gaza by those terrorists during the October 7th massacre we're going to have more on the difficulties and the challenges ahead for the hostages and for all the world working together to try to rescue them but before that we are going to turn our eye directly to the front where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Oshkolon Pierre walk us through what the latest developments in this war are well there's been according to the IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Agari over 320 air force attacks on Gaza on the Gaza Strip in the north, in the center and the south one tunnel was eliminated and was harboring tens of terrorists that were preparing to repel the Israeli ground assault as far as we understand from the IDF spokesperson in addition overnight there was a small scale incursion by Israeli armored vehicle and infantry in order to neutralize anti-tank terror squads and also score the area for IEDs in advance of potential ground invasion and at the same time also looking for signs of missing people or of the whereabouts of hostages something that dropped from their pockets anything that could indicate something about the fate of the hostages and the missing Israelis that no one knows about and they're above 100 people missing in this country 17 days after the war now we've heard an explosion and that's probably an outgoing turret Gaza earlier there were rockets alert in Ashkelon which has been the hardest hit city in the whole country but there were also rocket alerts in the vicinity of Ashkelon and then in the largest city in the Negev desert Bersheva 200,000 inhabitants was also targeted but from the rescue services of the Israeli Maghen David Adam there are no reports of casualties. Pierre you mentioned that incursion force that went in to clear our cities to look for any signs of the hostages. Do we have any indication if this is the first such operation and if this is just a sign of things to come? No I think that there are almost nightly such operations scoring the western part of the Gaza Strip which is actually adjacent to the border fence but on Gaza territory that's been going on it's been even confirmed by the Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Agari it's been confirmed today it's been confirmed at the onset of the war a couple of days after October 7th but I think that it's something that happens all the time there are you know units transparent units so to speak who are probably also combing the area for signs of the whereabouts of the hostages in addition something which he mentioned which the spokesperson mentioned they've captured terrorists who participated in the October 7th massacres and bodies but these terrorists that are still alive are obviously interrogated by the Shin Bet security services in order to try and extract from them any information not only about the deployment of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip and locations of bunkers and ammunition depots and command centers but also about the hostages Pierre Rat come back to you over the course of the day as the situation over there develops until then though we are going to turn back to the studio where we have Lieutenant Colonel Daron Avital former commander of IDF Special Forces we've been talking about the operational issues in all the operations of this and we're hearing right now about the attempts to prevent the West Bank from becoming a third front the topic we have discussed we're hearing suddenly 800 arrests since the beginning of this operation so far I think the West Bank is a challenge and I want to remind all of us that the last year we had a mini war in the West Bank every night also there was terror acts clashes and so on with our units in fact this really took our attention from the Jihad operative was working in the West Bank and then we said to our several Hamas is playing his hands only in the West Bank so the first thing that we did once those events they erupted this terrible attack was to block all Hamas operatives that we know those preventive arrests chasing them we had even an attack on two terrorists that were about to do some to initiating some terror attack in a mosque and we even used the air force in this context so we are very careful that the West Bank won't won't go in flame or won't wake up militarily it's a very important challenge for us and we saw over the past year that the capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank have been massively increasing attempting to set up their own rocket squads and units there is the West Bank in fact harder to prevent materials from getting into think what we had in the last year more than a year or so we had the PA the Palestinian Authority weakening and we have to take some blame for this also and they really lost handle on the northern Samaria and all those events were really coming from the northern Samaria including this rocket shooting to the Israel Valley in the north and so on so they really got materials they were trying to really equip themselves in a military fashion weaponry a lot of weapons shootings on the roads and this is the mini war we were conducting but unfortunately we didn't see the menace that is coming from the south. That's a big challenge for intelligence going forward but that's for after the war before we discuss that though we are going to turn our eye back to the northern front where a correspondent Mary McAuliffe is standing by Mary what is going on on the northern front for now Hi Ariel, yes it's been a bit of a choir day than once they've had in recent days for many of these communities in northern Israel it's been about 24 hours since we last had sirens ring out in this area but that does not mean that it has been without incidents here. We continue to see Hezbollah and other terror groups in southern Lebanon striking into Israeli territory Israel then responding with force against those assets so we also heard this morning the IDF saying that overnight it had struck a cell that was trying to launch an attack into Shlomi this is an area in northern Israel this is an evacuated community many of the communities here in the north have been used to be on high alert footing here in the north as we continue to see these incidents and continue to hear warnings including from Iran warning them that they are prepared to strike Haifa if the time comes this is what the deputy chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps said earlier speaking to students at the University of Tehran saying that they are ready and prepared feeling if the time comes they will not hesitate to attack Israel so Israeli forces we can feel them all throughout the area definitely on high alert here in the north as we continue to hear warnings and we are really focused in watching to see what happens here along this border Mary we've seen over the course of the past two weeks the exclusion area that the army has been evacuating from the north increasing originally from two kilometers to five kilometers has bought increasing the range of their fire progressively in this and now threatening to strike Haifa this escalation how concerned is the military forces in the north and the northern border are really always on high alert this is an area that many in the security establish are really keeping an open eye on because they've had multiple skirmishes with Hezbollah multiple wars where they have fought against them since 2006 this was an area where we're standing in spot that was heavily hit by rocket fires fired from southern Lebanon especially we're actually the Z medical center which itself was hit by rockets the medical staff here working around the clock in this situation but watching what's happening on the border certainly the hospital staff here is making sure that they are prepared you can see we're inside a trauma center where they have many beds set up taking a number of different steps also to add additional wings that are in more bunkers so protectionary units and different units that are missile proof attacks from chemical weapons biological weapons missile attacks all of that are potential eventualities here so this is something the security forces as Mary I guess the follow-up to that being with Hezbollah increasing its range increasing its threats and now the possibility of this massive escalation we've seen them targeting specifically sensor arrays intelligence gathering posts observation points that the IDF has on the border is there a fear amongst the military establishment that there is going to be a decrease in readiness and ability to respond because of these hits right now the message that we're hearing from Israeli military is that they are prepared to respond to any circumstance that's going to erupt here on the north whether it is a security situation in the south or security situation here in the north they are heavily watching the area and making sure that they are prepared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was here yesterday he visited with troops giving them words of support and encouraging them and also telling them that while one job is to hold line here as well as trying to get the potentiality that might break out in this war but of course we can just see heavy presence of Israeli troops heavy machinery along the border many of the kaboots in areas in the northern communities have already been evacuated but also guards people who live in the kaboots simply taking up their own arms deciding to protect the kaboots themselves fearing that perhaps there could also be infiltration attempts like we saw down south two weeks ago Mary thank you very much for the explanation of the situation on the agenda but first we are going to turn to Daron Avital former commander of the Special Forces the IDF one of the things that our reporter mentioned was the possibility of chemical weapons being used in the attacks we know that Hezbollah in Syria has access to them because we know there was a factory in Syria plans that were found on some of Hamas operatives show that there were plans to make improvised chemical weapons that disperse cyanide gas the threat of chemical weapons being used in this area and if they are used what must Israel's response be first of all I don't there are so many surprises in this in the last few two weeks I don't undermine a threat my feeling and what I know this is not a threat that has such an effect in this that can change the course of the battlefield whatever means they have I'm sure they have a limited capacity but I don't want to be a prophet we would do too many surprises but as I know whatever they have it's not something that can really change the course of the battlefield and threaten us dramatically they have enough conventional weaponry missiles with conventional explosive that can do great damage to Haifa you mentioned and to other sites in the depth of the seat of Israel we shouldn't forget Israel is a very small country very narrow the distances are nothing even you talk about Elat the Khoutis shooting from Yemen they there's no escape in this small country for in this same missile oriented warfare that we are that we are living in so I think this is the real threat right now and we're discussing the threat now but now we have to move to the question of the day after what is going to happen to Israel's border communities that were annihilated by Hamas's massacres and this what happens to the faith in the state that was meant to protect Jews from genocidal enemies then no one will be able to rebuild itself and we'll be able to rebuild its trust in its role as a Jewish state well with us now is Amit Solvi the chairman of Kamutz Berry joining us from a hotel next to the Dead Sea where he and his family were evacuated to I mean thank you for being with us I know words cannot describe I know words cannot describe some of the things that you have seen on October 7th I understand that your own story and your own survival was a very very challenging experience from that day can you walk us through just what your own personal experience was Oh my experience was a little bit not so heroically like the other families in Berry I was just tried and flipped myself from the shelter house hiding in a bushes near my house in the bushes for 12 or 13 hours till the army comes and stood by my head then I asked them I shout I'm a citizen don't shoot and that's it so mine was a little bit not so heroic they came to my shelter house a bomb I put some explosive and I opened the windows of the shelter house I saw the head of Hamas looking inside and tried to took a bomb grenade and threw it in I closed the windows on him I rushed through the door of the shelter house to the living room from the living room to the backyard hide in a pier between me and the other house and dunk into a a trench of bushes near my house I don't know five meters from house and hide them hide there for 12 hours or so hearing them at my house hearing them they got my house walking on grass two meters from me luckily they didn't look for me and I stayed there for 12 hours till the army was on my head and took me in a safety that was my story but the story around me was a horrible disaster unbelievable butchers so undescribed undescribed and that's unfortunately the memory that's going to be stuck with many Israelis for a very long time which raises the question how are Israelis ever going to feel safe in these border communities again? I mean are there plans to rebuild Barry after this? yes of course we are full ahead forward manage the community here and we have committees for everything you know it's an old keyboard very established keyboard 77 years old and we know how to build the keyboard again and we push forward to it but I don't think something has to be changed in a border we're looking forward to the government decision we're coming back till there's no rifle any one rifle in the Gaza Strip so Gaza Strip has to be cleaned from all the terrorists the Hamas, the ISIS and all these groups that threaten to the western world to the western community to the western knowledge to the western I don't know how to describe it yet but we'll come back and we will do it again that's for sure with the help of the government of course we need a lot of resources but the people here in Barry not all of them but the majority wants to come back to rebuild the keyboards and this is my home there is nothing else like home so it takes time and it'll take some effort and maybe four families will come and join us then 40 families then 60 then 400 and by the end of a year or two or three Barry we will be again on the soil that's I'm sure that's a message that's inspirational to Israelis right now wondering how they are going to go on to rebuild we come back no question about it no question about it some of our community will come and join us some of them not a lot of family will turn apart a lot of families was diminished no one left in the family mother father two kids not in the earth anymore their torn families their father mother two kids it's unbelievable situation but we are a community we hold each other and embrace everyone and embrace each other and our main goal as a leading of this community we we're trying to we will build the infrastructure that everyone we can join us I hope there will be a lot I know some of them are not but it's very very depend what will be happen in our border I agree with that Foley and your story of survival is a harrowing one your story of resilience is a testament to the Israeli spirit in these hard times thank you very much for that resilience and for telling your story to us thank you and we are going to move from the story of Israelis here to the story of Israelis trying to combat the message abroad as countless pro-Palestinian protests have erupted around the world Israelis are trying their best to provide a supportive narrative against that our correspondent, Nicole Zedek has reported on how people are taking to the streets to show their solidarity for the state of Israel we are to remember those who have passed the Hebrew words ring through the streets of London where roughly 20,000 people wagging Israeli flags and hold pictures of the more than 200 hostages still held by Hamas I'm sure they do everything in their power to get back the people taken, kidnapped but at the end of the day they have to deal with Hamas they have to it can never ever happen again my family win the holocaust and my grandmother died in Auschwitz we said never again it's kind of never, we can never let it happen again the emotional, yet peaceful demonstration a very different scene of pro-Palestinian protests that took place earlier with an estimated 100,000 demonstrators in London chanting anti-Israel sentiments while mass anti-Israel protests like this one have erupted around the world many foreign leaders say their country as a whole doesn't share the same message we say to our friends in Israel and to all Jews you are not alone we stand by your side in these terrible hours your pain is our pain the same pain in Europe also felt in the United States it's really the gathering is to come together and to share our feelings about what happened two weeks ago to our brothers and sisters in Israel and it's painful for each one of us so it's really to show our support that the nation of Israel we are here with them images around the world of communities coming together sharing their pain for the people of Israel and with us now in studio is our correspondent to help us understand more about just the face of these protests that we're seeing around the world we use the word pro-Palestinian that's not entirely accurate we've seen some that are explicitly pro Hamas explicitly pro genocide the face of these protests is varied but it's disturbing in all of these aspects it's absolutely disturbing you even see those images of them waving the al-Qaeda flag so as you said they're absolutely pro Hamas and many of the protesters who are out here completely own up to it they say of course yes we support their right to resistance to resist the state of Israel and in their words the atrocities have committed so when they're chanting through the streets saying stop bombing Gaza what they really are meaning is stop targeting Hamas terrorists in Gaza so then by definition by stopping bombing those Hamas terrorists if you truly are pro-Palestinian as you just stated what many of these pro-Palestinian demonstrators claim to be then you would support freeing the Palestinians from Hamas this is such an issue when you're taking a look at just the different images that we see from these these pro-Israel vigils in a sense it's people coming out and praying for the innocent lives that were lost by the atrocities that were committed on October 7 versus you look at the images of these pro-Palestinian pro Hamas protests erupting around the world they're violent they're angry they're calling for the destruction of Israel even if they don't necessarily know what they're calling for free Palestine and chanting from the river to the sea let Palestine be free let's hear what one of these protesters had to say from the river to the sea Palestine will be free what happens to Israel oh please don't touch my microphone that's not okay you're not going to tell us what happens to Israel will you tell us what happens to Israel if Palestine is free from the river to the sea what does that mean settler colonialism is the real terrorism Nicole the silence there speaks volumes but I think we do have a clear answer because a Harvard Harris poll that was published this week of young Americans that's between 18 and 34 found that about fully half of them fully support the massacres as justified the massacres of October 7 and of the people that support them about 20% of them still acknowledge that it was an act of genocide but support them anyway it's shocking what we are seeing especially as you said that that poll that came from Harvard from many of these college campuses you absolutely see that they agree that they recognize that what happened was atrocious an act of genocide an act of Hamas in their words they might not be terrorists Hamas militants let's say invading Israel acting as a sign of resistance and those innocent lives that they killed they say okay but it's their right to resist so the hypocrisy also Ariel I think is what's truly baffling because you see these protesters claiming that they care about innocent lives clearly that's not the case because if you care about innocent lives you'll care about the innocent Israeli lives along with the innocent Palestinian lives but that is not what we are seeing people stand up for yes the innocent Palestinian lives but also Hamas terrorists that's what they're standing up for they are not standing when we see these protests London for example 100,000 people in support of Hamas in support of Palestine in support of Gaza 20,000 in support of Israel so the numbers it just is not even equal we're not seeing that same support and it's a very frightening time for many people in these cities as well because they're seeing not just this anti-Israel sentiment but by definition that anti-Israel anti-Zionist sentiment is anti-Jewish sentiment as well and so people are very frightened right now and Nicole we're going to have a lot more on this topic and similar ones over the course of the show but we are going on break for the next three minutes we're going to see when we get back as we discuss more facets of Israel at war and all the ramifications of those various fronts and of course the ramifications around the world as well we'll see you again soon 1300 people murdered and more than 3000 injured and the war with Hamas continues we bring you first hand testimonies from the front lines from those who survived and all the records of the atrocities by Hamas follow us as Israel fights terror from the south and north get the inside and what's going on only on i24 news this random body that kind of looks like a sponge and it evaluates its behavior phrases that you know from where they come from see here and the package and load that you know where they go in international loadings to your people in rd access our website www.recargas.tis.com.co select loadings and type the number and place the loadings also they receive the double loadings of 8 dollars more at tis the global network of the dominicans we're returning to our coverage of the war that is the one going on and in the south the IDF is saying they have been increasing the intensity of air strikes in Gaza hitting more than 320 Hamas and Islamic jihad targets in the last 24 hours with overnight strikes that killed several other groups as well it comes as Hamas has intensified their attacks such as attacks on Israeli troops on Sunday operating in Gaza an attack that killed one soldier and wounded three more the operation was part of the military's search for the bodies of missing Israelis and to clear the area for Israel's upcoming ground offensive there's US media reports circulating that pressure from inside the Biden administration has delayed Israel's promised ground offensive in Gaza that's in the near time citing officials that the United States is stalling to buy time for more harsh negotiations and to fortify US military assets in the region from expected Iranian militia backed attacks that's supposedly going to start as soon as Israel launches its offensive on the ground in earnest the US has also cautioned Israel that Israel needs to have an exit strategy with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying just last night that Jerusalem needs a day after plan for who's going to rule over Gaza Hamas is destroyed meanwhile the exchange of fire on the northern border with Lebanon is heating up as well the IDF saying it targeted a cell of Hamas Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon and attacked military infrastructure destroying an anti-tank missile team Israeli media estimates the number of Hezbollah operatives killed thus far is over 30 which includes some field commanders the IDF has also confirmed the number of hostages held by Hamas has risen to at least 22 and we are going to discuss some more of the US relations angle here that's because for more than two weeks Israel has been promising a decisive ground operation in Gaza that will destroy Hamas once and for all that has not materialized yet the IDF says they're still preparing the way with an air bombardment campaign against terror infrastructure in the strip but those new reports we just mentioned say that the United States is putting pressure on Israel not exactly plotting orders but cautioning that a strategy is needed and that they are seeking more time this a report from the New York Times saying that America just wants the time to get some of those hostages released or at least negotiate and also possibly to fortify various US assets in the region for more on this we have a panel in studio to discuss that would be Rafael Urochalmi former senior intelligence officer with the IDF and former ambassador Michael Oren I want to open with you Michael because you have been on the diplomatic front for decades you know exactly what it looks like we say the United States is applying pressure what does that mean in this case that means they're advising us warmly and in a very amicable way advising us this would be but you have to see what's written behind the amicable words is listen we're doing all this for you we've moved two major carrier groups into your region our destroyers took down three Israel bound rockets fired from Yemen the other night we're actually engaged in your behalf we are sending you tens billions and billions of dollars in aid we are standing up to pressure from even within our own party the United States is going to say to impose a ceasefire to demand a ceasefire we're asking certain things for you so yes they've been asking for the morning after a scenario they've been asking almost since the first day and by the time there's a fight with Hamas the Americans always ask us what's your end game and that's a very hard question for Israel because frankly there are many people in the Israeli government today who would not like to see the Palestinian Authority back in Gaza keeping it nice and divided and the Palestinian Authority didn't do so well last time it was there it was overthrown by Hamas the question about the humanitarian corridor to the Palestinian refugees in southern Gaza and you know this question of how much time do you need to maybe get some of those hostages out and Hamas is very very clever they're going to do it drip drip drip drip drip starting with the foreign national starting with American nationals they're not stupid right Aral and that's going to put pressure on Israel to a ceasefire a ceasefire for the state of Israel I can't say this more explicitly a ceasefire is death it means Hamas wins Hamas wins they get away with killing 1400 of our of our citizens and I don't know how inhabitable this place remains after that so we can't agree to that and the United States seems to have acknowledged that because they've said that they know that they're not going to be able to stop a ground offensive from happening they've said that Hamas needs to be destroyed so it seems like right now it's just a matter of time how much of a window are we looking at that well I roughly I'm sure Rafael is going to comment on this in the military aspect I think it's obviously we can't keep through the 60,000 reservists mobilizing definitely these are economy 20 30 years old it's immensely expensive the army will say and I don't want to preempt you in any way we'll say well we need this time to clear away more of the buildings we this time to gather intelligence we need this time to train more of our troops and make sure they have all the equipment but I still think we're up against the clock and I see it in the international press as the narrative has changed from Jewish suffering is really suffering to Palestinian suffering and that generates pressure on governments that will find expression eventually in the Security Council and that the UN and other international buys will try to impose the ceasefire ceasefire is death that that's the clock and it's not it won't tick indefinitely and Rafael that same question to you in a sense since we know there is a clock how long is the clock how long did Israel have before it has to act with all due respect to the American support that we are very grateful for and their concern about the hostages and the mobilization of the region really the military have to decide if and when they enter Gaza on their own accord there might be like for instance a window of opportunity that might entice us to go immediately into action because it might not present itself again they seem to have been such a window of opportunity a few days ago but he didn't get the approval the government the government the army was ready to go so we also had something happening in the north similarly that the army asked the minister of defense asked the authorization of the cabinet and the prime minister and didn't get it but at some point the army will have to say that's it we cannot wait any longer in my opinion we can wait another day or two we cannot hold these troops of course the economical impact and the fact that we have so much reserve but also the capacity for fighting of our troops these guys they've been there for days waiting waiting to go they're dying to go even though they know it's dangerous they're dying to do the job there is an objective we do hope that the objective will remain the annihilation of Hamas that it will not change because the objective right now as it's been defined in words it's very vague nothing's been said and everything's been said the handling the capacity this is rubbish we want to destroy the Hamas and if we have to do so there is an objective there is a way to reach it there is the motivation of the troops there is the full support of the Israeli public opinion and believe me when if tomorrow morning we decide that we want to attack and it's not really what the Americans expected they won't let us down and they won't have any other choice than to continue supporting us because without us they have dreams of stabilizing the region and God knows what go down the drain so you have to understand that we also have some kind of leverage we're very grateful everything's fine but it's our country it's our security and they know that and Joe Biden is a friend of ours so we try to do the utmost to give a chance to the hostages negotiations to appeasing to also have the American Army organize itself because right now they're a little changing the scenario they see that they might get involved against their will the American interest in the Middle East might be attacked American soldiers might be killed by some rocket and then another scenario altogether so all in all I think time has come for at least our government because our army have no doubt about it is ready to to do the job to understand that okay we have to to be with the Americans and we certainly don't have anything to think about the public opinion and the media in the world the photo opportunities that can come after people will hate us anyway and accuse us anyway so why you know take care of that we have to take care of the priorities and we have to understand that the army is ready all the orders have been authorized by the high command all the orders of March from the smallest operation to the larger strategy everything is in place people have to go now have to move their train there is enough intel of course the time that passes is good in one way is that we bomb more and more and it's makes it a little less dangerous for our ground troops but that's it at some point we need to have some kind of effect of surprise an initial shock that will you know discourage the Hamas I count on an initial shock that will entice some Hamas fighters to surrender because we know them they're not all of them fanatics and heroes as you think some of them are just cowards and if the initial shock is strong enough convincing enough some of them will just drop their weapons and go to the south or surrender so all this put together means that we now have to make our own decision thank you America, thank you the world now Israel is anyway on its own for now we're on our own right now we have that support but it's a logistical defensive support on the offensive but it's our offensive so it's our decision and I'm going to pass this one back to you Michael because at some point as you know Israel is going to have to make a decision they're going to have to make a cold calculus that once somebody is taken by Hamas we don't usually get them back and when Israel makes the decision and goes in there's going to be blowback especially if the Americans are trying to negotiate for their own citizens back if they can what's going to happen afterwards what's not going to look like it's going to happen very quickly it doesn't almost happen last week with the hospital event where the entire media jumped to the conclusion what I call a triple lie one that Israel bombed a hospital Israel didn't do it it wasn't a hospital it was a parking lot and the 500 Palestinians were killed apparently the number is much lower they're eager for that and as an army moves into Gaza I think we'll both speak of experience here the chances of an artillery shell or a aerial bomb hitting a civilian target and killing a large number of civilians that will get immediately in the press can impact the course of the war will be blamed for that it's what I call the Khfarkana syndrome there was twice in Khfarkana and Lebanon where such a thing happened and impacted our military operations there that's in one aspect also the hostages if hostages aren't rescued we will then be blamed it's the crazy flip where basically Hamas is holding us hostage Hamas is holding the world hostage and we'll be blamed for that we have to brace ourselves and I think is really a public opinion has internalized that yes we're going to be condemned but we have no choice we're going to have to proceed again, no ceasefire destroy Hamas and then the morning after we'll see we'll see whether that decision be made to bring the PA back or have some kind of an inter-Arab force or an international force I don't think Israel wants to be caught an open-ending occupation there but that is down the road first we have to get through this period brace yourself it's going to be rough absolutely we're going to continue this discussion in a brief moment but first we're going to turn our eye to the southern border where our correspondent Pierre Kloschenler is standing by in Ashkelon if I understand Pierre there was just some more rockets sounding in border communities five minutes right absolutely but in the localities that are facing the southern Gaza Strip which is about 60 or 50 kilometers from where we are standing here in Ashkelon we haven't heard reports of casualties what we've heard of is that at 1130 when there was a rocket salvo over Ashkelon which is the hardest city in the country a man running to a shelter hit his head and is in moderate condition right now according to rescue operation volunteers that are scoring the areas of rockets impacts and interceptions and Pierre let us know a little bit about what some of the residents there in Ashkelon are saying I was now about two weeks into the war and they're all waiting for the government to actually strike that decisive blow that they've promised they're all waiting for evacuation at least the 20 or 25% of the residents of this city of 116,000 inhabitants who do not have a private shelter at home such as in those buildings buildings that were built in the 1950s 60s 70s, 80s they don't have a private shelter because only by law in 1991 after the first Gulf War was it mandatory to build with protective shelters in each apartment so they're begging for evacuation and evacuation has been budgeted with a budget of 40 million dollars and it was supposed to happen yesterday the problem is there's not enough hotel rooms because on both the northern and southern front there are already 120,000 evacuees from their homes because not because there's not enough hotels but simply because there's not enough contracts with hotels to host those evacuees so the government need to contract additional hotels to have additional hotel rooms Pierre, thank you very much for helping us understand just what's happening out there on the border right now we're going to be coming back to you as the situation develops we are going to now hear a personal story of one of the survivors of that October 7th massacre that would be the story of Yonatan Shamriz whose brother was kidnapped to Gaza Yonatan, thank you for being with us and being willing to share your story I don't have words to help console you but I want you to try to share as much of the story as you can with us so people around the world understand what happened thank you for having me so I live in Kibbutz Kvarazza and that Saturday we we walked up to the sound of the alarms and the sound of many many missiles around us we ran to the shelter and me my pregnant wife and my two year old daughter and as we step to the shelter we start to get messages from around the Kibbutz that there are many terrorists in the Kibbutz and you know messages that screaming for help from all around all around the Kibbutz and it was very very stressful and terrifying at the beginning and throughout all of the day and at 10 in the morning like 3 or 4 hours after it started I get the message from my younger brother and he said that the terrorists are going inside his room so I wrote him back that I love him and he is strong and then he never responds and it was experience that I can stress how helpless you feel and when you inside the shelter and you hear all the and you see all the messages from all your friends and family's friends and the neighbors that your brother and you just can't do anything and you know for some for some families there is a closure now they know what happened to the loved ones but for us there is no we don't know what happened Falon is now declare a kidnap but we don't really know this nightmarish limbo of not knowing how do you find strength to endure and is there anybody out there trying to help you I mean mentally we are surrounded by the most experienced psychologists in Israel I think but there is so much grief because there are so many funerals many of my friends died everyone you know that you knew is or dead or kidnapped or something else but there is not a single family in this community that you know they didn't lose one of their loved ones and it's like it's so heart breaking and it's so so you can't even you know grieve your own grieve like you we still have seven funerals a day and it's you know I don't have the words to stress how you know the situation is I mean what would your message be how can the state help you what should the government do in your mind we as a community I can speak for myself but the voices that I hear is that we don't trust the government to do anything right now because if they didn't protect us and my community and my brother and my neighbors like we don't expect anything we have friends and all these civil organizations that are come and help us they are the real heroes and from the government we don't expect nothing and do you have hopes that efforts being made by the United States by the international community might help get your brother back I don't know I think the hostages that they have double citizenship are in a better shape that the one that they have only Israeli passport and my brother and because the international community is going to get their citizens out but I don't know about the Israeli one Do you have a message for anyone listening that you think everyone needs to hear about just what happened there the things that you, your community your family is feeling right now what do you want to say to people I want to say that that Hamas did to us, to our community it's unforgivable it's not that even animals don't do it and kill babies, kill families like and if you think that they're going to stop here in Israel it's a mistake you are next and Europe is next and this is drugs and stuff it's a collective nightmare for all of us, Yonatan and I wish I had better words to say to try to comfort you in these times just all of Israel I guess is standing united with you and we have your back stay strong as best you can Yonatan, thank you for sharing that story thank you very much unfortunately Yonatan's story is one of thousands in Israel and we are going to hear another one that was right now because joining us is Dor Kapaa who survived the Nova Music Festival which was one of the primary targets of those Hamas commandos in the October 7th massacre Dor it's good to have you with us another terrifying and harrowing story I don't want to preface it with any platitudes it's just a nightmare and as much as you're willing to share the story please do I think we have a connection difficulty if you can hear as much as you can share the story of what you saw and what you witnessed tell us what you saw that day what happened everything started around 6.30 in the morning I was working on the festival I was doing hostages for people and we saw the rockets flying from Gaza to Israel like hundreds hundreds of rockets and then somebody start off the music and tell everybody everybody the party is over you need to evacuate you need to evacuate and in this moment I bring my jeep inside and I put all my equipment on the jeep and we're waiting in the festival area around 7.30 all the Hamas terrorists start to close in on the party and coming from almost all the exits and come in with AKs and RPGs and machine guns and start shooting everyone they're not selected they're not holding for one moment just shooting everyone and I told my girlfriend and my friend is what it was working with me go on the jeep we're going right now and then we start to drive in between people and after we go outside from the area party I saw my friend I tell him jump on my jeep and then we take one more friend and we start to drive to Gaza the Gaza border because I thought this is no safe place because they're in our area so I try to pass them around so we try we start to drive inside the fields and after two hours around two hours two of my friends split from the jeep Alex Lubanov still missing nobody know nothing about him after 15 16 days from this war still looking for him any information about this guy and after that all these two hours terror people chasing after us by motorcycle by ATVs by every equipment they have they're chasing us and we succeed to escape to Berry after after that chasing us we hide outside of Berry for six hours and two forces of Sahal of ADF is coming without no force behind nobody jumping from the house helping the situation and they are told us to evacuate to the next point and after that we go to the next point to Alumim and then it was also forces of Israel that can create the Alumim and we were there also three hours we evacuate also the people that are hurt shot in the head behind and for six hours we're sitting in this bathroom waiting for his head my girlfriend hold his head and after we succeed to jump to the next point we and my girlfriend stay over there for three more hours because fighting against the terror Hamas and my friend is evacuated to hospital and today is feeling better and I live in Ashkelon so I cannot go back to my house my home because they are bombing everything we're going to pick up this story again in a moment we're going to come back to you I hope in a quick brief moment because we have a quick break in our broadcast but we will continue that story as soon as we can we will see you in the next in the next video well well is officially in a state of war this is a very active scene and we need to get in the car as we're talking within a hundred soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped we just don't know anything entire families including babies and Thanks for staying with us everyone. I'm gonna return now to door Kappa a Survivor of the attack on the Nova music festival. I'm sorry. We had to cut there You were in the middle of telling the story of your escape Okay, I will go back to the point. We wasn't buried for six hours my friend was He's got a shot in the head. You got the flak trip And the bleeding in this toilet for six hours And I hold in the door because it not was locked in after 40 minutes This point became a hammock point Because it's sitting on the hill and they are shooting on the road to three to Blood war We go outside from there to aluminum and everything we saw on the road. It was Burning cars people dead on the road. We saw people's I'm sorry about my trip theory, but I saw like People dead on the wheel and you still hear the warning of the Basel or our Then we Drive to the next point to aluminum like I said before and over there they evacuate all the wounded ones my friend is wounded in the head and another one we pick up on the road to aluminum and Was over there forces of Israel That took the wounded to hospitals and we waiting over there for three hours with my car because they're still hunting is still fighting with a Hamas terrorist it was over there with cars and still Looking for people from the party people from the kibbutz And people from the area that are not And it was brutality it was Lottery Barbaric Do or like stories At this time door when you're fleeing from place to place and seeming to find no safety anywhere What goes to your head? What are you thinking at this time? In this time, I think my head don't think it's just act you know, I go to survive mode and Everything my my head tell me you have to go out on this area In In one of the moments, I feel it's a little bit funny But I feel like in in a game and I don't realize we are surrounded by the enemy and he killed everything is moved so I just Running inside the fields with my car shot it off at the dawn try to hear from where they are coming and just come to the next point and Hide for them in the open field not in a closed field Because we saw what happened to people the same bunkers and shelters In the time since that you've gotten the safety the two weeks of war that's followed How have you been getting by? How do you get to your day and who's there to help you? I J right now I'm located in center of Israel. I'm moving around for my house because My city is bombed Like I don't know how 300 400 missile directly hits in houses in my city We have the tribe of Nova And make a safe place for people that was in the party with treatments by body and my by mental league with with professional workers And Everyday we go over there Sealing with them speak with them speak with people from the party. It's open for all the people who was in the party and there It from this Door after seeing everything you saw do you do you feel that you'll be able to be safe in this country again? Israel is a Israel It's our country. It's I Born to this fine. I'm not Volunteer to be Israeli. I born to be Israeli. So I believe My people leave my country and I Think if we are not Bringing a solution for this situation, nobody can leave by by peacefully because it's Behind your door today is Israel tomorrow I don't want to to name a specific countries, but you can see what happened all over the world It's in the door of every country terror is not about Muslim or Christian or Jewish or Buddhism There are he's someone who want to hurt someone else and he don't have any Thinking about it. You just want to hurt. Just want to conquer it. Just want to take weight Take what is yours? So today's in Israel tomorrow is can be another other countries People have to understand it. We have to fight What do you want to say to the rest of the world to all the people out there that are trying to deny these nightmarish crimes? The reality is My videos I take it's my videos I take My car is get shot. It's my car is get shot People behind the screen cannot understand that if they are not leave it And being the situation, but I will tell you I act and other friends of mine by murder Because they are cannot act their foes Think about that what happened to your family if people if someone came to your house Sloth and family against your eyes rape your daughter and kill your babies Think about that what happened to you how you will react about This situation and what is your solution about that? It's a hard reality and it's a hard message for everyone to swallow a door I'm glad you're with us.  Thank you for sharing those stories We're going to move now to our Correspondent Pierre Kloschenler who is on the southern border in the town of Ashkelon understand that you've had the opportunity To talk to various IDF forces over the course of the day who have been engaged in the frontline Fight against Hamas against the terrorists that commit these atrocities. Let us know what they've been saying well You know, I spoke to many IDF officers. I spoke to police officers as well today I managed to spoke to to speak to two police officers door and Ruslan who are from a elite unit of the police forces they came Very early in the morning of October 7 when they heard the The rocket alerts the rocket strikes the massive rocket strike in the morning of October 7 at 6 30 a.m They were at home with their families they Protected their families in their protective shelter. They live in Berchewa, which is not far away And then they took their uniform they took their weapon and they started rushing toward the Gaza Strip in order to Do something they didn't even know what to expect They encountered there were five of them they encountered Tens of terrorists Two of the police officers were wounded in the fighting. Let's hear what they said We are driving the three of us and right at the entrance of the community We see quantities of dead civilians on the side of the road inside the vehicles This is after the massacre that took place there also at the festival But there were also citizens who drove on that road at the same time Unfortunately, we were unable to save them. We continued driving and while doing so we saw more policemen who were there in the area They came under fire and were without armored vehicles. We took them to an armored vehicle and we entered a fighting area We didn't know exa