mainly heard he was not in a good state mentally and that is before the video was released one of them said he was depressed not sleeping day or night there were two captive women with him who saw he needed support and they took him under their wing at some point he received some pills which allowed him to get some sleep when the women were released they asked those who remained with yarden to be mindful of him help him they really tried to make sure he wouldn't be alone once they were released one of the women who was held with him said he had pains in his head that he had been hit on the head with a hammer this is my aunt margit's house and her husband jossy silverman ten houses down is sherry's parents house jossy silverman 67 and margit silverman 63 who suffered from parkinson's disease they were both murdered after two weeks the idea found their bodies somewhere near the fence they took a wonderful couple who love each other good people my sister had a heart of gold the house was burnt to the ground here stood such pretty sofas there was dining table photos of kids and grandkids very gentle people very pleasant i can't see them resisting i tried to think why why them i tried to call her all day no answer suddenly at 4 30 p.m someone answers and say in arabic death death death so i said who is this who are you he said death again and hung up some arab took the phone to tell me what he had done death yes just unbelievable their dog's head was on this table they beheaded the dog and burned him did you see it i saw a photo of it yes with talks of another hostage deal in the works and the hostage family forum raising the pressure on the government yarden's father ellie met this week with prime minister netanyahu it was a very good talk to the point and with emotion i believe they really want to do something but we understand there's also the other side making things difficult i really asked them to get your den out i fear he might hurt himself do you believe in god no but i'm willing to do anything to get my kids and grandchildren back i bought yarden to fill in a hanukia what i can do just let them return safely that we may see our den sherry ariel and clear back with us along with all other hostages yesterday yarden and sherry's families the b-bass and silverman families gathered together for the inauguration of a Torah in neroz and from there they went to hostage square in tel aviv a jewish community in the united states wanted to strengthen them and donated a Torah that had survived the holocaust all of you came especially from united states to neroz yes b-bass family holds a very special place in our heart ever since october the 7th we when we saw them on television we noticed the two boys with the red hair and we have two boys with red hair and it just they they they came deep into our heart and our souls and we couldn't get them out and we pray for them every single day i await them i await them all i'm mad at everyone everyone the media the decision makers those who weren't there on october 7th i'm mad at all of them we're out for a short break but we'll have more at the top of the hour on these special editions of the i-24 news desk well is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well come to the special edition on i-24 news and by 11th or coming to you live from our televised studios thanks for joining me it is day 80 of war between israel and hamas heavy fighting and the strip continues as the idf pushes on with its ground offensive to dismantle terror targets over the weekend the number of israeli troops killed in combat rose to 156 release for publication on sunday evening the idf revealed that earlier this month it found a large hamas tunnel network beneath the jubalia refugee camp near gaza city inside that tunnel they also found and recovered the bodies of three israeli soldiers and two civilians meanwhile israeli prime minister benjamin itzanyahu continues to hold that the war will continue until victory over hamas his latest comments coming as the wall cabinet is set to examine an egyptian proposal for a new hostage deal and it also follows recent visits to cairo by both hamas and islamic jihad representatives here's more from israeli citizens we are deepening the war in the gaza strip we will continue to fight until complete victory over hamas this is the only way to return our hostages eliminate hamas and ensure that gaza will no longer be a threat to israel it will take time but we are united the fighters the people and the government we are united and determined to fight to the end war has a price a very heavy price in the lives of our heroic warriors and we do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors but one thing will not be done we will not stop until we achieve victory and here with me in studio this hour is martin himmel a political and international security analyst martin good morning to you obviously one of the big issues at the moment is this idea that israel needs a hostage deal to bring the remaining over 100 hostages that are still being held by hamas palestinian islamic jihad and civilians as well in the gaza strip backed safely into israel but at the same time not messing with its plans of making sure as benjamin isanyao said that there's victory over hamas and that they eliminate the terror threat well this is why netanyahu has a bit of a trust problem because you can't defy gravity and at the same time flying free will you can't get the hostages without making a deal with hamas and hamas is not going to make a deal if the deal is their complete destruction so choices have to be made and that's up to the government i suppose but it would be nice if that situation was made more clarified and clear to the israeli public because there is a trust issue there's been various reports recently in particular in israeli media that the israeli government and those that are involved in the in the negotiations and the hostage will ceasefire deal are looking at possibly sparing the hamas leadership in order to bring all the hostages home that sounds to me like something that would not sit lightly with many in the israeli public left center right doesn't matter what area of the political spectrum you're on a promise was made to the israeli public of hamas will be eliminated the threat will cease to exist on the border and hundreds of thousands that are still currently displaced will be able to return home hence the probability the credibility problem you can't make bold wild statements of complete elimination and at the same time talk about what you're just saying that they're going to let the leadership go to fight another day as they say in return for the hostages not that that's not a good idea it might be a very good idea to let the leadership go for the hostages but you have to communicate the fact that life is a shade of different colors it's not black and white it's not absolute defeat absolute victory it involves painful compromise and that's not the message that's coming from the government speaking of some of the messages it's obviously come to the fore that there were a lot of security and intelligence failures around the actual event of october 7th being that so many terrorists were able to cross the border and detected the mass infiltrations that's something to the extent that we haven't seen in terms of a war with hamas in previous years more reports seem to be surfacing including one in the past hour by the haaretz daily newspaper in which apparently a key and senior idf officer had warned about the dangers of having a festival such as the nova festival of which was turned into a massacre of sorts so close to the Gaza border now the fear wasn't necessarily of infiltrations but rather of rocket fire how well is it in israel's interest to be producing to the public some of its failures does this bode well for them admitting that yes they are an army they have objectives but they also mess up sometimes or does it just feed into our enemies pr and those that are against israel as well well i think that in any war if you looked at world war two for example when minston churchell spoke to his people he told them the bitter hard truth of what was going on and i think that the bitter hard truth is very important for the israeli people very important to to come to terms that's what happens israel hasn't come to terms at all with october 7th because it hasn't been dealt with really everything is in abeyance because of the war but sooner or later and it might be sooner than later in all these issues are going to come to the front because like a volcano the pressures within the israeli society to come to terms of this and have accountability are growing all the time mightn't stay with me i want to continue this discussion but first i want to cross to our correspondent pia kloschenler who is standing by for us in the south of israel more specifically on the israeli Gaza border pia it's been quiet this morning but as we start moving towards noon has there been any updates recently where you are right we've seen an evacuation shopper who fled who flew very low above ground and it's obviously an evacuation shopper that was evacuating probably wounded soldiers from the eastern sector of the refugee camp of hanyunas in central gaza strip and that would prove that there are ground forces operating on the eastern outskirts of the el borage refugee camp in the central sector of the gaza strip we know from the idf spokesperson in arabic on friday that he urged the population the non-involved civilian population of el borage to evacuate south and this was in preparation of a potential ground offensive and now with this evacuation shopper we understand forces are really operating there on the eastern outskirts of the camp now in hanyunas the there are five brigades operating at the moment in and out of hanyunas it's a very slow progress because the idf has been surprised by the amount of underground tunnel that are lying underneath the city of 200 000 inhabitants 150 000 of them evacuated south according to palestinian media affiliated to hamas but all the displaced people came in and refilled the city we hear also from the kathari network al jazeera that the political leader of hamas whom according to the idf is probably hiding in shelters in the underground tunnels of hanyunas that he sent a letter to the political leader of hamas abroad ismail ania in which he said that five to seven thousand israeli troops were killed and wounded and that 750 vehicles were destroyed that's an amazing number and it seems that either yakhia sinua is not connected to reality right now or simply he wants to show the political leadership of hamas abroad that there is no way that hamas would accept a ceasefire in exchange for the liberation of hostages and of palestinian prisoners at this point correspondent pia clush and they are giving us the latest updates from the south this hour thank you very much for that and onto a different angle a spokesperson for iran's foreign ministry today being monday called the us claim that he ran and attacked a chemical ship near india quote baseless the pentagon said on saturday that a drone launch from iran struck a chemical tanker in the indian ocean that merchant vessel was linked to israel and comes on the back of similar attacks by one of iran's proxies in the region the huty rebels namely focusing on the red sea the attacks from yemen toward the southernmost tip of israel have prompted several major shipping companies to avoid the area which is having a knock on effect on global shipping there tends to be a lot of red alerts while we are live on air in fact there is one right now a red alert going off near the gaza border where our correspondent pia clush and la was just speaking to us live from no doubt heading towards a shelter still with me in studio martin himmel martin the other angle of this war that tends to be taking quite a bit of traction away from the main focal point being the actual fighting in the gaza strip is what's happening at the moment in the south or the most southern point of israel in the red sea that the shipping routes if i'm not mistaken i believe this is 12 to 14 percent of global shipping how is this having an impact on israel and just how dire is the situation to the point of possibly international pressure being put not just on the huties but iran and obviously all the players involved in this war to put an end to it well it's a very serious issue it's uh i think it's closer to 20 percent of shipping but this leads to higher oil costs worldwide higher shipping costs higher transport costs more inflation it's an international global problem it is a very serious problem for israel no one's talking about it that much here but it is a very serious problem and right for now israel has taken the position of working with the international community to solve it and it really is a problem in washington right now how much to exert military muscle which plays against the american interest of not globalizing or not expanding the conflict because the conflict will expand if they're going to be hitting the huties which makes it interesting to see why i mean iran is behind the whole thing so why is iran interested in this how far is iran interested in expanding the conflict obviously it's using it as a pressure point in what's going on in gaza but they face the risk of a conflagration that can engulf a lot of the middle east absolutely and obviously getting involved one of their other main proxies khizbole in the north to a larger extent which is clarifying exactly how far as you mentioned they're willing to go in this another interesting point here is having a look at Qatar that really did place itself or at least attempted to highlight its changed image if i can put it that way during the world cup that know they don't actually have slave labor that they are this wealthy country in the middle east that's open and even open to inviting enemy nations we know that israeli citizens were able to go to qatar to watch the world cup now they're in a situation where they are literally quote-unquote in bed with Hamas terrorists they're also playing the negotiating table with the united states how is their image going to be affected by this surely it's not going to be the bright image that they created just around the world cup time well so far they've actually created an image of being a quote-unquote honest broker and trying to solve this problem with the hostages but katar has been the chief financier of Hamas they have ideological affinity with Hamas as far as the muslim brotherhood goes along with turkey so they have clear interest in making sure that Hamas survives this war one of the ways they want to see him us survive the war is to deal with the hostage issue and try to get a long prolonged ceasefire in return and that's their leverage so in PR terms they're winning in the sense that they are trying to deal with the hostages in real terms it's dealing with the hostages but it's also trying to put Hamas keep influencing Hamas and keep Hamas alive speaking of turkey there's a lot of things that can be said about their incumbent president recep Tayyip Erdogan but one of the things that he is actually very well known for is how well he plays the game as well similar to that of katar in terms of playing both sides he's obviously a NATO member but then very much aligned with Islamist and I would say Palestinian and Arab causes in the Middle East but just how far can that game go in the sense of there's been a fortune of condemnation and critique coming from Erdogan and Turkey is still sending eight packages to Israel precisely Turkey you don't listen too much to what Erdogan has to say you have to see what he's doing and he has a key interest in seeing Hamas survive this war as well but he is a very stark realist he knows what the situation is and he's trying to play his influence with Israel, NATO and Hamas in order to come to some sort of conclusion that will leave Hamas somehow existing and in power in Gaza. Political and security and international affairs analysts thank you very much Martin Himmel for that. Moving on Israeli officials have confirmed to several Hebrew media outlets on Sunday that Egypt has placed on the table a new proposal for a truce in the war with Hamas and the release of more Israeli hostages that are currently being held in the Gaza Strip with some indicating that Jerusalem is not flat out rejecting the draft and that it could lead to further negotiations. Earlier I spoke with Gershon Baskin a key negotiator during the Gilad Shalit exchange deal back in 2011 and the Middle East director of the International Communities Organization on just what that plan is and how viable it is. What we understand is that it's a three phase plan that would bring about a release of all the hostages, a long-term ceasefire and some kind of more permanent arrangement in a post-Hamas Gaza. Without knowing all the details it seems like the first comprehensive plan that's been put down on the table that addresses the two primary goals of Israel in this war. One is to dismantle Hamas's ability to continue to govern Gaza and threaten Israel and to bring all the hostages home. It's not 100% clear what is demanded from Israel in return. There are talks that the hostage deal includes an all for all in other words releasing all the hostages in phases and releasing all the Palestinian prisoners in Israel. It's not clear to what extent the government of Israel would be willing to engage on that basis but nonetheless the Egyptians are a very important negotiator here. They have a lot more experience in bringing about ceasefires between Israel and Hamas and Islamic jihad. They share a common border with us and with Gaza and they have direct links to the underground Hamas leadership of the military wing of Al-Qassam as well as the Islamic jihad which is much more beneficial for us than negotiating through Qatar which is the state that's clearly on the side of Hamas. A major topic in this war which we have been discussing here in the I-24 news studios has been that of the active soldiers and the reservists. As we mentioned earlier in the broadcast over the weekend the IDF troop death toll has now risen to 156 and joining me now in studio is Zoe Bryan the founder of startup reserves for Israel. Thank you so very much for taking the time to be with me here this morning. Nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. I want to ask you a little bit about your organization. Tell us a little bit about what it is and where the idea came from to found it. Absolutely so startup reserves for Israel was founded on October 10th after the devastating news of October 7th you know became clear to all of us. My husband and I were reading an article about a founder who was nervous about the 30% loss of his workforce that he was experiencing and we just wanted to do something to help you know we had donated money to relevant organizations but wanted to be more hands-on so we created this organization that was aiming to you know place a couple of Americans in Israeli tech startups hoping that it would take off and you know amazingly enough 750 people signed up in the first tonight yeah through word of mouth entirely. So it's been really incredible to see the resolve of the global Jewish you know people supporting Israel right now. What is it exactly when people register and want to take part in this? How is it that they assist the high tech sector at the moment? So they sign up and they share what their areas of expertise are if they're marketers then they're paired with startups that are seeking marketing support. Sales individuals will support startups that are you know seeking support in sales. We've built a database of now we have almost 4,500 volunteers globally. They're not all Jewish they're what we're calling economic Zionists. They're people who believe in Israel and Israel's right to defend itself and you know they want to help and however they can so you know you can sign up to be a volunteer yourself and in support in Israeli startup in this time. Or you can also sign up sign up if you are a startup who could use the benefit of a couple of extra hands on deck right now. I do want to just point out to our audience that there are rocket alert sirens going off as we are currently on air at this hour around the Israel Gaza border communities. I want to ask you Zoe is this a manageable hiccup or how dire is the situation you mentioned that there was concern around what was going to happen the impact it was going to have on the economy as well as the startups but how explain a little bit to the audience about how dire of a situation it is to keep Israel's high tech sector afloat. The US and Israel's you know global tech relationship is incredibly intertwined not just in the US but globally and you know when the Israel startup ecosystem is suffering you know globally that landscape feels it as well. I believe the number is about 30% of the workforce here in Israel was called up to serve in the IDF reserve in the reservists and that has made your impact I think there's about you know 4,000 or 3,000 startups here in Israel a number of those are much smaller less than 10 people and a 20% 30% loss in hands is really significant especially when often there are CEOs themselves or founders who are defending Israel right now. Right it almost seems that with biggest startup companies obviously them taking a big hit to business as usual but as you mentioned with companies that have only 10 people it's hard to imagine how they can even survive something like this. Yeah yeah and you know we're not alone there's a number of organizations that are doing you know amazing work to help where they can. There's an initiative called wartime CEO that collects all these resources for smaller startup founders it includes our resource but there are a number of opportunities for smaller startups to seek help both in Israel and abroad right now. I'm really pleased that we're able to give you the platform here today to be able to explain what your what your idea was and I'd like to ask you if you could speak to a little bit the audience in terms of how they can get involved how is it that they can contact the organization or you and what is it that they would need in order to get involved. Absolutely we are you know welcoming all volunteers from all walks of life globally who are willing to donate you know 10 hours a week to Israeli startups that need the support right now and any Israeli tech startups that would like a couple of extra hands on deck we are here as a resource for you. You can go to startupreserves.org and follow the instructions for how to sign up if you're either a volunteer or a startup. And so just lastly obviously this was an idea that was born given the crisis at the moment as you mentioned 20 to 30 percent of the workforce a lot of them being reservists that put country before anything else including Korea which is a pretty remarkable thing for such a small state to do. Where do you see this going in the future is there a future like prospects in a sense for your idea or is it kind of just born to deal with the crisis. Yeah it's a great question and something that we think about a lot you know we of course want to be there while the crisis happens and God willing it's over you know in a few weeks and we never have to worry about this crisis again. I think that through this you know awful few months that we've all been living through we've really seen that the need for Israel and U.S. tech relationships is something that is everlasting and so there is a lot of opportunity to pivot the initiative into a more evergreen support channel for Israeli startups. Zoe Bryan the founder of startup reserves for Israel I take my metaphorical hat off to you kudos to you and your husband on doing such outstanding work. Thank you so much thanks for having me. And moving on to a different topic now the Christian world may be celebrating Christmas today being Monday the 25th of December but here in the Holy Land where Christianity was born the celebrations are overshadowed by the situation in the region and the lack of tourism pilgrims that usually crowd such towns as Jerusalem Bethlehem and Nazareth. Oriene Shapira has more on how Christmas was essentially cancelled this year in the Holy Land. It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year for Christians but here in the Holy Land Christmas looks a bit pale this year as opposed to previous years there are barely any Christmas trees and decorations around here in the old city of Jerusalem one of the most sacred places for Christians the Gaza war has overshadowed the celebrations. As on one hand we are very saddened by the loss of human life we're very sad that the Israel has to engage in a war against the evil of Hamas and at the same time we have something to celebrate so as it's been described it's a bit like perhaps the Jewish understanding of the Sabbath on the Sabbath even if you're in a time of mourning or sadness you don't fast and you don't mourn and so Christmas for us this year will be something similar. The Christ Church was one of the first Protestant institutes in the Holy City Reverend David Pillaghi tells his personal encounter with the situation. We're not doing anything special this year although we have quite an extensive aid program helping the victims of the Israel Hamas war and so that's taking most of our focus and our attention but as usual Ori will be having a open house we'll be receiving the public and then tomorrow we Christmas Day we also have a service as well. The current situation has also affected the tourism industry in Israel in general and Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land in particular. Unfortunately Christmas New Year's we just ended Hanukkah this is the peak of the tourism season any year except for this year. This year is sad because we cannot celebrate Christmas Christmas has been canceled in most places people came here and went to see the lights in the Christian quarter the Christmas Bazaar the merchandising and Christianity basically was during that time. However with tourism zero following the attack by Hamas we have no tourism. This year is known as Jerusalem Santa for years he's celebrated the holiday in his small decorated old house in the Christian quarter the so-called Santa on a camel has a clear message to Christians around the world. This year it's not easy last year I have 25 000 people visiting me in my Santa house in all December this year I have a few like let's say around three to four thousand till now we have but because there's no tourists also there are no flights to come to all the way to Israel. My message this year is hope love and peace from Jerusalem to the Holy Land and to the world. But despite the tension and the atmosphere people of the Holy Land are still dreaming of a white Christmas and hope for a better time next year. In the meantime they wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We're heading out for another break but stay with us because at the top of the hour we'll have more updates around day 80 of the war between Israel and Hamas. You're looking at live images now of the Israel Gaza border just a short while ago after 15 hours of lull rocket fire being directed towards the Gaza border communities areas like where the Nova Music Festival massacre took place as well as in native Asara all these areas that were so badly impacted on October 7th many of the Kibbutz that were rampaged by thousands of Hamas terrorists where people were not only murdered and tortured but many kidnapped as well into the Gaza Strip. Heavy fighting in the Strip continues as the IDF pushes on with its ground offensive to dismantle much of the terror targets over the weekend the number of Israeli troops unfortunately rose to 156 this is the IDF continues to push from the north further into the center in order to continue with the Israeli government's plan of eradicating Hamas getting rid of the threats on their border and making sure that all hostages are brought back to Israel safe and sound stay with us we'll be right back with more Israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front lines but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well so we're seeing the first generation of solar panels now being recycled what's exciting is we're at the forefront what is about to happen is a tsunami of solar panels coming back into the supply chain come to the special edition on i24 news and by 11th or coming July from our Tel Aviv studios thanks for joining me it is day 80 of war between Israel and Hamas heavy fighting in the Strip continues as the IDF pushes on with its ground offensive to dismantle terror targets over the weekend the number of Israeli troops killed in combat rose to 156 release for publication on Sunday evening the IDF revealed that earlier this month it found a large Hamas tunnel network beneath the Jabalia refugee camp near Gaza city inside that tunnel they also found and recovered the bodies of three Israeli soldiers and two civilians meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to hold that the war will continue until victory over Hamas his latest comments coming as the war cabinet is set to examine an Egyptian proposal for a new hostage deal and it also follows recent visits to Cairo by both Hamas and Islamic jihad representatives here's more from Netanyahu Israeli citizens we are deepening the war in the Gaza Strip we will continue to fight until complete victory over Hamas this is the only way to return our hostages eliminate Hamas and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel it will take time but we are united the fighters the people and the government we are united and determined to fight to the end war has a price a very heavy price in the lives of our heroic warriors and we do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors but one thing will not be done we will not stop until we achieve victory and here with me in studio this hour is Martin Himmel a political and international security analyst Martin good morning to you obviously one of the big issues at the moment is this idea that Israel needs a hostage deal to bring the remaining over 100 hostages that are still being held by Hamas Palestinian Islamic jihad and civilians as well in the Gaza Strip backed safely into Israel but at the same time not messing with its plans of making sure as Benjamin Netanyahu said that there's victory over Hamas and that they eliminate the terror threat well this is why Netanyahu has a bit of a trust problem because you can't defy gravity and at the same time fly free will you can't get the hostages without making a deal with Hamas and Hamas is not going to make a deal if the deal is their complete destruction so choices have to be made and that's up to the government I suppose but it would be nice if that situation was made more clarified and clear to the Israeli public because there is a trust issue there's been various reports recently in particular in Israeli media that the Israeli government and those that are involved in the in the negotiations and the hostage or ceasefire deal are looking at possibly sparing the Hamas leadership in order to bring all the hostages home that sounds to me like something that would not sit lightly with many in the Israeli public left center right doesn't matter what area of the political spectrum you're on a promise was made to the Israeli public of Hamas will be eliminated the threat will cease to exist on the border and hundreds of thousands that are still currently displaced will be able to return home hence the probably credibility problem you can't make bold wild statements of complete elimination and at the same time talk about what you're just saying that they're going to let the leadership go to fight another day as they say in return for the hostages not that that's not a good idea it might be a very good idea to let the leadership go for the hostages but you have to communicate the fact that life is a shade of different colors it's not black and white it's not absolute defeat absolute victory it involves painful compromise and that's not the message that's coming from the government speaking of some of the messages it's obviously come to the fore that there were a lot of security and intelligence failures around the actual event of October 7th being that so many terrorists were able to cross the border and detected the mass infiltrations that's something to the extent that we haven't seen in terms of a war with Hamas in previous years more reports seem to be surfacing including one in the past hour by the Haaretz daily newspaper in which apparently a key and senior IDF officer had warned about the dangers of having a festival such as the Nova festival of which was turned into a massacre of sorts so close to the Gaza border now the fear wasn't necessarily of infiltrations but rather of rocket fire how well is it in Israel's interest to be producing to the public some of its failures does this bode well for them admitting that yes they are an army they have objectives but they also mess up sometimes or does it just feed into our enemies PR and those that are against Israel as well well I think that in any war if you looked at world war two for example when Winston Churchill spoke to his people he told them the bitter hard truth of what was going on and I think that the bitter hard truth is very important for the Israeli people very important to come to terms that's what happens Israel hasn't come to terms at all with October 7th because it hasn't been dealt with really everything is in abeyance because of the war but sooner or later and it might be sooner than later in all these issues are going to come to the front because like a volcano the pressures within Israeli society to come to terms of this and have accountability are growing all the time mightn't stay with me I want to continue this discussion but first I want to cross to our correspondent pia kloschen though who is standing by for us in the south of Israel more specifically on the Israel Gaza border pia it's been quiet this morning but as we start moving towards noon has there been any updates recently where you are right we've seen an evacuation shopper who flight who flew flew very low above ground and it's obviously an evacuation shopper that was evacuating probably wounded soldiers from the eastern sector of the refugee camp of Hanyunas in central Gaza Strip and that would prove that there are ground forces operating on the eastern outskirts of the El Buraj refugee camp in the central sector of the Gaza Strip we know from the IDF spokesperson in arabic on friday that he urged the population the non-involved civilian population of El Buraj to evacuate south and this was in preparation of a potential ground offensive and now with this evacuation shopper we understand forces are really operating there on the eastern outskirts of the camp now in Hanyunas there are five brigades operating at the moment in and out of Hanyunas it's a very slow progress because the IDF has been surprised by the amount of underground tunnel that are lying underneath the city of 200 000 inhabitants 150 000 of them evacuated south according to Palestinian media affiliated to Hamas but all the displaced people came in and refilled the city we hear also from the Qatari network Al Jazeera that the political leader of Hamas whom according to the IDF is probably hiding in shelters in the underground tunnels of Hanyunas that he sent a letter to the political leader of Hamas abroad Ismail Aniyah in which he said that five to seven thousand Israeli troops were killed and wounded and that 750 vehicles were destroyed that's an amazing number and it seems that either Yahya Sinwa is not connected to reality right now or simply he wants to show the political leadership of Hamas abroad that there is no way that Hamas would accept a ceasefire in exchange for the liberation of hostages and of Palestinian prisoners at this point. Correspondent Pierre Clashendlayer giving us the latest updates from the south this hour thank you very much for that and on to a different angle a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry today being Monday called the US claim that Iran had attacked a chemical ship near India quote baseless the Pentagon said on Saturday that a drone launch from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean that merchant vessel was linked to Israel and comes on the back of similar attacks by one of Iran's proxies in the region the Houthi rebels namely focusing on the Red Sea the attacks from Yemen toward the southernmost tip of Israel have prompted several major shipping companies to avoid the area which is having a knock on effects on global shipping there tends to be a lot of red alerts while we are live on air in fact there is one right now of red alerts going off near the Gaza border where our correspondent Pierre Clashendlayer was just speaking to us live from no doubt heading towards a shelter still with me in studio Martin Himmel Martin the other angle of this war that tends to be taking quite a bit of traction away from the main focal point being the actual fighting in the Gaza Strip is what's happening at the moment in the south or the most southern point of Israel in the Red Sea that the shipping routes if I'm not mistaken I believe this is 12 to 14 percent of global shipping how is this having an impact on Israel and just how dire is the situation to the point of possibly international pressure being put not just on the Houthis but Iran and obviously all the players involved in this war to put an end to it well it's a very serious issue it's I think it's closer to 20 percent of shipping but this leads to higher oil costs worldwide higher shipping costs higher transport costs more inflation it's an international global problem it is a very serious problem for Israel no one's talking about it that much here but it is a very serious problem and right for now Israel has taken the position of working with the international community to solve it and it really is a problem in Washington right now how much to exert military muscle which plays against the American interest of not globalizing or not expanding the conflict because the conflict will expand if they're going to be hitting the Houthis which makes it interesting to see why I mean Iran is behind the whole thing so why is Iran interested in this how far is Iran interested in expanding the conflict obviously it's using it as a pressure point in what's going on in Gaza but they face the risk of a conflagration that can engulf a lot of the Middle East absolutely and obviously getting involved one of their other main proxies Hezbollah in the north to a larger extent which is clarifying exactly how far as you mentioned they willing to go in this another interesting point here is having a look at Qatar that really did place itself or at least attempted to highlight its changed image if I can put it that way during the World Cup that know they don't actually have slave labor that they are this wealthy country in the Middle East that's open and even open to inviting enemy nations we know that Israeli citizens were able to go to Qatar to watch the World Cup now they're in a situation where they are literally quote-unquote in bed with Hamas terrorists they're also playing the negotiating table with the United States how is their image going to be affected by this surely it's not going to be the bright image that they created just around the World Cup time well so far they've actually created an image of being a quote-unquote honest broker and trying to solve this problem with the hostages but Qatar has been the chief financier of Hamas they have ideological affinity with Hamas as far as the Muslim brotherhood goes along with Turkey so they have clear interest in making sure that Hamas survives this war one of the ways they want to see him us survive the war is to deal with the hostage issue and try to get a long prolonged ceasefire in return and that's their leverage so in PR terms they're winning in the sense that they are trying to deal with the hostages in real terms it's dealing with the hostages but it's also trying to put Hamas keep influencing Hamas and keep Hamas alive speaking of Turkey there's a lot of things that can be said about their incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan but one of the things that he is actually very well known for is how well he plays the game as well similar to that of Qatar in terms of playing both sides he's obviously a NATO member but then very much aligned with Islamist and I would say Palestinian and Arab causes in the Middle East but just how far can that game go in the sense of there's been a fortune of condemnation and critique coming from Erdogan and Turkey is still sending eight packages to Israel precisely Turkey you don't listen too much to what Erdogan has to say you have to see what he's doing and he has a key interest in seeing Hamas survive this war as well but he is a very stark realist he knows what the situation is and he's trying to play his influence with Israel NATO and Hamas in order to come to some sort of conclusion that will leave Hamas somehow existing and in power in Gaza political and security and international affairs analysts thank you very much Martin Hemel for that moving on Israeli officials have confirmed to several Hebrew media outlets on Sunday that Egypt has placed on the table a new proposal for a truce in the war with Hamas and the release of more Israeli hostages that are currently being held in the Gaza Strip with some indicating that Jerusalem is not flat out rejecting the draft and that it could lead to further negotiations earlier I spoke with Gershon Baskin a key negotiator during the Gilad Shalit exchange deal back in 2011 and the Middle East director of the international communities organization on just what that plan is and how viable it is what we understand is that it's a three phase plan that would bring about a release of all the hostages a long-term ceasefire and some kind of more permanent arrangement in a post Hamas Gaza without knowing all the details it seems like the first comprehensive plan that's been put down on the table that addresses the two primary goals of Israel in this war one is to dismantle Hamas's ability to continue to govern Gaza and threaten Israel to and to bring all the hostages home it's not a hundred percent clear what is demanded from Israel in return there are talks that the hostage deal includes in all for all in other words releasing all the hostages in phases and releasing all the Palestinian prisoners in Israel it's not clear to what extent the government of Israel would be willing to engage on that basis but nonetheless the Egyptians are a very important negotiator here they have a lot more experience in bringing about ceasefires between Israel and Hamas and Islamic jihad they share a common border with us and with Gaza and they have direct links to the underground Hamas leadership the military wing of Al-Qassam as well as the Islamic jihad which is much more beneficial for us than negotiating through Qatar which is the state that's clearly on the side of Hamas a major topic in this war of which we have been discussing here in the i-24 news studios has been that of the active soldiers and the reserves as we mentioned earlier in the broadcast over the weekend the IDF troop death toll has now risen to 156 and joining me now in studio is Zoe Brian the founder of startup reserves for Israel thank you so very much for taking the time to be with me here this morning nice to meet you thank you for having me I want to ask you a little bit about your organization tell us a little bit about what it is and where the idea came from to found it absolutely so the startup reserves for Israel was founded on October 10th after the devastating news of October 7th you know became clear to all of us my husband and I were reading an article about a founder who was nervous about the 30 loss of his workforce that he was experiencing and we just wanted to do something to help you know we had donated money to relevant organizations but wanted to be more hands-on so we created this organization that was aiming to you know place a couple of Americans in Israeli tech startups hoping that it would take off and you know amazingly enough 750 people signed up in the first tonight yeah through word of mouth entirely so it's been really incredible to see the resolve of the globe the global Jewish you know people supporting Israel right now what is it exactly when when people register and want to take part in this how is it that they assist the high tech sector at the moment so they sign up and they share what their areas of expertise are if they're marketers then they're paired with startups that are seeking marketing support sales individuals will support startups that are you know seeking support in sales we've built a database of now we have almost 4500 volunteers globally they're not all Jewish they're what we're calling economic Zionists they're people who believe in Israel and Israel's right to defend itself and you know they want to help and however they can so you know you can sign up to be a volunteer yourself and in support in Israeli startup in this time or you can also sign up sign up if you are a startup who could use the benefit of a couple of extra hands on deck right now I do want to just point out to our audience that there are rocket alert sirens going off as we are currently on air at this hour around the Israel Gaza border communities I wanted to ask you Zoe is this a manageable hiccup or how dire is the situation you mentioned that there was concern around what was going to happen the impact it was going to have on the economy as well as the startups but how explain a little bit to the audience about how dire of a situation it is to keep Israel's high tech sector afloat yeah the US and Israel's you know global tech relationship is incredibly intertwined not just in the US but globally and you know when the Israel startup ecosystem is suffering you know globally that landscape feels it as well I believe the number is about 30% of the workforce here in Israel was called up to serve in the IDF reserve in the reservists and that has made your impact I think there's about you know 4,000 or 3,000 startups here in Israel a number of those are much smaller less than 10 people and a 20% 30% loss in hands is really significant especially when often there are CEOs themselves or founders who are defending Israel right now right it almost seems that with biggest startup companies obviously them taking a big hit to business as usual but as you mentioned with companies that have only 10 people it's hard to imagine how they can even survive something like this yeah yeah and you know we're not alone there's a number of organizations that are doing you know amazing work to help where they can there's an initiative called wartime CEO that collects all these resources for smaller startup founders it includes our resource but there are a number of opportunities for smaller startups to seek help both in Israel and abroad right now I'm really pleased that we're able to give you the platform here today to be able to explain what your what's your idea was and I'd like to ask you if you could speak so a little bit the audience in terms of how they can get involved how is it that they can contact the organization or you and what is it that they would need in order to get involved absolutely we are you know welcoming all volunteers from all walks of life globally who are willing to donate you know 10 hours a week to Israeli startups that need the support right now and any Israeli tech startups that would like a couple of extra hands on deck we are here as a resource for you you can go to startup reserves.org and follow the instructions for how to sign up if you're either a volunteer or a startup and so we just lastly obviously this was an idea that was born given the crisis at the moment as you mentioned 20 to 30 percent of the workforce a lot of them being reservists that put country before anything else including Korea which is a pretty remarkable thing for such a small state to do where do you see this going in the future is there a future like prospects in a sense for your idea or is it kind of just born to deal with the crisis yeah it's a great question and something that we think about a lot you know we of course want to be there while the crisis happens and god willing it's over you know in a few weeks and we never have to worry about this crisis again I think that through this you know awful few months that we've all been living through we've really seen that the need for Israel and US tech relationships is something that is everlasting and so there is a lot of opportunity to pivot the initiative into a more evergreen support channel for Israeli startups Zoe Brian the founder of startup reserves for Israel I take my metaphorical hat off to you kudos to you and your husband on doing such outstanding work thank you so much thanks for having me and moving on to a different topic now the christian world may be celebrating Christmas today being monday the 25th of december but here in the holy land where christianity was born the celebrations are overshadowed by the situation in the region and the lack of tourism pilgrims that usually crowd such towns as Jerusalem Bethlehem and Nazareth Ori Shepera has more on how Christmas was essentially cancelled this year in the holy land it's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year for christians but here in the holy land christmas looks a bit pale this year as opposed to previous years there are barely any christmas trees and decorations around here in the old city of jerusalem one of the most sacred places for christians the gaza war has overshadowed the celebrations as on one hand we are very saddened by the loss of human life we're very sad that the israel has to engage in a war against the evil of khamas and at the same time we have something to celebrate so as it been described it's a bit like perhaps the jewish understanding of the Sabbath on the Sabbath even if you're in a time of mourning or sadness you don't fast and you don't mourn and so christmas for us this year will be something similar the christ church was one of the first protestant institutes in the holy city reverend david pilaghi tells his personal encounter with the situation we're not doing anything special this year although we have a quite an extensive aid program helping the victims of the israel khamas war and so that's taking most of our focus and our attention but as usual uri will be having a open house will be receiving the public and then tomorrow we christmas day we will also have a service as well the current situation has also affected the tourism industry in israel in general and christian pilgrimage to the holy land in particular unfortunately christmas new years we just ended hannukah this is the peak of the tourism season any year except for this year this year sad because we cannot celebrate christmas christmas has been cancelled in most places people came here and went to see the lights in the christian quarter the christmas bazaar the merchandising and christianity basically was during that time however would tourism zero following the attack by khamas with no tourism issa kassisi is known as Jerusalem center for years he's celebrated the holiday in his small decorated old house in the christian quarter the so-called center on a camel has a clear message to christians around the world this year it's not easy last year i have 25 000 people visiting me in my center house in all december this year i have a few like let's say around three to four thousand till now we have but because there's no tourists also or there are no flights to come to all the way to israel my message this year is hope love and peace from jerusalem to the holy land and to the world but despite the tension and the atmosphere people of the holy land are still dreaming of a white christmas and hope for a better time next year in the meantime they wish everyone merry christmas and a happy new year we're heading out for another break but stay with us because at the top of the hour we'll have more updates around day 80 of the war between israel and khamas you're looking at live images now of the israel gaza border just a short while ago after 15 hours of lull rocket fire being directed towards the gaza border communities areas like reem where the nova music festival massacre took place as well as in native asara all these areas that were so badly impacted on october 7 many of the kibbutz that were rampaged by thousands of khamas terrorists where people were not only murdered and tortured but many kidnapped as well into the gaza strip heavy fighting in the strip continues as the idf pushes on with its ground offensive to dismantle much of the terror targets over the weekend the number of israeli troops unfortunately rose to 156 this is the idf continues to push from the north further into the center in order to continue with the israeli government's plan of eradicating khamas getting rid of the threats on their border and making sure that all hostages are brought back to israel safe and sound stay with us we'll be right back with more israel is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where she has our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well welcome to another special edition on i-24 news i'm bat 11th or coming to live from our televised studios thanks for joining me this hour it is day 80 of war between israel and khamas heavy fighting in the strip continues as the idf pushes on with its ground offensive to dismantle terror targets over the weekend the number of israeli troops killed in combat rose to 156 release for publication on sunday evening the idf revealed that earlier this month it found a large khamas tunnel network beneath the jabalia refugee camp in gaza city inside that tunnel they also found and recovered the bodies of three israeli soldiers and two civilians meanwhile israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu continues to hold that the war will continue until victory over khamas as latest comments coming as the war cabinet is set to examine an egyptian proposal for a new hostage deal which also follows recent visits to kaira by khamas and islamic jihad representatives here's more from benjamin netanyahu israeli citizens we are deepening the war in the gaza strip we will continue to fight until complete victory over khamas this is the only way to return our hostages eliminate khamas and ensure that gaza will no longer be a threat to israel it will take time but we are united the fighters the people and the government we are united and determined to fight to the end war has a price a very heavy price in the lives of our heroic warriors and we do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors but one thing will not be done we will not stop until we achieve victory well let's cross now live to the south of israel for an update from our correspondent pier clash and those standing by for us on the israel gaza border pier it was around a 16 hour lull and quiet on the border but around 50 minutes ago rocket fire headed towards the southern communities where you are the communities are largely evacuated so exactly what is the danger in these areas now and just how many rockets were being fired over the border yes absolutely but yeah there were three rocket launch emanating from the central refugee camps of nusera tell bourgeoisie which were bombed heavily overnight with 50 a strikes at least according to palestinian media affiliated to khamas and which caused 68 fatalities according to them difficult to confirm difficult to distinguish between non-involved population and hamas terrorists the rockets targeted rayim which is just very a few kilometers from where we are and then also the northern tip of the gaza strip nativa sara facing the northern tip and the southern part of the city of of vashkelon 10 kilometers away from gaza but no damage no casualties our correspondent pier clash and they're giving us an update from the south thank you for that moving the conversation to studio now where i am joined by reserve lieutenant colonels ron avital a former commander for the idf special forces good afternoon to you and thanks for being here um a little bit concerning at this hour as well that there are reports coming out from an israeli town you know to carum in the west bank that residents are again hearing digging this sort of reminiscent of the digging that was heard both in the south on the border with gaza and in the north of hezbollah over recent years could we be seeing another front popping up on the east well i'm not sure i mean the central command would look into it thoroughly and we shouldn't forget those territories are though there are eight territories and so on they're fully under our command and we all the time do those incursion inside so we can check it really thoroughly this is not gaza on the other side of the fence so this is a different scenario so i say not to get into panic where we can check we can verify it there's no question that they're creating in those refugee camps shelters underneath we saw a few things like this but if we think in terms of a tunnel system like the one we found in gaza it can't come even close to this but of course we have to careful i don't want to predict but i'm sure that i'll check it out and i'm sure it will be verified what the extent in which and if and what the extent of which there is such a thing israel is currently reeling after two more soldiers this weekend were pronounced dead killed in heavy fighting in the gaza strip bringing the total to 156 now undoubtedly this cannot be compared with the casualty numbers that are coming out of gaza again we're talking about a legitimate army versus terrorists a lot of the time that use a lot of guerrilla warfare tactics that don't engage in the international rules of war just how in terms of putting that number on a scale 156 to the israeli population is is heart sore every life is heart sore as we've learned in this country in particular looking at you know deals to bring back bodies let alone alive captives but just how big is that number in terms of overall casualties i mean they really are entering a war zone where there is a fortune of booby traps is that number relatively low or is that quite a high i wouldn't say it's low i mean we do it's hard to expect i mean in the beginning when we entered we were expecting high taller in terms of our soldiers getting killed and in the beginning was it's a little bit smoother it felt confident but like it is in guerrilla war sometimes you are being lured in and then you have to really engage with this guerrilla people coming from those spears from those tunnels they're hitting on our forces they're using explosive and so on so i think i don't want to in terms of number i mean this is the toll you have to pay in order to have a campaign like this and this is a serious campaign and we are talking about we found out that we have a real guerrilla army over there with this infrastructure that really makes this urban warfare a different magnitude of an urban warfare i'm a veteran of 82 lebanon berut urban warfare but with this kind of infrastructure underneath this is a different story add to it the hostage issue which limits our ability add to it the population that is really implicated in many respects with the Hamas and sometimes how to distinguish between Hamas and citizens you have a complexity that takes the toll and this weekend was a very hard in terms of the death i think 14 or two more death this is hard not easy absolutely and there's no doubt over the last 80 days of looking at just the complexities that are involved in fighting in in such a compact area and just the type of fighting again it's not against an army it is against a terror organization that doesn't play by the same rules speaking of Lebanon an interesting comparison that was being made that although there are so many soldier and troop casualties in Gaza at the moment as you mentioned that number keeps rising and fortunately given the difficulties but a difference is is that from a physical point of view in terms of their physical shape there is not a food shortage like there was during the war with lebanon they are being rotated all the time to the point that we've called up so many reservists that people are coming in and out of Gaza to the point that they are awake and alert what is the impacts it's it's impossible to even gauge with the civilians at this point the mental and psychological impact but we're talking about seeing images that are not normal in warfare looking bombs and weaponry and rockets being hidden in babies cribs i believe that the IDF just yesterday found a suicide vest that was fitted to children this is something that's not normal how how are the soldiers equipped to deal with this let alone during the war but after the war as well no i think the Israeli soldier is built up to such scenarios he's prepared we know that the Hamas was using kits to carry the explosive from door to door because he knew we wouldn't target them we know we're location of peers inside schools and inside the hospitals for sure we notice this is part of the logic the logic the complexity or the problem of this war i think we are trained to this we have to keep the the right restraint and then look for our enemy when we find it i think the army does it the complexity exists we shouldn't forget that this is a landscape of war that is very close to israel it's not that it's not Beirut it's not the the whole of Lebanon so of course people can come in out the soldiers and and you talked about the Israeli population the the fathers and the mothers that have their kids a few kilometers away from them fighting for their life and then coming back maybe after a few weeks this is a it pays a toll on the Israeli public in the Israeli society i see it among my friends that those soldiers say this is a big issue but the campaign has to continue and it continues i think right now it's a heavy campaign it takes time it's not it's a slow campaign in many respects but we have no other choice in the context of the complexity of this war absolutely and as israel has been trying to put forward this is an existential threat not just one that's you know netanyahu has previously said and keeps holding that there will never be another war with Hamas because they will cease to exist but moving from the south to the north what does that mean in terms of chizbola because the operational tactics and strategy of the IDF is to rid the threat on the southern border to get rid of Hamas but we still have a major threat in fact probably a scarier threat the big bad brother of Hamas on the northern border how is israel prepared to deal with that threat just this morning the idea of confirming that they were striking targets chizbola targets inside lebanon chizbola is a bigger force with a bigger weaponry can hit center televiv with much more directed missile this is a big challenge for us for sure but our aim there is really to push them away to the litany border to the according to the 1701 a un agreement from 2006 i don't we don't think on talks in terms of eliminating chizbola that's not our target our target to see them away from our border so we can bring out back ours our the people that live near the border and they can do their corpse is that a possibility though is a possibility to push them back the possibility what a military campaign so this is the question and it's not a possible possibility without a serious a military threat that can be exercised once we decide that there's no other choice so we have to use the diplomatic campaign and it's being in right now exercised by the u.s and the french because lebanon is a society in a very fragile state economically and otherwise and i don't think the lebanese themselves want to see a campaign in the in the in the land so the question whether we can use the diplomatic leverage to push them away but we have to exercise this military threat and maybe it will end with a military campaign nobody knows that we have to be prepared but we are prepared now we are we won't be surprised the way we were surprised in the 7th of october so it's a different the game will start in a different starting point from our perspective and i feel we are pretty strong sitting on the targets they are waiting and when the when the decision will come we can hit them as you mentioned a slow but very strategic campaign the reserve lieutenant colonel dronavital thank you so very much for taking the time to be in studio this afternoon and for your analysis also with me is professor omer moav a professor of economics at reichmann university here in israel and the university of warwick in the united kingdom thank you for being with me here this afternoon thank you for having me now hundreds of thousands of reservists have been called up a massive chunk of israel's workforce too explain a bit how a country like israel would be able to survive a prolonged war like this would there be a need for some kind of middle east marshal plan to help israel's economy well i the question actually depends on what the government will do if we had a responsible government that realizes the economic challenge and responds in a in the right way then of course this is this is a strong hit and of course we will all as citizens of israel pay a high price but i don't think there is any just the war itself is not a threat to the israeli economy the longer run the problem is we have a government which still continues spending money and just increasing more and more spending on the things that are unrelated to the needs of the country at the moment the coalition agreements so while soldiers are fighting and while businesses are collapsing they're just pouring tons of money billions of shekels with commitments to the futures of tens of millions of shekels to the ultra orthodox to the settlements again in normal times this could be a political decision that could be justified perhaps they are in power but in times of war this seems like really a lack of responsibility i could say also interestingly that the stock market is now higher than it was before the war started so you could see from that that the threat of the legal revolution that the government was pushing towards is is worse than the war itself for the economy right so and now the war has in a sense is good for the economy despite the huge huge price in life and in money because it reduces the probability that the israeli government will continue with this revolution well let's touch a little bit more on that because at first the shekel took a major hit people were panic buying dollars euros moving assets out but now it appears not only to have stabilized and as you mentioned the shekels actually strengthened against major currencies so how does one explain this peculiar financial trend depicting israel's embattled but insanely resilient economy yeah i think that one should not try to seriously explain the short run shocks to the shekel or the stock exchange you know people panic and i think that the experts that expose provide a rational explanation for everything or just you know expose rationalizing that it's not really anything serious but i think that now the things have stabilized and we see that the military is is functioning unlike what happened on the on october 7 where there was big question marks about the ability of the israeli army to actually win this war now things look better on that front and again i think that in terms of the economy as sad as it sounds and it is sad that we needed the war in order to when i wouldn't say i would be too optimistic if i would say to kill the legal revolution that netanyahu and his government is trying to do but the probability is much lower that they would do that so we have a government that is really damaging the economy in a terrible way and that's the big challenge of the state of israel not just the war of course the war as i said is the huge cost and every one of us would pay a high price over the years in higher taxes and less services from the government and or maria just briefly how exactly is the crisis that's unfolding now with the red sea the hooties as well as iran targeting the shipping and the vessels that are heading toward the red sea oil prices are going up delivery times are slowing down it only accounts for 30 percent of israeli imports but 15 percent of global shipping yeah so of course that's another hit to the economy but i think in the my my um i would evaluate this in the big picture of the israeli challenges to the economy as not something major i suppose the world would do something about that uh this is a threat that is worse for egypt than for israel so there is here uh joint interests to uh go back to norman uh and in a sense this is quite similar to something we have experienced with during coveted and then the another shock to the world economy the attack of russia on ukraine uh so all of these issues and now the hooties uh attacks i don't see that as a serious threat in the longer run to the israeli economy all right professor more of a professor of economics at reichmann university here in israel and the university of warwick in the united kingdom thank you so very much for your time thank you very much and on to the final story obviously the hostages heart wrenching that has captured the attention of the nation as well as many in the world the bebis family that remains held hostage in gaza their fate uncertain more in this report so many days have passed not even my worst nightmares that i think i would still be sitting before you begging telling the story trying to understand just how terrible it is that an entire family and their babies are in captivity waiting for answers from those who are supposed to answer us but we haven't received any 38 children have been released from hamas captivity two have not ariel really loved tractors cars but i can't find anything here i think it was the last of the looters who did what they did to the house the bebis family is helpless walking through urden shiri ariel and queers home in iros gathering the remaining items trying to make sense of this painful story ariel really loved batman we found the drawing he made in kindergarten he must have asked the teacher to write i want to be a hero fly and rescue people stuck in a hole it's chilling to think he wrote that before all of this batman pajamas a token of their family yabba's his dog they killed his dog he tried to prevent them coming in i don't know i don't i admit for him to fire his gun and still make it out alive doesn't add up they fired incessantly without a care for the cries and the screams of children they were just hell bent on getting in and getting the family out 76 days into the war even though almost everyone knows the story it is our duty to retell it yarden and shiri together for nine years raised both their ginger-haired children in shiri's childhood on october 7th the entire family was kidnapped from their home to gaza shiri 32 years old ariel four and kfir nine months old were kidnapped together yarden was kidnapped separately yarden shiri ariel kfir they aren't just gingers they aren't a symbol they are a family there were birthdays holidays that's the couch they climbed and breached the window with the drone it was here right here where she stood and they surrounded her in the last hostage deal shiri and the children did not return hamas using psychological warfare claimed that they had been killed the idf can still not verify or disprove the claim two weeks ago hamas published a cruel video of yarden in captivity in which he said his wife and children did not survive he looks very very thin i think he must have lost 35 pounds he receives the most horrible news a person can receive that his whole family was killed without us the family without support without knowing if it's true or false the video is like a noose constantly tightening its grip on his neck what have you heard about him from the released hostages we mainly heard he was not in a good state mentally and that is before the video was released one of them said he was depressed not sleeping day or night there were two captive women with him who saw he needed support and they took him under their wing at some point he received some pills which allowed him to get some sleep when the women were released they asked those who remained with yarden to be mindful of him help him they really tried to make sure he wouldn't be alone once they were released one of the women who was held with him said he had pains in his head that he'd been hit on the head with a hammer this is my aunt margit's house and her husband yosi silverman ten houses down is shiri's parents house yosi silverman 67 and margit silverman 63 who suffered from parkinson's disease they were both murdered after two weeks the idea found their bodies somewhere near the fence they took a wonderful couple who love each other good people my sister had a heart of gold the house was burnt to the ground here stood such pretty sofas there was dining table photos of kids and grandkids very gentle people very pleasant i can't see them resisting i tried to think why why them i tried to call her all day no answer suddenly at 4 30 p.m someone answers and say in arabic death death death so i said who is this who are you he said death again and hung up some arab took the phone to tell me what he had done death yes just unbelievable their dog's head was on this table they beheaded the dog and burned him did you see it i saw a photo of it yes with talks of another hostage deal in the works and the hostage family forum raising the pressure on the government yarden's father ellie met this week with prime minister netanyahu it was a very good talk to the point and with emotion i believe they really want to do something but we understand there's also the other side making things difficult i really asked them to get your den out i fear he might hurt himself do you believe in god no but i'm willing to do anything to get my kids and grandchildren back i bought yarden to fill in a hanukia what i can do just let them return safely that we may see our den sherry ariel and clear back with us along with all other hostages yesterday yarden and sherry's families the b-bass and silverman families gathered together for the inauguration of a Torah in neroz and from there they went to hostage square in tel Aviv a Jewish community in the united states wanted to strengthen them and donated a Torah that had survived the holocaust all of you came especially from united states to neroz yes the b-bass family hold a very special place in our heart ever since october the seventh we when we saw them on television we noticed the two boys with the red hair and we have two boys with red hair and it just they they they they came deep into our heart and in our souls and we couldn't get them out and we pray for them every single day i await them i await them all i'm mad at everyone everyone the media the decision makers those who weren't there on october seventh i'm mad at all of them in the end it's us who pay the price and that's a wrap for this special edition on the i-24 news desk but stay tuned for more news this afternoon on the 80th day of war is in a state of war families completely done down in their beds we have no idea where is she as our soldiers are fighting on the front line but the general perception is something that certainly needs to to be fought as well story to the world welcome to another special edition on i-24 news i'm back 11th or coming to live from our televised studios thanks for joining me this hour it is day 18 of war between israel and hamas heavy fighting in the strip continues as the idea pushes on with its ground offensive to dismantle terror targets over the weekend the number of israeli troops killed in combat rose to 156 release for publication on sunday evening the idf revealed that earlier this month it found a large hamas tunnel network beneath the jabalia refugee camp in gaza city inside that tunnel they also found and recovered the bodies of three israeli soldiers and two civilians meanwhile israeli prime minister benjamin itzanyahu continues to hold that the war will continue until victory over hamas as latest comments coming as the war cabinet examined an egyptian proposal for a new hostage deal which also follows recent visits to kaira by hamas and islamic jihad representatives here's more from benjamin itzanyahu israeli citizens we are deepening the war in the gaza strip we will continue to fight until complete victory over hamas this is the only way to return our hostages eliminate hamas and ensure that gaza will no longer be a threat to israel it will take time but we are united the fighters the people and the government we are united and determined to fight to the end war has a price a very heavy price in the lives of our heroic warriors and we do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors but one thing will not be done we will not stop until we achieve victory well let's cross now live to the south of israel for an update from our correspondent pier clash and loo standing by for us on the israel gaza border pier it was around a 16 hour lull and quiet on the border but around 50 minutes ago rocket fire headed towards the southern communities where you are the communities are largely evacuated so exactly what is the danger in these areas now and just how many rockets were being fired over the border yes absolutely but yeah there were three rocket launch emanating from the central refugee camps of nuserat el borage and al-mughazi which were bombed heavily overnight with 50 a strikes at least according to palestine media affiliated to hamas and which caused uh 68 fatalities according to them difficult to confirm difficult to distinguish between non-involved population and hamas terrorists the rockets targeted rayim which is just very a few kilometers from where we are and then also the northern tip of the gaza strip nativa sara facing the northern tip and the southern part of the city of of vashkelo and 10 kilometers away from gaza but no damage no casualties our correspondent pier clash and they're giving us an update from the south thank you for that moving the conversation to studio now where i am joined by reserve lieutenant colonels ron avital a former commander for the idf special forces good afternoon to you and thank you for being here um a little bit concerning at this hour as well that there are reports coming out from an israeli town near to carum in the west bank that residents are again hearing digging this sort of reminiscent of the digging that was heard both in the south on the border with gaza and in the north of hezbollah over recent years could we be seeing another front popping up on the east well i'm not sure i mean the central command would look into it thoroughly we shouldn't forget those territories are though there are eight territories and so on they're fully under our command and we all the time do those incursion inside so we can check it really thoroughly this is not gaza on the other side of the fence so this is a different scenario so i said not to get into panic where we can check we can verify it there's no question they're creating in those refugee camps shelters underneath we saw a few things like this but if we think in terms of a tunnel system like the one we found in gaza it can't come even close to this but of course we have to careful i don't want to predict but i'm sure that i'll check it out and i'm sure it will be verified what the extent in which and if and what the extent of which there is such a thing israel is currently reeling after two more soldiers this weekend were pronounced dead killed in heavy fighting in the gaza strip bringing the total to 156 now undoubtedly this cannot be compared with the casualty numbers that are coming out of gaza again we're talking about a legitimate army versus terrorists a lot of the time that use a lot of guerrilla warfare tactics that don't engage in the international rules of war just how in terms of putting that number on a scale 156 to the israeli population is is heart sore every life is heart sore as we've learned in this country in particular looking at you know deals to bring back bodies let alone uh alive captives but just how big is that number in terms of overall casualties i mean they really are entering a war zone where there is a fortune of booby traps is that number relatively low or is that quite a high i wouldn't say it's low i mean we it's hard to expect i mean in the beginning when we entered we were expecting high taller in terms of our soldiers getting killed and in the beginning was it's a little bit smoother it felt confident but like it is in guerrilla war sometimes you are being lured in and then you have to really engage with this guerrilla people coming from those spears from those tunnels they're hitting on our forces they're using explosive and so on so i think i don't want to in terms of number i mean this is the toll you have to pay in order to have a campaign like this and this is a serious campaign and we are talking about we found out that we have a real guerrilla army over there with this infrastructure that really makes this urban warfare a different magnitude of an urban warfare i'm a veteran of 82 lebanon berut urban warfare but with this kind of infrastructure underneath this is a different story add to it the hostage issue which limits our ability add to it the population that is really implicated in many respects with the Hamas and sometimes how to distinguish between Hamas and citizens you have a complexity that takes the toll and this weekend was a very hard in terms of the death i think 14 or two more death this is hard not easy absolutely and there's no doubt over the last 80 days of looking at just the complexities that are involved in fighting in such a compact area and just the type of fighting again it's not against an army it is against a terror organization that doesn't play by the same rules speaking of lebanon an interesting comparison that was being made that although there are so many soldier and troop casualties in Gaza at the moment as you mentioned that number keeps rising and fortunately given the difficulties but a difference is that from a physical point of view in terms of their physical shape there is not a few shortage like there was during the war with lebanon they are being rotated all the time to the point that we've called up so many reservists that people are coming in and out of Gaza to the point that they are awake and alert what is the impacts it's it's impossible to even gauge with the civilians at this point the mental and psychological impact but we're talking about seeing images that are not normal in warfare looking at bombs and weaponry and rockets being hidden in babies cribs I believe that the IDF just yesterday found a suicide vest that was fitted to children this is something that's not normal how how are the soldiers equipped to deal with this let alone during the war but after the war as well no I think the Israeli soldier is built up to such scenarios he's prepared we know that the Hamas was using kids to carry the explosive from door to door because he knew we wouldn't target them we know we're location of peers inside schools and inside the hospitals for sure we know this this is part of the logic the logic the complexity or the problem of this war I think we are trained to this we have to keep the the right restraint and then look for our enemy when we find it think the army does it the complexity exists we shouldn't forget that this is a landscape of war that is very close to Israel it's not that it's not Beirut it's not the the whole of Lebanon so of course people can come and out the soldiers and and you talked about the Israeli population that the the fathers and the mothers that have their kids a few kilometers away from them fighting for their life and then coming back maybe after a few weeks this is a it pays a toll on the Israeli public in the Israeli society I see it among my friends that those soldiers serve the this is a big issue but the campaign has to continue and it continues I think right now it's a heavy campaign it takes time it's not a it's a slow campaign in many respects but we have no other choice in the context of the complexity of this war absolutely and as Israel has been trying to put forward this is an existential threat not just one that's you know Netanyahu has previously said and keeps holding that there will never be another war with Hamas because they will cease to exist but moving from the south to the north what does that mean in terms of Hezbollah because the operational tactics and strategy of the IDF is to rid the threat on the southern border to get rid of Hamas but we still have a major threat in fact probably a scarier threat the big bad brother of Hamas on the northern border how is Israel prepared to deal with that threat just this morning the idea of confirming that they were striking targets Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon Hezbollah is a is a bigger force with a bigger weaponry can hit center Tel Aviv with much more directed missile this is a big challenge for us for sure but our aim there is really to push them away to the Litany border according to the 1701 UN agreement from 2006 I don't we don't think on talks in terms of eliminating Hezbollah that's not our target our target to see them away from our border so we can bring them back our the people that live near the border and they can do their corpse is that a possibility though is it a possibility to push them back the possibility of what the military campaign so this is the question and it's not a possible possibility without a serious military threat that can be exercised once we decide that there's no other choice so we have to use the diplomatic campaign and it's being right now exercised by the US and the French because Lebanon is a society in a very fragile state economically and otherwise and I don't think the Lebanese themselves want to see a campaign in the in the in the land so the question whether we can use the diplomatic leverage to push them away but we have to exercise this military threat and maybe it will end with a military campaign nobody knows but we have to be prepared but we are prepared now we won't be surprised the way we were surprised in the 7th of October so it's a different big the game will start in a different starting point from our perspective and I feel we are pretty strong sitting on the targets they are waiting and when the when the decision will come we can hear to them as you mentioned a slow but very strategic campaign the reserve lieutenant colonel dronavital thank you so very much for taking the time to be in studio this afternoon and for your analysis also with me is professor omer moav a professor of economics at reichmann university here in israel and the university of warwick in the united kingdom thank you for being with me here this afternoon thank you for having me now hundreds of thousands of reservists have been called up a massive chunk of israel's workforce to explain a bit how a country like israel would be able to survive a prolonged war like this would there be a need for some kind of middle east marshal plan to help israel's economy well the question actually depends on what the government will do if we had the responsible government that realizes the economic challenge and responds in a in the right way then of course this is this is a strong hit and of course we will all as citizens of israel pay a high price but i don't think there is any just the war itself is not a threat to the israeli economy the longer run the problem is we have a government which still continues spending money and just increasing more and more spending on the things that are unrelated to the needs of the country at the moment the coalition agreements so while soldiers are fighting and while businesses are collapsing they're just pouring tons of money millions of shekels with commitments to the futures of tens of millions of shekels to the ultra orthodox to the settlements again in normal times this could be a political decision that could be justified perhaps they are in power but in times of war this seems like really a lack of responsibility i could say also interestingly that the stock market is now higher than it was before the war started so you could see from that that the threat of the legal revolution that the government was pushing towards is is worse than the war itself for the economy right so and now the war has in a sense is good for the economy despite the huge huge price in life and in money because it reduces the probability that the israeli government will continue with this revolution well let's touch a little bit more on that because at first the shekel took a major hit people were panic buying dollars euros moving assets out but now it appears not only to have stabilized and as you mentioned the shekels actually strengthened against major currencies so how does one explain this peculiar financial trend depicting israel's embattled but insanely resilient economy yeah i think that one should not try to seriously explain the short run shocks to the shekel or the stock exchange you know people panic and i think that the experts that expose provide a rational explanation for everything or just you know expose rationalizing it's not really anything serious but i think that now the things have stabilized and we see that the military is is functioning unlike what happened on the on october 7 where there was big question marks about the ability of the israeli army to actually win this war now things look better on that front and again i think that in terms of the economy as sad as it sounds and it is sad that we needed the war in order to well i wouldn't say i would be too optimistic if i would say to kill the legal revolution that netanyahu and his government is trying to do but the probability is much lower that they would do that so we have a government that is really damaging the economy in a terrible way and that's the big challenge of the state of israel not just the war of course the war as i said is a huge cost and every one of us would pay a high price over the years in higher taxes and less services from the government and omer just briefly how exactly is the crisis that's unfolding now with the red sea the hooties as well as iran targeting the shipping and the vessels that are heading toward the red sea oil prices are going up delivery times are slowing down it only accounts for 30 percent of israeli imports but 15 percent of global shipping yeah so of course that's another hit to the economy but i think in the my my um i would evaluate this in the big picture of the israeli challenges to the economy is not something major i suppose the world would do something about that uh this is a threat that is worse for egypt than for israel so there is here uh joint interests to uh go back to normal uh and in a sense this is quite similar to something we have experienced with during coveted and then the another shock to the world economy the attack of russia on ukraine uh so all of these uh issues and now the hooties uh attacks i don't see that as a serious threat in the longer run to the israeli economy all right professor omer more of a professor of economics at reichman university here in israel and the university of warwick in the united kingdom thank you so very much for your time thank you very much and on to the final story obviously the hostages heart wrenching that has captured the attention of the nation as well as many in the world the bebis family that remains held hostage in gaza their fate uncertain more in this report so many days have passed not even my worst nightmares that i think i would still be sitting before you begging telling the story trying to understand just how terrible it is that an entire family and their babies are in captivity waiting for answers from those who are supposed to answer us but we haven't received any 38 children have been released from khama's captivity two have not really love tractors cars but i can't find anything here i think it was the last of the looters who did what they did to the house the bebis family is helpless walking through urden shiri arielle and queer's home in iros gathering the remaining items trying to make sense of this painful story arielle really loved batman we found the drawing he made in kindergarten he must have asked the teacher to write i want to be a hero fly and rescue people stuck in a hole it's chilling to think he wrote that before all of this batman pajamas a token of their family yabba's his dog they killed his dog he tried to prevent them coming in i don't know i don't i admit for him to fire his gun and still make it out alive doesn't add up they fired incessantly without a care for the cries and the screams of children they were just hell bent on getting in and getting the family out 76 days into the war even though almost everyone knows the story it is our duty to retell it yerden and shiri together for nine years raised both their ginger-haired children in shiri's childhood kibbutz niroz on october 7th the entire family was kidnapped from their home to gaza shiri 32 years old arielle four and queer nine months old were kidnapped together yarden was kidnapped separately yarden shiri arielle kfid they aren't just gingers they aren't a symbol they are a family there were birthdays holidays that's the couch they climbed and breached the window with the drool it was here right here where she stood and they surrounded her in the last hostage deal shiri and the children did not return hamas using psychological warfare claimed that they had been killed the idf can still not verify or disprove the claim two weeks ago hamas published a cruel video of yarden in captivity in which he said his wife and children did not survive he looks very very thin i think he must have lost 35 pounds he receives the most horrible news a person can receive that his whole family was killed without us the family without support without knowing if it's true or false the video is like a noose constantly tightening its grip on his neck what have you heard about him from the release hostages we mainly heard he was not in a good state mentally and that is before the video was released one of them said he was depressed not sleeping day or night there were two captive women with him who saw he needed support and they took him under their wing at some point he received some pills which allowed him to get some sleep when the women were released they asked those who remained with yarden to be mindful of him help him they really tried to make sure he wouldn't be alone once they were released one of the women who was held with him said he had pains in his head that he had been hit on the head with a hammer this is my aunt margit's house and her husband yosi silverman ten houses down is shiri's parents house yosi silverman 67 and margit silverman 63 who suffered from parkinson's disease they were both murdered after two weeks the idea found their bodies somewhere near the fence they took a wonderful couple who love each other good people my sister had a heart of gold the house was burnt to the ground here stood such pretty sofas there was dining table photos of kids and grandkids very gentle people very pleasant i can't see them resisting i try to think why why them i tried to call her all day no answer suddenly at 4 30 p.m someone answers and say in arabic death death death so i said who is this who are you he said death again and hung up some arab took the phone to tell me what he had done yes just unbelievable their dog's head was on this table they beheaded the dog and burned him did you see it i saw a photo of it yes with talks of another hostage deal in the works and the hostage family forum raising the pressure on the government jordan's father ellie met this week with prime minister netanyahu it was a very good talk to the point and with emotion i believe they really want to do something but we understand there's also the other side making things difficult i really asked them to get your den out i fear he might hurt himself do you believe in god no but i'm waiting to do anything to get my kids and grandchildren back i bought your dental fill in a canokia what i can do just let them return safely that we may see our den sherry ariel and clear back with us along with all other hostages yesterday jordan and sherry's families the bebis and silverman families gathered together for the inauguration of a Torah in neroz and from there they went to hostage square in tel aviv a jewish community in the united states wanted to strengthen them and donated a Torah that had survived the holocaust all of you came especially from united states to neroz yes bebis family hold a very special place in our heart ever since october the seventh we when we saw them on television we noticed the two boys with the red hair and we have two boys with red hair and it just they they they came deep into our heart and our souls and we couldn't get them out and we pray for them every single day i await them i await them all i'm mad at everyone everyone the media the decision makers those who weren't there on october 7th i'm mad at all of them in the end it's us who pay the price